Vermont GOP pushes for penalties against Dems accused of disrupting ‘Detrans Awareness Day’ at Capitol
Green Mountain Republicans are pushing for the discipline or resignation of two Democrats they say “coordinated” a protest inside the State House that disrupted a meeting the Vermont Family Alliance was holding for “Detrans Awareness Day.” Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that state Reps. Mari Cordes of Lincoln and Jubilee McGill of Middlebury played an “active role” in the disruption that went viral across the nation – including on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.” Video footage from the Vermont Daily Chronicle featured by Watters and other journalists showed men dressed in women’s clothing singing loudly, while other disrupters shouted loud enough to stifle Vermont Family Alliance speaker Renee McGuiness, who had a microphone. “Intentionally recruiting people – that crosses the line for me,” Dame said. DANCING TRANSGENDER HECKLERS SHUT DOWN PARENTS’ EVENT IN BLUE STATE’S CAPITOL While some Democrats in Montpelier, who control the state House and Senate, are interested in working across the aisle with their Republican colleagues and the GOP governor, Dame said many “are not interested in governance for everyone.” In a statement, the VTGOP cited a Facebook post from a “Middlebury Pride” page that sought to congregate to “push back against transphobic bigots and their lies.” “Join us for a trans dance at the Statehouse in Montpelier on 3/12 at 12:30 to make our presence known. Trans joy is rebellious. Trans joy is irrepressible,” the post read. “Wear a mask – Trans power forever.” The disrupted meeting was intended to highlight resources available to former transgender people who had de-transitioned to their biological sex and are experiencing physical, mental or emotional aftereffects of their original transgender surgeries. On the Facebook page, McGill posted a comment under the announcement that included the official day’s schedule for the room in question. RNC FILES LAWSUIT OVER NONCITIZEN VOTING RIGHTS IN VERMONT’S LARGEST CITY “The attorney general will be meeting with the pages from 8:45-9:45. I am worried that there will be disruptions to their time together. I have seen posts all over informing people to be there at 8:45 with signs etc. and just wanted to get the word out,” she wrote. McGill and Cordes did not respond to requests for comment filed with the State House Sergeant-at-Arms office. Dame said it was “deeply regrettable to discover that instead of working on the issues Vermonters care most about” that the two women “used their positions as legislators in the State House to deliberately sabotage a peaceful informational meeting held by a group that shares a different perspective.” He called on House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, to consider disciplining the lawmakers for creating an “unnecessary debacle.” While some critics also found fault with Sergeant-at-Arms Agatha Kessler, whose office eventually cleared the room of both factions, Dame said she acted responsibly and is a “genuinely [politically] down-the-middle person.” The Democratic caucus was scheduled to use the room afterward, so by the time the enforcement office arrived, it was almost the end of the Detrans Awareness Day participants’ reservation. In a statement regarding Detrans Awareness Day and “subsequently planned counterdemonstrations,” Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale and House Majority Leader Lori Houghton, both Democrats representing Chittenden, said the legislative majority jointly “reaffirms our unwavering commitment to the rights and freedoms of all Vermonters.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Personal health decisions and gender identity are deeply personal matters – not political talking points. Every individual deserves the dignity and respect to make these choices free from public scrutiny, interference, or government overreach,” the lawmakers said. Hinsdale added separately that “trans Vermonters [have a] right to access the medical care, safety, and legal protections they deserve. We reject any efforts to turn their existence into a political debate.” McGuinness later demanded an apology from Houghton and Hinsdale for publicly “mischaracterizing our event as an attack on the transgender community.” Fox News Digital also reached out to Vermont Gov. Phil Scott – a Republican – for comment, but did not receive a response by press time. Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
Illinois families protest homeschool bill ‘overreach’ at Capitol, but legislation advances
A state bill protested by hundreds of homeschooling families at the Illinois state Capitol advanced out of committee on Wednesday and will head to the state House floor for a vote, likely sometime next week, Fox News has learned. House Bill 2827, known as the Homeschool Act, passed out of the Education Policy Committee by a vote of 8-4. If it passes a House floor vote, the bill will then go to the full House for a vote, followed by the Senate and then onto the desk of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Pritzker, a Democrat, has not publicly taken any position on the bill. Fox News reached out to his office multiple times asking if he supports the bill and if he plans to sign it if it reaches his desk but has not received a response so far. The bill would establish requirements for parents to meet to homeschool their children and if they do not comply, they could face up to a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail. Hundreds of homeschooling families gathered inside the state Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, earlier Wednesday, condemning the bill as an overreach by lawmakers. Will Estrada, senior counsel for the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, told Fox News that the bill’s language was left “open-ended for unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to be able to write different sections of regulations.” “If this bill is passed into law, it’s going to be expanded in future years to put even more restrictions on homeschool and private school families,” Estrada said after testifying at Wednesday’s hearing. “The record of homeschoolers shows that we do well academically, socially, emotionally and so why are we messing with them? That’s the question. This bill is a solution in search of a problem.” ILLINOIS PARENTS, LAWMAKERS SOUND ALARM OVER PROPOSED HOMESCHOOLING BILL: ‘DIRECT ASSAULT ON FAMILIES’ “We became homeschoolers in 2020 upon seeing all the government overreach, so the fact that they are now coming for us again with government overreach, I feel like it’s an attack on parental rights,” one homeschooling mother who showed up to the state Capitol protest, Michelle Langworthy, told Fox News. “There’s a part of the bill that says the school will be the one that will get to determine where the child’s records go that the parent no longer has that right.” “That is a such a gross overreach of what the state should be allowed to do. And they also say that the student should be educated to serve the state. That’s absurd,” Langworthy said. “I don’t align with the state. I don’t want what the state prioritizes to be the priority of my family. We have a different value system. We are not ownership of the state.” “We’re fine. We’re scoring high. We’re doing great. We’re involved in the community,” she said, condemning sexual abuse and harassment allegations within the Chicago Public Schools system. “They have no right coming to our side of the lane.” Another homeschooling parent, Luke Schurter, told Fox News at the state Capitol Wednesday that the bill is “taking a step back for homeschool freedom, not a step forward.” CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, TEACHERS UNION REAFFIRM BEING A ‘SANCTUARY SPACE’ AHEAD OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION “We want to choose what we teach our kids, how we raise our kids, how we instruct them, so we’re concerned that this is cracking that door open and then the next thing is going to be more requirements on ‘hey, we need to look and see, we need to dictate what the subjects you are teaching are, we need to dictate how much time you’re spending,’” the father of three said. “This would circumvent those efforts and bring them back under the authority and the watchful eye of the public school system.” The bill would require the State Board of Education to create a “Homeschool Declaration Form,” which a homeschooling parent must submit to essentially register their child in the nearest public school. The children of parents who do not submit the form would be “considered truant, with penalties applying,” according to a synopsis of the bill. A regional office of education or a school district could also request that homeschooling parents hand over an “education portfolio,” or a set of their child’s records, including writing samples, workbooks, worksheets or other logs of curricular materials. The portfolio would serve “as evidence that the homeschool administrator’s homeschool program provides a course of instruction that is sufficient to satisfy the education requirements set forth in Sections 26-1 and Section 27-1 of the School Code that is at least commensurate with the standards prescribed for public schools,” according to the bill text. Section 26-1 sets the compulsory school age at between 7 and 17 unless the child has already graduated from high school, while Section 27-1 is intended to ensure the areas of education taught in public schools do not discriminate on account of the sex of the student. The bill would also require homeschooling parents of children who participate in public school activities on or off school grounds to “submit proof that the child has received all required immunizations and health examinations or a signed Certificate of Religious Exemption.” Fox News’ Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.
Judges blocking Trump’s executive orders are acting ‘erroneously,’ White House says
The judicial branch has been behaving “erroneously,” according to White House press secretary, after several judges have blocked various executive orders from President Donald Trump. “I would like to point out that the judges in this country are acting erroneously,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Wednesday news briefing. “We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench.” On Saturday, Judge James Boasberg with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order halting the Trump administration from deporting migrants allegedly part of the Tren de Aragua gang under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The law permits deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing. However, flights carrying the migrants continued to El Salvador, and Leavitt said Sunday the order had “no lawful basis” since Boasberg issued it after the flights departed from U.S. airspace. THESE ARE THE JUDGES GOING TOE TO TOE AGAINST TRUMP’S AGENDA Meanwhile, Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment in a social media post Tuesday, prompting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement condemning Trump’s remarks. Specifically, Roberts said that “it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision” for more than two centuries. In response, Leavitt said Wednesday that the Supreme Court needs to “reign in” judges who are behaving as “partisan activists” and are “undermining” the judicial branch, while also asserting that Trump does respect Robert. Efforts to oust Boasberg also have been launched in Congress. For example, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, unveiled an impeachment resolution against Boasberg Tuesday, claiming that Boasberg was “guilty of high crimes” in a post on social media. WHITE HOUSE BLASTS JUDGE FOR ATTEMPTING TO HALT DEPORTATION FLIGHTS TO EL SALVADOR: ‘NO LAWFUL BASIS’ “It’s incredibly apparent that there is a concerted effort by the far left to judge shop, to pick judges who are clearly acting as partisan activists from the bench in an attempt to derail this president’s agenda,” Leavitt said. “We will not allow that to happen.” Leavitt said that while flights to deport illegal immigrants to El Salvador are currently not scheduled, the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign will continue as litigation continues on this case. “We don’t have any flights planned specifically, but we will continue with the mass deportations,” Leavitt said. “And I would just like to point out that the judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the President doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists…That is an egregious abuse of the bench.” Boasberg has requested the Trump administration provide more details regarding the timing of the flights departing U.S. soil, when they left U.S. airspace, when they landed in El Salvador, among other things. The Trump administration has until Thursday to respond. Trump has signed more than 90 executive orders since returning to the White House in January, spurring more than 125 lawsuits against his administration. Additionally, the odds of impeaching a judge are slim, as it would require 67 senators to vote for a conviction. Currently, Republicans only have a majority of 53 lawmakers in the upper chamber. Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview Tuesday that he has never defied a court order — and wouldn’t — but that the judicial system is full of “crooked” judges. “No, you can’t do that,” Trump said about defying court orders. “However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to look at what do you do when you have a rogue judge.” Other recent legal losses for the Trump administration include Judge Ana Reyes blocking Trump’s executive order to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military. Reyes wrote in her 79-page opinion released Tuesday that the ban “is soaked in animus.” The injunction takes effect on Friday, providing a window for the Trump administration to appeal the order. Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
Top Arizona election official eyes bid for border congressional seat after House Democrat dies
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, may run for late Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s seat in Congress after Grijalva died last week. The decision could lead to a major shakeup in the state’s politics. It’s a seat Grijalva, a Democrat, had held since 2003 until his lung cancer-related death earlier this month at 77. “I have long admired Congressman Grijalva. We should all be grateful for his years of service,” Fontes said in a statement Tuesday. DEMOCRATIC REP. RAUL GRIJALVA DEAD AT 77 “I am strongly considering a run to represent AZ-07, a place where I was born and raised, served my country in the Marine Corps, and protected democracy. I will have more to say in the days ahead. “Right now, we must remember and appreciate the life and legacy of the late Congressman Grijalva.” As part of the state’s “resign to run” law, Fontes would need to leave his role, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs would need to appoint his replacement. The next regular election for the Secretary of State’s office is in 2026. When the governor leaves the state, the secretary of state becomes the acting governor. If the governor steps down, the secretary of state ascends to governor. This most notably happened when former Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano resigned to serve as the Homeland Security Secretary for the Obama administration, which resulted in Republican Jan Brewer taking over. An office of the lieutenant governor will be created in 2027, which will make the lieutenant governor next in line for governor. BORDER STATE LAWMAKER REVEALS WHAT ‘DRASTIC’ CHANGES CAN BE SOLIDIFIED WITH MAJOR CONGRESSIONAL ACTION The move is a public pivot away from prior reports that Fontes was mulling a primary bid against Hobbs in the 2026 election, which is expected to be one of the most competitive gubernatorial races in the country. Grijalva’s daughter, Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, said she may also dive into the race but is waiting until after her father’s funeral before announcing a decision. SOUTHERN BORDER STATE GOVERNOR TAKES ON CARTELS AND SECURITY WITH SIGNING OF EXECUTIVE ORDER “Many have asked me if I would consider running to continue my father’s legacy. In between tears and hugs, my family and I are processing our profound loss as well as that of our community, state, and nation,” she said in a statement. The special primary election for the seat will be July 15, and the general election will be Sept. 23. Grijalva won the November election with over 63% of the vote. As for other Democratic candidates in the field, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and state Rep. Alma Hernandez opted not to run in the special election. Geographically, the vast majority of the district falls along Arizona’s southern border, which has become a national flash point in recent years due to the migrant and drug crisis.
Trump admin guts Institute of Peace of ‘rogue bureaucrats’ after DOGE standoff in government office
The Trump administration gutted the Institute of Peace of “rogue bureaucrats” who held a tense standoff with a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team Monday that required police intervention, according to the White House. “Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “The Trump administration will enforce the president’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.” The Institute of Peace is an independent, national institution funded by Congress that was established in 1984 under the Reagan administration to promote peace and diplomacy on the international stage. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February regarding reducing the “scope of federal bureaucracy,” which included specifically targeting the size of the Institute of Peace, as well as other government programs, such as the U.S. African Development Foundation and the Inter-American Foundation. That executive order followed one on Jan. 20 that established DOGE and directed agency leaders to establish their own DOGE teams within their respective agencies as part of the administration’s work to slim down the federal government. WHITE HOUSE UNLEASHES ON ‘ROGUE BUREAUCRATS’ AFTER AGENCY HEAD REFUSES DOGE ENTRY TO HEADQUARTERS The Institute of Peace, however, did not comply with the February executive order to reduce its size to the statutory minimum, leading to the Trump administration to fire 11 of its 14 board members last week, Fox Digital learned. “President Trump signed an executive order to reduce USIP to its statutory minimum,” Kelly said. “After noncompliance, 11 board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president.” The remaining board members include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Defense University President Peter Garvin, who on Friday fired acting president and CEO of the institute, George Moose. THE UNELECTED POWER IS THE ROGUE BUREAUCRACY, STEPHEN MILLER SAYS Moose is a Clinton-era diplomat who served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The board replaced Moose with Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official, as acting president. Jackson attempted to enter the Institute of Peace’s building in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, but was denied access by employees of the institute, an administration official told Fox News Digital. The standoff hit a fever pitch Monday when Jackson and the DOGE team attempted again to gain entry to the building, while Moose, who already had been fired, accused them of breaking into the building and vowed to file a lawsuit. An administration official told Fox Digital that Moose “basically barricaded himself” in his former office after he was fired. “Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,” Moose told reporters Monday, according to the New York Times. “So what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation.” Jackson and the DOGE team held conversations with local police Monday, Fox Digital learned, as they worked to gain entry to the building. The Metropolitan Police Department reported that they received a call from the United States Attorney’s Office at about 4 p.m. that day regarding an ongoing incident at the institute, and reported to the scene. “MPD members met with the acting USIP President, and he provided the MPD members with documentation that he was the acting USIP President, with all powers delegated by the USIP Board of Directors to that role,” the police department said in a news release of Monday’s incident. “The acting USIP President advised MPD members that there were unauthorized individuals inside of the building that were refusing to leave and refusing to provide him access to the facility.” TRUMP ORDERS THE DISMANTLING OF GOVERNMENT-FUNDED, ‘PROPAGANDA’-PEDDLING MEDIA OUTLET “MPD members went to the USIP building and contacted an individual who allowed MPD members inside of the building,” the release stated. “Once inside of the building, the acting USIP President requested that all the unauthorized individuals inside of the building leave.” Jackson was able to enter the building upon police intervention. Moose left the building without incident and no arrests were made, police said. “Mr. Moose denied lawful access to Kenneth Jackson, the Acting USIP President (as approved by the USIP Board) @DCPoliceDept arrived onsite and escorted Mr. Jackson into the building. The only unlawful individual was Mr. Moose, who refused to comply, and even tried to fire USIP’s private security team when said security team went to give access to Mr. Jackson,” DOGE’s X account said of the incident Monday. MUSK AND DOGE HAVE ANOTHER PERFECT TARGET: MORE TAXPAYER-FUNDED, ANTI-AMERICAN MEDIA An administration official told Fox Digital that the incident is a prime example of “rogue bureaucrats who have been (in government) for years and decades, who want to basically continue to dole out tax dollars unilaterally, with no oversight.” The Institute of Peace filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Tuesday in the D.C. District Court, calling for “the immediate intervention of this Court to stop Defendants from completing the unlawful dismantling of the Institute and irreparably impairing Plaintiffs’ ability to perform their vital peace promotion and conflict resolution work as tasked by Congress.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Wednesday’s news conference that staffers physically barricaded themselves in the building. “There was a concerted effort amongst the rogue bureaucrats at the United States Institute of Peace to actually physically barricade themselves essentially inside of the building to prevent political appointees of this administration who work at the direction of the president of the United States to get into the building,” she said. “They barricaded the doors. They also disabled telephone lines, internet connections and other IT infrastructure within the building. They distributed fliers internally, encouraging each other to basically prevent these individuals from accessing the building,” Leavitt continued. “It’s a resistance from bureaucrats who don’t want to see change in this city. President Trump was elected on an overwhelming mandate to seek change and implement change.
Prince Harry’s immigration docs paint ‘clear picture’ into how he was allowed into US: report
Documents related to Prince Harry’s immigration record were released Tuesday and paint a “clear picture” of how the British royal was allowed to move to the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released court declarations from agents in the immigration case of Prince Harry, while a closed-door hearing transcript of a lawsuit filed by the Heritage Foundation into the royal’s immigration case was also released, with one expert claiming the British royal likely lied on his application despite the documents being heavily redacted. “The key information may be at State,” Heritage Foundation lawyer Samuel Dewey said in a report in the New York Post on the new documents, noting the heavy mentions of the State Department in the documents that point “pretty clear picture” of how Harry was able to navigate the U.S. immigration process. While Harry’s immigration records were not released and the documents were heavily redacted, Dewey believes there are plenty of hints in what was released in federal court Tuesday after a deadline set by Judge Carl Nichols. MEGHAN MARKLE BLAMED BY PRINCE HARRY’S PALS FOR MAKING HIM ‘TOO WOKE’ BEFORE ROYAL EXIT: AUTHOR Dewey told the New York Post that the documents point to the possibility that Harry lied and failed to divulge his history of drug use on what was likely a 0-1 visa application, which are typically filed with the State Department for people “of exceptional talent or ability.” The Heritage Foundation lawyer argued that if Harry had admitted to taking drugs, the information would have gone into a DS-160 file and been sent to DHS in its entirety, but would not have ended up with DHS if he was dishonest about his prior drug use. Dewey believes that the documents are proof that the State Department and DHS were still withholding information from Heritage and the court, noting an excerpt from the closed-door hearing that was released Tuesday. “While I have some of the ‘true set of facts’ right now, I don’t have all of them,” Judge Nichols said at the April 30, 2024, hearing. “And I well understand that some of this information that we’ve been talking about today is not at DHS.” MEGHAN MARKLE, PRINCE HARRY SLAMMED BY JUSTINE BATEMAN FOR THEIR ‘AGGRESSIVE VICTIM OLYMPICS CAMPAIGN’ The judge would make a second reference to Harry’s case being split between DHS and State, noting at one point that “all of the relevant information was at DHS” and that if the case “didn’t have State off to the side,” it would be easier “to weigh the public’s interest in knowing that against the privacy concerns.” The Heritage Foundation initially made a Freedom of Information Act request for Harry’s immigration records in 2023, arguing that the British royal may have received special treatment when allowed to move to the U.S. in 2020. The case arose after Harry admitted to his prior drug use in his 2023 memoir, “Spare,” calling into question his honesty on his immigration paperwork a few years prior. “Of course I had been taking cocaine at that time,” Harry wrote in the book, referencing a time when he was 17 years old and sought to “feel different.” “At someone’s house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and since then I had consumed some more,” he continued. Noting the admission, the Heritage Foundation has argued that it is in the public’s interest to see the immigration records to determine whether the British royal was honest or received preferential treatment on his 2020 visa application. “Time for Prince Harry to go home. Every partial answer raises three new questions. We now believe he has committed a felony by lying on an 0-1 visa and on form DS-160,” Mike Howell, Oversight Project executive director at the Heritage Foundation, told the New York Post. “The Garland Justice Department and Prince Harry conspired to hide the truth and waste a massive amount of public resources to defend someone who hates their own country and is hell-bent on tearing down this one too,” he added. “Prince Harry should self-deport now. He can use his Royal status to drink at the Netflix liberal grift machine and bash the results of the 2024 Presidential Election back in the UK on their taxpayer dime.”
Trump admin planning to consolidate HIV programs, slashing ‘overhead’ and DEI: official
The Trump administration is planning to make cost-saving cuts by merging two similar HIV/AIDS prevention programs run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an administration official told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. The cuts will pertain to administrative costs and DEI-related spending. The tentative proposal, which is still “a concept of a plan,” is to merge them into one program under HRSA to streamline efficiency – in line with the administration’s downsizing of federal government agenda – as having two separate programs doing similar functions doesn’t make sense, the official said. “One of those things is still very preliminary, but obviously, you don’t need two $1 billion budgets for this, with $1 billion going to the CDC and $1 billion going to HRSA,” the official said. “Some of that will go toward paying the administrative overhead costs and that sort of thing.” Both the CDC and HRSA are part of the Department of Health and Human Services, overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. HOSPITALS WARNED THEY MUST PROTECT CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION: HHS AGENCY MEMO “If this goes through, that will be more definitive… like with examining DEI spending with these two programs,” the official said. The Trump administration has already moved to slash federal funding of DEI programs and initiatives in one of his early executive actions titled, “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.” While the CDC has a department dedicated to the prevention of HIV and other infectious diseases, HRSA also runs a program called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP), which provides medical care for low-income people with HIV. During his first term, in 2019, Trump launched the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, with the aim of reducing cases of HIV by 75% by 2025 and by 90% by 2030. The initiative is operated by the CDC. TRANS AIR FORCE SERGEANTS TAKE TRUMP ADMIN TO COURT, SAY IT’S ‘NOT POSSIBLE’ TO SERVE AS WOMEN The proposal, which is still being worked on this week, comes amid big government shake-ups across several federal sectors at the direction of Trump and the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with thousands of workers let go in mass firings in recent weeks.
Reporter’s Notebook: Voting from home
Woody Allen famously decreed that 90% of success in life is just showing up. With that in mind, should the House of Representatives allow members of Congress to vote from home? How about with very particular criteria? Oh, you may say, didn’t they try that a few years ago during the pandemic? Lawmakers would literally phone in their votes to a proxy member on the floor. That member in Washington, D.C., would then rifle through a set of index cards, announcing how a member was either in favor or opposed to a given bill, amendment, resolution or motion. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY: QUARRELING NYC NEIGHBORS A COUNTRY MILE APART ON TRUMP-ERA POLICY That constituted voting in the House during the darkest days of the pandemic. Social distancing spurred proxy voting in the House. It was probably not the best idea to squeeze 435 people into the House at the same time when COVID-19 raged in 2020. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and former Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, tested positive in mid-March, 2020. McAdams was hospitalized for more than a week after experiencing shortness of breath. It took a while, but the House eventually adopted remote voting. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., initially had reservations about the practice, but as the pandemic intensified, proponents argued that flying scores of lawmakers from all around the country into Washington and back to their districts wasn’t feasible or maybe safe. So the House implemented proxy voting. DEMOCRATS LAUNCH BILLBOARDS TARGETING HOUSE REPUBLICANS AMID TOWN HALL SHOWDOWNS “People have to choose between their health and their vote. That shouldn’t be the case,” Pelosi said in 2020. “We should always be removing obstacles of participation to vote.” Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., represents a district just across the Potomic River in Northern Virginia. That means Beyer was always near Capitol Hill. Beyer served as one of the most reliable surrogates for colleagues to cast votes through him on the floor and would frequently come to the floor toward the end of the roll call vote and read off a flurry of names. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., decried the practice. “For more than 231 years, never have we seen a proxy on the floor of the House,” said McCarthy. Democrats pointed to health and safety. Many Republicans in turn pointed to the Constitution. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, which says that “a Majority of each (chamber) shall constitute a Quorum to do business.” The GOP asserted that anything the House was doing – under proxy voting and Democratic control – was unconstitutional. Members had to be there in person. Yet many Republicans eventually began engaging in the practice – even while some spoke out against remote voting. Fast-forward to the present. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., gave birth to a son during the summer of 2023. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., gave birth to a son in January. Pettersen was just the 13th woman ever to give birth while in office. But, becoming a new mom doesn’t always comport with the intense schedule mandated for Members of Congress. Traveling to and from Washington, D.C., lawmakers are routinely expected to be in three places at once: meeting with constituents, voting on the floor and perhaps attending a committee hearing. You get the idea. Then there are actual health concerns for new moms. Doctors put some pregnant moms on bedrest. “Congress needs to be more accessible to regular people,” said Pettersen. “I wasn’t actually able to fly from Colorado to DC to vote a few weeks before giving birth because of the medical restrictions.” Luna had a similar experience. HOUSE DEMS UNDERCUT JEFFRIES ON SCHUMER’S LEADERSHIP AS LEFT’S MESSAGING WOES PERSIST “I was trying to figure out what the process was for Members who are about to give birth. And to my disappointment, I was surprised. I was told that I could not vote,” said Luna. “This place is completely out of touch with average day Americans.” So, Luna teamed with Pettersen to draft a resolution allowing expectant mothers, those who have just given birth and even spouses of new mothers, a three-month window under which to vote remotely. “It is the first step forward in the right direction to not just give mothers a seat at the table, but also to encourage people to have families,” said Luna. “It’s pretty much hard to get anywhere after eight months.” There’s a cumbersome parliamentary maneuver that disgruntled House Members can use to try an end-run around leadership if the speaker isn’t keen to put their pet issue on the floor. It’s called a “discharge petition.” A discharge petition requires a solid 218 signatures – regardless of the body’s membership at that moment – to force the House to consider your issue. Discharge petitions are rarely successful. In 2002, the House successfully adopted a discharge petition for the landmark “McCain-Feingold” campaign finance law. Another discharge petition wasn’t successful until there was a bipartisan plan to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank in 2015. But discharge petitions got a boost recently. The House adopted two last year alone. One was a package on natural disaster tax relief. Members also advanced a discharge petition to curb the reduction of Social Security payments to senior citizens. But over the past quarter-century, only four discharge petitions collected the requisite signatures to compel House action. The remote voting discharge petition by Luna and Pettersen collected enough signatures last week. That will trigger the House to consider the plan on proxy voting for moms and parents – unless House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can convince the sponsors to dial things back. Johnson opposes remote voting. “I’m afraid the whole thing is unconstitutional. “So I’ve tried to discuss this with Anna, and she’s pretty stubborn about it,” said Johnson. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., is the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee. He argued that the GOP backlash to proxy voting “was insane” during the pandemic, but then McGovern called out Johnson. “Speaker Johnson voted remotely 39 times,” said
JD Vance recalls his wife texting him under table at Silicon Valley dinner: ‘These people are f—ing crazy’
Vice President JD Vance recalled the eyebrow-raising view expressed to him by a tech CEO during a Silicon Valley dinner years ago and noted that his wife Usha texted him under the table during the event. Vance noted that he was discussing his concern that the nation was “heading in a direction where America could no longer support middle-class families working on middle-class wages,” and that even if there were sufficient “economic dynamism to provide the wealth to ensure” individuals were able to afford to purchase a home and food, and the monetary aspect of work were replaced, the purpose and dignity of work would be destroyed. The vice president, who noted that this event had probably been in 2016 or 2017, recounted that a tech CEO at the event noted that he was not concerned about a lack of purpose when individuals lose their jobs. VANCE KNOCKS GLOBALIZATION’S ‘CHEAP LABOR’ AND LAUDS ‘AMERICA’S GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMEBACK’ AT AI SUMMIT Vance said that when he asked the CEO what he thought would replace people’s sense of purpose, the CEO’s answer was “digital, fully-immersive gaming.” The vice president added that his wife texted him under the table saying they had to “get the hell outta here. These people are f—ing crazy.” VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE TO PLAY KEY ROLE WITH RNC TO ‘FULLY ENACT MAGA MANDATE,’ GROW GOP MAJORITY IN 2026 Vance told the story while speaking at the American Dynamism Summit on Tuesday. During the remarks, Vance described “cheap labor” as a “crutch that inhibits innovation” and a “drug that too many American firms got addicted to.” JD VANCE SCOLDS CBS FOR ‘HARASSING’ HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW OVER DEI DIFFERENCES ‘IN ORDER TO ATTACK’ TRUMP CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He said the U.S. will not “win the future by ditching child labor laws or paying our workers less than Chinese or Vietnamese laborers. We don’t want that, and it’s not on the table,” he said. Instead, Vance said the nation can win by both protecting workers and supporting innovators.
Chaos erupts at GOP lawmaker’s town hall after left-wing groups promote protests
A House Republican town hall began and ended in chaos Tuesday night as angry protesters jeered for over an hour in a small Midwestern city and accused Republicans of trying to gut critical government programs. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., was the only House GOP lawmaker whose office set up an in-person town hall this week while Congress is in recess – and left-wing groups appear to have seized on the opportunity to disrupt. The event kicked off on a contentious note just minutes after an opening prayer, with the moderator’s first audience question accusing President Donald Trump and Flood of not supporting the “rule of law.” The crowd repeatedly booed any mention of Elon Musk or the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with Flood having to stop and plead for calm multiple times. BLUE STATE GOP CHAIR UNLEASHES ON GOVERNOR FOR ‘GRANDSTANDING’ WITH SPECIAL DEMAND OF TRUMP ADMIN At one point protesters could be heard shouting, “Tax the rich.” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Fleming Kleeb posted on X, showing the number of people heading to Flood’s town hall minutes after it began. She said state Democratic Party operatives “are on site if you need an action handout of things you can do beyond the town hall!” Meanwhile, progressive groups MoveOn and Indivisible advertised a “volunteer-organized event,” titled, “Musk or Us: Demand Mike Flood Fight Back!” The time and place listed matched Flood’s Tuesday night town hall. The event lasted roughly an hour and a half with little reprieve for the congressman as people peppered him with questions and the crowd jeered him during answers. During the open mic portion of the event, a woman noted that Flood’s wife fought breast cancer and said her own sister died of the disease, before telling him, “You decided to capitulate your job of monitoring the funding of places that do research for breast cancer.” “I would like to know how you, personally, stomach that decision,” she asked as the crowd applauded. Flood said he supported medical research funding, and that while he was not aware of any such pause, DOGE was reviewing funds on a case-by-case basis as part of its mission to reduce the national debt. However, even mentioning Musk or DOGE set off the crowd inside Columbus High School’s auditorium, and Flood had to raise his voice and repeat himself several times at points as protesters grew louder. “How can you be against a balanced budget?” an exasperated Flood asked the crowd. After the event, Fox News Digital observed discussions on the message board site Reddit urging people to go protest Flood. One user posted on a Nebraska-focused message board, “I highly implore District 1 residents to make the drive and come out to make your voices heard.” In response to another commenter noting the event was scheduled to last an hour, the same initial user replied, “That’s a whole hour’s worth of booing him and his stupid idea that he’ll get the support of his precious hometown.” In a separate thread about the town hall, another user posted, “S— man isn’t even in my district, but I’m considering going up there.” SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULE STICKS SPLASHDOWN LANDING AS NASA ASTRONAUTS RETURN HOME AFTER MONTHS STUCK IN SPACE Flood’s decision to host a town hall in person comes in apparent defiance of House Republican leaders’ guidance to refrain from such face-to-face events, given the intense uptick in protests – both planned and unplanned. The majority of House Republicans have transitioned to holding tele-town halls, which the lawmakers have defended as a more productive and controlled environment. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Several have cited issues of safety for their staff, with mobs at in-person constituent events growing raucous at times. Meanwhile, left-wing groups that had been urging people to protest at GOP town halls are now taking advantage of the change in strategy, and have pushed activists to hold mock town halls with empty chairs representing lawmakers who in some cases were not even invited. Prominent Democrats like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have also seized on the vacuum to hold their own events in Republican districts.