China has warned the U.S. that it is making "dangerous moves" by providing Taiwan with an additional $571 million in defense materials, which was authorized by President Biden on Saturday.
In addition to the $571 million approved by Biden, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Friday that $295 million in military sales had been approved for the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
The sales and assistance from the U.S. are intended to help Taiwan defend itself, and possibly deter China from launching an attack.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry released a statement urging the U.S. to stop arming Taiwan and to cease what it referred to as "dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," according to a report from The Associated Press.
Biden’s approved $571 million in military assistance includes DoD materials and services along with military education and training for Taiwan. The funds are in addition to another $567 million that the president approved for the same purposes in September.
The $295 million in military sales includes about $265 million for about 300 tactical radio systems and $30 million for 16 gun mounts.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a post on X that the two sales reaffirmed the U.S. government’s "commitment to our defense."
Earlier this month, Taiwan defense officials raised concerns about a substantial deployment of Chinese naval ships and military planes, saying the build-up could eventually lead to war as tensions continue to rise in the region.
Officials said China had sent about a dozen ships and 47 military planes to regional waters around the Taiwan Strait, as the nation braced for military drills following Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent overseas trip that included visits to Hawaii and Guam, an American territory.
Lai, who has been in office since May, spoke with U.S. congressional leaders by phone while in Guam.
Lai’s visit came weeks after the U.S. approved a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery of an advanced air defense missile system battle tested in Ukraine and radar systems. The potential package included three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and related equipment valued at up to $1.16 billion, according to the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
The Chinese communist government has pledged to annex Taiwan, through military force if necessary, and sends ships and military planes near the island almost daily.
The U.S. has repeatedly signaled its support for Taiwan through military deals, operations and diplomatic interactions with Taiwanese officials.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Alrena Dale discharged $155,000 of her student loans in bankruptcy.
Alrena Dale
Alrena Dale, 61, got $155,000 in student loans discharged through bankruptcy.
Biden's new bankruptcy guidance, aimed at easing the process for borrowers, made that possible.
Some attorneys told BI that the new guidance is a big help, but more outreach would be helpful.
Alrena Dale, 61, had her six-figure student-loan balance wiped out after decades of payments. She's one of hundreds of borrowers who have received relief after new changes to the bankruptcy process.
Though Dale filed over five years ago, President Joe Biden's new bankruptcy guidance, which streamlined the information she needed to provide in order to qualify for relief, was a turning point in her case.
In August 2023, Dale was finally relieved of her $155,000 balance, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider.
"There were no words. I was excited. I cried," Dale, who'd attended an online business bachelor's and master's program but struggled to findemployment in her field, told BI. She worked multiple minimum-wage jobs at a time to afford her student-loan payments alongside her monthly expenses."I really honestly didn't believe it until I got my discharge papers."
The reason it was so difficult for Dale and many other student-loan borrowers to seek relief in bankruptcy court before 2022 is thatborrowers had to prove an "undue hardship" standard, in which they hadto show that they cannot maintain a minimal standard of living, that their circumstances aren't likely to improve, and that they have made a good-faith effort to repay their debt.
That standard was an extremely high bar for borrowers to meet. The Biden administration's guidance changed that by establishing clearer guidelines for borrowers to meet undue hardship, and it allowed borrowers to complete a self-attestation form, allowing the bankruptcy process to move quicker and avoid investigations into their backgrounds.
Some bankruptcy attorneys told BI that the new guidance has made student-loan bankruptcy much more achievable for borrowers, with some having seen quick success after decades of stagnancy. Still, they said many lawyers are reluctant to lean into the new process, and more outreach and education on navigating bankruptcy for student loans would help.
Dale said the overwhelming emotion she now feels is relief.
"Knowing that I don't have to go out and work a second job just to pay it back because they've removed it for me, I really can't thank them enough," Dale said. "I have no words because I'm just happy and grateful and thankful."
'It's given us so much hope'
Bob and Tammy Branson, a bankruptcy attorney and senior paralegal, respectively, successfully represented Dale in her bankruptcy proceedings.
Tammy said that over the past 25 years, it was nearly impossible to discharge their clients' student loans in bankruptcy — but after the new guidance, she said their law firm has successfully discharged over $1 million in student loans.
"Now we're actually getting people not just to the point of treading water, but we're getting them out of the water," Bob said.
Dustin Baker, a bankruptcy attorney in Iowa, has seen similar success with the new guidance. Baker told BI that before November 2022, he advised his clients that considering a student-loan discharge wasn't worth their effort because it was so difficult to achieve, and he didn't want to take his clients' money for litigation he wasn't confident would be successful.
But once the guidance was announced, Baker said he's eliminated student debt for about a dozen of his clients, with a few more in the pipeline. He said his "biggest excitement" with the new process is the self-attestation form, which directly tells borrowers the questions they need to answer to get approved for a discharge, making communication between the borrower and the government easier.
The Justice Department released new data in July on how the process was going since the new guidance was announced. It showed that 588 new cases were filed from October 2023 to March 2024 — a 34% increase from the prior 6-month period. New data BI obtained from Sen. Elizabeth Warren in October showed that nearly 900 borrowers sought out the process in fiscal year 2024, and 85% of borrowers who filed using the new guidance received a full or partial discharge.
Baker said his experience incorporating the new guidance into his work was "very easy," and he added thatmembers of the Justice Department gave attorneys in his area training sessions. However, Tammy and Bob said more education and outreach would be helpful because some lawyers are unsure if the new process is worth it.
Still, it's clear the guidance works, and Tammy said she hopes that continues.
"It's given us so much hope," she said.
'I would've had to work another job'
The new bankruptcy process for student-loan borrowers still isn't perfect. Igor Roitburg, a former attorney and senior managing director at Stretto — a bankruptcy services and technology firm — told BI that the timeline for borrowers to receive a bankruptcy decision can still widely vary and that uncertainty is a roadblock for some borrowers and attorneys to participate.
"For them to invest time and effort into a new process that they're uncertain about if they don't see results for months and months and months, makes it hard for them to commit to the process and offer it as a global service to all their clients," Roitburg said.
Dale said she saw no other option but to file for bankruptcy, regardless of whether it would be successful. Once the new guidance was released, the self-attestation form allowed Dale to prove that her financial circumstances were unlikely to improve, qualifying her for relief.
She now works at a call center and said she can't afford to retire yet. If she had the opportunity to do things differently, she might have considered going to a trade school to avoid the student-debt burden.
"I'm just making the best of what I have to work with right now," she said, adding that if she didn't see success through bankruptcy, "I would've had to work another job just to pay the student loans."
Have you successfully discharged your student loans in bankruptcy? Are you struggling with the process? Share your story with this reporter at [email protected].
As the dust settles on Congress frantically passing a stopgap bill at the eleventh hour to avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers are having their say on a chaotic week on Capitol Hill.
President Biden signed the 118-page bill into law on Saturday, extending government funding into March, the White House announced. The bill provides over $100 billion in disaster aid for those affected by storms Helene and Milton in the U.S. Southeast earlier this year. It also includes a $10 billion provision for economic assistance to farmers.
President Biden has not yet publicly commented on the passage of the legislation, nor has President-elect Trump, although sources tell Fox that the incoming president is not that happy about the bill, because it does not suspend the debt ceiling.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who faced criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for his handling of the negotiations, said after the House vote that the result was "a good outcome for the country." He said he had spoken with Trump and that the president-elect "was certainly happy about this outcome, as well."
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., considered the legislation a win for his party.
"The House Democrats have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy and hurting working-class Americans all across the nation," Jeffries said, referring to Trump’s "Make America Great Again" slogan.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised Democrats, including Jeffries and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., for "their unity and courage withstanding the Trump-Musk irresponsibility."
"Democrats will always fight to protect the needs of America’s working families, veterans, seniors, farmers and first responders against the GOP’s agenda for billionaires and special interests."
A bulging 1,547-page continuing resolution was thrown into disarray earlier in the week following objections by Elon Musk and President-elect Trump. A slimmed-down version was then rejected by House members on Thursday before the House approved Speaker Mike Johnson’s new bill overwhelmingly on Friday by 366 votes to 34.
The Senate worked into early Saturday morning to pass the bill 85-11, just after the deadline.
"There will be no government shutdown right before Christmas," Schumer wrote on X. "We will keep the government open with a bipartisan bill that funds the government, helps Americans affected by hurricanes and natural disasters, helps our farmers and avoids harmful cuts."
Meanwhile, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said the revised funding package keeps government funded at current levels, delivers aid to Americans suffering from natural disasters and protects agricultural supply chains.
"Not only is this straightforward bill much more palatable to me, but it respects the taxpayers we represent, unlike the previous backroom boondoggle I opposed that was over 1,500 pages long and gave unnecessary and costly giveaways to the Democrats," Malliotakis wrote on X.
"Passing this legislation today gives us what we need until President Trump is sworn in and settled so our Republican trifecta can deliver the results the American people voted for."
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., questioned why President Biden appeared to play a limited role in negotiations.
"People fail to recognize that even though the focus has been on President Trump, Joe Biden is actually still the president, which is really mind-boggling, because nobody's heard from him in weeks," Lawler told Fox & Friends Weekend on Saturday, adding that the debt ceiling has been used as a "political piñata for decades."
"The party in the minority uses it as leverage in a negotiation, and I think what President Trump is trying to avoid is giving Democrats a loaded gun to hold to his head here."
Elsewhere, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., applauded the Senate for approving the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act, which he had introduced and helped pass in the House.
The bill would give the District of Columbia control of the 174-acre RFK campus and revive potential plans for a new Washington Commanders stadium.
The surprising move came after a provision in the initial continuing resolution (CR) -- to transfer control of the RFK campus from the federal government to the District -- was eliminated from Thursday's slimmed down version of the bill.
"The Senate’s passage of the D.C. RFK Stadium Campus Revitalization Act is a historic moment for our nation’s capital. If Congress failed to act today, this decaying land in Washington would continue to cost taxpayers a fortune to maintain," Comer said.
"Revitalizing this RFK Memorial Stadium site has been a top economic priority for the city, and I am proud to have partnered with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to get this bill across the finish line and to the President’s desk. This bipartisan success is a testament to the House Oversight Committee’s unwavering effort to protect taxpayers and our full commitment to ensuring a capital that is prosperous for residents and visitors for generations to come," he added.
The White House has announced that President Biden signed a stopgap funding bill into law on Saturday, extending government funding into March and avoiding a shutdown.
The bill provides over $100 billion in disaster aid for those affected by storms Helene and Milton in the U.S. Southeast earlier this year. There was also a $10 billion provision for economic assistance to farmers in the bill.
The Senate worked into early Saturday morning to pass the bill 85-11, just after the deadline following a chaotic week on Capitol Hill.
President Biden has not yet publicly commented on the passage of the legislation.
"H.R. 10545, the ‘American Relief Act, 2025,’ which provides fiscal year 2025 appropriations to Federal agencies through March 14, 2025, for continuing projects and activities of the Federal Government; provides disaster relief appropriations and economic assistance to farmers; extends the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018; and extends several expiring authorities," a White House statement reads.
President-elect Trump has not spoken publicly since the bill’s passage either, although sources tell Fox that the incoming president is not that happy about the bill because it does not suspend the debt ceiling.
Trump had called on Republicans to act on the debt limit as part of their talks to avert a government shutdown, a demand that dozens of conservative GOP lawmakers bristled at given their concerns about the national debt — which has exceeded $36 trillion.
A bulging 1,547-page continuing resolution (CR) was thrown into disarray earlier in the week following objections by Elon Musk and President-elect Trump. A slimmed-down version was then rejected by House members on Thursday before the House approved Speaker Mike Johnson’s new bill overwhelmingly by 366 votes to 34 on Friday.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre warned on Friday that a shutdown could have disrupted the incoming administration's presidential transition process.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the passage of the funding legislation early Saturday.
"There will be no government shutdown right before Christmas," Schumer wrote on X. "We will keep the government open with a bipartisan bill that funds the government, helps Americans affected by hurricanes and natural disasters, helps our farmers and avoids harmful cuts.
Fox News' Julia Johnson and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
As President Biden's term comes to an end, he is reportedly considering commuting the sentences of most, if not all, of the 40 men on the federal government’s death row.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the move would frustrate President-elect Trump's plan to streamline executions as he takes office in January.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees federal prisons, recommended that Biden commute all but a handful of egregious sentences, the sources said.
The outlet reported that possible exceptions could include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber who killed three and wounded more than 250; Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh; and Dylann Roof, who in 2015 killed nine at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Those who could see their death sentences commuted to life in prison include an ex-Marine who killed two young girls and later a female naval officer, a Las Vegas man convicted of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl, a Chicago podiatrist who fatally shot a patient to keep her from testifying in a Medicare fraud investigation and two men convicted in a kidnapping-for-ransom scheme that resulted in the killings of five Russian and Georgian immigrants.
The move came after Biden, a lifelong Catholic, spoke with Pope Francis Thursday. In his weekly prayer, Pope Francis asked for the commutation of America’s condemned inmates.
A decision from the president could come by Christmas, some of sources said. The outlet noted that the biggest question is the scope of the commutation of the death row inmates.
Biden is the first president to openly oppose capital punishment, and his 2020 campaign website declared he would "work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example."
In January 2021, Biden initially considered an executive order, sources familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, but the White House did not issue one.
Six months into the administration, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study it further. The narrow action has meant there have been no federal executions under Biden.
Over 30 House Republicans voted Friday against a bill to avert a partial government shutdown.
Lawmakers scrambled to reach consensus on a spending package ahead of the looming partial government shutdown deadline Friday. An initial 1,547-page bipartisan deal that would have extended the government funding deadline until March 14 was released Tuesday night, but the proposal crumbled after Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy criticized the spending bill.
A more condensed, Trump-backed version was brought to the floor Thursday night but failed to pass.
In a last-minute vote Friday, the House succeeded in passing a funding bill with 34 Republicans voting against the legislation and zero Democrats voting against it. One Democrat, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, voted present.
Among those who voted against the bill was Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who told Fox News Digital, "I don't know why we're giving Joe Biden $100 billion to play with in 30 days.
"Oddly enough, it didn't have what Trump wanted most of all."
President Joe Biden's Department of Education has given up on a proposed rule change that would have punished schools for preventing trans athletes from competing in women's sports.
The Department of Education released a docket on Friday announcing its withdrawal of the proposition. The Biden administration had proposed the rule change in April 2023. The proposition was titled "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male and Female Athletic Teams"
The rule would have officially outlawed individual states from banning participation in single-sex sports by gender identity rather than just sex. There are 23 states in the U.S. that have legislation in place to restrict trans athletes from competing as females in public school sports.
The docket claims that the original intent of Biden's proposal was to "propose a regulatory standard under Title IX that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity."
The department claims that its decision to withdraw comes after hearing testimony during the comment period, but that ongoing lawsuits have also played into the decision.
"The Department recognizes that there are multiple pending lawsuits related to the application of Title IX in the context of gender identity, including lawsuits related to Title IX’s application to athletic eligibility criteria in a variety of factual contexts. In light of the comments received and those various pending court cases, the Department has determined not to regulate on this issue at this time," the docket read.
Multiple states have filed lawsuits and enacted their own laws to address the issue after the Biden-Harris administration issued a sweeping rule that clarified that Title IX’s ban on "sex" discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and "pregnancy or related conditions."
The administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women's sports.
In August, The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny the administration an emergency request to enforce that sweeping rule. The request would have permitted biological men in women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and dorms in 10 states where there are state-level and local-level rules in place to prevent it. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch was the only conservative justice to dissent in that decision.
Democrats have proposed other federal legislation that would allow for more transgender inclusion in women's sports. This record of support became a subject of nationwide backlash during the election cycle, that Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump seized on as a key campaign issue.
Past Democratic support for trans inclusion includes the Equality Act, which was proposed in 2019 and has seen revisions that "would force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on girls’ sports teams."
In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights, proposing a resolution "recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights." The resolution specifically called for federal law to ensure that biological men can "participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity."
On the other side of the aisle, Idaho's Republican Gov. Brad Little issued an executive order in August to enforce the "Defending Women's Sports Act," which would require schools and colleges to prohibit transgender athletes in women's sports.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital before the election, Little acknowledged concern that his executive order could have resulted in public schools in his state losing federal funding if Kamla Harris had become the 47th president.
"We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it," Little said. "From a national standpoint, there are radical little groups that want to implement changes in the rules that we have already. I’m confident in what we have, and we will aggressively (act), as the state of Idaho, both legally and legislatively, to protect women’s athletes and the great advances they’ve made because of Title IX."
But even states with those laws in effect to prevent it from happening have had to endure trans athletes sharing fields and locker rooms with girls inside their own borders due to the interference of liberal federal judges.
Multiple Obama-era federal judges have passed rulings that allow transgender inclusion in girls' sports. Judges Landya McCafferty in New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virginia each passed rulings this year that enabled biological males to play on high school girls' soccer and tennis teams. Both judges were appointed by Obama in the early 2010s.
However, Democrats slowly backpedaled in their support for trans inclusion as the year went on. Multiple Democrats, including Texas Rep. Collin Allred, backtracked on past support for transgender inclusion in women's sports.
That trend continued after the election when Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton spoke out against his party's stance and actions in enabling transgender inclusion in multiple interviews, inciting fierce backlash and even a massive pro-transgender rally outside his office.
Now, in the Biden administration's final weeks, it too has issued a major surrender on the issue as the party continues to debate what its stance will be, moving forward.
Several Pennsylvania officials, particularly in the Scranton area where President Joe Biden hails from, are calling on the city to undo its 2021 renaming of a freeway spur in his honor.
State Rep. Jamie Walsh, R-Dallas, appeared to lead the charge with a scathing statement highlighting Biden’s recent pardon of a judge convicted in a "kids-for-cash" scandal wherein he received kickbacks for sentencing juveniles to for-profit prisons.
Wilkes-Barre Common Pleas Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella Jr. were convicted in 2008. The former served time in prison, followed by COVID-induced house arrest until Biden’s pardon.
Walsh said some of the children affected had been convicted of minor offenses like jaywalking. The Democratic-majority Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out 4,000 juvenile convictions as a result of the scandal.
"In light of the recent decision made by the Biden administration to commute former Judge Conahan’s sentence, I implore city officials and Mayor [Paige Gebhardt Cognetti] to remove President Joe Biden’s name from the expressway sign that leads to the heart of the ‘Electric City’s’ downtown area."
In 2021, the mayor and city council unanimously approved the rebranding of the three-quarter-mile Central Scranton Expressway spur off Interstate 81 and its continuance via then-Spruce Street through downtown as the "President Biden Expressway" and "Biden Avenue," respectively.
The President Biden Expressway initially serves as a short bypass of PA-307 into the city, and continues as "Biden Ave" toward northbound US-11, which, in-turn, meets the terminus of the colloquial "Route 9" -- the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Northeast Extension.
"The children affected by Conahan’s actions of nearly 15 years ago are now adults suffering in their own ‘mental’ prisons due to his deeds of self-fulfillment," Walsh said in a statement.
"Crimes against children are everlasting, and there is no escape from the irreparable damage these predators caused by their actions."
Walsh argued that the issue is non-partisan but "right versus wrong" and that Biden no longer deserves the commemoration because his pardon "exonerates [Conahan’s] behavior" as a signal to future corrupt public officials.
State Rep-elect. Brenda Pugh, R-Luzerne, told WBRE that Conahan’s conduct is a "blight on Pennsylvania" and that Biden’s pardon is "nothing short of a travesty."
"[H]is clemency is a miscarriage of justice," Pugh said, adding the President Biden Expressway will therefore "forever be a scar reminding people of what happened here [in NEPA]."
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, who was the GOP's 2022 gubernatorial nominee, told Fox News Digital it is embarrassing to see Biden's name while driving up I-81, especially given his choices of pardons.
"He's a failed president who couldn't help himself to pardon his corrupt criminal son from so many illegals schemes. His name is to be off the highway," Mastriano said.
Meanwhile, Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak made his case directly to Cognetti, writing the mayor a letter saying that reverting "Biden Avenue to Spruce Street" would help restore confidence in city leadership and reaffirm a commitment to governing in the best reflection of city values.
"This [pardon] has brought significant negative attention to Scranton, tarnishing the city's reputation and reflecting poorly on Lackawanna County as a whole," Chermak wrote.
In a Friday interview, Cognetti said that Biden’s commutation of Conahan was a "grave error" that freshly opened "deep and horrific" wounds for Scrantonians and NEPA residents.
She echoed Gov. Josh Shapiro’s remark earlier this week that Conahan’s sentence was too light in the first place.
"[The case] was just the stuff that you think a screenwriter couldn't make up -- how systemic and how deep that scandal went," Cognetti said.
She said she had contacted the White House with her concerns and that she was sad to learn Conahan’s commutation is irreversible.
Cognetti noted she is currently mayor in part because of other officials’ public corruption as well.
Predecessor Bill Courtright resigned in July 2019 amid a conviction for bribery, corruption and conspiracy. Courtright’s departure led to two brief interim mayors before Cognetti was elected that November as an independent and, in 2021, as a Democrat.
Cognetti added that the calls to strip Biden’s name from roadways are not new and continue to be mostly grounded in partisanship.
"The president is from here, and there are few communities that can boast of being the hometown of a President of the United States. We will continue to celebrate and be very proud of having a hometown son of Scranton as president."
"The two issues are conflated, I think, for political reasons. And I'd like us to treat these things as what they are. We need to continue to address corruption in government," Cognetti added.
"That’s separate from the president's legacy of 50 years in office and being the most successful son of Scranton."
When recently asked about Biden granting Conahan a pardon, Shapiro said that presidents have the "unique and absolute" power to do so, but should wield it "incredibly carefully."
"I study every single case that comes across my desk where there's a request for a pardon or clemency or worse, or a reduction in sentence. And I take it very seriously," said Shapiro, who previously served as attorney general.
"I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania. This was not only a black eye on the community because of the scandal, but it also affected families in really deep and profound and sad ways," he said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre volleyed away reporters’ questions on Friday about President Biden’s lack of public appearances amid the ongoing government funding fight as a partial shutdown looms.
Jean-Pierre refused to answer why the president has not spoken to the American public about his position, and she instead blamed Republicans, President-elect Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and their "billionaire friends" like Elon Musk for the chaos on Capitol Hill.
"Why hasn’t President Biden said anything in the public about this? Don't the American people deserve to know why millions of federal workers could enter this holiday period without a paycheck?" Jean-Pierre was asked during her daily press briefing.
"All Americans need to know that Republicans are getting in the way here and they are the ones who have created this mess. That's the reality. That's the fact," she responded. "This is not the first time we've been here. And the president has had this approach before. He understands how Congress works. He's been around for some time. He understands what strategy works here to get this done."
Jean-Pierre said Friday that Biden has held phone calls with Democratic leaders in Congress — Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — but would not say if the president has spoken to the House speaker with regard to the ongoing discussions.
"He has been getting regular updates from his team. His team has been in touch with congressional members from both sides of the aisle," she said.
A streamlined version of a bill backed by Trump to avert a partial government shutdown failed to pass the House of Representatives on Thursday night.
The bill, which needed two-thirds of the House chamber to pass, failed by a vote of 174 to 235. The national debt has soared to over $36 trillion, and the national deficit is over $1.8 trillion.
Jean-Pierre said Republicans went back on their word and "blew up this deal."
"Republicans need to stop playing politics with a government shutdown. And they are doing the bidding. They're doing the bidding of their billionaire friends. That's what we're seeing at the expense of hard-working Americans," she said.
"There is a bipartisan agreement that Republicans tanked because of what they were directed to do by Elon Musk and President-elect Trump. That's what happened. That is the reality that we're in now."
Musk, an outspoken critic of government waste, has weighed in on the spending bill debate and led a conservative revolt against the first 1,547-page bill due to its bloated spending provisions, calling for lawmakers who supported the bill to lose their seats.
He supported the newer, slimmer version, which was ultimately rejected by House members.
Reporters tried several different ways to try and get Jean-Pierre to comment on the president’s role in the matter, but she continued to sidestep.
"The president is the President of the United States, and he is leading," she told a reporter, to which he responded: "To be clear, the strategy is he is leading by staying in the background?"
"The strategy is that Congress, Republicans in particular, need to do their jobs and get out of their own way and focus on the American people, not their billionaire friends. That is what needs to happen. And that's what the president wants to see," she replied.
Jean-Pierre also warned that a shutdown could disrupt the presidential transition process for the incoming administration.
"If there is a shutdown — and I don't want to get too much into hypotheticals — but this is the reality, transition activities will be restricted with limited exceptions, obviously, such as to prevent imminent threats to the safety of human life or the protection of property," she said.
Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Friday that Republicans have a "good plan" to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., added: "I think you come to an agreement, then you get together and sit down and figure out, you know, if we can get across the finish line. And that's probably what we're about to do now."
President Joe Biden withdrew his plan for broader student-loan forgiveness.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Biden's administration posted notices to withdraw its broader student-loan-forgiveness plans.
Amid lawsuits, the Education Department wrote that it stands by the legality of its debt-relief plans.
The plans aimed to cancel some student debt for over 38 million borrowers.
President Joe Biden's administration has officially scrapped its unfinished rules for broad student-loan forgiveness.
The Education Department posted notices to withdraw its plans to cancel student debt for over 38 million borrowers. The withdrawal notices were for two of the department's unfinished debt-relief rules. The first rule was Biden's Plan B for broader debt relief after the Supreme Court struck his first plan down in summer 2023. The second rule was a proposal to provide relief to borrowers facing financial hardship.
In the notices to withdraw the unfinished rules, the Education Department said it is focused on helping student-loan borrowers manage the remaining elements of the return to repayment that began last year following the pandemic pause.
The department said that withdrawing these regulations will give future stakeholders the flexibility to craft new forms of relief, especially with the uncertainty the incoming administration brings. Trump has previously criticized broad relief and is unlikely to continue Biden's efforts.
The department also said that the withdrawal of these rules is not a result of the questions surrounding their legality, saying that it believes the relief "is authorized by the Secretary's longstanding and existing authority" under the Higher Education Act.
Biden's Plan B for student-loan forgiveness would have benefited over 30 million borrowers. It proposed full or partial relief for categories including borrowers with unpaid interest and those who have made at least 20 years of payments. While the rule was never finalized, a group of GOP-led states filed a lawsuit in September to block its implementation.
Meanwhile, the Education Department proposed a separate rule in October to provide relief to 8 million borrowers facing financial hardship. Those categories would have included borrowers facing challenges with childcare or medical expenses.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the withdrawal of the plans.
Biden is still pursuing other avenues for debt relief before his term is up. On Friday, his administration announced an additional $4.28 billion in debt relief for 54,900 borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness — a result of ongoing improvements to the program. Despite not being able to pass broad relief, Biden, over the course of his term, has provided relief to nearly 5 million borrowers through changes to various programs.
Some Republican lawmakers lauded the withdrawal of the plans. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate education committee, said in a Friday statement that Biden's "student loan schemes were always a lie."
Meanwhile, some advocates criticized the GOP-led challenges to Biden's relief efforts. Persis Yu, the deputy executive director of the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement that Biden's plans "would have freed millions from the crushing weight of the student debt crisis and unlocked economic mobility for millions more workers and families."
"We are deeply grateful to President Biden for the work he did to fight for the 40 million borrowers trapped in student debt," Yu said.
The White House announced that President Joe Biden will head to Italy next month for a public meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City before his term comes to an end.
Biden accepted the invitation to visit Vatican City during a phone call with Pope Francis Thursday, according to the White House.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that Biden would meet with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella during the overseas trip. The four-day trip is planned for the second week in January, and the meeting between Biden and Pope Francis will occur in front of an audience on Jan. 10.
"President Biden will have an audience with the Pope and discuss efforts to advance peace around the world," Jean-Pierre said Thursday. "He will also meet with Italy’s leaders to highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy relationship, thank Prime Minister Meloni for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year, and discuss important challenges facing the world."
Italy's position as president of the G7 countries, a position that rotates annually, will come to an end in the new year. The G7 is a cohort of the world's largest advanced economies.
Biden's trip to meet with Pope Francis will come shortly after the Vatican begins its Holy Year on Dec. 24, a centuries-long tradition that occurs every 25 years, during which pilgrims travel to Rome to visit holy sites and receive forgiveness.
Biden is only the nation's second Catholic president, after John F. Kennedy. He has met with popes, including Francis, throughout his political career. The trips have also been reciprocated by Francis, who made his first formal visit to the U.S. when Biden was vice president.
Biden last met with Pope Francis in June, during which the pair discussed both the war in Israel and the war Russia is waging against Ukraine. The leaders reportedly emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza and the need to cement a hostage deal during their talks. They also spoke about the ongoing humanitarian impacts of Russia's war against Ukraine, according to the U.S. embassy in Italy.
The pair met in 2021 as well, which was only the second time a U.S. president other than Kennedy had met with a pontiff. During the private talk, Biden reportedly lauded Francis's leadership "in fighting the climate crisis, as well as his advocacy to ensure the pandemic ends for everyone through vaccine sharing and equitable global economic recovery."
One area where the two leaders' viewpoints notably diverge is abortion, however. Due to Biden's pro-choice stance, many critics, including Catholic bishops, questioned early on in his presidency whether Biden could continue receiving Holy Communion. But following the June meeting at the Vatican, Biden said that Francis expressed support for Biden to be allowed to continue receiving the sacrament.
Biden's trip in the final month of his presidency is expected to be his last overseas.
It will mark a rare occurrence, according to the Associated Press, which noted that the last president to travel overseas during the final month of his presidency was fellow one-term President George H.W. Bush. Bush traveled to Moscow and Paris on diplomatic missions to shore up a nuclear treaty and discuss the Bosnian war that was taking place at the time with France's then-president, according to historical records from the State Department.
FIRST ON FOX: The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a more than 17,000-page report detailing its work this Congress, touting their success in protecting Americans against censorship of speech and the weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies, Fox News Digital has learned.
Fox News Digital obtained the 17,019-page report compiled by the subcommittee, which falls under the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
"The Weaponization Committee conducted rigorous oversight of the Biden-Harris administrations weaponized government and uncovered numerous examples of federal government abuses," Jordan told Fox News Digital. "Through our oversight, we protected the First Amendment by investigating the censorship-industrial-complex, heard from numerous brave whistleblowers, stopped the targeting of Americans by the IRS and Department of Justice, and created serious legislative and policy changes that will benefit all Americans."
The report, first obtained by Fox News Digital, states that the "founding documents of the United States articulate the ideals of the American republic and guarantee to all American citizens fundamental rights and liberties.
"For too long, however, the American people have faced a two-tiered system of government—one of favorable treatment for the politically-favored class, and one of intimidation and unfairness for the rest of American citizens," it continues. "Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the contrast between these two tiers has become even more stark."
The committee was created to "stand up for the American people," the report says, highlighting its work to "bring abuses by the federal government into the light for the American people and ensure that Congress, as their elected representatives, can take action to remedy them."
The mission of the subcommittee was to "protect and strengthen the fundamental rights of the American people," the report said, noting that by investigating, uncovering and documenting executive branch misconduct, lawmakers on the panel have taken "important steps to ensure that the federal government no longer works against the American people."
"This work is not complete, but it is a necessary first step to stop the weaponization of the federal government," the report states.
The committee, from its inception, says it has been working to protect free speech and expand upon the constitutional protections of the First Amendment.
"Throughout the Biden-Harris administration, multiple federal agencies, including the White House, have engaged in a vast censorship campaign against so-called mis-, dis-, or malinformation," the report states, noting that the subcommittee revealed the extent of the "censorship-industrial complex," and detailed how the federal government and law enforcement coordinated with academics, nonprofits, and other private entities to censor speech online."
The panel is touting its work, saying its oversight has "had a real effect in expanding the First Amendment."
"In a Supreme Court dissent, three justices noted how the Select Subcommittee’s investigation revealed that ‘valuable speech was..suppressed,’" the report states.
And in a letter to the subcommittee, Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden-Harris administration "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans.
"Facebook gave in to this pressure, demoting posts and content that was highly relevant to political discourse in the United States," the report states.
And in another win for the subcommittee, in response to its work, universities and other groups shut down their "disinformation" research, and federal agencies "slowed their communications with Big Tech."
The committee also celebrated a "big win" in October after it prevented the creation of a new "GARM," an advertising association that engaged in censorship and boycotts of conservative media companies. The committee revealed, before it was disbanded, that GARM had been discussing ways to ensure conservative news outlets and platforms could not receive advertising dollars and were engaged in boycotts of conservative voices and Twitter once it became "X" under the ownership of Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, the subcommittee also investigated the alleged weaponization of federal law enforcement resources.
In speaking with a number of whistleblowers, the subcommittee learned of waste, fraud and abuse at the FBI.
"When these whistleblowers came forward, the bureau brutally retaliated against many of them for breaking ranks—suspending them without pay, preventing them from seeking outside employment, and even purging suspected disloyal employees," the report states, noting that the subcommittee revealed that the FBI "abused its security clearance adjudication process to target whistleblowers."
The report references the FBI’s response, in which the bureau admitted its "error" and reinstated the security clearance of one decorated FBI employee.
The subcommittee also was tasked with investigating the executive branch’s actions in "intruding and interfering with Americans’ constitutionally protected activity."
For example, the subcommittee revealed "and stopped" the FBI’s effort to target Catholic Americans because of their religious views; detailed the DOJ’s directives to target parents at school board meetings; stopped the Internal Revenue Service from making "unannounced visits to American taxpayers’ homes;" caused the DOJ to change its internal policies to "respect the separation of powers and limit subpoenas for Legislative Branch employees; and highlighted the "vast warrantless surveillance of Americans by federal law enforcement."
The panel also investigated the federal government’s election interference, highlighting the FBI’s "fervent efforts to ‘prebunk’ a story about the Biden family’s influence peddling scheme in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election."
The panel also investigated and demonstrated how the 2020 Biden campaign "colluded with the intelligence community to falsely discredit this story as ‘Russian disinformation.’"
The report includes a list of hearings the subcommittee held, letters sent by the subcommittee and subpoenas issued by the panel.
It also includes depositions and transcribed interviews conducted by the subcommittee. The subcommittee conducted 99 depositions and transcribed interviews during this Congress.
Depositions and interviews included in the massive report are of former FBI officials and CIA officials, like former Director John Brennan, former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office involved in the original hush money probe against President Trump, Mark Pomerantz, and interviews with Facebook, Meta and Google officials.
President Joe Biden announced student-debt cancellation for borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
Biden announced $4.28 billion in student-debt cancellation for 54,900 borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The relief is a result of the Education Department's ongoing fixes to PSLF.
President-elect Donald Trump is unlikely to continue Biden's student-debt relief efforts.
President Joe Biden announced more student-loan forgiveness with one month left until he leaves the White House.
On Friday, Biden and his Education Department said they have approved $4.28 billion in student debt for 54,900 borrowers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments.
The relief is a result of ongoing improvements to PSLF, including a waiver that expired in October 2022 that allowed payments that previously did not qualify for relief to count toward borrowers' forgiveness progress.
"Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America's teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I'm proud to say that we delivered," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
This latest relief brings the total student-loan forgiveness under Biden to about $180 billion for nearly 5 million Americans, including $78 billion for just over 1 million borrowers enrolled in PSLF.
It's unclear if the Biden administration will announce more student-debt relief before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Still, it caps off a tumultuous past few years for student-loan borrowers hoping for broad debt relief — Biden's first student-loan forgiveness plan was struck down by the Supreme Court last summer, and his Plan B for debt relief is now in court following legal challenging from Republican-led states.
On top of that, 8 million borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan — Biden's new income-driven repayment plan intended to make monthly payments cheaper with a shorter timeline to forgiveness — are in limbo as they wait for a court to decide if the plan can move forward.
Even if Biden's plans for broader relief do survive their legal challenges, it's unlikely Trump's administration would continue those efforts. Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, previously told Business Insider that Biden "has taken a stance of, 'We want to try and forgive as much debt as possible through various different programs.'"
"And to put it mildly, we're not going to see that same attitude under the Trump administration," Cooper said.
Trump proposed eliminating PSLF during his first term, but doing so requires congressional approval. Republican control of Congress and the White House means that Trump would likely have more success achieving his goals.
"From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity," Biden said in a statement. "Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt."
The Biden administration announced another $4.28 billion in student loan handouts as President Biden and Vice President Harris prepare to leave the White House.
The massive loan handout will give 54,900 public workers loan forgiveness.
"Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered," Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a release on Friday.
The action brings the total loan forgiveness approved by Biden to nearly $180 billion for nearly 5 million borrowers.
"With the approval of another $4.28 billion in loan forgiveness for nearly 55,000 public servants, the Administration has secured nearly $180 billion in life-changing student debt relief for nearly five million borrowers," Cardona said. "The U.S. Department of Education’s successful transformation of the PSLF Program is a testament to what’s possible when you have leaders, like President Biden and Vice President Harris, who are relentlessly and unapologetically focused on making government deliver for everyday working people."
The Biden-Harris administration touted the program for creating an "incentive" for public servants to "pursue and remain" in their careers by forgiving borrowers' remaining balance after they made the 120 qualifying monthly payments.
"The relief announced today includes both borrowers who have benefitted from the Administration’s limited PSLF waiver, a temporary opportunity that ended in October 2022, as well as from regulatory improvements made to the program during this Administration," the release said.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden pledged to forgive student loans for millions of Americans if elected, but the president has faced continuous legal roadblocks in his attempt to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.
After the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration's first attempt at providing broad-based student loan forgiveness, ruling it was an overreach of the executive branch's authority under the Constitution, the president and his team began to work on other options to provide handouts.
President-elect Trump has not said specifically how he will approach the Biden administration's student loan handout plans, but he has said he plans to rework the entire education system during his term.
Fox News Digital's Audrie Spady contributed to this report.
The Senate’s top DOGE Republican will send 24 letters – one to each major federal agency head – demanding a halt to last-minute work-from-home negotiations before President Biden returns to Delaware.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate GOP Policy Committee, made the demand days after crafting legislation for 2025 that would "decentralize" and relocate one-third of the federal workforce outside Washington, D.C.
Ernst said that not a single government agency’s office space is half-occupied two-plus years on from the COVID-19 pandemic, and she previously called for the Biden administration to sell off unused real estate for taxpayers’ benefit.
In her letters, Ernst laid out that 90% of telework-eligible federal employees are still working from home and only 6% report they are working on a "full-time basis."
Additionally, she wrote that public-sector unions are purportedly "dictating personnel policy" without regard to federal directives from the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), which is running up a massive tab and leading to wastes of time, space and money.
"The union bosses are rushing to lock in last minute, lavish long-term deals with the lame-duck Biden administration—extending beyond President Trump’s next term in office—guaranteeing that bureaucrats can stay at home for another four years or longer," Ernst wrote in one letter prepped for Office of Personnel Management director Robert Shriver III.
"Apparently, protecting telework perks for public employees is a higher priority than showing up to serve American taxpayers," she wrote, calling Biden’s submission to union demands "shocking and unacceptable."
She noted it was a similarly liberal president who vociferously opposed unionization of public employees in the first place, as Democrat Franklin Roosevelt wrote in a letter to a union steward declining a 1937 invitation to a national federal employee union convention.
"All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service," Roosevelt said.
"It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations."
"The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress."
Ernst suggested federal workers and their union representatives have forgotten Roosevelt’s warning, citing the last-minute push to ratify collective bargaining agreements and telework privilege pacts before President-elect Donald Trump can begin his oversight endeavors through DOGE.
The lawmaker told Fox News Digital on Thursday that her report cited in the letters "exposed that telework abuse is so rampant in Washington that there are more reindeer on Santa’s sleigh than employees showing up at the Department of Energy headquarters."
"As if that was not bad enough, President Biden is working hand in hand with unions to help ink more last-minute contracts allowing for telework privileges for years. Bureaucrats have forgotten their job is to serve the public, and I am happy to remind them with a little Christmas cheer."
In the letter, Ernst pointed out situations she said show union bosses and career agency management have the "government wrapped around their finger."
In the letters, she embedded a photo of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley while he was serving as Biden’s Social Security Administration chief and who was wearing a Captain America T-shirt alongside a purported union official at a party.
Ernst cited news reports of O’Malley going to Florida to party with union members before endorsing a contract preventing easy reduction of work-from-home ability.
She said O’Malley spent the trip "crooning" Irish ballads on his guitar and drinking alcohol.
"This buddy-buddy relationship between the Social Security Commissioner and the union bosses representing his workforce during what is supposed to be a negotiation resulted in a contract unbelievably slanted towards the union and against the interests of taxpayers and the mission of the agency," she said.
In another case, she pointed to Housing & Urban Development employees who may not have deserved the TFUT or "taxpayer-funded union time" they filed for.
One such worker successfully claimed compensation while in jail.
Ernst demanded the agencies report data on TFUT claims and payouts, unused or underused real estate holdings designated for use through collective bargaining, and any cases of each agency permitting unions or their employees to use department property at a discount or for free.
"Giving bureaucrats another four-year vacation from the office is unacceptable. Bureaucrats have had enough gap years—it’s time to get them back to work," she said.
Fox News' Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
Attorneys at the Department of Justice are urging federal judges to reject petitions from at least two Jan. 6 defendants who are asking that they be allowed to return to the nation's capital for President-elect Trump's inauguration.
Cindy Young, convicted of four misdemeanors for her involvement in the riot at the Capitol, and Russell Taylor, who pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy charge, both petitioned the courts to allow them to return to Washington, D.C., despite provisions of their sentences requiring them to stay away.
"Contrary to Young’s self designation that she ‘poses no threat of danger to the community,’ Young presents a danger to the D.C. community, including the very law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021," U.S. attorneys said in response to Young's petition. The federal attorneys cited calls from Young "for retribution against those involved in January 6 prosecutions" and argued that she has failed "to recognize the seriousness of her actions."
A request from Taylor, who was invited to attend the inauguration by members of Utah's congressional delegation, is also being challenged by attorneys at the Department of Justice who argue that the serious nature of his crimes should preclude him from being able to "return to the scene of the crime."
"He is asking for the Court to bless his desire to return to the scene of the crime, and the Court should not look past his criminal conduct the last time he was on Capitol grounds," the U.S. attorneys wrote in a filing to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. The attorneys added in their court filing that, while they had granted previous travel requests to other defendants involved in the Capitol siege, those approvals were to support people's continued employment, and the requests did not involve travel to the nation's capital.
However, another Jan. 6 defendant, Eric Peterson, who was convicted of a misdemeanor in November for his involvement in the Capitol riot but has yet to be sentenced, was given approval by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to travel to the District for Trump's swearing-in ceremony, according to Peterson's criminal case docket. Notably, the docket did not include any responses from the Department of Justice urging Chutkan to deny Peterson's request.
There remains uncertainty around whether Trump will pardon any, some or all of those defendants who were convicted of crimes as a result of their involvement in the U.S. Capitol siege that occurred in 2021.
Trump has said at times that pardons will be reserved for those who remained peaceful on that fateful day; however, at other points he has suggested a blanket pardon for all those who were convicted. One thing that he has been steadfast on is that the pardons will come quickly following his inauguration on Jan. 20.
The Department of Justice declined to comment for this story.
President Biden was blasted for "quiet quitting" and failing to lead his fellow Democrats amid the ongoing fiscal battle in Congress that could lead to a government shutdown just days before Christmas.
Text of the 1,500-page funding bill needed to keep the government operating as usual was released on Tuesday evening, just three days before the current funding cycle ends. However, President-elect Trump threw a wrench in lawmakers' plans after he demanded Republicans renegotiate the bill to include an increase in the debt ceiling and a reduction in certain Democratic spending initiatives, which Trump described as "Democrat giveaways."
Biden was home in Wilmington, Delaware, attending a memorial service for his late ex-wife and baby daughter, when news of Trump's demands came down. He will return to the nation's capital later Thursday afternoon.
Thus far, the lame-duck president has not commented on the ongoing spending battle in Congress, but on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement deriding Trump for "playing politics."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House to inquire whether Biden expects to speak about the legislative battle, but did not receive a response.
"Presidents are elected to four-year terms, but Joe Biden long ago ceded the mantle of leadership and the responsibilities of governing. While the rest of the country is busy at work in the last week before Christmas, the president is on vacation in Delaware and the country he ostensibly still oversees is careening toward a fiscal cliff," GOP strategist Colin Reed said.
Reed added that it was "not surprising" to him that Biden's administration "is seemingly content to slink away before their term even ends." Reed said it wasn't surprising either that Americans "voted for a new direction last month."
Meanwhile, in addition to Republicans, former aides to former President Obama, a cohort known as the "Obama bros" who run a popular liberal-leaning podcast, also slammed Biden for his absence, telling listeners of their podcast this week that it is becoming "easier and easier to forget" that Trump isn't in the White House yet. A recent report from The New York Times also noted that Biden has been "a little older and a little slower" in the final days of his presidency.
"I can’t quite figure it out. He seems to be doing some sort of ‘quiet quitting,’" GOP campaign expert David Kochel said.
Kochel pointed out that in addition to being absent amid the government spending fight, Biden was also absent at the reopening ceremony for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which dozens of heads of state attended.
"For the country’s second Catholic president to skip the reopening of Notre Dame, while Trump and Jill Biden attended, one has to wonder if he’s just basically given up," Kochel questioned. "That said, does he even possess the leadership skills and acuity at this point to have any real impact on the government funding issue? I doubt it."
Biden's Cabinet officials seemingly feel different, however. Several of them reiterated their faith in Biden's ability to fulfill his duties for the remainder of his lame-duck presidency this week, despite concerns over his old age and apparent diminished cognitive functioning.
"Maybe it’s for the best he just fades into the woodwork. It is truly bizarre, though, how much he has disappeared. I think even Democrats are scratching their heads," Kochel said.
Michael Chamberlain, director of ethics watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, said a lack of leadership from Biden "has essentially been the Biden-Harris administration's MO from nearly the beginning."
"This vacuum has been evident on ethics and transparency, as well as scientific integrity, and other areas. The administration that was supposed to be a ‘return to normalcy,’ promising to be the most ethical and transparent in history, has proven to be anything but," Chamberlain said. "Sadly, the abdication of leadership in these spaces seems to have expanded to encompass every aspect of the presidency."
Earlier this month, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients sent a memo to staff outlining the final priorities for the Biden administration during its last days before Trump takes over. "Let’s finish strong," he said.
Members of President Biden's staff noticed his fading stamina and increasing confusion within the first few months of his term, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal based its report on interviews with nearly 50 people, including current and former White House staffers who interacted directly with the president, as well as lawmakers.
One former aide recalled a national security official explaining why a meeting in the spring of 2021 was canceled altogether.
"He has good days and bad days, and today was a bad day so we’re going to address this tomorrow," he recalled the official saying.
Democratic lawmakers in Congress reported that Biden was less available than past presidents. He had few meetings with members of Congress, and those meetings were often brief, they said.
"The Biden White House was more insulated than most," Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told the Journal. "I spoke with Barack Obama on a number of occasions when he was president and I wasn’t even chairman of the committee."
"I really had no personal contact with this president. I had more personal contact with Obama, which is sort of strange because I was a lot more junior," Rep Jim Himes, D-Conn., echoed.
Even members of Biden's own Cabinet soon stopped requesting calls with the president, perceiving from interactions with staff that calls were unwelcome, WSJ reported.
A source familiar with the Journal's reporting said the outlet had on-record interviews with a number of Cabinet members who rejected claims that Biden lacks mental acuity. Those Cabinet members included Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and EPA Administrator Michael Regan and others, the source said. The Journal did not include their comments in its report.
Biden held fewer than half as many full Cabinet meetings as his most recent predecessors. President-elect Trump held 25 such meetings and former President Obama held 19 in their first terms, but Biden had just eight.
The White House pushed back on the substance of the Journal's report in a statement provided to Fox News Digital, saying Biden's policy accomplishments provide "indisputable proof" of his qualifications and leadership.
"President Biden speaks with members of his Cabinet daily, and with most members multiple times a week, staying in close touch with them about implementation of key laws and strengthening our national security. During every presidency, there are inevitably some in Washington who do not receive as much time with whomever the president is as they would prefer; but that never means that the president isn’t engaging thoroughly with others, as this president does," said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.
"Cabinet meetings are an important tradition, but the contemporary work environment means they can be fewer and far between. As academics who study the presidency have emphasized, every member of the Cabinet – to say nothing of the President – are busy principals and more can be accomplished on behalf of the American people speaking with the President one-on-one or in smaller settings with officials who have related portfolios," he added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Cabinet officials and their departments, asking them if they believed Biden was fit to serve this week, and if they stood by past statements of confidence in his ability to continue.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in a statement in September, said that he has "full confidence in President Biden’s ability to carry out his job.
"As I’ve said before, I come fully prepared for my meetings with President Biden, knowing his questions will be detail-oriented, probing, and exacting. In our exchanges, the President always draws upon our prior conversations and past events in analyzing the issues and reaching his conclusions," he said.
On Monday, DHS said that the secretary stands by those comments.
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has called Biden "one of the most accomplished presidents in American history and continues to effectively lead our country with a steady hand."
"As someone who is actually in the room when the President meets with the Cabinet and foreign leaders, I can tell you he is an incisive and extraordinary leader," Raimondo said.
A spokesperson said this week that Raimondo stands by those comments.
Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon press secretary, told Fox in September: "As Secretary Austin has said before, he has watched President Biden make tough national security decisions and seen his commitment to keeping our troops safe – he has nothing but total confidence in our Commander-in-Chief."
EXCLUSIVE:Oklahoma’s 2025 school-year curriculum will look markedly different after major adjustments are made to eschew "woke garbage" while making sure students learn all aspects of complex figures like Thomas Jefferson and Donald Trump, and issues like the BLM and Capitol riots.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said Wednesday his state is "taking the lead" on a "direct rejection" of politicizing influences on the curriculum like teachers' unions and activist educators.
"What we are not going to allow is these radical teachers' unions to push lies in the classroom. That's not how we're going to teach."
Walters said school curricula are set every six years, and that he plans to hold schools accountable by withholding accreditation from any institutions that don’t follow suit.
He suggested the new rules are an extension of Oklahoma’s previous push to return the Bible to the classroom as an "important historical document" that shaped America’s founding – in that it is important to similarly give students a fuller perspective on landmark events and figures throughout the rest of U.S. history.
"We are driving out this woke indoctrination and woke nonsense that has been injected into the classroom by undermining Republican presidents and American exceptionalism," he said.
"So our kids are going to know America is a great country. They're not going to be taught to hate this country. They're going to be taught to love this country and a patriotism to come from the principles that our country was founded in our history."
Giving the example of former President Ronald Reagan in the last generation’s education, and how some curricula focused more on shortcomings during Iran-Contra and Col. Oliver North's hearings, Walters said he will not tolerate educators "maligning" President-elect Trump in the same way.
"You're not going to come in and teach President Trump wanted an insurrection on Jan. 6 [2021]. We're not going to allow it. We will be crystal clear on what President Trump's victories were in the White House," he said.
Similarly, the new curriculum will take a broader look at Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the repercussions of coronavirus lockdowns.
He cited a recent clip he saw of a student stating that the only thing they knew about Thomas Jefferson was that he was a slaveholder, and did not know he was a president or the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
"And so we will drive these lies out of the classrooms and get back to an understanding of American greatness throughout our history," he said, noting that Oklahoma will teach "the good with the bad."
Walters was asked how the curriculum would teach COVID-19 lockdown history, given how states like Pennsylvania, New York and Hawaii were confident their zero-tolerance edicts were the right response, just as much as Florida believed its less restrictive response was right.
"I don't care to appease the left or make them happy. We're going to teach facts. We're going to stick to accurate history here. And they can be offended by that," Walters said.
"It is not debatable. Rights were taken from individuals during COVID. That's not debatable. It's also not debatable that lockdowns hurt kids. Lockdowns hurt families and businesses," he said, adding that current curriculum often glosses over that argument and offers only a more proverbially-northeastern view of the COVID years.
"We are ultimately going to let [students] come to their own conclusions," Walters said of the curriculum writ-large.
U.S. history is strewn with successes and failures on all sides, he said, adding that the most responsible way to prepare the next generation to lead the country is to instill in them the widest view of its history and law possible.
"The left wants to browbeat kids into believing to hate their country, while conservatives, we just want history taught, and show that America is the greatest country in the history of the world."
"It will show you what policies work, what policies don't work. A kid should come to their own conclusions. That’s why every state has to look at their [civics curriculum] standards."
Fox News Digital also reached out to union leader Randi Weingarten via the AFT for comment on the general tenor of partially blaming teachers unions for purportedly slanted curricula.
President Biden announced an audacious goal for America to reduce its carbon emissions by two thirds with barely weeks left in his administration.
Biden's White House announced the new goal in a public statement. It calls for the U.S. to massively reduce its carbon emissions by 2035, invoking the Paris Agreement.
"Today, as the United States continues to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, President Biden is announcing a new climate target for the United States: a 61-66 percent reduction in 2035 from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions," the White House wrote.
"It keeps the United States on a straight line or steeper path to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050. In connection with this announcement, the United States is making a formal submission of this new target to the United Nations Climate Change secretariat as its next NDC under the Paris Agreement," the statement continued.
President-elect Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement soon after entering office in his first term. Biden then re-entered the U.S. into the treaty. Trump has not said whether he plans to once again remove the U.S. from the plan, which calls on global powers to self-impose climate reforms.
Trump reportedly plans to install an "energy czar" to scale back energy and climate regulations implemented under the Biden administration.
Six sources familiar with Trump's transition team told the New York Times last month that a series of executive orders and presidential proclamations have been drafted related to climate and energy, aimed at rolling back Biden-era clean energy regulations that some critics argue have hurt the economy.
Other plans Trump and his transition team are reportedly discussing include installing an "energy czar" to help cut regulations on domestic energy production and potentially moving the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) headquarters outside of Washington, D.C.
"The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail," Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital when asked to confirm the details about Trump's reported plans. "He will deliver."
Fox News' Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
