The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is reportedly gearing up to cancel dozens of research grants about vaccine hesitancy by the end of the month, just four years after the Biden administration poured millions of dollars into combating COVID-19 vaccine skepticism.
According to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post this week with the subject line "required terminations — 3/10/25," the agency had "received a new list… of awards that need to be terminated, today. It has been determined they do not align with NIH funding priorities related to vaccine hesitancy and/or uptake."
More than 40 grants are on the chopping block, according to the Post's report, and when notifying researchers of the NIH's termination, they should be told "not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment."
Fox News Digital has reached out to NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.
The report comes four years after the previous Biden administration spent millions to combat "misinformation," particularly related to the COVID-19 vaccine, in 2021. A November report by Open the Books, a government watchdog group, found that at least $267 million was spent on research grants and contracts related to "misinformation" or "disinformation."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allocated more than $17 million over three weeks in February 2021, CBS News reported at the time, to 15 organizations advocating for Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American populations. Progressive groups UnidosUS and National Urban League were granted $3.2 million and $2 million, respectively.
In a now-archived CDC page titled "Risk for COVID-19 Infection, Hospitalization, and Death By Race/Ethnicity" in December 2022, the department reported that Black people are more likely to contract COVID-19 than White people.
"Sure enough, the feds have spent at least $127 million in grants specifically targeted to study the spread of 'misinformation' — or to help people ‘overcome’ it, so to speak — by persuading them to go along with COVID-related public health recommendations and mandates," the Open the Books report said.
It's unclear if the cancelation of grants came from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., but the Trump administration has been highly critical of the previous administration's spending. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has also been taking a scalpel to DEI-related funding amid President Donald Trump's effort to downsize the government workforce.
Kennedy has been focusing on reforming food policies, expanding healthcare coverage and holding big pharmaceutical companies accountable since his controversial Senate confirmation last month.
A North Carolina Republican Congressman’s town hall event grew heated after a man who identified himself as a veteran stood up and started shouting at him, yelling "you don't give a f--- about me!" before being escorted away by police.
The outburst unfolded Thursday night at a college auditorium in Asheville during a gathering hosted by Rep. Chuck Edwards, who serves the state’s 11th District.
"In my view, the debt crisis has been largely ignored far too long and the time is now to fix how Washington works. To that end, I was proud to vote recently for the House budget resolution which provides the framework," Edwards was heard telling the audience before being interrupted by boos and jeers. He then said, "And you wonder why folks don’t want to do these town halls."
Moments later, a man in the audience started shouting at Edwards, saying "You have nothing to say but lies. You’re lying. I’m a veteran, and you don’t give a f--- about me!"
Around 300 people attended the 1.5-hour long event, where Edwards answered questions on topics such as cuts orchestrated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to the Associated Press.
"Do you support the annexation of Canada and/or Greenland? And this is a yes or no question, I don’t want you to wander off into the woods, I don’t want to hear about your latest week in your office," Edwards was asked by one audience member, to which he replied "the short answer to that is no."
Last week, President Donald Trump said "Paid ‘troublemakers’ are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings" and "It is all part of the game for the Democrats."
"We may not agree on every issue, but hearing the concerns of Western North Carolinians and answering your questions will continue to be a priority of mine," Edwards said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday that "we have never been closer to peace," as the U.S. waits for Russia’s answer on a 30-day ceasefire agreement. Ukraine accepted the deal earlier this week after a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia, on the condition that Moscow commits to the plan.
Leavitt noted that this morning President Donald Trump put out a scathing Truth Social post that included a message urging the Russians to accept the U.S. ceasefire proposal.
"He is putting pressure on President Putin and the Russians to do the right thing," Leavitt told reporters. "Yesterday was a productive day for the United States of America and for the world. In terms of peace, we have never been this close to peace."
In celebrating the administration’s success, Leavitt pointed out that yesterday NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Trump’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Rutte told Trump that he "broke the deadlock" in the Russia-Ukraine war with this week’s peace talks in Saudi Arabia and the opening of a "dialogue with the Russians."
"Ukraine, you broke the deadlock, as you said, all the killing and the young people dying, cities getting destroyed. And the fact that you did that, you started a dialogue with the Russians and the successful talks in Saudi Arabia, now with the Ukrainians. I really want to commend you for this," Rutte said.
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for tougher sanctions on Russia and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to drag out the peace talks to prolong the war.
However, on Thursday, while taking questions from reporters alongside Rutte, Trump said he would prefer peace to sanctions, but noted that there were things the U.S. could do financially that would be "very bad for Russia." He did not specify what that would entail.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced a crackdown on leaks within the intelligence community.
Gabbard — a former Democratic congresswoman turned Trump-supporting Republican — was sworn in to the DNI post last month.
"Our nation’s Intelligence Community must be focused on our national security mission. Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people, and will not be tolerated," she declared on Friday in a thread on X
"Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability. That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the Intelligence Community and will hold them accountable," Gabbard added.
She then listed several "recent examples" of intelligence community leaks:
She concluded the thread by warning that unauthorized disclosure of classified material is a breach of the law and will be handled accordingly.
"I'm grateful that @DNIGabbard is working to end leaking and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community. Another promise made and promise kept," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a post.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, tweeted, "Restore an intelligence community that fits within the Constitution, and stays focused on America’s national security."
NEWFIELDS, N.H. – Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is keeping the door open to a possible Republican run next year in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Sununu, who enjoys a large national profile, thanks to his regular appearances the past few years on the cable news networks and Sunday talk shows, emphasized that the "door is not closed," when asked on Fox News Radio's "The Guy Benson Show" if he's considering a Senate run.
And Sununu, who was elected and re-elected to four straight two-year terms as governor of the key New England swing state, touted on Thursday that if he were to run, "I would win, by the way."
The 78-year-old Shaheen, the first woman in the nation's history to win election as governor and as a U.S. senator, announced this week that she would retire at the end of next year rather than seek a fourth six-year term in the Senate.
Even before Shaheen's announcement, her seat in New Hampshire was considered one of the GOP's top pick-up opportunities in the 2026 midterms – along with Michigan, where Sen. Gary Peters is also retiring, and Georgia, where Republicans consider first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff vulnerable – as Republicans hope to expand their current 53-47 majority.
Sununu, in 2021, expressed interest in running for the Senate against his predecessor as governor, Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan, who was up for re-election in 2022. And the popular governor was heavily courted by national Republicans to take on Hassan.
But on Nov. 9, 2021, Sununu announced that he would instead run for a fourth term as governor, upsetting many Republicans in the nation's capital.
"When you look at what their (senators) job is and what a governor’s job is . . . it’s not even close. I can't tell you how many senators told me, ‘You're just going to have to wait around a couple of years to get anything done.’ Can you imagine me sitting around a couple of years," Sununu emphasized at the time. "They debate and talk and nothing gets done. . . . That’s not the world I live in."
Fast-forward to this past year, and Sununu repeatedly said he wouldn't seek to run for the Senate in 2026.
In a November interview with Fox News Digital, the then-governor reiterated what he had first said in a July interview.
"Definitely ruling out running for the Senate in 2026. Yeah, definitely not on my dance card," Sununu said in an interview along the sidelines of the Republican Governors Association winter meeting in Florida.
The 50-year-old Sununu, who when he was first elected in 2016 was the nation's youngest governor, was asked again about a 2026 Senate run in a Fox News Digital interview in early January, in his last full day in office.
"I'm not planning on running for anything right now. I'm really not, at least for the next two, four, six years," he emphasized. "Who knows what happens down the road, but it would be way down the road and nothing, nothing I'm planning on, nothing my family would tolerate either short term."
Sununu, in his interview on Thursday, cautioned that while he's keeping the door open to a potential 2026 campaign, "I’m not saying it’s a high probability. Can’t wait to jump in. Definitely not."
As for his change of mind from his steadfast no to a slight maybe, Sununu said that "some folks in New Hampshire especially, and some of our mutual friends in Washington, D.C., have asked me to at least keep the door open and reconsider, and I am."
As for his timetable for making a decision, Sununu said on Friday in an interview on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" that he would "take a few weeks to think about it."
Sununu isn't the only Republican mulling a Senate bid in New Hampshire.
Former Sen. Scott Brown, of Massachusetts, who later narrowly lost to Shaheen in New Hampshire in the 2014 election, is seriously considering a 2026 run.
Brown, who served four years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during President Donald Trump’s first administration, has been holding meetings with Republicans across New Hampshire for a couple of months and has met multiple times with GOP officials in the nation’s capital.
Brown recently met with top Trump administration political officials at the White House, sources tell Fox News Digital.
Brown, who told Fox News Digital late last year that he was seriously considering a Senate run, took aim at Granite State Democrats, arguing that "they're just completely out of touch with what we want here in New Hampshire. And the more I think about it, I think we can do better."
Sununu, who's long been known for his frenetic pace and his confidence on the campaign trail, highlighted, "I know how to run. I know how to win. . . . I think we’ve got a great record here. I just know my voters, and they know me. . . . And so, if I really wanted to do this, I have no doubt we could be very, very successful. I know that sounds arrogant. . . . I don’t care. I’m just saying things are the ABCs of me winning."
On his past criticism of how the Senate functions, Sununu noted that "there’s something that definitely changed from when I really didn’t want to do it in '22 to today. You know, specifically just the priority. I mean, back then, I had Republicans in the U.S. Senate telling me balancing budgets didn’t matter," Sununu elaborated.
And he argued that "clearly that has changed."
Sununu, who regularly highlights that he is a "budget hawk," pointed to President Donald Trump's recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to overhaul and downsize the federal government. DOGE, steered by Elon Musk, the world's richest person and the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, has swept through federal agencies, rooting out what the White House argues was billions in wasteful federal spending. It has also taken a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees. The moves by DOGE have triggered a slew of lawsuits in response.
"We have DOGE going on. Thank you, President Trump. He’s talking about balancing budgets. He’s driving that message. And clearly, there’s a need for some leadership on something that I believe very, very strongly," Sununu said. "There’s a different attitude here. They’re taking their job seriously."
Following Trump's first term in the White House and in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of former President Biden's 2020 election victory, Sununu became a leading vocal GOP Trump critic.
Sununu was a top surrogate and supporter of former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump's final challenger in the 2024 GOP presidential primaries.
But he did back the Republican nominee in the general election.
Asked about his current relationship with Trump and his team, Sununu shared in his Fox News Radio interview, "I was at the white House three weeks ago and emphasized "that relationship is not of concern."
"There’s a great understanding. I’ve been very supportive of what he’s [Trump] been doing, Sununu added. "Everyone has seen me out in the media for the last year, working hard for the Republican Party, working hard to get folks to vote the right way."
And he added that his relationship with Trump and the president's team "is the least of my concerns, to be honest."
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and several key Democrats are urging Senate Democrats to risk a government shutdown by opposing a must-pass spending bill being considered on the Senate floor today.
Instead, Pelosi, who represents San Francisco and is a leading Democrat in the House, is urging senators to back a shorter-term funding extension that would allow more time for negotiation.
The Senate will take a key procedural vote on Friday afternoon to potentially tee up final passage of a crucial stopgap government spending bill – known as a continuing resolution (CR) – to avoid a partial shutdown as time runs out.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed that he would vote for the House-passed CR, because "a shutdown would be a gift" for President Donald Trump and Republicans.
Pelosi, a leading Democrat in the House, however, is saying the bill presents a "false choice."
"Donald Trump and Elon Musk have offered the Congress a false choice between a government shutdown or a blank check that makes a devastating assault on the well-being of working families across America," she wrote on X.
"Let’s be clear," she went on, "neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable."
Pelosi commended House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats for overwhelmingly voting against the bill.
She said that Democratic senators "should listen to the women" in Congress.
"Appropriations leaders Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray have eloquently presented the case that we must have a better choice: a four-week funding extension to keep government open and negotiate a bipartisan agreement," said Pelosi.
"America has experienced a Trump shutdown before – but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse," she said. "Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People."
Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a billionaire and another elected official seen as a leading Democrat voice, is also urging Senate Democrats to oppose the bill.
"Democrats have the power to stop the cessation of power to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and they should use it," he said in a press release.
He slammed congressional Republicans for having "abdicated their responsibility" to keep Trump’s power in check.
"America was founded on the concept of checks and balances, but Republicans in Congress have decided to bend their knee to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their cronies who seek to gut our government from the inside out. It is dangerous," he said.
"Democrats have the ability to force bipartisanship and bring the two sides together to make a budget that reflects priorities we all ought to share," he added. "I urge a no vote on the Continuing Resolution."
The Department of Education (DoEd) is launching discrimination investigations into 45 universities for allegedly engaging in "race-exclusionary practices" within their scholarship and graduate programs.
"The Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said of the newly launched investigations. "Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin. We will not yield on this commitment."
The DoEd enforces nondiscrimination policies in federally funded schools through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR). As cuts are made to the department, the OCR will continue to "investigate complaints and vigorously enforce federal civil rights laws," Madi Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications at the Department of Education, said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.
Other main facets of the department include overseeing some funding, managing student loans, financial aid, and enforcing nondiscrimination policies in schools, while most education itself is dealt with at the state level.
The department acknowledges that "education is primarily a state and local responsibility in the United States," with about 92% of all school funding coming from non-federal sources.
President Donald Trump has been making significant cuts to the department as part of his goal to eventually close it "so that the states, instead of bureaucrats working in Washington, can run education." But the administration has said that the cuts that have been made "will not directly impact students and families."
One of the largest offices within the department is Federal Student Aid (FSA), which manages the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and provides about $120.8 billion in grants or loans to students each year, the department says.
The Trump administration recently cut nearly half the workforce at the DoEd. Yet, "[n]o employees working on the FAFSA, student loan servicing, and Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title funds — including formula and discretionary grants programs — were impacted," Biedermann said in a statement.
In its early years, the department made specific requirements when allocating funding to schools, such as requiring higher education institutions to offer a campus drug and alcohol abuse prevention program under the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, which was passed in 1989.
When it comes to federal funds, a contribution of about 8% to education funding, the allocation of some money tends to vary by administration.
A recent study previously reported by Fox News Digital found that under former President Joe Biden, the DoEd spent $1 billion on grants advancing DEI in hiring. The Biden administration reportedly spent $489,883,797 on grants for race-based hiring, $343,337,286 on general DEI programming and $169,301,221 on DEI-based mental health training and programming, according to a report by Parents Defending Education, a right-leaning nonprofit.
Meanwhile, in 2025, the Trump administration slashed hundreds of millions in the department's funding for DEI practices. The president warned that any federally-funded institutions of higher education practicing DEI initiatives could lose their federal dollars.
"The federal government provides 10% of the money, but with it effectively sets more than half of policy for public schools," Max Eden, a senior fellow specializing in education at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), told Fox News Digital.
"If the Department were cut, the federal financial contribution would likely remain stable, but schools would be fundamentally more free to govern themselves according to local priorities and values."
The department, however, does not develop curriculum requirements, which are left to the state and local school boards to decide.
In Oklahoma, since 2024, all public schools are required to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments into their curricula for grades 5-10.
Meanwhile, in 2016, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) set health education standards for public schools in the state that required children in kindergarten and first grade to learn that "there are many ways to express gender."
Additionally, the department does not accredit universities, meaning it does not determine whether a school meets a certain level of education standards to receive federal funding.
"The federal government does not control education — the states do, local school boards do. This is about opportunity," McMahon told Fox News' Laura Ingraham amid the workforce cuts. "That is why so many people are so mad about it, because they’re just taking opportunity away from kids who don’t have it."
Fox News Digital reached out to the DoEd for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital's Taylor Penley, Greg Wehner, Jamie Joseph and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot lobbed a shot at the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, as he explained Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's new review of physical fitness and grooming standards.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. military’s high standards on body composition and other metrics eroded in recent years, particularly during the tenure of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who set a bad example from the top through his own personal corpulence. Secretary Hegseth is committed to restoring high standards, and this review is the first step in doing so," Ullyot said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The review comes after the secretary has voiced concerns that fitness standards have eroded, and questioned whether mismatched standards for men and women are affecting readiness.
The memo specifically calls out protocols for beards.
It directs the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness to look at "existing standards set by the Military Departments pertaining to physical fitness, body composition, and grooming, which includes but is not limited to beards."
The memo directs the review to examine how standards have changed since 2015.
"Our troops will be fit – not fat. Our troops will look sharp – not sloppy. We seek only quality – not quotas," Hegseth wrote in a post on X late on Wednesday.
"That will be part of one of the first things we do at the Pentagon – is reviewing that in a gender-neutral way – the standards ensuring readiness and meritocracy is front and center," Hegseth promised in January.
In December 2015, the military opened up all combat roles to women. In a podcast interview shortly before he was tapped as secretary, Hegseth said the U.S. "should not have women in combat roles." But during his confirmation hearing, he clarified that in ground combat roles, women should have to meet the same standards as men.
"Whether it is a man or woman, they have to meet the same high standards," he said. "In any place where those things have been eroded, or courses or criteria have been changed to meet quotas . . . that’s the kind of review I’m talking about. Not whether women should have access to ground combat."
The review could possibly lead to changes to the Army Combat Fitness Test, which is currently scored under age- and gender-specific requirements. That became the Army’s standard fitness test in 2023, after decades of a physical fitness test that imposed the same standards on men and women.
The current test requires men ages 17-21 to run two miles in 22 minutes, and women of the same age to do it in 23 minutes and 22 seconds.
The service branches began making accommodations for recruits who don’t meet physical fitness standards in recent years as a way to address the recruiting crisis. The Army and Navy offered pre-boot camp training for those who did not meet physical fitness or testing scores. But those recruits had to meet the same standards in order to graduate from training courses and serve.
"When I was in the Army, we kicked out good soldiers for having naked women tattooed on their arms, and today we are relaxing the standards on shaving, dreadlocks, man buns, and straight-up obesity," Hegseth wrote in his book ‘The War on Warriors.’
"Piece by piece, the standards had to go ... because of equity," he added.
The service branches have begun allowing troops to sport different hairstyles, in large part due to female service members who argued that the constant tight, low bun was leading to hair loss. In recent years, the Army has begun allowing cornrows and twists after female service members argued that the hairstyles were cheaper and easier to maintain.
FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., wants federal agents caught destroying or concealing government documents to be eligible for a life sentence in prison.
Luna, who is leading a task force on the declassification of government records, is introducing a new bill called the Stopping High-level Record Elimination and Destruction (SHRED) Act of 2025.
It would levy a mandatory sentence of 20 years to life for any government official or employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ) found to have concealed, removed, or mutilated federal records, according to bill text previewed by Fox News Digital.
Federal law currently dictates that anyone found knowingly destroying, falsifying, or obstructing government records "with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States" is eligible for a fine or up to 20 years in prison.
Any custodian of public records found to be destroying or concealing those records could be fined up to $2,000 or face up to three years in prison, or both.
Luna's push for increased penalties comes amid her continued standoff with the Trump administration over the declassification of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., among others.
Trump officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have repeatedly vowed to lead with transparency, including on the subjects of Epstein and Kennedy.
However, Luna told Fox News Digital earlier this week that she had not had significant communications with the DOJ about her task force matters.
"The DOJ has not been really responsive," she said Tuesday. "Even if they are, you know, conducting a criminal investigation, you should probably pick up the phone and call us, and not talk about it on the news."
Conservative influencer Benny Johnson reported on whistleblower allegations within the last month that rank-and-file agents within the FBI were destroying documents in a bid to block Patel’s work
Meanwhile, there has been a tidal wave of pressure from the right for Bondi and Patel to declassify documents about Epstein. An initial round of information, first released to conservative influencers at the White House, was blasted for containing no meaningful evidence implicating anyone in the deceased pedophile's crimes.
Bondi told Fox News host Mark Levin earlier this month that she was misled on the Epstein documents, and that she was alerted after that initial release to the Southern District of New York "sitting on thousands of pages of documents" that she was not in possession of.
She said Americans would see "the full Epstein files," adding, "We will have it in our possession. We will redact it, of course, to protect grand jury information and confidential witnesses, but American people have a right to know."
The DOJ was not able to immediately return a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Several provocatively dressed, dancing transgender activists broke into an informational parents' meeting at the Vermont State House on Wednesday, disrupting the event and forcing the parents to seek another space for their event.
The activists played loud music and shouted as event organizers attempted to speak.
The Vermont State House Sergeant of Arms refused to remove the trans activists, claiming they had a right to be there, according to the Vermont Daily Chronicle.
The parents’ group – the Vermont Family Alliance – was holding an event for ‘Detrans Awareness Day’ and was meant to highlight resources available for formerly transgender-identifying people who have been physically, mentally and emotionally harmed by sex-change treatments.
Video taken of the incident posted to X shows several transgender activists, one shirtless and wearing a purple tutu and another waving a ribbon baton, dancing around event organizer Renee McGuinness as she tries to give her presentation to parents.
Speaking with the Vermont Daily Chronicle, McGuinness said the group had reserved the room for the event for the afternoon. However, State House Sergeant at Arms Agatha Kessler made both groups vacate the room after 30 minutes of continued disruption, citing concerns about both parties’ safety.
The Chronicle reported that many event attendees moved to the cafeteria to hold their event.
"Our First Amendment rights were denied in this case in favor of a group that was disruptive," said McGuinness. "That’s not under the First Amendment for one group to just be able to outshout the other, and whoever outshouts the other, then they’ve won their First Amendment Rights at the sacrifice of the other party."
McGuinness explained that the event was meant to help former transgender people who have been "denied and ostracized and bullied."
"They want to have a voice, and they want healing from their wounds and injuries because of the medical procedures," she said.
McGuiness called for the Vermont legislature, which is majority Democratic, to amend its rules regarding decorum in the state house to respect the rights of groups that have gone through proper channels to reserve an event space.
"It's sad and unfortunate," said McGuinness. "The First Amendment is really about civil discourse, right? And not censoring one group over another."
At least 50 House Democrats are being criticized as "actors reading a script" after posting identical talking points to social media, one of several similar online campaigns by Democratic lawmakers.
"House Democrats stand united for a four-week funding extension that stops harmful cuts, keeps government open, and allows Congress to reach a bipartisan funding agreement. I am ready to vote today, tomorrow or Friday to pass a four-week extension," a social media post made by dozens of Democratic lawmakers read on Thursday.
The message was posted by the House Democrats X account, as well as by various lawmakers such as "Squad" member Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich.,
"You can see the ridiculous political puppet show for what it really is," Elon Musk, who is leading cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), wrote in a post on X in response to the identical posts shared by EndWokeness. "They are just actors reading a script."
"This is the 2025 version of ‘Live by the promise of the hashtag,'" Republican commentator Matt Whitlock said. "Dems are so tacky."
Joe Concha, a Fox News contributor, deemed Democrats the "cut-and-paste party."
Dingell told Fox News Digital why Democrats decided to make the same social media post.
"House Democrats shared the same message because we are all unified and ready to keep the government open in a way that serves the American people," the congresswoman said in a statement.
The message comes as part of a new trend by Democratic lawmakers to post coordinated content to social media.
Fox News Digital reached out to the House Democratic Caucus for comment.
Senate Democrats also faced criticism earlier this year after identical videos to social media ahead of President Donald Trump's address to Congress in March.
The synchronized "S--- That Ain’t True" mashup saw at least 22 Democratic Senators repeating the same statement in unison. "Since day one of Donald Trump’s presidency, prices are up, not down. Inflation is getting worse, not better. Prices of groceries, gas, housing, rent, eggs — they’re all getting more expensive. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has done nothing to lower costs for you," the Democrats, including senators Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in the video.
Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., recently said the video was created with the intention of reaching more people online. "We're trying to do more things as a caucus that break through. Clearly, this was very successful," the senator said.
Democrats were again recently mocked for a viral "choose your fighter parody," where several congresswomen, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, were seen jumping up and down in a fighting position as if they were video game characters, along with their attributes.
Jeremy Hunt, a media fellow at the Hudson Institute, recently told Fox News that Democrats are "lost at sea" with their messaging.
"When you don't have a message, and you have nothing positive to present to the American people, you have no plan, no strategy, you just start to think they are now just going off the reservation, constantly swearing, trying to howl at the moon, and trying to garner some type of resistance to what Trump is doing because they have no message," Hunt told "Outnumbered in March.
The "hostile political climate" of the Trump administration means that states must "rethink" their mandated abortion reporting requirements and "vigorously oppose new ones," according to the nation's leading abortion research institute. But one pro-life activist told Fox News Digital such a move would be a "serious mistake."
A Guttmacher Institute policy analysis report published this month concluded that "the benefits of state-mandated abortion reporting no longer outweigh the risks, a shift that is likely to accelerate as anti-abortion policymakers double down on punitive approaches to data collection while using the resulting data to further restrict abortion rights and access."
"The enactment of abortion reporting requirements for purely political reasons and their increasing weaponization against patients and providers are clear indications that the harms of this mandatory data collection now outweigh its benefits," researchers for the pro-abortion rights group said. "To prevent further harms, policymakers at all levels of government should work to remove existing reporting requirements and vigorously oppose new ones, along with any attempt to tie federal funding to abortion reporting."
Guttmacher, which is considered the gold standard for accurate abortion statistics since it provides more comprehensive data and receives more reporting than the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recommended that, instead of doing away with reporting altogether, state policymakers should implement a voluntary form of data collection.
Pro-life advocates object to the Guttmacher recommendation.
"Rolling back state-mandated abortion reporting would be a serious mistake," Mia Steupert, research associate at Charlotte Lozier Institute, a pro-life research group, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"Considering Dobbs placed the authority to enact protections for unborn children in the hands of the American people and their elected representatives at the federal and state levels, it’s critical to have access to good data so that the impact of those abortion policies can be evaluated," Steupert said, referring to the 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
The normative practice of abortion data collection comes primarily from states that report their numbers to the CDC. The data is then compiled to give a snapshot of how many abortions there are nationwide, the age of the mother and how far along she was. However, while most do, not every state requires abortion providers, hospitals and other medical providers to report their numbers.
Currently, 46 states and the District of Columbia have some form of mandated abortion reporting, according to the institute. California, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey do not require reporting.
"Even the CDC agrees that accurate abortion data is important for public health in terms of measuring unintended pregnancies and tracking changes in clinical practice," Steupert said. "Ending state reporting requirements would give the abortion lobby a monopoly on abortion reporting, leaving the American people in the dark about the horrific realities of abortion."
The information gathered in abortion reports varies by state but generally includes details such as the names of the medical facility and clinician involved in the abortion service. Demographic data on the person receiving an abortion, including age, race, ethnicity, marital status, place of residence, gestational age of the pregnancy, the type of abortion elected and number of previous live births are also included.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Guttmacher said their "recommendation isn’t an argument against states collecting abortion data, but a discussion of the risks and burdens of howit’s collected."
"Ending government-mandated abortion reporting does not contradict the collection of rigorous and accurate abortion data. We urge states to consider changing their laws and regulations to switch to voluntary models of data collection, which can produce high quality data while protecting the safety and privacy of patients and providers. We strongly oppose the intrusive and punitive federal abortion reporting mandate laid out in Project 2025," the spokesperson said.
Project 2025 refers to a policy blueprint by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank and is not an official Trump administration policy guide.
The report comes nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – the 1973 decision guaranteeing a woman's right to abortion – and many states have since enacted abortion bans.
The Trump administration also rolled back a Biden-era executive order that federally funded abortion services, re-enacting the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal taxpayer dollars for elective abortions.
Democrats pounced on President Donald Trump’s purchase of a red Tesla on Tuesday — even though former President Joe Biden similarly paraded a Jeep Wrangler at the White House in 2021.
Trump flaunted the vehicle on the White House’s South Lawn with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is also heading up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as Tesla’s stock floundered earlier in the week. The share price rose following the White House event.
Democrats decried the move, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee labeled the Trump administration the "most corrupt administration in American history."
But Biden also conducted a similar event at the White House in August 2021, when he drove an electric Jeep Wrangler on the White House South Lawn as part of a meeting with top executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.
That event corresponded with Biden signing an executive order aiming for zero-emission vehicles manufactured in the U.S. to make up half of its vehicle production by the end of the decade.
Musk and Tesla weren't invited to Biden's 2021 electic vehicle event. Musk had called out the Biden administration in a post on X at the time, saying, "Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited."
When asked at the time why the White House had excluded Tesla, the largest electric vehicle maker in the U.S., White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggested that Tesla would receive an invitation for future events.
"Well, we of course welcome the efforts of automakers who recognize the potential of an electric vehicle future and support efforts that will help reach the President’s goal, and certainly Tesla is one of those companies," Psaki said in August 2021. "I would not expect this is the last time we talk about clean cars and the move toward electric vehicles, and we look forward to having a range of partners in that effort."
Meanwhile, the Biden’s administration’s refusal to meet with Musk served as the catalyst for Musk’s departure from the Democratic Party, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported in July 2024 that Musk had voted for Biden in 2020 and had reached out to the Biden White House following his inauguration, but the White House had refused to speak with him.
The Journal reported that the Biden White House had hesitated to take Musk up on the offer due to concerns that ties to him would upset the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, since Tesla is the only non-union automaker in the U.S.
Psaki said that for the electic vehicle event it had selected the "three largest employers of the United Auto Workers, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions."
Others criticized Trump for his Tuesday Tesla show. "I’m sure all the people losing their retirement, jobs, and health care because of Trump are glad to see the White House turned into a car dealership for the richest man on the planet," Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in an X post.
Fox Business’ Breck Dumma contributed to this report.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear slammed fellow Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom for allowing Steve Bannon on his new podcast, saying that "I don’t think we should give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere."
Beshear made the remark Thursday during a Democratic policy retreat in Virginia, according to Politico. The episode of the "This is Gavin Newsom" podcast featuring Bannon was released the day before, describing him in the show notes as a "former Trump White House chief strategist and MAGA architect."
"I think that Governor Newsom bringing on different voices is great, we shouldn’t be afraid to talk and to debate just about anyone," Beshear was quoted by Politico as saying. "But Steve Bannon espouses hatred and anger, and even at some points, violence, and I don’t think we should give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere."
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
The governor told Politico Wednesday that it is "critically important" to understand President Donald Trump’s movement and that "I think we all agreed after the last election that it’s important for Democrats to explore new and unique ways of talking to people."
Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger also criticized Newsom for bringing Bannon onto his show.
"I am in shock at the stupidity of Gavin Newsom inviting Steve Bannon on his podcast. Many of us on the right sacrificed careers to fight Bannon, and Newsom is trying to make a career and a presidential run by building him up. Unforgivable and insane," Kinzinger wrote on X.
Newsom previously sat down one-on-one with conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk for a frank discussion about his party's shortcomings in the 2024 presidential election.
In the first episode of his new podcast, "This Is Gavin Newsom," the governor marveled at Kirk's success as the founder of Turning Point USA, which played a pivotal role in President Donald Trump making inroads with young voters.
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
The Senate will take a key procedural vote on Friday afternoon to potentially tee up final passage of a crucial stopgap government spending bill to avoid a shutdown as time runs out.
After tense caucus meetings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed he would vote for the House-passed short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), because "a shutdown would be a gift" for President Donald Trump and Republicans.
The Friday cloture vote was scheduled shortly after his Thursday evening announcement. It will take place shortly after 1:15 p.m. ET.
In order to move forward to a final passage vote, the stopgap bill will need 60 favorable votes to beat what's known as the legislative filibuster.
During a partial government shutdown, federal agencies and non-essential services would be halted. However, some government functions would continue, which are deemed "essential." National security protocols, such as border patrol, law enforcement and disaster response, stay active during shutdowns, for example.
House Republicans managed to pass a CR earlier in the week that would keep spending levels the same as fiscal year (FY) 2024 until Oct. 1. But if a spending bill is not passed by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, the government will enter into a partial shutdown.
While some Senate Democrats, such as Schumer and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., have committed to supporting the CR, far more of their colleagues have publicly stated that they will oppose it.
"The House bill also irresponsibly fails to impose any constraints on the reckless and out-of-control Trump Administration," Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said in a late Thursday statement.
"I will oppose the House budget proposal. The best available solution is a 30-day stopgap funding measure to avoid a shutdown, during which time Congress can do its job to properly pass a bipartisan budget," he said.
Democrats had pushed for a month-long CR, but Republicans didn't budge from the House-passed plan.
Before Schumer revealed his intention to support the bill while the rest of his caucus made their own decisions, meetings between the Democrats became so contentious that a senator could be heard yelling by the press through thick, heavy wooden doors on Thursday. The voice was identified as that of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., by press, but her office would not confirm.
Earlier Thursday, Fetterman slammed his colleagues for pledging to vote against the short-term bill, joking that their video announcements were "spicy."
"It wasn't that long ago before we were lecturing that you can never shut the government down. So that's kind of inconsistent," he told reporters.
"We can all agree that it's not a great CR, but that's where we are and that's the choice," Fetterman explained.
If the procedural vote on Friday garners enough votes to beat the legislative filibuster, a vote on final passage will be planned for within the next day and a half. It could come sooner, rather than later, if a time agreement is reached between parties.
Expect the Senate to take a test vote to break a filibuster around 2 p.m. ET today on the Republican stopgap spending bill.
This vote is the key to the entire ballgame. If the Senate breaks the filibuster, we are on a glidepath to a vote to avoid a government shutdown. But if this test vote fails, a government shutdown is all but assured at 12:00:01 a.m. ET Saturday.
Reminder: THIS VOTE IS NOT THE FINAL PASSAGE OF THE BILL.
We should have a result on the vote to break the filibuster sometime in the 2 p.m. hour. Certainly by 3 p.m., unless they drag their feet.
The calculus changed dramatically last night when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced he would support the Band-Aid bill. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is also in favor. Sixty votes are needed to break the filibuster.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is the lone GOP nay. So a grand total of eight Democrats are necessary to join the 52 Republican yeas to hit the magic mark of 60.
Here’s who to watch: Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., along with Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., John Hickenlooper, D-Co., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and others.
If Democrats fail to cobble together eight votes, this is a major miscalculation by Schumer. As it is said, a leader without any followers is just a man out for a walk.
It’s unclear when the Senate would vote on the actual bill to align with the House if the Senate breaks the threshold of 60 yeas on the test vote. It’s likely that comes late this afternoon or this evening. But those Democrats who may be willing to break a filibuster might demand a series of votes on amendments (which won’t pass) in exchange for their votes.
That includes a vote on the Democrats’ 28-day temporary spending bill, additional money for Washington, and restrictions for DOGE.
Also, don’t underestimate how livid the left is at Schumer. Progressives who oppose the temporary spending bill could demand some time on the floor to speak against the plan.
But there is also an appetite to escape Washington since the Senate has been in session for 10 consecutive weeks. So if they break the filibuster, that could accelerate things, too.
People jeered Vice President JD Vance at the Kennedy Center on Thursday night.
"Boos for JD Vance as he enters tonight’s concert at the Kennedy Center," Global Affairs correspondent for The Guardian Andrew Roth tweeted when sharing a video of the episode on Thursday evening.
Vance, seated next to his wife Usha, waved from a balcony amid the cacophony.
Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Richard Grenell, who is serving in a leadership post with the Kennedy Center, suggested that people on the political left are "intolerant."
"The intolerant Left are radicals who can’t even sit in the same room with people that don’t vote like they do. What has happened to today’s Democrats? They are so intolerant," he declared when commenting on the episode.
Fox News Digital reached out to Vance's team to request comment on Friday, but no comment was provided.
The event was a National Symphony Orchestra concert, reports indicate.
Vance, the author of the book "Hillbilly Elegy," previously noted that he was shocked to find out that people listen to classical music for enjoyment.
"Elites use different words, eat different foods, listen to different music — I was astonished when I learned that people listened to classical music for pleasure — and generally occupy different worlds from America’s poor," Vance said, according to The New York Times.
President Donald Trump announced a shakeup of Kennedy Center leadership last month.
"I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!" the president declared in part of a Truth Social post in February.
He later announced that Grenell would serve as interim executive director.
A Kennedy Center press release stated, "the Board elected President of the United States Donald J. Trump as Kennedy Center Board Chair, replacing former Chair David M. Rubenstein," and "terminated Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter’s contract and announced Richard Grenell as interim Kennedy Center President."
The press release also noted that more than a dozen new Kennedy Center Board of Trustee members were announced, including Usha Vance, Trump, and others.
President Donald Trump is blaming former President Joe Biden for getting the U.S. into "a real mess with Russia," but said he would get the U.S. out of it. He called on Russia to commit to the U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine agreed to earlier this week.
"Millions of people are needlessly dead, never to be seen again… and there will be many more to follow if we don’t get the ceasefire and final agreement with Russia completed and signed," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "There would have been NO WAR if I were president. It just, 100%, would not have happened."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the Trump administration to put more sanctions on Russia on Friday, claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking to prolong the bloody three-year war. Putin said on Thursday that he agreed with the proposal in "principle." Zelenskyy believes Putin will try to block the deal in any way possible.
Trump hasn’t ruled out imposing more sanctions, but said he doesn’t "want" to go that route and would rather have peace. He did acknowledge, however, that the U.S. could make financial moves that are "very bad for Russia."
"In a financial sense, yeah, we could do things, very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. "But I don’t want to do that because I want to see peace."
In the same post, Trump listed numerous tragic events and hardships that he believes could have been avoided if he, and not former President Biden, won the 2020 election.
"Likewise, there would have been no October 7th with Israel, the pullout from Afghanistan would have been done with strength and pride, and would not have been the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, it could have been a moment of glory. Also, there would not have been any perceptible inflation," Trump wrote in a Friday post on Truth Social.
Trump has not been shy about criticizing former President Biden, and even called out his predecessor multiple times in his address to a joint session of Congress. In his speech, Trump declared Biden was "the worst president in American history."
Trump also slammed the Green New Deal, which he calls the "Green New Scam," said Biden didn’t do enough to free Marc Fogel from Russian detention, criticized Biden’s spending on the war in Ukraine and emphasized Biden’s failures on the border.
"The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. ‘We must have legislation to secure the border.’ But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president," Trump said as the room erupted with applause.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif.— A group of U.S. military veterans that formed to respond to the crisis at the southern border has continued its work, even as President Donald Trump has largely followed through on promises to stem the flow of illegal crossings.
"As a country, we were going quietly into the night," Kate Monroe, a Marine Corps veteran who became the founder of Border Vets, a group of U.S. military veterans who have given their own time and money to patch up holes in the border barrier in Southern California, told Fox News Digital. "It's not as difficult to secure the nation as people might think."
The comments come as the group that Monroe founded, Border Vets, has continued its work to patch up potential weak points on the U.S. border with Mexico in Southern California.
On a rainy and uncharacteristically cold day in San Diego County, Monroe invited Fox News Digital to see the volunteer organization's continuing work. A group of nearly a dozen U.S. military veterans tagged along for the ride, returning to the infamous "San Judas Break," a gap in the border wall that at its height was allowing more than 3,000 illegal migrants to spill into the U.S. on a weekly basis.
At issue is a gap in the barrier where the fencing erected by the U.S. government meets a hilly rock formation, leaving a tiny pathway into the country for thousands of migrants who knew where to look. While members of the Border Vets patched the hole with razor wire last year, the group returned to the spot to make improvements to the barrier and extend it further up the hill in an attempt to dissuade illegal crossings.
But things have changed at this spot since the Border Vets initially volunteered their own time and money to patch the hole, with illegal crossings now coming to a near standstill in the area since Trump took office in January.
The Mexican Army has also begun to occupy the area, standing up a makeshift encampment on the other side of the border just a couple of feet from where the Border Vets worked.
The Mexican government's cooperation and Trump's reentry into the White House have had a profound impact on crossing numbers, with February data showing that just 8,300 people attempted to illegally cross the border last month, the lowest mark recorded since fiscal 2000.
Agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have also had far fewer encounters with illegal migrants compared to the same time period in 2023 and 2024, recording just 30,000 encounters in February 2025 compared to more than 130,000 during the same time period in 2023 and 2024.
Nevertheless, members of the Border Vets have continued their volunteer work, noting that some migrants have been determined enough to find a way through.
"Things are getting better down at the border," one Marine veteran who volunteers for Border Vets told Fox News Digital, noting that there are still gaps, not only figuratively, but literal gaps in the border.
"You can see on the footpath that people are just walking through," he added.
The group insists they have had little trouble with CBP agents patrolling the area, arguing that many have welcomed the assistance, especially during the height of illegal crossings seen in the previous few years. An agent who anonymously spoke to Fox News Digital on Tuesday struck a similar tone, noting that the agency does not stop the group from erecting the makeshift barriers.
In one area of San Diego County near Jacumba Hot Springs, a makeshift shelter built out of wood pallets and tarp, a site that once hosted hundreds of migrants as they waited to make asylum claims to border agents, stood empty.
In other areas of San Diego County's border with Mexico on Tuesday, members checked on their patchwork barriers while noting the stark difference between now and just a few short months ago.
"It's a crazy thing," Monroe said. "There used to be hundreds of people crossing every time I came, now not one. And it's not because of the rain, they were coming rain or shine … the difference has just been absolutely amazing."
Members of the Border Vets welcomed the change, though they plan to stay vigilant to prevent the situation from returning to the point of crisis it had reached over the last few years.
"An open border policy that we've dealt with for the last four years has been nothing but a detriment to the country," a Navy veteran member of Border Vets told Fox News Digital. "We're all struggling, we're all being dealt a bad hand, and it just doesn't send the right message to have our borders wide open when every other nation has closed-border policies."
