Two longtime House Democrats face primary challenges from younger opponents
Two Democrats who’ve spent decades in Congress this week became the latest in their party to face primary challenges from much younger opponents. Longtime Democratic Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer has yet to announce whether he will seek re-election next year for a 24th two-year term in Congress. If he does, he will face a primary challenger who is making Hoyer’s age — the congressman turns 86 next month and would be 89 at the end of his next term — a centerpiece of his campaign. Meanwhile, 78-year-old Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts—first elected to Congress nearly half a century ago—announced last October that he would seek another six-year term in the Senate. He is now facing a primary challenger who has criticized what he calls the senator’s “absence” in pushing back against President Donald Trump. DEMOCRATS’ VICE CHAIR IGNITES CIVIL WAR, TARGETING ‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’ INCUMBENTS IN PRIMARIES Harry Jarin, 35, a volunteer firefighter and emergency services consultant, said Thursday in a new video announcing his candidacy, “If you live here in southern Maryland, I want to ask you a tough question. Do you really think that Steny Hoyer, at 89-years-old, is the best person to represent us?” “Here’s the bottom line: You don’t put out a fire by sending in the same people who let it spread. Send in a firefighter,” Jarin said. “Maryland deserves a new generation of leadership, and I’m ready to take up the fight.” And in an interview with Fox News Digital, Jarin said: “I think we’re facing a really serious constitutional crisis… Congress has really declined as an institution over the last three or four years. Congress has surrendered a lot of its legislative power under the Constitution over to the executive branch. I think that’s been very corrosive to our political system.” Asked about his motivation to primary challenge Hoyer, Jarin said, “It’s not just about getting someone younger and fresher in. It’s getting someone in who understands the need to revitalize Congress as an institution.” Fox News reached out to Hoyer’s office for a response, but a spokesperson declined to respond. Hoyer, who first won his seat in Congress in a 1981 special election, from 2003 to 2023, was the second-ranking House Democrat behind Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He served as House Majority Leader from 2007-2011 and from 2019-2023, when the Democrats controlled the chamber. Along with Pelosi, Hoyer stepped down from his longtime leadership position at the end of 2022 but remained in Congress. DEMOCRATS PREDICT HOUSE REPUBLICANS WILL PAY PRICE FOR PASSING TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ “I think all of us have been around for some time and pretty much have a feel for the timing of decisions. And I think all three of us felt that this was the time,” Hoyer told CNN at the time, as he referred to the moves by the top three House Democrats — Pelosi, Hoyer and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. — to step down from their leadership roles. Hoyer has long been a major backer of the Democrats’ top issues, and during his second tenure as House majority leader, he played a crucial role in the passage of then-President Joe Biden’s so-called American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He represents Maryland’s Democrat-dominated 5th Congressional District, which covers a region known as Southern Maryland, and includes the suburbs south and east of Washington, D.C., a sliver of suburban Baltimore and Annapolis, as well as rural areas farther south. Hoyer, who suffered a minor stroke last year, is the latest high-ranking House Democrat to face a primary challenge from a younger opponent. Pelosi and Reps. Brad Sherman of California and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois have drawn primary challenges, with Schakowsky later announcing that she will no longer run for re-election. Jarin told Fox News that when he spoke with voters in the district about Hoyer, they had concerns about the incumbent’s age. “The main reaction I got when I asked people about Steny Hoyer was first and foremost his age,” Jarin said. “The idea that he would be close to 90 years old at the end of the next term is just a little bit nuts for people. I think people are starting to process how extreme a situation that is.” The primary challenges come as Democrats are still trying to regroup following last November’s election setbacks, when the party lost control of the White House and their Senate majority, and came up short in their bid to win back the House. The party’s base is angry and energized to push back against the sweeping and controversial moves by Trump in the four months since he returned to the White House. Additionally, while much of that anger and energy is directed at fighting the White House and congressional Republicans, some of it is targeted at Democrats whom many in the party’s base feel aren’t vocal enough in their efforts to stymie Trump. Concurrently, other longtime and older House Democrats in safe blue districts are facing the possibility of primary challenges. This, after newly elected Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg last month pledged to spend millions of dollars through his outside political group to back primary challenges against what he called “asleep at the wheel” House Democrats — lawmakers he argued have failed to effectively push back against Trump. The move by the 25-year-old Hogg, a survivor of the horrific shooting seven years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, to spend money against fellow Democrats ignited a firestorm within the party. Jarin said that “we have reached out to David Hogg. We’ve been in communication.” But Hogg told The Washington Post last month that he wouldn’t support primary challenges against Hoyer, Pelosi or Clyburn. As for his ability to raise money for his campaign, Jarin said, “I do come from a political family.” He noted that his husband was a major donor and bundler for former President Joe Biden’s successful 2020 campaign and also served
Unfinished Business: The budget cuts Musk couldn’t complete and what’s next for DOGE
Though Elon Musk leaves behind a legacy of massive cuts to government programs which left many members of the Washington, D.C., establishment enraged, he was not able to accomplish all the lofty goals he set at the beginning of his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s website, the initiative has saved an estimated $175 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment crackdowns and other spending cuts. That translates to about $1,087 in savings per taxpayer. Though significant, the $175 billion is a far cry from the original $2 trillion–nearly a third of the federal government’s total spending–that Musk originally set out to cut. So, what went wrong? Richard Stern, an economics policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that DOGE “overestimated what legal flexibility they would have, and the agencies would have, to actually make good on that.” PRESIDENT TRUMP TEASES ‘LAST DAY, BUT NOT REALLY’ FOR ELON MUSK AT DOGE: OVAL OFFICE PRESSER SET FOR FRIDAY From the start, DOGE was hit with not only a tsunami of negative press and outraged Democratic lawmakers, but also a series of lawsuits, which bogged it down in protracted legal battles. This, coupled with the reality of most of the major end cuts requiring congressional approval to carry out, relegated DOGE’s impact on cutting around the edges of the big programs and agencies it likely would have liked to eliminate entirely. Despite Musk’s efforts, in many cases agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could only be shrunk and limited, while total elimination requires an act of Congress. Just last week, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell blocked the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Institute of Peace, writing in a ruling that the removal of its board members and the takeover of its headquarters by members of DOGE are actions that are “null and void.” Stern asserted that “at the end of the day, they were just a little overzealous about how much legal authority they would ultimately have to be able to make this many cuts themselves,” ELON MUSK ‘DISAPPOINTED’ BY TRUMP’S SPENDING BILL, SAYS IT UNDERMINES WHAT DOGE IS DOING Where Stern believes DOGE can have the greatest impact is on focusing on the information-gathering and whistleblower aspects of its mission. “You can kind of break down DOGE into two very large buckets,” he posited. “The first large bucket, which is the one that’s mostly been not done, is actually making grand spending cuts themselves directly. I think the second one was identifying what cuts could be made.” “The original plan was that DOGE could come in and do both these things that they could find specific spending to cut … and then the other part of that was identifying this information and making it public that people didn’t have that would allow for really thought-out spending cuts to come in from Congress,” he explained. Though less flashy, Stern believes this is where DOGE, going forward, can have its greatest impact. WHITE HOUSE SENDING $9.4B DOGE CUTS PACKAGE TO CONGRESS NEXT WEEK “There’s a lot of think tanks, including Heritage, that have put together lists for a very long time as to policies that we don’t think are good, where you could cut spending. But I think what no one has a window into is the really deep mechanics of how a lot of these programs work. And so, because of that, it’s actually been very hard in a really robust fashion to even know what programs you could cut spending from or how you would do it or what the ramifications would be,” he explained. “So, DOGE, by being in the administration, has been in and continues to be in a position to actually make that public, to actually put a spotlight on that in a way that really almost nobody else was in a position to do,” Stern went on. “That can feed rescission bills and congressional cuts down the road. But some admin needed to actually do that. And DOGE is finally doing that.”
‘American hero’ or ‘failure’: Elon Musk’s DOGE departure divides Capitol Hill
Emotions are running high on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill as Elon Musk makes his way for the exit. Musk is stepping back from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which President Donald Trump appointed the tech billionaire to run for the first 130 days of his new administration. He’s been a polarizing figure in Washington, and that has extended to his announcement earlier this week that he’s returning to the private sector. Republicans cheered Musk’s work, while Democrats celebrated the end of it. “Exposing reckless, wasteful government spending isn’t about one individual—it’s about a lasting overhaul of Crazy Town,” House DOGE Caucus Chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. “That’s why we’re working closely with the White House to ensure recession packages reflect DOGE’s critical findings.” SCOOP: HOUSE GOP MEMO HIGHLIGHTS REPUBLICAN WINS IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ And the White House has begun that work already, preparing a $9.4 billion package of spending cuts that’s expected to hit Congress on Tuesday. But Bean’s comments imply Republicans are going to seek more. It was a sentiment that appeared to be shared by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said that Musk “did a lot of what he came to do.” “A lot of the savings that he identified are things hopefully that we’ll be able to incorporate into bills that Congress passes. The work that he did was really important. It’s long overdue,” Thune said. Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she was “honored” to work with Musk but signaled he should not be needed for lawmakers to cut government waste. “It has been wonderful having a willing partner in my decade-long work to make Washington squeal, but I was DOGE before DOGE was cool, and I’m not slowing down,” Ernst told Fox News Digital in a statement. Other Republicans were more lavish in their praise, like Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., who hailed Musk as an “American hero.” “I’m absolutely sad to see him go,” Haridopolos told Fox News Digital. “He has given up a lot of time and wealth in order to bring the fiscal house of the United States in order, and he has done a great service to our country by bringing a heck of a lot more transparency of how we’re spending money.” And Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., compared the billionaire to the nation’s revered first leaders. “He’s kind of half Benjamin Franklin and half Thomas Jefferson. He had the inventiveness of Benjamin Franklin and the vision of a Thomas Jefferson, and I just remember all of our founding fathers were patriots, and they left their regular jobs. They gave up everything to come help found this country. And that’s what Elon’s [done],” Marshall told Fox News Digital. On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., pointed out that as much as Republicans lauded Musk, he also dealt a blow to the House GOP earlier this week by criticizing their “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill. “They brought Musk to DC to fight the deficit, and he left DC calling out how the reconciliation bill will blow the biggest hole in the deficit ever – adding more than $3 trillion in debt,” Suozzi told Fox News Digital. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Fox News Digital he believed DOGE’s efforts were misplaced in the end. MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET ‘BIG, ‘BEAUTIFUL’ WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSE “Initially, I said we should work with Musk to find common ground where there is real waste — like defense contractors, Medicare Advantage overpayments, and prescription drugs. It is sad that DOGE faced opposition in focusing on those issues, and that agencies like USAID and NIH are being dismantled,” Khanna said. Others on the left unleashed on Musk directly. Democrats have held up the Tesla CEO as a boogeyman since he began campaigning for Trump, using him as a living example of the wealthy, out-of-touch people they believed the Republican White House was benefitting. “Elon came to Washington thinking he could run the government like one of his companies—firing people left and right, gutting essential services, and tearing this s–t up from the ground up,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, wrote on X, calling for an investigation into Musk’s work. House Progressive Caucus Chairman Greg Casar, D-Texas, meanwhile, took credit for Musk leaving despite his fixed tenure. “Musk’s exit is an enormous victory for Democrats and working people. This is a sign of how powerful the anti-corruption, anti-billionaire movement in American politics can be,” Casar said in a statement. “Musk did not choose to leave because Elon Musk likes to follow the rules. Musk will leave because the American people built enough political pressure that he had no choice.” And Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, wrote on X, “Musk failed others and served himself.” “But there’s an irony in his failure: in his quest to destroy government, he reminded us why it matters. To look out for hungry kids, to keep planes safe, to deliver Social Security checks, and to do the quiet work to serve the common good,” Booker said. When reached for comment on this story, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital, “DOGE is integral to the federal government’s operations, and its mission, as established by the President’s executive order, will continue under the direction of agency and department heads in the Trump administration. DOGE has delivered remarkable results at an unprecedented pace, and its work is far from complete.” Fox News Digital also reached out to Tesla for comment from Musk. Trump, for his part, heaped praise on Musk at a joint press conference on Friday. “Elon’s service to America has been without comparison in modern history. He’s already running one of the most innovative car companies in the world, if you look at his factories and compare them with some of the old factories we have, and it’s a big difference. And the most successful space company, I
CBP ends use of temporary migrant processing sites as apprehensions plummet
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is no longer operating any “soft-sided” facilities, following the closure of a migrant processing center near San Diego in March. The Biden administration used the facilities to process migrants who entered the country illegally at multiple sites in California, Texas, and Arizona, amid a surge of millions crossing the border. “Due to the unprecedented drop in apprehensions of illegal aliens as a result of the President’s recent executive actions, CBP is not operating any temporary, soft-sided processing facilities where illegal aliens have been held in specific locations along the southwest border. CBP no longer has a need for them as illegal aliens are being quickly removed,” a CBP spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital on Thursday. SOUTHERN BORDER APPREHENSIONS PLUNGE MORE THAN 90% FROM YEAR AGO IN APRIL, CBP SAYS “The U.S. Border Patrol has full capability to manage the detention of apprehended aliens in USBP’s permanent facilities. Manpower and other resources dedicated to temporary processing facilities will be redirected toward other priorities and will speed CBP’s progress in gaining operational control over the southwest border,” the spokesperson said. On March 13, CBP said that they were closing three Texas and two Arizona facilities, but one California and one Texas location were still open. In March, Fox News Digital reported that CBP had shuttered the Otay Mesa facility that was launched in January 2023 as the border crisis raged on. BORDER CROSSINGS HIT RECORD LOW IN MARCH, THANKS TO ‘VIGILANT’ WORK OF AGENTS: REPORT U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector posted a video to X on Sunday showing that the sector’s soft-sided facility has been decommissioned. “The world has heard President Trump and Secretary Noem’s message. America’s borders are CLOSED to lawbreakers,” Homeland Security posted in response to the clip. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE According to CBP, the facilities cost taxpayers between $5 million and $30 million per month. Since President Donald Trump took office, southern border crossings marked by CBP have gone down. In April, there were just over 8,300 “apprehensions,” which is a 93% drop from the year before, the agency said. CBP RELEASES MARCH BORDER CROSSING NUMBERS, MARKING LOWEST TO DATE EVER RECORDED “For the first time in years, more agents are back in the field—patrolling territories that CBP didn’t have the bandwidth or manpower to oversee just six months ago,” Pete Flores, Acting Commissioner of CBP, said in a statement on May 12. “But thanks to this administration’s dramatic shift in security posture at our border, we are now seeing operational control becoming a reality—and it’s only just beginning.”
Biden’s first public remarks since cancer diagnosis honor Gold Star families
Former President Joe Biden honored fallen service members and Gold Star families Friday at a Memorial Day service in Delaware, marking his first public remarks since announcing he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “We come together and remember the debt we owe to the American military,” Biden said at the event, sponsored by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs. “The military is a solid spine, the spine of our nation,” Biden said. “Our troops, our veterans, our military families, and our Gold Star families in particular. Only around 1% of all Americans defend 99% of us — 1%. Just 1% of Americans risk the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them so much more than we can ever repay them.” BIDEN SPEAKS OUT FOR FIRST TIME SINCE CANCER DIAGNOSIS A Gold Star family is the immediate family of service members who died while serving in the line of duty. For the Biden family, the day is deeply personal as May 30 marks 10 years since Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer. Beau Biden served in the Delaware Army National Guard for more than 10 years, completing a tour in Iraq where he earned the Bronze Star for his service, and became the state’s attorney general before his death. Biden said that his son’s proudest moment was wearing his uniform and said appearing at the event eased the pain of the loss of his son. He also offered some words of encouragement to others suffering loss as well. POLITICAL WORLD REACTS TO FORMER PRESIDENT BIDEN’S ‘AGGRESSIVE’ CANCER DIAGNOSIS: ‘INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT’ “Everyone who came here today to grieve, who was grieving in your heart, please know you’re not alone,” Biden said. “You’ll never be alone. And your loved one will never be forgotten. Period.” Biden said that Beau Biden’s son, Hunter, 19, was present at the event, while he reminisced about attending the exact same Memorial Day event as a senator with Beau Biden around the same age. OBAMA REACTS TO BIDEN DIAGNOSIS: ‘NOBODY HAS DONE MORE TO FIND BREAKTHROUGH TREATMENTS FOR CANCER…THAN JOE’ The former president also said that politics has become divided — but that the sacrifices of those in the military to defend democracy should unite everyone. “Our troops don’t wear a uniform that says I’m a Democrat or a Republican, says I’m an American,” Biden said. “I’m an American. That’s who I am.” Biden announced May 18 that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. The former president’s office later said he had never received a prostate cancer diagnosis. The announcement came amid heightened scrutiny about Biden’s mental fitness for office, following the publication of multiple books this year chronicling the deterioration of Biden’s mental faculties. Likewise, leaked audio recordings of Biden’s October 2023 interview with former special counsel Robert Hur were released in May, showing that Biden struggled to not slur his words and even appeared to forget the year his son died.
Elon Musk’s official role at Trump’s DOGE ends, but his political impact lingers ahead of midterms
As Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, put it, his role in steering President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has come “to an end.” However, the president, in a social media post on Thursday night announcing that he and Musk would team up for a 1:30 p.m. ET White House news conference on Friday, teased that Musk would continue to help the Trump administration. “This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific!” he wrote. Musk’s political impact on national politics and on next year’s midterm elections — for better or for worse — is far from over and is likely to live on well past his official departure from the Trump administration. WHAT’S NEXT FOR DOGE AFTER ELON MUSK’S DEPARTURE Trump, after winning back the White House in last November’s election, created DOGE with marching orders to overhaul and downsize the federal government. Trump named Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and Trump’s biggest political donor in the 2024 election, to steer the organization. “Elon Musk made the most serious attempt at reducing the size and scope of government in modern political history. It was at times chaotic but impactful,” veteran GOP strategist Ryan Williams told Fox News. Williams predicted that Musk’s “efforts will continue to linger as a political football, but also a guide for Republicans if they’re serious about limiting the growth of the federal government.” After returning to the White House in January, Musk and DOGE quickly swept through federal agencies, rooting out what the new administration argued was billions in wasteful federal spending. Additionally, they took a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees. Nothing symbolized Musk’s controversial moves more than his brandishing of a chainsaw during a February appearance at the MAGA-dominated Conservative Political Action Conference, where he touted “how easy” it was to “save billions of dollars sometimes in… an hour.” The moves by DOGE grabbed tons of national attention and triggered a slew of lawsuits in response. Many of DOGE’s cuts in government staffing were stymied or reversed by federal court orders. While DOGE was originally tasked with slashing $2 trillion from the federal government’s budget, the DOGE website earlier this week said that its efforts to date had led to roughly $175 billion in savings due to asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment cuts, in addition to other steps to eliminate costs. MUSK CRITICISM OF TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ FRUSTRATES SOME REPUBLICANS Musk’s arrival in the nation’s capital came with a bang. Thanks to a direct pipeline to the president and his powerful mouthpiece on the social media site X, Musk instantly and repeatedly made headlines with his provocative moves and the targeting of people he did not like, often to the chagrin of Trump administration officials and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump repeatedly praised Musk and DOGE’s efforts. “The vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you, and this whole room can say that very strongly; you have really been a tremendous help,” the president said during a Cabinet meeting four weeks ago, when Musk announced that he would be cutting back on his time spent with DOGE and the Trump administration. However, behind the scenes, there was a lot less harmony. “People got really sick of him really quickly,” a veteran Republican strategist with ties to the administration and Capitol Hill who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News. “He was fun to begin with,” the strategist noted, before adding that “people inside and around the administration and people outside” were tired of Musk “by the end, when he’s sitting in a meeting wearing multiple hats on his head.” Additionally, Musk’s recent criticism of Trump’s sweeping “big beautiful bill,” which passed a major congressional hurdle, did not help matters. While a slew of public opinion polls, including national surveys from Fox News, indicated that Americans like the idea of downsizing the federal government, those same surveys highlighted that the public was far from thrilled with how Musk and DOGE carried out cuts to the federal bureaucracy. WHITE HOUSE REVEALS NEXT STEPS FOR DOGE AFTER MUSK DEPARTURE Musk, who spent nearly $300 million in support of Trump’s 2024 White House victory, quickly became a lightning rod in the handful of off-year and special elections held early this year. Through aligned political groups, Musk dished out roughly $20 million in battleground Wisconsin’s high-profile state Supreme Court race, in support of Trump-backed judge Brad Schimel, the conservative-leaning candidate in the election. Musk, in a controversial move, handed out $1 million checks at a rally in Green Bay two nights ahead of the election to two Wisconsin voters who had already cast ballots in the contest and had signed a petition to stop “activist judges.” Musk, at the rally, donned a cheesehead hat — a foam wedge which resembles a chunk of cheese — that is traditionally worn by devout Green Bay Packers football fans in Wisconsin and across the country. However, Schimel ended up losing by 10 points to the Democratic-aligned candidate in what was supposed to be a close contest. Musk ended up getting tagged with plenty of blame in a race that partially turned into a referendum on his efforts at DOGE. TOP FIVE WILDEST MOMENTS OF MUSK’S DOGE TENURE Democrats repeatedly made Musk the bogeyman in their messaging in Wisconsin’s election and in other contests, and they pledged to continue to target him heading into next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin House majority and their modest Senate majority. “Top of mind for voters are the pocketbook issues. Democrats are going to win by highlighting the fact that Republicans are failing at lowering costs because they are too busy pushing tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations, while making the rest of us pay for them,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee national
Kentucky Senate Democrat switches parties to GOP in major blow to Dem Gov Andy Beshear
Kentucky state Democratic Sen. Robin Webb, who represents Kentucky’s rural 18th Senate district, is switching her party affiliation to Republican after she says the Democrat Party “left me.” “First and foremost, I’m a mother, a rancher and a lawyer with deep personal and professional roots in Kentucky’s coal country,” Webb explained. “As the Democratic Party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values.” TARIFF POLICY IS MAKING IT ‘HARDER’ ON AMERICANS, DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR SAYS “It has become untenable and counterproductive to the best interests of my constituents for me to remain a Democrat.” Webb was originally elected to the Kentucky State House after defeating Republican Ramona Gee in 1998. HOUSE REPUBLICAN ENTERS RACE FOR MITCH MCCONNELL’S SENATE SEAT, SETTING UP HIGH-STAKES GOP PRIMARY This comes as a major blow to Kentucky Democrats, who have historically held a stronghold in rural regions of the state largely due to union workers and the coal industry. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told a local Louisville news outlet that he “would consider” a run as the Democratic nominee for president in 2028, and the newly elected Democratic governor and potential presidential candidate now faces an additional challenge to mobilize his state’s party ahead of the 2026 midterms. “Like countless other Kentuckians, [Webb] has recognized that the policies and objectives of today’s Democratic Party are simply not what they once were, and do not align with the vast majority of Kentuckians,” Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Robert Benvenuti added. REPUBLICAN AGS VISIT US-MEXICO BORDER WALL AS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ CLEARS EXPANSION FUNDING “I always respected that [Webb] approached issues in a very thoughtful and commonsense manner, and that she never failed to keenly focus on what was best for her constituents,” Benvenuti added. “It is my pleasure to welcome Sen. Robin Webb to the Republican Party.” Despite Beshear serving in the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office, secretary of state and both chambers of the state legislature have a Republican majority. “While it’s cliché, it’s true: I didn’t leave the party — the party left me,” Webb said. Fox News Digital reached out to Governor Andy Beshear’s office but did not receive a response.
ICE agents in Boston arrest migrant murderer, child rapists as Fox News rides along
Fox News embedded exclusively with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the greater Boston area this week, when agents were carrying out the arrests of hundreds of egregious criminal migrants in what the agency said is the largest operation it has undertaken since President Donald Trump returned to office. The sweeping operation, called “Patriot,” is expected to hit 1,500 arrests and is targeting immigrants like a Salvadoran illegal immigrant convicted of child rape who went to prison and was deported in 2017. He was nabbed by ICE living right next to a children’s playground. ICE also swooped on another illegal migrant who is on El Salvador’s most wanted list and has an Interpol Red Notice for aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and robbery. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SETS NEW GOAL OF 3,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS DAILY Both arrests were captured exclusively on camera by Fox News. ICE deployed 19 teams across Massachusetts this week, and the agency brought in ICE teams from other parts of the country to assist. It is in direct response to Massachusetts and Boston’s sanctuary policies, where officials do not fully enforce or assist with federal immigration laws, as border czar Tom Homan has promised to surge ICE to these areas. Fox News is told that about 70% of the arrests are criminals with convictions or pending charges. ICE TOUTS RECORD-BREAKING IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT DURING TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS Patricia Hyde, the head of ICE Boston, said it is not uncommon to see immigrants convicted of child rape roaming public streets close to where children play. “It’s not unusual. Due to the open border policies, we are finding that plenty of people who have been previously deported and committed heinous crimes and were removed from the country are now back here, just living among us,” Hyde said. “And now that’s our job to go round them up.” Fox News also joined ICE as they arrested a Colombian illegal immigrant facing pending charges for sexual assault of a child, as well as a Dominican illegal immigrant with a drug trafficking conviction who is now facing local charges for fentanyl distribution. Meanwhile, other arrests included a Guatemalan illegal immigrant who’s facing charges in Massachusetts for aggravated child rape but was released from state custody. They also arrested a Honduran immigrant who is facing local charges for rape and was also released from local custody. ICE Boston told Fox News that local ICE activists have been interfering in their operations. For instance, on Thursday, activists tried to grab onto an immigrant who had been handcuffed by ICE. In another incident, agents were stalking out an immigrant murderer’s home, and a crowd gathered and blew their cover. Hyde said sanctuary jurisdictions are starting to escalate against ICE. “I think the lack of cooperation is getting worse and worse, and it’s putting law enforcement lives in danger,” Hyde said. Hyde said that ICE agents will continue to round up dangerous criminal illegal migrants, despite pushback from local lawmakers and activists. “We’re not going away. It might take us longer. It might be harder, but we’re not going away, we’re here,” Hyde said. “We know what the American people voted for. We understand that we work for the American people and we’re going to be here until we send everyone home.”
Supreme Court hands Trump win on revoking parole for 500K foreign nationals
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a lower court order that blocked the Trump administration from deporting roughly 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The decision is a near-term victory for President Donald Trump as he moves to crack down on border security and immigration priorities in his second term. The Supreme Court decision stays, for now, a lower court ruling that halted Trump’s plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for some migrants living in the U.S., which allows individuals to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.” Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer asked justices earlier this month to allow the administration to proceed with its decision to revoke the status for the migrants, accusing U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of improperly intruding on the executive branch’s authority over immigration policy. “The district court’s reasoning is untenable,” Sauer told the high court, adding that the program “implicates particularly discretionary, sensitive, and foreign-policy-laden judgments of the Executive Branch regarding immigration policy.”
Inside the late-night drama that led to Trump’s tax bill passing by 1 vote
It was nearly 10 p.m. on a Sunday night when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., surprised reporters in the hallway of the Cannon House Office Building. The top House Republican was making a low-key — but high-stakes — visit to the House Budget Committee before the panel’s second meeting on President Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful bill.” The first meeting on May 16 had blown up without resolution when four fiscal hawks balked at the legislation and voted against advancing it to the full House. “The real debate was, is when [we] voted not to approve the budget. And the reason I did that, along with the others, was we needed to make the provisions better,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. “It was our opportunity to make a bill that overall was good, better. And that was the impetus to stop the budget, and then get some concessions. And then when it reached Rules Committee, there really wasn’t that much dissension.” MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE The committee meeting continued with little fanfare, save for Democratic objections to the bill, before one more visit from Johnson, when he signaled the deal was sealed. “I think what is about to happen here is that every member, every Republican member, will give a vote that allows us to proceed forward, and we count that as a big win tonight,” Johnson said. He was right, with the legislation advancing exactly along party lines. Fox News Digital was told that conservatives were anticipating what is called a manager’s amendment, a vehicle with wide flexibility to change legislation, before the House Rules Committee’s vote to advance the bill to the full chamber. The House Rules Committee acts as the final gatekeeper to most bills before a House-wide vote. Trump himself made a rare visit to Capitol Hill the morning of May 20 to urge Republicans to vote for the bill. MCCAUL TOUTS MONEY IN TRUMP TAX BILL TO PAY TEXAS BACK FOR FIGHTING BIDEN BORDER POLICIES House leaders again signaled confidence late on May 21, informing Republicans that they would likely vote soon after the House Rules Committee’s meeting was over. However, that meeting alone had already dragged on for hours, from just after 1 a.m. on May 21 to finally voting on Trump’s tax bill just after 2:30 a.m. on May 22. Lawmakers and reporters alike struggled to stay awake as Democratic lawmakers forced votes on over 500 amendments, largely symbolic, in a bid to drag out the process. Meanwhile, at some point overnight, talks with GOP holdouts went south. The House Freedom Caucus held an impromptu press conference directly after Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., met with Johnson. “The leadership’s going to have to figure out where to go from here,” Harris said. “I think there is a pathway forward that we can see…I’m not sure this can be done this week. I’m pretty confident it could be done in 10 days. But that’s up to leadership to decide.” Harris also said the Freedom Caucus had struck a “deal” with the White House, something a White House official denied. “The White House presented HFC with policy options that the administration can live with, provided they can get the votes,” the official said. However, the manager’s amendment, which finally came out just after 11 p.m. on May 21, eased the concerns of at least several of the fiscal hawks. It bolstered funding to states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included additional tax relief for gun owners, and quickened the implementation of Medicaid work requirements, among other measures. Meanwhile, a small group of those House Freedom Caucus members had also been meeting with a small group of conservative senators who assured them they would seek deep spending cuts in the bill when it landed in the upper chamber, Norman said. MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET ‘BIG, ‘BEAUTIFUL’ WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSE “It was our hope that the Senate would come back and even make the cuts deeper, so that the deficit could be cut,” Norman said. The moves were not enough to ease everyone’s concerns, however. Roughly three hours after the amendment’s release, Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas, was the only Republican member of the House Rules Committee to miss the key vote. Fox News Digital inquired via text message why Roy missed the vote and was told he was “actually reading the bill…” Nevertheless, it passed by an 8 to 4 vote — prompting House leaders to warn their members to return for what would be an all-night series of voting and debates. Democratic leaders, recognizing they would be sidelined completely if Republicans had enough support on their side, again moved to delay the proceedings. A whip notice sent to House Democrats, obtained by Fox News Digital, warned left-wing lawmakers that “House Republicans are planning to finish debate and vote on final passage of H.R. 1 late tonight.” The notice advised that House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., would force a vote on adjourning the House and that “additional procedural votes are expected.” In a bid to keep Republicans close to the House floor for what was an hourslong night, the speaker set up a side room with snacks and coffee for lawmakers to wait out proceedings. In the House Appropriations Committee room just down the hall, more Republicans were huddled over cigars and other refreshments. The smell of tobacco smoke wafted out as increasingly haggard lawmakers shuffled between the two rooms. Fox News Digital even heard from several lawmakers inquiring when the final vote was expected to be — and wondering whether they had time for a nap themselves. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital spotted Harris and Roy walking the opposite way from the hullabaloo of the House floor, toward the much quieter Longworth House Office Building. Both said they were leaving for more conversations with White House staff before the final vote. SCOOP: HOUSE