Unearthed antisemitic, anti-Israel posts from Mamdani aide spark GOP outrage
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is facing heat from two New York lawmakers who spoke to Fox News Digital after a report showing a member of his transition team espoused vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments under the backdrop of Mamdani’s promises to combat antisemitism as mayor. Hassaan Chaudhary, according to a New York Post report on Sunday, has a social media presence littered with anti-Israel posts, including calling the country “barbaric,” using the term “Jew” as a slur, and praising Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Chaudhary, who listed himself as a political director for Mamdani’s transition team, apologized for the remarks, saying the decade-old posts don’t represent his current views and that he looks back on them with “regret.” However, two lawmakers who spoke to Fox News Digital blasted Mamdani’s association with Chaudhary and warned that it shows the socialist mayor-elect is not being serious when he pledges to combat antisemitism in New York City. PATRIOTS OWNER ROBERT KRAFT CALLS MAMDANI NYC ELECTION ‘SAD’ AND VICTORY SPEECH ‘DIVISIVE’ “Let’s be transparent — this isn’t some innocent staffing mistake,” New York Republican Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz told Fox News Digital. “This is who Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani is and what his transition team/incoming administration stands for.” “When the incoming Mayor surrounds himself with someone who uses language about Jews reminiscent of the 1930s, praises Ahmadinejad, and holds other abhorrent views, that’s not a red flag — that’s a flashing siren. Extremism isn’t a fringe element of Zohran Mamdani’s team; it’s the foundation he’s building/destroying City Hall on.” A Mamdani spokesperson told the New York Post that Chaudhary is a Muslim outreach director and not a political director, but did not say whether he would be fired. “These comments from over a decade ago are reprehensible and in no way reflect the views of the mayor-elect or this transition,” a Mamdani spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The mayor-elect has made this clear internally and consistently during the campaign and transition.” MAMDANI SLAMMED FOR JETTING TO ‘LUXURY RESORT’ FOR PUERTO RICO CONFERENCE DURING SHUTDOWN Inna Vernikov, a Republican New York City councilwoman, told Fox News Digital the situation shows that “useful idiots on the hard left have yet to realize that they’re just small pawns in a big and dangerous game.” Vernikov added, “The same agitators screaming in defense of Hamas would be thrown off a roof for their various gender identities. Zohran needs to get one thing clear: he is no longer a protester. He now has a city of 8 million to govern.” Mamdani faced heated criticism on the campaign trail for his long track record of criticizing Israel, dating back to his days in college, where he started his school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. Additionally, hundreds of rabbis signed onto a letter in the weeks before the election denouncing his campaign. Despite the outrage, Mamdani cruised to an election victory and has repeatedly promised to represent all New Yorkers, including the massive Jewish community in the city. “We will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism,” Mamdani said on election night, adding the next day that he takes the issue of antisemitism “incredibly seriously.” Still, Blumencranz told Fox News Digital that “personnel is policy” and that New Yorkers “better buckle up” if these are the type of people being recruited in the transition. “You don’t ‘accidentally’ hire a person who has spent years spewing this kind of hate,” Blumencranz told Fox News Digital. “The fact that Mamdani hasn’t immediately removed him tells every New Yorker exactly what kind of administration we’re about to get — one where bigotry is tolerated, where antisemitism is normalized, and where the most hateful voices are welcomed into the Gracie Mansion and City Hall.” The Mamdani team did not comment on Chaudhary’s current employment status. “Every resident of this city, Jewish or not, should be alarmed,” Blumencranz said. “This is dangerous, it’s divisive, and it’s a disgrace.”
Trump official fires back at Dem’s Epstein donor claim: ‘Totally different person’
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin clapped back after Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said he had taken money from someone named Jeffrey Epstein. The congresswoman dropped Zeldin’s name while listing figures and entities she said had taken money from “somebody” by the name of Jeffrey Epstein. Noting that she had her “team dig in very quickly,” she rattled off the following list: “Mitt Romney, the NRCC, Lee Zeldin, George Bush, WinRed, McCain-Palin, Rick Lazio.” Zeldin fired back in a post to X, noting that the donation to one of his former campaigns had nothing to do with the notorious late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. FAR-LEFT FIREBRAND SPENDS EYE-POPPING AMOUNT OF CAMPAIGN CASH ON LUXURY HOTELS, ‘TOP-TIER’ LIMO SERVICES “Yes, Crockett, a physician named Dr. Jeffrey Epstein (who is a totally different person than the other Jeffrey Epstein) donated to a prior campaign of mine,” Zeldin wrote, reposting another person’s post that featured footage of Crockett’s comments. Zeldin then exclaimed in all caps, “NO [clap emoji] FREAKIN [clap emoji] RELATION [clap emoji] YOU [clap emoji] GENIUS!!!” CROCKETT LUKEWARM ON AOC PRIMARYING SCHUMER, SAYS SHE DOESN’T SUBSCRIBE TO ‘AGEISM’ Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett’s office for comment. Zeldin, a Republican, lost the 2022 New York gubernatorial contest to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from early 2015 through early 2023, and he had previously served in the New York state Senate. TRUMP BLASTS REP. JASMINE CROCKETT AS ‘LOW IQ,’ JOKES SOMALIA SHOULD ‘TAKE BACK’ ILHAN OMAR CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP President Donald Trump has previously called Crockett “a very low-IQ person.”
Bipartisan plan aims to make the American Dream affordable again for millions of first-time homebuyers
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is working on making housing costs cheaper for middle- and lower-income Americans across the country. House Main Street Caucus Chairman Mike Flood, R-Neb., is teaming up with Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., on legislation they hope will finally give millions of homebuyers some relief, as the dream of ownership remains a distant goal for many. It would do so by targeting the federal government’s HOME Investments Partnership Program, which provides grants to state and local jurisdictions to build affordable housing. That program, Flood said, has not been significantly amended since the early 1990s. TRUMP’S RUMORED HOUSING EMERGENCY WOULD BE A ‘GAME-CHANGER,’ KEY GOP LAWMAKER SAYS “Traditionally, the program that we’re remodeling… has favored multifamily. But an apartment is not the American Dream. The American Dream is a single-family home,” he said. “And with these changes to the program, it’s my hope that these dollars will leverage the building of new homes, it will leverage the rehab of dilapidated structures, including homes, and it will make some multifamily opportunities even more attractive.” Asked how it would help a young couple buy their first home in his own home state, for example, Flood pointed out that “increased demand” for housing developers to meet strict existing codes for sewer systems, paved streets and stormwater systems has resulted in housing lot prices rising dramatically — particularly with recent years’ high inflation. LIZ PEEK: WHY EVERY ‘AFFORDABLE’ PROMISE FROM DEMOCRATS ENDS UP COSTING YOU MORE Shifting those costs to the state and local governments, he said, would help lower those costs. “The cost of a lot, before you even buy the ground, there’s already $25,000 in there. If the city of Columbus, Nebraska, gets $2.5 million from the Home Partnership program, the city can go in and expand stormwater and sewer and maybe even pavement and streets,” he explained. “And suddenly, instead of being a $50,000 lot, it’s a $20,000 lot. Instead of being a $300,000 home, you know, it’s a $270,000 home because the cost of that was ultimately given to the city, and the city used it to build city infrastructure, not making the developer do that.” Another focus was expanding who can qualify for the program, adjusted by the average income in a certain area. TRUMP’S 50-YEAR MORTGAGE JUST INTRODUCES A NEW KIND OF DEBT “The other thing we’re really focused on is making sure that communities that have a median income, that average, aren’t kicked out of the process simply because they want to put in affordable housing,” he said. “So we’re taking the average median income standard from 80% of the county average to 100%, to make communities that have all the nice amenities able to participate in the program.” Cleaver said in a statement on the legislation last month, “By revamping and revitalizing the HOME Program—one of our greatest tools to expand the supply of affordable housing for working-class families—we can ensure that affordable housing and the American Dream of homeownership are once again attainable from the heartland to the coasts.” Housing affordability has been a growing issue for some time, reaching a fever pitch just this year when the National Association of Realtors revealed the median age for a first-time home buyer is now a record 40 years old. First-time home buyers made up just 21% of home sales this year, the lowest number since 1981, according to the National Association of Realtors. When speaking with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Flood also credited President Donald Trump with pushing the issue to the forefront of the national conversation. “President Trump accelerated our success and our progress on this issue when he came out very forcefully earlier in the summer and said that housing affordability was one of the top goals of his administration,” he said.
Socialist group ‘By Any Means Necessary’ escalates campaign to ‘stop’ Turning Point USA
In a Sunday afternoon meeting called a “tribunal,” Yvette Felarca, a Berkeley, Calif., public school teacher and a local fixture among self-professed “anti-fascist” agitators, joyfully led about 40 members of the socialist organization By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) in an after-action report on the group’s “victory” last week in a bloody battle at the University of California, Berkeley against supporters of Turning Point USA. At the meeting’s end, Fox News Digital learned Felarca, once arrested for inciting a riot, moved for a vote on the next phase of the operation: to “stop” Turning Point USA chapters, not only on college campuses but also in public K–12 schools, beginning with Berkeley High School, where she teaches. The motion passed unanimously to “stop fascist recruiting in schools” by amplifying the work of “By Any Means Necessary,” which collects tax-deductible donations under the 501(c)(3) nonprofit umbrella of the Detroit-based nonprofit, Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality. The members closed the 90-minute meeting with one-word salutations. UC BERKELEY TPUSA MEMBERS NAVIGATE POLARIZED CAMPUS FOLLOWING PROTESTS AND ARRESTS “Solidarity!” said Felarca. This year, Democratic activists and far-left groups have increasingly exploited the term “fascist” as a sweeping label to justify denying political opponents their constitutional rights. The word was allegedly scrawled on the bullet casing left by the man arrested for killing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, in a chilling reminder of how language can be weaponized to rationalize violence. In November 2019, the Sacramento district attorney dismissed felony assault charges and misdemeanor rioting charges against Felarca and two co-defendants after requiring them to complete 90 hours of volunteer work. A video from a protest showed Felarca hitting and yelling at a man she opposed as a “Nazi” and “White nationalist” until he fell and Felarca’s allies pummeled and kicked him. At Sunday’s meeting, Felarca told fellow members that her response to Turning Point USA organizing at Berkeley HIgh School was, “What, no, no way.” Using the “fascist” term to vilify youth, Felarca continued: “And so, you know, I just think it’s super incumbent on us to, like, work, talk to, obviously, other teachers, but also, most importantly, students to really stop this and prevent Turning Point or any fascist organizing to take place.” The group talked about a protest activated this month against a new youth Turning Point USA chapter at Royal Oak High School in Royal Oak, Mich. Representatives from Berkeley High School and Berkeley Unified School District didn’t respond to requests for comment. ANTIFA VIOLENCE EXPOSES UC BERKELEY’S HYPOCRISY ON FREE SPEECH AND TOLERANCE “I know it’s possible to stop it, and if we take the same approach that we took to protesting Turning Point last week – to not just ignore this, because then they’ll just go away or, you know, but to also use collective action, and it was crazy, like, find ways to express collectively the power of the movement and not just leave it and hope that the administration will take care of it, because they’re clearly not,” Felarca said. “They’ve already approved the group. Then it’s super, super important that we do that.” The group’s members also voted unanimously to move forward with a plan to “stop and block” law enforcement officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In one plan, they agreed to order “ICE whistles,” increasingly used in neighborhoods in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City to alert residents that ICE officers are in the area. Felarca said they would brand the whistles with the “By Any Means Necessary” name. The escalation comes at a moment of intense scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has opened a federal investigation into whether “By Any Means Necessary” and allied groups engaged in an organized conspiracy to deny Turning Point USA participants their free speech rights through coercion and disruption at last week’s UC Berkeley event. Far from a spontaneous gathering, Fox News Digital reporting reveals the protest was premeditated and coordinated by a network of seven organizations, most of them enjoying tax-free benefits, at least six days before it occurred, signaling advance coordination. U.S. Assistant Attorney for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, who flew to Berkeley to lead the civil rights investigation into the case, is well familiar with Felarca and “By Any Means Necessary.” In 2018, her former law practice, Dhillon Law Group, won a lawsuit against Felarca for filing a frivolous restraining order against then-Berkeley College Republican president, Troy Worden, as Felarca led protests on campus against Trump, and an Alameda County Superior Court commissioner ordered Felarca to pay Worden $11,100 in legal fees. Earlier, in February 2017, “By Any Means Necessary” leaders bragged that they got right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos canceled from a talk on the campus of UC Berkeley. Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show” and spokesman for Turning Point USA, said the new escalation by Felarca and “By Any Means Necessary” is “fundamentally un-American” and represents a “conspiracy to silence the free speech of others.” CALIFORNIA WOMAN CHARGED IN CONNECTION WITH DISRUPTING APRIL TURNING POINT USA EVENT ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS “Turning Point USA has grown over the years not because we tried to silence others or that we engaged in some operation to shut the voices of others,” said Kolvet, who was a close friend of Kirk. “We grew because Charlie believed that our ideas were better, and that if more young people heard them they would be convinced and persuaded to believe them too.” Kolvet directly addressed the campaign by leaders of “By Any Means Necessary” against the constitutional rights of Turning Point USA members, saying, “Any organization formed or animated by a guiding mission to harass, heckle and attack events hosted by other groups — just because they don’t agree with their ideas — is fundamentally un-American and is engaging in a conspiracy to silence the free speech of others. This is especially egregious given that Turning Point USA’s events involve minors. These are young kids being
Mamdani keeps Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is keeping Jessica Tisch as commissioner of the New York City Police Department. “Today, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced the appointment of Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch to serve as the New York City Police Commissioner in his incoming administration,” Mamdani’s office said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the pair will “advance a coordinated approach to public safety built on partnership and shared purpose.” “That includes ensuring police officers remain focused on serious and violent crime, while strengthening the city’s response to issues like homelessness and mental health. A new Department of Community Safety will support this work while collaborating closely with the NYPD,” the office added. “As the 48th Commissioner of New York City Police Department, Commissioner Tisch has rooted out corruption in the upper echelons of the NYPD and led a department-wide focus on accountability and transparency, while delivering historic reductions in violent crime,” it also said. NYC MAYOR-ELECT MAMDANI DOUBLES DOWN ON NETANYAHU ARREST PLEDGE In his own statement, Mamdani said, “I look forward to working with Commissioner Jessica Tisch to deliver genuine public safety in New York City. “I have admired her work cracking down on corruption in the upper echelons of the police department, driving down crime in New York City, and standing up for New Yorkers in the face of authoritarianism,” Mamdani continued. “Together, we will deliver a city where rank-and-file police officers and the communities they serve alike are safe, represented, and proud to call New York their home.” MAMDANI’S FATHER SAYS HE WILL KEEP ‘ARM’S LENGTH’ FROM SON’S UPCOMING ADMINISTRATION “Thanks to the men and women of the NYPD, the strategies we deployed this year have delivered historic reductions in crime,” added Tisch. “I’ve spoken to Mayor-elect Mamdani several times, and I’m ready to serve with honor as his Police Commissioner. That’s because he and I share many of the same public safety goals for New York City: lowering crime, making communities safer, rooting out corruption, and giving our officers the tools, support, and resources they need to carry out their noble work.” Tisch was sworn in as NYPD commissioner in November 2024 by current New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mamdani’s office said under her leadership, murders are down “nearly 20 percent citywide year-to-date” and “more than 4,800 illegal guns [were] removed from the city’s streets in 2025.” Fox News’ Maria Paronich contributed to this report.
House Republican chairman refers Jack Smith’s former deputy to DOJ for prosecution
First on Fox: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, called on the Department of Justice on Wednesday to prosecute one of former special counsel Jack Smith’s lead attorneys, accusing him of obstructing a congressional investigation. Jordan said in the 19-page referral that Thomas Windom, a veteran federal prosecutor who was fired in the second Trump administration, declined to answer dozens of questions from committee staff after meeting with them twice behind closed doors this year. Windom cited his Fifth Amendment right and federal rules surrounding grand jury secrecy, among other reasons, for refusing to answer questions. Jordan said he was dissatisfied with those reasons and that at least one other similarly situated prosecutor, J.P. Cooney, had been more candid with his committee, signaling Windom was withholding more than he needed to. “Windom’s improper refusal to answer nearly all questions during his deposition obstructed the Committee’s fact-finding,” Jordan wrote. “As a senior assistant to Special Counsel Jack Smith, Windom possesses unique, firsthand information about the work of that Office. Yet, despite being given express authorization by DOJ on two separate occasions, Windom declined to answer questions during his deposition about topics necessary and relevant to the Committee’s inquiry.” The GOP-led committee inquired about a range of topics related to Windom’s work investigating Trump’s alleged efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election and supporting Smith as a former senior assistant special counsel. Congress has a long history of referring its investigative targets to the DOJ for criminal prosecution, but the department has no obligation to act on them. This referral marks the second from Jordan’s committee in as many months. In October, the chairman called on the DOJ to prosecute former CIA Director John Brennan, alleging he made false statements to Congress. Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Windom for comment. Windom’s lawyer told the committee during a deposition in September that his client had cooperated with the committee “in good faith” and that committee Republicans and the Department of Justice did not return the favor. The DOJ, the lawyer said, abandoned its typical practice of preventing line attorneys like Windom from testifying in Congress, especially without counsel. The committee, meanwhile, showed no “respect for, nor understanding” of federal obligations to keep grand jury material secret, the lawyer said. “Majority staff, operating with no meaningful oversight or checks, have engaged in an unserious, performative exercise, convened for political theater,” Windom’s lawyer said, adding that “they have intentionally placed him on the horns of an impossible dilemma, forcing him to choose between risking criminal prosecution for violating grand jury secrecy rules or, alternatively, risking criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress.”
GOP civil war erupts over shutdown politics in critical Senate race: ‘Not a winning formula’
Republicans in Georgia are locked in a bitter civil war revolving around the government shutdown and a critical primary race for a shot at unseating Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Though currently held by Ossoff, the Georgia Senate seat is considered highly competitive, with Republicans having a real chance of flipping the seat red in 2026. Ossoff won the seat in 2021 in a razor-thin runoff election, beating former Republican Sen. David Perdue by a margin of just 1.2%. The race is considered highly critical for Republicans to protect their Senate majority. This, however, has not kept Republicans from jumping headlong into a bitter feud over the freshly ended government shutdown last week. The controversy exploded when a political group aligned with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp released an attack ad criticizing Republican Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter over the government shutdown and suggested “political outsider” Derek Dooley, a former Tennessee football coach, is needed to set things straight. GEORGIA’S MIKE COLLINS NEEDLES OSSOFF IN NEW AD OVER SHUTDOWN’S TOLL ON AIRPORTS, WORKERS The ad asked, “What do Mike Collins, Buddy Carter and Jon Ossoff have in common? They all failed and shut down the government.” “It’s what happens when you send career politicians to D.C.,” the narrator states. The ad garnered quick criticism from sections of the Georgia Republican Party as a betrayal of President Donald Trump’s and the GOP’s national messaging on the shutdown being Democrats’ fault. Kemp, who is in the midst of his second term as governor, has endorsed Dooley in the primary race. Collins took to X, writing, “I’m not sure why the governor’s nonprofit 501(c)(4) would be using dark money to attack Republican members of the Georgia delegation by parroting the anti-Trump Democrat lie that ‘Republicans are to blame for the shutdown.’” “It’s not only contrary to the message from Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune and President Trump, but it’s also disconnected from reality,” wrote Collins. He went on: “Myself and Buddy Carter have done our job, and passed a clean, nonpartisan Continuing Resolution that funds the government.” A few days later, Collins’ campaign released a Veterans Day ad attacking Dooley for saying in an interview that he “probably went 20 years” without voting for a presidential candidate, including missing five opportunities to vote for Trump. The ad criticized Dooley for not voting while Georgia military service members “find a way to vote absentee.” VULNERABLE DEM SENATOR’S ‘GRASSROOTS’ CAMPAIGN POWERED BY OUT-OF-STATE CASH, MOSTLY BY COASTAL ELITES Dooley in turn accused Collins of “using Veterans Day to score political points,” which he said, “tells you everything you need to know about typical politicians.” He said that “like millions of others, I proudly got off the sidelines and voted for President Trump in 2024” and “unlike many career politicians in D.C., I’m focused on earning trust the right way: with honesty, humility, respect for all Georgians, and not accepting business as usual.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, Carter spokesperson Harley Adsit called the ad a “desperate attempt” by Dooley “to save his failing campaign.” Adsit accused Dooley of having “sold out to the radical left” and “pulling from Jon Ossoff’s playbook, attacking conservatives and turning his back on President Trump and Georgia’s hardworking families.” “[Carter] proudly voted to keep the government open — it’s Dooley, Jon Ossoff, and the Democrats playing shutdown politics. Georgians deserve a MAGA warrior, not puppets trying to please the establishment elite,” she added. Collins, meanwhile, told Fox News Digital: “Dooley is certainly an odd fellow.” “He’s been gone from our state for 25 years and his first attempt at gainful employment upon return is to run for office, but what’s even odder is his campaign’s decision to attack congressional Republicans and run counter to President Trump’s messaging, and frankly the reality, that Democrats indeed caused the shutdown,” said Collins, adding, “I’m not sure if he and his team’s hatred for Trump is driving their strategy or if it’s just a genuine ignorance of what’s going on at the federal level, but it is certainly not a winning formula for next November.” Meanwhile, in a statement to Fox News Digital, Dooley spokesman Connor Whitney framed him as the most viable candidate to flip the seat red by defeating Ossoff. “Political outsider Derek Dooley has the clear momentum in this race. From fundraising to grassroots support to high-profile endorsements, it is clear there is only one candidate that can take on Jon Ossoff next November,” said Whitney. He noted that Dooley himself has been “solely focused on blasting Jon Ossoff’s failed record and giving the people of Georgia a senator that actually represents their values,” adding, “that’s what he’ll continue to do when he’s the Republican nominee.” EX-GOP OFFICIAL TURNED DEMOCRAT TARGETS TRUMP IN BATTLEGROUND STATE GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH Whichever the outcome, the infighting spells trouble for Republicans. A Georgia GOP strategist told Fox News Digital, “The party in general needs to unify and not have a messy primary.” “Every day we have a primary fight is another day that Ossoff gets to vote the way that he did on the shutdown. It’s another day that he gets to stay out of the spotlight and we’re not hitting him,” the strategist said. “So, every day this goes on is a day that Jon Ossoff has won. And it just makes our jobs tougher come the summer when we finally have our nominee.” The strategist said Dooley is “kind of running out of time,” adding that he needed to have significantly out-fundraised Collins and Carter to establish himself as a “legit candidate.” The strategist said this exchange has demonstrated that Dooley “doesn’t understand” the dynamic of Trump’s Republican Party. “In Trump’s Republican Party, you earn trust by fighting, not hiding on Election Day. You’ve got to show that you’re part of the movement,” the strategist said, adding, “So, Dooley is in a bad spot right now.” Meanwhile, the strategist said, “Collins has a record, Collins has been elected before, Collins has stood
250 border agents to deploy to Louisiana for ‘Swamp Sweep,’ report says
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing to send 250 border agents to New Orleans for a two-month immigration crackdown operation called “Swamp Sweep,” according to documents obtained by The Associated Press and three people familiar with the matter. “Swamp Sweep,” which is expected to begin on Dec. 1, is reportedly aimed at arresting approximately 5,000 people across southeast Louisiana and into Mississippi. The reported operation marks the latest in a series of DHS illegal immigration crackdowns in cities across the country, including Chicago and Los Angeles. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who is closely aligned with President Donald Trump, recently discussed the possibility of federal agents working in his state during an appearance on “America Reports.” He noted that his state was “working closely with our federal partners” on immigration and crime crackdowns. DHS ‘BLITZES’ CHICAGOLAND, NETTING ‘MANY ARRESTS’ AS NOEM ONSITE FOR IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN “We do know that New Orleans is a place under which we’ve had illegal criminal activity, alien activity, in and around that city. Chief Conley, who is the chief of police from Kenner, has consistently had problems with illegal aliens conducting very violent crime in and around the city, in his city, and has been consistently working with the feds to try to crack that down,” Landry told Fox News’ Sandra Smith on Monday. “Look, people around Louisiana want their communities to be safe, irrespective of whether it’s criminal or illegal. Aliens conducting violence or American citizens or Louisiana citizens. If you go out there and break the law, we’re gonna put you in jail,” Landry later added. NEW ICE DETENTION FACILITY ‘LOUISIANA LOCKUP’ OPENS AT NOTORIOUS PRISON Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley, who Landry said is working closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Louisiana State Police, recently spoke about a community safety operation that federal agents were also involved in. According to Conley, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and ICE took “13 to 15 people into their custody.” “You know, we’ve gotten complaints for the last three years on the lawlessness and the nuisance crimes that have been occurring at the lakefront. We’ve had a strong presence, we patrolled it, we’ve sighted people, but it just wasn’t enough. The conduct was escalating, citizens were getting harassed and bullied, strong-armed, and enough is enough,” Conley said in a video posted to the Kenner Police Department’s X page. U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who has overseen other immigration enforcement operations under Trump, has reportedly been tapped to lead operation Swamp Sweep. Documents reviewed by the AP show that Border Patrol teams are set to go across neighborhoods in southeast Louisiana, stretching from New Orleans through Jefferson, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes and as far north as Baton Rouge. There are also plans for federal agents to go into southeastern Mississippi. In preparation for the operation, federal agents have been securing several staging sites. The AP, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that part of the FBI’s New Orleans field office has been designated as a command post. Additionally, a naval base will reportedly be used to store vehicles, equipment and “less lethal” munitions, such as tear gas and pepper balls. The outlet said documents it reviewed showed that DHS asked to use the naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans for up to 90 days beginning this weekend. Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment on the report. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
House Dem, 79, indicates he may not retire after judges strike down Texas congressional map
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, suggested that he no longer plans to retire after federal judges ruled against a Republican-backed plan to alter Texas’ congressional districts on Tuesday. Doggett had announced his qualified retirement earlier this year after Texas Republicans revealed a new redistricting map that would have pitted Doggett, 79, against fellow Texas Democratic Rep. Rep. Greg Casar, 36. Now, that map’s future is in jeopardy, however. “To borrow from Mark Twain, I can happily say that the reports of my death politically are greatly exaggerated,” Doggett said in a video posted to social media. “I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to continue to represent the only town I’ve ever called home, at a time when democracy faces the greatest challenges that it has ever faced at any point in my lifetime,” Doggett’s statement continued. “Thank you.” ABBOTT CLEARS FINAL REDISTRICTING HURDLE AS TEXAS SENATE PASSES NEW TRUMP-APPROVED MAP Doggett’s newfound confidence comes after a federal panel of judges ruled 2-1 that the GOP redistricting map appeared to constitute an illegal, race-based gerrymander. “The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee, said in the majority opinion, joined by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, an Obama appointee. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map,” the judges said. “But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.” ABBOTT SIGNS TEXAS REDISTRICTING MAP INTO LAW, SECURING MAJOR GOP VICTORY AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, dissented without explanation. The ruling is a significant blow to the Trump administration. It comes as President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have raced to pad the party’s razor-thin House majority in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections — including by imploring some states to launch rare, mid-decade redistricting efforts. As part of that push, legislators in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have each redrawn their congressional maps. FEDERAL JUDGES BLOCK TEXAS FROM USING REDRAWN CONGRESSIONAL MAP Other states, including Florida and Kansas, are currently weighing similar efforts. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed on Tuesday to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court for review. He said Texas would also be seeking an emergency stay from the high court that would temporarily stay the lower court’s ruling. Gov. Greg Abbott sharply criticized the court’s ruling Tuesday, saying in a statement that Texas legislators “redrew our congressional maps to better reflect Texans’ conservative voting preferences — and for no other reason.” “Any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony offered during ten days of hearings,” he added.
FBI ‘stonewalled’ House Trump assassination attempt investigation, congressmen allege
The FBI “stonewalled” the House investigation into Thomas Crooks’ attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, two Republican lawmakers were quoted as telling the New York Post. Earlier this week, the newspaper reported on social media posts believed to be linked to the 20-year-old shooter. The Post described the messages as including numerous endorsements of political violence and a sharp turn away from being an advocate for Trump. Reps. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and Pat Fallon of Texas said the FBI never shared those files with members of Congress who were investigating the attempted assassination in July 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to the New York Post. “We were stymied so much by the feds on what we could look at, what we couldn’t look at,” Kelly told the Post. “We knew we were going to get stonewalled on a lot of stuff.” AMERICA NEEDS A FRESH INVESTIGATION OF WOULD-BE ASSASSIN THOMAS CROOKS — AND THE FBI’S BUNGLED FIRST PROBE “I think that there’s so many unanswered questions about it,” Kelly added. “They don’t want people to handle the truth.” “We all know it wasn’t done, it wasn’t complete and the reason for that is they can’t handle the truth,” Kelly also reportedly said in reference to how the FBI treated the congressional probe. Authorities told Congress they found no evidence that Crooks followed any particular ideology on his laptop, but according to the Post’s source, there was a clear timeline of Crooks’ changing ideology and violent rhetoric that remains to be addressed. “The danger Crooks posed was visible for years in public online spaces,” an unnamed source said to have uncovered more than a dozen of Crooks’ accounts told the paper. “His radicalization, violent rhetoric and obsession with political violence were all documented under his real name. The threat wasn’t hidden.” While the FBI has not publicly identified a political motive, Crooks’ online comments over several years shifted from pro-Trump to anti-Trump, according to digital records described by the Post. Whatever caused that shift remains unclear, but before he focused his murderous intent on the president, his posts about rage and violence were reportedly directed at Democrats. “I don’t think any of us came out of that feeling, ‘You know what we really got the answers we were looking for,’” Kelly told the Post about the House committee’s meetings with the FBI. Their report was released in December. TRUMP RALLY GUNMAN ACTED ALONE, FBI SAYS — BUT QUESTIONS ABOUT MOTIVE PERSIST Fallon called for a new investigation in light of the Post’s reported findings, telling the newspaper that he doesn’t recall the FBI sharing those details when he was a part of the congressional investigation committee. “I don’t think it would do any harm at all,” he added. “You can’t investigate these things enough.” Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI and the offices of Kelly and Fallon for comment. “The FBI’s investigation into Thomas Crooks identified and examined over 20 online accounts, data extracted from over a dozen electronic devices, examination of numerous financial accounts, and over 1,000 interviews and 2000 public tips,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X last week. “The investigation, conducted by over 480 FBI employees, revealed Crooks had limited online and in person interactions, planned and conducted the attack alone, and did not leak or share his intent to engage in the attack with anyone,” he added. Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.