EPA chief Zeldin launches talks with Mexico to end sewage hitting San Diego, Navy SEALs: ‘out of patience’
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin visited San Diego Tuesday to address the Mexican sewage flowing into U.S. waters from Tijuana that has contaminated the California coast, including where Navy SEALs train. “The Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this … for decades, are out of patience,” Zeldin said at a Tuesday press conference in San Diego. “There’s no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere.” “So we are all out of patience,” he continued. “There’s a very limited opportunity. We’re in good faith, both on the American side and also on the Mexican side, what’s being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation.” Zeldin said that he met with Mexican officials for about 90 minutes Monday night to discuss the sewage spewing into U.S. waters — and relayed that the Mexican environmental secretary wants to have a “strong collaborative relationship” with the U.S. to end the pollution. “I will be speaking with the chief of staff to the Mexican environmental secretary to ensure that over the course of the coming days, over the course of the next couple weeks, that we are able to put together a specific statement from both countries on a mutual understanding of what Mexico is going to do to help resolve this issue,” he said. EPA CHIEF TAKES ON MEXICAN ‘SEWAGE CRISIS’ FLOWING INTO US WATERS WHERE NAVY SEALS TRAIN Zeldin said that he is focused on the “specifics” of ending the issue, including drafting a “comprehensive list of everything that we believe with full confidence is going to end the crisis” for projects on both the U.S. side of the border and Mexico. “We did it yesterday during the meeting, where one particular project as it relates to diverting 10 million gallons per day of water from the Tijuana River Valley, sewage from the Tijuana River valley to the dam, will help relieve stress,” he said. “And they were saying it was going to take until the middle or end of 2027, and we started talking through it. It was a very good collaborative discussion where at the end of the back and forth, the Mexican officials were saying that they believe that we would be able to take off a year of that timeline.” MEXICO IS POISONING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN A BORDER CRISIS ALMOST NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT The issue of sewage water flowing into U.S. waters is largely attributed to outdated wastewater infrastructure across the southern border. Zeldin said his Mexican counterparts cited three infrastructure projects that were completed to help address the crisis — including the recently updated San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant — but that a handful of other projects are still in the works, such as installing new “international collector floodgates on the Tijuana River” and rehabilitating pumping plants. “Now, if you don’t do all of the other projects and all you do is clean up the current contamination, that feel-good moment will last about a day,” he said. “We have to stop the flow in. Mexico needs to fulfill its part in cleaning up the contamination that they caused.” “We need Mexico to not just commit to all the projects that will stop the flow, but in order to actually finish this project, they’re going to need to commit to that final cleanup,” he said. MEXICAN SEWAGE GUSHING INTO NAVY SEAL TRAINING WATERS IS US’ ‘NEXT CAMP LEJEUNE,’ VETS WARN Zeldin was joined by local leaders during the press conference, including California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa and California Democratic Rep. Mike Levin, who recounted to the media that his fight to end the crisis was personal. “My wife’s nephew trained in Coronado as a Navy SEAL. And in his 20s, he wound up getting cancer,” Levin said. “We don’t definitively know whether that cancer was caused by his service. We know that he’s gotten a lot better. … But like so many Marines and others — our Border Patrol and members of the community — they’re impacted by toxic sewage in the water. We’re impacted in the air.” Zeldin said he was headed to meet with Navy SEALs after wrapping up the press conference. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt commended Zeldin for the trip during the White house press conference on Tuesday, adding that President Donald Trump is committed to having the “cleanest air and the cleanest water.” “I would also add from the president himself, he has always maintained he wants America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water. And we want to do what’s right for our environment and for our earth,” she said. United States Naval Special Warfare Command headquartered in San Diego and is also where Navy SEAL candidates complete their arduous six-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. In February, the Department of Defense’s inspector general released a report finding that the Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses among SEAL candidates between January 2019 and May 2023 alone. “Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water occurred because (Naval Special Warfare Command) did not follow San Diego County’s Beach and Bay Water Quality Program’s beach closure postings,” the inspector general report found. “As a result of Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water during training, candidates are presented with increased health risks and NAVSPECWARCOM’s training mission could be impacted.” Veterans who spoke to Fox News Digital earlier in April described the contaminated water a national security crisis. “This is a huge national crisis,” Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum, who was sickened by the water when he was working through SEAL training in 2008, told Fox Digital in
‘Let us be the parents’: Supreme Court should let parents opt kids out of LGBTQ school lessons, lawyer argues
Counsel representing a coalition of parents fighting for the choice to opt their children out of LGBTQ-related curriculum says the case is about letting parents “be the parents.” “We’re just saying if the school board is going to make that decision, let us have the chance to leave the classroom,” Colten Stanberry, counsel at Becket and attorney for the parents bringing the suit, told Fox News Digital. “And so I think for my parent clients, they’re saying let us be the parents. Keep us involved in the school decision-making process. Don’t try to cut us out.” The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in parents’ fight to opt their children out of LGBTQ-related curriculum. The issue at hand in the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, is whether parents have a right to be informed about and to then opt their children out of reading books in elementary schools that conflict with their faith. MARYLAND MOM TAKING FIGHT TO OPT CHILD OUT OF LGBTQ STORY BOOKS BEFORE SUPREME COURT “Our case is not a book ban case,” Stanberry emphasized. “We’re not saying that these books can’t be on the shelves. We’re saying we want to be out of the class,” Stanberry continued. “And we’re also not saying that teachers can’t teach this material.” A coalition of Jewish, Christian and Muslim parents with elementary school children in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland brought suit against the school board after it introduced new LGBTQ books into the curriculum as part of the district’s “inclusivity” initiative. The curriculum change came after the state of Maryland enacted regulations seeking to promote “educational equity,” according to the petitioner’s brief filed with the high court. The school board introduced books that featured transgender and non-binary characters and storylines, according to the brief. The parents’ coalition stated in its brief that the Board “initially honored parental opt-outs in accordance with its own Guidelines and Maryland law” after parents raised concerns over the new curriculum. After the board issued a public statement in line with this stance, the petitioners stated that the board “reversed course” without prior notice. “Without explanation, it announced that beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, ‘[s]tudents and families may not choose to opt out’ and will not be informed when ‘books are read,’” the brief reads. SCOTUS RULINGS THIS TERM COULD STRENGTHEN RELIGIOUS RIGHTS PROTECTIONS, EXPERT SAYS The parents sued the school board, arguing that the denial of notice and opt-outs “violated the Free Exercise Clause by overriding their freedom to direct the religious upbringing of their children and by burdening their religious exercise via policies that are not neutral or generally applicable,” petitioners wrote. The parents cited Wisconsin v. Yoder, a 1972 Supreme Court case, to support their argument. In Yoder, the Court held that a state law requiring children to attend school past eighth grade violated the parents’ constitutional rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to direct their children’s religious upbringings. Stanberry says that while this case is much narrower than Yoder, the issue at hand is “a right parents have had from the Supreme Court for over 50 years.” The school board argued in its brief, “The record contains no evidence that teachers have been or will be ‘directed’ or ‘instructed’ to inject any views about gender or sexuality into classroom discussions about the storybooks.” The school board writes that the storybooks were “offered as an option for literature circles, book clubs, or reading groups; or used for read-alouds.” “Teachers are not required to use any of the storybooks in any given lesson, and were not provided any associated mandatory discussion points, classroom activities, or assignments,” the brief continued. The lower court denied the parents’ motion, finding that they could not show “‘that the no-opt-out policy burdens their religious exercise.’” On appeal to the Fourth Circuit, the appeals court affirmed the district court’s decision, with the majority holding that the parents had not shown how the policy violated the First Amendment. SUPREME COURT APPEARS LIKELY TO SIDE WITH CATHOLIC CHURCH AND TRUMP IN KEY RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION CASE Despite the lower court proceedings, Stanberry shared they are “hopeful and excited” as the high court considers the case. “We think this court will really consider the case,” Stanberry said ahead of Tuesday’s arguments. “Obviously, I don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t predict how it’s going to come out, but we’re feeling good going into it.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, the school board said its policy “is grounded in our commitment to provide an appropriate classroom environment for all of our students,” saying the board believes “a curriculum that fosters respect for people of different backgrounds does not burden the free exercise of religion.” “Based on established law, as discussed in our brief and by our counsel at today’s argument, we believe the Supreme Court can and should affirm the lower courts’ rulings,” Liliana López, Public Information Officer for the public schools, said. “Regardless of the outcome, we are grateful for the opportunity to have our case heard by the highest court in the land. We await the Court’s decision.” The case comes at a time when President Donald Trump and his administration have prioritized educational and DEI-related reform upon starting his second term. The Supreme Court has notably also heard oral arguments this past term in other religious liberty and gender-related suits. “I think that this case could be seen as people of faith coming forward and saying, ‘Hey, we want to be accommodated in this pluralistic society. So, I think it’s coming at an opportune moment,” Stanberry said. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in mid-January during its 2024-2025 term. Fox News’ Bill Mears, Shannon Bream, and Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
House Republican asks Trump DOJ to criminally prosecute ex-New York Gov Andrew Cuomo
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., referred former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to President Donald Trump’s Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Cuomo – the Democratic scion now considered the current frontrunner in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in June – was first referred to the Biden Justice Department for criminal prosecution in October 2024. Former Rep. Brad Wenstrup, then-chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said Cuomo made “multiple criminally false statements” to Congress about his handling of the 2020 COVID-19 nursing home death scandal. In a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday, Comer said “to our knowledge, the Biden Administration ignored this referral despite clear facts and evidence.” He requested that Bondi review the referral and “take appropriate action.” ANDREW CUOMO DENIED ALMOST $3 MILLION IN PUBLICLY MATCHING FUNDS FOR MAYORAL BID, CITES ‘SOFTWARE ERROR’ “Andrew Cuomo is a man with a history of corruption and deceit, now caught red-handed lying to Congress during the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the COVID-19 nursing home tragedy in New York,” Comer said in a statement Monday. “This wasn’t a slip-up – it was a calculated cover-up by a man seeking to shield himself from responsibility for the devastating loss of life in New York’s nursing homes. Let’s be clear: lying to Congress is a federal crime. Mr. Cuomo must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The House Oversight Committee is prepared to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into Andrew Cuomo’s actions and ensure he’s held to account.” Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Cuomo’s spokesman, Richard Azzopardi, dismissed Comer’s letter as “nothing more than a meritless press release that was nonsense last year and is even more so now.” “As the DOJ constantly reminds people, this kind of transparent attempt at election interference and law-fare violates their own policies,” Azzopardi said. “Referrals like these – which have been also made against Planned Parenthood, Hillary Clinton and Anthony Fauci – don’t have to be resubmitted with a new administration, so the only point to doing this is politics.” NEW YORK REPUBLICAN CONGRESSWOMAN MAKES 7-FIGURE CAMPAIGN HAUL, AIMS TO FLIP DISTRICTS TO RED IN 2026 The Cuomo administration issued a directive on March 25, 2020, mandating that nursing homes admit or re-admit potentially COVID-19 positive patients “while simultaneously prohibiting nursing homes from testing these patients before admission or re-admission,” Wenstrup wrote to former Attorney General Merrick Garland in October. The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) issued a subsequent report on July 6, 2020, titled “Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis.” The report alleged nursing home staff – not the March 25 directive – caused excess COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. Comer said witness testimony and new documents revealed in the select subcommittee’s referral showed Cuomo “personally drafted and edited portions of this purportedly independent and peer-reviewed report.” New York state Attorney General Letitia James said in a January 2021 investigative report of her own that the Cuomo administration may have undercounted the total number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50% The select subcommittee launched its investigation in May 2023. It issued a subpoena for Cuomo’s testimony in March 2024 after months of delays. Cuomo sat for a transcribed interview on June 11, 2024. He later testified in front of the select subcommittee on Sept. 10, 2024. Wenstrup noted that Cuomo claimed he was neither involved in the drafting nor the review of the July 6 report. Cuomo also testified that he did not have any discussions about the July 6 Report being peer-reviewed and that he did not know whether the July 6 report was reviewed by persons outside the NYSDOH. On all three accounts, Wenstrup said documents obtained by the select subcommittee demonstrate Cuomo’s statements to be false. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP It’s unclear if the Justice Department, now under Trump’s control, will pursue action against Cuomo. Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ on Tuesday for comment. The DOJ motioned to dismiss an indictment brought under Biden against current New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A judge agreed to throw out the case with prejudice earlier this month. Adams is running as an independent in the mayoral primary.
Trump’s third term trial balloon gets resounding response in new poll
President Donald Trump has repeatedly teased a 2028 run for a third term in the White House, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. Now a new poll indicates Americans are far from thrilled with the prospect. “It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve, not once but twice or three times or four times,” Trump said at rally in Nevada in late January, less than a week after his inauguration to his second term as president. TRUMP TEASES A THIRD TERM: ‘NOT JOKING’ After joking that his comment would make headlines, Trump clarified that “no, it will be to serve twice.” But Trump’s comments were far from a one-off, as he’s continued to flirt with a 2028 re-election run. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING The president said in an interview late last month that he is “not joking” about making another run for the Oval Office. “A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.” POLL POSITION: HOW TRUMP’S APPROVAL RATINGS COMPARE TO HIS PRESIDENTIAL PREDECESSORS Standing in Trump’s way is the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, which was ratified in 1951. The amendment prevents individuals from serving more than two terms as president. It was ratified after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected as president for four terms. Public opinion is also clear. Three-quarters of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos national survey conducted April 16-21 and released on Monday said Trump should not run for a third term. And while the Republican president’s grip over the GOP is stronger than ever, even a majority of Republicans questioned in the poll, 53%, said Trump shouldn’t seek a third term. The poll, which questioned 4,306 U.S. adults, had an overall sampling error of plus or minus two percentage points. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report
Democrats’ El Salvador trip lampooned by Senate GOP group in faux tourism ad: ‘¡Bienvenidos!’
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) lampooned Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador to aid deportee and alleged gang member Kilmar Garcia in an ad Tuesday, while appearing to foreshadow more potential trips from members of the upper chamber’s minority party. “¡Bienvenidos a El Salvador Senate Dems!,” the NRSC said in a statement. “Democrats should feel free to make their trip to hang out with MS-13 gangbangers one-way.” In the ad, a video mimicking a typical beachy tourism ad plays as the narrator begins, “Welcome to El Salvador.” NOT A MARYLAND MAN: GOP BLASTS DEMOCRAT SENATOR FIGHTING FOR RETURN OF SALVADORAN NATIONAL “Home to breathtaking sunsets, world-class surf breaks – and gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia.” The narrator goes on to call the country “THE destination (emphasis theirs) for Democrats seeking the thrill of bringing violent criminal illegal aliens back to America.” Van Hollen had sought to negotiate the release of Garcia so he could accompany the lawmaker back to Maryland, where his family lives. Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen. “Come witness Trump Derangement Syndrome in its purest form,” the narrator adds. “From Chris Van Hollen to Cory Booker; you may even see Jon Ossoff.” KILMAR GARCIA NOW GETS 5 TOTAL DEM PROPONENTS IN EL SALVADOR Booker did not respond to requests for comment both last week and on Monday after the ad was released. A spokesperson for Ossoff told Fox News Digital: “Sen. Ossoff has not traveled and is not traveling to El Salvador.” The ad continued: “So what are you waiting for, Senate Democrats? Join your colleagues, and step into the rhythm of rescue today,” the ad concludes with “Rhythm of Rescue” in wavy blue text superimposed on a coastal scene. Nearby Colombia recently utilized the tourism slogan “Feel the Rhythm.” Since Van Hollen returned to the U.S. without Garcia, four Democratic House members: Reps. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, Robert Garcia of California, and Maxwell Frost of Florida made a joint trip to San Salvador. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Homeland Security released new documents this week that it says definitively prove Abrego Garcia, who is imprisoned in El Salvador after his deportation from the U.S., is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, which his lawyers deny. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said at the White House earlier this month it would be “preposterous” to send Garcia to the U.S., which he did not originally enter legally.
Rubio overhauling ‘bloated’ State Department in sweeping reform
The Trump administration has announced it is overhauling the State Department and shuttering more than 130 offices around the world in order to streamline operations and align the department more closely with the administration’s foreign policy objectives. The move was announced on Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality and redundant offices will be shut down. Programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will be shuttered too, he said. Rubio said the State Department had become bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in a new era of great power competition. RUBIO ANNOUNCES CLOSURE OF STATE DEPARTMENT EFFORT THAT ‘WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD ALREADY’ “Over the past 15 years, the Department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared,” Rubio wrote. “But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy. The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.” Rubio wrote that an example of an out-of-control department is the Global Engagement Center (GEC) that he shuttered last week. He said the office engaged with media outlets and platforms to censor speech it disagreed with, including that of President Donald Trump. The GEC has been accused by conservatives of censoring them too and had a budget of around $61 million with 120 people on staff. Despite Congress voting to shutter it, the GEC simply renamed itself and continued operating as if nothing had changed, Rubio wrote. The shake-up announcement comes days after a New York Times report outlining a State Department overhaul via a leaked draft executive order. Rubio’s plans announced Tuesday, which were accompanied by a State Department reorganization chart, included the shuttering of several embassies and consulates in sub-Saharan Africa and reducing diplomatic operations in Canada. Rubio’s plans include reducing the number of agency offices from 734 to 602, effectively closing 132 offices, a 17% reduction. Offices related to human rights and democracy promotion are among those targeted for closure. He said activists redefined “human rights” and “democracy” to pursue their projects at the taxpayers’ expense, “even when they were in direct conflict with the goals of the Secretary, the President, and the American people.” RUBIO SAYS US READY TO ‘MOVE ON’ WITHIN DAYS IF NO PROGRESS MADE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE DEAL He said that the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against “anti-woke” leaders around the world who transformed their hatred of Israel into policies such as arms embargoes. The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, he said, funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to international organizations and NGOs that facilitated mass migration around the world and at the southern border. The proposed changes also include all non-security foreign assistance being consolidated in regional bureaus to ensure that every bureau and office under the State Department has a clear responsibility and mission, Rubio said. For instance, if something concerns Africa, the Bureau of African Affairs will handle it. Additionally, programs not aligned with core national interests, such as certain diversity and inclusion initiatives, will be discontinued. Rubio said the changes are necessary to deliver on Trump’s America First foreign policy and bring the State Department into the 21st century. Rubio’s announcement did not say whether any consulates would shut. Separately, under secretaries at the State Department are also being instructed to present plans to reduce their U.S. personnel in individual departments by 15% within 30 days, according to a report by The Free Press, citing a senior State Department official. Rubio shared the report on X. These include six top offices employing thousands of people, the outlet reported. “The American people deserve a State Department willing and able to advance their safety, security, and prosperity around the world, one respectful of their tax dollars and the sacred trust of government service,” Rubio wrote. “Starting this week, they will have one.”
Gorsuch, Roberts side with left-leaning Supreme Court justices in immigration ruling
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday sided with left-leaning justices in an immigration appeals case, a narrow ruling that could portend the court’s future thinking amid a flurry of legal cases centered on immigration. The 5-4 ruling in Monsalvo Velazquez v. Bondi centered on the government’s interpretation of a 60-day “voluntary departure” deadline, which authorities can use to allow certain immigrants deemed to be of “good moral character” to depart the U.S. on their own terms within that timeframe. The Supreme Court ruled, with the backing of Roberts and Gorsuch, that any voluntary departure deadlines for immigrants under the 60-day departure time frame that fall on a weekend or on a legal holiday in the U.S. should be extended to the next business day. FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS HALT TO TRUMP ADMIN’S CFPB TERMINATIONS Writing for the majority, Gorsuch noted that this interpretation of the 60-day period aligns with long-standing administrative practices, including in immigration law. “When Congress adopts a new law against the backdrop of a ‘long-standing administrative construction,’ the Court generally presumes the new provision works in harmony with what came before,” Gorsuch said. “Since at least the 1950s, immigration regulations have provided that when calculating deadlines, the term ‘day’ carries its specialized meaning by excluding Sundays and legal holidays (and later Saturdays) if a deadline would otherwise fall on one of those days,” Gorsuch added, noting that the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act passed by Congress uses the same reading. Gorsuch was joined in the majority decision by Roberts, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The court’s ruling overturns the decision of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Board of Immigration Appeals, which had voted to reject that interpretation in the case of Monsalvo Velázquez, a 32-year-old Colorado resident targeted for removal in 2019. And while the case in question centers largely on the technicalities of certain immigration proceedings, the slim majority ruling could offer early signs of the court’s thinking as justices gear up for a flurry of high-profile immigration cases – including cases centered on due process protections for migrants, and on nationwide injunctions that block Trump’s birthright citizenship ban from taking force. SUPREME COURT TO HEAR ORAL ARGUMENTS IN BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP CASE Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett dissented, noting that, in their view, the court lacked jurisdiction to weigh in on the matter. While Thomas said he would have remanded the case back to the lower circuit court to consider other outstanding issues, and Barrett took issue with the nature of the appeal filed by Monsalvo, Alito said in a separate dissenting opinion that he viewed the court’s interpretation as a whole as incorrect. In his view, the 60-day period imposed by the government is straightforward, and should include weekends. “There will always be a sympathetic pro se alien who is a day or two late,” Alito said. “Unless the Court is willing to extend the statutory deadline indefinitely, it would presumably be forced to say in such cases that a day too late is just too bad.” “For this reason, sympathy for petitioner cannot justify the Court’s decision,” he said. The narrow ruling comes just weeks before May 15, when justices are slated to hear oral arguments in a case challenging President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. The case is considered one of the most highly anticipated ones to be reviewed by the high court since Trump took office.
Republicans troll Dems’ El Salvador visits with offer to foot travel bill – in exchange for one thing
The House GOP’s elections arm is offering to foot the bill for any future Democratic lawmakers’ trips to El Salvador after multiple progressive lawmakers traveled there in protest of the Trump administration’s deportation policies. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) made the public offering on Monday – but any takers have to provide real-time video evidence of the visit. “If out-of-touch House Democrats are so desperate to cozy up to violent gang members, the least they can do is let Americans watch the show,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said. “We’ll pay for the plane tickets, they just can’t forget to smile for the camera while they sell out their constituents.” KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA SUSPECTED OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN REPORT OBTAINED BY FOX NEWS Progressive Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., was in El Salvador last week, where he met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant married to an American citizen. The administration says Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member with a violent history. Democrats, in contrast, have painted him as a Maryland father and husband wrongfully deported under the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration plans. Four House Democrats – Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., and Maxine Dexter, D-Ore. – are currently in El Salvador with Abrego Garcia’s family lawyer in an effort to secure his release. Frost told Fox News host Will Cain on Monday that they had not been able to meet with him. In their press release announcing the trip, the group said it was not funded by taxpayer dollars, though it did not say how it was funded. OREGON LAWMAKER LATEST DEMOCRAT TO VISIT EL SALVADOR FOR DEPORTED ILLEGAL MIGRANT ABREGO GARCIA It comes amid President Donald Trump’s standoff with the courts over his administration’s deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members to El Salvador. Democrats and human rights groups argue that the White House is denying due process rights to deported individuals, while supporters say the illegal immigrants’ hearings and deportation orders are sufficient evidence of due process. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision earlier this month that ordered the Trump administration to arrange Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. The court ordered the U.S. “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Republicans, meanwhile, are eager to tie Democrats to suspected criminals being deported to an El Salvador prison – particularly after border security and immigration proved potent issues for the GOP in the 2024 elections. SEN VAN HOLLEN POURS COLD WATER ON ‘MARGARITA-GATE’ PHOTO-OP AFTER EL SALVADOR TRIP The NRCC’s Senate counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), released a video on X with a message to Democrats: “¡Bienvenidos a El Salvador Senate Dems! Democrats should feel free to make their trip to hang out with MS-13 gangbangers one-way.” The 40-second video is a vacation-style clip advertising El Salvador as “the destination for Democrats seeking the thrill of bringing violent criminal illegal aliens back to America.” “Come witness Trump Derangement Syndrome in its purest form,” the voiceover says. “So, what are you waiting for, Senate Democrats?”
Democrats’ identity crisis: Youth revolt rocks party after Trump comeback
The tract of political land where Democrats reside is unique. It’s not the same political street address where they took up shop in 1995 after losing the House and Senate to the “Republican Revolution” of 1994 – which flipped control of the House to the GOP for the first time in 40 years. They still held the presidency then with President Bill Clinton. It’s not the same zip code after the legendary House blowout in 2010 where they dropped an historic 63 seats. President Barack Obama remained in the White House. It’s even a different electoral co-op for Democrats compared to 2016, when President Donald Trump unexpectedly prevailed over Hillary Clinton, winning in the Electoral College. Democrats controlled neither the House nor Senate in 2017. But a lack of support for Trump in Congress and his inexperience at governance undercut sizable portions of his legislative agenda. DEMOCRATS’ VICE CHAIR IGNITES CIVIL WAR, TARGETING ‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’ INCUMBENTS IN PRIMARIES Fast-forward to 2025. President Trump is back in the White House – this time after winning the popular vote and Electoral College, scoring a decisive knockout over former Vice President Kamala Harris. Republicans clung to power in the House and flipped the Senate. And the political real estate Democrats now occupy is a very foreign locale. They’re out of power in Washington. But President Trump returned to power resoundingly and emboldened. And this time, congressional Republicans – MAGA Republicans – stand foursquare behind Mr. Trump. So it’s natural there’s Democratic infighting about what went wrong, who deserves blame and, more importantly, what direction the party should take next. Here’s the schism: Younger, more progressive Democrats are trying to weed out senior lawmakers and power brokers who have been in office for years. Let’s start with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. She’s the best known of younger, energetic, left-leaning Democrats. She’s also the most-experienced figure in the Democrats’ youth movement. Ocasio-Cortez arrived on the scene, upsetting former Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., in a 2018 primary. “We got them on their back foot. We’ve got them scared,” said Ocasio-Cortez recently about MAGA-aligned Republicans. They’re brash. “Let’s go kick some a–! Let’s go win our young people back,” thundered 25-year-old Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chairman David Hogg. And they’re blunt about Democratic errors and missteps. “What if we didn’t suck?” asked 26-year-old Kat Abughazaleh, the Democratic Illinois congressional candidate and TikTok influencer. SEN. VAN HOLLEN POURS COLD WATER ON ‘MARGARITA-GATE’ PHOTO-OP AFTER EL SALVADOR TRIP: ‘NOBODY DRANK ANY’ Younger Democrats are trying to banish party veterans. “We’ have to have a whole rebrand of the Democratic Party,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. “New leaders. Not the old guard.” Hogg is now spending $20 million to coax younger Democrats to primary longtime congressional incumbents. “What we’re trying to do here is not just focus on primaries where there’s potentially an older incumbent. But more than anything, an ineffective person in that position. And replace with a generational leader,” said Hogg on MSNBC. Abughazaleh is primarying 80-year-old Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who is progressive. But she first came to Congress in 1998. She’s been a member of the House of Representatives longer than Abughazaleh has been alive. “You have to look to the exceptions for real leadership, as the majority work from an outdated playbook. We need a makeover,” said Abughazaleh. But devouring your own is risky. “Beating the other side is more important to many voters [rather] than who exactly is representing your own team,” said University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth. But Farnsworth concedes that unrest brews on the Democratic side of the aisle. “What we’re talking about here is a pretty powerful, generational clash within the Democratic Party over how to aggressively challenge President Trump,” said Farnsworth. “The Democratic Party has to figure out where the sweet spot is. You have to be energized enough to motivate those voters who might stay at home.” Some top political handicappers like Nate Silver now believe that Ocasio-Cortez could be the odds-on favorite to emerge as the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nominee. Now 35 years old, the New York Democrat is old enough to become president. Ocasio-Cortez has kept busy during the congressional recess by barnstorming the country with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the 83-year-old former Democratic presidential candidate. “We’re here together because of an extreme concentration of power, greed and corruption which is taking over this country like never before,” Ocasio-Cortez declared during a whistlestop in Missoula, Montana. DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S FAVORABLE RATINGS DROP TO HISTORIC LOWS So Democrats are searching for a toe-hold against the president. Younger voters favored Democrats for years. But a Fox News voter analysis found a staggering 11-point spike in voters under age 30 favoring Trump in 2024 compared with 2020. “In the 2024 election, Democrats lost a lot of voters who had voted for Biden four years ago. Some of them went to Trump,” said Farnsworth. “It seems to me that a more aggressive messaging strategy is certainly one way of connecting with voters who didn’t feel as warmly toward the Democrats in 2024 as they did in 2020.” Republicans found themselves at a loss in late 2012. They were perhaps overconfident that they were going to blow out President Obama. Republicans retreated to backrooms in Washington to conduct an “autopsy” about reaching out to minorities and retrenching the party. The party didn’t rely on the findings of that postmortem much. Republicans held the House and finally flipped the Senate after they tried to get control dating back to 2006. FIRST ON FOX: REPUBLICAN PARTY SHOWCASES MASSIVE HAUL Republicans also won the House in 2010 after Obama’s big 2008 victory. In 2009, many Republicans felt it was best if the GOP took a couple of cycles to retrench their bench and agenda during the echoes of the presidency of George W. Bush. But Republicans found themselves in control of the House following the 2010 midterms. The party was more than happy to be back in power in
Al Gore compares Trump admin to Hitler’s Third Reich
Former Vice President Al Gore compared the Trump administration to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party while speaking at a climate change event in San Francisco on Monday. Gore was delivering the keynote speech at a science museum to kick off the city’s Climate Week event when he said the Trump administration was “trying to create their own preferred version of reality.” “I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich to any other movement,” Gore said. “It was uniquely evil, full stop. I get it. But there are important lessons from the history of that emergent evil.” Gore then went on to cite what German philosophers had called their “moral autopsy” of Hitler’s Third Reich following the end of World War II. CHRIS MATTHEWS SAYS TRUMP IS DOING THE SAME THING HITLER DID ‘IN THE HOLOCAUST’ WITH ABREGO GARCIA “It was [Jürgen] Habermas’ mentor, Theodore Adorno, who wrote that the first step in that nation’s descent into hell was, and I quote, ‘the conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power,”’ Gore said. “He described how the Nazis, and I quote again, ‘attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false.’ End quote. The Trump administration is insisting on trying to create their own preferred version of reality.” Gore then launched into an attack against what he asserted were the views of the Trump administration on climate change and efforts to undo Democratic policies. “They say the climate crisis is a hoax invented by the Chinese to destroy American manufacturing,” Gore said of the Trump administration. “They say coal is clean. They say wind turbines cause cancer. They say sea-level rise just creates more beachfront property.” PHOTOS: BIDEN’S ‘AMBITIOUS CLIMATE GOALS’ GO DOWN IN LITERAL FLAMES BY POPULAR AMERICAN BEACH “We have to deal with the democracy crisis in order to solve the climate crisis,” the former vice president said. Gore isn’t the first politician who tried to compare Trump to Hitler. During the 2024 presidential campaign, some of Trump’s political rivals and some liberal media outlets invoked comparisons between the president and Hitler and other fascist leaders.