Dem governor spent state of emergency on European wedding getaway as gubernatorial election looms
Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy faced backlash and mockery for taking a trip to Europe as a powerful nor’easter barreled toward the Garden State, sparking an emergency declaration, and as the gubernatorial election looms. Murphy traveled overseas to Europe Oct. 9 for a wedding and returned to his duties Tuesday, according to his office, with Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way serving as acting governor in his absence. Way declared a state of emergency Saturday as a nor’easter was set to batter the coastal state, and as the gubernatorial campaign cycle hits a fever pitch before Nov. 4. “Starting on Sunday, a dangerous coastal storm will begin to move past our state with extreme weather conditions for several counties, especially those on the Shore,” the acting governor said in an emailed statement to the media Saturday. “In preparation for this storm, I am issuing a State of Emergency for all 21 counties out of an abundance of caution, authorizing our state’s emergency services personnel to activate as necessary. The New York Post reported over the weekend that the former Goldman Sachs executive was MIA as the state braced for the storm, reporting his office said the first couple of the Garden State were in Europe for a wedding. CRIME AND IMMIGRATION DIVIDE NEW JERSEY VOTERS AFTER EXPLOSIVE CIATTARELLI-SHERRILL DEBATE “Governor Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy are out of state this weekend to attend a close family friend’s wedding in Europe. The Governor has been in close communication with his team and emergency response officials regarding the nor’easter storm impacting the East Coast,” a Murphy spokesman told the outlet Sunday. Murphy’s official X account continued posting messages as usual, including celebrating Indigenous People’s Day — which Democrats and liberals often celebrate instead of Columbus Day — igniting condemnation in the reply section as social media users demanded answers as to why he was not home during a state of emergency. “You type this from Italy?” one user responded. FINAL FACEOFF: DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN NOMINEES IN KEY RACE FOR GOVERNOR BLAST EACH OTHER ON DEBATE STAGE “Are you honoring them while in NJ? You seem to disappear a lot,” one commenter said. “Columbus Day! And are you doing this tweet from Europe?” another person wrote. Murphy cannot run for re-election as he is term-limited. The 2025 gubernatorial election pits Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill against Trump-backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli in an election that is heating up as the candidates rally last-minute voter registration by the Tuesday evening deadline. New Jersey voted to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris as president nearly a year ago in the presidential election. Trump, however, made inroads with Garden State voters, flipping five counties red, improving his 16-point loss in the state during the 2020 election to a six-point loss in 2024, which has teed up a nail-biter gubernatorial election a year later. TRUMP NOT ON BALLOT, BUT PRESIDENT FRONT AND CENTER IN 2025 ELECTIONS During another overseas trip in 2023, Murphy’s lieutenant governor died in office while serving as acting governor in his absence. Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver suddenly died at the age of 71 on Aug. 1, 2023, when Murphy was vacationing in Italy and forced to make an early trip home. He also came under fire in 2021 when he made an eight-day trip to Costa Rica for Christmas when coronavirus cases flared in the Garden State. The governor also was abroad just in April when he took part in a state-funded trip to the Middle East as wildfires raged at home. Murphy’s office reported the governor was back at work as of Tuesday, with his schedule detailing he would attend a local media event at 8 p.m. called “Ask Governor Murphy.” Murphy’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment Tuesday.
Trump admin cracks down on foreigners who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s killing: ‘Dangerous practice’
The White House lauded the State Department for imposing consequences on foreign nationals who posted controversial statements following the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September. The White House said the State Department’s decision to revoke visas for these foreign nationals is safeguarding Americans. “President Trump has long called attention to the spread of left-wing political violence, which is driven by Democrats’ vile rhetoric characterizing Republicans as Nazis, fascists, and more,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement Wednesday to Fox News Digital. “The Trump administration is ensuring that so-called ‘guests’ in our country are not echoing this dangerous practice of celebrating and encouraging left-wing political attacks, which poses a national security threat to law-abiding Americans.” On Tuesday, the State Department announced that it had yanked the visas of six, unidentified people for their comments in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination. CHARLIE KIRK PAINTED AS ‘CONTROVERSIAL,’ ‘PROVOCATIVE’ IN MEDIA’S ASSASSINATION COVERAGE “The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans,” the State Department wrote on X Tuesday. “The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.” In particular, the State Department said that those whose visas were pulled included a German national who said that “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain,” and a Paraguayan national who said “Charlie Kirk was a son of a b**** and he died by his own rules.” Additionally, the State Department said it revoked the visa of a Mexican national who said Kirk “died being a racist” and that “there are people who deserve to die. There are people who would make the world better off dead.” The State Department also said it revoked visas from foreign nationals from Argentina, South Africa and Brazil. The agency signaled there would be consequences for visa-holders who mocked Kirk’s death on social media, and said in September that it would take “appropriate action” in response to such posts. Critics of the State Department’s move have pointed out that Kirk himself was an advocate for free speech. “US revokes visas for 6 foreigners for derisive posthumous comments about Charlie Kirk–who was, ironically, a self-styled champion of free speech!” David Axelrod, who served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama, said in a Tuesday post on X. TRUMP DEFENDS LABELING ANTIFA A ‘TERRORIST ORGANIZATION’ AS HE TARGETS LEFT-WING EXTREMISM Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has blasted “far-left radicals” for embodying the “devil’s ideology” amid political violence in the U.S. “We’ve watched legions of far-left radicals resort to desperate acts of violence and terror because they know that their ideas and arguments are persuading no one,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House. “They know that they’re failing. They have the devil’s ideology and they’re failing.” In particular, Trump pointed to recent violence at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, and inflammatory text messages recently unearthed from Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones describing a hypothetical scenario where he would shoot a Republican lawmaker in the head. YEARS OF CAMPUS ATTACKS ON CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS RESURFACE AFTER CHARLIE KIRK’S MURDER Trump’s comments came as he posthumously awarded Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) co-founder, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest award issued to civilians in the U.S. Kirk, 31, was assassinated during his “American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University in September — just over a year after two assassination attempts against Trump. Tyler Robinson, the shooting suspect involved in Kirk’s assassination, was charged in September with aggravated murder, along with other charges.
Republicans eye fresh funding fight as shutdown standoff drags on
With the stalemate over federal funding showing no clear signs of easing, some House and Senate Republicans are beginning to reckon with the possibility of running out of time before the next government shutdown deadline. Senate Democrats have now rejected the GOP’s bill, a short-term measure to keep the government funded through Nov. 21, called a continuing resolution (CR), eight times — and are expected to sink it again Wednesday afternoon. CRs are traditionally used to give congressional negotiators more time to strike a longer-term deal on government spending. Yet the bill Republicans hoped would originally give them seven more weeks past the end of fiscal year (FY) 2025 on Sept. 30 has dwindled down to just over five, assuming Democrats change their tune this week. Both House and Senate Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital have acknowledged that it’s at least possible the Nov. 21 date will need to be modified. JOHNSON RAISES STAKES ON SCHUMER AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BARRELS INTO WEEK 3 “That’s an important question that we’re all discussing,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., who has served in Congress since 2009, told Fox News Digital. “It may well be that we’ll need to extend that deadline further in order to make up for the time we’ve lost during the shutdown.” However, McClintock said he was more in favor of a new CR after the current measure expires, rather than starting from scratch on a new bill. The Nov. 21 CR passed in the House — largely along party lines — on Sept. 19, and most House Republicans have been united in now putting the onus on the Senate. “I think we need to pass the CR that’s in the Senate and then assess if we need additional time,” he said. Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., a senior member of the committee tasked with spearheading federal funding talks, also acknowledged that more time could be needed. He blamed Senate Democrats for stalling the GOP bill and noted the House had already passed 12 individual appropriations bills out of his committee. SCREAMING MATCH ERUPTS BETWEEN HAKEEM JEFFRIES, MIKE LAWLER AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CHAOS CONTINUES “We felt like we were in a really good spot and were coming to a lot of agreement,” he said of the House Appropriations Committee’s work. “And I feel like this set us back quite dramatically.” Meanwhile, another House Republican familiar with the appropriations process told Fox News Digital they’d heard of preliminary discussions about combining three bills that have passed both the House and Senate floor — dealing with military construction and veterans’ affairs, the legislative branch and agriculture — as a combined “minibus” alongside an additional 10-day CR. The House and Senate have already voted to set up a “conference committee” on those three bills, a formal working group of sorts aimed at giving lawmakers room to make a compromise. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., acknowledged discussions about the date during a media call with the Republican Study Committee last week. “I mean, the longer [Democrats] delay this, the closer we get to that seven-week added deadline to Nov. 21, and it makes it very difficult to complete the process… with regard to the regular order on appropriations,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “So there is some discussion,” he said. “There’s a lot of angst about that. We haven’t made final determinations yet, because it’s first things first, and we’re taking it day by day. But I’ll tell you, of course, obviously the leadership has to keep a close eye on these things.” He distanced himself from the idea of a new CR during a Wednesday press conference, however, telling reporters, “It would do us no good to pass yet another CR out of the House, because it will meet the same fate. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats want to close the government down.” A new CR could be a potentially bruising political fight for the House and Senate, considering Republicans’ historic aversion to short-term federal funding extensions. And while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans remain largely adamant that the House’s bill is the one they want to use, Thune didn’t shut down the idea of changing the date. “We keep losing time on the clock, which could be used to do the normal appropriations process,” he said. “So, you know, I mean, I think that that’s a point of discussion and certainly something I’ve expressed an opening about.” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who has been one of a handful of Senate Republicans meeting with Senate Democrats throughout the shutdown, told Fox News Digital that the longer the shutdown goes on, “It becomes less realistic that we can have a funding bill.” “We’ll have to open the government back up, and then I can see a real possibility of us having to extend that date,” he said. Others in the Senate GOP appeared more rigid in their thinking, however, and wanted to stick with the original plan. “I don’t think a new deadline is going to help,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital. “This is up to the Democrats. We’ve asked for no conditions, it’s a clean CR. Their demands are not serious. Until they back off their unserious demands, we’re going to stay shut down.” And Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., argued that Republicans should just keep going with the same bill and warned that changes could further delay reopening the government. “Whatever we do, we still gotta go back, renegotiate with the House,” he said. “If you start changing dates, we gotta have a new document, start all over again, it gets delayed again.” Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., another House Appropriations Committee member, similarly pushed for the Nov. 21 deadline to remain in place. “I really think we should stick with [Nov. 21]. I would remind folks that we actually, on the House side, have passed all 12 appropriations bills,” Bice said. “I don’t think that extending the date right now is the best.” “The focus
White House reveals illegal migrants who received Medicaid as shutdown over healthcare drags on
EXCLUSIVE: The White House unveiled a number of criminal illegal migrants who received Medicaid as the Senate remains in gridlock over the government shutdown. Fox News Digital obtained detailed information surrounding the arrests of 49 illegal migrants, who have all been deported under the Trump administration, who were arrested for an array of crimes that occurred in the U.S. Charges include murder, assault, theft, burglary, rape and sexual abuse of a minor among other serious charges. In Congress, the federal government has remained shut down for more than two weeks as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and most Democrats push for a reinstatement of Medicaid policy that was altered under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to be included in legislation that would fund the government through Nov. 21. SENATE SET FOR NEW VOTE TO END SHUTDOWN, BUT GRIDLOCK OVER OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES REMAINS Republicans argue that “more than 1 million illegal aliens” receive Medicaid under the previously existing program that was revised under Trump’s landmark bill. “Democrats shut down the government and are inflicting pain on hardworking Americans because they want to provide free healthcare to illegal aliens,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “Due to previously lax federal controls and Democrat state policies, criminal illegal murderers and rapists received Medicaid at the American taxpayers’ expense.” While federal law prohibits undocumented individuals from obtaining Medicaid, some states use federal funds to provide unique versions of state-funded healthcare that permit illegal immigrants to receive health benefits. MEXICAN GANGS OFFERING UP TO $50K BOUNTIES FOR ICE AGENT ASSASSINATIONS IN US, DHS SAYS Under the Biden administration, states were not allowed to place limits on the length of time someone could attest to having eligible immigration status for Medicaid. “President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cut Act is ensuring taxpayer dollars are focused on American citizens and do not subsidize healthcare for illegal aliens – but Democrats are desperate to undo these important reforms, and they’re willing to make the American people suffer for it,” Jackson added. A majority of the illegal migrants the White House shared with Fox News Digital come from Mexico, El Salvador and even include some that illegally emigrated from China. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT GETS 30 YEARS FOR RAPING 11-YEAR-OLD VIRGINIA GIRL MULTIPLE TIMES A White House official explained that illegal migrants could obtain Medicaid through different means, but, specifically, emergency care spending on those not legally in the U.S. rose from $3 billion to $9 billion under President Joe Biden across various states. Tax dollars spent on illegal migrants exceeded that of pregnant women, children, elderly and the disabled during the Biden administration. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act removed these provisions, which Senate Democrats are fighting to include, among other Medicaid items, in the ever-failing continuing resolution that has kept the government shut down. On Tuesday night, the eighth vote to pass the continuing resolution failed in the Senate. Only Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., broke ranks from her party. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., did not vote.
Trump, Vance blast Democrats for backing Virginia AG candidate over texts fantasizing GOP lawmaker’s murder
Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump separately slammed Democrats who continue to back Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones as his campaign unravels over texts envisioning the murder of a former top Republican lawmaker and his young children. Jones – who sent messages claiming he would shoot former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, over Cambodian dictator Pol Pot and former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler – will also face off with incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares at the University of Richmond on Thursday in their sole debate. Vance also appeared to respond to outrage over a leaked group chat, first reported by Politico, in which young Republican activists — many from New York — praised Hitler and used racist slurs, reportedly referring to African Americans as “watermelon people.” VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS HAVE A VIOLENCE PROBLEM Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has not publicly denounced Jones or called for him to drop out, but immediately demanded “every Republican from President Trump on down” condemn the group chat “unequivocally.” Vance pushed back, tweeting that he wouldn’t join the outrage given Democrats’ silence on Jones. “This is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia,” he said. LIBERAL MEDIA DOWNPLAYS SCANDAL OF DEM VIRGINIA AG HOPEFUL JAY JONES’ TEXTS FANTASIZING MURDER OF GOP LAWMAKER “I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence,” Vance said, sharing a snippet of Jones’ text to Virginia Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Hopewell, that read: “only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” Speaking during a ceremony eulogizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was allegedly murdered by a left-wing extremist, Trump said political violence and violent rhetoric from the left must stop. “We’ve seen that a candidate for attorney general in Virginia boasted that he would want to see [a] Republican legislator in Virginia shot in the head and to see his children murdered — They actually said this,” Trump said. LIBERAL MSNBC PANELIST CALLS FOR VIRGINIA AG CANDIDATE TO DROP OUT OVER VIOLENT TEXT MESSAGES “And now he continues to run for office, and most people continue to back him.” Trump offered incredulity at the idea Jones could envision such violence and not either drop out or be forced out of the race. “Pretty amazing, right – that’s a bad one; let’s see how that turns out,” he said. “Especially in the wake of Charlie’s assassination, our country must have absolutely no tolerance for this radical left violence, extremism and terror.”
Trump hammers rise in left-wing political violence in Charlie Kirk remarks: ‘Devil’s ideology’
President Donald Trump decried left-wing violence on Tuesday while speaking at the ceremony to posthumously honor conservative activist Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “We’ve watched legions of far-left radicals resort to desperate acts of violence and terror because they know that their ideas and arguments are persuading no one. They know that they’re failing. They have the Devil’s ideology,” he asserted. CHARLIE KIRK POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED MEDAL OF FREEDOM ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS 32ND BIRTHDAY Trump also sounded off regarding the political firestorm surrounding Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones. At the center of the controversy are Jones’ texts, which spoke hypothetically of a Republican being shot, and even seemed to show him hoping for the death of the man’s children. “Nobody’s heard that one before,” Trump said. The scandal over the texts overshadowed the state’s top-of-the-ticket race as Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spanberger descended on Jones’ backyard in Hampton Roads, Virginia, for their gubernatorial bout Thursday. Earle-Sears — who also represented nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the state legislature two decades ago — and Spanberger met at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, Thursday for their one-and-only debate appearance. CHARLIE KIRK’S LEGACY GUIDING ‘UNHAPPY’ GENERATION TOWARD FAITH, FAMILY AND FULFILLMENT ENDURES AFTER DEATH Trump said that, especially following the assassination of Kirk, the nation “must have absolutely no tolerance for this radical left violence, extremism and terror.” Kirk, 31, was assassinated last month while holding an event at Utah Valley University. The ceremony was held on the day that would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday. The president described Kirk as a “true American hero.” Fox News Digital’s Charlie Creitz contributed to this report.
Shutdown faces taxpayer reckoning as lawmaker works to expose ‘true cost of Democrats’ political stunt’
FIRST ON FOX: Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst introduced a bill Wednesday that would require federal agencies to submit detailed reports outlining the true full costs of a government shutdown, including back pay for furloughed employees. “Schumer’s Shutdown shenanigans have already wasted $4.4 billion paying 750,000 ‘non-essential’ federal employees not to work for more than two weeks,” Ernst told Fox News Digital. “My Non-Essential Workers Transparency Act will expose the lost productivity and true cost of Democrats’ political stunt,” she said. “It will also help expose which parts of the bloated bureaucracy are truly ‘non-essential’ and should be put on the chopping block to increase efficiency in Washington for taxpayers.” Ernst’s bill would require federal agencies to submit reports to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs within 30 days of a shutdown’s end, detailing each agency’s total number of employees when the shutdown began, total salary spending during the previous fiscal year, the number of furloughed workers, how much those employees would have earned during the shutdown, and the number and pay of those who continued working. DEMOCRATS THREATEN TO SUE TRUMP TEAM OVER ‘ILLEGAL’ FIRINGS AS SHUTDOWN BATTLE ESCALATES The U.S. government has been in the midst of an ongoing shutdown since Oct. 1, when Senate lawmakers failed to pass funding legislation for 2026. An estimated 750,000 federal employees were furloughed and will be compensated with back pay once the shutdown ends, as stipulated in a 2019 law. As the shutdown loomed at the end of September, Ernst published Congressional Budget Office data showing the shutdown is expected to cost taxpayers $400 million a day, with the Iowa senator railing against the hefty price tag “to pay 750,000 non-essential bureaucrats NOT to work.” WHITE HOUSE ESCALATES SHUTDOWN CONSEQUENCES AS DEMOCRATS SHOW NO SIGNS OF BUDGING: ‘KAMIKAZE ATTACK’ The estimated cost of back pay has reached roughly $4.4 billion as of Wednesday, according to estimates cited by Ernst. “Using information from the agencies’ contingency plans and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), CBO estimates that under a lapse in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2026 about 750,000 employees could be furloughed each day; the total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million,” a letter to Ernst from the Congressional Budget Office stated in September. ‘SCHUMER SHUTDOWN’ ALREADY COST TAXPAYERS $1.2B IN PAY TO EMPLOYEES NOT WORKING The Trump administration and Republicans have since pinned blame for the shutdown on Democrats, claiming they sought taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants. Democrats have denied they want to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants and instead have blamed Republicans for the shutdown. “They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier in October. “That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies that they tell.” White House spokesman Kush Desai slammed Democrats as “not serious people” when asked about the Congressional Budget Office data earlier in October. “Democrats are burning $400 million a day to pay federal workers not to work because they want to spend $200 billion on free health care for illegal aliens,” he told Fox News Digital. “These are not serious people.” President Donald Trump warned the administration could make “irreversible” changes to the federal workforce in the lead-up to the shutdown, most notably through a new wave of fresh layoffs. The president repeatedly said that he and his allies did not want the government to shut down, but that it opened the door for some “good” that could come from it as he looks to further slim down the size of the government and make it more efficient. The White House announced on Friday that reduction in force notices, better known as RIFs, had been issued across agencies. “The RIFs have begun,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote on X Friday.
Supreme Court hears pivotal Louisiana redistricting case ahead of 2026 midterms
The Supreme Court is rehearing oral arguments Wednesday in a case centered on Louisiana’s use of race as a factor when drawing its congressional map — a closely watched legal fight that some fear could be used to weaken protections under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The case, Louisiana v. Callais, was first heard by the high court in March. It focuses on whether Louisiana’s updated 2024 congressional map, which added a second majority-Black district, constitutes an unconstitutional “racial gerrymander.” The outcome could shape how states nationwide apply the Voting Rights Act in redistricting battles ahead of the 2026 midterms. Justices ordered both parties to reappear in court in the fall to take up additional arguments before the case is decided. They also asked parties to submit additional briefs answering whether the state’s “intentional creation” of the second majority-minority district runs afoul of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The court’s ruling could have a major impact on voters ahead of the 2026 midterms, with critics warning that a decision favoring the state may further erode safeguards for minority voters under the Voting Rights Act. JUDGES SAY THEY’LL REDRWA LOUISIANA CONGRESSIONAL MAP THEMSELVES IF LAWMAKERS CAN’T Janai Nelson, a lawyer for the NAACP arguing on behalf of Black voters, argued Wednesday that siding with Louisiana’s request to reverse S.B. 8 would be a “staggering reversal of precedent,” and a ruling that she argued “would throw maps across the country into chaos.” “If we take Louisiana as one example, every congressional member who is Black was elected from a Voting Rights Act-opportunity district,” she told the justices. “We only have the diversity that we see across the south, for example, because of litigation that forced the creation of opportunity districts under the Voting Rights Act.” “Every justice in Louisiana has been elected through a VRA opportunity district, and nearly all legislative representatives have been elected in those same districts. So Louisiana alone is an example of how important it is to have Section 2 continue to be enforced to create these opportunities,” she continued. Invalidating Section 2 in Louisiana “would be pretty catastrophic,” Nelson added. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett signaled skepticism about keeping Section 2 of the VRA in place as is. They each pressed Nelson about whether there should be a time duration limit on the intentional use of race in drawing voting districts under the law — prompting Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to jump in to clarify that, since the VRA is derived from the 15th Amendment, it does not have a time limit. FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE WARNS PARTISANSHIP PLAYS ‘TOO MUCH OF A ROLE’ IN JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS Louisiana Solicitor General Ben Aguiñaga, arguing for the state, urged the Supreme Court to prohibit the use of race as a factor in redistricting. “We are 50 years removed from Gingles,” he said, referring to the 1986 Supreme Court case Thornburg v. Gingles, which established a three-part legal standard to determine whether minority votes were being diluted under the Voting Rights Act. These standards “have placed states in impossible situations, where the only sure demand is more racial discrimination for more decades,” he said .He argued the racial considerations required under VRA are tantamount to a system of “government-mandated racial balancing” and urged them to be rejected outright. He fielded tough questions from Jackson after he was asked whether, in the states’ view, identifying and remedying racial discrimination is a “compelling interest.” “If I’m right that Section 2 is about identifying the problem and requiring some remedy, I don’t understand why your answer to Justice Kagan’s question about, ‘Is this a compelling state interest,’ would be ‘no,’” Jackson said. “The answer is obviously yes,” Jackson said, raising her voice just slightly. “You have an interest in remedying the effects of racial discrimination that we identify using this tool. Whether you go too far in your remedy is another issue.” Louisiana has abruptly changed its position since March. Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill asked the Supreme Court in August to invalidate the 2024 map — an about-face from its earlier position — and urged the justices to rule more broadly that race-based redistricting is unconstitutional. Murrill said that the 14th Amendment “commands that the government ‘may never use race as a stereotype or negative.’ Yet race-based redistricting rests on an invidious stereotype: that all minorities, by virtue of their membership in their racial class, think alike and share the same interests and voting preferences.” “Race-based redistricting is fundamentally contrary to our Constitution,” she said. A group of Black voters and civil rights groups, meanwhile, urged the court to leave in place the newer map, which it said “comport[s] with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment guarantees of equal voting rights and the VRA’s requirements.” NEW MAJORITY-BLACK LOUISIANA HOUSE DISTRICT REJECTED, NOVEMBER ELECTION MAP STILL UNCERTAIN Louisiana has redrawn its congressional map twice since the 2020 census. The first version — which included only one majority-Black district — was blocked by a federal court and later by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022. Both courts sided with the NAACP voters, and the Fifth Circuit ordered the state to adopt by January 2024 a new state redistricting map. The Supreme Court’s request for additional arguments comes at a pivotal time, as several Republican-led states have attempted to aggressively push through new congressional maps of their own. They also argued in filings to the Supreme Court that non-Black voters failed to show the direct harm required for equal protection claims or prove race was the main factor in redrawing the map. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Trump’s war on cartels enters new phase as experts predict what’s next
As the U.S. unleashes a series of lethal strikes on cartel drug boats and President Donald Trump declared an “armed conflict” with the cartels, experts gave insight on what Americans can expect to see next in the “quasi-war” taking place at the country’s doorstep. On Tuesday, Trump announced the U.S. military had carried out another kinetic strike on a suspected drug vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six suspected smugglers. This is the fifth of such strikes on a drug boat in the last several weeks and, according to experts, one of the first important steps to decimating the cartels. The strikes come after the White House sent Congress a memo on Sept. 30 informing them that the U.S. is now participating in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug smugglers. Currently, the U.S. has amassed an impressive collection of naval and air assets stationed around Venezuela, a country whose socialist dictator, Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has accused of being in league with cartels. Experts say these strikes could mark the start of a broader military campaign targeting cartel logistics and command networks. WAR ON CARTELS? WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT HAS AN IRON-CLAD CASE TO STRIKE NARCO-TERRORIST GROUPS Speaking with Fox News Digital, Derek Maltz, former acting director of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), called the Trump administration’s moves “unprecedented action for an unprecedented threat.” He explained that, unlike in previous administrations, the second Trump administration has enabled a “whole of government” approach to targeting the cartels by designating them as “foreign terrorist organizations.” This designation empowers not just agencies like the DEA to take action against the cartels but also the Departments of War, State, Treasury, Justice and others. “This is not the same old drug crisis we’ve been talking about for 50 years. This is something totally different. This is a poisoning crisis and our kids are dying,” Maltz said, adding, “The cartels are killing more Americans than any other terrorist organization in the history of this country.” In response, Maltz said the president is “building a powerful force of good, an army of good, to help defeat evil and to actually destroy these adversaries that are killing our citizens at record levels.” Maltz said the first step was shutting down the border to stop the flow of fentanyl, meth, cocaine and other drugs, as well as criminal elements into the U.S. overland. This, Maltz explained, pushed the cartels to carry drugs via sea and air routes, which has prompted the Trump administration to crack down on those as well. HOW TRUMP’S STRIKES AGAINST ALLEGED NARCO-TERRORISTS ARE RESHAPING THE CARTEL BATTLEFIELD: ‘ONE-WAY TICKET’ He said that next the U.S. will need to hit the cartels’ command nodes, either working through international partners like Mexico and El Salvador or, like the drug boat strikes, directly through U.S. military assets. “Based on everything I’ve heard, the Mexican government is hitting labs very hard, making more arrests than they had… so they’re aggressively going after the cartels. They’re removing these really bad guys into America for prosecution.” Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at the Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Security, described the conflict with cartels as a type of “quasi-war” in which the U.S. is fighting against not only non-state, paramilitary-style cartels but also indirectly against international enemies like Venezuela, Hezbollah and China that have been working with the cartels. “The demonstration of willingness to go and kill these cartel members while they’re moving their ships full of drugs sends a chilling effect through their support network,” he explained. “And when they start losing that ability to pay off their support network, the business model falls apart and they actually start fighting each other; they turn in on each other.” TRUMP REFUSES TO RULE OUT STRIKING VENEZUELA. WHAT’S NEXT FOR TRUMP’S WAR ON DRUGS? Sadler said that while the U.S. forces currently appear to be concentrated around Venezuela in the Caribbean, he expects the focus will eventually shift to the cartels’ drug routes in the Pacific as well as transatlantic routes to Africa and Europe. “I would not be surprised if you start to see the military hammer of this or the balance of the military assets shift either to the Pacific. Or if they shift over more to the Central Atlantic to go after these other routes.” He predicted that the sea strikes will continue and that if cartels start to shift to rely more on airplanes, Americans may start to see some of those being “shot out of the sky” in international airspace. Eventually, he said the strikes will likely be dialed down along with the scale of U.S. naval vessels in the Caribbean. As this happens, he said, the U.S. will likely both leverage its international partners and enable them to interdict drug vessels as well as sustain U.S. special operations capabilities, helicopters and aircraft operating out of Puerto Rico and other bases nearby, to provide overwatch and the ability to intercept ships. TRUMP APPROVES MILITARY ACTION AGAINST LATIN AMERICAN CARTELS CLASSIFIED AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS Both Sadler and Maltz emphasized the importance of hitting the cartels from every angle, using every available partner and government agency, even education. “We have to teach. We have to do a lot more work on the demand side,” said Maltz. He predicted that, once confirmed, Sara Carter, Trump’s pick for the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, would “initiate a lot of educational programs” designed to educate on the dangers of the new drugs being pushed by cartels and other foreign adversaries. “We can hit boats, and we can go after command and control. But if we don’t teach our kids and our parents in this country about this devastating crisis with these very, very dangerous, lethal substances that we’ve never seen in this country in history, then they’re going to continue to find ways to get this stuff in here,” said Maltz.
Katie Porter says she regrets viral outbursts at reporter, staffer
California gubernatorial candidate and former Democratic lawmaker Katie Porter admitted she “could have handled things better” following the emergence of viral videos capturing her outbursts against a reporter and a staffer. In one of the videos, Porter became agitated with a reporter and nearly cut an interview short. In an older video that Politico reported is from 2021, the politician snapped at a staffer to “Get out of my f—ing shot!” after the person entered the video frame behind Porter. “When I look at those videos, I want people to know that I understand that I could have handled things better,” Porter said on the “Inside California Politics” show. “I think I’m known as someone who’s able to handle tough questions, who’s willing to answer questions, and I want people to know that I really value the incredible work that my staff can do.” “I think people who know me know I can be tough, but I need to do a better job expressing appreciation for the amazing work that my team does,” she added. KATIE PORTER INTERVIEW GOES VIRAL AS JOURNALISTS MARVEL AT DEMOCRAT’S MELTDOWN The clip of Porter threatening to walk out on CBS California correspondent Julie Watts during an interview went viral last week. Porter snapped at Watts’ questions, grew visibly impatient with her follow-ups and even attempted to leave at one point in frustration, calling the interviewer “argumentative.” After being pressed, Porter told Watts that she doesn’t “want to have an unhappy experience” with her and that she doesn’t “want this all on camera.” “I want to make sure that people understand why I am in this race and what I am fighting for. I think when I’m traveling the state, what I’m hearing from people is that they understand that we are in a very extraordinary moment,” Porter said this week on “Inside California Politics.” “That what is happening with Donald Trump attacking our economy and our society, our long-standing challenges with affordability, people know that they are going to need someone who is going to be strong, who is going to be tough, who is going to be a fighter and who is going to push.” DEMOCRAT ABRUPTLY ENDS BONKERS INTERVIEW AFTER REPEATEDLY BERATING REPORTER: ‘I DON’T CARE’ “I think if people are looking for someone who is going to sit in Sacramento quietly and kind of rubber-stamp things, that’s not me. But I absolutely could have handled things better,” she also said. In the other clip, then-Rep. Porter, D-Calif., was speaking remotely with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm about energy and climate issues. At one point, a staffer walks into the frame, prompting Porter to snap and yell, “Get out of my f—ing shot!” She also scolded the staffer for having appeared in the background before. “You were in my shot before that,” Porter said. “Stay out of my shot.” Porter revealed this week that she apologized to that staff member. “I expressed that I was sorry, that I had lost my temper, that I had been frustrated in the moment, and I told her I was grateful that she had taken the time to correct me,” she said. “We were able to redo the shot, I got the facts right.” Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg, Alexander Hall, David Rutz and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.