Sotomayor breaks with Jackson in Supreme Court decision over Trump cuts to federal workforce
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent in a Supreme Court order handed down on Tuesday stood out enough that it prompted one of her liberal colleagues to voice disagreement with her. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said in a brief concurrence that the high court’s 8-1 order clearing the way for President Donald Trump to continue downsizing the government was the right decision. “I agree with Justice Jackson that the President cannot restructure federal agencies in a manner inconsistent with congressional mandates,” Sotomayor wrote. “Here, however, the relevant Executive Order directs agencies to plan reorganizations and reductions in force ‘consistent with applicable law’ … and the resulting joint memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management reiterates as much.” WHY JUSTICE JACKSON IS A FISH OUT OF WATER ON THE SUPREME COURT Sotomayor’s remarks were included as part of a short two-page order from the Supreme Court saying the executive order Trump signed in February directing federal agencies to plan for “large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law” was likely lawful. The Supreme Court said it had no opinion at this stage on the legality of any actual job cuts and that that question was not before the high court. But Jackson felt differently, according to her 15-page dissent affixed to the order. Jackson, the most junior justice and an appointee of former President Joe Biden, said a lower court judge was right to pause any further reductions to the federal workforce. Jackson lectured her colleagues for thinking otherwise. FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS HALT TO TRUMP ADMIN’S CFPB TERMINATIONS “That temporary, practical, harm-reducing preservation of the status quo was no match for this Court’s demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this President’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture,” Jackson said. Any future government downsizing would come on top of thousands of government employees already losing their jobs or opting to accept buy-out plans as part of Trump’s stated goals to scale down the federal government and make it run more efficiently. The Supreme Court’s order arose from a lawsuit brought by labor organizations and nonprofits, who alleged that the president’s decision to dramatically slash the federal workforce infringed on Congress’s authority over approving and funding government jobs. The order was issued on an emergency basis and is only temporary. It will remain in place while the Trump administration appeals the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Biden doctor dodges questions in speedy House closed-door interview
Former White House physician Kevin O’Connor’s closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee ended after less than an hour on Wednesday morning, with the doctor giving investigators virtually no new insights. O’Connor pleaded the Fifth Amendment to multiple questions about his time with former President Joe Biden during his sit-down. It resulted in a hasty end to what could have been an hours-long deposition. “I’m going to read the first two questions that were asked. ‘Were you ever told to lie about the president’s health?’ He pleaded the Fifth Amendment. He would not answer that question. The second question, ‘Did you ever believe President Biden was unfit to execute his duty?’” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters after the meeting. “Again, President Biden’s White House physician pled the fifth. This is unprecedented, and I think that this adds more fuel to the fire that there was a cover-up.” The doctor’s lawyers said O’Connor’s refusal to answer questions on Fifth Amendment grounds was not an admission of guilt, but rather a response to what they saw as an unprecedented investigatory scope that could have violated the bounds of patient-physician privilege. “This Committee has indicated to Dr. O’Connor and his attorneys that it does not intend to honor one of the most well-known privileges in our law – the physician patient privilege. Instead, the Committee has indicated that it will demand that Dr. O’Connor reveal, without any limitations, confidential information regarding his medical examinations, treatment, and care of President Biden,” the attorney statement said. “Revealing confidential patient information would violate the most fundamental ethical duty of a physician, could result in revocation of Dr. O’Connor’s medical license, and would subject Dr. O’Connor to potential civil liability. Dr. O’Connor will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden.” The House Oversight Committee has been investigating whether Biden’s former top aides covered up evidence of his mental and physical decline while in office. Biden’s allies have denied such allegations. But Comer suggested to reporters that O’Connor’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment could have been evidence to the contrary. “Most people invoke the fifth when they have criminal liability. And so that’s what would appear on the surface here,” he said. “We’re going to continue to move forward. Obviously, I think his actions today speak loud and clear.” But O’Connor’s lawyers wrote in their statement, “We want to emphasize that asserting the Fifth Amendment privilege does not imply that Dr. O’Connor has committed any crime. In fact, to the contrary, as our Supreme Court has emphasized: ‘One of the Fifth Amendment’s basic functions is to protectinnocent men who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.’” Meanwhile, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who made a surprise appearance at the interview and was the only lawmaker there, save for Comer, defended O’Connor’s use of the Fifth Amendment. “As someone who has served as a criminal defense attorney and actually been in courtrooms, it’s kind of astounding to hear someone say, if you invoke the Fifth Amendment, that is only because you are guilty,” Crockett said. “We have a constitutional right that anyone who may be under fire can invoke. And unfortunately, with this rogue DOJ, it has decided that it wants to run a contemporaneous investigation, criminal investigation, involving the doctor – I think he did what any good lawyer would advise him to do.” O’Connor’s lawyers have asked the committee to pause its investigation while the Department of Justice (DOJ) probe is underway.
Dems say their increasingly ‘frustrated’ base is mobilized in the fight against Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
MANCHESTER, N.H. – The all-Democrat congressional delegation in swing state New Hampshire is teaming up to target President Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful bill” that he signed into law. “The big beautiful betrayal of the American people” is how longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the dean of the delegation, described the sweeping Republican-crafted domestic policy package. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., charged that the tax cuts and spending measure, which passed the House and Senate last week by razor-thin margins along nearly party-line votes in the GOP-controlled chambers, was “immoral, irrational, and impractical.” Rep. Chris Pappas, who’s running in next year’s midterm elections in the race to succeed the retiring Shaheen, argued that the bill is “a disaster for the American people.” POLITICAL FIGHT OVER ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ SHIFTS TO CAMPAIGN TRAIL First-term Rep. Maggie Goodlander claimed that “this bill is going to jack up the cost of living for tens of thousands of people across this state.” The new law is stuffed full of Trump’s 2024 campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. It includes extending his signature 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. The measure also provides billions for border security and codifies the president’s controversial immigration crackdown. WHAT’S ACTUALLY IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ However, the $3.4 trillion legislative package is also projected to surge the national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade. Additionally, the legislation also restructures Medicaid – the nearly 60-year-old federal program that provides health coverage to roughly 71 million low-income Americans. The changes to Medicaid, as well as cuts to food stamps, another one of the nation’s major safety net programs, were drafted in part as an offset to pay for extending Trump’s tax cuts. The measure includes a slew of new rules and regulations, including work requirements for many of those seeking Medicaid coverage. For weeks, Democrats have been blasting Republicans over the Medicaid and social safety net cuts. “This is a big bill, and it’s got a lot of really big provisions that are going to cause even more pain to people in our state who are already struggling with the high cost of living,” Goodlander said in a Fox News Digital interview. She charged that “it includes the biggest cuts to health care in American history” in order “to pay for another big tax cut for people who don’t need it.” The delegation teamed up on Tuesday in New Hampshire’s largest city at Waypoint, which notes that it’s the state’s longest-running home and community-based care charitable organization. Waypoint officials noted that roughly three-quarters of the people they service are on Medicaid. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING Hassan said voters in New Hampshire are “mobilized” against the measure. “The calls are coming in overwhelmingly against this bill to our offices,” the senator said. “The outreach to our office has come from people from all political perspectives, people who self-identify as a Republican or a Trump voter or an independent or a Democrat.” However, with Republicans in control of the White House, the House and the Senate, congressional Democrats have little power or leverage to fight Trump’s second-term agenda. That is increasingly frustrating the Democrats’ base. “I don’t know if fighting dirty is the term, but certainly people are getting frustrated,” a New Hampshire-based progressive activist told Fox News Digital. The activist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, urged the state’s all Democrat congressional delegation to “introduce a thousand floor amendments, throw sand in the gears, do something, be more outspoken.” Another Granite State-based activist, who also asked for anonymity, said that many progressives feel they “are not being serviced by the current Democratic Party.” “There is no hope for these people unless we see candidates emerge in primaries that represent universal free healthcare and the other slate of issues that people associate with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns,” the activist said. HOW MUCH THE ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ WILL CUT YOUR TAXES Republicans have blasted Democrats for voting against the measure, as they spotlight the tax cuts in the package. The New Hampshire Republican Party has targeted the delegation, and Pappas in particular, for their votes. “New Hampshire liberal Chris Pappas just voted for the largest tax hike in American history,” the state party charged in a social media post. However, Pappas told Fox News last week that “I support targeted tax cuts for working people, for our small businesses and to make sure we are targeting that relief to the people that need it, not to billionaires, to the biggest corporations.” A memo from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), released minutes after the final House passage of the bill last Thursday, argued that “every Democrat voted to hurt working families and to protect the status quo.” The NRCC, which is the campaign arm of the House GOP, emphasized that “House Republicans will be relentless in making this vote the defining issue of 2026.” That is fine with congressional Democrats, who aim to win back the House majority next year. Goodlander, who is up for a second two-year congressional term in next year’s midterms, told Fox News “the bottom line is this bill is definitely going to be on the ballot in 2026, and it’s going to be a central focus of the work I’m doing, because the crisis that we’re up against is a cost crisis, and this bill is going to jack up costs across the board.”
Lawmakers demand ‘immediate’ probe into anti-ICE tracking app: ‘Target on their backs’
FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans is calling for an “immediate” probe into an app that allows people to track federal immigration actions in real time. House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams, R-Texas, and Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, said the ICEBlock app “paints targets” on the backs of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents throughout the U.S., and asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether the program’s creators are violating federal law. “We are disturbed to learn that the developers of this app may be encouraging people to interfere with and evade lawful ICE operations designed to remove criminals from our streets. While the creators of this app claim to promote ‘awareness,’ their actions actively undermine the integrity of our justice system,” their letter to Bondi said. “The development and use of this app is not simply neighborhood awareness; it is a blatant interference with agency operations that has the potential to put government agents in danger and even cost them their lives.” NEW REPORT REVEALS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION POPULATION HIT NEW HIGH DURING BIDEN-ERA CRISIS The memo was signed by five other House lawmakers: Reps. Randy Weber, R-Texas; Michael Rulli, R-Ohio; Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.; Mark Alford, R-Mo., and Brad Finstad, R-Minn. It comes as the Trump administration’s severe crackdown on illegal immigration continues to be a political flashpoint between the right and left. Both sides have accused the other of acting outside the scope of federal law. Democrats have claimed the Trump administration is using dubious legal justifications to carry out President Donald Trump’s deportation goals, while Republicans argue that left-wing officials’ opposition to ICE amounts to impeding federal authorities. The ICEBlock app appears to be another bid to block federal immigration authorities. Its description on the Apple App Store reads, “Stay informed about reported ICE sightings, within a 5 miles radius of your current location, in real-time while maintaining your privacy. ICEBlock is a community-driven app that allows you to share and discover location-based reports without revealing any personal data.” ICE AGENTS TARGETED IN 2 AMBUSH ATTACKS IN RECENT DAYS Bondi herself warned developer Joshua Aaron to “watch out” in an appearance on “Hannity.” Aaron told Los Angeles Magazine he created the app to “fight back” against what he saw as a rise in authoritarian tactics. “Imagine you’re walking down the street, and a notification comes up that says, ‘ICE spotted four blocks ahead’…Instead of continuing down that path, you can turn left or turn around and avoid the situation altogether,” he told the outlet. The lawmakers’ letter said, “ICE operations are designed to remove dangerous criminals from our streets. This app, labeled as an ‘early warning system,’ deliberately alerts the public to the whereabouts of ICE agents, which gives individuals who are here illegally or have a criminal record time to hide or evade apprehension.” “This app not only hinders criminal apprehension efforts but also makes the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security’s mission of protecting public safety more difficult,” they wrote. BORDER AGENT AMBUSH SHOWS DEMS NEED TO ‘TONE DOWN RHETORIC,’ WHITE HOUSE SAYS, PUSHING AOC TO MEET WITH ICE CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP They argued that public knowledge of ICE raids led to the chaos in Los Angeles, when protesters clashed with law enforcement for several days. “Given the severity of this issue, we respectfully request that the Department of Justice begin an immediate investigation into ‘ICEBlock’ and its developers to determine whether it violates federal laws pertaining to obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting fugitives,” they wrote. Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for comment. Fox News Digital also reached out to the developer of ICEBlock via the app’s website.
Vance unleashes on socialist Mamdani in fiery patriotic speech: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’
Vice President JD Vance slammed socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during a speech over the Fourth of July holiday weekend for what he called insulting the U.S. on its “most sacred day.” “Today is July 5th, 2025, which means, as all of you know, that yesterday we celebrated the 249th anniversary of the birth of our nation,” Vance said Saturday in an address before the conservative think tank Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award Dinner in San Diego. “Now, the person who wishes to lead our largest city had, according to multiple media reports, never once publicly mentioned America’s Independence Day in earnest. But when he did so this year, this is what he said, and this is an actual quote.” Vance then continued to read Mamdani’s Independence Day social media post, which read in part: “America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I am proud of our country, even as we constantly strive to make it better.” The vice president, who has not shied away from calling on political leaders across the world to show gratitude to the U.S. since Inauguration Day, remarked that there was “no gratitude in those words” and “no sense of owing something to this land and the people who turned its wilderness into the most powerful nation on earth.” DEM SOCIALIST’S NYC PRIMARY UPSET SIGNALS ‘GENERATIONAL’ SHIFT IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, STRATEGISTS SAY “I wonder, has he ever read the letters from boy soldiers in the Union Army to parents and sweethearts that they’d never see again?” Vance continued. “Has he ever visited the grave site of a loved one who gave their life to build the kind of society where his family could escape racial theft and racial violence? Has he ever looked in the mirror and recognized that he might not be alive were it not for the generosity of a country he dares to insult on its most sacred day?” FORMER PRESIDENT CONGRATULATES DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST ON NYC PRIMARY WIN: ‘I’M WISHING YOU MUCH SUCCESS’ “Who the hell does he think that he is?” Vance said. Democratic socialist Mamdani trounced his top competitor, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, at the polls in the Democratic primary in June, becoming the party’s nominee for mayor. Mamdani’s victory is viewed as the Democratic Party moving further to the left in New York City after national voters sounded off in the 2024 election that the party’s embrace of some left-wing policies alienated Americans. DEMS AT A CROSSROADS AS ESTABLISHMENT PLANS ‘PROJECT 2029’ WHILE SOCIALIST CANDIDATE WINS NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY Vance added in his San Diego speech that Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, and his family had experienced firsthand fleeing a foreign nation’s dictatorship before finding refuge in the U.S., and yet the mayoral candidate still described America as incomplete and a contradiction. “Zohran Mamdani’s father fled Uganda when the tyrant Idi Amin decided to ethnically cleanse his nation’s Indian population,” Vance said. “Mamdani’s family fled violent racial hatred, only for him to come to this country – a country built by people he never knew, overflowing with generosity to his family, offering a haven from the kind of violent ethnic conflict that is commonplace in world history, but it is not commonplace here – and he dares on our 249th anniversary to congratulate it by paying homage to its ‘incompleteness,’ and to its, as he calls it, ‘contradiction.’” Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Vance’s remarks.
SCOOP: Oklahoma gubernatorial race heats up early with $1.6M ad buy for ‘America First’ candidate
FIRST ON FOX: The 2026 midterm elections are still over 16 months away, but a super PAC supporting Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall’s gubernatorial campaign is already making a big play with a $1.6 million ad buy. Starting on Wednesday, July 9, the Oklahoma Conservative Coalition is making an eight-week, $1.6 million advertising investment in broadcast, cable, satellite and streaming statewide, Fox News Digital has learned. “Charles McCall is the only America First and Oklahoma First candidate in this race with a proven conservative record,” Erinn Mahathey, spokesperson for Oklahoma Conservative Coalition, told Fox News Digital. “This is just the beginning. With the right experience, real momentum, and a winning message, McCall is built to go the distance and deliver real results for Oklahoma.” With less than one year until the Republican primary, two candidates have emerged as potential front-runners in the race for Oklahoma’s highest office. As a reliably red state, the winner of the Republican primary will largely be expected to win the general election that November. SCOOP: NEW REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE IN KENTUCKY TO TEAM UP WITH TOP TRUMP ALLY McCall announced his gubernatorial bid earlier this year, running on his record of “working hand-in-hand with Governor Stitt and President Trump” to build a “stronger Oklahoma rooted in an America First agenda.” TRUMP ALLY ANNOUNCES RECORD-SHATTERING FUNDRAISING HAUL IN BID FOR ALABAMA GOVERNOR Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has announced his own campaign for governor, running a conservative platform touting his leadership as attorney general against the “Biden Administration’s radical overreach” and promising to stand “strong with President Trump.” However, the McCall campaign has criticized Drummond for donating to the newly elected Oklahoma Democrat Party Chair John Waldron and for voting to delay enforcement of a new ban on transgender surgery for minors amid a pending preliminary hearing in a federal lawsuit. According to The Oklahoman, Drummond said the agreement “simply allows more time to mount the strongest possible defense” and “should in no way be interpreted as a concession of any kind.” In a 4-4 vote earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Oklahoma State Supreme Court’s decision that St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in Oklahoma City, a religious charter school, receiving public funds would be unconstitutional. Incumbent Gov. Kevin Stitt, R-Okla., and Drummond were locked in a feud over the landmark case, as the two continued a long-standing clash over policy and politics in Oklahoma, including debates over constitutional authority and local policy initiatives. Stitt, who serves as vice chair of the National Governors Association, is term-limited as Oklahoma governor in 2026. Earlier this year, the Conservative Political Action Conference endorsed McCall’s campaign, and his super PAC highlighted his conservative policy as House speaker, on issues like protecting American farmland, school choice, tax cuts and pro-life bills. Oklahoma House Rep. Cyndi Munson, small business owner Leisa Mitchell Haynes and former Oklahoma State Senator Mike Mazzei have also declared their gubernatorial campaigns. Fox News Digital reached out to Drummond for comment. Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
Vulnerable House Dem facing heat for ‘dodging’ questions about socialist Mamdani’s rise
As socialist Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral primary win continues to send shock waves through the political landscape, so-called moderate Democrats have increasingly faced calls to disavow or explain their support for the surging candidate, including Rep. Josh Riley, who so far has declined to publicly distance himself. Riley, who represents New York’s 19th Congressional District, which is ranked by the Cook Political report as “Lean Democrat” heading into next year’s midterms, “dodged reporters” on his stance on Mamdami in late June, Axios reported. “Despite Mamdani being a completely out of touch radical, Josh Riley won’t condemn him,” the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted out in an email the next day. “Perhaps that’s because he agrees with Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda?” Mamdani’s victory, on a platform consisting of a laundry list of far-left agenda items, including city-run grocery stores, defunding the police, safe injection sites and raising the minimum wage to $30, has highlighted a schism within the Democratic Party, with some elected officials supporting him and some condemning him. NEW YORK DEMOCRATS SAY MAYORAL CANDIDATE ZOHRAN MAMDANI ‘TOO EXTREME TO LEAD’ Fox News Digital reached out to Riley’s campaign for comment on specifically where he stands on Mamdani’s campaign but did not receive a response. “Josh Riley won’t denounce dangerous socialist Zohran Mamdani because they share the same far-left agenda,” NRCC spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told Fox News Digital in a statement. “His campaign is bankrolled by the exact same radical donors backing Mamdani.” TRUMP TORCHES ‘100% COMMUNIST LUNATIC’ MAMDANI, DEM BACKERS AFTER SHOCK NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY WIN A Fox News Digital review of FEC records did show some overlap between Riley and Mamdani donors, including over $10,000 in contributions to Riley from several individuals who also donated to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Spending records show the two candidates also have shared vendors, including Grassroots Analytics and Scale to Win, for fundraising and compliance consulting. Riley and Mamdani share a few notable endorsements as well from far-left groups, including MoveOn.org, the New York Working Families Party and the New York Progressive Action Network. The race in NY-19, which will come as the GOP attempts to hold a razor-thin majority in the House, is expected to be highly competitive. Former VP Kamala Harris narrowly edged out President Donald Trump in 2024 in the district by a single percentage point. Riley’s hesitation to take a firm stance in support of Mamdani and his policies represents a growing trend in the national political conversation. Some believe that progressives like Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are the face of the party while other Democrats have attempted to moderate and steer away from far-left positions. “It is a political realignment that overwhelmingly favors Republicans and Mamdani’s stunning win just makes the problem worse for Democrats,” columnist David Marcus recently wrote for FoxNews.com. “Republicans will have reason to rejoice if Democrats can’t tac to the center, but for New York City, there is no joy; fewer than half a million radical leftists have all but elected a socialist to govern a city of 9 million souls, and if Chicago and San Francisco are anything to learn from, it won’t end well. “Time is running out for the old establishment Democrats, and one must begin to wonder if they are ever going to even try to fight back.”
Biden’s doctor arrives for closed-door interview in House health probe
Biden White House Physician Kevin O’Connor arrived for a closed-door deposition Wednesday. The House Oversight Committee wants answers from Biden’s former doctor. He did not answer a battery of questions from Fox News about doctor-patient confidentiality or the former president’s mental state as he walked into the meeting. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, the progressive firebrand who recently lost her bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, made a surprise appearance at the event, though she said nothing to reporters on the way in. She and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., were the only lawmakers seen arriving. The White House has waived executive privilege, making it harder for him to refuse to testify on the grounds that his conversations with the president were protected. WHITE HOUSE WAIVES EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGES FOR BIDEN DOCTOR KEVIN O’CONNOR IN COVER-UP PROBE Still, O’Connor’s lawyers warn that testifying could violate doctor-patient confidentiality and risk his medical license. GOP Sen. Roger Marshall, a physician, said both sides have valid concerns, but the committee called it a stall tactic and warned that no-showing could lead to contempt charges. Republicans want to know what tests were done—and whether Biden’s inner circle pressured O’Connor to say he was fit for office. BIDEN AIDES PUSHES FOR EARLY DEBATE TO SHOW OFF BIDEN’S ‘STRENGTH’, EXPOSES TRUMP’S ‘WEAKNESS,’ BOOK SAYS Jill Biden’s so-called “work husband,” Anthony Bernthal, has been subpoenaed after backing out, with top insiders—Ron Klain, Steve Ricchetti, and Ashley Williams—next in line. So far, the committee has held just one interview — with former Domestic Policy Director Neera Tanden, who said she was authorized to use the autopen but didn’t know who in the president’s inner circle gave the final green light. Comer said Wednesday, “We have a lot of questions. i think everybody in America has questions about, learning about the recent cancer diagnosis…did he have cancer while he was president? With the Tapper book and what we believe is going to be in the Jean-Pierre book, that would suggest that people were covering up the president’s mental decline. But yet Dr. O’Connor’s reports were glowing with, you know, how healthy the president was.” “I think the president, the state of the president’s health is the transparency that we all expect. The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. The American people have a right to know the health condition of the president, both physical and mental,” he said. “There’s more and more evidence that comes out every day that would suggest that the president was in a pretty severe mental decline. So we’re going to ask about that and see what the doctor has to say.” Comer said he did not “believe” O’Connor could “hide behind” doctor-patient confidentiality, citing Biden’s position as president.
The revolution will be livestreamed: How Zohran Mamdani won the NYC primary online
Socialist 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory shocked the Democratic Party establishment this June, as his campaign played into the hands of an evolving – and chronically online – New York City electorate. Scrolling through Mamdani’s social media, his TikTok and Instagram pages resemble that of a New York City influencer. From the film-like filters and consistent fonts on his vertical videos to the cameos from celebrities, including model Emily Ratajkowski and comedian Bowen Yang, Mamdani’s videos have amassed millions of views. However, if his social media strategy wasn’t enough to attract voters’ attention, the primary colors of his campaign graphics are likely to turn heads. Mamdani’s cobalt blue, poster-like red and taxi-cab or MetroCard yellow are bright compared to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s muted red, white and blue color scheme. Mamdani’s politics are a departure from the establishment Democratic Party, as the self-described Democratic socialist campaigned on taxing the 1% and creating government-run grocery stores, among other radical proposals. If Mamdani wins in November, he will not just become the first Muslim mayor, but the first millennial mayor of New York City. DEMS AT A CROSSROADS AS ESTABLISHMENT PLANS ‘PROJECT 2029’ WHILE SOCIALIST CANDIDATE WINS NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. She was 29 years old when she took office in 2019, in a blue wave that elected progressive “Squad” members during President Donald Trump‘s first midterm elections. DEM SOCIALIST’S NYC PRIMARY UPSET SIGNALS ‘GENERATIONAL’ SHIFT IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, STRATEGISTS SAY Known by her supporters and detractors as AOC, the progressive Democrat was quick to seize on her millennial social media sixth sense. She has made plenty of headlines from her off-script Instagram lives and stories as her supporters and constituents chime in with questions for the Bronx and Queens representative. The social media strategy is one used by influencers, but in an ever-evolving media landscape, more politicians have seized on viral moments to send their message to the masses. Trump successfully used new media during the 2024 presidential election, appearing on long-form podcasts and creating viral TikTok videos. Ocasio-Cortez, along with her fellow Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, endorsed Mamdani ahead of New York City’s primary election. On primary day in New York City, Ocasio-Cortez hosted an Instagram Live conversation with Mamdani, who had a simple but effective message: “If I win, that rent’s getting frozen. If Andrew Cuomo wins, the rent’s going up.” On the Friday before the election, Mamdani walked the entire length of Manhattan, shaking hands with ordinary New Yorkers and supporters alike. However, Mamdani didn’t just walk through Manhattan, he documented the journey, bringing his followers along for the ride just like an influencer would. The walk, from Inwood to Battery Park, has become somewhat of a rite of passage for New York City influencers over the past few years, as walking clubs like City Girls Who Walk NYC, and “Hot Girl Walks” have gained popularity in the fitness space. Mamdani appeared on the popular “Subway Takes” podcast, sharing his campaign pitch to Kareem Rahma’s 1 million followers. Additionally, he joined 25-year-old progressive Democrat star David Hogg for man-on-the-street-style interviews in Washington Square Park, the site of popular TikTok series like, “What’s Poppin?” Hogg recently left the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after stirring up tension over his $20 million plan to primary older incumbent Democrats he said were “asleep at the wheel” through his outside political group, Leaders We Deserve. Mamdani also created his own viral moments on the campaign trail, riding side-by-side on CitiBikes with NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, whom Mamdani cross-endorsed on the ranked-choice ballot to secure his win over Cuomo and when he posted his subway-to-courthouse wedding photos covered by The Cut. While another such article by The Cut, “It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl,” by Brock Colyar, carefully articulated the changing landscape and demographic of New York City, Mamdani also met “outer borough voters,” including older and immigrant New Yorkers, online. “One week ago today, we shocked the establishment and redrew the political map of New York City with a campaign relentlessly focused on the needs of working people,” Mamdani said in a social media video, speaking directly to his followers and supporters alike. In the video, Mamdani explained how he won back voters “many had written off,” including Trump voters and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams voters. Mamdani said he built a “coalition” campaign by speaking voters’ languages, or at least trying to, to reflect the “mosaic” of New York City. Speaking in Hindi in another two-minute video with his signature filter, Mamdani even broke down ranked-choice voting ahead of the primary by pouring juice into cups with his and Cuomo’s faces photoshopped on top, to show how consolidating his vote could land Mamdani a victory, and ranked-choice voting did just that.
Senate Republican moves to give US an edge on China in harvesting minerals for weapons systems
FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican wants to give the U.S. a leg up in its race against China and to ween the nation off of its reliance on imports of key raw materials needed for weapons systems. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., would like to fast-track the harvesting of raw materials in the U.S. needed for the nation’s defensive capabilities, and plans to blow through federal and judicial red tape to do it. Cotton plans to introduce legislation that would allow critical mineral mining projects deemed necessary to bolster the nation’s military and defensive readiness by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to skirt environmental laws and possible blockages by the courts. ‘WHO WOULDN’T WANT IT?’: NETANYAHU OPEN TO RECEIVING STEALTH BOMBERS, BUNKER-BUSTERS FROM US His bill is designed to give the U.S. an edge against China, the world’s largest producer of critical minerals like cobalt, lithium, graphite and other rare earth minerals used in weapons systems, electric vehicles and consumer electronics. Currently, China produces roughly 60% of the world’s critical mineral supply, and processes up to 90%. SEN. STEVE DAINES SAYS REGIME CHANGE IS THE BEST LONG-TERM PLAN IN IRAN “Current environmental laws put our readiness to counter Communist China at risk and waste taxpayer dollars on projects that stall out and die on the vine,” Cotton said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This bill will create jobs, better arm and prepare our soldiers, and spend taxpayer dollars more efficiently.” Cotton’s bill, dubbed the Necessary Environmental Exemptions for Defense Act, would create a waiver for mining activities and projects related to countering China and to allow the Pentagon to “operate with maximum agility and efficiency to ensure it is prepared to deter and, if necessary, fight and win a conflict with the Chinese Communist Party,” according to bill text first obtained by Fox News Digital. Among the regulations and environmental review standards that could be skirted with the waiver are the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and Federal Water Pollution Control Act. SENATE SHUTS DOWN KAINE’S ATTEMPT TO CHECK TRUMP’S WAR POWERS Cotton argued in his legislation that the aforementioned regulations “frequently and unnecessarily delay” the preparedness of the military without “substantial benefit to the environment or protected species,” and that time is of the essence when it comes to national defense. The projects that would fall under the umbrella of the regulation exemption include testing and production and deployment of technologies, systems or equipment and the construction, maintenance, expansion, or repair of facilities or Defense Department infrastructure, among others. It would also prevent projects from being snarled in the courts, as long as the initiative is deemed necessary for military preparedness by the Secretary of Defense. The bill fits into the White House’s broader plan to jump-start critical mineral mining in the country, be it through executive action, a bid to buy Greenland, a minerals agreement with Ukraine, or opening up more offshore mining in the Gulf of America. It also comes after President Donald Trump reached a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to resume trade of critical minerals after shipments were stopped earlier this year following the White House’s slew of tariffs against China and other countries.