Mamdani accuses Johnson of trying to ‘distract’ as House speaker calls Jeffries’ endorsement the end of Dems
New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani accused House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday of seeking to “distract” Americans from Republicans’ “lack of results” by lambasting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for endorsing the democratic socialist’s progressive campaign platform. During Johnson’s daily press conference on the 27th day of the government shutdown, the House GOP leader ripped Jeffries for endorsing Mamdani’s mayoral campaign on Friday, calling it the “clearest sign yet that this radical insurgent movement in the Democrat Party is succeeding.” “Speaker Johnson should be sitting members of Congress, as opposed to using his time to try and attack our campaign,” Mamdani fired back from Manhattan on Monday. “But I understand if I was one of the leaders of the Republican Party that had led a campaign that promised Americans a lower cost of living and cheaper groceries, and all I could deliver for them was a government shutdown, then I, too, would be looking to distract in any way that I could from those lack of results.” After withholding his endorsement for months, Jeffries, who represents Brooklyn in the U.S. House of Representatives, on Friday affirmed his support for the Democratic mayoral nominee, applauding Mamdani’s focus on “addressing the affordability crisis” and representing all New Yorkers. CLINTON CAMPAIGN ALUM URGES JEFFRIES, SCHUMER NOT TO ‘TAKE THE BAIT,’ GET ‘BULLIED’ INTO MAMDANI ENDORSEMENT “I endorse the Democratic ticket,” Jeffries said. Johnson told reporters on Monday that Jeffries’ endorsement represents the end of “what has always been known as the Democrat Party in America.” ZOHRAN MAMDANI LANDS LONG-WAITED KEY ENDORSEMENT IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL RACE “After a months-long pressure campaign from the far left, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries finally relented. He gave in, and he gave his endorsement to the socialist running to be mayor of New York City. The House Democrats, they’ve shown the world what they really believe. There is no longer a place for centrists and moderates in their party,” Johnson added. “He is a Marxist,” Johnson claimed, while criticizing his record. “Zohran Mamdani is expected to take the helm of one of the most important cities in the world and the largest city in America, and he now has the full blessing of the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives. It is shocking, and that leader and all the other Democrats are going to co-own the consequences of what they do to America’s largest city.” Johnson urged reporters to question House Democrats about whether they agree with Jeffries’ endorsement of the “Marxist agenda.” “What we’re witnessing is truly the end of the Democratic Party, as we’ve known it,” Johnson warned. And Johnson charged Democrats, once again on Monday, of bending the knee to the “Marxists in their party.” “Just like they decided to save their own skin that they had to endorse the Marxist Mamdani in an unprecedented move, they have also decided they had to shut down the government in an unprecedented move, no matter the pain it inflicts upon hard-working American people,” Johnson added. Democrats have said they would not accept any federal funding bill that does not also include an extension of Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic — but which are set to expire at the end of this year. Republicans’ plan, a short-term extension of FY2025 federal funding called a continuing resolution (CR), passed the House on Sept. 19 but has since stalled in the Senate. The GOP has relentlessly blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for shutting down the government to appease the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, as Mamdani maintains the lead in New York City’s mayoral race and buzz swirls regarding Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s political ambition. Republicans have accused Democrats of holding Americans and the government hostage over partisan demands, while Democrats warned that the GOP would be responsible for hiking healthcare costs for millions of Americans if the enhanced COVID-era subsidies are allowed to expire. While Jeffries finally endorsed Mamdani on Friday, Schumer has yet to endorse the democratic socialist candidate. As Axios reported last month that Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is gearing up to run for Schumer’s Senate seat or for president in 2028, prompting Republicans to accuse Schumer of maintaining a red line on continuing resolution (CR) negotiations in order to appease his party’s progressive wing. Fox News Digital reached out to Jeffries and Johnson for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Top Trump officials urged to close ‘critical gaps’ in illegal alien crime reporting: ‘Growing problem’
FIRST ON FOX: Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana is calling on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to close “critical gaps” in crime reporting that he says obscures a “serious and growing problem with immigrant crime” in America, according to a letter that was obtained by Fox News Digital. Banks suggested that a lack of immigration status reporting by local and state authorities has resulted in the amount of crime committed by illegal aliens being drastically underreported, according to the letter that was sent to Bondi and Patel on Tuesday. As such, he urged the FBI and DOJ to encourage local and state law enforcement to collect arrestees’ immigration status, national origin and ethnicity by reforming the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), in which most agencies participate. Currently, the NIBRS only includes ethnicity as an optional element, and it does not require law enforcement to collect an arrestee’s immigration status or national origin. Banks also pointed out that though the DOJ collects some aggregate statistics about the citizenship of state prison populations, it does not distinguish between noncitizens with legal status and illegal aliens. He said it also generally leaves out offenders in local jails, who make up approximately one-third of the inmate population. AMERICA’S ORIGINAL SANCTUARY STATE REBUKES BONDI’S WARNING, DENIES ‘OBSTRUCTION’ OF ICE Closing these gaps in reporting, Banks said, would be in line with President Donald Trump’s April executive order, “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” which directed the DOJ and appropriate federal agencies to “increase the investment in and collection, distribution, and uniformity of crime data across jurisdictions.” He pointed out that while the Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Sentencing Commission track the national origin of federal offenders, local and state authorities, who respond and track the vast majority of crime happening across the country, largely do not track that information. “The overwhelming majority of crime happens at the state and local level. Most violent crimes, most property crimes, and many drug offenses fall under local jurisdiction,” he went on, adding that “the responsibility for reporting the citizenship status of offenders falls largely on states and localities—but they generally do not track this data,” he wrote. ICE NABS 3-TIME DEPORTED ILLEGAL ALIEN CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING A POLICE OFFICER: ‘GOOD RIDDANCE’ Banks wrote that “even though many individuals entering the country have a violent past, critical gaps in crime data reporting keep the American people from understanding when and how often these individuals and other aliens commit crimes once they are here.” He pointed to a 2018 study by the Center of Immigration Studies that found that between 2011 and 2016, 21% of those convicted of non-immigration crimes were noncitizens, which is 2.5 times their share of the population. Drawing from data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the study found that of those convicted of federal crimes between 2011 and 2016, 44.2% were not U.S. citizens, and 21.4% of immigration crimes were excluded. According to the study, noncitizens at the time were only 8.4% of the adult population, with about 4% being illegal immigrants and about 4% being legal immigrants. The study further found that despite being only 8.4% of the population at the time, immigrants accounted for 42.4% of kidnapping convictions, 31.5% of drug convictions and 22.9% of money laundering convictions. DEMOCRATS’ ICE TRACKER PLAN ENCOURAGES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO EVADE ARREST, TARGET LAW ENFORCEMENT: TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN “The United States has a serious and growing problem with immigrant crime. Of course, every person who enters the United States illegally commits a crime. But those who cross our borders are increasingly likely to threaten the lives and safety of American citizens,” wrote Banks. “Any crime committed by an illegal alien is one crime too many, but the American people and their elected representatives deserve to know how many of these crimes are happening, and to set immigration policy accordingly.”
Trump files ‘powerhouse’ appeal in ‘politically charged’ Manhattan district attorney case
FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump’s legal team filed a “powerhouse” appeal in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against him, demanding the verdict be thrown out and that the “most politically charged prosecution in our Nation’s history,” as they called it, be dismissed altogether. Fox News Digital obtained the 111-page appeal filed in New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division late Monday night. Sullivan & Cromwell’s Robert J. Giuffra Jr. is representing the president in the matter. PROSECUTORS REQUEST STAY IN TRUMP NY CASE UNTIL 2029 AS DEFENSE PLANS MOTION FOR DISMISSAL ‘ONCE AND FOR ALL’ Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree but was found guilty in May after a six-week unprecedented criminal trial in New York in 2025. New York v. Trump is on a halt until 2029. WHERE DOES TRUMP’S NEW YORK SENTENCING STAND AFTER MASSIVE ELECTION WIN? “President Trump’s legal team filed a powerhouse appeal in the Manhattan DA’s Witch Hunt, as the President continues his fight to put an end to the Radical Democrat Lawfare once and for all,” a spokesman for the president’s legal team told Fox News Digital. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately overturned and dismissed,” the Trump spokesman continued. “President Trump will keep defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn as he focused on his singular mission to Make America Great Again.” The 111-page filing details Giuffra’s argument for complete dismissal and reversal. “This is the most politically charged prosecution in our Nation’s history,” the filing states. “After years of fruitless investigation into decade-old, baseless allegations — and under immense political pressure to criminally charge President Donald J. Trump for something—New York’s district attorney (DANY) manufactured felony charges against a once-former and now-sitting President of the United States. The DA, a Democrat, brought those charges in the middle of a contentious Presidential election in which President Trump was the leading Republican candidate.” Trump’s legal team called the charges against Trump “as unprecedented as their political context.” “Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference,” the filing states. “This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction.” Trump’s lawyers are asking the court to “now reverse.” “Federal law expressly preempts DANY’s misdemeanor-turned-felony charges because those charges rest on an alleged violation of federal campaign regulations that States cannot (and have never) enforced,” the filing states. “The trial was fatally marred by the introduction of 2 official Presidential acts that the Supreme Court has made clear cannot be used as evidence against a President.” Trump’s lawyers went on to argue that “the jury was instructed incorrectly, allowing a conviction without the unanimity required by both New York law and basic due process.” “Beyond these fatal flaws, the evidence was clearly insufficient to convict,” the filing states. “In addition to all this overwhelming error, the trial was conducted by a judge who refused to recuse himself despite having made political contributions to President Trump’s electoral opponents and despite having disqualifying family conflicts. For each of these independent reasons, President Trump’s conviction must be set aside.” Trump’s attorneys also noted that the review of the by federal prosecutors in 2021 led to “no actions against President Trump even after he left office in 2021,” which “should have barred any prosecution” in the Manhattan district attorney’s efforts. JIM JORDAN SUBPOENAS COMPANY LED BY DAUGHTER OF NY V. TRUMP JUDGE Trump attorneys also argued that the trial court violated the presidential evidentiary immunity confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which bars the “use of evidence about” a president’s official acts while in office. “The jury improperly heard extensive testimony about at least four different kinds of official acts by President Trump,” the filing states, including discussions between the president and the White House communications director in the Oval Office over the White House’s response to allegations of presidential wrongdoing; official presidential statements on social media; alleged discussions between the president and the attorney general about the enforcement of federal campaign regulations; and the president’s practices in discharging his presidential duties, including from the Situation Room. FLASHBACK: TRUMP SLAMS MERCHAN, DEMOCRATS, WHO ‘JUST WANT TO SEE IF THEY CAN GET A POUND OF FLESH’ AMID FAILED CASES “The U.S. Supreme Court mandated that violations of Presidential evidentiary immunity require automatic reversal of a conviction without any harmless-error analysis,” the filing states. “Even if such analysis were applied, the introduction of the prohibited testimony—which DANY repeatedly relied on and called ‘devastating’ in its summation, A7815—was far from harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Trump attorneys also argued that the trial court “erred in instructing the jury that it could convict President Trump of having conspired to ‘promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means,’ Election Law § 17-152, without unanimously agreeing on what those ‘unlawful means’ actually were.” “Instead, the court permitted the jury to convict if some jurors believed only that President Trump had conspired to violate FECA, while others believed only that he had conspired to help others commit tax fraud, and still others believed only that he had conspired to help others make false statements to a 5 bank. Due process and Section 17-152 do not permit a conviction based on such a haphazard ‘combination of jury findings,’” the filing states. FLASHBACK: JUDGE MERCHAN SUED FOR FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES AMID CONCERNS OF DAUGHTER’S DEMOCRAT WORK Trump lawyers also said the district attorney “had no proof that President Trump ever had the ‘intent to defraud’ expressly required by the business-records statute.” “There was zero evidence that President Trump intended to deprive anyone of money or property, and in fact no such deprivation occurred,” the filing
Federal judge threatens Bondi, Noem with sanctions over Abrego Garcia comments
A federal judge in Tennessee is threatening Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and other Department of Justice and DHS employees with sanctions if they make any prejudicial statements about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s criminal case. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who is overseeing the case, wrote in a filing Monday that, “DOJ and DHS employees who fail to comply with the requirement to refrain from making any statement that ‘will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing’ this criminal prosecution may be subject to sanctions.” Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national deported earlier this year before being returned to the U.S., is facing federal charges of human smuggling and conspiracy. Bondi has described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips transporting women, children and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the U.S. “The high-profile nature of his immigration case resulted in government officials and those supportive of Abrego regularly commenting to the media. Now that he has been indicted in this District, Abrego asks the Court to freeze extra-judicial comments to ensure his Constitutional right to an impartial jury,” Crenshaw wrote in a memorandum opinion. TOP TRUMP OFFICIALS SUBPOENAED IN ABREGO GARCIA HEARING FOR ‘VINDICTIVE’ PROSECUTION In that filing, the judge wrote, “Media attention about Abrego started in March 2025 when the United States sent him to El Salvador, months before his indictment in the Middle District of Tennessee.” “Government employees have made extrajudicial statements that are troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate. These statements made allegations regarding Abrego’s ‘character or reputation’ and expressed government officials’ views on Abrego’s ‘guilt or innocence,’” the judge said. DOJ SIGNALS IT WOULD RATHER DEPORT ABREGO GARCIA THAN PROSECUTE HIM The judge continued, “For example, the DHS Secretary stated that Abrego is a ‘MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator’… Similarly, on June 6, 2025, the Attorney General stated that Abrego played ‘a significant role in an alien smuggling ring … [that] this was his full-time job, not a contractor … [that] [h]e was a smuggler of humans and children and women … [and that] [h]e made over 100 trips.’” Crenshaw also declared the Trump Cabinet members were in violation of a local court rule limiting remarks from government officials relating to an active criminal case, although he stopped short of issuing a gag order, according to Politico. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Justice Department and Homeland Security for comment. Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
House Republican demands Zohran Mamdani be stripped of citizenship, deported over ‘anti-Israel’ stance
FIRST ON FOX: A House GOP lawmaker is calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to denaturalize and deport New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is sending a new request to the DOJ to probe Mamdani, a self-declared Democratic socialist and New York State assemblyman, who is the frontrunner in the race to lead the Big Apple. Since his initial inquiry in June, Ogles wrote that “additional public reporting has raised further questions about Mr. Mamdani’s past statements and associations, including his refusal to disavow violent anti-American rhetoric and continued public praise for individuals convicted of providing material support to Hamas.” Mamdani, who holds dual citizenship with the U.S. and Uganda, was naturalized as an American in 2018. ZOHRAN MAMDANI LANDS LONG-WAITED KEY ENDORSEMENT IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL RACE It is illegal to deport American citizens. A denaturalization process can occur if it can be proven via federal court that someone’s citizenship was fraudulently obtained. “No individual, regardless of public office or public profile, should be shielded from accountability if credible evidence indicates deception or concealment during the citizenship process,” Ogles wrote. “I again urge the Department to open a formal investigation into whether Mr. Mamdani’s public expressions of support for the Holy Land Foundation’s convicted leadership, and his ongoing rhetoric sympathetic to anti-Israel and anti-U.S. movements, were disclosed as required during his naturalization.” The Holy Land Foundation was accused in a U.S. court of having ties to Hamas. EARLY VOTING UNDERWAY IN NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY AMID HOTLY CONTESTED MAYOR AND GOVERNOR RACES The New York Post reported that Mamdani praised the group’s founders in a 2017 rap song he released under the name “Mr. Cardamom.” The mayoral hopeful has also been accused multiple times on the campaign trail of being overly sympathetic to Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that was behind the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. He is also a fervent critic of Israel and its war in Gaza, pledging to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in New York City. But Mamdani has painted a more moderate picture of himself as he pledges to be a mayor for all New Yorkers, regardless of whether they supported him or not. He has never explicitly expressed support for Hamas but has avoided directly weighing in on the group on multiple occasions until a recent debate against his fellow mayoral candidates, where he said, “Of course, I believe that they should lay down their arms.” Ogles’ letter said, “The United States must uphold the integrity of its citizenship process and ensure that those who seek to represent the public meet the highest standards of loyalty to this Nation.” Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for a response but did not hear back.
Whistleblower warns illegal immigrants are sending ‘shockwave’ through crucial industry
FIRST ON FOX: Following several high-profile, deadly auto accidents involving illegal alien truck drivers, a commercial trucking industry leader is blowing the whistle on the devastating “shockwave” illegal drivers carrying sanctuary state licenses have had on the industry. Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, which is based in Illinois, told Fox News Digital that in addition to endangering American roads, illegal alien commercial drivers have been “killing the trucking business.” He said that though the problem has only recently been brought to the forefront of the public consciousness in recent months, drivers and trucking businesses have been feeling the impacts for years. “We knew there was an issue right after COVID because the rates dropped down, and we just thought, ‘OK, look, it’s just inflation… the wars, et cetera, all these aspects causing the volumes to be down. We’re thinking, ‘OK, in the long run, these volumes will go back up to what they were pre-COVID conditions or just go back to regular volumes, and we’ll be back in business.’ But what happened? The complete opposite happened,” he said. “They went down and stayed down, and we never knew, as truckers, what was the problem.” WHITE HOUSE SAYS CALIFORNIA GRANTED LICENSE TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER CHARGED IN FATAL DUI CRASH Now, with recent revelations from the Trump Department of Transportation and Secretary Sean Duffy about rampant illegal alien truckers on American roads, Kucharski said the truth is finally out. Duffy issued a bombshell report on Thursday accusing California of violating federal law by issuing a commercial driver’s license to a foreign asylum seeker whose semi-truck crash killed three people last week. The report alleges that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration ignored a federal order to halt noncompliant licenses and revoke improperly issued credentials, a failure that, according to Duffy, cost “three innocent souls.” Federal regulators uncovered flaws in how California licenses were obtained by certain commercial truck drivers. The 2025 Annual Program Review and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) concluded that the state’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) system suffered from “systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors” when it came to handling non-domiciled licenses. In an audit letter dated Sept. 26, 2025, investigators also discovered that California had issued CDLs to non-domiciled drivers that were valid even after their federal work authorization expired. BLUE STATE INVESTIGATES HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER GOT LICENSE BEFORE DEADLY FLORIDA CRASH Kucharski explained further that, though a heavily regulated industry, illegal alien truck drivers can exploit a “loophole” in the system by obtaining non-domiciled commercial drivers’ licenses from states such as California and New York. They are then able to outcompete legitimate trucking businesses by charging lower prices, leading to the demise of many American small businesses in the industry. “As a business owner, I was thinking, ‘Well, who is taking all these loads?’ Now I could figure it out that this is another shockwave that’s hitting the truck industry after COVID and violent volatility, these [non-domiciled] drivers are coming in and doing it for cheaper because they don’t care, and… they don’t have Social Security numbers, and I assume they’re probably not filing for taxes. So, if you’re not going to pay all your bills, of course, you can do it cheaper and keep on trucking.” “All our truckers are fighting for the same load, and it goes to the lowest bidder,” he went on. “If you have these drivers coming in that are non-domiciled, they have no family here, they have no home, they live in their truck… They’re saying, ‘OK, look, all the market’s doing for $2,000, we’ll do it for $1,700.’ So, it’s putting small trucking businesses out of business every day.” “We’re overregulated, honestly, in the trucking industry. And if you’re overregulated, you think, ‘Well, there’s no way that this could happen,’ and it is happening, right now as we speak,” he said. “It’s eye-opening, disturbing and jaw-dropping.” Kucharski called on Duffy as well as other industry leaders to take action. Along with the report last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency interim final rule that tightened standards for non-domiciled CDLs nationwide. In the rule, stipulations changed and limited eligibility to applicants holding certain employment-based visas. It requires every state to verify their legal status through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. Under the new rule, any non-domiciled commercial learner’s permit or CDL must expire no later than the end date on the driver’s federal immigration record or after one year, whichever comes first. It also maintains that states must keep proof of their lawful presence on file for at least two years. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCK DRIVER IN FATAL CALIFORNIA CRASH SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAD LICENSE: DOT REPORT In response to Kucharski’s criticisms, a spokesperson for Newsom told Fox News Digital that “California continues to follow federal rules regarding CDLs.” “Lost in the immigrant-bashing is the fact that drivers holding a California-issued CDL are involved in fatal crashes at a rate far lower than the national average. If the focus were on safety, California should be a poster child, not a scapegoat,” the spokesperson said. “Consistent with federal law, California issued commercial driver’s licenses only to drivers if the federal government confirmed their legal presence,” the spokesperson went on, adding, “The Trump administration didn’t like these federal rules and just recently changed them to restrict refugees, DACA holders, and others from being able to apply for a CDL.” “This is a very serious crisis issue,” Kucharski said. “The trucking industry depends on trust. That means ensuring every driver on the road is properly licensed, well-trained, and mentally and physically fit to operate heavy equipment.” “All I can say is strategies like this remind us that reform isn’t just about policies, [it’s] about human lives. And it’s on all of us, from the regulators to the fleet owners, to the driver trainers, to ensure the system works the way it should.” Fox News Digital also reached out to the office of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
Federal judge slaps down lawsuit by expelled Tennessee Democrat
A federal judge in Tennessee dismissed a lawsuit that a Democratic state representative filed against several of his Republican colleagues regarding his expulsion and eventual reinstatement as a lawmaker in 2023. U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson for the Middle District of Tennessee wrote a 52-page opinion slapping down Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones’ lawsuit for a lack of legal standing. Jones had claimed in the suit that his four-day expulsion caused him financial and professional harm, that he was denied due process and that his punishment was more severe than his White colleague because he is a Black man. “Plaintiff has not plausibly suggested any ‘continuing, present adverse effects’ as to his committee removals, GOC-seat denial, or the application to him of the 2023 Special Session Rules or the 2024 New Rules,” the judge wrote. “Rather, Plaintiff has engaged in the kind of ‘speculation’ that is ‘insufficient to establish the existence of a present, controversy,’ necessary to permit this Court to exercise Article III standing.” DEMOCRATIC STATE REPRESENTATIVE CALLS PRAYERS AFTER MASS SHOOTINGS ‘THEOLOGICAL MALPRACTICE’ Jones was elected to the Tennessee State House in 2023 and was part of the “Tennessee Three” who staged a protest on the House floor for gun reform following the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooting killed three children and three adults. DEMOCRAT JUSTIN JONES, ON OF ‘TENNESSEE THREE’ LAWMAKERS, SAYS HE WAS BOOTED FROM COMMITTEE Jones, along with Democratic state representatives Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson, led chants inside the chamber and disrupted House proceedings. Jones and Pearson were expelled from the House because of their disruption, while Johnson, who is White, was not. Both Jones and Pearson later won back their House seats. Republicans in the state House have defended their decision to expel Jones and Pearson at the time, describing their actions as selfish political stunts. Fox News Digital’s David Spector contributed to this report.
Scoop: Combat veteran launches congressional run in bid to flip longtime Democrat-held seat red
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and Iraq War veteran Jennifer-Ruth Green says she’s “ready to finish the mission” as she launches a second Republican congressional bid in northwest Indiana for a seat long held by Democrats. “The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Green said in a campaign launch video shared first with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, as she jumped into the U.S. House race in Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, which is represented by three-term Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan. Green, who came within five points of defeating Mrvan in the 2022 midterm elections, says her rematch in Indiana could be crucial in deciding if the GOP keeps control of its fragile House majority next year. “When we fire Frank Mrvan and take back northwest Indiana for the first time since 1928, Republicans will keep the House and stop radical Democrats from impeaching President Trump,” Green emphasized in her video. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM INDIANA And in an interview with Fox News Digital, she added, “I firmly believe that the control of the House might just come down to Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, and I want to be on the team to make sure we can have a credible agenda to support President Trump.” Green launched her campaign the day after Republican Gov. Mike Braun called state lawmakers back for a special legislative session to redraw the GOP-dominated state’s congressional districts. It’s part of a broad Republican effort orchestrated by President Donald Trump and his political team to pad the GOP House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats. Democrats need a pickup of just three seats to win back control of the House. FIVE KEY RACES TO WATCH IN THE 2025 ELECTIONS Trump is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections. Democrats, fighting back, aim to blunt the GOP effort by pushing redistricting in blue-leaning states. Republicans currently control seven of Indiana’s nine congressional districts, and any new map passed by the state’s GOP super majority in the legislature would likely shift the 1st Congressional District from blue-leaning to a red-leaning seat. “We believe Indiana’s First District… will become much more Republican,” a memo from the Green campaign states. And Green, in her Fox News Digital interview, argued, “I am in support of redistricting. I really believe that it’s time for us to fight fire with fire, and we’ve seen how Democrats around the country have taken this opportunity … in their states to gerrymander.” Green, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, joined the Air Force. A 2005 Air Force Academy graduate, she began her military career in aviation before transitioning to serve as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and deploying to Baghdad during the Iraq War. She’s currently a lieutenant colonel in the Indiana Air National Guard and “as Indiana’s first secretary of public safety, I supported our first responders and helped the Trump administration remove dangerous illegal immigrants from our streets.” She also founded a faith-based nonprofit to “help at-risk youth through aerospace training.” Green, who outraised Mrvan in her 2022 campaign, is the only major Republican candidate to jump into the 2026 race. Pointing to her fundraising prowess, her campaign memo touts that Green “is the only candidate Republicans can put forward in this race to raise the money needed to win a hard-fought battle for this seat.” “When we fire Frank Mrvan and take back northwest Indiana for the first time since 1928, Republicans will keep the House,” Green said in her campaign video. And she pledged, if elected to Congress, to “stand shoulder to shoulder with our president to rebuild American manufacturing for middle class jobs, fight for bigger paychecks and lower prices, support our farmers and rural communities, secure the border and deport violent, illegal immigrants, back the blue, and defend the right to life and the Second Amendment.” Green, in her Fox News Digital interview, praised Trump, saying, “I believe that he’s doing a great job. He is taking care of our country, leading it in the right direction.” Asked if she would like the president’s help on the campaign trail, she said, “I look forward to bringing him out to northwest Indiana if he would come.”
The Decision: Jeffries toes the line, takes the plunge in long-awaited NYC mayoral endorsement
Even up until the last hour, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., played it coy about endorsing Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race. “Early voting, as you know, starts tomorrow,” observed a reporter to Jeffries at 11:06 a.m. on Friday. “Are you ready to endorse Mamdani?” “Stay tuned,” replied Jeffries. “What more do you need to hear at this point?” asked another scribe. ‘STAY TUNED’: JEFFRIES REPEATEDLY DODGES MAMDANI ENDORSEMENT AS SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINE LOOMS “Same answer,” said Jeffries. “I have not refused to endorse. I have refused to articulate my position and I will momentarily, at some point in advance of early voting.” Well, early voting began Saturday in New York. And true to his word, Jeffries articulated his position via a statement early Friday afternoon, throwing his political clout behind Mamdani. “Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a Mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” said Jeffries. “The communities I represent in Brooklyn are being devastated by this extreme version of the Republican Party. In this environment, we have a clear obligation to push back against the national nightmare being visited on the American people by Republican extremism.” Jeffries closed his endorsement with this key line: “I endorse the Democratic ticket.” In some respects, that was the least newsworthy line in Jeffries statement. It might be preposterous to think that the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, from New York City, would not endorse the Democratic candidate for mayor of his hometown. It would have been a bigger story had Jeffries not endorsed Mamdani. We don’t definitively know what Jeffries may have mulled for so long. But we do understand the fissure inside the Democratic Party between centrist Democrats and the far left. This is why Republicans shout from the Empire State Building that Mamdani is a “socialist” or even a “communist.” Republicans not-so-secretly love the fact Mamdani is the Democratic nominee. And they embrace the fact that Mamdani makes some Democrats squirm as the party tries to reach moderate voters – and simultaneously grapples with the leftist views of the nominee. ZOHRAN MAMDANI LANDS LONG-WAITED KEY ENDORSEMENT IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL RACE “What we’re witnessing is truly the end of the Democratic Party as we’ve known it,” opined House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “Hakeem Jeffries finally relented. He gave in and he gave his endorsement to the socialist running to be mayor of New York City. The House Democrats, they’ve shown the world what they really believe. There is no longer a place for [centrists] and moderates in their party.” Republicans also claim that the reason Democrats “shut down the government” is because Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., heard footsteps from the left and feared a primary challenge. In Schumer’s case: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “They decided to save their own skin that they had to endorse the Marxist Mamdani,” speculated Johnson. “In an unprecedented move, they have also decided they had to shut down the government in an unprecedented move.” When pressed on MSNBC over the weekend why it took him so long to endorse Mamdani, Jeffries replied that he wasn’t “someone that I knew prior to him receiving the Democratic nomination.” Jeffries added that he wanted “to sit down and have some conversations” with Mamdani. But the endorsement question has been a tortured avenue for Jeffries ever since Mamdani captured the Democratic nomination for mayor on June 25. On the day Mamdani won the primary, Jeffries offered his “congratulations to Zohran Mamdani on a decisive primary victory.” But Jeffries did not endorse. SOCIALIST CANDIDATE MAMDANI MEETS WITH NY DEMS AS THEY WITHHOLD ENDORSEMENTS “We spoke this morning and plan to meet in central Brooklyn shortly,” said Jeffries. Four days later, ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Jeffries if he had endorsed Mamdani yet. The answer was no. “He out-worked, he out-communicated, and he out-organized the opposition. And that’s clearly why he was successful,” said Jeffries. “So, what’s holding you back from endorsing him right now?” asked Karl. “Well, we don’t really know each other well. Our districts don’t overlap. I have never had a substantive conversation with him,” answered Jeffries. And that’s how it went, all summer long – and into the fall. Reporters frequently peppered Jeffries with questions about a potential endorsement or what the holdup was. And Jeffries was always circumspect. In fact, resistance to endorse fueled speculation that Jeffries harbored reservations about Mamdani. That’s nothing to say of possible headaches Mamdani could create for the party as it tries to court swing voters. EARLY VOTING UNDERWAY IN NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY AMID HOTLY CONTESTED MAYOR AND GOVERNOR RACES “What does he need to do to secure your endorsement?” asked CNN’s Dana Bash on August 24. “(Rep.) Yvette Clarke, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and myself are scheduled to sit down with him in the next few days. I look forward to that conversation,” said Jeffries. “What do you want to hear from him? What’s missing? I mean, it’s pretty unusual for a high-ranking Democrat like yourself to withhold the endorsement of your party’s nominee for candidate for New York City mayor,” countered Bash. “I don’t think we have withheld an endorsement. We are engaging in a conversation about the future of New York City,” said Jeffries. Bash questioned if Jeffries wasn’t endorsing Mamdani because “he hasn’t denounced using the term or supporting the term ‘globalize the intifada?’” “I have raised several of the issues with him privately, as well as publicly spoken about some of the concerns that I have had,” said Jeffries. So, there were in fact “concerns.” “What do you say to your young constituents, energized young constituents that help put Mamdani in the position that he’s in and now they’re calling for you to represent their wishes and endorse him?” asked a reporter of Jeffries at the Capitol on October 6. CLINTON CAMPAIGN ALUM URGES JEFFRIES, SCHUMER NOT TO ‘TAKE THE
Man who went viral for heckling Winsome Sears with racist comment dealt another blow after getting fired
The man who went viral for lobbing racially charged insults at Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears during a college football game earlier this month, subsequently filed a police report claiming he was getting harassed after the incident went viral. The Fairfax County Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital that it was aware of the police report that was filed and that, ultimately, the department’s threat assessment unit found that the information provided did not meet the criteria for a criminal investigation. “Go back to Haiti!,” the man from the viral video yelled at Sears, a Republican, during a James Madison University football game earlier this month. “Traitor!” After the incident, Sears clarified on social media that she is an immigrant from Jamaica, not Haiti. WINSOME SEARS RESPONDS TO JMU FAN TELLING HER TO ‘GO BACK TO HAITI’ AFTER WEEKEND OF LEFTIST INVECTIVE “I thought Democrats were supposed to love everyone,” Sears quipped at the time. The man, identified by local news reports as Scott Pogorelc, from Centerville, Virginia, was also reportedly fired by his employer, a subsidiary of government contractor Lockheed Martin. A JMU football player by the same last name is a redshirt senior on the Dukes’ offensive line. “We hold all of our employees and subsidiaries to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct. Any behavior that violates our Code of Ethics will be thoroughly investigated and employees found in violation will be held accountable. Zeta Associates investigated the matter, and the individual is no longer employed,” said a statement from a Lockheed Martin spokesperson, according to Fox 5 DC reporter Allison Papson. Meanwhile, Pogorelc is also a Democratic Party donor, according to Federal Election Commission filings and the Virginia Public Access Project. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor running against Sears, was among those he has donated to. TOP GOP GROUP DROPS BIG MONEY INTO VIRGINIA SHOWDOWN AFTER DEM AG NOMINEE’S VIOLENT TEXTS GO VIRAL The situation involving Pogorelc was not the first time Sears has faced racially insensitive remarks in recent months amid her campaign. In August, while speaking out against transgender bathroom policies outside an Arlington County school board meeting, a counter-protester held up a sign that read: “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then Blacks can’t share my water fountain.” Following that incident, current GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is facing the end of his term limit, blasted what he described as the “hypocrisy of the liberal left.” “Winsome is so much bigger than this idiocy,” Youngkin wrote on X. “This is wrong. [Winsome Earle-Sears] — and Virginia — deserve better,” added Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares in response to the sign. Miyares is running for reelection against Democratic Party candidate Jay Jones.