Millions saved by blocking dead people payouts as Trump Treasury drops hammer on federal fraud
FIRST ON FOX: The Treasury Department blocked $175 million in federal payments tied to deceased recipients in fiscal year 2026, up sharply from the $99 million identified just months earlier as the Trump administration expanded government-wide screening for improper payments. “I applaud Secretary [Scott] Bessent for slamming the door on these fraudsters before they can pick taxpayers’ pockets,” Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told Fox News Digital. “Unless you were playing Frisbee in the quad during Econ 101, you know the federal government shouldn’t be sending taxpayer money to dead people,” Kennedy went on. “I fought for years to pass my common-sense bill to stop fraudsters from gaming the system, and now it’s the law.” Kennedy has for years pushed to give Treasury greater access to Social Security death records, helping pass a 2020 law that temporarily authorized the Social Security Administration to share its full Death Master File with the department. That three-year data-sharing program began in December 2023. Trump then signed Kennedy’s Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act into law in February 2026, making access permanent. TRUMP’S WAR ON FRAUD EXPANDS AS TREASURY LAUNCHES NEW SITE WITH WHISTLEBLOWER INCENTIVES Trump has tasked his administration with rooting out fraud, waste and abuse across the federal government and tightening safeguards around taxpayer dollars — the latest effort to stop federal benefit payments to dead people is just another initiative within that broader effort. “President Trump continues to deliver for Americans where previous administrations have fallen short. This Administration is setting new standards in record time to prevent fraud and improper payments before hard-earned taxpayer dollars leave the Treasury. Under President Trump’s leadership, there is no tolerance for waste, fraud, and abuse,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. Treasury screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling roughly $3.7 trillion in FY2026, identifying and returning about 13,500 payments worth $175 million that otherwise would have been distributed to individuals no longer eligible for payments due to death. “Treasury continues to transform how the federal government protects taxpayer dollars by using better data, stronger controls, and advanced technology to stop fraud and improper payments before money goes out the door,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press release shared with Fox News Digital. “In the past year alone, Treasury built and deployed new safeguards that verified more than $3.7 trillion in federal payments and increased Do Not Pay access from 4 percent of programs to 99 percent, ensuring agencies have access to the data they need,” Bessent added. “We are moving beyond ‘pay and chase’ and making prevention the federal government’s first line of defense.” WHITE HOUSE PUSHES ‘WATERSHED’ FRAUD-FIGHTING REFORM IN CONGRESS AS VANCE CONVENES TASK FORCE More than 99% of federal programs now have access to the “Do Not Pay” tool, up from roughly 4% at the end of FY2025. The expansion fulfills key requirements of a March 2025 executive order from Trump directing his administration to strengthen safeguards against fraud, waste and abuse involving federal payments. Treasury also screened more than 2.3 billion records against Do Not Pay data sources in FY2026, nearly four times the 641 million records screened the previous fiscal year. The jump comes as the program has expanded across the federal government, alongside new payment verification efforts and additional screenings for states. VANCE TO HOST CONGRESS AT WHITE HOUSE TO DISCUSS LEGISLATIVE ACTION ON FRAUD Treasury also tested new safeguards aimed at verifying that bank accounts belong to the intended recipients and checking Taxpayer Identification Numbers tied to federal payments. The checks became fully operational Sept. 30 and allow Treasury to flag and return payments that fail verification before the money is sent. The latest figures build on Treasury’s July announcement that it had screened more than 885 million payments worth roughly $2.77 trillion and flagged more than 4,900 payments worth about $99 million tied to deceased recipients.
Fox News Power Rankings: The biggest surprises come after October
Four weeks out from the election, and for most Americans, it’s time for football, foliage and flannel. For politics watchers, all eyes are on an October surprise. They’ve been game-changers before. In 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which ushered in the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, was a turning point in John McCain’s presidential campaign. He was even with Barack Obama when the news broke, then trailed in every survey after. He lost the popular vote by seven points. Surprises have come from home and abroad. In 1980, it was President Jimmy Carter’s inability to resolve the Iranian hostage crisis. Eight years earlier, it was President Richard Nixon’s announcement that “peace was at hand” in Vietnam. Some have more impact than others. It’s not clear that news about George W. Bush’s DUI changed much about the 2000 election, nor that James Comey’s letter to Congress about Hillary Clinton’s email server was the decider in President Trump’s 2016 win. Still, these surprises all have one thing in common: they happened in presidential years. EXPLOSIVE SLEEPER ISSUE COULD FUEL MIDTERM SHAKEUPS, TOP REPUBLICAN PREDICTS: ‘YOU’RE GONNA SEE SURPRISES’ It’s not as though we don’t get breaking news during the last month of a midterm cycle. Take 2018, when the GOP warned about a migrant caravan, Brett Kavanaugh sought a seat on the Supreme Court, and a gunman opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue. But that was the exception, not the rule. For the most part, midterm October surprises affect individual races, not the overall trajectory of a party. In the last midterm, for example, Herschel Walker faced damaging allegations about paying for former girlfriends’ abortions, while in Florida, the destruction caused by Hurricane Ian gave Gov. Ron DeSantis the opportunity to show Floridians that he could be trusted to handle a crisis. FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: FOR THE DEMOCRATS, WHERE COULD IT POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Voters haven’t changed their minds about Trump or the party they’d prefer to elect to the House for several months now, so local stories like these are the ones to watch in the final weeks of the campaign. Besides, the biggest surprises come after October. For what still looks like a good – maybe great – year for the Democrats, the party is playing defense in some unexpected places. DAVID MARCUS: IN DEEP BLUE MINNESOTA A RED DAWN MAY BE RISING AHEAD OF THE MIDTERMS That starts with Minnesota, where Republicans have a star candidate in Michele Tafoya. The former NFL sideline reporter has been up and down the state with a message to “stop the fraud” if elected to the Senate. That’s been a hot issue in the state, and it’s allowed her to target the Democrat, Peggy Flanagan, who currently serves as lieutenant governor. Then there’s New Hampshire, another state where Democrats are in the driver’s seat thanks to this political environment, but where the GOP has a favorable match up. Former U.S. Senator John E. Sununu is back on the ballot this year against Chris Pappas, who seems to have had trouble animating his voters. Even Oregon’s gubernatorial race is competitive this year. Meanwhile, Republicans are spending money in surprising places. REPUBLICANS FACE BRUTAL MIDTERM HEADWINDS. SIX FORCES COULD HELP THEM DEFY HISTORY. In Arkansas, Sen. Tom Cotton has thrown $13.6 million at his reelection bid, outspending his Democratic opponent Hallie Schoffner 65 to 1. Cotton may have ambitions beyond his current role in the Senate, but in 2020, his spending fell short of $1 million. Idahoans got a letter in the mail from Vice President Vance last month warning them that Democrats could “pour millions of dollars” into independent challenger Todd Achilles; Vance called it an “urgent national race.” Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has been running ads attacking her Democratic challenger Scott Colom in recent weeks, calling him a “failed prosecutor” with a “chilling” record on crime; that state has seen $5 million in ad spending so far this year. FOX NEWS POLL: IT’S A LONE STAR SENATE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TALARICO AND PAXTON And Florida is full of election surprises. In 2018, Rick Scott won his Senate race by 0.1 percentage points while DeSantis won his by 0.4 points. Two years later, the presidential race was decided by just 3.4 points. Nebraska and South Dakota could be closer-than-expected for Republicans as well. In this week’s Power Rankings, one Carolina gets more competitive while another drifts away from the GOP, and Democrats get nervous about a governor’s race in Oregon. The math is the same in the Senate. Each party has 47 seats to their name, leaving six toss-up races to determine control. Those are Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas, which all look close in the flurry of surveys released by pollsters last week. Two other races are highly competitive: New Hampshire (Lean D) and Kansas (Lean R). On the polling alone, these look more like toss-up states: surveys released last week have the Democrat ahead by only five points in New Hampshire, and the Kansas race dead even. It’s the partisan makeup of these states that keeps them at “lean.” North Carolina is less competitive than it was two weeks ago. Fox News confirmed on Friday that the Senate Leadership Fund, a powerful Super PAC aligned with Republican leadership, was pulling resources from the state. Earlier, Sen. Tim Scott left it off a list of states where Republicans were focusing spending. GOP nominee Michael Whatley is running as strong a race as he can there, and the margin will probably be tighter than polls currently have it. But the Democrat, Roy Cooper, is also a strong candidate, and he has had double-digit leads in multiple surveys. North Carolina moves from Lean D to Likely D. Nearby South Carolina is getting more competitive. Darline Graham, appointed to the Senate after the death of her brother, Lindsey, is reportedly getting more help on the campaign trail from President Trump. There are lingering questions about Graham’s ability to turn out
How Americans helped create the Chinese car tech capable of ‘spying’
FIRST ON FOX: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison overlapped on work with China’s powerful police ministry developing vehicle technology capable of tracking cars and overtaking driving functions, according to findings from a report shared exclusively with Fox News Digital ahead of its release. Beijing has already begun deploying the systems across China. The technology, known as “vehicle-road-cloud” integration, links cars with roadside cameras and sensors and centralized cloud platforms, allowing authorities to monitor traffic in real time and, at its most advanced levels, send commands to connected vehicles. The implications of connected vehicles have alarmed U.S. officials. The Commerce Department moved last year to restrict certain Chinese and Russian connected-vehicle technology in the United States, warning that foreign adversaries could potentially collect sensitive information about American drivers or remotely manipulate their cars. HARVARD, NYU AMONG 30 UNIVERSITIES HIT WITH PENTAGON FOREIGN-TIE AUDIT DEADLINE In 2016, then-UW Vice Provost Jeffrey Russell traveled to Southeast University, where the schools signed agreements covering research, faculty exchanges, student training and plans to create a joint institute. The following year, Southeast University’s president traveled to Madison to formally establish the Joint Research Institute, according to university records cited by Strategy Risks. The institute focused on intelligent transportation, connected and autonomous vehicles and vehicle-road-cloud technology. UW-Madison’s own College of Engineering wrote in 2019 that the institute had “launched in late 2017.” Two years later, UW researchers appeared on technical work that also involved an institute of China’s Ministry of Public Security. Five UW-Madison researchers were among 46 contributors to a Chinese industry report on vehicle-road cooperative automated driving, according to Strategy Risks. The UW-SEU joint institute was listed first among the report’s drafting units, while the Traffic Management Research Institute of China’s Ministry of Public Security was listed seventh. The extent of UW-Madison’s institutional involvement in the joint institute is disputed. Counsel for a UW professor told Strategy Risks that the contemplated arrangement was never implemented and that the institute was never operational, funded or staffed by UW. Strategy Risks said it has not independently resolved that dispute, pointing to public records from both universities describing the institute as established. UW-Madison did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Related vehicle-road-cloud technology was, meanwhile, becoming part of China’s national connected-vehicle push. In 2023, three major Chinese transportation and communications standards bodies published a framework for vehicle-road-cloud integration. Southeast University was among the drafters alongside the Road Traffic Safety Research Center of China’s Ministry of Public Security. The following year, the MPS joined four other Chinese ministries in launching a vehicle-road-cloud pilot program across 20 cities and regional groupings. OHIO STATE PAYS $2.1M SETTLEMENT AS IT ADMITS RESEARCHER HAD ‘INAPPROPRIATE FOREIGN AFFILIATIONS’ TO CHINA Under the government plan, participating cities are to install connected roadside equipment and sensing systems and build city-level cloud platforms capable of communicating with vehicles. The platforms can provide information to vehicles and assist with decision-making, planning and control, while safety-monitoring systems track participating vehicles in real time. Chinese authorities describe the program as an effort to improve traffic safety, advance autonomous driving and accelerate the country’s connected-vehicle industry. But those same capabilities have raised security concerns in Washington, where officials have warned that connected-vehicle systems could be exploited to collect sensitive data or remotely manipulate vehicles. Strategy Risks stressed that it is not accusing UW-Madison of intentionally transferring technology to China’s security apparatus. “Strategy Risks does not allege that UW-Madison, either on its own or through the JRI, deliberately channeled U.S. technology into Chinese surveillance or military systems,” the report states. But the group argues the research nevertheless contributed to technology that later took on broader applications in China. “The available evidence indicates that research conducted by scholars affiliated with the JRI contributed to the development of a civilian-framed dual-use technology in technical areas that also received U.S. institutional and federal research support,” the report states. “When Beijing incorporated this technology into national standards, the state absorbed a system that has significant surveillance, military, and human rights dimensions.”
Battle over daylight saving time erupts as push to stop changing clocks hits Senate wall
The battle over Americans’ clocks reemerged in an unlikely way over the weekend, with President Donald Trump picking a fight with one of his top allies over the issue. There have been many fights in Congress over the nearly two years that Trump has been in office for his second term that either ended in partisan victory or gloriously fizzled out, but one has quietly gone onto the shelf despite his pressure on Republicans to do something about it. And that fight is over allowing states to voluntarily observe daylight saving time year-round to effectively do away with the twice-a-year ritual of changing clocks. It’s a popular issue with voters and the president, and there’s a bill that passed the House this summer to enact the change. But it’s a policy issue that has divided both sides of the aisle and ground to a halt in the upper chamber. TRUMP URGES SENATE TO PASS BILL MAKING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME PERMANENT AFTER OVERWHELMING HOUSE VOTE Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has been one of the more vocal opponents of the bill, vowing to block any attempts to fast-track it on the floor. That resistance earned him a Truth Social post from Trump, who over the weekend shared his personal phone number in a bid to pressure the lawmaker to change his stance on daylight saving time. “Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump said. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.” Cotton responded, noting that Congress has tackled daylight saving time before, only to roll back the change shortly after. “No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Saving Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton said on X. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.” TRUMP FACES REPUBLICAN REBELLION OVER DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME AS SENATE BILL NEARS DEAD END In the 1970s, lawmakers did enact year-round daylight saving time. But Americans rapidly soured on the change, especially parents whose children had to wait in the dark for the school bus. It was repealed about a year later. And Cotton recently answered an off-the-cuff question from a fellow Republican during their weekly closed-door policy lunches, a source told Fox News Digital, where he made a similar case as his response to Trump. No one pushed back during the meeting. The issue of daylight saving time, and supporting a permanent fix or sticking to the status quo are more geographical than political. It’s, in part, mountainous and Western states versus coastal states. On one side of the spectrum are lawmakers like Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., who introduced a Senate version of the bill last year. “Every year, more Americans grow more frustrated setting their clocks back and forth, and every winter folks in Washington state despair at the prospect of losing an hour of precious sunlight when we are forced off Daylight Saving Time,” Murray said in a statement at the time. HOUSE PASSES DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME REFORM AS TRUMP SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR ENDING CLOCK CHANGE Lawmakers in landlocked states out West, like Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., warn that it would cause kids in their states to go to school in the dark. “I can see where Florida likes it for tee times at certain times of the year, but it doesn’t work so well for moms and dads putting kids on buses when the sunrise in Western Montana wouldn’t be till 9:30 in the morning. It’s not going to work for us,” Daines told CNN in July. The most vital currency in the Senate is floor time. And lawmakers won’t have much floor time to spare when they return after the midterm elections in November. Though it’s popular, more pressing issues like the National Defense Authorization Act, supplemental funding for the war and a looming government funding battle will likely take precedence. And Republican leaders acknowledge that it’s not as easy as a simple yes-or-no vote for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. “Depends where you’re living in the country and the impact — what it would be, in your own home state,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in July. “So it’s not as simple as what one state might like.”
President Trump endorses Wyoming’s secretary of state for US House of Representatives
President Donald Trump endorsed Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, the Republican candidate for the state’s at-large U.S. House seat. “Chuck Gray has been a tremendous Secretary of State for the Great State of Wyoming, a place I love and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024!” the president declared in part of a Monday Truth Social post. “Chuck Gray has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next U.S. Representative from Wyoming — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump asserted. TRUMP-ALIGNED CONSERVATIVE EMERGES FROM CROWDED PRIMARY TO DECIDE WHO FILLS WYOMING’S LONE HOUSE SEAT Gray, who won the Wyoming GOP U.S. House primary in August, thanked the president on Monday for backing him. “Thank you President Trump for your endorsement!” he declared in a post on X. ‘AMERICA FIRST’: WYOMING SECRETARY OF STATE CHUCK GRAY LAUNCHES HOUSE BID “As President Trump said, I have a real track record of advancing the key priorities of the people of Wyoming, and I will continue that track record in Congress. Together, we will defend our Wyoming way of life!” Gray added. GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman, the current occupant of the state’s only U.S. House seat, is running for U.S. Senate. WYOMING MAN KICKS MOUNTAIN LION IN THE FACE TO SAVE HIS DOG, THEN FIGHTS IT OFF BARE-HANDED Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., is not running for a second six-year Senate term.
Blue states set to trigger fresh minimum wage hikes with pay floors more than double federal rate
Workers across several Democratic-led states are set to ring in 2027 with another pay bump, widening an already sizable gap between state minimum wages and the federal floor of $7.25 an hour. Washington, California and Connecticut will all raise minimum wages that already top $17 an hour beginning Jan. 1, while New Jersey and Michigan will also hike their wage floors — widening the gap with the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Washington will lead the pack at $17.73 an hour, up 60 cents from its current $17.13 rate. Connecticut’s minimum wage will rise from $16.94 to $17.48, while California’s will climb from $16.90 to $17.40. New Jersey will increase its minimum wage by 56 cents to $16.48 an hour for most workers, while Michigan is slated for one of the largest jumps, rising from $13.73 to $15 an hour. AOC-BACKED $30 MINIMUM WAGE PLAN COULD BACKFIRE IN UNEXPECTED WAYS, EXPERTS WARN The hikes come as several Republican-led states have also pushed their wage floors well above the federal rate, though they remain below the highest-paying blue states. Florida’s minimum wage reached $15 an hour on Sept. 30 and will remain there through the end of 2027, while Missouri is also at $15. Nebraska will increase its minimum wage from $15 to $15.26 on Jan. 1. Washington’s statewide increase will come as Seattle pushes its own wage floor even higher. The city’s minimum wage is slated to rise to $22.14 an hour in 2027, nearly $4.50 above the new statewide rate. Seattle’s wage requirements have also become a flashpoint in the debate over the costs facing local businesses. Beginning in 2025, all employers in the city, including small businesses, became subject to the same inflation-adjusted minimum wage. Some restaurant owners who later closed their businesses cited rising labor costs among the financial pressures they faced. ECONOMIST WARNS THOUSANDS OF VIRGINIA JOBS AT RISK AFTER MINIMUM WAGE HIKE SIGNED BY SPANBERGER Washington’s minimum wage is tied to inflation under state law, with the wage floor recalculated each year rather than requiring lawmakers to approve a new increase. Washington voters approved a measure in 1998 that raised the minimum wage and, beginning in 2001, tied future increases to inflation. Voters approved another measure in 2016 that set wage increases through 2020. Since 2021, the minimum wage has again risen annually with inflation, with the goal of keeping workers’ pay in step with rising prices. Each September, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries calculates the following year’s rate based on changes in the CPI-W. The new rate is announced Sept. 30 and takes effect Jan. 1. “Democrats appear to be doing everything they can to make the business climate in Washington more untenable,” Seattle Red host and conservative commentator Jason Rantz told Fox News Digital. DOWNTOWN SEATTLE LOST 30,000 JOBS, BILLIONS IN OFFICE VALUE SINCE 2020 PAYROLL TAX: NEW REPORT FINDS “It’s not just the high cost of labor — Seattle is now going to be over $22 an hour — but it’s the high crime, open-air drug use, new income tax that targets pass-through businesses, and overregulation that make operating businesses more difficult than it should be,” Rantz said. “Our unemployment rate is higher than the national average, and we’re losing tech jobs left and right,” he added. “Democrats have no answers. They’re just making their problems worse.” The wage hike comes as Washington’s unemployment rate reached 4.9% in August, above the 4.1% national rate and up from 4.6% a year earlier, according to the state Employment Security Department. Washington also lost an estimated 900 jobs that month, including 2,300 information-sector positions, while professional and business services employment was down 13,100 jobs from a year earlier. Angela Rosen, who founded Penelope and the Beauty Bar and operates three Seattle spas, told Rantz that her therapists already make more than minimum wage, but said higher labor costs have squeezed support positions instead. “I had to cut my front desk,” Rosen told “The Jason Rantz Show,” according to Seattle Red. Rantz reported that the move eliminated 12 shifts per week across two smaller locations.
Dem fundraising giant makes damning admission as GOP probes foreign donation allegations
FIRST ON FOX: Democrats’ largest campaign fundraising platform says it has strengthened its donor verification standards days after House GOP investigators accused it of potentially taking in foreign donations for U.S. campaigns, according to a new letter obtained by Fox News Digital. Attorneys for ActBlue sent a letter to the House of Representatives on Monday announcing it is launching a new “passport verification program” as part of its “ongoing investment in the security of contributions processed from donors located abroad.” House Republicans have for years accused ActBlue of having insufficient verification standards for weeding out illegitimate campaign donations. The platform has long been used by a myriad of Democrats to raise money for their political campaigns, including Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. ActBlue said it paused donations from Americans abroad in 2025, however. REPUBLICANS ZERO IN ON KEY PLAYER ACCUSED OF HELPING DEMOCRAT FUNDRAISING GIANT HIDE FOREIGN CASH ActBlue has consistently denied wrongdoing in responses to Fox News Digital and communications to House investigators. Ten top figures within the company, including executives and founders, have pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions in both public and private sitdowns with GOP-led committees. ANOTHER ACTBLUE LEADER PLEADS FIFTH AS HOUSE INVESTIGATES ALLEGED FOREIGN DONATIONS But a new report released earlier this month, first reported by Fox News Digital, appears to show employees green-lighting donations despite some questions about where they came from. Chief among the GOP’s concerns is ActBlue’s passport number verification. According to the report, the field only required the correct number of characters for a U.S. passport number rather than a valid code for a donation to be accepted. GOP LAWMAKER WARNS ACTBLUE ‘GOT CAUGHT’ AS FOREIGN CASH PROBE TRIGGERS FIFTH AMENDMENT PLEAS But the Monday letter said ActBlue’s new program “adds passport-based identity verification as a further enhancement to ActBlue’s multi-layered approach to fraud and foreign-contribution prevention.” “In doing so, it also enables U.S. citizens located abroad—who have been unable to contribute on the ActBlue platform since 2025—to resume participating in the political process by supporting the candidates and causes of their choice,” the letter said. “The new program uses the best available technology to allow eligible donors located abroad to verify their identity using a valid U.S. passport. It reflects substantial engineering investments by ActBlue to ensure that, as it resumes processing contributions from foreign addresses, its compliance systems can withstand scrutiny.” Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said it amounted to a confession. “This decision to implement a NEW passport verification program only confirms what we’ve been saying: ActBlue failed to verify the citizenship of individuals who made donations from abroad. That’s unacceptable,” Steil told Fox News Digital. “This new policy should have been in place on day one. Right now, far too many questions remain unanswered, including what percentage of the billions of dollars that have flowed through ActBlue came from illegal foreign sources. Chairman Jordan, Chairman Comer, and I will continue to seek answers for the American people.” ACTBLUE SCRUTINY FUELS NEW GOP BILLS TO TIGHTEN ELECTION DONATION RULES The probe is being co-led by his panel as well as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. A spokesperson for Jordan told Fox News Digital, “This action confirms that the platform’s fraud prevention measures were not as robust as [ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones] told Congress. We will continue to demand answers.” The GOP’s earlier report cited a letter by Wallace-Jones to Steil, which maintained that donations on the platform made by people with addresses outside the U.S. required a passport number for verification. But the Republicans’ report alleged that the verification “only ensures that the entered passport number contains a certain number of characters, not that it is a valid U.S. passport number,” rendering it an essentially meaningless step. ActBlue told Fox News Digital in response to the report at the time, “There’s nothing to see here. After we released findings of a third-party forensic analysis that completely undermined a central claim that they have made against ActBlue, Republicans are refusing to move on.” “Instead, they are orchestrating another political stunt before rushing out of town weeks early to go campaign. This coordinated campaign against ActBlue isn’t about the facts, or legislating, it’s about Republicans’ efforts to silence organizations they believe threaten their agenda,” the platform said. A spokesperson for ActBlue pointed Fox News Digital to a blog post announcing the update when reached for comment. “In 2025, amid unprecedented attacks from President Trump and his allies, our organization took the proactive step of temporarily suspending all contributions from outside the United States,” the statement said. “ActBlue has now further enhanced its verification process to allow eligible Americans with a U.S. Passport who are located abroad to participate through the platform while maintaining the robust security and compliance standards that donors, campaign, and the public expect.” It also said ActBlue “accurately described” its vetting process to Congress.
Democrats think a blue wave is building. Here are 3 forces that could stop it
Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer is sounding increasingly bullish about his party’s chances of riding a potential blue wave into November, declaring Democrats have “the wind in our sails” as national and battleground polling points to a favorable political environment in the midterm elections. But beneath that confidence are three variables that could determine whether the Democratic advantage becomes a wave — or breaks before Election Day: a potential polling undercount of Republicans, persistent voter skepticism of the Democratic brand, and the GOP’s financial firepower advantage. Schumer, speaking to reporters last week as the Senate adjourned until after Election Day, predicted that Democrats are “on the edge of taking back the Senate.” After nearly two years of President Donald Trump back in the White House and Republican control of the Senate and the House, Schumer emphasized, “Americans are frustrated with higher costs and a government they don’t believe is working for them.” AI IS SUPERCHARGING THE CAMPAIGN AD WARS, BUT VIRAL DOESN’T MEAN VICTORIOUS The GOP is fighting political history, which has traditionally seen the party in power in Washington lose congressional seats during midterm election years. Add to that a challenging political climate fueled by persistent inflation Americans see at the grocery store, high gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran, and Trump’s negative approval ratings. The latest polls indicate Democrats holding an advantage over Republicans in the battle for Congress and that they are more enthusiastic to vote in the midterms. But Trump predicts that Republicans will perform much better in the midterms than critics and pollsters expect. “I think we’re going to have a big surprise, because they don’t know what’s happening,” the president told supporters at a rally Saturday night in Ohio, as he referred to Democrats. Here’s a closer look at the three variables. Republicans control the Senate 53-47, which means Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win back the majority. But with one month to go until Election Day, Democrats are treading deeper and deeper into red territory as Republicans stay mostly on defense. The latest Fox News polls indicate margin of error races in Michigan, a must-hold for the Democrats, and in Texas, Maine and Iowa, three seats the party is working to flip to win the majority. An average of the latest surveys also points to very close contests in Alaska, Ohio and Kansas, where the Democrats are playing offense, and Minnesota, a leading flip opportunity for the GOP. WHO’S UP AND WHO’S DOWN IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS MIDTERM POWER RANKINGS But what if the polls are off? “Polls considerably underestimated Donald Trump and other Republicans on the ticket with him in 2016, 2020, and, to a slightly lesser extent, in 2024,” polling guru, political analyst and statistician Nate Silver noted this past weekend. But Silver added that polls in the previous two Trump-era midterms, 2018 and 2022, were essentially unbiased. Fast-forward to this cycle, and polls in some high-profile Democratic primaries were off the mark. Among the miscues this summer: overestimating Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory in Michigan’s Senate showdown, and underestimating victories by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota’s Senate primary, state Rep. Angie Nixon’s win in Florida’s Senate contest, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s upset victory to capture the Wisconsin gubernatorial nomination. Coverage of the miscues grabbed widespread media attention and sparked fresh criticism of public opinion polling. DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB If the surveys are overestimating Democratic turnout and underestimating Republican enthusiasm, even a modest polling miss could reshape several of the close Senate contests. “I don’t think any Democrat is over optimistic after … 2024. We all understand that anything can happen in the closing days, and we’re preparing for that,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital. Trump’s approval ratings remain well underwater, as do favorable ratings for the GOP. But surveys indicate the Democrats’ brand is nothing to brag about. The Democrats’ favorable rating hovered in negative territory in the most recent Fox News national poll, at 44%-55%. And it was even lower in the latest Wall Street Journal national survey, at 38% favorable and 58% unfavorable. “I think just because Americans are outraged because of how Republicans have failed them and made their life more expensive doesn’t automatically mean that they’re going to embrace and trust Democrats,” former Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Fox News Digital on Saturday. Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who is considering another White House run in 2028, said it’s crucial Democrats “make sure that our candidates get out there, make it very clear who they are, what they’re about, and what we would do differently.” Making life even tougher for the Democrats: the victories by left-wing and socialist-aligned candidates over more moderate contenders in the party’s primaries, which gave the GOP more messaging ammunition to portray all Democrats on the ballot this year as radicals. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER That’s the case in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida, where El-Sayed, Flanagan and Nixon all defeated establishment-backed rivals. Meanwhile, in Texas, a trail of controversial past comments by Talarico is handing the GOP more firepower. But Democrats in all four of these Senate showdowns are returning fire by anchoring the Republicans on the ballot to Trump. In the latest Fox News poll in Texas, 53% of those questioned said they were extremely or very concerned that Talarico is too liberal. But a near equal amount, 51%, said they were extremely or very concerned that Paxton is too close to Trump. Republicans are winning the ad wars, thanks to a major money advantage. Boosted by massive cash infusions from the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. and other leading Republican groups and donors, the GOP is outspending the Democrats in all the crucial Senate showdowns. That includes a roughly $70 million advantage in Ohio and nearly $30 million in Maine and Texas, three top targets
Dennis Hastert, longest-serving Republican House Speaker and convicted child molester, dies at 84
The late House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was an accidental speaker. And it was a sheer accident that the world learned a dark secret about Hastert, years after he left Capitol Hill. It was twenty years ago, almost to the date. House Republicans were on the verge of losing their majority in the 2006 midterms. And their Speaker, Dennis Hastert, was in meltdown. HIGHEST-RANKING US OFFICIAL TO EVER SERVE JAIL TIME, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT DEAD AT 84 Word had just broken that then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) had sent inappropriate messages to high school-age male teens, serving as House pages. The Republican-led House was meeting on September 29, 2006, trying to escape town so the GOP could defend their majority. But nothing was going right for Republicans. The public was growing weary of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Democrats were poised to retake the House in November. Yours truly and Deirdre Walsh — then of CNN — spotted the portly Hastert lumbering across Statuary Hall toward the Speaker’s office. “Did he call you?” Walsh asked Hastert about Foley. “What are you going to do about it?” I inquired. “We’ll talk about that shortly,” mumbled Hastert under his breath, his wide glasses nearly tumbling over the bridge of his nose as he huffed into the Speaker’s suite. An hour later, Hastert, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and other top Republicans convened a brief press conference to tout a national security bill they just passed. The legislation was designed as the GOP sendoff as lawmakers went home to campaign. “Ok, we’ll take questions. Only on the bill,” instructed Frist. “Only on the bill.” No one even squeaked. Finally, I piped up. “We have questions about other subjects,” I announced, determined to ask about Foley. “Alright,” said Frist, shoving back from the table. The Tennessee Republican knew what was coming. Frist was happy he wouldn’t have to address Foley. That was something for Hastert. Especially since Frist planned to run for President in 2008. I inquired about Foley. Hastert muttered a non-answer which was barely usable for broadcast. He mumbled something about him not being “very happy” about Foley. But it was a soundbite from the Speaker of the House on the scandal, right as a bloodied GOP hit the exits for the midterm campaign. Someone then quickly adjourned the press conference. And that was it. FORMER REPUBLICAN HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT DEAD AT 84 A few days later, local reporters in Illinois pressed Hastert about how he handled the Foley matter. Back in Washington, asked one of the Speaker’s aides why Hastert – as a former teacher and coach – wasn’t more aggressive protecting the teen pages. We may have found out why years later. Eighty-four year-old Dennis Hastert died of natural causes over the weekend. The late Speaker is one of the most ignominious figures in American politics. He was the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history, wielding the gavel from 1999 to 2007. Hastert stumbled into the Speakership, rising thanks to the missteps of others. Yet despite his years in Congress, what we learned about Hastert nearly a decade after he left office revealed him to be one of the most grotesque persons to ever serve in Congress. In fact, Hastert is the highest-serving U.S. official to ever serve jail time. Virtually no one knew it, but Hastert was an unbridled sexual predator. Known as “Coach” rather than “Mr. Speaker” to his Capitol colleagues, Hastert preyed on teenage boys when he taught high school in the 1960s and 1970s. Hastert was never implicated in the page scandal. The House nixed the program soon afterwards, even though it was nearly as old as the republic. But in retrospect, how Hastert fumbled what was going on with the House pages shockingly added up later. Democrats won the House handily in the 2006 midterms. Hastert didn’t run – and probably wouldn’t have won – a leadership race in the new Congress. He stuck around as rank-and-file member for a few months and resigned in late 2007. Few heard much from Hastert after he departed Congress. Such was his style. He shunned interviews as Speaker and was rarely even spotted in the Capitol corridors. To defend his reticence with the press corps, the Speaker proclaimed that he was more of a “listener.” And then Hastert’s otherwise bland, nearly forgotten Speakership took a dark turn in 2015. Federal banking regulators flagged Hastert’s curious withdrawals of staggering amounts of cash. They suspected the transactions signaled that someone could be blackmailing the former Speaker. So they investigated. But that’s how it came to light that Hastert was actually paying hush money to conceal his sexual transgressions with minors. The feds indicted Hastert on charges of lying to investigators and evading banking laws. He later pleaded guilty to the bank crimes. Prosecutors dropped the charge of making false statements. Federal Judge Thomas Durkin declared that the former Speaker was “a serial child molester.” In court, Hastert admitted that he “mistreated athletes” and “took advantage” of those he was supposed to mentor. Prosecutors never charged Hastert in connection with sex crimes. He served 13 months of a 15-month sentence at a federal facility in Rochester, MN. It’s remarkable that someone who operated at this level of American government obscured such a hideous secret for so long. And as instructive as the day nearly 20 years ago when the Foley scandal broke and Republicans were on the verge of losing the House, unceremoniously terminating Hastert’s Speakership — the day that propelled him into the leadership is even more illuminating. Republicans nearly lost the House in the 1998 midterms. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) was toxic and Republicans showed him the door. In late 1998, Republicans tapped then-Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA), chairmanof the Appropriations Committee, to become Speaker in 1999. But then came December 19, 1998. The Saturday before Christmas. I was on the job on 9/11. I was on the job on January
Trump clears way for Fort Hood terrorist to face Army firing squad nearly 17 years after massacre
President Donald Trump has cleared the way for the Fort Hood terrorist to face an Army firing squad, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday, nearly 17 years after a deadly rampage. “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009,” Parnell wrote on X. “He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack. “ Nidal Malik Hasan, a former army officer, killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire. Where the death penalty has been used before and since that attack, Hasan’s death, if carried out, will mark the first time a president has successfully signed off on a U.S. military execution since 1961, a penalty reserved for members of the U.S. military as the gravest use of a court-marshal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. FOX FILES TAKES AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT FORT HOOD KILLINGS Pvt. John Bennett was last executed by hanging on April 13, 1961, after he attempted to murder an 11-year-old girl in Austria. President George W. Bush also approved of a military execution but was stopped by a federal court in 2008. In Hasan’s case, he took a pistol and a 0.357 revolver with him to a mosque where he attended noon prayers. He then drove to a a soldier readiness processing facility, an administrative building, full of what Hasan knew were going to be unarmed soldiers. After shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Hasan unloaded into “the greatest density of soldiers,” according to witness statements. “I shot to kill,” Hasan told the Sanity Board report. Hasan was eventually detained after engaging in a fire fight with law enforcement, sustaining multiple gun wounds. He was apprehended and rushed to intensive care. According to the sanity report, he denied experiencing depressive, manic, psychotic, anxiety or cognitive symptoms during the attack. Hasan was court marshaled four years later and sentenced to death. ALLEGED FORT HOOD SHOOTER FREQUENTED LOCAL STRIP CLUB “In Hasan’s sentencing, lead prosecutor Col. Michael Mulligan rested the government’s case on the morning of Aug. 27, after two days of emotional testimony from surviving widows and parents of some of those murdered, Nov. 5, 2009,” the Army’s press release stated. “One of the witnesses, Joleen Cahill, said her husband, retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill, had given his life in an effort to stop Hasan. She spoke of the devastation experienced by her family in the time following the shooting.” As a part of the press release, the Ford Hood Public Affairs Office explained that Hasan’s case would be automatically appealed, a part of the process for any death sentence. “Given that the death sentence was imposed, the military justice system requires this case to be automatically appealed to the U.S. Army Criminal Court of Appeals and then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces,” the press release added. After a court upheld the death sentence in early 2025, representation for Hasan appealed to the Supreme Court, citing procedural objections to how the trial was run, but that review was denied. In the time since, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the execution. With President Trump’s approval, the Army secretary will set the execution’s time and place, Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, said. “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.