Democrat DA in hot seat after retail theft surges in major American cities
Progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is being slammed by his GOP opponent, Maud Maron, for policies she said give criminals a “get out of jail free card,” contributing to a massive surge in shoplifting and organized crime in America’s largest city. This comes after retail industry leaders testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday on the dramatic rise in organized retail theft in recent years. According to the most recent data from the National Retail Federation, retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 compared to 2019, and a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting during the same period. The study further said that retailers surveyed saw a 26% increase in shoplifting incidents on average from 2022 to 2023. NRF’s report said shoplifting has become a problem retailers across the country face on a “daily basis.” ‘EXISTENTIAL THREAT’: JEWISH LEADERS WARN OF NYC ‘MASS EXODUS’ IF ZOHRAN MAMDANI WINS IN NOVEMBER The report stated that those surveyed experienced an average of 177 shoplifting incidents per day in 2023; however, this number increased to over 1,000, depending on the retail sector. The report listed New York as the second city most impacted by organized retail crime in 2024. Maron, a former Democrat public defender, now running for Manhattan district attorney as a Republican, told Fox News Digital that the “surge in shoplifting” is “not surprising.” “Shoplifters, lawbreakers, got the message: You can do this, and you will not go to jail,” said Maron, adding, “The get-out-of-jail-free card that Alvin Bragg has been issuing for the last three and a half years is not subtle.” “Five years ago, 10 years ago, if you used to go into a store and dump a bunch of retail goods into your bag and then walk out right past the security guard and right past the cashiers, you would be arrested. And if you did it more than once, you wind up going to jail,” she said. “Now maybe someone will call the police; maybe someone won’t. Maybe the police will arrest you; maybe they won’t. Because everybody knows at the end of the line, the prosecutor is not going to prosecute the case.” WATCH: FORMER DEM OUSTED FROM PARTY OVER ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ TAKES ON MANHATTAN DA ALVIN BRAGG Maron claimed that when Bragg took office in January 2022, he published a day one memo that “explained that there were just whole categories of crime that he was not going to prosecute.” “Alvin Bragg ran as a George Soros-backed progressive prosecutor, and his implementing progressive criminal justice policies means that he tries to keep as few people in jail as possible. He tries to prosecute as few people as possible, and he tries to prosecute the lowest possible charge that he can get away with doing,” she went on. “You can see there are no consequences. I will not get in trouble if I go into that store and take all of the clothes off of a shelf and walk out with them in broad daylight without even hiding my face. I can do it and get away with it. That’s why we see a surge.” “Actions either have consequences or they don’t. And in Alvin Bragg’s New York, stealing doesn’t have a consequence,” she claimed. In response, Richard Fife, a spokesperson for Bragg’s campaign, contested Maron’s take on the report, saying that “while there is much more to do, in the last two years, NYPD stats report that burglary is down 11%, robbery is down 8%, grand larceny is down 11%, and murder is down 35%.” NYC SOFT-ON-CRIME DA ALVIN BRAGG ADMITS TO GETTING ‘A KNOT’ IN STOMACH WHEN FAMILY TAKES SUBWAY: REPORT “Perennial candidate Maud Maron, who recently lost her campaign for the School Board, is once again distorting and misleading to hide her lack of qualifications,” said Fife. He said that “when experienced prosecutor Alvin Bragg took office as Manhattan DA in January 2022, NYC—like nearly every city—was still reeling from the COVID national crime spike.” “Alvin brought together business owners, law enforcement, and community-based organizations to stop the rise in shoplifting and targeted repeat offenders, prosecuted organized crime rings that resell stolen goods, and improved coordination with local businesses and the NYPD,” he claimed. For her part, Maron shot back that “if Alvin Bragg were half as good at prosecuting retail theft as he is at cherry-picking statistics, New Yorkers wouldn’t have to ask security to unlock a $6 stick of deodorant just to get through the day.” DEMOCRAT ACCUSES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OF NOT BEING ‘SERIOUS ABOUT COMBATING CRIME’ “Bragg can point to handpicked NYPD numbers all he wants, but New Yorkers live the reality: more closed storefronts, more brazen shoplifting, and more fear for working people just trying to commute or run errands,” she added. “You don’t need a spreadsheet to know Alvin Bragg’s criminal-coddling Day One Memo turned every store owner into a sitting duck for the criminals he’s emboldened. You just need to walk into a pharmacy or talk to a bodega owner.”
National security experts raise concerns after Microsoft program exposed as possible avenue for Chinese spying
A new ProPublica report accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business, raising espionage concerns from national security experts. The report cited current and former employees and government contractors who worked on a cloud computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016 that would allow the tech giant to sell its cloud services to the government, known as a “digital escort” framework. The security measure, meant to meet federal contracting regulations, was effectively a program that included a “digital escort” chaperone for global cybersecurity officials, such as those based in China, so they can work on agency computing systems. CHINA IS EXPLOITING OUR GOVERNMENT’S TECH WEAKNESS. WE NEED A RAPID REBOOT Defense Department guidelines require that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. According to sources who spoke to ProPublica, including some who had intimate familiarity with the hiring process for the $18-per-hour “digital escort” position, the tech employees being hired to do the supervising lacked the adequate tech expertise to prevent a rogue Chinese employee from hacking the system or turning over classified information to the CCP. The sources elaborated that the escorts, often former military personnel, were hired for their security clearances more than their technical abilities and often lacked the skills to evaluate code being used by the engineers they were supervising. In China, people are governed by sweeping laws compelling government cooperation with data collection efforts. “If ProPublica’s report turns out to be true, Microsoft has created a national embarrassment that endangers our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Heads should roll, those responsible should go to prison and Congress should hold extensive investigations to uncover the full extent of potential compromise,” said Michael Lucci, the CEO and founder of State Armor Action, a conservative group with a mission to develop and enact state-level solutions to global security threats. “Microsoft or any vendor providing China with access to Pentagon secrets verges on treasonous behavior and should be treated as such.” “This is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse and arming the chickens with sticks in case the fox gets mad,” Michael Sobolik, a Hudson Institute foreign policy senior fellow, added. “It beggars belief.” CHINA TARGETS US MILITARY MEMBERS IN OVERSEAS SPY OPERATIONS, FORMER CIA STATION CHIEF WARNS Microsoft uses its escort system to handle sensitive government information that falls below “classified,” which includes “data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin,” ProPublica reported. At the Defense Department, the data is categorized as “Impact Level” four and five, which ProPublica reported includes materials directly supporting military operations. A Microsoft spokesperson defended the company’s “digital escort” model, saying all personnel and contractors with privileged access must pass federally approved background checks. “For some technical requests, Microsoft engages our team of global subject matter experts to provide support through authorized U.S. personnel, consistent with U.S. government requirements and processes,” the spokesperson added. “In these instances, global support personnel have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.” The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) public information office was initially unaware of the program when ProPublica began asking questions about it, but it eventually followed up to point out that “digital escorts” are used “in select unclassified environments” at the Defense Department for “advanced problem diagnosis and resolution from industry subject matter experts.” Fox News Digital reached out to the DISA and DOD but did not immediately receive a response. In 2023, Chinese hackers infiltrated Microsoft’s cloud servers and stole data belonging to senior U.S. government officials, including data and emails from the commerce secretary, the U.S. ambassador to China and others involved in national security work. Hackers were able to access tens of thousands of emails from the Defense Department. A postmortem from the federal Cyber Safety Review Board, which has since been disbanded, cited Microsoft security failures that allowed hackers to infiltrate the cloud. However, the after-incident report did not include any links to the “digital escort” program, according to ProPublica. Microsoft said in response to the recent ProPublica report that it considers “anyone” with access to sensitive government systems, no matter their location or role, a potential risk. “We establish layers of mitigation at the platform level with security and monitoring controls to detect and prevent threats. This includes approval workflows for system changes and automated code reviews to quickly detect and prevent the introduction of vulnerabilities,” a company spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The spokesperson added that Microsoft adheres to the federal security requirements outlined by the Defense Department and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which was established in 2011 to address the risks associated with moving from entirely government-controlled servers, to cloud-based computing. “This production system support model is approved and regularly audited by the U.S. government,” the spokesperson concluded. Still, if the ProPublica allegations are true, Lucci says the federal government should cease its work with Microsoft. “If these [ProPublica] allegations are credible, the federal government should never again rely on Microsoft to protect the data that keeps our men and women in uniform safe, especially given Microsoft’s extensive record of being compromised by the CCP,” Lucci said Monday. “Our military cannot operate in security and secrecy if a vendor repeatedly and intentionally invites the enemy into the camp.”
Border crossings plummet to historic lows; Trump’s enforcement policies yield big results
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported the lowest number of border crossings in recorded history in June. Nationwide, there were 25,228 CBP encounters, the lowest monthly number the agency has recorded, including a “historical low” of 8,024 apprehensions. Encounters include legal ports of entry, whereas apprehensions are arrests of those coming into the United States illegally. At the southern border alone, there were only 6,072 apprehensions in June, which is “15% lower than the previous March record.” June also brought along the lowest number of apprehensions in a day on June 28 with just 136. ‘TRUMP EFFECT’ TOUTED AS SOUTHERN BORDER NUMBERS STAY LOW, INCLUDING NEW RECORD “From shutting down illegal crossings to seizing fentanyl and enforcing billions in tariffs, CBP is delivering results on every front. Under this administration, we are protecting this country with relentless focus, and the numbers prove it.” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a press release Wednesday. Like May, there were no parole releases, compared with 27,766 in 2024.. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE On drug seizures, the department said there was a 3% uptick from last month in fentanyl seizures, with 742 pounds confiscated. Notably, there was a 102% increase in meth seizures from May, a 19% increase in heroin seizures and a 9% increase in cocaine seizures. According to the press release, CBP has also collected $108.9 billion in “all tariffs, taxes and fees,” specifically noting the tariffs imposed by the president. NEW DATA REVEALS BORDER CROSSINGS REACH RECORD LOWS AMID TRUMP ADMIN’S CRACKDOWN TEXAS BORDER SHERIFF SAYS ILLEGAL CROSSINGS HAVE SEEN ‘DRAMATIC DECLINE’ AS CA MIGRANT CENTER SHUTS DOWN Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls told Fox News Digital the change has been “peaceful” after a major strain on local resources, like the regional hospital, while crossings were soaring. Earlier Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced there was an 830% increase in assaults on ICE agents from last year. This comes as both border and immigration policies have seen major shifts in recent months since the border crisis under the Biden administration. “This new data reflects the violence against our law enforcement in cities across the country in the last few weeks. Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, must condemn this,” Noem posted to X. BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN REVEALS UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS IN TRUMP’S BORDER STRATEGY As for Border Patrol, a gunman was killed and a local police officer was injured in a shooting in McAllen, Texas. ICE also recently faced a riot at the Prarieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where 12 individuals are facing charges, including some for attempted murder of federal officers. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP While the border is considered much quieter, protests and riots against federal immigration authorities amid mass deportation efforts have continued. Democrats in Congress recently introduced the VISIBLE Act to prevent agents from wearing face coverings in most instances and require visible identification. “When federal immigration agents show up and pull someone off the street in plainclothes with their face obscured and no visible identification, it only escalates tensions and spreads fear while shielding federal agents from basic accountability,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in a statement July 8.
Republican leading House Budget Committee looks ahead after passing Big Beautiful Bill
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, was praised for the role he played in the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill. However, the congressman says this is the beginning, not the end, of spending reforms. “We will never be able to get a balanced budget or even put our country on a path to a balanced budget and a sustainable fiscal trajectory in one reconciliation bill,” Arrington told Fox News Digital. “We’re too far down the broken road of bad and irresponsible fiscal behavior. We’re too deep in the debt hole for one bill to do it.” Arrington, whom House Speaker Mike Johnson called the “the lead budget hawk in the House,” said he is “obsessed” with tackling deficit spending, which he sees as the biggest threat to America’s future. He believes that addressing the nation’s situation in an effective way means creating the “conditions for growing the economy.” HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOWCASE THEY ‘TOOK ACTION’ WITH PASSAGE OF TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ “So, the pro-growth policies, the tax cuts, the work incentives, opening up our energy assets and deregulating the energy economy, all of those pro- growth policies will reignite economic growth. And that is the foundation for our country’s fiscal health and just about everything else: our military prowess, our global leadership, our way of life,” Arrington said. The Big Beautiful Bill’s journey to President Donald Trump’s desk was not pretty, as the legislation received criticism from both sides of the aisle and caused tension among Republicans. WHAT’S ACTUALLY IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ Elon Musk, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and others argued that it did not take adequate measures to cut government spending. Arrington said he respects Massie and Musk — as well as other critics — but believes that the risk of losing the “good things” in the bill was too high. In the end, the Texas lawmaker sees the tradeoff as “permanent pro-growth tax policy” in exchange for the extra spending in the legislation. “I think there’s a big gap in information — and accurate information. Part of it is you’ve got the Congressional Budget Office putting out these big numbers… two and a half or three trillion dollars in additional deficit that would be added to the national debt over the 10-year budget window as a result of this bill. That is just patently false. It’s completely inaccurate,” Arrington said, adding that they fail to “consider economic growth and the revenue that will flow back into the treasury when you have pro-growth policies.” SCOTT BESSENT: PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ WILL UNLEASH PARALLEL PROSPERITY Trump signed the bill on his self-imposed July 4 deadline, just one day after the House passed the final version of the $3.3 trillion legislation. Before signing the bill, the president said it would “fuel massive economic growth” and “lift up the hard-working citizens who make this country run.” So, what’s next on the budget chairman’s agenda? Just one thing — or three, as he said to Fox News Digital, “spending cuts, spending cuts and spending cuts.” “We didn’t get into this mess overnight, we won’t get out of it overnight, but we’ll never get out if we don’t start exercising the political will to do what we all say in our campaigns,” Arrington told Fox News Digital. “I think we established a great model for restoring fiscal health, and we just have to continue to repeat it and do it in even more dramatic fashion in the future.”
Senate GOP braces for test vote on Trump’s $9.4B clawback package
Senate Republicans are gearing up to advance a multibillion-dollar clawback package from President Donald Trump, but dissent among the ranks threatens to stymie the process. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., intends to put Trump’s $9.4 billion rescissions package, which would scrape back congressionally approved funding for a variety of so-called “woke” programs that fund foreign aid and public broadcasting. ‘GUT CHECK TIME’: DISSENT AMONG SENATE GOP RANKS THREATENS TO REDUCE TRUMP’S SPENDING CUT DEMAND However, a handful of Senate Republicans have raised a fuss over $8.3 billion in cuts from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS. The bill is expected to have its first test vote on Tuesday, but questions remain about whether Thune has the votes. Senate Republicans are set to meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who became a near-constant presence on the Hill during the budget reconciliation process, in a bid to shore up support among concerned lawmakers. ‘BAIT AND SWITCH’: SCHUMER WARNS OF BITTER FUNDING FIGHT OVER GOP CUTS PLAN Publicly, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., have all expressed reservations about the package, particularly over proposed cuts to the Bush-era President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the public broadcasting fund. Thune can only afford to lose three votes and will receive no help from Senate Democrats in another hyper-partisan process. TRUMP’S PLAN TO SLASH ‘WOKE’ FOREIGN AID, NPR FUNDS CLEARS HOUSE AS SENATE BATTLE LOOMS An amendment process coming in the form of another vote-a-rama is expected, but changing the bill could have consequences in the House, where Republicans are warning their colleagues in the upper chamber to stomach the clawbacks as proposed by the White House. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Thune said he and his leadership team have been discussing issues with the package and trying to make possible changes to the legislation before it hits the floor. “I’m fine with it as is, but I think we have colleagues who would like to see some perhaps modest changes made, so we’re trying to find out if there’s a path forward that gets us 51 and stays consistent,” he told reporters.
Anthony Bernal: Who is Jill Biden’s top aide ordered to testify about alleged cover-up?
House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Anthony Bernal, who served as chief of staff for first lady Jill Biden and as an assistant to President Joe Biden, to testify at a deposition Wednesday. Bernal refused to appear for a transcribed interview on June 26 as part of the Oversight Committee’s investigation into the alleged cover-up of Biden’s mental decline and potentially unauthorized use of autopen for pardons and other executive actions. He had previously confirmed he would appear for the interview, but when the White House Counsel’s Office notified him it was waiving executive privilege, Bernal said he would no longer appear for the interview. “It’s abundantly clear that Anthony Bernal – Jill Biden’s so-called ‘work husband’ – never intended to be transparent about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and the ensuing cover-up. With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth,” Comer said. EX-DNC INSIDER REVEALS ‘PUPPET MASTERS’ WHO RAN THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE Two recent books about the Biden administration have painted an unflattering picture of Bernal’s political rise. FORMER BIDEN AIDE ANTHONY BERNAL SUBPOENAED BY HOUSE COMMITTEE AFTER REFUSING TO APPEAR FOR DEPOSITION By proxy, the first lady’s top aide became one of the most influential people in the White House, according to “Original Sin,” a book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson. “He would not be welcome at my funeral,” a longtime Biden aide told the authors. Operating in a White House anchored in loyalty, Bernal wielded loyalty as a weapon to weed out the defectors, Tapper and Thompson said. And Bernal earned a reputation for trash-talking fellow aides, as “some even described him as the worst person they had ever met,” Tapper and Thompson said. Jill Biden and Bernal worked in tandem, keeping score of “who was with them and against them,” according to Tapper and Thompson. A former White House staffer fired back against Tapper and Thompson’s allegations about Bernal in a statement to Fox News Digital. “A lot of vignettes in this book are either false, exaggerated, or purposefully omit viewpoints that don’t fit the narrative they want to push. Anthony was a strong leader with high standards and a mentor to many. He’s the type of person you want on a team – he’s incredibly strategic, effective, and cares deeply about the people he manages,” the former White House staffer said in May. “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” released last week by Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal, Tyler Pager of The New York Times and Isaac Arnsdor of The Washington Post, outlines how Bernal’s political influence grew alongside Jill Biden. WHO IS ANTHONY BERNAL?: THE ‘INDISPENSABLE’ BIDEN AIDE DITCHING HOUSE OVERSIGHT PROBE ON HIS MENTAL DECLINE “He quickly bonded with Jill Biden and never left her side, becoming unflinchingly loyal to her and using his proximity to her to exert power wherever he decided. It was often unclear if the opinion he was expressing was his own or the first lady’s. Sometimes, when donors or voters asked her questions, Bernal would jump in to answer,” the authors said. Lindy Li, a former DNC fundraiser and Democratic insider who had a front-row seat to Biden’s presidency, told Fox News Digital, “People like Anthony Bernal. I saw him running the White House like he was in charge, like he was a king. It’s just so amazing now to see him dodge a subpoena and completely dodge accountability. He can run, but he can’t hide. His name is going to go down in infamy forever.” Li said Bernal “followed Jill around like a dog.” However, Li clarified that he ran the East Wing more than the West Wing. She said Bernal was among those running the White House during Biden’s presidency. Democratic strategist Michael LaRosa, who served as press secretary to Jill Biden, told Fox News Digital that, “No one spent more time, whether it was in the motorcade, on the plane, in the private residence at the White House, Camp David, and at both houses in Delaware, nobody spent more personal time around them and their family and the Biden family than Anthony.” Bernal and a Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on this article. Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Hegseth abruptly pulls Pentagon officials from ‘globalist’ Aspen conference
Secretary Pete Hegseth pulled senior Defense Department officials from the Aspen Security Conference for promoting the “evil of globalism.” Military commanders were set to speak at the conference, which begins on Tuesday, as has been tradition through Republican and Democratic administrations. But Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson told Just the News the secretary’s office believes the conference “promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States.” Wilson added that DoD “has no interest in legitimizing an organization that has invited former officials who have been the architects of chaos abroad and failure at home.” HEGSETH TEARS UP RED TAPE, ORDERS PENTAGON TO BEGIN DRONE SURGE AT TRUMP’S COMMAND The forum will host other Trump administration officials: Adam Boehler, presidential envoy for hostage response, and Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Syria. It will also hear from some contentious Biden administration officials – Jake Sullivan, former national security advisor, and Brett McGurk, a former National Security Council coordinator. HEGSETH ANNOUNCES NAVY OIL TANKER NAMED AFTER GAY RIGHTS LEADER RENAMED AFTER MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT Mark Esper, Trump’s former acting defense secretary, and David Petraeus, who was briefly CIA director under President Barack Obama, will also be speaking, along with Condoleezza Rice, a national security advisor and secretary of state during the Bush years. “Senior Department of Defense officials will no longer be participating at the Aspen Security Forum because their values do not align with the values of the DoD,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. “The Department will remain strong in its focus to increase the lethality of our warfighters, revitalize the warrior ethos, and project Peace Through Strength on the world stage. It is clear the ASF is not in alignment with these goals.” The Aspen Institute said in a statement on the Pentagon withdrawal: “For more than a decade, the Aspen Security Forum has welcomed senior officials – Republican and Democrat, civilian and military – as well as senior foreign officials and experts, who bring experience and diverse perspectives on matters of national security.” “We will miss the participation of the Pentagon, but our invitations remain open.”
RNC Chair Michael Whatley claims Zohran Mamdani is the ‘face of the new Democratic Party’
EXCLUSIVE – Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning Democratic Party primary victory in the nation’s most populous city appears to be the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans aiming to paint Democrats as extreme radicals. When asked if Mamdani is giving the GOP extra ammunition in their messaging battle, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley answered “absolutely.” “I mean, this is the face of the new Democratic Party,” Whatley said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. Whatley argued that “everybody who wants to lead that party wants to lead it to the left….they’re moving away from the American public right now at a pretty rapid clip.” REPUBLICANS RELENTLESSLY USE MAMDANI AS ‘SOCIALIST’ CUDGEL TO BASH VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS Mamdani, who convincingly topped former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates last month to capture the New York City Democratic mayoral nomination and take a big step toward becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, is giving Republicans plenty of fodder. He’s proposed eliminating fares to ride New York City’s vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) “tuition-free,” freezing rents on municipal housing, offering “free childcare” for children up to age 5 and setting up government-run grocery stores. TRUMP ARGUES NYC FACES DIRE CONSEQUENCES IF ‘COMMUNIST’ MAMDANI BECOMES MAYOR Also fueling the Republican attacks are recent news items that have gone viral. They include a 2020 photo Mamdani posted online that shows him flipping off a statue of Christopher Columbus, stories about comments Mamdani made last December when he said as mayor he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recent comments in a cable news interview that “I have many critiques of capitalism.” Republicans have been relentless in trying to anchor Mamdani to Democrats across the country who are running in competitive races in elections this year and in next year’s midterms. “He certainly is going to fit right into that upper echelon of Democrats who are vying for a lead in that party,” Whatley said of Mamdani. He claimed that “they’re just unabashedly in that radical woke part of the party.” Pointing to last year’s elections, when the Republicans won back the White House and Senate and held onto their razor-thin House majority, Whatley argued that “every single candidate right now on the Democratic side of the aisle is buying into the same failed agenda that they lost with in 2024.” ‘IN IT TO WIN IT’: CUOMO REFUSES TO BACK DOWN IN HEATED NYC MAYORAL RACE AGAINST ZOHRAN MAMDANI Democrats question the effectiveness of the GOP push. They argue that there’s a world of difference between heavily blue New York City, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a roughly six-to-one margin, and some key battleground states and swing districts across the country. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, a Democrat, told reporters the day after Mamdani’s victory that “I love New York, but it’s a very liberal place, and I don’t know that you can necessarily apply that to the rest of the country.” In the high-profile 2026 race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Republican candidate and former Sen. Scott Brown went up last week with a digital ad that edits a picture of Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democratic candidate in the race, alongside photos of Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive rock star who backed Mamdani. Pappas, speaking with Fox News Digital last week, said, “Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars running attack ads against me through the years trying to paint me as someone that I’m not.” “People know me. They know the work that I’ve been doing. They know that I’m one of the most bipartisan members of the House of Representatives because I believe in solving problems and getting things done,” Pappas said. “I’m a New Hampshire Democrat. I’m proud of my track record in Congress.” Pappas was joined on the campaign trail by longtime Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who spent plenty of time in New Hampshire ahead of her third-place finish in the state’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary. “It’s about New Hampshire. They’re going to do this in all these races across the country. They try to attach people. People have never even met some of these people. And they keep doing it,” Klobuchar told Fox News when asked about the Republican ad anchoring Mamdani to Pappas. “To me this is about what’s going on for the people of this state.” Fox News’ Emma Woodhead contributed to this report
‘Better access’: Bipartisan Senate push to fund farmers suicide prevention fund gains steam
A bipartisan Senate duo want to ensure that a suicide prevention and mental health resource for farmers stays funded. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, have joined forces to introduce legislation that would see millions in new funding for the Farm and Ranch Assistance Network, a program the pair first collaborated on in the 2018 Farm Bill. The program is designed to help create a network for farmers, ranchers and other agriculture workers to have access to stress assistance and mental health programs. There are four regional hubs in Washington, New York, Illinois and Tennessee that act as conduits to aid farmers through the grant-funded program. RICKETTS, FETTERMAN TEAM UP FOR CRACKDOWN ON CHINA’S ATTEMPTS TO PURCHASE US FARMLAND “Too often, the stress, isolation, and physical demands of this job leave them with nowhere to turn when it all gets to be too much,” Baldwin said of the stress and mental health struggles faced by farmers and agriculture workers. Indeed, Farmers are about three and half times more likely to die by suicide than the average U.S. population, according to a study from the National Rural Health Association. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES DECISIVELY TO BLOCK CHINA FROM ‘WEAPONIZING’ AMERICAN FARMLAND Their bill, called the Farmers First Act of 2025, would boost funding for the program by $75 million over the next five years, of which $15 million will be made available each fiscal year starting in 2026 through 2030. The money would go toward hiring more behavioral health specialists, establish crisis lines, and build referral relationships with health care providers, health centers and critical access hospitals. ‘DOWN TO ZERO’: VETERAN SUICIDE CRISIS TARGETED IN VA BILL BY BIPARTISAN HOUSE COALITION “Iowa farmers work tirelessly from sunrise to sundown – rain or shine – to feed and fuel the world,” Ernst said. “Their work isn’t easy, and mental health issues, including suicide, are too common in our agriculture community, which is why I’m working to ensure farmers have better access to mental health resources.” The program got a reup in funding in 2020, when a three-year tranche of over $28 million was made available to the regional hubs. That funding was again boosted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Congress injected an additional $28 million to allow states to maintain their own stress assistance programs. The latter funding was made available through grants of up to $500,000 to the state programs. The bill is a bicameral effort, too. Reps. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Angie Craig, D-Minn., are pushing the bill in the House to bolster the program’s funding. Feenstra argued that refilling the program’s cash coffers would provide “farmers with real support in times of crisis.” “Agriculture is the economic engine of Iowa, and our farmers and producers work long hours and make unseen sacrifices to feed and fuel our country and the world,” he said. “Those sacrifices can take a toll on our farm producers, especially when commodity prices tumble or severe weather destroys crops.”
Socialist Mamdani’s supermarket plan would be ‘bullet to the heart’ of blue-collar America, lawmaker warns
A House Republican who’s had experience with his own family grocery store chain is criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s call for government-owned markets. “This will be a bullet into the heart of the U.S. grocery industry, if this caught on,” Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an interview. Mamdani, a self-declared democratic socialist, has proposed a pilot program of five government-owned grocery stores – one in each New York City borough – in a bid to reduce food insecurity in underserved areas and bring down grocery costs. COMER DISMISSES BIDEN DOCTOR’S BID FOR PAUSE IN COVER-UP PROBE: ‘THROWING OUT EVERY EXCUSE’ But skeptics like Rulli note that grocery stores already operate on razor-thin profit margins, generally between 1% and 3%. His family owns and operates Rulli Brothers, a small chain of two grocery stores in the Youngstown, Ohio, area. “My brothers run that store, our family store…they have gone between [1.25%] and 1.7 net in the last five to six years,” Rulli said. And while the pilot program only calls for five stores now, the Ohio Republican argued the idea could affect businesses both large and small if widened. “Say you’re going to Cleveland, Ohio. And the mayor opens up ten government-run stores, half the cost of all the other different stores,” Rulli posed. “Whether it’s a mom-and-pop or…a Kroger, or you can have a Harris Teeter, all these different players – all of them would go out of business, and you’d only have the government-run business. So once you have only government-run business, there’s no incentive for there to be creativity, competition, variety.” He said costs could eventually go up as well if competition was muted. And Rulli argued that would affect working-class Americans the most with a loss of affordable variety, as well as the small corner stores in New York City colloquially known as “bodegas.” Rulli referenced a famous photo of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin making an unscheduled stop at a Texas grocery store while in the U.S. and marveling at the selection of products. “You have the options on different size, amounts…There’s so many different things. And you’re going to have 15 or 20 kinds of varieties. That makes for a good quality of life,” Rulli said. Then, directed at Mamdani, he said, “You want to limit the amount of things that they could buy at the grocery store? One of the few things that the blue-collar American, the populist American, can actually take comfort in is the variety of [items] at the grocery store.” Mamdani is a 33-year-old member of the New York State Assembly whose success in the New York City Democratic primary stunned politicos who expected at least an initially strong showing by former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo. His far-left ideas and support from national-level Democrat firebrands like Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have made Mamdani an effective boogeyman for Republicans. FAR-LEFT FIREBRAND SAYS SHE ‘NEVER HAD A CONCERN’ ABOUT BIDEN’S MENTAL STATE AS HOUSE PROBE HEATS UP Several Republicans from the Empire State told Fox News Digital last month that Mamdani winning the race in November could be politically beneficial for the GOP, though they also maintained that they would work against that outcome. Mamdani is running against Republican Curtis Sliwa and current Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who is running as an independent candidate in the race. Cuomo is rumored to be eyeing his own bid as an independent as well. Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for a response to Rulli.