Rand Paul vows to keep pressure on Fauci as statute of limitations on criminal referral expires Monday
The statute of limitations on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s criminal referral for lying to Congress about gain-of-function research expires Monday, but Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is vowing to keep up the pressure on “the COVID coverup” with a Senate hearing this week. “David Morens, Dr. Fauci’s top advisor, was indicted, but Fauci himself still walks free,” Paul, who has long pressed Fauci in heated exchanges in congressional hearings, wrote this week on X, continuing his urging of the Justice Department to pick up charges from his criminal referral despite former President Joe Biden issuing a sweeping preemptive pardon of Fauci on his last night in office Jan. 19, 2025. “The DOJ has 5 days to indict Fauci before the statute of limitations runs out. The clock is ticking. Justice cannot wait.” The Biden pardon and Fauci’s statute of limitations expiration Monday shields the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to Biden, but Morens was indicted late last month for having “deliberately concealed information and falsified records in an effort to suppress alternative theories regarding the origins of COVID-19.” EX-FAUCI TOP ADVISOR INDICTED OVER ALLEGED COVID COVER-UP, HIDDEN EMAILS “For years, I warned that Fauci and his inner circle buried the truth about Wuhan,” Paul wrote Wednesday on X. “Now his closest adviser has been indicted. “Fauci lied to Congress under oath. The statute of limitations expires in 5 days. Will the DOJ finally indict Fauci?” The Trump Justice Department under former Attorney General Pam Bondi or acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has made no public statements about bringing charges. ANTHONY FAUCI MAY BE DEPOSED AS GOP INTENSIFIES COVID INVESTIGATIONS IN NEW CONGRESS “While we can all have our beefs with Congress, this isn’t in our hands any longer,” Paul wrote Thursday on X. “I DID the work, investigated, and sent multiple CRIMINAL referrals to the DOJ. “Whether he is indicted or not now is not up to Congress. It is up to the DoJ, and no one else.” “He lied to Congress about NIH funding dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan and engaged in the worst cover-up in modern medical history,” Paul added in another X post. “The American people want Fauci behind bars.” BIDEN TEAM REPORTEDLY CONSIDERING PREEMPTIVE PARDONS FOR FAUCI, SCHIFF, OTHER TRUMP ‘TARGETS’ President Donald Trump has publicly rejected the Biden autopen pardons as having no force or “legal effect,” but there is no precedent for a new president nullifying a past president’s pardons, because they would potentially render presidential pardon authority ultimately powerless against a new administration’s agenda. “Anyone receiving ‘Pardons,’ ‘Commutations,’ or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect,” Trump wrote in December on Truth Social. Just two days after the Fauci clock runs out, Paul is chairing a Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee hearing with a “COVID coverup” whistleblower Wednesday. FBI EXAMINING COVID-19 ORIGIN ‘COVER-UP’ AMID NEW STRAIN EMERGENCE: BONGINO “Next week I’m holding a hearing with a whistleblower who will testify publicly about the COVID coverup,” Paul teased in an X post. “Mark your calendars: Wednesday, May 13 at 10 a.m. “The truth is coming.” Paul renewed a criminal referral to the DOJ last July to investigate whether Fauci’s May 2021 statements violated federal false-statements law. In the referral, Paul pointed to Fauci’s testimony that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” DOJ INVESTIGATING ANDREW CUOMO FOR ALLEGEDLY LYING ABOUT COVID DECISIONS, SOURCE CONFIRMS Paul’s referral also noted Fauci later said he had “never lied before the Congress” and did “not retract that statement” after Paul warned him about the criminal implications of lying to Congress. The referral cites a February 2020 email released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, in which Fauci wrote that “scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments” involving bat viruses and human infection. Paul argued that the email contradicted Fauci’s sworn testimony. COVID ‘MOST LIKELY’ LEAKED FROM WUHAN LAB, SOCIAL DISTANCING ‘NOT BASED ON SCIENCE,’ SELECT COMMITTEE FINDS Paul also cited research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that he said was funded under a NIAID award and involved combining spike genes from bat SARS-related coronaviruses with another coronavirus backbone to create chimeric viruses capable of infecting human cells. “This research, conducted at the WIV and funded under NIAID Award R01AI110964, fits the definition of gain-of-function research,” the referral stated. The criminal referral further cites a 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the WIV and Wuhan University received NIH funding. According to Paul’s referral, the GAO said NIH funded a project that included “genetic experiments to combine naturally occurring bat coronaviruses with SARS and MERS viruses, resulting in hybridized coronavirus strains.” SCIENTISTS EXPECT MAJOR ‘MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS’ DESPITE TRUMP’S CAP ON NIH RESEARCH FUNDING Anyone who makes a materially false statement in a congressional investigation or review can face fines and up to five years in prison. Paul’s July referral also challenged the legal effect of a preemptive pardon Fauci received from Biden’s autopen. “New information has revealed that these pardons were executed via autopen, with no documented confirmation that the President personally reviewed or approved each individual grant of clemency,” Paul wrote. “According to reports, White House staff authorized the use of the autopen to issue the clemency documents. “This raises serious constitutional and legal concerns about the legitimacy of Dr. Fauci’s pardon.” GREGG JARRETT: BIDEN, THE ‘MARIONETTE PRESIDENT; AND THE CASE OF THE RUNAWAY AUTOPEN Fauci has repeatedly denied lying to Congress, including forcefully to Paul himself in multiple congressional hearings. “Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11 [2021], where you claimed at the NIH never funded gain-of-function research and move on?” Paul asked in a July 2021 Senate hearing. “Sen. Paul,
Supreme Court’s junior justice goes on solo tear as Trump fights put her at odds with the bench
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stood out from her colleagues this week when she broke with them to rail against the high court’s decision to fast-track its landmark order dismantling a key provision in the Voting Rights Act. But Jackson’s solo dissent was far from the first time the Biden-appointed justice has been on an island, as she has routinely blasted the court for not asserting more judicial authority over President Donald Trump’s executive actions and drawn rebukes from her colleagues for taking what they have viewed as flawed positions. Ideological divides over high-profile cases have been common. The trio of liberals has remained unified against the Trump administration by opposing decisions, including on the interim docket, to curb universal injunctions, allow states to ban transgender medical treatments for minors, permit Trump to fire members of independent agencies, authorize the government to cancel immigrants’ temporary protected status and more. But even in some of those cases, Jackson goes on solo diatribes, highlighting a deeper internal divide within the liberal bloc. WHY JUSTICE JACKSON IS A FISH OUT OF WATER ON THE SUPREME COURT Below are five recent times Jackson gave lone opinions. The Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s map last month, finding 6-3 it contained an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Upon request, the Supreme Court also decided 8-1 to fast-track the landmark decision — handing it down immediately rather than in roughly a month like it usually does — allowing several red states to more quickly attempt to implement new congressional lines after the high court weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by limiting the role race may play in congressional redistricting. Jackson, the bench’s most junior justice, broke with her eight colleagues in that decision, saying the court improperly “[dove] into the fray” of active elections by handing its judgment down immediately. “Not content to have decided the law, it now takes steps to influence its implementation,” Jackson wrote. LATEST SCOTUS LEAK A GIFT TO LIBERALS ‘SALIVATING’ OVER CONTROL OF HIGH COURT NARRATIVE: EXPERTS Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, wrote a scathing concurrence for the sole purpose of ripping apart Jackson’s dissent, saying her claims were “groundless and utterly irresponsible.” The Supreme Court is still weighing Trump’s signature plan to severely limit birthright citizenship, but it first entertained the subject last year by addressing how lower courts across the country uniformly issued nationwide injunctions against the plan. The high court decided 6-3 to ban such injunctions but left room for judges and plaintiffs to deploy other methods when seeking widespread relief. Jackson gave a rogue, separate dissent in the case, drawing eyebrow-raising jabs from Justice Amy Coney Barrett. “We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,” Barrett wrote in the court’s opinion in 2025. “We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.” Jackson wrote that nationwide injunctions should be permissible because the courts should not allow the president to “violate the Constitution.” Barrett disagreed. “She offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush,” Barrett wrote. The high court fractured last August in dual 5–4 decisions that allowed the National Institutes of Health to cancel nearly $800 million in research grants. Jackson, in one of her most memorable one-person dissents, appeared to boil over with frustration, observing that the majority “bends over backward to accommodate” the Trump administration. “This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules,” Jackson wrote. “We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins.” Some of the canceled grants were geared toward research on diversity, equity and inclusion; COVID-19; and gender identity. Jackson argued the grants went further and that “life-saving biomedical research” was at stake. When the Supreme Court sided 8-1 with a Christian counselor who challenged Colorado’s ban on counseling minors about sexual orientation and gender identity — which the state barred as conversion therapy — Jackson was the lone dissenter, warning that “to be completely frank, no one knows what will happen now.” Jackson said the key free speech decision defied “treatment standards” and bucked the medical profession, leading an unlikely colleague, Justice Elena Kagan, to openly reject her dissent. Kagan, an Obama appointee, said Jackson’s view “rests on reimagining—and in that way collapsing—the well-settled distinction between viewpoint-based and other content-based speech restrictions.” In a lower profile case about police stops, Jackson conspicuously found in April that the high court overstepped its authority by improperly meddling in a lower court’s assessment of how Washington, D.C., police decided to stop a man in a suspicious vehicle. The Supreme Court reversed the decision by the lower court, saying it should have weighed the “totality of the circumstances” surrounding the vehicle and approved of an officer’s decision to briefly detain the man. The decision was 7-2, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor opposed the ruling while also opting against joining Jackson’s dissent. Jackson accused the majority of trying to “wordsmith” and interfere with a typically routine evaluation of a police stop. “I cannot fathom why that kind of factbound determination warranted correction by this Court,” Jackson wrote. Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor, said in an op-ed this month that Jackson has “quickly developed a radical and chilling jurisprudence.” Despite establishing herself as an outlier, Jackson also has a swathe of supporters from civil rights groups to celebrities. She has been showered with praise on “The View,” nominated for a Grammy for her audiobook and drawn encouragement from Democratic lawmakers. Jackson said during her appearance this year on “The View” that “criticism is part of the job.” “Dissents are an opportunity for the justices who disagree with the majority to really describe their view of the law but also their concerns,” Jackson said, adding that “you hope that your
AOC, asked about running for president, says her ambition is ‘way bigger than that’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is not quite ready to announce a run in the 2028 Democratic primary, because she said her ambition is far greater than that. “They assume that my ambition is positional; they assume that my ambition is a title or a seat,” Ocasio-Cortez told Democratic strategist David Axelrod at an event Friday in Chicago. “And my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country.” “Presidents come and go; Senate, House seats, elected officials come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever,” she continued. “A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights, all of that.” Ocasio-Cortez was responding to criticism of her comments that billionaires like Elon Musk cannot truly “earn” a billion dollars without the work of others, calling the blowback “a veiled threat” against her running for president. AOC CALLED OUT FOR CLAIM THAT BILLIONAIRES ‘CAN’T EARN’ THEIR WEALTH AS SHE DOUBLES DOWN ON REMARKS “This was the elite saying, if you want this job, you just stepped out of line,” she said. “And we want you to know where the real power is, and it’s in the modern-day barons who own The [Washington] Post and own the algorithms, and we’re going to — we’ll make an example out of you.” She said critics misunderstand what drives her political decisions: “What use is a gavel, what use is a seat if it doesn’t result in anyone’s life changing for the better. She does not aim for the top, but from it. “When you haven’t been fantasizing about being this or that since you were seven years old, it is tremendously liberating,” she said. “Because I get to wake up every day and say, how am I going to meet the moment? YOUNG PROGRESSIVES LOOK TO ZOHRAN MAMDANI, AOC AS FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – UNDER ONE CONDITION “And conditions change radically all the time. So I make my response less to an attachment to some positional, like, you know, title or position and working backwards from there. “But I make decisions by waking up in the morning, looking out the window, and observing the conditions of this country. And saying, ‘What move or decision can I make today that’s going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, and better than yesterday?’” The New York Democrat made an early realization of the competition in America, walking onto the Senate floor as a freshman House member and thinking, “Wow, everyone here thinks they’re going to be president.” WATCH: AOC LEAVES DOOR OPEN FOR 2028 PRESIDENTIAL BID AS CAMPAIGN BUZZ SOARS “And they are making decisions from that place,” she said. “And I don’t want to make decisions from a place of, what’s in it for me? I want to make decisions from a place of, how are we going to change the country?” Ocasio-Cortez did not rule out any future office, saying she could pursue her goals from multiple places, regardless of big media’s attempts to spin her away from her ambitions. “No billionaire can stop that: No concentrated level of power and no elite, no gatekeeper, can prevent me from doing everything I can, waking up every day in service of the working class,” she said. “I can do that in the House, in the Senate. I can do that in the White House. “I can do it from a shack in upstate New York chopping wood and being a burnout. I can do it from anywhere.”
Where Trump, GOP vs Democrats redistricting battle heads next in wake of key court rulings
President Donald Trump and Republicans are hailing the blockbuster ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court to strike down the state’s congressional redistricting ballot measure, which was a major setback for Democrats in the battle for the U.S. House majority. “Huge win for the Republican Party,” the president proclaimed in a social media post on Friday minutes after Virginia’s highest court struck down the referendum passed by voters last month. The new map drawn by the Virginia legislature would have given Democrats four more left-leaning House districts in the Commonwealth ahead of this year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin majority in the chamber. The Virginia ruling, along with the recent opinion by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to slash a key Voting Rights Act protection, is giving Trump and the GOP a major boost in their ongoing political fight with Democrats to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the midterms. At stake in this nationwide redistricting showdown is which party will control the House during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House. BLOCKBUSTER RULING: VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN DEMOCRAT-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL MAP In Virginia, the decision means the map used in the 2024 elections will stay in place for the 2026 ballot box showdowns. Democrats currently control the state’s U.S. House delegation by a 6-5 margin. The now overturned map could have resulted in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in the blue-leaning but competitive state. In the wake of their latest legal setback, House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York said, “We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision.” And the House minority leader vowed, “No matter what it takes, House Democrats will win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans.” But the 2026 redistricting wars are far from over, and the political landscape may get even rougher for Democrats going forward. Here’s where things stand. The Supreme Court’s decision reshaped the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act by ruling that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative district maps. And the opinion specifically ruled that Louisiana’s congressional district map was unconstitutional. Last week, the Supreme Court said that its decision declaring Louisiana’s map unconstitutional should go into effect immediately, breaking with its usual procedure of waiting roughly a month before its opinions become official. That cleared the way for the GOP-controlled state legislature to begin the process of redrawing the map, and hearings got underway on Friday. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a top Trump ally, took swift action in the immediate aftermath of the high court’s ruling, when he delayed the May 16 U.S. House primary elections in Louisiana. Louisiana Republicans are aiming to erase one or both of the two Black-majority House seats, which are represented by Democrats. Republicans in Tennessee moved even faster. The GOP-dominated Tennessee legislature on Thursday quickly adopted a new map that would eliminate the only Democrat-controlled congressional district in the state, and would likely give Republicans control of all nine districts. TENN GOV LEE CALLS SPECIAL SESSION TO REDRAW HOUSE MAP IN GOP’S FAVOR 9-0 GOP Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed the new maps into law. Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents the majority Black district that’s being carved up, vowed legal action. “Trump knows he HAS TO rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. It’s shameful,” Cohen wrote on social media. “Next stop is the courts.” Lawmakers in the Alabama legislature, where the GOP holds a supermajority in both chambers, are advancing legislation as they met this past week in a special session focused on redistricting. The new maps may result in eliminating one or both of the state’s two blue-leaning U.S. House districts. The special session was called by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey. But any new map passed by Alabama lawmakers will need to be greenlit by the Supreme Court. That’s because Alabama is currently prohibited by the high court from redistricting until 2030. It’s unclear if the court will lift its injunction. Protests rocked both the Alabama and Tennessee legislatures as Republican lawmakers pushed forward the new maps. In South Carolina, the GOP-controlled legislature returns in special session on Monday, as Republican lawmakers consider a new map that could put longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in the state’s seven-person House delegation, out of a job. Republicans in Georgia are divided over GOP Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia’s decision not to call state lawmakers back into a special session on redistricting. The state’s primary is on May 19 and early voting is already underway in Georgia. Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill passed last week by the GOP-dominated state legislature that redraws the red-leaning state’s congressional districts, adding four more right-leaning seats by eliminating districts currently controlled by Democrats. Republicans currently control Florida’s U.S. House delegation by a 20-8 margin. The battle over the maps ignited last spring when Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting. The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats. When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map. But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.
Harris accuses Trump allies of trying to ‘rig’ 2026 midterms after Virginia court tosses redistricting measure
Former Vice President Kamala Harris accused President Donald Trump and Republicans of trying to “rig the 2026 elections” after the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated a voter-approved redistricting referendum, a ruling she said would “give a boost” to that effort. “Today, the Virginia Supreme Court ignored the will of the people and overturned those democratically chosen maps,” Harris wrote on X on May 8. “This ruling gives a boost to Donald Trump’s effort to rig the 2026 elections and the Republicans’ long game to attack voting rights,” she added. The ruling marked a significant victory for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms and escalated an already intensifying national battle over redistricting and control of Congress. VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT RULES ON NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP “We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia,” the state’s high court said in its decision. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.” The measure, which passed by a narrow 51% to 49% margin, would have temporarily shifted redistricting authority from Virginia’s nonpartisan commission to the Democrat-controlled legislature through 2030 and was expected to yield a 10-1 Democratic advantage in the state’s congressional delegation. Trump praised the decision in a post on Truth Social, calling it a “Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia.” ‘JUSTICE’: CELEBRATION, MOCKERY ERUPT AFTER SPANBERGER ‘GERRYMANDER’ IS BLOWN UP IN BLOCKBUSTER DECISION “The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander,” he wrote. Democrats sharply criticized the ruling. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said “a group of unelected judges on the Virginia Supreme Court chose to put partisan politics over the will of the people.” Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones also pushed back, saying the decision “silences the voices of the millions of Virginians who cast their ballots” and that his office is evaluating “every legal pathway forward.” ERIC HOLDER ACCUSES GOP OF ‘STEALING SEATS’ WHILE DEFENDING ‘FAIR’ DEMOCRATIC REDISTRICTING PUSH Harris echoed that sentiment in her post, writing, “We are rightfully outraged, but we will not give up. We must continue our fight to restore the power of the people.” Her comments come as she has stepped up attacks on Trump in recent appearances while facing renewed questions about her political future. At a recent event in Las Vegas, Harris said, “For far too many people in our country, the American dream, is not real. And in fact, for many people in their lived experience, it’s what they would consider an American myth.” KAMALA HARRIS’ TRAVELS AND COMMENTS CLEARLY POINT TO 2028 She also declined to downplay Trump, saying, “I’m not going to dismiss him as being an idiot. He’s dangerous.” At the same time, top Democrats have been reluctant to weigh in on whether Harris should lead the party in 2028. “I have no idea,” Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told Fox News Digital when asked about her future. “I have no idea who’s running, and we’ll focus on 2028 after 2026,” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said the decision ultimately rests with Harris but added he believes Democrats should have “a wide-open Democratic primary.” The Virginia ruling is the latest flashpoint in a broader redistricting fight as both parties position themselves ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Harris, for her part, signaled she intends to remain engaged. “I firmly and strongly believe that when you feel powerless, you are powerless,” Harris said. “And when you feel powerful, you are powerful. And we are powerful and we are powerful. And so let’s just show ourselves, each other, our power around the midterms and every day.” Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch, Leo Briceno, Olivia Palombo, and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this reporting.
Trump warns college sports could be ‘lost forever’ as committee pushes changes, Congress urged to act
President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Congress to overhaul college sports, warning the system could be “lost forever” as a White House-backed committee pushes sweeping changes to rein in athlete pay, transfers and soaring costs. The proposals include creating a task force to examine pooled media rights, limits on coaching salaries, rewritten eligibility rules and changes to the transfer portal, according to a draft document obtained by Yahoo Sports and reported by The Associated Press. The push builds on a recent executive order from Trump, which described college athletics as an “out-of-control financial arms race” fueled by loosening rules around player compensation, transfers and eligibility — and urged federal action before the system destabilizes further. The White House said the current model is “driving universities into debt,” threatening women’s and Olympic sports and undermining student-athletes’ educational opportunities. TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO REGULATE THE BUSINESS OF COLLEGE SPORTS “Further delay is not an option given what is at stake,” the order states, citing roughly 500,000 annual educational, athletic and leadership opportunities and nearly $4 billion in scholarships. Trump has also raised alarms about the direction of college sports, saying during a White House roundtable last month that “crazy things are happening” as players stay in school longer and earn more through NIL deals, according to previous Fox News Digital reporting. The draft proposal calls on Congress to quickly pass legislation creating a task force with an antitrust exemption and authority to override individual state laws, a major priority for NCAA and college sports leaders seeking national standards. I PLAYED DIVISION1 VOLLEYBALL — NIL CHAOS IS OUT OF CONTROL. THE SCORE ACT WILL SAVE SPORTS Among the most divisive ideas is pooling media rights across conferences, a move opposed by the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten but backed by a group led by Texas Tech regent Cody Campbell, who has argued it could add billions in value, according to AP. The draft also calls for rules targeting “salary-cap circumvention,” an apparent reference to schools using third-party NIL deals to get around current limits on direct payments to athletes. That issue is already at the center of an arbitration case brought by Nebraska football players whose NIL deals were rejected by the College Sports Commission, which reviews third-party contracts. NCAA SETTLEMENT CHAOS: NEW LEGAL MOVE COULD TRIGGER MASSIVE INCREASE IN NIL SPENDING Trump’s executive order also directs agencies that contract with or give grants to higher education institutions to evaluate certain violations of college athletics rules, including eligibility limits, transfers, revenue sharing and “improper financial activities.” The order defines those activities to include fraudulent NIL schemes, use of federal funds for NIL or revenue-sharing payments and interference with contracts between student-athletes and other schools. The White House also urged college athletics governing bodies to clarify rules before Aug. 1, including limits on eligibility, transfer rules, medical care for athletes and protections for women’s and Olympic sports. HOUSE VOTE ON NIL REGULATION ACT CANCELED DESPITE TRUMP’S BACKING AS SOME REPUBLICANS STILL NOT ON BOARD Congress has been stalled for more than a year on legislation codifying parts of the House settlement that put revenue-sharing into place, according to AP. The draft committee document calls for lawmakers to act before Congress leaves for its traditional August recess. Without a national solution, the administration has warned, the financial pressure created by football and basketball could force schools to cut other sports or reshape college athletics entirely. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital’s Ryan Morik contributed to this reporting. The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
Duffys fire back after Pete Buttigieg, husband attack new road trip TV series: ‘Radical, miserable left’
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his wife, “Fox & Friends” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, fired back on Friday after former Sec. Pete Buttigieg and his husband launched a barrage of attacks against the Duffys’ upcoming “Great American Road Trip” reality TV series. The feud ignited Friday after the couple announced the new show on “Fox & Friends.” Chasten Glezman Buttigieg quickly took to X to bash the project, accusing the Duffys of taking a “multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip” while gas and grocery prices soar due to “Trump’s war of choice.” He went on to call the couple “unfocused, unserious, and out of touch,” and aired old grievances about the Duffys’ past criticism of Pete Buttigieg working from his son’s ICU bedside. DUFFY BLASTS BUTTIGIEG, ACCUSING BIDEN-ERA OFFICIAL OF ‘MISMANAGEMENT’: ‘MAYOR PETE FAILED FOR FOUR YEARS…’ Pete Buttigieg joined in on the attack on X, adding, “I love a good road trip, but this is brutally out of touch: a Trump Cabinet member making a documentary about himself while regular families can’t afford road trips anymore, because Trump and his war put gas prices through the roof.” Rachel Campos-Duffy replied to Chasten Buttigieg’s post, telling him to “stand down,” and clarifying the production was funded entirely by a nonprofit, The Great American Road Trip, Inc. She said her family participated for free to celebrate America’s 250th birthday and noted the series was filmed in short one- and two-day stops over seven months. SEC SEAN DUFFY: ‘ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ IS DOWN PAYMENT ON A NEW, MUCH-NEEDED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM “You and I both know that my husband has done more in one year to transform the DOT and ATC than your husband did in over 4 years on the job,” Campos-Duffy said. Sean Duffy waited until Saturday to deliver a blistering response, claiming the “radical, miserable left” hates the series because it is “too wholesome,” “too patriotic” and “too joyful.” He confirmed career ethics and budget officials at the Department of Transportation fully reviewed and cleared his participation in accordance with federal rules, emphasized zero taxpayer dollars were used, and said filming took place strictly during short windows like weekends and his children’s spring break. DOT CRACKS DOWN ON THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKERS, AS AGENCY LOOKS TO HOLIDAY TRAVEL: DUFFY He also defended his fast-paced record at the DOT, highlighting modernized air traffic control, the removal of illegal truck drivers and a 20% annual increase in hiring controllers compared to his predecessor. Following the Duffys’ corrections, Chasten Buttigieg pivoted his line of attack, reposting multiple creators on X Saturday who took aim at the road trip’s corporate sponsors, which include DOT-regulated entities like Boeing, United Airlines, Toyota and Shell. The reposted critics alleged a conflict of interest, claiming the companies funded an “extended vacation” for the secretary. The posts also attempted to tie the sponsorships to claims that Duffy has halted safety standards, pardoned airlines that violated consumer laws, and hasn’t fined a single airline in over a year. Despite the political mudslinging and moving goalposts from critics, the Duffys continue encouraging families to ignore the “haters” and explore America’s national parks and monuments ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday. “Our message is really simple: to love America is to see America,” Sec. Duffy said. “So put the phone down, hit the open road, and rediscover what makes America great.”
Seth Moulton closing gap on progressive Democrat Ed Markey in Massachusetts Senate primary
A new poll shows the race tightening for the Democratic primary in Massachusetts, with challenger Rep. Seth Moulton closing in on Sen. Ed Markey. The race is one of the most hotly contested primaries in the country, with the more progressive Markey having led by as much as 20 points in previous polls, according to Axios. Markey, 79, who has held his seat since 2013, has the backing of the Democratic establishment, with the 47-year-old congressman looking to unseat him. Just last month, Markey comfortably led Moulton 47-30% in a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll, according to Boston.com. TRUMP-BACKED VIVEK RAMASWAMY WINS OHIO GOP GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY, WILL FACE DEMOCRAT AMY ACTON Markey has the backing of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, while Moulton, who is considered more centrist, has been endorsed by groups like VoteVets PAC and the Massachusetts Teamsters. In the new Emerson College poll that shows Markey leading Mouton 37-32%, 29% of voters remain undecided. Only 2% of voters back other candidates in the race. “Senator Markey leads the Democratic primary by 13 points among registered Democrats, while Rep. Moulton holds a 38% to 32% edge among unenrolled voters,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “Markey leads women 37% to 29%, while men are essentially split, with 38% backing Moulton and 37% Markey.” SQUAD MEMBER AYANNA PRESSLEY ANNOUNCES DECISION ON CHALLENGING ED MARKEY IN PRIMARY The poll was taken on May 3 and 4 and included 451 likely Democratic primary voters. It also notably has a 4.5% margin of error. Markey also has a 7% advantage among voters under 50, 33-to 26%, with voters over 50 years old split 40% for Markey and 38% for Moulton. TRUMP’S GRIP OVER GOP TESTED AT BALLOT BOX AS INDIANA, OHIO, HOLD PRIMARIES “Notably, groups that are more favorable toward Markey, including women and young voters, are also more undecided than their counterparts; women are ten points more undecided than men (33% to 23%), and 39% of voters under 50 are undecided compared to 21% of voters over 50,” Kimball added. The poll also showed Markey and Moulton both as less favorable than Warren, with Markey matching Warren’s unfavorable ratings of 35%. Moulton’s unfavorable rating was lower at 26%. The primary will be held on Sept. 1.
Trump responds to reports FDA chief Mark Makary could be fired: ‘Know nothing about it’
President Donald Trump downplayed reports that he was getting ready to fire Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary while speaking to reporters Friday. “I’ve been reading about it, but I know nothing about it,” Trump said in response to a question about Makary’s potential firing. When asked what’s going on with Makary, Trump responded “nothing much.” Initial buzz about a possible Makary ouster started circulating when The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Trump had pressured Makary to fast track approval for flavored nicotine vapes. Makary, according to WSJ, pushed back on the request, drawing Trump’s ire. The friction pushed Trump to sign off on a plan to fire Makary, WSJ reported Friday. TRUMP FDA NOMINEE TURNS VACCINE QUESTION ON DEM, RECALLING CONTROVERSIAL BIDEN DECISION Trump did not confirm the WSJ reporting, instead telling reporters “no, no” when asked if he was bringing in a new FDA head. Makary has been embroiled in a number of controversies since being confirmed as the FDA head in March 2025. Pro-life activists have accused the former oncology surgeon of slow-walking a safety review for abortion pill mifepristone. PRO-LIFE GROUP FINDS BIDEN-ERA FDA POLICY IS DRIVING 500 ABORTIONS PER DAY, SAYS TRUMP HAS POWER TO END IT “This is a five-alarm crisis for the pro-life movement and for the GOP,” SBA Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement calling for Makary’s firing. “The GOP cannot win without its base and simply will not get the enthusiasm that drives turnout without leadership from the top,” she wrote. Pharmaceutical and biotech firms have also opposed Makary. John Crowley, the head of the biotech trade group, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), condemned some of Makary’s personnel cuts in a recent op-ed. “Some of the administration’s recent efforts to reform the federal government through aggressive and often indiscriminate personnel cuts have lacked the strategic insights necessary to modernize and reform our nation’s health care agencies, especially the FDA,” Crowley wrote. ‘FOOD BABE’ VANI HARI: DON’T BOO THE MAHA MOVEMENT. OUR HEALTH AND SAFETY ARE BIGGER THAN BUREAUCRATS’ EGOS But others, particularly those in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) camp, have come to Makary’s defense, arguing calls for his firing are corporate-funded attacks. “Dr. Makary is an ally in the MAHA movement,” Kelly Ryerson, an author and popular advocate also known as Glyphosate Girl, told Fox News Digital. “It is not surprising that his uncaptured approach to protecting human health has been met with the swamp calling for his firing,” she continued. “The criticism is that he didn’t approve flavored vapes quickly enough. The mothers who don’t want their kids smoking find that reasoning alarming,” Ryerson concluded. “The attacks against FDA Commissioner Marty Makary are coming from Big Pharma and the media outlets financially dependent on pharmaceutical advertising for survival,” Turning Point USA-affiliated podcaster Alex Clark wrote in a Friday post on X. “Washington SWAMP CREATURES hate Makary because he brings actual scientific scrutiny, independent thinking, and puts Americans’ health FIRST. President Trump has consistently said he wants to Make America Healthy Again. Replacing Makary with a pharma puppet would move us backward, not forward. DO NOT FIRE MAKARY. He is one of the strongest representatives of the MAHA movement inside the federal government. SCREW OFF BIG PHARMA,” Clark wrote. Vani Hari, a popular food blogger and prominent media figure among the MAHA movement, also wrote that a Makary ouster “would be a horrible move.” Fox News Digital contacted the White House, HHS, the FDA, BIO and SBA Pro-Life America for additional comment.
Inside the US military playbook to cripple Iran if nuclear talks collapse
If negotiations with Iran collapse, the U.S. likely is to move quickly to degrade Tehran’s military capabilities — a campaign analysts say would begin with missile systems, naval assets and command networks before escalating to more controversial targets. Negotiators are still working toward what officials describe as a preliminary framework agreement — effectively a one-page starting point for broader talks centered on Iran’s nuclear program and potential sanctions relief. But deep mistrust on both sides has left the process fragile, raising the stakes if diplomacy fails. “We’re not starting at zero,” retired Army Col. Seth Krummrich, a former Joint Staff planner and current Vice President at Global Guardian, told Fox News Digital. “We’re both starting at minus 1,000 because neither side trusts each other at all. This is going to be a pretty hard process going forward.” That tension was on display Thursday, when a senior U.S. official confirmed American forces struck Iran’s Qeshm port and Bandar Abbas — key locations near the Strait of Hormuz — while insisting the operation did not mark a restart of the war or the end of the ceasefire. The strike on one of Iran’s oil ports came two days after Iran launched 15 ballistic and cruise missiles at the UAE’s Fujairah Port, drawing anger from Gulf allies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said earlier this week the attack did not rise to the level of breaking the ceasefire, describing it as a low-level strike. President Donald Trump repeatedly has warned that if negotiations collapse, the U.S. could resume bombing Iran — even signaling before the recent ceasefire was implemented that Washington could target the country’s energy infrastructure and key economic assets. But any escalation would likely unfold in phases, beginning with efforts to dismantle Iran’s ability to project force across the region before expanding to more controversial targets. If talks break down, any renewed conflict would likely become a “contest for escalation control,” where Iran seeks to impose costs without provoking regime-threatening retaliation while the U.S. works to strip away Tehran’s remaining leverage, according to retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula. “The capabilities that would come into focus are the ones Iran uses to generate coercive leverage: ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, air defense systems, maritime strike assets, command-and-control networks, IRGC infrastructure, proxy support channels, and nuclear-related facilities,” he said, referring to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The military objective would be less about punishment and more about denying Iran the tools it uses to escalate,” he said. “President Trump has all the cards, and he wisely keeps all options on the table to ensure that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told Fox News Digital. The Pentagon could not immediately be reached for comment. One early focus could be Iran’s fleet of fast attack boats in the Strait of Hormuz — a central component of Tehran’s ability to threaten global shipping in one of the world’s most critical energy corridors. RP Newman, a military and terrorism analyst and Marine Corp veteran, said leaving much of that fleet intact during earlier strikes was a mistake. IRAN’S REMAINING WEAPONS: HOW TEHRAN CAN STILL DISRUPT THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ “We’ve blown up six of them,” he said. “They’ve got about 400 left.” The small, fast-moving boats are a key part of Iran’s asymmetric maritime strategy, capable of harassing commercial tankers and U.S. naval forces — and could quickly become a priority target in any renewed campaign. Much of Iran’s core military structure also remains intact. INSIDE IRAN’S MILITARY: MISSILES, MILITIAS AND A FORCE BUILT FOR SURVIVAL Newman said “we’ve only killed less than one percent of IRGC troops,” leaving a large portion of the force still capable of carrying out operations. He estimated the group “numbers between 150 and 190,000.” But targeting the IRGC is far more complex than eliminating senior leadership. “They’re not just a group of leaders at the top that you can kill away,” Krummrich said. “Over 47 years it’s percolated down to every level.” Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies policy institute, said Washington may continue tightening economic pressure before broadening military action, arguing the U.S. should “squeeze them for at least another three to six weeks” before considering more aggressive escalation. “You could have blown Kharg Island back to smithereens,” Krummrich said, referring to Iran’s primary oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf. “But what the planner said was, no — what we can do is a maritime blockade. It will have the same effect.” Iran has continued moving crude through covert shipping networks and ship-to-ship transfers, with tanker trackers reporting millions of barrels still reaching markets in recent weeks. A CIA analysis found Iran may be able to sustain those pressures for another three to four months before facing more severe economic strain, according to a report by The Washington Post. The question is how far a U.S. campaign could expand if initial pressure fails to force concessions. Trump has signaled a willingness to go further, warning before the ceasefire that the U.S. could “completely obliterate” Iran’s electric generating plants, oil infrastructure and key export hubs such as Kharg Island if a deal is not reached. “You don’t do that at first,” Montgomery said, describing strikes on dual-use infrastructure as a conditional step dependent on Iran’s response. Targeting dual-use infrastructure presents significant legal and operational challenges. “I’ve got 500 people standing on my target. You can’t hit that,” Newman said. Such decisions carry political and legal risks, particularly given the likelihood of international scrutiny. Broader infrastructure strikes also could create long-term instability if they push Iran toward internal collapse. “In the short term, it might help. But in the long term, we’re all going to have to deal with it,” Krummrich said. “Once you pull that lever, you’re basically pushing Iran closer to the edge of the abyss.” A collapse of state authority could create a failed-state