Dem governor escalates McConnell health demands, cites response to past Trump health concerns
Democrat Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear escalated his pressure campaign against Sen. Mitch McConnell on Saturday, demanding the longtime Republican senator from the Bluegrass State reveal his undisclosed medical condition as questions mount over the 84-year-old’s ability to serve. In a post on X, Beshear connected his recent push for the lawmaker’s transparency to past national debates, writing, “I publicly and privately urged the last administration to address the public’s concerns with the former president’s health. 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.” MCCONNELL FACES FRESH CALLS TO COME CLEAN ABOUT HEALTH ISSUES The governor’s public comments follow a formal letter he sent to McConnell on Wednesday requesting a full health update on behalf of constituents who are “increasingly concerned” about the senator’s wellbeing and “ability to hold office in the United States Senate.” Beshear argued public officeholders have a commitment to represent constituents with “clear communication about one’s ability to serve.” MCCONNELL WAS FOUND ‘UNCONSCIOUS’ IN HOME LAST MONTH AS CONDITION REMAINS UNKNOWN McConnell has been absent from the Senate for three weeks and was first hospitalized in early June for an undisclosed condition. His office has declined to release specific details or a timeline for his return, though leaked emergency dispatch audio from a June 14 call revealed he was seemingly found unconscious at his home and may have suffered a heart attack. McConnell’s wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing following the hospitalization, and her office claimed his condition “did not warrant an immediate return to the U.S.“ Both Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said they have since spoken with McConnell at length about Senate business, recent Supreme Court decisions and the ongoing Graham Platner campaign scandal. However, when asked about McConnell’s condition aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, “I have no idea how he’s doing.” The White House and McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Trump-aligned House holdouts accused of holding ‘life-saving’ veterans bill ‘hostage’ over SAVE America Act
A sweeping veterans package supporters describe as the largest expansion of veterans’ health care and benefits in more than a decade is expected to return to the House floor when lawmakers return from the July recess. But backers warn the legislation could once again become collateral damage in the Republican standoff over the SAVE America Act. The Take Care of American Veterans Act rolls roughly 60 veterans bills into a package that would dramatically expand veterans’ health care and benefits. At its core, the legislation would cement veterans’ access to community care outside the VA while increasing benefits for combat-wounded veterans, caregivers and Gold Star families, expanding mental health services and enacting dozens of additional reforms. House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., told Fox News Digital he intends to bring the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act back for a vote as soon as the House reconvenes next week. HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DERAIL GOP AGENDA IN SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWDOWN The legislation was held up last month after a group of House Republicans joined Democrats to defeat a procedural vote, stopping the House from taking up the bill. “I’m feeling good as long as my members stay with us on the rule,” Bost said. “Right now, there’s some politics being played, not about this bill, but just in general.” The bill became entangled in a broader House Republican fight over the SAVE America Act, legislation championed by President Donald Trump that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. On June 30, the House voted on H. Res. 1398, the procedural rule governing floor consideration of several bills, including the National Defense Authorization Act and the Take Care of American Veterans Act. The rule failed after 14 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition, preventing the House from taking up the veterans package and bringing floor business to a standstill. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., claimed to have voted against the rules vote in protest against House leadership’s handling of the SAVE America Act. As a result, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent the members home early. Bost accused the holdouts of effectively putting veterans legislation on hold. ‘IT’S A MESS’: GOP TURNS ON HOUSE CONSERVATIVES AS VOTER ID BLOCKADE STALLS TRUMP’S AGENDA “They’re holding all bills hostage,” Bost said. “They’re not voting for any rule. Any bill that has to pass a rule before it comes to the floor — which this bill does because of its size — can’t move.” Although Bost said he supports the SAVE America Act and has voted for it three times, he argued the Senate’s failure to act should not stop the House from advancing unrelated legislation. “I agree with that bill,” Bost said. “But the Senate still has to do their work. We don’t stop our work because the Senate isn’t doing it.” With 23 legislative days left in the congressional session, Concerned Veterans for America Strategic Director John Byrnes, a supporter of the bill, said time is of the essence. “There are lots and lots of things that have to get done,” Byrnes told Fox News Digital. “There’s also the National Defense Authorization Act, which is a must pass every year, so these things eat up time. There’s requirements to have debate on these, which eat up session time.” Byrnes argued that every procedural delay pushes other legislation further down the calendar. “This bill will save lives in 2027,” Byrnes said. “If we lose veterans because they could have had faster, better access to health care, we’re never going to get those veterans back.” TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE IN THE SENATE DESPITE REPUBLICAN REVOLT But Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who also voted no on the procedural vote, told Fox News Digital he has concerns about how the bill is financed. “I appreciate what the chairman’s trying to do in some respects, but there’s a few issues,” Roy said. Among them, Roy pointed to provisions offsetting new spending through changes affecting other veterans. “You’re taxing certain veterans to provide some sort of benefits and changes to other veterans,” Roy said. “There are concerns about some of the pay-fors.” Veterans of Foreign Wars has also taken issue with Section 108 of the bill, warning that it would codify changes to future disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea to help finance other veterans’ priorities. But Bost said this is inaccurate. “No veteran is going to have their benefits reduced,” Bost said. “If you’re receiving a benefit right now, that’s not going to be reduced at all.” Roy, who previously served two years on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he supported a lot of what the bill was seeking to accomplish but said other pieces of legislation are priorities, too. “There is a block of us for whom border security, the SAVE Act and demonstrating our leadership on major issues is critical,” Roy said. “Some of these other bills may or may not get hung up based on a desire of many in the conference to see movement on other things.” Fox News Digital reached out to Luna’s office and the White House for comment.
Harvard astronomer tapped to lead White House UFO council says US government ‘baffled by what they are seeing’
Avi Loeb, the Harvard astronomer chosen last month by the White House to lead a UFO advisory council, believes he was brought on because federal officials are “baffled” by the many unidentified objects the U.S. military has captured over the past several decades. Loeb, known for arguing that alien spacecraft may have already reached Earth, said his newly formed team of more than a dozen scientists is combing through four batches of public UFO sighting disclosures released by the Trump administration in recent months. His mission began in early June when an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) visited his home and asked him to form a group of experts to make sense of UFOs, now referred to by the U.S. government as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). This is an umbrella term that accounts for objects seen zipping underwater and in space. “The U.S. government had me at hello,” Loeb told Fox News Digital in an interview Saturday. “The fact that they are reaching out to scientists like myself indicates, in my mind, that they are baffled by what they are seeing, and they think that maybe it’s not human-made.” NASA CHIEF CONFIRMS AGENCY HAS UNEXPLAINED UFO IMAGERY: ‘WE DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS’ Loeb’s council will report its findings to the UAP Governing Board, a recently established body under the direction of ODNI. According to the council’s website, Loeb and his colleagues will only be reviewing already-declassified materials on UAPs. However, Loeb told Fox News Digital he has asked the Pentagon and other agencies for 50 videos, images and other documents related to known UAP incidents. Those materials haven’t been given to him yet, with the custodian agencies citing national security concerns. “It’s not so much the targets that are the issue. It’s that the sensors that were used were for national security purposes. The U.S. government doesn’t want to reveal to adversarial nations the kind of sensors being used. So, that’s the main obstacle right now,” Loeb said. NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON DARES GOVERNMENT TO ‘JUST SHOW THE ALIEN,’ AS DISCLOSURE FERVOR CONTINUES TO GROW Loeb’s goal is to figure out whether UAPs that have been captured by the U.S. military originate from other nations or if they don’t come from humans at all. “In the second case, if it’s not human-made, then that’s the biggest discovery ever made by science, and the U.S. government has the privilege of ushering in this new realization that we have a neighbor visiting us,” Loeb said. Loeb sought to temper expectations, saying that many of the phenomena they are studying could turn out to be mundane. Often, he said, the strange looking objects people see in the sky are merely space junk or broken satellites. “Unless they maneuver in ways that cannot be explained by gravity, you should assume that they are space junk,” Loeb said. DECLASSIFIED APOLLO MISSION UFO FILES CHALLENGE LONG-RUNNING MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY THEORIES Nonetheless, he praised the White House for its push for transparency on this issue. In February, President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon and other agencies to declassify files related to aliens and UAPs because of “tremendous interest.” One of the most important aims of Loeb’s council is to recommend better sensors so that the government can capture UAPs with more confidence in the future. “If we are dealing with drones of some unusual qualities that the Chinese are using, it’s good for the U.S. to have better sensors that can help it identify those. Right now, they are reported as orbs. They may not be drones, but I’m saying that, at the very least, we will help national security,” Loeb said. Loeb made the remarks after the Department of War on Friday released the fourth and latest batch of UAP materials to the public. Loeb commented on one of the most sensational releases from the first batch, which were photos from the Apollo 12 mission on the Moon in 1969. One of the photos has five “unidentified phenomena,” but Loeb said federal authorities have now officially concluded that those blue flashes are most likely cosmic rays. Until 2020, Loeb headed up Harvard University’s astronomy department, where he studied black holes, the formation of the universe’s first stars and extraterrestrial life. In 2017, when scientists discovered a remnant of a Pluto-like world in the solar system, Loeb disputed those findings, arguing that the object was possibly a light sail from an alien civilization. After this claim earned him widespread respect in the UFO community, Loeb founded the Galileo Project at Harvard to search for artifacts from extraterrestrial civilizations.
House Democrat Ro Khanna says he was detained by armed Israeli settlers in West Bank
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., claims to have been detained by Israeli settlers armed with U.S.-made firearms while visiting the West Bank. Khanna and his team were surrounded by a group of West Bank settlers near the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta on Wednesday, his office told The New York Times. The settlers were armed with American-made M4 machine guns, Khanna’s office said. When soldiers from the Israeli Defense Forces arrived, Khanna claimed they sided with the settlers. The situation only defused after Israeli police officers arrived and dispersed the settlers and their vehicles blocking the U.S. congressional group’s path, according to the Democrat’s office. DOZENS OF DEMS FLIP ON ISRAEL, VOTE TO BAN ARMS SALES IN PROTEST OF IRAN WAR “If they will do this to an American congressman, imagine what is happening to Palestinian families who are just trying to live,” Rep Khanna told Fox News Digital in a statement. “I am grateful to David Brownstein of the American embassy for helping rescue us. I expect Israel will prosecute the violent settlers and IDF soldiers who detained American citizens,” Rep. Khanna said. The Times first reported details of the alleged incident on Saturday. Reached by Fox News Digital, a representative for Khanna’s team said she could confirm the details reported by the Times. Khanna also spoke to Reuters about what allegedly transpired. “I’m certainly probably the first American politician who’s been detained by the IDF and Israeli settlers,” Khanna said in a Reuters video. “We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed,” Khanna said. “And these hoodlums come in with machine guns, an M4, an American-made machine gun, and they detain us. They block off the road, and then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.” WATCH: GOP SENATOR WARNS ‘HAMMER-AND-SICKLE’ POLITICS WILL DEFINE DEMOCRATS’ 2028 PRIMARY Khanna, a frequent critic of Israel and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, claimed the incident reframed his thinking on a potential White House run. “I’m strongly considering it,” he told Reuters on camera of a potential U.S. presidential run, “and I’m more resolved to consider it after this trip. We need a new moral direction in our party. A new moral vision that respects the dignity and human rights of people around the world.” Khanna added to the Times, “No American would support this if they knew the details of what was going on here.” The Israeli military told Reuters that troops and police officers intervened after receiving a report of settlers blocking vehicles near the village of Khirbet Zanuta. “Upon their arrival, the troops dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way,” the military told Reuters. Fox News Digital also reached out to the IDF, State Department and U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem for more information.
Trump-appointed judge permanently ends Proud Boys’ Jan 6 case, says Constitution left him no choice
A Trump-appointed federal judge on Friday reluctantly dismissed the Jan. 6 prosecution of four Proud Boys members, saying the law left him no authority to block the Justice Department’s request. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case with prejudice against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola after a federal appeals court had already vacated their convictions. In a seven-page opinion, Kelly said longstanding separation-of-powers principles leave charging decisions to the executive branch, meaning he could not require the Justice Department to maintain a prosecution it had decided to drop. DOJ SEEKS TO VACATE JAN 6 CONVICTIONS IN SWEEPING MOVE TIED TO TRUMP ORDER “Because the decisions to issue the Executive Order and to abandon this prosecution — even after the Government secured convictions for serious crimes relating to the attack on the Capitol on January 6 — are solely the Executive’s, no one should mistake the Court’s granting of the Government’s motion for its agreement with those decisions,” Kelly wrote. Pezzola, who was convicted of assaulting police, robbery and destroying government property, was found guilty of stealing a Capitol Police riot shield before using it to smash a Capitol window, creating what prosecutors said was the first breach point through which hundreds of rioters entered the building. He was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted on multiple other felony counts. Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy and several other felonies related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, including conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and destruction of government property. FORMER INDIANA REP STEPHEN BUYER RECEIVES FULL PARDON FROM TRUMP FOR 2023 INSIDER TRADING CONVICTION The Justice Department first moved in April to vacate the convictions and dismiss the case against the four men, arguing that doing so was “in the interests of justice” in light of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order commuting their sentences and issuing full pardons to former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio and hundreds of other Jan. 6 defendants. The D.C. Circuit had already erased the men’s convictions before returning the case to Kelly’s courtroom to consider the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the indictment. “There is little mystery about why the Government is moving to dismiss this case, or whether dismissal is in fact what the Executive seeks,” Kelly wrote. “President Trump’s views about the prosecution of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 — whether those views are based on fact or fiction — are well known, as is his intention to extend clemency to them.” Kelly cited longstanding precedent holding that charging decisions belong to the executive branch and that judges cannot reject a dismissal simply because they disagree with the government’s reasoning. LEGAL WAR ON TRUMP’S AGENDA GAINS FIREPOWER AS FEDERAL LAWYERS DEFECT TO DEMOCRATS And because the convictions had already been vacated and prosecutors have broad authority to decide whether to pursue criminal charges, Kelly said he lacked the power to force the Justice Department to continue the prosecution. “Indeed, it is hard to see how any course other than granting the motion in full could make practical sense. Denying the motion would not somehow revive the convictions that the Court of Appeals vacated,” Kelly wrote. “Nor would denying it mean a retrial would follow, because the Court lacks the authority to compel the Executive to pursue a prosecution, full stop — but especially when an executive order explicitly requires that the Government seek dismissal with prejudice.” But Kelly sharply rebuked the actions of the Jan. 6 rioters, calling it an attack on the people, Congress and the “Constitution’s mechanism to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power.” “Moving forward, if this Nation’s experiment in self-government is to last another 250 years, the American people — no matter their partisan preferences — will have to act together to preserve, protect and defend that miracle through our constitutional framework,” Kelly wrote. Tarrio, who was also pardoned for criminal charges stemming from his role in the Jan. 6 riots, celebrated Kelly’s dismissal on X. “We took the worst they threw at us the raids, the solitary, the lies and we stood tall,” Tarrio wrote. “Trump dropped the pardons and now the rest is crumbling. Justice is SERVED! Proud Boys don’t lose. We WIN. This is OUR victory. THANK YOU PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP and all of you that fought for us!”
WATCH: GOP senator warns ‘hammer-and-sickle’ politics will define Democrats’ 2028 primary
FIRST ON FOX: One Senate Republican warned that the “radical leftist” surge in the Democratic Party today will be the roadmap for Democrats in 2028, when candidates will jockey for the White House. “You get this hammer-and-sickle wave we saw in New York — that is not going to be an isolated incident,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. “That is a flashing red light. It is a red flag.” “Their primaries now are going to be dominated by these people who want to go to war with Western civilization,” he continued. “I mean, I’m not making this up, this is what they say they want to do. And so their [2028] presidential primary will be defined by this ideology.” MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALISTS LOOK TO TAKE NEW YORK PLAYBOOK NATIONWIDE AFTER PRIMARY VICTORIES Several insurgent progressive and far-left candidates have toppled more moderate incumbents in primary contests during this midterm election cycle. In New York City, as Schmitt pointed out, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s chosen candidates made a clean sweep in June. Two incumbents, Reps. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., and Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., were felled by progressives with the Mamdani stamp of approval — Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier, respectively. And in the race for the majority in the Senate, one of the most notable far-left candidates is Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who is locked in a messy primary fight with Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. DEMOCRATS’ CIVIL WAR HEADS TO MICHIGAN, WHERE PROGRESSIVES FACE BIGGEST TEST YET IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE SHOWDOWN Schmitt contended that it was Democrats’ position on immigration, in particular, that was defining their policies and candidates moving forward. “I think they’ve just decided that their only chance of being successful electorally is through their immigration policy, and so, they’ve completely dismissed the arguments of Bill Clinton and even Harry Reid,” Schmitt said. “I mean, it sounds crazy to even say that, but they were at least, I guess what you would make a centrist argument on that they’ve totally abandoned.” Specifically, Senate Democrats are bucking an old policy that was once championed by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. In the 1990s, Reid pushed legislation that would have changed birthright citizenship — just like how Schmitt and other Republicans are doing now after the Supreme Court’s decision upholding birthright citizenship earlier this month. DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA LEADER SAYS ‘MANY’ IN GROUP WOULD BE ‘THRILLED’ AT AOC IN 2028 Schmitt said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who was mentored by Reid, was on notice by his own party given the further left the political winds were blowing. His main political adversary could be one of the poster children of the progressive movement: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “You know, Chuck Schumer, if he survives to even be minority leader again, you know, next term, there’s just no way he’s not going to have a primary challenge by AOC or somebody else,” Schmitt said. “I mean, I think he’s probably going to chair the ‘AOC for president campaign’ so … she doesn’t run against him, but there’s going to be somebody else. And the money and the energy on the Democrat side right now are these radical leftist communists.”
Trump’s EPA chief pushes back on climate skeptics being labeled ‘science deniers’
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin argues that climate projections represent a range of possible outcomes — not certainties — and warned against labeling those who disagree with them as “science deniers.” “When someone looks at 2050 or 2100 and they say ‘This is exactly what the sea level is going to be. This is what the temperature is going to be,’ it doesn’t acknowledge correctly that there really is a range from the optimistic to the pessimistic,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head told Fox News Digital. Zeldin’s comments at the Great American State Fair on Thursday come as he was asked what climate predictions made during under President Joe Biden’s administration he believes have been disproven by new evidence. BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK Rather than take a the layup on the former president by citing a specific prediction, he argued that climate projections, especially those decades in the future, should be interpreted as evolving estimates that need to be regularly updated as new data emerges. “Relying on present day facts rather than bad assumptions from the past is incredibly important,” Zeldin insisted. “Every day that goes by we learn what the reality is at that point in the future, and we’re able to compare it to what the predictions are,” he added. Zeldin emphasized the importance of hearing out newer perspectives on climate change, alluding to the idea that using both long-term forecasts and current real-world data can more accurately estimate the present implications and impacts of climate change. BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK He argued that people who disagree with these climate projections, which could possibly reflect outdated research or data, should not automatically be labeled “science deniers.” “I don’t think it’s a good idea that if someone disagrees with someone else’s prediction of exactly what the temperature’s gonna be in the year 2100, that all of a sudden that person is just automatically some science denier,” Zeldin said. “Hear them out,” he advised. “Maybe they have an opinion on some other study that they looked on, or other studies they looked on, because there really is a range of predictions, especially when you look further in the future.” BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK The Trump administration has moved to revisit several climate-related regulations, including efforts to reconsider the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which serves as the legal basis for many federal greenhouse gas regulations, as well as other greenhouse gas emissions rules. Since taking over the EPA, Zeldin has spearheaded re-evaluating the agency’s 2009 Endangerment Finding and is revisiting a number of climate-related regulations adopted under previous Democratic administrations.
Inside the slapdash Platner vetting job that ignored warnings before bid blew up: source
Graham Platner’s Senate campaign repeatedly ignored warnings from its own vetting team that he needed a more robust background check, a source familiar with the early stages of the campaign told Fox News Digital. An in-depth vetting process could have saved Democrats a massive headache in one of the most important Senate races of the 2026 cycle, something that has led many on the left to blame Dan Moraff and Morris Katz — the political staffers behind Platner’s meteoric rise — for not doing their due diligence before putting him forward. The source confirmed to Fox News Digital that the vetting process was largely handled by Moraff and Katz, who limited investigators to a three-day review of Platner. PLATNER’S THREE-DAY VETTING JOB COMES BACK TO HAUNT DEMS AS RAPE ALLEGATION ROCKS SENATE BID The firm that vetted Platner repeatedly reached out to the campaign, warning them that additional vetting was required as the initial review had turned up several concerning pieces of information that could lead to more serious issues — warnings that were ignored by Platner’s staff, according to the source familiar with the early stages of the campaign. During the vetting process, campaign staff didn’t allow the individuals investigating Platner to interview him, the source told Fox News Digital. In addition to the vetting process identifying Platner’s Reddit posts, which the Wall Street Journal previously reported, it also turned up information that cast doubt on Platner’s blue-collar image, the source added. ACTIVISTS BEHIND GRAHAM PLATNER’S RISE ADMIT VETTING PROCESS DIDN’T BRING UP NAZI-LINKED TATTOO “The firm sent us a thing and it had some of the posts, but it didn’t have all of them,” Moraff told the Wall Street Journal in June of the vetting process, referencing Platner’s now-deleted Reddit posts. Many of the scandals that went on to rock the Platner campaign — such as his DUI, his relatively affluent upbringing and Nazi-linked tattoo — were discoverable via public information and later reported by the press. Platner suspended his senatorial campaign on Wednesday after an ex-girlfriend accused him of raping her. His withdrawal followed a string of scandals stemming from controversial posts he made on his deleted Reddit account, a Nazi-linked tattoo he acquired during his time in the armed forces and his alleged mistreatment of women. He filed the paperwork necessary to officially withdraw from the election on Friday. MILLIONS IN DEM AD MONEY VANISHED FROM PLATNER RACE DAYS BEFORE RAPE ALLEGATION DOOMED SENATE BID “That’s odd … no one asks for, like, three days’ worth of research,” an individual familiar with candidate vetting told Fox News Digital. “It’s not unusual to have to rush an initial triage research product,” the source said, explaining that truncated background checks like that are almost always followed by “a comprehensive doc or a more thorough doc.” Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Platner’s campaign defended its decision to commission an abridged vetting process on the grounds that they didn’t have the financial resources to afford a more complete investigation at the outset. The campaign paid just over $6,000 for its vetting, compared to the tens of thousands of dollars usually required for a full background check of a political candidate. Platner, however, very quickly became one of the strongest Democratic fundraisers in the nation, bringing in over $16 million in contributions between July 2025 and June 2026, raising questions as to why his campaign didn’t seek out a complete vetting once it had the resources to do so. Democrats in Maine are holding a nominating convention to replace Platner ahead of the July 13 statutory deadline to remove him from the ballot. Party delegates will vote to choose the Democratic nominee for the November general election. The Platner campaign, Moraff and Katz did not respond to requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Friday.
WATCH: Early Graham Platner critic unloads on ‘unapologetic’ Senate candidate in scathing rebuke
As Democrats scrambled to abandon embattled candidate Graham Platner, after a rape allegation against him torpedoed his insurgent campaign, one progressive lawmaker said it “was a very easy call” to never back him in the first place. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., had no endorsement to rescind, having been among a small handful of Democrats who publicly warned against Platner amid growing controversies, even as much of the party continued embracing him. “I’m relieved. I’m sure Mainers are relieved. He disqualified himself,” Dean told Fox News Digital in an interview after Platner announced his intent to drop out of Maine’s Senate race. He later officially dropped out Friday evening. “Suspending his campaign, he took no accounting for himself,” Dean said, referring to Platner’s 11-minute exit video, in which he fiercely denied the allegations and blamed the Democratic establishment for forcing him from the race. EXPLOSIVE SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATION ROCKS PLATNER CAMPAIGN AHEAD OF KEY DEADLINE IN CRUCIAL SENATE RACE “That’s not the kind of person we want as a senator,” she continued. “I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat.” Dean’s comments echoed a viral CNN interview in early June, when she described the rapidly accumulating controversies surrounding Platner as “distressing” and argued he had already “disqualified himself.” Her warning came a month before a 41-year-old Maine resident, Jenny Racicot, went public with allegations that Platner, while intoxicated, forced her to have non-consensual sex in 2021. Platner has repeatedly denied her accusation, which was first reported by Politico. At the time Dean spoke out publicly, Platner was the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination. Few Democrats had publicly broken with him despite a growing list of scandals, including a Nazi-linked tattoo, offensive Reddit posts, infidelity and allegations of misconduct in prior relationships, including an account of physical abuse from Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Platner between 2013 and 2015. Even Democrats who broke with Platner, including Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., drew fierce backlash from supporters who argued they were jeopardizing the party’s effort to unseat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “I said in my mind he had disqualified himself in at least two ways. One was the choice to have a Nazi emblem tattooed to his body. And the other was, of course, the credible allegations of his abuse of women,” Dean told Fox News Digital. “So, to me, it was a very easy call. I wasn’t trying to weigh in. I was asked by a CNN reporter and I just said he has disqualified himself. Not a tough call.” SANDERS UNDER FIRE FOR PROPPING UP PLATNER AS DEMS TORCH HIS TOXIC ENDORSEMENT ‘PATTERN’ Still, many Democrats continued to defend Platner despite the mounting controversies. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a Platner supporter, said the allegations from ex-girlfriends “seem like a lot of nothing” in an interview with NOTUS, while suggesting that Fifield’s background in Republican politics gave her account a partisan taint. Other loyal Platner supporters, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., argued that voters should focus on policy issues rather than personal scandal, while appearing to dismiss alleged misconduct. “I think it’s important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage,” Sanders told reporters in June in remarks obtained by NBC. Asked whether she thought Democrats waited too long to denounce Platner, Dean largely declined to weigh in. “I don’t have a judgment on that,” she told Fox News Digital. “They had to do it in their own way. I did it in my way.” “Simply…because I was asked,” the Pennsylvania Democrat continued. “I just called it as I saw it. It was not a tough call. The timeline for anybody else, I have no judgment.” Collins, who is seeking a sixth Senate term, is widely viewed as the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbent, making Maine one of Democrats’ best pickup opportunities — a political calculus Dean said did not justify backing Platner. “I didn’t want to fall into the trap of contorting myself in order to support a candidate who had succeeded in a primary,” Dean told Fox News Digital. “Democrats are better than that. We have values that we live by.” “When we get it wrong, we need to simply say that,” she continued. Some Democrats have admitted fault in the days after the Platner campaign’s implosion. “I got the Platner call wrong, obviously,” Khanna, one of Platner’s top allies, told Politico’s Playbook, adding the candidate’s unraveling “doesn’t negate the progressive movement.” Platner is expected to officially file paperwork withdrawing from the race on Monday — the last day he can do so to allow Democrats to replace him on the ballot. Now, Democrats are working furiously to create a selection process to choose Platner’s replacement. Whoever Democrats nominate will face an immediate barrage of GOP spending. Collins’ allies have already pledged $8 million in negative advertising against the new nominee. Fox News Digital reached out to Platner for comment.
Former top cop warns of loophole exploited by illicit Chinese vape companies ‘targeting our youth’
A former top law enforcement official is sounding the alarm on an attempt by illicit Chinese vape companies to exploit legal loopholes by replacing nicotine with an unregulated substitute to continue selling flavored disposable vapes to children. “These Chinese organized crime groups, what they realized is if they go ahead and just change the ingredients in the packaging, then they create confusion and there is no enforcement or regulatory agency that then is responsible to address these illicit, illegal, disposable vapes,” former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Deputy Director Edgar Domenech told Fox News Digital in an interview. The synthetic compound, 6-methyl nicotine, also known as 6MN or “NIX,” is a nicotine analog marketed under brand names including Nixodine and Metatine, with some manufacturers arguing 6-methyl nicotine products fall outside the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority. Domenech, the former sheriff of New York City, said that while nicotine is a well-known addictive substance regulated by the FDA, the nicotine substitute “manufactured illegally in China” is an “unknown variable” that hasn’t been studied enough. FORMER ACTING DHS SECRETARY WARNS CHINESE CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS ARE INFILTRATING AMERICA’S HEMP INDUSTRY “It’s a different type of substance,” he said. “Now, all of a sudden, the FDA doesn’t have oversight, but it’s the same product. It’s a disposable vape product with flavors targeting our kids and our youth with unknown chemicals.” Pointing to law enforcement’s role in combating the illicit trade, Domenech said the companies create “confusion” by changing the product’s ingredients, causing law enforcement and regulatory agencies to “take no action.” “The organized crime groups — they’re five steps in front of us,” he said. “By changing the substance, they are now creating additional new obstacles to figure out.” Domenech said the companies keep the same branding, packaging, and flavors while changing just one ingredient, allowing them to profit from children who may not realize what they’re consuming. CORPORATE AMERICA’S CHINA ADDICTION HAS BECOME A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT “They’re putting these products side by side in these big shops, because the packaging is all the same,” he said. “All they’ve done is changed one of the ingredients in the product.” Domenech said the companies are targeting “our youngest, most vulnerable generation” with flavored disposable vapes containing chemicals whose long-term health effects remain unknown. “They’re targeting our youth with flavors,” he said. “Whether it’s fruity flavors, candy-type flavors, dessert flavors. They’re targeting our kids to go ahead and ingest these products with unknown consequences because we don’t know what’s in them to begin with.” As youth vaping has become more widespread, Domenech said some schools have installed bathroom sensors that detect vaping, adding, “We’ve got 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 14-year-olds vaping these products.” EXPLOSIVE HOUSE REPORT REVEALS SECRET OPERATION INSIDE CHINA AT CENTER OF SOUTH KOREA’S FIGHT WITH US COMPANY He said that the products could lead to “unknown health and mental well-being issues down the line.” “There is nothing healthy about the illegal disposable vapes that are flavored targeting our kids,” he said. A recent Duke University study found 6-methyl nicotine may be stronger than nicotine, raising concerns it could be more addictive. Public patent records list Geoff Habicht, CEO of Arizona-based Mi-Pod, which Fox News Digital previously reported on as part of an investigation examining ties between the vaping industry and China, as an inventor on U.S. patents referencing 6-methyl nicotine and related compounds. Raising awareness among lawmakers, health professionals, parents, and schools is vital to closing regulatory gaps and preventing more children from using the products, according to Domenech. “Education is paramount for us to combat this issue,” he said. “We need to educate our policymakers, we need to educate our health professionals, we need to educate our parents, the educational system to make them understand that these products are illegal, they have unknown substances that can have unknown consequences, health consequences.” Domenech said lawmakers and law enforcement need clearer guidance to identify and seize the products. “We need to have a concerted effort to educate our policymakers at the federal level but also at the state and local levels because we need boots on the ground to understand what they can do legally in seizing these products,” he said. Domenech called the companies a “national security problem,” saying the products “should be seized the moment they enter this country, period.” “We’re losing a generation of our future, our future leaders to this product,” he said.