The Republican minority leaders in California are responding to potential next steps for the highly scrutinized Medi-Cal program, which is insolvent, as some believe the ability for people to enroll "regardless of their immigration status" is a leading cause.
The state faces a $12 billion budget shortfall as budget talks continue in Sacramento.
The Medi-Cal program went insolvent earlier this year after it went billions over budget, resulting in $3.44 billion in loan requests to salvage the program, which covers low-income Golden State residents. Republicans said it was in large part due to illegal immigrants being allowed to enroll in the program, and Newsom also said that it was part of the spending issue, but not the whole picture, according to KCRA.
"That’s going to continue to be a big debate here in California as we're wrestling with a $12 billion dollar deficit and the cost of providing free healthcare to illegal immigrants is $11.4 billion dollars, so if we just didn't do that, that would eliminate our budget deficit," California State Senate Minority Leader Brain Jones said. "Now, there's lots of other ways we can find $12 billion dollars to eliminate the deficit as well."
Newsom’s May budget revision proposes a pause for adults 19 and older from enrolling in "full-scope coverage" and to start charging a $100 premium each month "for individuals with certain statuses," Fox News Digital reported earlier this month.
"To be very clear, these proposals are the results of a $16 billion Trump Slump and higher-than-expected health care utilization. Because of these outside factors, the state must take difficult but necessary steps to ensure fiscal stability and preserve the long-term viability of Medi-Cal for all Californians," Elana Ross, deputy communications director for Newsom's office, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"Governor Newsom refuses to turn his back on hardworking Californians, especially when it comes to their basic health care needs," she added.
The proposal from the Newsom administration sparked criticism among some in the legislature, as the Democratic California Legislative Latino Caucus is suggesting a tax hike to pay for the program’s coverage for illegal immigrants, according to KCRA. The question remains whether a $100 premium would be enough to get people to leave the program.
However, Jones said that Medi-Cal being offered to illegal immigrants might not be quite what Democrats present it as.
"It's just a messaging point for the governor and the Democratic leadership. It's not an actual thing. Meaning the governor and the Democrat leadership are promising illegal immigrants coverage, and they are on the rolls, but there's very little access," he said.
"A lot of doctors in California that used to provide Medicare and Medicaid have closed up shop, moved to other states. A lot of other doctors that are still here have stopped taking those kinds of patients, even if they're here legally or illegally, because the reimbursement rates are so low, the doctors actually lose money when they take a Medicare or Medicaid patient," Jones continued.
Meanwhile, Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital in an interview that the budget shortfall is "a total disaster" that "was completely predictable."
"You know, two years ago, Gavin Newsom and the supermajority Democrats decided to fund illegal immigrant healthcare through our Medi-Cal program. And everybody said it's gonna be billions of dollars. It's not sustainable. And at the time, Biden was president, and people were coming across the border, millions of people. We had no idea. And I think a lot of them came to California and signed up. And so now we have a completely unsustainable, bankrupted Medi-Cal system that's required $3.4 billion worth of loans to prop up."
On a federal level, the pending reconciliation bill that recently passed the House of Representatives could also create issues for the state’s Medi-Cal offerings, as it would change the federal "match" from 90% to 80% for care that is not an emergency, which the Newsom administration says could cost the state billions, The Center Square reported.
"If Republicans move this extreme MAGA proposal forward, millions will lose coverage, hospitals will close, and safety nets could collapse under the weight," Newsom stated last week.
The Trump administration escalated its war with Harvard University on Tuesday, announcing it will claw back the university's remaining $100 million in federal funding — effectively ending all financial ties with the Ivy League institution.
"The government is out of business with Harvard University, fully," a senior administration official told Fox News Digital.
At the center of the fight are accusations of Harvard failing to combat a campus culture of antisemitism. While the university accuses the White House of overreach and insists it is defending free speech, its own internal investigation appears to have handed Trump officials ammunition.
Earlier this year, Harvard President Alan Gerber called the 2023–2024 academic year "disappointing and painful" as he unveiled the results of two separate task forces: one examining antisemitism and the other focused on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias.
The report from the antisemitism task force painted a bleak picture of life for Jewish and Israeli students on campus.
Many said they felt ostracized, harassed online and unsupported by the university. Some students told investigators they had been pressured by peers, and even the faculty, to disavow ties to Israel to prove they were "one of the good ones." Others chose to hide their Jewish identity altogether.
Here is a look back at more findings of the report, released April 29.
Jewish, Arab and Muslim students at Harvard reported feeling ostracized, pushed to the margins by their peers and experiencing online harassment.
Jewish and Israeli students told the antisemitism task force the university’s response to complaints was "unclear and unconscionably slow."
Some Jewish students, according to the report, had been told by peers and even faculty members they were associated with "something offensive, and, in some cases, that their very presence was an offense."
Some decided to conceal their identities from classmates, while others were asked to renounce any ties to Israel to prove they were "one of the good ones."
"No other group was constantly told that their history was a sham, that they or their co-religionists or co-ethnics were supremacists and oppressors, and that they had no right to the protections offered by anti-bias norms," read one section of the report. "Many Jewish students told us they feel like objects of suspicion."
One Jewish graduate student told the task force, "Jews are now being treated like Republicans were when I was in college."
That statement "of course points to another problem with which elite universities have been struggling," the report said.
At times, the anti-Muslim and antisemitism task force reports were seemingly at odds with each other. Muslim and pro-Palestinian students reported a widespread fear of doxxing, or having their personal identifying information shared publicly with the intent to intimidate or harm them. They reported often seeing pictures of their faces on the sides of trucks driven around campus by pro-Israel groups.
Forty-seven percent of Muslim students reported feeling physically unsafe on campus during the 2023–2024 school year, compared with 15% of Jewish respondents.
The antisemitism report called for a set of rules to govern permissible behaviors for instructors in classrooms, while the anti-Muslim and Arab bias task force called for the university to do more to protect academic freedom and free speech.
The antisemitism report found Harvard classes often portrayed "partisan and one-sided pedagogy" that failed to account for Jewish and Israeli perspectives, particularly within the university's divinity school and school of public health.
The task force also documented instances when faculty canceled or ended class early on the day of a pro-Gaza protest or "gave time at the end of class for students to promote various solidarity groups" like the Palestine Solidarity Committee.
The report recommended expanding courses on antisemitism, Judaism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to foster a more inclusive and comprehensive academic environment.
"Anti-Zionist views seem built into some classes," one student noted.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Harvard for comment on the report.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the report found that at the university "pro-Israel organizers and pro-Palestinian organizers had disagreed strongly yet often worked together to build bridges and to imagine jointly a better future for the region."
"Those efforts started to fade in the 2000s amidst the Second Intifada and through the Israel-Hamas wars of the 2010s, and by the time Hamas crashed through the Israeli border fence in 2023 the conditions at Harvard (as in the Middle East itself) were very different," the report read.
Some pro-Palestinian campus organizers viewed bridge-building activities "as a form of betrayal," the report found.
The report found that many students, including Jewish ones, had "sympathy" for Israel’s "massive military response" that followed the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
However, campus protests "crossed a line from a call for freedom and security for Palestinians and Jews alike to a stereotyped notion: that Israel is not a state, but rather a ‘settler colony’ of white Europeans who have no real connection with the land they had stolen, that epitomized aggression, and was bereft of virtues."
The report found that changes in Harvard’s admissions policies meant that by 2023, the Jewish student community was much smaller than it was in the early 2010s.
The hostility that some students had felt, the report found, was "degrading" to the university, and some Jewish students turned down offers of admission to Harvard over it.
Some Jewish students vying for doctorate degrees said they decided to leave for private industry jobs because of the perception that academia is "unfriendly to Jews."
Some non-Jewish faculty members told the task force that Jewish candidates had turned down post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard and Jewish medical school students shied away from residencies at Harvard hospitals "because of the deep politicization of the climate."
The task force determined Harvard should change its admissions policy to reflect "what campus should look like: people listening to each other."
The task force also found a lack of oversight over seemingly university-endorsed educational content.
The Harvard Chan School of Public Health, for example, launched a Palestinian program in 2022 that is run by a "leadership collective" of five individuals, none of whom hold a tenure-track faculty appointment at Harvard.
"The use of the Harvard brand for a research or teaching project creates expectations among Harvard faculty, staff, students, and the broader public. Programs operating without the guidance and oversight of Harvard’s regular faculty with expertise risk falling short of these expectations," the task force found.
In another example, the task force found the coursework for a master's degree in Religion and Public Life to be misrepresented. The program is advertised as offering students a better understanding of religion to illuminate a range of contemporary issues.
Both faculty and students did not expect the program to be as focused on the Israel–Palestinian issue as it was, and some students found "program offerings and materials disproportionately presented Israelis and Jews as guilty of monstrous historical crimes, which require both repentance and redress."
The program "appears to have focused on non-mainstream Jewish religious perspectives that lack widespread support within the Jewish diaspora or in Israel." It also linked Jews to "two great sins," according to the task force: the creation of the state of Israel and participation in White supremacy, which staff"appeared to embrace openly."
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, appears to be leaning in on her rising political stardom this week, briefly sharing what appeared to be a fan-made song that referred to the Democratic firebrand as the "leader of the future."
"Jasmine Crockett, she rises with the dawn. Fighting for justice, her light will never be gone," the song went. "A voice for the people, standing strong and proud. Infectious with passion, she'll never bow down. Leader of the future, she's breaking all the chains. Jasmine you rock girl, keep leading the fight."
The roughly two-minute-long song was set against what appeared to be photos of Crockett that were lightly animated using artificial intelligence (AI). It ended with a minute of Crockett's own comments at a recent House hearing.
Fox News Digital observed the video on Crockett's Instagram Story, where users post highlights that normally disappear after 24 hours. It was also visible on her Instagram Reels tab. Crockett's official House of Representatives account was listed as a co-author alongside another Instagram account that appears to specialize in AI-generated musical video clips.
Crockett's account notes that posts are made by her staff unless the letters "CWC" are present. Her account appears to have shared, but not originally posted the video. Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett's office to ask if she took any part in creating or sanctioning the post.
After Fox News Digital's inquiry, mention of the video disappeared from Crockett's page.
"A beacon of hope, we know you won't deceive," the song continued at another point. "Democratic champion, her mission's loud and clear. For every single citizen, she'll always be near. No MAGA could silence the truth she displays. Jasmine, you rock girl, keep leading the fight."
Crockett has garnered a notable fan base among the progressive left since bursting on the national stage just over two years ago.
She has been known for public comments that have pushed the boundaries of congressional decorum and have even earned her censure threats from her Republican colleagues in the House.
Crockett garnered controversy in late March for referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is in a wheelchair, as "Governor Hot Wheels." She later clarified in a statement that she "wasn't thinking about the governor's condition," but she did not apologize.
She also appeared to cash in on a spat she was part of during a House Oversight Committee hearing last year, when her response to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claiming Crockett had "fake eyelashes," was to mock Greene as having a "bleach blonde bad built butch body."
Crockett later moved to trademark the phrase through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
EXCLUSIVE: Protecting Americans from being "debanked" has been a top priority for the State Financial Officers Foundation, and Fox News Digital spoke to a member of that organization, who said he was targeted himself, about the importance of that pursuit.
"When I was initially debanked, I didn't realize I was getting debanked," Alabama Republican State Auditor Andrew Sorrell told Fox News Digital at the State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, Florida.
"What happened was I just get a letter one day from our credit card company, from my gun store, Gold Guns and Guitars, and we get this curious letter in the mail, and it says that in 30 days, we're closing your account. And it didn't tell us why at all."
Sorrell, 39, explained that at first he thought that his company had simply forgotten to pay their bills, but when he realized he was up-to-date, he switched credit card companies and did not think anything of it until he got another letter from his credit card processor notifying him he was being dropped.
"So we're doing about 2 million dollars in revenue, about a million and a half of that is done by credit card or debit card transactions, and I was really confused this time, because why would a credit card processor drop us?" Sorrell explained.
After that, Sorrell was told by his insurance company he was being dropped with "no explanation."
"I called my insurance broker, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, this is happening to all gun stores,’" Sorrell said. "He said insurance companies are dropping all gun stores. And then it hit me. Oh my goodness, I'm a victim of political debanking. I didn't even realize that that's what was happening to me."
Debanking is the phenomenon in which a bank customer has their accounts canceled, often with no explanation. Conservatives have long alleged that banks were unfairly targeting them in the practice, with banks specifically going after companies with conservative messaging or principles, including gun stores.
In an interview with "Sunday Morning Futures" anchor Maria Bartiromo, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said he had seen "numerous" examples of conservatives being debanked during the Biden administration.
"Especially people that were involved in different energy-type businesses and things like that, as well as very well-spoken and outspoken conservative activists," Comer said in the interview. "So there are numerous instances, enough to open an investigation again. Is this [environmental, social and governance (ESG)] policy, which is discriminatory?"
Sorrell told Fox News Digital he is "convinced this is happening to other people in Alabama," and that the problem doesn’t stem from local community banks but from large national banks who were "pushed" by the Obama and Biden administrations.
"I actually have some sympathy for these large banks, and I think passing debanking legislation at the state level might actually help some of these large banks, because they can go back, and they can say, I'm sorry, Alabama has now passed debanking legislation. We're just following the law, we don't wanna debank people anymore," Sorrell said.
"This is un-American, and it has to be stopped."
Since the Trump administration took office in January, pushing back against political debanking has become a more prevalent conversation in government, including in the form of a bill from GOP Sen. Tim Scott to address regulatory language that has prompted financial institutions to debank those involved in certain industries.
"It's clear that federal regulators have abused reputational risk by carrying out a political agenda against federally legal businesses," Scott said. "This legislation, which eliminates references to reputational risk in regulatory supervision, is the first step once and for all."
More than six months after the Democratic Party suffered major setbacks in the 2024 elections, the party is seeking a path to escape the political wilderness.
Part of that effort includes a recent gathering by top party consultants and donors trying to figure out how Democrats can improve outreach to male and working-class voters.
President Donald Trump won back control of the White House while Republicans flipped the Senate and defended their fragile House majority in November, and the GOP made gains among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as younger voters – all traditional members of the Democratic Party's base.
"Everything we've done up to this point has resulted in re-electing Donald Trump," longtime Democratic strategist and communicator Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital.
"If anyone tells you that we don't have to course correct, they don't know what they're talking about," added Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
In the face of Trump's sweeping and controversial moves since his return to the White House in January, an increasingly angered and energized base of Democrats is pushing for party leaders to take a stronger stand in leading the resistance to the president and Republicans.
The anger directed not only at Trump and Republicans, but also at fellow Democrats, appears to be a factor in the party's polling woes, with Democratic Party favorable ratings sinking to historic lows.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin vows the party will compete in all 50 states going forward.
In an interview earlier this month on "Fox News Sunday," Martin highlighted that the party's focus right now is "squarely on making sure that we stand up for hardworking Americans who are being left behind in this Trump economy."
A 2024 election DNC postmortem is currently underway, with the findings expected to be issued later this year. However, grabbing the spotlight in recent days was a gathering hosted by the Democrat-aligned super PAC Future Forward at a luxury resort along the California coast.
Among the strategy discussions at the gathering was a $20 million effort titled, "Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan."
The recommendations of the effort, which is code-named SAM, included having Democrats drop what is described as a "moralizing tone" toward male voters, changing the party's language used toward men and purchasing more ads on video games as part of male outreach.
Some former key staffers on the 2024 campaign of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the party's nominee last summer, heavily criticized the effort, which was first reported by the New York Times and later confirmed by Fox News.
"Instead of studying working-class voters and men, why doesn’t the Democratic Party donor class go out and meet some? What the hell is this?" James Singer, a spokesman for the 2024 campaign, wrote in a social media post. "As a Democrat, it’s embarrassing."
It was a similar message from Ammar Moussa, another veteran Democratic strategist and communicator who worked on the Biden and Harris campaigns.
"This is embarrassing. Truly," Moussa wrote on X.
Democrats have long had a problem attracting male voters in presidential elections. Trump won the male vote by 12 points over Harris in the 2024 presidential election, and according to the Fox News Voter Analysis, that margin ballooned to 15 points among men 45 and older.
Fast-forward to this spring, and the Democrats' ratings stood underwater in the latest Fox News national poll at 41% favorable and 56% unfavorable in a survey conducted April 18-21.
That is an all-time low for the Democrats in Fox News polling, and for the first time in a decade, the party's standing was lower than that of the GOP, which stood at 44% favorable and 54% unfavorable.
The figures were reversed last summer, when Fox News last asked the party favorability question in one of its surveys.
The Democratic Party's favorable ratings were well in negative territory in a Pew Research national survey - 38% favorable, 60% unfavorable - conducted in early April and at 36% favorable, 60% unfavorable in a Wall Street Journal poll in the field a couple of weeks earlier.
Additionally, national polls conducted in February by Quinnipiac University and March by CNN and by NBC News also indicated the favorable ratings for the Democratic Party sinking to all-time lows.
However, there is more.
Confidence in the Democratic Party's congressional leadership also sunk to an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll conducted early last month.
The confidence rating for Democrats' leadership in Congress stood at 25% in the survey, which was nine points below the previous low of 34% recorded in 2023.
The semi-annual Harvard Youth Poll, which was released late last month, indicated that approval ratings for Democrats in Congress among Americans aged 18-29 nosedived.
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-April indicated that more respondents trusted Trump (40%) than Democrats in Congress (32%) to handle the nation's main problems.
Additionally, a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted late last month suggested Republicans hold a significant advantage over Democrats on two top issues: the economy and immigration.
"If Democrats want to be competitive in this country and build lasting majorities in both chambers and be competitive for the White House, we've got to broaden the tent," Caiazzo insisted.
He lamented that Democrats have "become hyper-focused on a certain set of issues that only speak to a certain set of people while letting the most important issues of the day fall by the wayside. Every single day, Democrats should be focused on how we make things better for working people. And the way we deliver that message has got to meet people where they are."
A Los Angeles County woman, who served on a presidential advisory committee under the Biden administration and has an extensive history of donating to Democrats, reached a plea agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for making tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to reportedly secure a seat on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, the DOJ announced Wednesday.
Teena Maria Hostovich, 66, was charged Wednesday with making contributions in the name of another aggregating to more than $10,000 in a year, which is a felony, the DOJ reported.
She revealed in her plea agreement that she carried out the scheme in part to secure a spot on the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees, the DOJ stated in the press release. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. and is located in Washington, D.C.
Hostovich is an insurance broker who used the identities of 11 other people, including co-workers and family members of co-workers, to illegally contribute more than $75,000 to political candidates between 2020 and 2023, the DOJ stated in a press release.
"According to her plea agreement, from May 2020 through 2023, Hostovich knowingly and willfully made a total of $75,700 in contributions to federal candidates’ principal campaign committees and federal joint fundraising committees in the names of other people," the DOJ said in a press release. "For the calendar years 2021 through 2023, Hostovich’s conduit contributions aggregated to more than $10,000 during each of those years."
Hostovich agreed in a court filing Wednesday to plead guilty to the federal criminal charge and pay a $43,500 fine.
Her scheme included contacting co-workers, their family members and other people "who performed personal services for Hostovich and her family" to ask them to make a donation to a political campaign or fundraising committee, according to the press release. She would then use PayPal to reimburse the individual for the contribution or pay them up front before the contribution was made, the Justice Department explained.
"To execute these conduit contributions, Hostovich sometimes explicitly stated that she would advance the money for the contribution or pay the person back for that contribution," the press release outlined. "Other times, the person had an implicit understanding that Hostovich would advance the money or reimburse them based on her history of advancements and reimbursements of political contributions. Hostovich generally advanced or reimbursed these individuals in amounts that exceeded the exact contribution amount but often the amounts were very close to the contribution amount."
Fox News Digital reviewed a website promoting a book Hostovich wrote in 2024 on climbing America's corporate ladder, which also touted Hostovich as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and that former President Joe Biden appointed her to serve on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.
"She is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and the White House Historical Association. President Biden recently appointed her to the President’s Advisory Committee for the Arts, and she is the Co-Chair of the Advisory Council to the Kennedy Center’s President and Chairman," the bio states, which is accompanied by photos of Hostovich with high-profile Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton and Biden.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Clinton Foundation for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.
An archived official White House press release from 2023 under the Biden administration detailed Hostovich's position on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, including touting her "corporate governance responsibility, political activism, and philanthropic work."
"She has combined her lifelong passion for the arts, history, and education with her corporate governance responsibility, political activism, and philanthropic work," the bio states. "In addition to serving on the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for over a decade, she has been one of the Chairs (along with her husband and son) of Hollywood Bowl Opening Night many times (including 2023) honoring significant artists and showcasing the LA music community while raising money for Music Matters benefitting music/arts programs in public schools."
It is unclear how donations made in other people's names would bolster her reported efforts to secure a spot on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. The president appoints general trustees to the board, while other members are appointed by Congress.
A representative for Hostovich told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement Tuesday morning that "Teena Hostovich has agreed to plead guilty to one count of making contributions in the name of another, involving five donations of $2,900 each in 2021. In doing so, she is accepting responsibility for her conduct early and swiftly."
The statement continued that Hostovich's "mistakes are out of character," arguing that her "career, accomplishments, and numerous charitable deeds reflect a lifetime of hard work and generosity."
"Her generosity and commitment to her community led to her involvement in donating and fundraising for causes and candidates that she believed would champion fairness, equality, and improve society," the spokesperson continued. "She deeply regrets that her ardent support of some candidates led to lapses in judgment in a fraction of the donations she helped to raise and make. She is even more remorseful for the shadow that this investigation may cast on the candidates to whom the donations were made, as they had no knowledge of any wrongdoing."
"Throughout this process, Ms. Hostovich has cooperated fully and worked transparently with law enforcement authorities. She is committed to making the appropriate amends."
The DOJ did not identify in its press release which political party Hostovich favored, though Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reviewed by Fox News show Hostovich made hundreds of donations across the years to Democrat politicians, the Democratic Party and left-wing political action committees.
Hostovich has nearly 1,000 entries on the FEC's database regarding donations she made under her own name stretching back to 2008 through the 2024 election cycle.
The FEC data shows she donated to campaigns and groups such as the Obama Victory Fund, Democratic Party of Virginia, Pasadena, California, area United Democratic Headquarters and Chris Coons for Delaware during the 2008–2012 period.
More recent data from the 2024 election cycle shows she donated to groups such as the North Carolina Democratic Party – Federal, the Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and the Democratic State Committee (Delaware). Searching for donations made to groups or campaigns containing the name "Republican" or "GOP" yielded zero results, Fox News Digital found.
The FBI carried out an investigation into Hostovich before she was charged and reached a plea agreement, the DOJ said. The DOJ told Fox Digital on Tuesday that Hostovich is scheduled to appear in court on June 13 in Los Angeles.
FIRST ON FOX: House Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., is taking aim at Georgia's senior senator in a new ad highlighting the vulnerable Democrat's stance on transgender student athletes.
Carter, who is running for Senate, is releasing a 30-second advertisement titled, "Ossoff Fan," which features a purported transgender woman complaining about Carter's own Republican stances. It opens by showing a transgender woman, played by a stubble-chinned biological male wearing a wig and a dress, sitting in a living room beside a dumbbell watching Carter on Fox News.
"He's been MAGA from the beginning," the person says on the phone. "He's been loyal to Trump, defended him during impeachment."
The person on the other line says, "And Buddy helped Trump at the border with deportations."
The transgender person picks up a trophy and says, "And preventing people like me from competing in women's sports. Buddy Carter even believes there's only two genders."
"Now Buddy wants to help Trump in the Senate and beat Jon Ossoff," the individual says. "It's just not fair." Meanwhile, the voice on the phone quips, "After all Ossoff has done for us!"
The ad ends with the transgender person picking up a sign with pink lettering that says, "Ossoff for Senate," putting on a pair of wedge sandals, and stomping to their car.
The short but punchy advertisement signals that Republicans still believe the debate surrounding transgender inclusion is a potent issue for turning out voters in favor of the GOP. It proved to be a key issue in the 2024 general election, with moderate Democrats spending weeks after the fact decrying their own party's intolerance to differing views.
Ossoff is a first-term lawmaker who was the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the Peach State in roughly two decades. Republicans now view Ossoff’s seat as one of the most viable flip opportunities in the upcoming 2026 midterm cycle, when the GOP hopes to keep and expand upon its thin majority in the upper chamber.
Carter was the first Republican to jump into the contest after Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was considered a heavy favorite to run against Ossoff, opted to forgo a Senate bid. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King is also running in the race as a Republican.
Ossoff joined with all other Democratic senators to filibuster the bill from Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, both Alabama Republicans, in March, effectively killing the legislation after it advanced out of the House earlier this year.
Their bill, called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, is designed to bar transgender athletes from participating in federally funded school athletics at all levels, from elementary school to college.
It would amend Title IX to make it a violation for any school athletic program that receives federal funding to allow a biological male to participate in sports or activities that are meant for women or girls, and defines a person’s sex by their reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
The measure is similar to an executive order from President Donald Trump in February that argued that the participation of biological men in women's and girls' sports was "demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports."
The Carter campaign’s ad is also not the first time in the early days of the looming midterm cycle that the vulnerable senator has been targeted for his vote against the measure.
One Nation, a nonprofit advocacy group closely aligned with Senate Republican leadership, ran an ad last month that accused Ossoff of "running point for the radical left" with his vote to block the men in women’s sports bill.
Fox News Digital reached out to Ossoff's campaign for comment on Carter's ad but did not hear back by press time.
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appears to be teasing a 2028 presidential run, urging reforms to a Democratic Party he described as "weak and woke" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Emanuel blasted the current Democratic platform as "toxic," arguing party leaders need to get back to basics rather than getting dragged into unpopular cultural debates. Emanuel is one of many names in Democratic circles who has been floated as a potential 2028 candidate, alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg.
"If you want the country to give you the keys to the car, somebody’s got to be articulating an agenda that’s fighting for America, not just fighting Trump," Emanuel said. "The American dream has become unaffordable. It’s inaccessible. And that has to be unacceptable to us."
Emanuel recently returned to the U.S. after serving as U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Joe Biden's administration. In addition to serving as Chicago mayor, Emanuel also worked as President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff and served in Congress representing Illinois.
The longtime Democratic insider also argued that U.S. education needs to be more focused on meeting high standards than proliferating social doctrine.
"I’m empathetic and sympathetic to a child trying to figure out their pronoun, but it doesn’t trump the fact that the rest of the class doesn’t know what a pronoun is," he said.
So far, no Democrats have openly declared their intentions to run for president in 2028, though several have toyed with the idea. Walz told reporters that he would do "whatever it takes" to run if he is "asked to serve."
Similarly, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has said he "would consider" a White House bid.
Buttigieg has also played coy about his all but certain intentions to run, telling Fox News after a town hall appearance in Iowa that, "Right now I’m not running for anything."
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a Massachusetts student who was banned from school for wearing a shirt criticizing the transgender movement on Tuesday.
The student, Liam Morrison, brought the case through his father and stepmother, Christopher and Susan Morrison. The plaintiffs argue Nichols Middle School violated his free speech rights when it banned him from wearing two T-shirts to school with the words "There are only two genders" and "There are [censored] genders" on the front.
Liam was sent home both times after he refused to change shirts. The school argued the shirts made his classmates feel unsafe, and a federal court agreed, saying the message was demeaning for transgender students.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito both issued separate dissents, arguing the court should have taken up the case.
The decision comes nearly a year after the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Liam and his parents in June 2024, finding that the school was justified in asking him to remove the shirt and sending him home when he refused.
Morrison, who was in seventh grade at the time, was sent home with his father in May 2023 after he refused to take off the shirt, according to court documents. He later wore the same shirt with the words "only two" covered with a piece of tape on which "censored" was written. The school also told him to take this shirt off.
In a 2023 interview with Fox News Digital, Liam stressed that his T-shirt was not directed toward anyone, specifically people who are "lesbian or gay or transgender or anything like that."
"I'm just voicing my opinion about a statement that I believe to be true," he said at the time. "And I feel like some people may think that I'm imposing hate speech, even though it's not directed towards anyone."
The Morrison family was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Massachusetts Family Institute.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris had 107 days to convince the American people to elect her the next president.
Tension between Harris' team and former President Joe Biden's inner circle did not do her any favors, a new book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson reveals.
"Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," has returned questions about Biden's cognitive decline and his administration's alleged cover-up to the national conversation.
The book also pulls back the curtain on the complicated relationship between Biden and Harris, spotlighting the distrust that had been brewing between their teams since Biden tapped Harris as his running mate in 2020.
"Many on the Biden team felt that Harris didn't put in the work and was also just not a very nice person. Several quietly expressed buyer's remorse: They should have picked Whitmer."
To Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, Whitmer represented the "next generation of Biden Democrats," Thompson and Tapper said.
Additionally, former first lady Jill Biden resented Harris after hitting him hard during the first Democratic primary in 2019 for opposing the Department of Education's busing program to integrate public schools. "That little girl was me," Harris said on the debate stage.
"Still, Biden's advisers did not fully trust her. Harris and her advisers felt it. Her aides got the impression that doing more than the bare minium to help was considered an act of disloyalty to Biden," Tapper and Thompson said of Harris' involvement in the 2020 campaign. "Some of that culture carried over into the White House."
Biden privately called Harris a "work in progress" and was not confident she could beat then-former President Donald Trump in 2024.
However, Harris' team thought building up the vice president should have been a priority for Biden's transitional presidency as a "bridge" for the next generation of Democratic leadership, as he said back in 2020.
An excerpt of the book reads, "In the eyes of Harris's team, the Biden White House was setting her up to fail. They gave her assignments her team considered politically toxic, such as dealing with the migration crisis, rarely offered to help, and knifed her to reporters along the way. Harris's camp didn't understand the hostility and the reluctance to offer her opportunities to shine."
The Fox News Voter Analysis in 2024 found that 52% of voters said Trump was the better candidate to handle immigration, while just 36% said Harris. Additionally, it was a top issue for voters, with 20% saying it was the most important issue facing the country.
Harris faced the brunt of criticism for the surge in border crossings during the Biden-Harris administration as the Trump campaign trolled her as the "border czar."
When Biden dropped out of the race after his disastrous debate performance in summer 2024, Harris inherited his struggling campaign, and her old boss soon became a "liability."
"From the beginning of her campaign in July to the August weeks of picking a running mate, presiding over the convention, rolling out wave after wave of ads, and on through September debate prep, it was clear that Biden was a liability," Tapper and Thompson wrote.
Harris was caught in the crosshairs of Biden's relentless gaffes and missteps as she tried to walk a fine line between loyalty to Biden and distancing herself from his failing campaign, as the journalists described.
While Harris had "great affection for Joe," her loyalty fired back when she told "The View" she would not have done anything differently than Biden as president.
"There is not a thing that comes to mind," Harris said – an instant attack ad for the Trump administration as they highlighted the Biden-Harris administration's record on immigration, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and inflation.
"What is he doing?" Harris asked her team after Biden donned a Trump 2024 hat at a 9/11 memorial gathering at the Shanksville Fire Station, less than a month before the election.
"This is completely unhelpful. And so unnecessary," Harris told her team, according to the book. "That would be, the Harris campaign decided, the last time she would do a public event with the president before the election."
However, Biden still wanted a role in the campaign, Tapper and Thompson said, as he saw former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama speaking at rallies on the campaign trail.
"He didn't seem to understand what a liability he had become."
When one of Trump's supporters called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" during a Madison Square Garden rally about a week before the election, what should have been a political layup for Democrats, became another mess for Harris to clean up.
While Biden was creating a political mess for Harris to clean up, Trump seized the opportunity to claim the narrative, sporting a high-visibility vest at a rally in battleground Michigan and hosting an impromptu press gaggle from the front seat of a garbage truck that was decked out in Trump decals.
"By the end of the campaign, she had helped the Democratic Party, but her own candidacy was barely treading water. And the albatross that was Joe Biden kept getting heavier," Tapper and Thompson said.
Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden's cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up.
Representatives for Biden and Harris did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The FBI is taking another look at the cocaine found inside the Biden administration White House in 2023, according to Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
"Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest. We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases," Bongino said in a post on X.
"These cases are the DC pipe bombing investigation, the cocaine discovery at the prior administration’s White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case. I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress. If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us, then please contact the FBI," he added.
The FBI did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for further comment from Fox News Digital.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump said in an interview he believes former President Joe Biden or his son, Hunter Biden, left behind the infamous bag of cocaine at the White House.
"So … who actually left the cocaine in the White House?" The Spectator's Ben Domenech asked Trump.
"Well, either Joe or Hunter," Trump responded. "Could be Joe, too."
The bag of cocaine was discovered on July 2, 2023, in a storage locker near the entrance to the White House's West Wing.
The Secret Service discovered the cocaine and launched an investigation, which turned up inconclusive for a suspect.
"On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons," it said in 2023. "Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals. The FBl's evaluation of the substance also confirmed that it was cocaine."
"That was such a terrible thing because, you know, those bins are very loaded up with … they’re not clean, and they have hundreds and even thousands of fingerprints," Trump also said in the interview. "And when they went to look at it, it was absolutely stone cold, wiped dry. You know that, right?"
The Biden family, including the former president and Hunter, were not staying at the White House when the cocaine was discovered. Instead, the family was staying at presidential retreat Camp David in Maryland.
Hunter Biden has a long and well-documented history with substance abuse, and he detailed his hourly need for crack cocaine in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things." He has since gone through recovery efforts and has been sober since 2019, according to sworn testimony in federal court in 2023.
The Trump administration is asking all federal agencies to find ways to terminate all federal contracts with Havard University amid an ongoing standoff over foreign students’ records at the Ivy League school.
The General Services Administration is planning to send a letter Tuesday instructing all federal agencies to review the estimated $100 million remaining in federal contracts with Harvard and potentially "find alternative vendors," according to a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News.
The remaining federal contracts include a $527,000 agreement for Harvard ManageMentor Licenses, which was awarded in September 2021, a $523,000 contract for Harvard to conduct research on energy drinks and the health outcomes on other dietary intakes overtime, which was awarded in August 2023, and a $39,000 contract fir gradate student research services, which was award in April 2025.
The New York Times first reported about a draft of the letter.
Harvard has already sued in federal court seeking the restoration of about $3.2 billion in federal grant funding already frozen by the administration since last month.
In a separate suit, the university was granted a temporary restraining order on Friday that temporarily blocks the government from canceling the school's certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The program permits the university to host international students with F-1 or J-1 visas to study in the U.S. Harvard said the revocation would impact more than 7,000 visa holders – more than a quarter of its student body. Another hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Boston federal court.
President Donald Trump said in a TRUTH Social post on Monday that he is "considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land."
"What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!" he wrote.
The president also accused Harvard of being "very slow" in handing over documents about foreign students and of having "shopped around and found the absolute best judge (for them)."
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday she revoked Harvard's certification after the university refused to comply with multiple requests for information on foreign students while "perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion' policies."
The requested records include any and all audio or video footage in Harvard’s possession regarding threats to other students or university personnel, "deprivation of rights" of other classmates or university personnel, and "dangerous or violent activity, whether on or off campus" by a nonimmigrant student enrolled at Harvard in the last five years.
Noem is also asking for any and all disciplinary records and audio or video footage of any protest activity involving nonimmigrant students. DHS said that Harvard's responses so far have been insufficient.
Fox News' Sarah Tobianski contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Labor announced on Tuesday that it has terminated $400 million dollars in spending it has deemed wasteful through its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts by rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-related grants from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
The department said DOGE had terminated all of its Unemployment Insurance (UI) ARPA grants, totaling around $400 million in savings, which it said addresses an unemployment system that has been in an "infrastructure crisis riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse."
Some of the cuts from the $2 trillion piece of legislation signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2021, included creating an "Office of the Unemployed Workers’ Advocate" and funding an "Equitable Access Director."
Other cuts included initiatives to "conduct a business process analysis for equity," developing an "equity analytics dashboard," studying the "equity of the unemployment system," conducting a "DEIA assessment" and funding "equity monitor staff."
"America’s unemployment benefits system is facing an infrastructure crisis, riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse," Labor Department spokesperson Courtney Parella told Fox News Digital. "The Biden administration was given a historic opportunity by Congress to fix it but instead squandered it on bureaucratic and wasteful projects that focused on equitable access rather than advancing access for all Americans in need."
Parella added that the department will continue working with state workforce agencies nationwide to focus on ways to improve the UI system to better "meet the needs of the American worker" and cut down on fraud, which has been prevalent in recent years, according to several news reports.
Earlier this year, DOGE announced that it had discovered tens of thousands of unemployment claims for improbably old and young claimants that were approved in the years after 2020.
"This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments," Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told FOX Business in April. "The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans' stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud – accountability is here."
The Labor Department announcement on Tuesday comes after Fox News Digital first reported in April that the department revealed $1.4 billion of unspent COVID funding would be "returned to taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Treasury’s General Fund," and added that "action" was "being taken to recover the remaining $2.9 billion."
According to the department leaderboard on the DOGE website, last updated on May 11, the Department of Labor ranks in the top 5 of departments that have made DOGE-related cuts, and DOGE overall says it has saved each American taxpayer $1,055.90.
Fox News Digital’s Eric Revell contributed to this report.
Years after the first Trump administration moved to designate Alabama as the home of a permanent Space Command headquarters (HQ), the political tug-of-war for the base continues.
Colorado Republicans are urging the president to rethink the decision while Alabama lawmakers insist it will and should move forward.
After his May 13 confirmation, new Air Force Secretary Troy Meink can now expect a lot of calls from Capitol Hill pulling him in different directions over the HQ.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said he had already discussed the matter with him.
"I look forward to his recommendation that he concur with the last two secretaries of the Air Force and recommend to Huntsville," he said. "And I fully expect, based on our conversation, that's going to be what happens."
The Space Force’s home for the time being — Colorado Springs, Colorado — makes sense from the money that has already been invested in setting up shop there, according to Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., whose district encompasses the current HQ.
"It would mean $2 billion in savings to leave it where it is," Crank told Fox News Digital, pointing to savings from not having to build a new HQ building.
President Donald Trump announced plans to move headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama, in his first term — but former President Joe Biden undid those plans when he came into office.
Space Command has operated out of Peterson Space Force base in Colorado Springs since its 2019 inception. The command is responsible for military operations in space and will play a major role in the Golden Dome project.
Crank argues that geographically, Colorado makes more sense — it is also home to Northern Command, and the two will need to coordinate over Trump’s new Golden Dome missile defense project.
"They've got to be seamless in their efforts to communicate," said Crank. "We don't want any delay in getting Golden Dome up and running."
He argued that Space Command HQ, nestled into Cheyenne Mountain, is already "one of the most secure facilities" in the country. Being in the middle of the U.S., he added, makes it harder for enemies to attack.
"From the standpoint of survivability, having that as an asset right there as well is, is really important."
Rogers brushed off the complaints from his Colorado counterparts and argued Alabama had won fair and square.
"They're just doing their job, you know, they don't want to see it leave," said Rogers. But, "they lost two nationwide competitions. It's not me saying it should be in Huntsville."
He argued that right now, the command is spread out across four to five different buildings, some of which are outside the base perimeter.
"None of them were built for classified operations," he said. "They just kind of make it work."
Rogers pointed to a recent Defense Department inspector general (IG) report examining Biden’s 2023 decision not to move the headquarters. That report found that then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall recommended that SPACECOM go to Redstone Arsenal, near Huntsville, Alabama, because the move would save $462 million.
However, then SPACECOM Commander, Gen. James Dickinson, wanted to keep the permanent HQ in Colorado due to Air Force findings that the Alabama option would not be operational for three to four years. Dickinson and SPACECOM officers also worried that more than half of the highly trained civilian staff in Colorado would quit rather than move to Alabama for the job.
"USSPACECOM leadership anticipated that the loss of civilian personnel might occur much sooner than (the Air Force) predicated and that USSPACECOM would be unable to secure the manpower investments needed to mitigate the impact of that loss on the command’s readiness," the report states.
However, Rogers argued, Colorado has had manpower issues as well.
"The reason why Secretary Kendall didn't concur with them and recommended that it still be moved was that over 300 of the current jobs in Colorado Springs couldn't be filled," he said. "They had to contract them out."
Crank argued that the cost findings in the IG report were flawed because it assumed Colorado would have to build a new HQ building, which he says it would not.
"We don't need to build a new headquarters building," he said. "There is one there. If you say you need to build a new headquarters building, then I think it tips it in the favor of Alabama from a cost perspective by about $400 million."
"But if you don't do that, and we don't need it, already have a headquarters building there, it saves the taxpayers $2 billion," he said.
The IG report said it "could not determine" why Kendall never made a formal announcement decision for the SPACECOM transition after the September 2022 completion of an environmental impact assessment of the planned headquarters site in Alabama.
Without a formal announcement, SPACECOM was able to declare full operational capability in Colorado, the report said.
Rogers said the IG report proved the Biden administration’s move was political, and predicted in April that Trump would formally name Alabama as the home of the Space Force within the month.
However, Crank, along with GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd, wrote to Trump and warned him that the move would affect readiness.
"Moving the command would disrupt these established capabilities and partnerships, further diminishing our preparedness to face evolving threats," they wrote in a letter dated April 8.
FOX DIGITAL REVIEW: Progressive Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka, one of the top Democratic candidates for New Jersey governor, has a record of associating with alleged abusers of women and has been accused of fostering a toxic work environment for women in his administration, a Fox News Digital review found.
Baraka, who has been mayor of Newark since 2014, hired his brother, Amiri Baraka Jr., as his chief of staff. In June 2020, Sebrivious Scott, a woman who was hired through a prisoner reentry program, accused Baraka Jr. of silencing her after she raised concerns about being sexually assaulted.
Scott alleged that she spoke with Baraka Jr. about being sexually assaulted by her boss and about being denied full-time employment for refusing sexual favors, Real Garden State reported.
Instead of helping, Baraka Jr. allegedly informed Scott that no steps would be taken to address her complaints and said, "Don’t be coming here complaining about discrimination. You should be happy you have a job."
Scott further claimed that her inquiries about her full-time application were ignored by her supervisors, including Mayor Baraka. Scott claimed numerous men hired through the reentry program obtained full-time positions upon completing the program as she waited.
In a 2020 Facebook post reacting to another user who posted support for Scott along with the Real Garden State article and a comment of "keep your head up cuzzo," Scott wrote, "Cuzz I'm trying. Just need all the support I can get against these monsters. I'm not afraid."
When Fox News Digital reached out for comment, Scott said, "They actually just settled after fighting this since 2018." However, she declined to go into details of the settlement, citing her lawyer's advice.
Baraka also hired another brother, Obalaji Jones, as a youth opportunity coordinator who was later accused of sexual assault. In 2017, Dannisha Clyburn, a former City of Newark employee, accused Jones of sexually assaulting her in 2013 and attempted sexual assault in 2015, TapInto Livingston reported.
According to Clyburn, Jones called her into a dark room and inappropriately touched her without her consent at a 2013 political speech by Baraka. She further claimed that Jones attempted to assault her again by calling her into a private room during a children’s event in 2015.
Clyburn, who previously served time in prison, told the outlet she had been a political supporter of Baraka but came forward because she did not want to see other women victimized.
"Your brother Obalaji, he’s a whole other monster," Clyburn posted on Facebook, addressing Baraka directly.
"Your brother, you better get him out of here. He is a predator. He is a menace to our city. And if you know, you taught us best. If you see something, you say something. I learned that from you, Ras Baraka," Clyburn said, according to Politico's New Jersey Playbook. "So I’ve seen something, I heard something, and I’m saying something. I’m speaking for every person, every female, every male that can’t come forward and are afraid to come forward."
Former Newark Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, who ran against Baraka for mayor in 2018, accused Baraka’s administration of widespread abuse in which many women were pressured into sexual favors in exchange for jobs, according to a 2018 report from TapInto Newark.
Jenkins said during a council meeting, "I’m not on Team Baraka for a number of reasons, but one of the reasons is their abuse of power. I cannot believe that any of my council colleagues...that none of these women haven’t come up to you and told you what they’ve had to go through as far as having to have sex to get a job, or they’ve been abused, or they've been talked about, or they've been ridiculed."
Three years later, a lawsuit filed by a former Newark city employee said that Baraka ignored legislation directing him to appoint an independent task force to investigate claims of sexual harassment brought by Newark employees, according to Chaneyfiled Jenkins in a report from NJ.com.
According to the suit, the legislation created an independent task force to investigate claims brought by Newark employees. The five-member panel was supposed to be appointed by the mayor and include a retired police officer from outside Newark, a clergy member, two members of the public and a final member to be nominated by Rutgers University. However, Baraka never appointed a member to the task force.
Baraka has also associated himself with alleged abuser Kiburi Tucker, who was arraigned in 1996 in a Newark municipal court on allegations that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl, an archived version of the Star-Ledger reported.
The girl’s parents filed a complaint, and Tucker was charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal restraint and endangering the welfare of a child for holding the victim and fondling her body, according to online records reviewed by Fox News Digital. He would end up serving a four-year prison sentence between 1997 and 2001 after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and drug possession charges.
Tucker would later face more legal trouble, which led to him serving a 17-month prison sentence for wire fraud and tax evasion after racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for personal use using resources from a childcare nonprofit started by his father. After leaving prison, Tucker told TapInto Newark that Baraka was his "best friend" and that he was "doing a hell of a job."
Tucker has remained close to Baraka, as evidenced by several Facebook posts in recent years and months. Tucker, who was reportedly business partners with Baraka's wife for several years, has posted in support of Baraka's gubernatorial campaign several times this month and as recently as this week.
On May 9, Tucker posted several pictures of Baraka and supporters at an event, saying, "Lets go ! Post your V for Victory In Support of Mayor Baraka for Governor!"
Earlier this week, he also posted a photo that appears to be at a Baraka fundraiser in Cranford, New Jersey.
Baraka's brother, Amiri, has also remained supportive of Baraka's run for governor, posting about an upcoming political event just last week.
In 2022, the mayor also endorsed Louis Weber, a former Newark police officer who was running for city council and was accused of sexual assault by a former female partner. Weber has denied the allegation and was not charged criminally, Politico reported.
"It's interesting to me that these fabricated stories that are unsubstantiated and built on innuendo are coming out just as the mayor is gaining in popularity and the polls," Mark Di Ionno, a Newark city spokesman, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
Baraka has dominated news headlines in recent weeks after being arrested outside an ICE facility in Newark and ultimately being charged with trespassing.
After a court appearance last week, Baraka told reporters that he was being unfairly targeted.
"We believe that I was targeted in this," Baraka said. "I was the only person arrested. That's right. You know, I was the only person identified. I was the only person, you know, they put in a cell. You know, the only person, I think that was in cuffs to the whole process that's here this morning, going through this humiliation for these people."
On Monday evening, the charge against Baraka was dropped.
Fox News Digital reached out to Baraka's gubernatorial campaign, his two brothers, Tucker and Clyburn, and Jenkins but did not receive a response.
Former President Joe Biden's official health reports during his White House tenure did not show signs of aggressive prostate cancer, a Fox News Digital review of the health documents shows.
Biden, who suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988 that nearly claimed his life, received clean bills of health in 2021, 2023 and 2024, according to former White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor's annual reports on the president's state of health.
Biden was scheduled to receive a physical by the end of January 2023 but delayed the evaluation due to a busy travel schedule, the White House reported at the time. The former president had a roughly 15-month period between his 2021 physical and one conducted in February 2023.
Fox News Digital reviewed the three reports posted by the White House in 2021, 2023 and 2024 and found that there were no signs indicating aggressive prostate cancer was on the horizon for the 46th president — though concerns over skin cancer were a common theme throughout the three reports.
Biden's White House physician released the president's first annual health report in November 2021, declaring Biden a "healthy, vigorous" man.
"President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief," O’Connor wrote in the 2021 report.
The report included routine screenings of Biden's heart, eyes and teeth, as well as his occasional gastroesophageal reflux.
The report noted that Biden also underwent "routine" screenings for both colon cancer and skin cancer. Biden had multiple "localized, non-melenoma skin cancers removed" ahead of his presidency after spending a good deal of time in the sun as a youth, the report stated, but that there were "no areas suspicious for skin cancer" during the 2021 physical.
The report did find that Biden was increasingly "throat clearing" and coughing during public events. O'Connor stated that Biden had long cleared his throat or coughed during speaking engagements, but such coughing or throat clearing "certainly seem more frequent and more pronounced over the last few months."
O'Connor said gastroesophageal reflux was likely the culprit behind Biden's coughing after conducting multiple lung, oxygen and biological tests.
The report also noted that Biden's gait had become noticeably more stiff, which the doctor said required a "detailed investigation." The stiffened gait was attributed to Biden's wear and tear on his spine and mild sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet, which O'Connor said could be addressed with physical therapy and exercise.
O'Connor released details on Biden's second physical as president on Feb. 16, 2023, roughly 15 months after the release of his first presidential physical. The delay between the health assessments was attributed to the president's busy schedule.
Biden was notably also diagnosed with COVID-19 in July 2022 during the interim period of his first and second physicals. Biden was reported to have mild symptoms that July and was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
The February 2023 physical report found that Biden was in good health and "fit" to serve as president.
"President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency," O'Connor wrote in his 2023 health memo.
The report found that Biden's gait had remained stiff since his last physical, though the issue had not worsened. The report overall found that his heart, lungs, eyes and teeth were all in good health.
Biden underwent routine skin cancer surveillance, which found a small lesion on the president's chest that required biopsy. The lesion was removed just a couple of weeks later without issue, a follow-up memo from O'Connor states.
"As expected, the biopsy confirmed that the small lesion was basal cell carcinoma," Biden's doctor wrote in a memo after the lesion was removed. "All cancerous tissue was successfully removed. The area around the biopsy site was treated presumptively with electrodessication and curettage at the time of biopsy. No further treatment is required."
The 2023 physical health report also provided updates on Biden's COVID-19 recovery, which the White House doctor said went smoothly in part due to Biden receiving the coronavirus vaccine and two booster shots before the infection.
The report on Biden's final physical examination as president was released Feb. 28, 2024 and again found the president in good health and able to serve as president.
"President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief," the most recent memo stated.
Again, vital organs such as the heart and eyes received a clean bill of health, while Biden's stiff gait did not worsen in the interim since 2023, though the doctor noted "arthritic changes" that were moderate to severe.
O'Connor reported that he conducted a neurological exam and determined that no cerebral or neurological issues were compounding the president's stiff gait. The test did support previous findings of peripheral neuropathy of the feet, the report stated.
The 2024 physical additionally noted that the lesion removed from Biden's chest the year prior needed no additional treatment, as basal cell carcinoma typically does not metastasize.
The report added that Biden had been using a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine when sleeping after he showed symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. The president had previously reported similar symptoms in 2008 and 2019, O'Connor stated, but that they subsided after sinus and nasal passage surgeries before his presidency.
He also underwent a root canal that year with no complications.
Dr. O'Connor has overseen Biden's health since 2009 and built a close relationship with the president and his family, Fox News Digital previously reported.
"I have never had a better commander than Joe Biden," O’Connor said in a profile interview with his alma mater, New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, when Biden served as vice president. "All politics aside, he approaches his craft with such honor. He’s 100 percent ‘family first.’ He’s ‘genuinely genuine.’"
O'Connor overwhelmingly remained out of the spotlight during Biden's tenure until the spring of 2024, when speculation mounted among both conservatives and Democrats that the president's mental acuity was slipping, with pundits and the media subsequently demanding to hear directly from O'Connor on the state of Biden's health.
The White House physician is affectionately known to Biden and his family simply as "Doc," and was requested by Biden in 2009 to stay on as his physician after serving in the White House Medical Unit under the President George W. Bush administration, according to the profile.
O’Connor was first appointed to the White House Medical Unit in 2006 for what was intended to be a three-year military assignment, according to his profile published by the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, from which he graduated in 1992.
Instead, "Vice President Biden asked O’Connor to stay on," the profile continues.
O’Connor complied, marking the beginning of their doctor-patient relationship that has reportedly evolved into a close relationship with the president’s large family.
Biden’s 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad," features the president reflecting on his close relationship with "Doc," including O’Connor joining the family on their annual vacation to Massachusetts' Nantucket in his capacity as the White House physician and balking at the family’s "browsing extravaganza" on the island. The White House medical unit always travels with a president to best protect his health and safety.
The physician’s relationship with the family seemingly grew closer, according to the memoir, when the president’s son, Beau Biden, was diagnosed with brain cancer — which ultimately claimed his life in 2015.
"Doc was good with Beau, who was still trying to get his bearings in those first few days. Real fear was starting to creep in. Sometimes Beau would grab him when everybody else was out of earshot to get his honest assessment," Biden wrote in the memoir.
"‘Whatever it is, this is bad,’ he told Beau, ‘but we’re gonna find out what it is. And once we find out what it is, we will have a plan.’"
In another excerpt, Beau Biden requested O’Connor "promise" to take care of his father if he should die.
"‘Seriously, Doc. No matter what happens,'" Beau Biden said to O’Connor, according to the book. ‘"Take care of Pop. For real. Promise me. For real.’"
Back in 2018, Joe Biden’s sister-in-law, Sara Biden, described O’Connor as a "friend" who provided medical advice to members of the Biden family beyond the eventual commander in chief.
"Colonel O'Connor was actually a friend and he — we would frequently ask for his recommendations if any of us had a medical issue, so it was not uncommon to ask him if he had a recommendation," she said in a deposition related to a New York state medical malpractice case involving her daughter, Fox News previously reported.
Biden's office announced May 18 that the former president had been diagnosed with an "aggressive form" of prostate cancer, which set off concern that such a cancer should have been discovered sooner.
"Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms," Biden's team shared in a statement. "On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone."
"While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management," the statement said. "The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians."
Physicians have remarked that they are "shocked" that the cancer had not been discovered sooner.
"Thank God they found it. (Biden is) a fighter. He's been through a tremendous amount in his life… with his son, with (his) wife, with (his) daughter," Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel said May 19. "Two aneurysms, atrial fibrillation. He's been through a lot health-wise, but I am absolutely shocked that they didn't find this earlier."
A spokesperson for Biden confirmed to Fox News on May 20 that Biden's last known prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which screens a patient for prostate cancer, was conducted in 2014.
"President Biden's last known PSA was in 2014," a Biden spokesperson told Fox News. "Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer."
Biden posted to X on May 19 in his first message since publicly revealing the diagnosis to thank supporters.
"Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places," Biden wrote on X, accompanied by a photo with former first lady Jill Biden. "Thank you for lifting us up with love and support."
Outgoing United States Capitol Police (USCP) Chief J. Thomas Manger has sounded off on President Donald Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 defendants – calling the day of the sweeping pardons one of the most troubling moments of his career, according to a report.
Manger, who will retire later this week, has been a vocal critic of those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and lamented Trump pardoning nearly all defendants shortly after his inauguration this year.
He told WTOP "I was angry and as frustrated about that as I’ve ever been professionally."
Manger told the outlet that as discouraging as that was, it made him determined to continue to make improvements. "What it made me feel like is somebody’s got to stay here and stand up for these cops," Manger said.
Manger has served as USCP chief since July 2021 and was hired to rebuild the force and implement reforms to enhance security and preparedness in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. The more than 100 reform recommendations included expanding intelligence, training and riot-response capabilities.
He has often condemned the attack, referring to it as an "insurrection" and an attack on democracy. Trump has referred to those who were imprisoned as "hostages."
"Some people in this country believe January 6 wasn’t that bad," Manger told WTOP. "My cops know what happened on January 6. They know what happened. They were here."
Manger’s police career stretches back to 1977, when he started out as an officer with the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia. He rose to chief of department in 1998 and remained in that role until 2004. Manger became chief of police in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 2004 and held the position until his retirement in 2019.
On July 23, 2021, he was appointed chief of the United States Capitol Police, succeeding Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman.
When news broke that the Justice Department had agreed in principle to pay $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, a former Air Force veteran who was shot dead during the Capitol Riot, Manger sent a message to his department’s officers writing that he was "extremely disappointed."
"In 2021, the DOJ said that there was no evidence to show that law enforcement broke the law. After a thorough investigation, it was determined to be a justified shooting. "This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement officers across our nation — especially those who have a protective mission like ours," Manger wrote, according to the Washington Post.
In December 2022, the USCP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal — the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress — for their bravery on Jan. 6, 2021. Manger accepted the honor on behalf of the department.
The USCP dates back to 1800, when the Congress moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., and a lone watchman, John Golding, was hired to protect the Capitol Building, according to USCP website.
After a number of incidents in 1827 that could have been prevented with sufficient security and surveillance, then President John Quincy Adams asked that a regular Capitol Police force be established. On May 2, 1828, Congress passed an act that expanded the police regulations of the City of Washington to include the Capitol and Capitol Square. It is on this date that the USCP commemorates its founding.
