Republican state lawmakers reported Omar to the IRS in 2019
EXCLUSIVE: A group of Minnesota Republican state lawmakers asked the IRS in August 2019 to “conduct a detailed reexamination” of tax filings by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., based on a report from a state board suggesting she filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with a man she was not legally married to, according to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. The letter was sent after the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board issued a report on June 6, 2019, indicating that Omar had filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with Ahmed Hirsi, despite being legally married to another man, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, at the time. The joint tax returns came up during the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board’s examination of a $1,500 expense associated with Omar’s campaign committee. The board was investigating whether the expenditure was a legitimate campaign-related expense or whether campaign funds had been used to pay for services that benefited Omar personally. The payment was part of a larger $2,250 reimbursement to the Kjellberg Law Office for legal and other services. ILHAN OMAR ISSUES STUNNING ADMISSION WHEN CONFRONTED WITH BROTHER MARRIAGE RUMORS In response to the board’s questions, Omar’s campaign committee explained that the Kjellberg Law Office had retained the accounting firm Frederick & Rosen to obtain and review financial records as part of the campaign committee’s efforts to respond to allegations surrounding Omar’s marital history. According to the committee’s explanation, Frederick & Rosen prepared releases for Omar and Ahmed Hirsi to sign, so the firm could obtain copies of their filed joint federal income tax returns for 2014 and 2015 from the IRS. The board concluded that the committee had not demonstrated that the $1,500 expense benefited the campaign and required Omar to reimburse the committee. JD VANCE SAYS DOJ LOOKING INTO IF ILHAN OMAR COMMITTED IMMIGRATION FRAUD AMID BROTHER-MARRIAGE ALLEGATIONS Omar married Hirsi in 2002 in their Muslim faith tradition and that they ended their relationship in that tradition in 2008, Newsweek reported. She then legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in February 2009, according to public records, as reported by Newsweek. According to divorce documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Omar legally divorced Elmi in December 2017. Carla Kjellberg, a lawyer for Omar and her campaign committee, stated during the board proceedings that Frederick & Rosen’s services provided “some personal benefit to Rep. Omar,” because “there was an issue with her tax returns that needed to be corrected regardless of her status as a candidate,” according to the board’s report. In a letter to then-IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig dated Aug. 6, 2019, the state lawmakers asked the IRS to undertake a review in light of the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board report. “Due to recent developments, I believe probable cause exists for an investigation into Rep. Omar’s tax filings,” read the letter, signed by Minnesota state Reps. Steve Drazkowski, Linda Runbeck, Glenn Gruenhagen, Shane Mekeland, John Poston, Eric Lucero, Duane Quam, Tim Miller, Cal Bahr and Jeremy Munson. Drazkowski told Fox News Digital that the IRS never responded to the request. The IRS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital could not confirm whether the IRS followed through with the lawmakers’ request. Federal tax confidentiality rules generally restrict what the agency can disclose about individual taxpayers. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board issued its findings on June 6, 2019, following two complaints filed by Drazkowski. Although the board required Omar to repay the $1,500 that her campaign had paid the Kjellberg Law Firm for Frederick & Rosen’s services related to the tax returns, it rejected the allegation that this money was payment for Omar’s personal divorce proceeding, in which Kjellberg also represented her. The board also required Omar to repay campaign funds used for certain travel expenses, including trips to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. Following the board’s 2019 findings, Omar said she was “glad” the process was complete and welcomed the board’s determination regarding allegations that she had improperly used campaign funds for personal expenses. However, she did not address the portion of the board’s report concerning the joint tax returns she submitted with Hirsi. Omar did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. In a separate letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Republican state lawmakers, led by Drazkowski, asked Cynthia Bauerly, then-commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Revenue, in August 2019 to review Omar’s joint tax filings. Drazkowski said neither Bauerly nor the Minnesota Department of Revenue responded to the lawmakers’ request. The Minnesota Department of Revenue did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. The letter from the lawmakers urging the state and federal tax reporting agencies to investigate Omar’s joint tax filings came two months after Drazkowski urged Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., to refer his concerns about Omar’s tax filings to the House Ethics Committee. As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Craig told Drazkowski in a letter that he could submit information himself to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which was renamed to the Office of Congressional Conduct in 2021. The congressional ethics process allows members of the public and lawmakers to submit information concerning alleged misconduct, although the independent ethics office and the House Committee on Ethics have separate procedures. In late October, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Fox News that the federal investigation into Omar regarding potential immigration and marriage fraud had been referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a “large case” that targets multiple individuals rather than just one person. The DHS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether the investigation is looking into the 2014 and 2015 joint tax filings flagged by the state lawmakers in 2019.
California prosecutors slam Newsom’s death row commutations, accuse governor of putting ‘politics over people’
District attorneys and law enforcement unions across California have publicly condemned Gov. Gavin Newsom following his announcement to commute the sentences of 548 death row inmates, a decision one prosecutor called a slap in the face to victims’ families. Newsom’s sweeping order to commute the condemned inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole has drawn intense criticism alongside praise from anti-death penalty advocates. “I think it’s all about politics, sadly. Politics is over people in this case, and that’s a real sad state of affairs,” San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow told Fox News Digital. ALABAMA GOVERNOR COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE AS DOUBTS EMERGE ABOUT EVIDENCE IN MURDER CONVICTION In an open letter detailing his decision, Newsom said California’s capital punishment system is fundamentally at odds with the state’s principles. “After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” Newsom wrote. “I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us.” POPE LEO DENOUNCES DEATH PENALTY AS ‘INADMISSIBLE’ AHEAD OF PENTAGON’S PLANNED LIVESTREAMED EXECUTION Upon taking office in 2019, Newsom issued an executive moratorium on capital punishment. California has not carried out an execution since 2006. The backlash to the governor’s announcement was immediate. FLORIDA PUTS 77-YEAR-OLD MAN TO DEATH FOR DEPUTY’S MURDER AS STATE CLOSES IN ON EXECUTION RECORD “Justice will not have been served for these victims, dozens of them in San Diego County,” said Lt. Jared Wilson, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association. “Their last memories were of these evil, evil men who took their lives. What Gavin Newsom has done is awful.” Wilson and other law enforcement officials strongly criticized the blanket clemency, citing cases like that of Jesse Michael Gomez, who was sentenced to death for the 2016 murder of San Diego police officer Jonathan “J.D.” De Guzman. “Californians have been asked on two separate ballot initiatives to abolish the death penalty, and both times they have chosen to keep it for the most serious crimes,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. “Until the law is changed, my office will continue to evaluate every death penalty-eligible case with the rigor, care, and restraint these decisions demand.” NEW YORK BILLS COULD ABOLISH LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE FOR SERIAL KILLERS AND COP KILLERS, CRITICS WARN Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the commutations “mercy for the wolves … while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep,” saying voters in California have upheld the death penalty in recent years. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who previously ran for governor, noted that 127 inmates on California’s death row were sentenced for crimes committed in his county. “These sentences were not handed down without due process,” he said. “They followed extensive investigations, lengthy trials, evidence presented in court, and decisions made by juries and judges. “Yet, with one sweeping executive decision, the governor has chosen to override those outcomes, disregarding the voices of victims’ families, the work of prosecutors, and the pursuit of justice that took years to achieve.” Among the 548 inmates whose sentences were commuted are two men convicted in San Luis Obispo County: Michael Whisenhunt, 61, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of his girlfriend’s 1-year-old daughter, Kesha Gurke; and Rex Krebs, 60, who was convicted in the brutal slayings of two female college students. CHARLES MANSON CULT FOLLOWER BRUCE DAVIS, CONVICTED IN TWO 1969 KILLINGS, DIES BEHIND BARS AT 83 Dow noted that families of the victims were neither consulted nor notified prior to Newsom’s public announcement. “I was just sickened, frankly, for the crime victims in California who were slapped in the face by our governor,” Dow said. JUDGE BLOCKS ALABAMA’S NITROGEN GAS EXECUTION METHOD, RULES IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONALLY CRUEL Addressing arguments from anti-death penalty groups who contend that capital punishment is inherently flawed and racially biased, Dow defended the current legal framework. “We have a rigorous defense procedure that weeds out cases. I have strong confidence in the integrity of our convictions,” he said.
House GOP erupts at Stephen Miller as Trump elevates him after midterm massacre: ‘Megalomaniac’
Several Republican lawmakers are fuming over President Donald Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller to be his chief of staff. “Horrible decision,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital on Friday after Trump announced his decision. A Republican lawmaker who was granted anonymity to speak candidly said they were in “utter disbelief.” Tensions were rising against Miller in the wake of Republicans’ terrible performance in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Multiple House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital just moments before his promotion said Miller, who spearheads Trump’s immigration policy, should be fired. TRUMP NAMES STEPHEN MILLER NEW WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, REPLACING SUSIE WILES When later asked about his promotion, one House Republican who said Miller should be fired replied simply with a facepalm emoji. Republicans suffered historic losses that saw both the House and Senate fall into Democrats’ hands in the new Congress. Democrats are on pace to win more than 250 seats in the House and at least 54 in the Senate. AMERICA SAW THE BLUE WAVE COMING — BUT DRASTICALLY UNDERESTIMATED THE EXTENT OF THE DEM TSUNAMI And while voter analyses have shown that Trump’s war in Iran and tariffs played the biggest roles in turning people away from the GOP, his handling of illegal immigration served to alienate voters in key areas. That’s in no small part due to Hispanic and Latino voters turning their backs on Republicans in places like Texas that shifted massively toward Democrats in this election cycle. “Because of his immigration positions, I just think we ruined a lot of our goodwill with Latino voters,” Stutzman said. The second GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital that Miller ignored multiple warnings from House Republicans in the past, arguing that Trump’s immigration crackdown is what voters asked for. “I’ve been in several group meetings where a lot of us have told him, ‘Your immigration enforcement policies are backfiring back home, our people are mad, our businesses are mad — even in deep red districts — and it is impacting not just the voters, but the donors, and everybody top to bottom,” that GOP lawmaker said. “But it looked to me like Stephen Miller was only after numbers … he would not listen to us.” Other Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital also criticized Miller but did not go as far as to say he should be fired. REPUBLICANS TURN ON TRUMP AFTER DEVASTATING MIDTERM LOSSES HAND DEMOCRATS CONTROL OF CONGRESS “I think he’s greatly hurt the administration and cost us many seats on Tuesday,” retiring Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital before news of Miller’s promotion broke. “He took an immigration policy that favored the president 2:1 in the public, over-reached and made it 2:1 unfavorable.” “Many Republicans don’t like him,” Bacon added when asked about his promotion. Miller is widely known as Trump’s right hand on immigration policy, including earlier this year when the administration faced bipartisan backlash over its handling of anti-immigration enforcement protests in places like Minneapolis. Several Republicans, particularly those running in battleground districts, had called for Trump to limit deportations to illegal immigrants who have committed crimes while in the United States. A fourth GOP lawmaker said, “Stephen is a megalomaniac who should have never been given the keys to the Ferrari. That being said, he’s not the reason why we lost…no one knows who Stephen Miller is in our districts.” Various other administration officials also got their share of blame in the fallout from Tuesday’s midterm massacre, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Trump himself. But the president and people in his orbit have blamed candidate quality, arguing that in many cases the president campaigned harder than some of the people he supported did for themselves. And in his Truth Social post announcing Miller’s promotion, Trump called him one of his “most trusted advisors.” He later told reporters Miller would “do a great job.” When Fox News Digital reached the White House for comment, spokeswoman Lauren Bis said Miller “has been a key player in delivering on President Trump’s America First agenda since day one.” “He has spearheaded the administration’s crime crackdown including in D.C. and Memphis, record setting deregulation, unleashed American energy, dismantled drug cartels, and secured our border. In his new role, he will continue to deliver historic successes for the American people,” Bis said. Bis also pointed to a list of positive comments about Miller by administration officials and members of Congress. “Very grateful to Susie for her friendship and service to the president and our country. Stephen Miller is an amazing patriot and will do great things. Congrats to him on a well deserved promotion!” Vice President JD Vance said. “Stephen Miller has built a proven record focused on securing our border, combating crime, and advancing a now much-needed common-sense conservative agenda for our country,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris said. A White House official told Fox News Digital Miller had experience working with Democrats on the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force and that he has been a “valuable, trusted aide” since 2016.
Democratic senator-elect calls Trump ‘unserious fool’ while defending combative political style
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic senator-elect from Michigan, leaned into accusations of acting cocky on the path to victory over Republican candidate Mike Rogers, citing a need to push back on President Donald Trump’s manner of communication during an appearance on Pod Save America. “Long ago, you predicted that you would win this race by seven points, which at the time seemed like a pretty cocky and ill-considered thing to say. Then you won the race by seven points. People are still calling you cocky,” podcast host Jon Favreau said during his interview with El-Sayed. “How do you see yourself?” “I think there is a responsibility that we have to engage with [Trump] as the unserious fool that he is,” El-Sayed replied. EL-SAYED MOCKS TRUMP, VANCE AND ROGERS IN GLOATING VICTORY SPEECH SIGNALING COMBATIVE TONE IN SENATE El-Sayed’s response sheds light on his view of his own campaign and the tone that he believes Democrats need to adopt to counter Trump’s presence in American politics. It also raises questions of whether El-Sayed’s campaign strategies will yield results in Congress. In his view, Trump has changed the style of acceptable communication. In turn, he accused Democrats of being hesitant to abandon a kind of decorum to fight fire with fire. “I just think there’s a responsibility for us to walk out of ‘The West Wing’ episode that our politics used to feel like and into the reality of where we are,” El-Sayed said, referring to a a television drama known for its idealistic portrayal of American politics. “I say that because if you’ve ever watched a bully in a room, if you don’t stand up to the bully, it’s not like the bully will just go away. The bully just gets stronger,” El-Sayed said. During his campaign, El-Sayed repeatedly pointed a finger at Trump for, in his view, ushering in a new age of political rhetoric. But that view also preceded his Senate bid. TRUMP DOMINATES EL-SAYED’S ATTACKS AGAINST ROGERS, BUT GOP RIVAL OFFERS UNEXPECTED POLICY SPLIT He once accused President Donald Trump of inciting terrorism in a 2020 interview, citing a foiled plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “These are terrorists; we have to call them that. We have to recognize that that is what the face of terrorism looks like right now. We have to step up against it,” El-Sayed said. “We gotta ask: why are these people getting radicalized? Well, there must be some radical, extremist cleric out there who may be tweeting up a storm about all the things that they think need to be done, like liberating Michigan.” Although President Donald Trump did not call for any kind of violence against Whitmer, El-Sayed said he believed the president was at least partially responsible, pointing to a tweet Trump had made six months before the discovered plot. “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter, the social media platform now known as X. The post was one of a series calling to “liberate” Virginia and Minnesota from COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Democratic governors. According to FBI comments to local media, the plot originated before Trump’s post. Even so, El-Sayed called the posts emblematic of a cultural toxicity that had made violence more likely. “The idea that people would threaten her safety because she was willing to stand up to keep us all healthy is, to me, the example of what the kind of toxicity that we see out of Donald Trump creates,” El-Sayed said. MAJORITY LEADER THUNE SAYS SENATE GOP WON’T ‘STAND IDLY BY’ AS DEMOCRATS TAKE CONTROL OF CONGRESS A spokesperson for El-Sayed did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether he believed in a red line for what kind of rhetoric Democrats should refrain from using. Having won his U.S. Senate election, El-Sayed will be sworn into office on Jan. 3, 2027, the start of the 120th Congress.
GOP eyes Senate comeback after Democratic bloodbath, but another political nightmare could await
Republican control of the Senate could return as soon as the 2028 general election, but only if the party can pull off a series of crucial victories in competitive races, a possibility that seems distant following Tuesday night’s devastating Democratic sweep. As of publication, Democrats and independents who caucus with them have secured 54 Senate seats, a total that could grow to as many as 56 pending election calls in Mississippi and Alaska. Assuming Republicans hold the vice presidency in 2028, far from a guarantee, they would need to flip at least four seats during that election cycle to win the Senate back. While there are ample pick-up opportunities for Republicans in 2028 if the party can return to its typical national performance benchmarks, several vulnerable GOP-held seats could complicate their efforts to retake the upper chamber. DEMS FLIPS YET ANOTHER SENATE SEAT IN TRUMP COUNTRY AMID SWEEPING GOP UPSETS Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, for instance, turned 93 in September and faces a decision about whether to seek another term in 2028, when Republicans will be defending his seat in a state where Democrat Josh Turek just defeated Republican Ashley Hinson by roughly four percentage points. His departure before then could also give Iowa’s incoming Democratic governor the opportunity to appoint a temporary replacement. Another possibility that could make the GOP’s path back to a majority even more uncertain is the admission of Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to the union as full states. Such a move would likely require the Democratic-led Senate to abolish or overcome the legislative filibuster, something lawmakers representing more moderate or competitive states may balk at, as well as support in the House and either presidential approval or enough votes to override a veto. CHUCK SCHUMER AFTER SWEEPING DEMOCRATIC MIDTERM VICTORIES: ‘I’LL BE RE-ELECTED AS MAJORITY LEADER’ Even if the filibuster is done away with, President Donald Trump could veto admittance bills. Democrats currently lack the numbers to override such a veto. If Republicans lose the White House in 2028, however, Democrats could have a clearer path to advancing statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., a move that would add four Senate seats and potentially complicate Republican efforts to win back the chamber, though significant political and legal obstacles would remain. Assuming none of that happens, Democrats will be defending six Senate seats that could offer Republicans potential pick-up opportunities in 2028. Republicans will have pick-up opportunities in New Hampshire, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Ohio that year. They will, however, be forced to defend vulnerable Senate seats in Wisconsin, Iowa and North Carolina. Indiana, which saw a significant blue shift, also has a Senate seat up for contention in 2028, while Nebraska, where independent Dan Osborn mounted a competitive but unsuccessful challenge to Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts on Tuesday, will not hold another regularly scheduled Senate election until 2030. While 2028 could deliver Republicans a majority if they play their cards right, another defeat on the scale of 2026 could put the Democratic Party dangerously close to the 60-vote threshold necessary to invoke cloture and counter a filibuster. “It may be unlikely, but I do think it’s feasible,” Heritage Action government relations director Chip Wyatt told Fox News Digital. “We’re just as capable of having a night like the Democrats had on Tuesday in 2028. If anything, that election, the election we had on Tuesday has shown us that two years is a very, very long time in politics. think if you had told anybody in 2024 that this is what happened in 2028, they probably wouldn’t believe you.” For Republicans to have a good night in 2028, Wyatt argued that conservatives would have to focus on affordability issues while Democrats overstep their mandate by allowing the fringes of their party to dictate its policy agenda. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took a similar line in reacting to Tuesday night’s election results. “We will rebuild as a true blue-collar party, not by embracing socialism, but by being real free-market conservatives. The way we built the Texas economic miracle in the first place, and we will build and rebuild America as well,” he said. “When the zealots overreach, and they will, we will stand ready to lead in the direction of freedom, of prosperity, of safety and security and common sense. We will return to a new dawn of freedom in America.” 2030 features slightly fewer pick-ups for the GOP with a comparable number of states to defend. While Republicans will have pick-up opportunities in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Michigan, they will also be forced to defend seats in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. MAJORITY LEADER THUNE SAYS SENATE GOP WON’T ‘STAND IDLY BY’ AS DEMOCRATS TAKE CONTROL OF CONGRESS The 2032 election will feature the same regularly scheduled Senate seats contested in 2026, giving Republicans another opportunity to retake deep-red states they blundered this year, such as Kansas and South Carolina. Historically, however, some moderate Democrats have managed to hang on to state-wide offices in typically red states, making a reversion far from a certainty. Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, for instance, managed to survive multiple GOP challenges in the deep-red state. Kansas and Kentucky, similarly, have Democratic governors that survived Republican challenges in races that received national attention. While many Republicans, and even some Democrats, have suggested liberal pick-ups in deep red states could be one-cycle wonders, Wyatt cautioned against complacency. “We should always assume the politicians want to get re-elected and so the senators in the deep red states that have been recently elected as Democrats are going to want to keep their seats and so they’re going to be very strategic in how they vote and in what kind of bills they’re introducing,” Wyatt said. “In some of these deep red states, it’s going to be difficult for [Democrats] to hold on to these seats … Now granted, I’ve already said two years is a long time, six years is an even longer time. So who knows what kind of
American war hero details dire living conditions US troops face as Hegseth taps him to ‘fix’ it
Some troops have gone a year without hot water. Others are sleeping in their cars to escape barracks without air conditioning. And some are asking for little more than drywall, spackle and paint so they can make repairs themselves. Those are among the conditions Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer says he has encountered while touring military installations on a mission from War Secretary Pete Hegseth: Fix a barracks system plagued by decades of neglect. “I would tell you that there’s only a couple that I’ve seen that are good,” Meyer told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday. Meyer, who serves as senior adviser to the Pentagon’s Barracks Task Force, has visited more than eight installations across the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps since taking on the assignment and plans to visit 30 before the end of the year. “What I thought was gonna be a professional job very quickly turned into personal,” Meyer said. DAKOTA MEYER TALKS SERVICE, BLASTS CONTROVERSIAL DESIGN FOR GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR MEMORIAL At one installation, Meyer recalled asking a 19-year-old service member what she would change about her living conditions if she could “wave a magic wand.” “If she could just have a hot shower,” Meyer recalled. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking.” The Pentagon’s barracks problems long predate Hegseth and have survived repeated attempts at reform. A sweeping 2023 Government Accountability Office investigation documented serious health and safety hazards and found that the department lacked reliable information about the condition of its own barracks, could not determine how much of its facilities spending went toward them and provided insufficient oversight. Congress and the military services have since committed billions toward improvements, including initiatives ranging from the Marine Corps’ “Barracks 2030” to a Navy overhaul of unaccompanied housing. Yet serious problems persist. As of this year, 12 of GAO’s 31 recommendations remained outstanding. Hegseth has sought to centralize the effort under a department-wide task force and accelerate improvements, with Meyer saying the secretary has made clear that identifying problems is no longer enough. “The secretary has made it clear to me he doesn’t expect me to observe this, study it, or to make it better. He expects me to fix it,” Meyer said. “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Meyer, the only Medal of Honor hero to reenlist after receiving the award, said one of his first requests was for Hegseth to give the task force an “authoritative role,” rather than simply create another layer of oversight. The goal, he said, was to give the team the ability “to go out and make decisions, to be able to have impact, to be able to make change, and to be able to direct where that funding goes and how fast it gets to our service members.” EXCLUSIVE: HEGSETH TO DOUBLE CUTS TO GENERALS, ADMIRALS IN MAJOR PENTAGON SHAKEUP Meyer argued the problem is not simply a lack of money. Funding shortfalls, continuing resolutions and years of deferred maintenance have all contributed, he said, but so have layers of contracting rules and bureaucracy that can slow even relatively basic repairs. A separate watchdog review found the Pentagon facing a $285 billion maintenance backlog across its broader military facilities’ portfolio, underscoring the scale of the department’s infrastructure challenges. “When you look at the contracting aspect, it’s easier for people to say no,” Meyer said. Funding is also part of the problem, according to Meyer, who pointed to Congress’ failure to enact full-year defense appropriations for fiscal 2027. The Pentagon is currently operating under a continuing resolution through Dec. 11, which generally funds ongoing programs at prior-year rates while lawmakers negotiate a broader spending package. “When you can’t get a budget, when you’re waiting on Congress to pass a budget, to be able to get the funding there, I mean, that is a huge issue,” Meyer said. But he also argued that the Pentagon has too often measured progress by how much money has been obligated or put under contract, rather than whether troops actually see improvements in their living conditions. “Our service members don’t, they don’t live in our budget lines,” Meyer said. “They live in the rooms that those budget lines are there to impact.” For Meyer, that has meant getting out of Washington and hearing directly from the troops living with the consequences. “You can’t fix these problems or understand these problems by standing on the carpet of the Pentagon,” he said. “You’ve got to go out there and talk to these service members.” What he has heard, Meyer said, is striking partly because of how little troops are asking for. “They’re asking for a hot shower. They’re asking for a place to wash their clothes. They’re asking for a door that locks. They’re asking to be able to go to sleep in a place that doesn’t have mold. I mean, they’re asking for light bulbs.” “They’re willing to be part of the solution,” he added. Meyer stopped short of placing the blame solely on installation commanders, saying many want to improve conditions but have been constrained by a system that has normalized poor barracks for years. “I think this is a multidimensional problem, and it’s complex,” he said. “I think that you have commanders out there that want to take care of their service members. I’ve seen that across the board. But … they still have to have the ability to do that.” Meyer was far less forgiving of previous Pentagon leadership, arguing that years of investments and reform initiatives had failed to translate into adequate living conditions for troops. “Don’t kid yourself,” Meyer said. “In the past … it wasn’t a priority to the leadership.” Previous administrations and military leaders did launch barracks improvement efforts and devoted billions of dollars to construction, renovation and maintenance, even as government watchdogs continued to document serious deficiencies. Meyer said Hegseth has made the issue a personal priority. “We have the Secretary of War who is putting people first, and he’s not just saying
4 of nation’s largest cities now led by socialist mayors after Tuesday’s election, affecting tens of millions
Two socialist mayors were elected in the United States on Tuesday in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. which now means that four of the top 20 largest cities in the country have socialist leaders at the helm. Los Angeles Councilwoman Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) defeated incumbent mayor Karen Bass and will take office in December as mayor for the roughly 4 million residents of Los Angeles proper. Also victorious on Tuesday was DSA member Janeese Lewis George who coasted to victory to become mayor-elect of Washington, D.C., a city of roughly 700,000 residents. The list of socialist mayors in the top 20 most populous U.S. cities stands at 4, as George and Raman join Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST SWEEPS INTO DC MAYOR’S OFFICE, SIGNALS OPENNESS TO WORKING WITH TRUMP In total, the four cities are home to roughly 14 million people. That figure does not include neighboring suburbs, which could still feel the effects of policies enacted within city limits through crime, real estate values and the broader business climate. Problems in a city can spill over into surrounding communities, while suburban residents who work in the city may also be directly affected. Counting the population in the metro areas of those four cities, roughly 44 million people could be affected either positively and negatively by the socialist policies enacted by the four mayors. DSA LEADER DISMISSES $49T COST ESTIMATE FOR SOCIALIST POLICIES AS A ‘MADE-UP NUMBER’ “This makes LA the fourth large city that will now have a socialist mayor, joining New York, Washington DC and Seattle,” Heritage Foundation fellow Mike Gonzalez posted on X Thursday. “Chicago’s mayor is a buffoon, but he doesn’t identify as DSA. America used to be an impregnable fortress against Marxism, then Marxists took over universities.” The socialist victories were not limited to city halls. Voters also elected seven DSA-backed or affiliated candidates to the House: Claire Valdez, Brand Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York, Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania, Melat Kiros of Colorado, Donavan McKinney of Michigan and Angela Gonzales-Torres of California. Several other candidates associated with socialist policies also entered Congress or were re-elected on Tuesday. A recent Fox News national poll indicated 32% of voters have a favorable view of socialism, with 64% seeing it in an unfavorable way. But the favorable rating matches an all-time high, first reached five years ago, since Fox News first began asking the question in 2019. And a September Gallup poll found that 43% of Americans had a positive image of socialism, the highest level since the polling organization began tracking the question in 2010. The Fox News poll found that 51% of voters had a favorable view of capitalism, compared with 32% who viewed socialism favorably. Another 46% had an unfavorable view of capitalism.
Democrats set sights on Elon Musk probe after midterm wins, but Pritzker draws a surprising line
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., are calling for an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously led by Elon Musk, as talks have heated up among Democrats to launch a probe into the multibillionaire. “I had no specific plan,” Raskin told Fox News Digital about the potential investigations. “Look…DOGE was a catastrophe for America, and at least one committee, I feel pretty certain, will investigate it. It needs to investigate it.” Musk has emerged as a potential target of Democratic oversight, with some lawmakers calling for scrutiny of his time as head of the DOGE. The calls for an investigation come as Democrats have started rallying the party to look into corruption under the Trump administration after coming out victorious in midterms. SCHUMER, JEFFRIES SIDESTEP QUESTIONS ON NUKING FILIBUSTER, LAUNCHING ELON MUSK PROBE AFTER BLUE WAVE The tech CEO helped launch DOGE at the start of President Donald Trump‘s second term to root out waste and be more transparent about the federal government’s spending. DOGE’s efforts included deferred resignations and buyouts of employees at federal agencies and contributed to a significant downsizing of the federal workforce, which contracted by about 250,000 employees during 2025, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Calls for investigations into DOGE also started over concerns about the department allegedly having access to Americans’ sensitive information. “I mean the whole thing was premised on a lie, and our private information was completely compromised by it,” Raskin said. Despite Pritzker saying he had never “heard anything like that” about a potential probe of Musk and DOGE, he agreed that DOGE is worthy of an investigation. PROGRESSIVE GROUP’S 182-PAGE BLUEPRINT MAPS OUT POTENTIAL DEM INVESTIGATIONS INTO TRUMP, CORPORATE ALLIES “I think there should be a lot of inspection of what DOGE did,” Pritzker told Fox News Digital. “I think that was pretty awful. “ But Pritzker didn’t seem so sure that needing an investigation into DOGE also warranted an investigation into Musk himself. “I don’t know about focusing on one person,” Pritzker said when asked about investigating Musk. ELON MUSK BLAMES TRUMP, US MILITARY FOR SPACEX RESTRICTIONS UKRAINE WARNS COULD HAVE DEADLY CONSEQUENCES Democratic lawmakers have also suggested looking into Musk’s companies’ multibillion-dollar contracts with the federal government and, more recently, his role in cutting internet access to the Ukrainian military. After the midterm elections resulted in a sweeping blue wave, Democrats in both chambers of Congress have vowed to use investigative committees and subpoena powers to probe not only Musk, but Trump and much of his administration — including trying to impeach Trump. Fox News Digital’s Eric Revell contributed to this report.
DeSantis blasts Washington Post over report he’s preparing 2028 presidential bid
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fired back Friday at a report that he is preparing another White House bid in 2028, accusing The Washington Post of fabricating claims that he has started reaching out to political consultants about a potential campaign. “The Washington Post is fabricating this out of whole cloth,” DeSantis wrote on X. “I have not reached out to anybody about running for anything.” “Just another pathetic attempt to garner clicks. Using anonymous sources of course!” he added. The Post reported Friday, citing three people briefed on his plans, that DeSantis was preparing to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. VANCE, CRUZ AND DESANTIS DIAGNOSE GOP’S MIDTERM DISASTER AS BATTLE OVER PARTY’S FUTURE BEGINS The newspaper reported that DeSantis, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2024 and is term-limited after 2026, had already reached out to at least one national political consultant about working on a prospective campaign. A federal super PAC tied to DeSantis also sent out a fundraising text earlier this week, The Post reported. DeSantis continued pushing back against the report in exchanges with social media users. When one user expressed hope that The Post’s reporting was accurate, the governor replied that he was “sorry to disappoint.” DeSantis also responded to another user who suggested political consultants may have been using his name to attract attention. “Probably the case. But maybe just made up by WaPo,” he wrote. FIRST MUSLIM SENATOR, FIRST BLACK FEMALE GOVERNOR: 2026 MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS MAKE HISTORY Speculation surrounding DeSantis’ political future comes just days after Republicans suffered sweeping defeats in the midterm elections, losing control of both chambers of Congress and several traditionally Republican strongholds. The Sunshine State, however, remained a bright spot for the GOP, with Republican Byron Donalds winning the governor’s race. “This is close to an extinction-level event for Republicans,” DeSantis said Wednesday, warning that among the nation’s 10 most populous states, Florida would be the only one with Republican control of its government. DESANTIS CALLS GOP MIDTERM LOSSES ‘EXTINCTION-LEVEL EVENT’ — AND EXPLAINS WHY FLORIDA SURVIVED DeSantis previously sought the 2024 Republican presidential nomination but suspended his campaign in January 2024 after the Iowa caucuses and endorsed Donald Trump. The governor, who will leave office in January, has previously left open the possibility of another presidential campaign. Fox News Digital has reached out to DeSantis’ office and The Washington Post for comment. Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
US offers $20 million reward for information on Iran’s nuclear program
The U.S. is offering up to $20 million to anyone with information on Iran’s nuclear program. “If you have information on Iran’s nuclear program, assets, or associated individuals, send it to us via Signal or our Tor-based tip line. You may be eligible for a reward and relocation,” the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program said in an announcement posted to X. The State Department said it was seeking information on “nuclear scientists and staff, nuclear program-related technologies, and capabilities, associated organizations and personnel.” EXPERTS ‘DEEPLY’ CONCERNED OVER IRAN’S WORK AT UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR SITE “The U.S. government remains committed to countering any attempt by Iran to develop a nuclear weapons program,” the agency added. The announcement comes as President Donald Trump considers renewed military strikes against Iran while Washington and Tehran continue negotiations over the country’s nuclear program. IRANIAN NEGOTIATORS KICKED OUT OF US AS TALKS STALL; TRUMP LAYS OUT ‘POSSIBLE’ TIMELINE FOR MORE STRIKES Trump reiterated Friday that Iran would never be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon, pointing to previous U.S. military operations targeting Tehran’s nuclear facilities. The president met with his national security team Thursday to consider renewing military strikes against Iran after Trump promised to wait until after the midterms. TRUMP ADMIN THREATENS IRAN WITH ‘CONSEQUENCES’ AS ALLIES CONVENE AMID THREATS OF POST-ELECTION ESCALATION Nov. 9 marks a new moon in the Middle East, meaning little to no moonlight, a condition favorable for military operations, senior U.S. officials told Fox News. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office earlier Thursday that Washington would “make a decision” on resuming the war. TRUMP’S MOAB THREAT COULD PUT IRAN’S DEEPEST BUNKERS IN AMERICA’S CROSSHAIRS “Do we want to go further” with strikes to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is dead and that “it will never happen again?” he added. US EMBASSIES IN MIDDLE EAST WARN AMERICANS OF ‘UNFORESEEN ESCALATION’ AS LATEST STRIKES HIT IRAN “I would rather not destroy the rest of the country if possible, but maybe I will have to. You’ll know soon enough.” U.S. Central Command is finalizing preparations for a potential resumption of major operations in Iran but has not received a new directive from Washington, according to reports citing a U.S. official. Fox News’ Emma Bussey and Brittany Miller contributed to this report.