Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro hit back at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Friday, after the activist group sent a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club promising to send them a vegan "weather reveal cake" if they agreed to stop pulling Punxsutawney Phil out of his burrow for his Feb. 2 prognostication.
"Come and take it," Shapiro tweeted in response to a New York Post story on PETA's demand.
Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro, told Fox News Digital the governor stands by his comments and said he will again make the trip to Gobbler's Knob in Jefferson County on Sunday to witness Phil's 138th meteorological prediction.
Shapiro has been on-hand for every Groundhog Day ceremony in Punxsutawney since taking office in 2023.
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk told the Post that Phil is denied the traditional lifestyle of a groundhog "for a tired old gimmick."
Visitors to Punxsutawney year-round can visit Phil and his "wife," Phyllis, at the borough library. On this reporter's last visit to the area, the rodents had recently become proud parents to a new baby groundhog, as well.
While Groundhog Day is considered a national holiday and has even been popularized in the classic 1993 Bill Murray film of the same name, the day — and Phil himself — hold a special place in many Pennsylvanians' hearts.
In addition to the large ceremony in western PA, throughout the rest of the Commonwealth, many historically Pennsylvania German communities are home to a "Grundsau Lodsch" or Groundhog Lodge.
Each lodge holds an annual banquet or "Versommling" in honor of their totem – Phil – with "Lodsch Nummer Ains an de Lechau" (Lodge #1 on the Lehigh River) in Allentown hosting theirs annually on the February 2 holiday itself since 1934.
Nineteen other lodges based around the state have held "Versommlinge" for decades, as well.
However, three — "#2, Schibbach" in Montgomery County, "#3, Temple U." in Philadelphia County and "#5, Bind Bush" in Schuylkill County — have gone defunct in recent years as the Pennsylvania German language and culture see a decline in younger generations.
A March 2024 Versommling for "Lodge #18 an de Forelle Grick" (on Trout Creek) in Slatington featured local beer on tap, a traditional Pennsylvania German supper, stories and riddles from lodge elders told in the Pennsylvania German language, and, of course, representations of Phil himself.
Until recently, it was the custom of groundhog lodges to forbid English-speaking in favor of "Pennsilfaanisch," lest the violator toss a nickel in a donation jar on their table.
Other states' groundhogs have been less lucky than Phil, as then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio infamously dropped Staten Island Chuck during a 2014 ceremony in West New Brighton. Chuck later died from internal injuries after appearing to land on his head.
With the importance Groundhog Day and Phil himself hold to Pennsylvania past-and-present, Bonder said Shapiro will continue to defend the groundhog and his tradition, and will be on hand for future wintertime prognostications in Punxsutawney.
LGBT activists and groups are already mobilizing to block gender-related executive orders President Donald Trump signed since taking office to fulfill one of his key campaign promises to crack down on "gender ideology extremism." And more legal challenges are expected in the coming weeks.
The executive orders, signed in late January, include a reinstatement of the ban on transgender troops in the military, a ban on federal funding for sex changes for minors and a directive requiring federal agencies to recognize only "two sexes," male and female, in official standard of conduct.
"This ban betrays fundamental American values of equal opportunity and judging people on their merit," Jennifer Levi, director of Transgender and Queer Rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), said in a statement about the trans military ban.
"It slams the door on qualified patriots who meet every standard and want nothing more than to serve their country, simply to appease a political agenda."
GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), were among the first groups to file a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for its military ban. The lawsuit, Talbott v. Trump, was brought forward on equal protection grounds by six active-duty service members and two individuals attempting to enlist, according to the groups' announcement.
The plaintiffs include a Sailor of the Year honoree, a Bronze Star recipient and several who were awarded meritorious service medals. They were identified as U.S. Army Reservist Lt. Nicolas Talbott, Army Maj. Erica Vandal, Army Sgt. First Class Kate Cole, Army Capt. Gordon Herrero, Navy Ensign Dany Danridge, Air Force Master Sgt. Jamie Hash, Koda Nature and Cael Neary. The latter two are civilians who are seeking to enlist in the military.
Another lawsuit, filed by a transgender inmate receiving taxpayer-funded medical treatments, is challenging Trump's executive order that ends medical transgender treatments – such as hormones, sex changes and grooming accommodations – for federal prisoners.
The unnamed inmate, who goes by "Maria Moe" in court documents and is represented by GLAD Law, NCLR and Lowenstein Sandler LLP, is claiming Trump and the Bureau of Prisons are violating the Fifth and Eighth amendments and claims to be "at imminent risk of losing access to the medical care she needs to treat her gender dysphoria."
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston temporarily blocked BOP officials from transferring "Maria Moe" to a men's prison, according to a ruling released by the inmate's attorney Thursday. The temporary restraining order was issued Sunday, the same day the suit was filed.
Prison officials are expected to keep the inmate in the women's prison general population and maintain her transgender medical treatments, NBC first reported.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Trump's other executive orders, too, especially Trump's immigration-related policies. More are expected in the coming weeks.
A memo released Wednesday by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management provided guidance on directing federal agencies to acknowledge that women are biologically female and men are biologically male, Reuters reported. Trump said last week federal funds would not be used to promote "gender ideology."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the litigation but did not hear back before publication.
Fox News Digital's Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: One of the top Republican lawmakers in the key swing state of Arizona has sent a letter to President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting that the administration "prevent California from dictating the country’s energy policy."
"California’s radical rules will harm Arizona families by increasing costs, impacting jobs, and limiting consumer choice," Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said in a letter to the EPA. "By taking swift action, EPA can reverse the Biden Administration’s erroneous approval of California’s extreme rules."
In the letter, Petersen praised Trump’s reversal of burdensome regulations thus far, saying that his executive orders, including rolling back the EV mandate, are "important energy steps that will help usher in America’s Golden Age."
However, Petersen warned in his letter that California environmental waivers and regulations create a ripple effect that harms other places in the country, including Arizona.
"Victims of California’s war on fossil fuels include Arizonans who conduct business or make purchases in California," Petersen wrote. "California’s radical rules also will indirectly affect Arizonans by increasing the cost, and decreasing the availability, of vehicles and products. Even Governor Katie Hobbs has been forced to recognize that California’s extreme policies can negatively impact Arizonans."
"California’s radical rules raise serious legal concerns relating to equal state sovereignty19 and the major "questions doctrine, among many others. EPA should take immediate action to remove these legal concerns, starting by submitting the approvals for California’s rules to Congress for evaluation under the Congressional Review Act," he continued. "According to legal experts, ‘Congress can quickly disapprove the waivers and send a resolution to the White House for presidential signature. Ballgame over.' As those experts note, Congressional Review Act decisions are final and unassailable in court because the Act expressly provides that ‘[n]o determination, finding, action, or omission under this chapter shall be subject to judicial review.’"
Petersen's letter continued, "Like it did during President Trump’s first administration, EPA also should revoke California’s ability to independently regulate greenhouse gases."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Petersen said, "Over the past four years, the State of California and the Biden Administration teamed up to impose a radical environmental agenda on the United States, compromising our energy independence, crushing freedom of choice, and endangering our national security."
"I, like many of my fellow Arizonans and Americans, am thrilled to see the Trump Administration putting an end to these schemes. The State of Arizona looks forward to assisting our new president, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Members of Congress in their efforts to prioritize and protect our country's interests," he said.
Petersen, who has filed paperwork to run for attorney general in Arizona, also sent a letter to Arizona's congressional delegation voicing the same concerns.
"As President of the Arizona State Senate, I write to urge you to block radical California rules that ban gas-powered cars and leaf blowers," he wrote.
"These policies will harm Arizona families by increasing costs, impacting jobs, and limiting consumer choice. The Congressional Review Act empowers you to reverse the Biden Administration’s last-minute approval of these extreme policies, which I encourage you to do."
Georgia’s Republican lieutenant governor has introduced a plan similar to the DOGE efforts taking place with the Trump administration that he tells Fox News Digital will bring much-needed government accountability to his state.
"I own my own business employing thousands of people, and I know one of the biggest things that we run into as small business owners is regulatory burdens. And that's regulatory burdens at the local, state and federal level," Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones told Fox News Digital of his Red Tape Rollback Act of 2025.
"We've been fortunate here in Georgia to be the No. 1 state to do business for 11 years running, and if we want to stay like that, we're going to have to always be retooling how we do things, improving how we do things, making government more efficient, making it try to work more like business."
Jones introduced the plan last year but was unable to move it through the Georgia Legislature. But he said Trump’s DOGE efforts provided an opportunity to pair the plan with the new DOGE brand that has become increasingly popular with Republicans and some Democrats in Washington, D.C.
"That's what the essence or the genesis behind red tape rollback, which is our state version of DOGE that the Trump administration is doing, and I'm excited about what they're doing with the first week of that administration," Jones said.
Jones explained to Fox News Digital what the priorities of his statewide DOGE plan would entail if successfully passed through the Legislature.
"The first thing we'd like to do is basically have a reset on all regulatory issues at every state agency. And what I mean by that is, instead of always adding more regulations, we'll start back at zero and then the agencies just add what they need," Jones said.
"There are so many regulations that are on the books that have been put there from decades worth of, you know, legislative laws that were passed or whatever. What our bill will do is basically have a reset just like you would on a computer game or whatever.
"And say there's a lot of things that are unneeded, whether we're talking about on the educational front, on the environment front, transportation, whatever it might be, just the entire blanket. Have a reset, and then make the agencies tell us what regulations are needed and which ones they're glad to get rid of."
Jones said in a press release his bill will "also give legislators the ability to request a ‘Small Business Impact Analysis’ for pending legislation to better understand how a bill might impact Georgia’s most important job creators."
Jones told Fox News Digital that statewide spending waste is at a much "smaller scale" than federal government waste, but he said he hopes his statewide efforts will help shine a light on waste in the federal government.
"There's no question D.C. is the elephant, so to speak, in the room that has gotten so bloated through duplicate agencies, duplicate services, whatever it might be," Jones said. "There's a lot of ways to trim the fat at the federal level.
"State government, it won't be anything like what you have at the federal level, but there's definitely inefficiencies that need to be addressed, whether it's in licensing, permitting processes, whatever it might be, regulatory codes and things that need to be repealed. Those are all things that are going to be on the table."
Oakland's $129.8 million budget deficit could eradicate up to 30% of its firefighting capacity, depleting a strapped department already stretched thin by station closures, according to sources on the ground.
Fire response times in the Democrat-controlled California city are already three times the national average after budget cuts that recently closed two fire stations and kept a newly renovated station from reopening.
City Councilmember Zac Unger, who was an Oakland firefighter for 27 years, told Fox Digital that four more stations could face closures because of deficits.
"We have three firehouses currently closed and another four slated to close ... which would represent about 30% of our firefighting capacity here in Oakland, an absolutely catastrophic potential for the city of Oakland," Unger said. "We simply cannot afford to lose 30% of our fire and emergency medical response."
Firefighters and city officials have been working overtime in "an all-hands-on-deck moment," Unger said, to identify available funds in the city’s budget and keep Oakland’s firehouses open. Fire Chief Damon Covington told Fox Digital inroads have been made to prevent the additional four fire stations from closing, but that's not to say closures won't come down the road.
"Seven firehouses would represent about 30% of our fire department," Covington said. "It's a tremendous threat because, ultimately, we need more fire service to cover our city adequately, and to lose two firehouses and a third that was under renovation, it taxes our workforce."
The fire department’s limited capacity has slowed response time, creating the potential for a disaster like the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, President of Oakland Firefighters Local 55 Seth Olyer said.
"We had a house fire in the end of east Oakland in Engine 28's area," he said. "Normally, that engine would have been able to get to the fire within four minutes. The closest fire engine took nearly 11 minutes to get there. With a fire doubling in size every minute, you can do the math. This went from a small fire inside the house to a total loss and nearly threatening the surrounding area and potentially starting a wildland fire, much like in L.A."
"Our firefighters do incredible work, and they will make do with whatever difficult circumstances you give them, but yes, we have seen slowed response times," Unger told Fox Digital. "There's simply no way to close firehouses and expect to receive the same level of service."
The interim mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment. But in its current budget proposal, the city cites one-time COVID-19 pandemic costs and retirement benefits, including OPEB liability and CalPERs benefits costs, as the "fiscal challenges leading to [a] projected deficit" of $129.8 million. Oakland’s 2024-2025 fiscal budget proposed fire station "brownouts" for six months beginning January 2025 to save the city $5.5 million.
But local firefighters say brownouts could come at a much higher cost.
"When you close firehouses, it creates a domino effect," Covington said in an interview with Fox Digital. "It's not just the firehouse that you're closing, it's the surrounding jurisdictions, the other firehouses that are close to that firehouse that have to cover the ground of that station."
Oakland firefighters say they face the same cuts that the Los Angeles Fire Department warned about ahead of the devastating Palisades and Eaton wildfires in January. Oakland is no stranger to fire devastation itself. The Oakland firestorm of 1991 killed 25 people, injured 150 and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. Olyer said the 1991 fire fundamentally changed fire department response tactics and how fire crews cooperate with surrounding agencies.
"That fire was so massive it took a herculean effort by the Bay Area and basically fire departments from all over the western U.S. to control," Olyer told Fox Digital. "You’re seeing the same thing with Los Angeles. It’s not realistic to think that any fire department would be able to stop any sort of huge fast-moving wildfire with hurricane force winds in conditions like that."
A quick, efficient and collaborative firefighting operation is possible with ample resources. In October, Olyer described how proper staffing and cooperation with CAL FIRE prevented the Keller Fire from becoming another California catastrophe.
"The Keller fire, which happened last October, was a perfect example of what a properly staffed fire department and early intensive action can do to really stop a fire before it gets out of control," Olyer said. The event, he said, showed what "cooperation among agencies looks like, with CAL FIRE doing water drops on top, helicopter drops on it and massive amounts of resources very early on."
"The department has been running bare bones in Oakland for decades," Olyer said. "We have fire engines driving around with nearly 300,000 miles, and they're literally falling apart. It’s just a matter of time until Oaklanders’ luck runs out."
"We're all pushing in the same direction. Everybody wants those firehouses open. It really does come down to dollars and cents," Covington said.
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose vote cemented Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's confirmation last month, opened up about the effort to corroborate last-minute allegations against President Donald Trump's nominee.
"Anytime you have an allegation and somebody is willing to put it in sworn testimony, you owe it to the process to review it and not just dispose it out of hand," the North Carolina Republican told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"And that's exactly what I did. And then I arrived at the conclusion that I'd support Pete's nomination"
Hegseth was confirmed after a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance, making the final margin 51-50.
Three Republicans — senators Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted against Hegseth.
Given the Republican conference's 53-seat majority, nominees can only afford to lose three votes, assuming all Democrats are opposed and each senator is in attendance.
Tillis' decision on whether to back Hegseth was not disclosed until minutes before he cast his vote. If he became the fourth Republican to oppose Hegseth, the confirmation would have failed.
The senator asked Hegseth several additional questions after the new allegations surfaced and the hours until his confirmation vote wound down.
The nominee's response letter, which proved to be to Tillis' satisfaction, was shared on X by Hegseth during the vote.
Speaking on the subject with Fox News Digital, the senator explained he had "developed a reputation for completing due diligence" and that he takes his role seriously.
According to Tillis, he agreed to speak with Hegseth's former sister-in-law, Danielle, before she filed a sworn affidavit alleging that he made his ex-wife Samantha fear for her safety, in addition to claims of alcohol abuse.
Danielle is not the sister of Hegseth's ex-wife. She is the former wife of his brother.
The call between the senator and Danielle was about "what conceptually would be in the affidavit," Tillis said.
"And I said, 'If that's true, and it could be corroborated, then it would carry weight,'" Tillis recalled.
However, he said the lack of corroboration left the allegations without credibility.
"I could never speak directly to a person who could corroborate the testimony of one person," he said.
After Hegseth's confirmation, it was reported that sources said Tillis had "personally assured" Danielle that if she provided the affidavit, it would be significant and might persuade Republicans to oppose the defense secretary nominee, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Asked about the report, Tillis emphasized that he gave the caveat that it must be corroborated in his conversation with Danielle.
"Corroboration means at least two people have to be involved, and they have to be involved in the event, not a bystander. And I was unable to. I attempted to do it, but I was unable to get to that point. And, therefore, I had to make the same judgment that I did with the other allegations," he explained.
Tillis wouldn't divulge whether Danielle or her attorney suggested she had been a witness to the alleged events.
"I'm not going to get into those discussions because I do know that my conversation was leaked a couple of hours after I had it on Sunday. Clearly, I would have no reason to do it. But I don't leak private conversations. I don't even discuss them at any level of detail," he said.
Multiple requests for comment to Danielle's attorney, Leita Walker, from Fox News Digital went unanswered.
The country began to see the effects of President Donald Trump’s policies in his second week in office, with the White House implementing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China; border crossings plummeting; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs shuttering; the federal workforce being faced with the decision to return to the office or to resign; and more.
As promised, Trump’s administration has been moving at warp speed to implement his agenda — signing more than 200 executive actions just hours after taking the Oath of Office.
Trump immediately cracked down on immigration, and by the beginning of his second week in office migrant encounters dropped significantly. The number of migrants arriving at the southern border plummeted by 63% as of Monday, Fox News Digital previously reported.
There were 7,287 migrant encounters at the southern border in the first seven days of the Trump administration — from Jan. 20 through Jan. 26, with a daily average of 1,041 encounters a day.
That compares to 20,086 encounters a day during the final days of former President Joe Biden’s presidency — from Jan. 13 through Jan. 19.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week participated in an immigration enforcement raid in New York City Tuesday targeting "murderers, kidnappers, and individuals charged of assault and burglary." The operation continued through Friday.
And Border czar Tom Homan said that as of Monday the Trump administration had removed and returned 7,300 illegal immigrants and had deported them to Mexico, Jordan, Brazil and El Salvador.
The president on Wednesday also signed the Laken Riley Act into law — the first piece of legislation to become law in his second administration.
The measure, which advanced through the House and Senate in January, directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain illegal immigrants arrested or charged with theft-related crimes, or those accused of assaulting a police officer.
The law also allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration.
The law’s name honors a nursing student who was killed during a jog on the University of Georgia’s campus by an illegal immigrant, Fox News Digital previously reported. Jose Ibarra, who previously had been arrested but never detained by ICE, received a life prison sentence for killing 22-year-old Laken Riley.
Beyond the border, the president’s action to end DEI programs across the federal government has continued. Last week, the Office of Personnel Management ordered agency heads and directors to close their DEI offices.
And over at the Justice Department, Trump administration officials fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team prosecuting Trump, after Acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted in "faithfully implementing the president’s agenda."
On Monday, an Office of Management and Budget memo was released, which aimed to freeze funding to various federal programs that were focused on DEI.
The memo issued a pause on all federal grants and loans aiming to eradicate "wokeness" and the "weaponization of government" to improve government efficiency.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held her first-ever press briefing in the James S. Brady room on Tuesday and fielded many questions from reporters on the memo. She maintained that programs including Social Security benefits, Medicare, food stamps, welfare benefits and other assistance going directly to individuals would not be impacted.
But by Tuesday evening, a federal judge imposed an administrative stay, pausing the Trump administration’s action.
And on Wednesday, the White House opted to rescind the memo, but stressed to Fox News Digital that it was committed to freezing federal grants and loans aimed at woke programs."
"In light of the injunction, OMB has rescinded the memo to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage," Leavitt told Fox News on Wednesday. "The Executive Orders issued by the President on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments."
Leavitt told Fox News that rescinding the memo "should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the President’s orders on controlling federal spending."
Also this week, the Office of Personnel Management sent a note to federal workers offering them the option to resign and receive full pay and benefits through Sept. 30. That option, which the administration referred to as a "Fork in the Road," came after the administration demanded that all federal workers return to in-person, in-office work.
Federal workers have until Feb. 6 to decide if they will return to work or if they will resign.
The only federal workers who do not have the option are postal workers, members of the military, immigration officials, some national security officials, and any positions agency heads decide to carve out.
But the rapid changes came to a quick halt on Wednesday night around 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, after an American Airlines plane and Army helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside of Washington, D.C.
The flight had left Wichita, Kansas, earlier that day. All 67 people onboard both aircraft are presumed dead.
Those aboard the plane included "several members" of U.S. Figure Skating, including athletes, coaches and family members who had just attended the U.S. Figure Skating Championships held in Wichita, Kansas, from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26.
Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was confirmed on Tuesday and quickly took charge, immediately getting over to the Federal Aviation Administration building and launching an investigation into the horrific incident.
The president said that the deadly midair collision was a "confluence of bad decisions that were made and you have people that lost their lives, violently lost their lives."
The president signed two executive orders appointing a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) deputy administrator, Chris Rocheleau, and ordering an immediate assessment of aviation safety and an elevation of "competence" over DEI.
Meanwhile, the president also signed an executive order to create a Task Force 250 — a White House task force focused on coordinating the plans and activities surrounding the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.
The president also signed a memo that would lift the collective bargaining agreements that former President Joe Biden put into effect before leaving office — agreements that White House officials said were designed to "constrain" the Trump administration from reforming the government.
And as for the Cabinet, Duffy was confirmed as Transportation secretary; Doug Burgum was confirmed as secretary of the Interior; Lee Zeldin was confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Scott Bessent was confirmed as Treasury secretary.
Over in the Senate, Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; nominee for FBI director Kash Patel; and nominee for director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard faced tough questions from senators during confirmation hearings.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he wants answers from Dr. Anthony Fauci.
In his new position as chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security committee, Paul issued subpoenas to 14 agencies from the outgoing Biden administration aimed at building on past congressional investigations into the COVID-19 virus and risky taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research. It is unclear who exactly from each agency will ultimately be deposed, but a Fauci deposition is possible.
"In the wake of Anthony Fauci’s preemptive pardon, there are still questions to be answered," Paul said in a statement after announcing the issuance of his subpoenas. "Subpoenas were sent from the Committee to NIH [National Institutes of Health] and 13 other agencies regarding their involvement in risky gain-of-function research. The goal of the investigation will be to critique the process that allowed this dangerous research, that may have led to the pandemic, to occur in a foreign country under unsafe protocols and to ensure that there is sufficient oversight and review going forward, making sure a mistake of this magnitude never happens again."
While former President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci to protect him from political retribution under the new Trump administration, legal experts have questioned the validity of such a pardon. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Baily suggested to Fox News that since Biden's own Justice Department indicated he lacked the mental faculties to be held criminally liable for improper handling of classified documents, it could be argued he also lacked the mens rea to issue pardons to people like Fauci. Additionally, the pardon Fauci received only covers his actions from January 2014 to the date of his pardon. As a result, a refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena could also potentially result in criminal charges.
Paul's investigation will build on a previous bipartisan probe launched by the Senate's Homeland Security committee last year looking into the national security threats posed by "high-risk biological research and technology in the U.S. and abroad."
A second investigation being launched by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Permanent Select Subcommittee on Investigations, will similarly probe concerns in the new Congress surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and will include a review of email communications from Fauci.
Since the pandemic began, Paul has sent dozens of requests for information related to the origins of the COVID-19 virus and gain-of-function research. Last year, his efforts revealed documents that he said show that government officials from at least 15 federal agencies knew in 2018 that China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was working on creating a coronavirus similar to COVID-19.
The WIV has been a centerpiece in the debate over the origins of COVID-19, as it was eventually discovered that American scientist Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance was using taxpayer dollars to conduct risky research on the novel bat virus out of the WIV prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services barred Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance from receiving federal funding for five years.
Meanwhile, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Congress in May 2021 that the NIH "has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
The Trump administration is reportedly preparing an executive order to halt all U.S. funding going towards gain-of-function research.
Federal officials remain split on where the COVID-19 virus originated from. Three agencies — the Department of Energy, the FBI and the CIA — have determined that the most likely origin narrative is the lab leak theory, but others in the intelligence community and throughout the federal government say they can either not conclude that a lab leak was the most likely scenario, or they say that a natural origin scenario is most likely. A declassified intelligence report from 2021, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, posited that if a lab leak did turn out to be the catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was likely the result of an accident.
Representatives for Paul declined to comment for this report, while Fauci did not respond to a request for comment.
Nearly three months after Democrats' major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections, the party gathers on Saturday to choose new leadership.
It's the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) first formal step to try and emerge from the political wilderness and rebound in upcoming elections after President Donald Trump recaptured the White House and Republicans flipped the Senate, held onto their fragile majority in the House and made major gains with working-class, minority and younger voters.
And with no clear leader in the party, the next DNC chair will become the de facto face of Democrats from coast to coast and will make major decisions on messaging, strategy, infrastructure and where to spend millions in political contributions.
"It's an important opportunity for us to not only refocus the party and what we present to voters, but also an opportunity for us to look at how we internally govern ourselves," longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News.
Buckley, a former DNC vice chair, said he's "very excited about the potential of great reform within the party." And he emphasized he hoped for "significantly more support for the state parties. That's going to be a critical step towards our return to majority status."
Eight candidates are vying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who decided against seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee.
The next chair, as well as vice chairs and other officers, will be chosen by the roughly 450 DNC voting members gathered for the party's winter meeting, which is being held this year at National Harbor just outside Washington, D.C.
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, is considered to be the frontrunner for chair heading into Saturday's election, with Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler close behind.
Martin recently told Fox News Digital that if he becomes chair, the first thing he would do is "figure out a plan to win. And we need to start writing that plan, making sure we’re looking underneath the hood. How much money do we have at the party? What are the contracts? What contracts do we need to get rid of? And, frankly, bringing all of our stakeholder groups together. That’s the biggest thing."
Wikler, in a Fox News Digital interview, emphasized that the party needs to show voters "that we're fighting for them against those who would try to rig the economy for those at the very top and deliver that message in places where people aren't paying attention to politics much. But they know what they're struggling with in their own lives."
Wikler, who pointed to the success of Democrats in his home state, a crucial battleground, added, "That means communicating in clear language in a way that shows people that we see them. And with our actions showing that we're fighting for them to bring costs down and make sure that working people have a fair shot in this country."
Also considered competitive is Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration during former President Biden's last year in office.
O'Malley told Fox News Digital he's running for DNC chair "because I love my country, and the only way we're going to save the Republic is if the Democratic Party gets itself battle-ready as quickly as possible."
Pointing to his past steering the Democratic Governors Association, he noted, "I'm the only candidate that's actually chaired a national committee — the Democratic Governors — and I'm the only candidate that's actually run for office and been elected to office, city council, mayor, governor. And we need to recruit people all across the ballot in order to bring our party back."
Among the longer-shot candidates for chair are late entry Faiz Shakir, who ran the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Marianne Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations.
"This party's not going to rise up unless there's some deeper honesty," Williamson told reporters Thursday after the final chair election forum, as she took aim at the Democrats' establishment.
The debate during the three-month DNC campaign sprint has mostly focused on the logistics of modern political campaigns, such as media strategy and messaging, fundraising and grassroots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts. On those nuts-and-bolts issues, the candidates are mostly in agreement that changes are needed to win back blue-collar voters who now support Republicans.
But the final forum included a heavy focus on systemic racism and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, issues that appeared to hurt Democrats at the ballot box in November.
And the forum, moderated and carried live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., devolved into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns of climate change and billionaires' influence in America's elections before they were forcibly removed by security.
The chair election comes as a new national poll spells more trouble for the Democrats.
Only 31% of respondents in a Quinnipiac University survey conducted over the past week had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 57% seeing the party in an unfavorable light.
"This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question," the survey's release noted.
Meanwhile, 43% of those questioned had a favorable view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the highest favorable opinion for the Republican Party ever in Quinnipiac polling.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to the acting FBI director Friday evening directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review, Fox News has learned.
Bove's memo to acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, which was obtained by Fox News, asserts the Department of Justice cannot trust the FBI employees to carry out President Donald Trump's agenda.
"This memorandum sets forth a series of directives, authorized by the Acting Attorney General, regarding personnel matters to be addressed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Bove wrote.
Bove, a former Trump defense attorney, directed Driscoll to fire eight specific FBI employees by Monday, Feb. 3, at 5:30 p.m.
"I do not believe that the current leadership of the Justice Department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully," Bove wrote in the memo.
Bove cited comments made by President Trump on his first day back in office, in which Trump accused the Biden administration's law enforcement and intelligence agencies of going after Biden's political adversaries.
"The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systemic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions," Bove's memo noted. "This includes the FBI."
Bove said the FBI’s "prior leadership actively participated in what President Trump appropriately described as ‘a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years’ with respect to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"The weaponization of the FBI’s security clearance process is similarly troubling," Bove continued. "So too are issues relating to the FBI’s reticence to address instructions and requests from, among other places, the Justice Department."
Bove said the problems "are symptomatic of deficiencies in previous leadership that must now be addressed."
Bove wrote that he "deem[s] these terminations necessary, pursuant to President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order, entitled ‘Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government’ in order to continue the process of restoring a culture of integrity, credibility, accountability, and responsiveness to the leadership and directives of President Trump and the Justice Department."
Beyond the terminations of the eight employees, Bove directed Driscoll to identify by noon Tuesday, Feb. 4, "all current and former FBI personnel assigned at any time to investigations and/or prosecutions" relating to "the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021" and United States v. Haniyeh, a terrorism case against six Hamas leaders charged with planning and carrying out the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel.
The defendants in that case include Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, high-level Hamas leaders believed to have been assassinated in 2024 by Israeli operatives.
Bove ordered that the lists of employees Driscoll should compile "should include relevant supervisory personnel in FBI regional offices and field divisions, as well as at FBI headquarters."
"For each employee included in the list, provide the current title, office to which the person is assigned, role in the investigation or prosecution, and date of last activity relating to the investigation or prosecution," Bove directed. "Upon timely receipt of the requested information, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General will commence a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary."
Fox News also obtained the letter Driscoll sent to bureau employees Friday evening after receiving Bove’s memo. In it, Driscoll notified employees he was directed to fire the specific employees Bove identified "unless these employees have retired beforehand."
"I have been personally in touch with each of these impacted employees," Driscoll wrote.
As for the directive to compile a list of FBI employees involved in the Jan. 6 and Hamas cases, Driscoll said that request "encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts."
"I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director Kissane," Driscoll wrote. "As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people — always.
"We will be back in touch with more information as soon as we can. In the meantime, stay safe, and take care of each other."
The FBI declined to comment on any personnel matters, including names, titles or numbers.
The DOJ directive comes after Acting Attorney General James McHenry earlier this week fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team prosecuting Trump. Fox News Digital exclusively reported the action Monday.
A DOJ official Monday used similar language to that seen in Bove's letter, telling Fox News Digital McHenry "does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda."
The directive also comes a day after Fox News Digital exclusively reported that whistleblower emails were shared with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, revealing that a former FBI agent, Timothy Thibault, allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Donald Trump to the probe without sufficient predication.
Bove's memo also comes a day after President Trump's nominee to lead the bureau, Kash Patel, testified during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Trump and allies have maintained the law enforcement agency was weaponized against him and conservatives across the nation.
The House Judiciary Committee, for months, investigated the FBI for the creation of a memo targeting Catholics and parents at school board meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Trump on Friday evening denied any involvement in the DOJ directive.
"We have some very bad people over there," Trump said Friday. "They came after a lot of people like me, but they came after a lot of people. No, I wasn't involved in that.
"I'll have to see what is exactly going on after this is finished," he added. "But if they fired some people over there, that's a good thing, because they were very bad. They were very corrupt people, very corrupt, and they hurt our country very badly with the weaponization. They used, they used the Justice Department to go after their political opponent, which in itself is illegal. And obviously it didn't work."
The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation's first religious charter school with implications for school choice and religious practices.
The court agreed Friday to hear two cases on the matter, which will be argued together — Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond.
In 2023, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa for a K-12 online school, the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School.
Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and an education group sought to block the school after the approval.
In a 7-1 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the First Amendment's provision on "establishment of religion" and the state constitution.
"Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school," Justice James Winchester wrote in the court’s majority opinion. "As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.
"However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state."
Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Jim Campbell told Fox News Digital the case "is fundamentally about religious discrimination and school choice."
"The Supreme Court has been clear in three cases over the last eight years that you can't create a public program like that and then exclude religious organizations," Campbell said. "So, we're going to be arguing before the court that the state of Oklahoma should be allowed to open up the program to religious organizations."
Campbell says the decision would give parents, families and the state "more educational options."
Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who originally challenged the school's approval, has previously said the school's establishment is unconstitutional. His spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement the attorney general "looks forward to presenting our arguments before the high court."
"I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all 4 million Oklahomans," Drummond said in a statement released in October. "This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan. My fellow Oklahomans can rest assured that I will always fight to protect their God-given rights and uphold the law."
The Oklahoma case is one of several religious institution cases that have been filed in the Supreme Court.
In 2017, the high court ruled in favor of a Missouri church that sued the state after being denied taxpayer funds for a playground project as a result of a provision that prohibits state funding for religious entities.
Likewise, in 2020, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on taxpayer funding for religious schools in a 5-4 decision that backed a Montana tax-credit scholarship program. Most recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program violated the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause for excluding religious schools from eligibility.
Campbell said given the court's previous considerations of cases involving religious educational institutions, he is "hopefulthat the Supreme Court will recognize that the same principle applies here."
"You can't create a charter school program that allows private organizations to participate but tell the religious groups that they can't be included," Campbell said. "So, we're hopeful that the Supreme Court will make it clear that people of faith deserve to be a part of the charter school program as well."
Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in April.
School choice has become a hot-button issue, particularly after the 2024 election cycle. President Donald Trump recently signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory and another to support school choice.
Fox News Digital's Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused President Donald Trump of being too incompetent to lead the country because he suggested the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) prioritization of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) played a role in the tragic Washington, D.C., aircraft collision on Wednesday.
"We face the unfortunate reality that we must be honest with the nation about: Donald Trump is unfit to lead during moments of crisis like this," Pritzker said in a statement Thursday night.
The blue state governor, whom Trump evoked on the campaign trail as an example of the downfall of Democrat-run states, urged the Trump administration to respond to the American Airlines crash with "information and facts to instill confidence in our nation’s aviation safety."
"Before victims have even been identified, Trump is blaming people with disabilities," Pritzker said, referring to FAA DEI hiring practices. "He’s blaming the U.S. service members in the Blackhawk helicopter. He’s blaming hiring programs he can’t even name or offer examples of. The buck stops with him — yet he is failing to demonstrate his role as protector of the American people and head of our government."
The second-term governor is among the long list of Democrats considering a 2028 presidential run. Pritzker has seized opportunities over the past two weeks to play a leadership role in Democrat opposition to Trump, refusing, for example, to follow Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Pritzker’s comments Thursday were the latest in a long-standing feud between the two.
"Sloppy J.B. Pritzker… has presided over the destruction and disintegration of Illinois at levels never seen before in any State," Trump wrote on Truth Social in June. "Crime is rampant and people are, sadly, fleeing Illinois. Unless a change is made at the Governor’s level, Illinois can never be Great Again!"
Trump’s attacks have veered into the ad hominem, labeling Pritzker a "rotund Governor from the once great State of Illinois, who makes Chris Christie look like a male model."
In his statement, Pritzker demanded the Trump administration answer his "critical questions," including why the control tower was not fully staffed during the crash; why the Trump administration fired members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee; whether the president now understands fully staffing federal agencies is a "matter of life and death"; and whether he plans to reverse federal workforce cuts.
Pritzker questioned whether Elon Musk played a role in the removal of the former FAA director; why a replacement for FAA director was not named until after the crash; whether the federal government authorized the Blackhawk helicopter to fly on a commercial flight path; and if the government will continue allowing helicopters to fly at the same altitude as commercial planes.
"Will the President, Vice President, Defense Secretary, and Transportation Secretary cooperate with the independent NTSB investigation and correct any misinformation they spread about the crash?" Pritzker demanded to know.
Trump on Thursday listed headlines about Biden-era FAA DEI hiring that he suggested weakened the agency.
"Here's one," Trump said in the White House briefing room. "The FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says the FAA says people with severe disabilities, the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they want them in. They can be air traffic controllers. I don't think so."
"This was on January 14th, so that was a week before I entered office," Trump said, seeking to push blame onto the Biden administration. "They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA's program."
Trump then expanded his list of conditions allowed among controllers: "Hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism."
The president drew a stark contrast between Democratic policies and his own first-week executive orders that halted DEI programs in the federal government and restored "the highest standards of air traffic controllers."
"Brilliant people have to be in those positions," he stated.
When asked how he came to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash, the president said, "Because I have common sense."
Pritzker is not the only potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender who took issue with Trump’s comments. After Trump called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a "disaster," Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic primary candidate, called Trump’s comments "despicable."
"As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying," he wrote on X. "We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe."
Colombian President Gustavo Petro is urging Colombian nationals in the U.S. illegally to return home, promising to provide loans to those who return, days after being embroiled in a diplomatic controversy with the U.S.
"I ask undocumented Colombians in the US to immediately leave their jobs in that country and return to Colombia as soon as possible," Petro said on X.
"The Department of Social Prosperity … will seek to provide productive loans to returnees who enroll in its programs," he said. "Let's build social wealth in Colombia."
Petro had initially refused Sunday to take U.S. deportation flights carrying Colombian nationals, saying the U.S. cannot "treat Colombian migrants as criminals."
The Trump administration, in response, announced the immediate suspension of visa issuance and travel sanctions on government officials. President Donald Trump warned he would slap 25% tariffs on all goods from Colombia.
"Measures will continue until Colombia meets its obligations to accept the return of its own citizens," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. "America will not back down when it comes to defending its national security interests."
At first, Petro retaliated with his own 25% tariffs on U.S. goods. Petro insisted he would not accept the return of migrants who were not treated with "dignity and respect" and who had arrived shackled or on military planes.
But the White House later said Colombia's president had caved "to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay,"
President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, has traveled to Venezuela to deliver an in-person message to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro about accepting violent criminals deported from the United States.
On a call with reporters Friday, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy to Latin America, said Grenell will tell Maduro to take back all the Venezuelan criminals and Tren de Aragua gang members that have been "exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and without condition."
Grenell will also demand that Venezuela immediately release American hostages being held in that country, Claver-Carone said.
The trip "focuses on two very specific issues. That we expect that Venezuelan criminals and gangs will be returned, as they are, to every country in the world, without conditions, and two, that American hostages need to be released immediately, unequivocally," he explained.
"This is not a quid pro quo. It's not a negotiation in exchange for anything. President Trump himself has made that very clear."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Friday that Grenell had arrived in Venezuela on orders from the president.
Despite widespread belief among Venezuelans and much of the international community that Maduro lost the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election to opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, he was sworn into his third six-year term earlier this month.
The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate head of state of Venezuela.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado has called on Venezuelan citizens to protest the Maduro regime and demand that González be installed as the rightful president of Venezuela.
As many as 10 Americans are currently detained in Venezuela, although the State Department has not declared them wrongfully detained. Three are U.S. citizens who allegedly participated in a plot to destabilize the country, according to Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
The State Department has denied any U.S. involvement with a plot to overthrow Maduro.
It remains unclear how many Americans are currently held in Venezuela following the significant prisoner swap in 2023 when Washington and Caracas negotiated the release of dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, in exchange for Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro.
Saab was arrested during the first Trump administration on charges related to a $350 million bribery scheme.
The new federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced Friday that taxpayers will see just over a $1 billion savings through the elimination of 104 diversity, equity and inclusion-related (DEI) contracts.
As of Wednesday, DOGE had recorded the cancellation of 85 "DEIA" contracts from 25 federal agencies. By Friday afternoon, that number had grown to 104 contracts totaling $1,000,060,792, according to a DOGE news release.
Of note, 21 Department of the Treasury contracts were canceled, saving a total of $25,247,783. In second place was the Department of Health & Human Services, which canceled 15 contracts worth $28,187,448.
While the Office of Personnel Management only had three contracts canceled, the dollar figure was pinned at a whopping $494,956,233, an average of about $165 million per DEI contract.
The other agencies with the most contracts canceled by the Trump administration include Agriculture with 11 and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Homeland Security with seven each.
According to a release Monday from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 60 employees whose roles were solely focused on DEI were placed on administrative leave, and spokesperson Morgan Ackley said the administration is "laser focused on providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors."
"We are proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past and pivot back to VA’s core mission," Ackley said.
The rapid-fire DEI contract eliminations come one week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the endeavors, officially described as "ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity."
However, a consortium of liberal state attorneys general lambasted Trump with a warning that the moves "have nothing to do with combating discrimination."
A joint statement led by Rhode Island AG Peter Neronha Friday called the executive orders that led to the dismantling of DEI policies and programs "unnecessary and disingenuous."
Neronha and his co-signers — attorneys general from California, Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington state — said they would agree to be "willing partners" in cracking down on discrimination if Trump chose instead to utilize "longstanding civil rights laws" rather than the path he has chosen.
"Contrary to President Trump’s assertions, the policies he seeks to end do not diminish the importance of individual merit, nor do they mean that employers are lowering their standards, hiring unqualified candidates, or engaging in race-and-sex-based preferences," the statement said.
"DEIA initiatives simply ensure that there are fair opportunities for everyone, helping to maximize contributions from all employees and enabling businesses and organizations to succeed in their missions."
In Congress, Rep. Aaron Bean and Sen. Joni Ernst have been leading DOGE efforts to further curtail government waste and abuse.
Bean, a Republican from Jacksonville, Florida, founded the Congressional DOGE Caucus in November, and Ernst, Iowa, has led the charge to lobby for return-to-work requirements for federal employees and sales of unused or underused federal office space.
The Trump administration put a short pause on most federal government websites Friday evening in an effort to eliminate DEI content and any language opposed to President Trump’s agenda, Fox News Digital has learned.
A Trump administration official told Fox News Digital that federal government websites went dark at around 5:00 p.m. Friday evening. The websites are now back up and running.
The purpose was to remove content that is "anti-Trump administration" and against the president's agenda.
The president also signed an order making it "the official policy of the U.S. government to only recognize two genders: male and female."
Trump issued two other executive actions last week targeting DEI — an executive order to end discrimination in the workplace and higher education through race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of DEI, and a memo to eliminate a Biden administration policy that prioritized DEI hiring at the Federal Aviation Administration.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's pick for FBI director, claimed Thursday that he won't stand for federal law enforcement needing a warrant for surveillance in some scenarios because it's plainly impractical in real-time practices. Despite lawmakers’ surprise at his opposition, legal experts say his take is far from unusual within the law enforcement arena.
Patel was peppered with questions Thursday on a provision called Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. When asked if he believed that a warrant requirement is "practical and workable or even a necessary element of 702," Patel said he had issues with "those that have been in government service and abused it in the past." Patel said that because of the viability of abuse, "we must work with Congress to provide the protections necessary for American citizens dealing with these matters."
"Having a warrant requirement to go through that information in real time is just not comported with the requirement to protect American citizenry," Patel said during his Senate hearing. "I'm all open to working with Congress on finding a better way forward. But right now, these improvements that you've made go a long way."
"The fact that the soon-to-be head of the nation's, sort of, top law enforcement agency takes the position that is favored by law enforcement shouldn't surprise anybody," former assistant district attorney and criminal defense attorney Phil Holloway told Fox News Digital.
"When Mr. Patel answered the question the way that he did, that answer is adverse to the public positions taken by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle."
Patel, throughout his testimony, emphasized his interest in working with Congress if he were to head the FBI.
"Some lawmakers have absolutely called for the necessity of a warrant in these situations. And so it makes sense that the senators would ask the nominee to run the FBI whether or not he has an opinion on it," Holloway continued. "But, ultimately, it's not his call."
"I've always thought that there's a middle ground here where you don't have to. And I think there are some situations that warrant a warrant and deserve a warrantless search," Palm Beach County, Fla., state attorney Dave Aronberg told Fox News Digital. "And I think Patel's remarks show that he thinks the same way."
Aronberg noted that under U.S. law, there is a warrant exception under exigent circumstances, i.e. emergency situations, where it is impractical to obtain a warrant.
"What Kash Patel is saying is that there may be some situations that may be in that gray area where you shouldn't have to get a warrant," Aronberg said. "And I am encouraged by his comments because I do think that law enforcement needs flexibility when it comes to national security matters, especially with the very real threat of terrorism here on our shores."
Congress voted to pass a renewal of FISA's Section 702 last April. The legislation serves as a governmental tool in gathering intelligence on foreign subjects using the compelled assistance of electronic communication service providers.
If the renewal had not been passed, the expiration would have meant companies would not be forced to comply with the government's requests for surveillance aid under the bill.
Without the FISA section's reauthorization, the government would be required to seek a warrant to compel any such assistance, which is a process that can span extended periods of time.
Earlier this month, a federal district court ruled that the federal government had violated the Fourth Amendment when it searched the communications of an Albanian citizen residing in the U.S. at the time of his arrest without a warrant. The information had been collected under FISA's Section 702.
"The individual rights of people in the United States under our Constitution come first," Holloway said. "So having constitutional requirements that sort of frustrate or perhaps slow down law enforcement, this is a tension that is not new at all. And so what we're seeing is this playing out."
Fox News Digital's Liz Elkind and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
A documentary about bridging the political divide in one of the most hotly contested battleground counties in the United States debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this week, leading some to conclude that the historically liberal festival is moving toward the center.
"One of the things that is fascinating about ‘Bucks County, USA’ being chosen as an official selection at Sundance is it appears, in the era of Trump being re-elected, the well-known left-leaning Sundance Film Festival is moving to the middle," Paul Martino said. "There is a new openness to dialogue,"
Martino, the founder of Bullpen Capital, told Fox News Digital about the documentary series "Bucks County, USA" being screened at Sundance, a Utah festival known for screening films promoting liberal causes and being a place for anti-Trump demonstrations.
Martino, who is featured in the film, told Fox News Digital that the five-part docuseries is "all about the political divisions that happen in the United States focused on where I live, Bucks County, USA."
"It is about all of the post-COVID policies and all of the things that happened at the school board level once a lot of the parents' rights movement started, and the film dives into a lot of detail about the political division that happened, and it focuses, ironically, on the friendship of my daughter and her best friend, who is what I would describe as my political rival's daughter," Martino explained.
Martino, a conservative, told Fox News Digital walking around Sundance was a "fascinating" experience and that he encountered many people who seemed to be open to the movie's message of listening to the other side.
"Obviously, it is a rather left-leaning crowd in general. But even the people behind Sundance, the people who pick the films this year, said that they felt this film, ‘Bucks County, USA,’ was very important because it was in a Trump re-elected era," Martino said.
"Understanding and speaking to the other side and understanding who the other side is is important.
"One of the amazing stories told by one of the filmmakers at Sundance was there's a guy sitting next to me in a MAGA hat who I would have never talked to on the plane had I not made this movie and realized he had a lot to say to me. And the fact that this film affected even the filmmakers, I think, is a really interesting and important lesson for the rest of the country."
While many people at Sundance were receptive to the film, Martino told Fox News Digital he did encounter some opposition from people at a question-and-answer session after the screening.
"I would say one of the only disappointments of the experience was I felt that some people in the crowd, you know, it's an honor to be in the Q&A at the end of the series and, look, we had everybody up there. We had people who really don't like each other, who disagree vehemently, and I think it was lost on the audience that all of us were standing there," Martino said.
"The fact that we all agreed to be part of this, the fact that we were all there and I got asked a question or two that were directed in my direction that I felt were a little bit inflammatory and I kind of chuckled to myself thinking, 'Did you just watch the movie? And did you just see the fact that we're all here? Maybe you missed a little something there.'"
Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
The White House is blasting House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries after pledging to fight Republicans' agenda "in the streets."
"While President Trump remains focused on uniting our country and delivering the mandate set by the American people, the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, incites violence calling for people to fight ‘in the streets’ against President Trump’s agenda," White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told Fox News Digital.
"This unhinged violent rhetoric is dangerous. Leader Jeffries should immediately apologize."…Read more
'CONCERNING' CRASHES: Military aircraft collisions raise questions about training and equipment, expert says…Read more
'COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE': What to know about the mistakes made leading up to the fatal collision…Read more
BUTTI-JUDGMENT: Biden Transportation secretary blasts Trump after president excoriates him in press briefing…Read more
DANGER ZONE: Two planes aborted landings at Reagan National Airport due to helicopters in flight path in week before crash…Read more
'BAD DECISIONS': Trump orders assessment of aviation safety, names acting FAA administrator after deadly DC plane crash…Read more
'CONCERNING' CRASHES: Military aircraft collisions raise questions about training and equipment, expert says…Read more
NOWHERE TO RUN: Trump's migrant DHS FBI crackdown leaves killers, rapists nowhere to run…Read more
GETTING THE BOOT: Trump issues unexpected ultimatum to senior FBI ranks…Read more
NICE TRY: Trump to sign memo lifting Biden's last-minute collective bargaining agreements…Read more
'VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM': Trump facing first test in Africa amid bloody battles ‘over electric vehicle battery minerals’…Read more
AMERICAN HOSTAGE: First American hostage to be released from Gaza, Hamas says…Read more
'REFUSE TO BE THEIR PUPPET': Top 5 moments from Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation hearing…Read more
CONFIRMED: Trump VA pick Doug Collins advances to full Senate vote…Read more
'IN THE STREETS': Trump White House demands apology after Jeffries calls for Dems to fight president's agenda 'in the streets'…Read more
FARM TEAM: After stinging election defeats, DNC eyes rural voters as key to midterm success…Read more
DRAFT DODGE: New FOIA on migrants potentially avoiding the draft could open new deportation predicate: attorneys…Read more
'PUSHING RHETORIC': Chicago mayor lambasts Trump, claims US being run like 'had the Confederacy won'…Read more
LESSONS NOT LEARNED?: Democrats rally around lightening rod issue during unruly DNC debate despite voter backlash in 2024…Read more
Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.
California Democrats are attempting to make state oil and gas companies pay for damage caused by the Los Angeles wildfires, claiming that fossil fuel emissions are to blame for the deadly disaster.
A new Democrat-introduced bill, the Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act, if passed, would allow for "victims of climate disasters," such as the L.A. fires, and insurance groups to sue oil and gas companies for damages under the claim that their emissions fueled the raging fires.
Democrat state Sen. Scott Wiener, who introduced the bill this week, said that fossil fuel companies should pay for fire damage, because they are "driving the climate crisis."
"Californians shouldn’t be the only ones to pay the costs of devastating climate disasters. From last year’s floods to the fires in LA, we know that the fossil fuel industry bears ultimate responsibility for fueling these disasters," state Sen. Scott Wiener wrote in a post on X announcing the legislation.
The bill, which received the backing of several state lawmakers, comes as Democrats have attempted to blame the recent fires on climate change rather than state and city policies, which have faced heightened criticism in the weeks following the deadly blaze.
Just months before the wildfire, the city of Los Angeles slashed the fire department funding by over $17 million. The L.A. fire chief said that there are "not enough firefighters in L.A. County to address four separate fires of this magnitude."
"We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits," actress Sara Foster wrote in a post on X. "@MayorOfLA @GavinNewsom RESIGN. Your far-left policies have ruined our state. And also our party."
Trump used the power of his pen this week to sign an executive order to override the state's environmental policies in order to create more water availability in the L.A. area.
In the executive order issued on Sunday, Trump called on federal agencies to override regulations potentially limiting water availability in the area, such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which seeks to minimize water infrastructure to protect certain fish species, such as the Delta smelt.
The order comes just weeks after Trump accused Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., of caring more about protecting an endangered fish species than the state's residents amid the wildfires.
