Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, has been living in a retirement facility, a source told Fox News on Sunday. The source also denied a local news report that said she was in a memory care facility.
Granger, who is retiring at the end of this congressional term, has largely remained absent from the Capitol in recent months, having last cast votes on July 24. She was not present for over 54% of votes this year.
The Dallas Express investigated the 81-year-old congresswoman's absence, publishing a report on Friday that quoted a constituent of her district who said that Granger was residing in a memory care facility in Texas. The report was later picked up by other news outlets.
Fox News spoke with a source from Granger's office who denied that Granger was in a memory care unit. The source told Fox News that Granger is in a retirement facility where memory care is provided, though not in the memory care unit itself.
Granger released a statement to Fox News, saying that she has faced "health challenges" and is "deeply grateful for the outpouring of care and concern" over the weekend.
"As many of my family, friends, and colleagues have known, I have been navigating some unforeseen health challenges over the past year," Granger said in the statement. "However, since early September, my health challenges have progressed making frequent travel to Washington both difficult and unpredictable. During this time, my incredible staff has remained steadfast, continuing to deliver exceptional constituent services, as they have for the past 27 years."
Granger, who did not seek reelection for the coming term, has served in the House since 1997. She previously served as the first female mayor of Fort Worth, Texas.
While Granger appears to not have cast a vote since July, she did return to the Capitol in November for the unveiling of her portrait as Appropriations Committee Chairwoman, and a reception that followed. House Speaker Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise both spoke at the event.
One senior Republican source told Fox News that Granger did not step down earlier due to the paper-thin GOP House majority.
"Frankly, we needed the numbers," the source told Fox News.
The slim majority presents a challenge for the speaker of the 119th Congress, in which vote attendance could be the difference between success or defeat for Republicans.
Fox News reached out to Johnson's office for comment.
Granger’s long absence was blasted by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., in a post on X.
"Kay Granger's long absence reveals the problem with a Congress that rewards seniority & relationships more than merit & ideas," he wrote. "We have a sclerotic gerontocracy. We need term limits. We need to get big money out of politics so a new generation of Americans can run and serve."
Khanna was one of the few lawmakers who previously criticized what he referred to as the "gerontocracy." In May 2023, he called on Democratic Rep. Dianne Feinstein, who was then aged 89, to step down as her own health issues kept her away from the Capitol. Feinstein died months later in September 2023.
Conservatives and allies of President-elect Donald Trump are dismantling a narrative put forth by Democratic lawmakers such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren that Republicans blocked funding for childhood cancer research in the spending bill, pointing to a stand-alone bill that had languished in the Democrat-controlled Senate for months.
Congress passed a pared-down spending bill early Saturday morning as the government careened towards a prolonged shutdown. The bill’s passage followed tech billionaire Elon Musk and other Trump allies slamming a more than 1,500-page piece of legislation earlier last week as "outrageous" and "full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways and pork barrel politics," demanding lawmakers return to the negotiation table.
The Senate advanced a third version of a short-term funding bill on Saturday morning, following negotiations that whittled down the legislation to not include measures such as providing lawmakers a pay raise.
As negotiations were hashed out, Warren and other Democrats attempted to slam Republicans for allegedly blocking funding for childhood cancer research in the bill.
"We actually are now getting our first taste – this is it live and in living color – about what it means to have this DOGE," Warren said on CNN as the government prepared to shut down on Friday evening.
DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, is an upcoming presidential advisory committee that will be led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to cut excessive government spending and slash the size of the government under Trump’s second administration.
"Right out here, and what that's going to mean. And that's where Elon Musk's fingerprints are all over this. Because, for example, what this bill says is all, let's get rid of funding for research on pediatric cancer. Let's get rid of funding for research on early detection of cervical cancer and breast cancer. Let's get rid of funding for research on children with Down Syndrome and on sickle cell anemia. Let's get rid of those things so that we could make way for tax cuts for billionaires, that is Elon Musk's notion of efficiency," she continued.
While the Democrat Party’s war room published a press release declaring: "Trump and his MAGA minions in Congress have decided to threaten a government shutdown for his political gain — and now they’ve stooped as low as cutting child cancer research."
Other conservatives and Trump allies slammed the narrative that the GOP blocked funding for childhood cancer research, pointing to a standalone bill that passed in the Republican-led House back in March, and had for months languished in the Democrat-led Senate.
"Elizabeth Warren repeats the lie that @elonmusk and Republicans blocked funding for child cancer research. A stand alone bill for child cancer research funding passed the Republican controlled House in March and got held up in the Democrat controlled Senate," popular conservative X account Libs of TikTok posted in response to Warren’s CNN interview.
"Democrats blocked funding for child cancer research."
The House passed a stand-alone bill on March 5, at a vote of 384-4, that allocated millions of dollars per year for pediatric research through 2028. The bill was delivered to the Senate on March 6, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had not taken action on the legislation, sparking condemnation from conservatives months later that Democrats used the research funding as a "bargaining chip."
"Democrats are using children with cancer as political shields in the shutdown game to blame Republicans after using them as political shields to help defend all the slop Democrats wanted included in the bill. If this funding is so important, it can be passed on its own as a stand-alone bill. You know, like how the government is supposed to work, instead of cramming hundreds of useless proposals into the same bill as pediatric cancer research funding in a 1,500-page mess that no one actually reads so that you can attack anyone who doesn’t support the useless stuff by claiming they hate children with cancer," an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner outlined.
A review of the legislation shows that on Friday evening, the Senate passed the legislation by a voice vote, following condemnation targeting the GOP for allegedly blocking funding for the research.
The legislation extends $12.6 million a year in cancer research funding through 2031.
Fox News Digital reached out to Warren’s office for additional comment Sunday morning, but did not immediately receive a reply.
EXCLUSIVE: Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears of Virginia could make history next year as the nation's first Black woman to win election as a governor.
She would also make history as Virginia's first female governor.
But Sears, in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital, emphasized that "I'm not really running to make history. I'm just trying to, as I've said before, leave it better than I found it, and I want everyone to have the same opportunities I had."
Sears, who was born in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. as a six-year-old, served in the Marines and is a former state lawmaker. She made history three years ago when she won election as Virginia's first female lieutenant governor.
"You've got to remember that my father came to America in ‘63 just 17 days before Dr. King gave his ’I Have a Dream speech,' she said.
Sears noted that her father "saw opportunity here, even though . . . you really couldn't, as a Black person, live where you wanted."
"And yet, here I am, here I am sitting right now as second in command in the former capital of the Confederate States," she said. "With me, we can see once again, there are still opportunities, still opportunities to grow, still opportunities to do even better. We are going to be better, not bitter. We're not going to be victims. We're overcomers."
Sears has a major supporter in popular Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who three years ago became the first Republican in a dozen years to win a gubernatorial election in Virginia, a onetime key swing state that had shaded blue in recent cycles.
But Virginia is unique due to its state law preventing governors from serving two consecutive four-year terms, so Youngkin cannot run for re-election next year.
Youngkin told Fox News Digital last month that Sears "is going to be a fabulous governor of Virginia."
"I have to make sure that we have Winsome Sears as our next governor," he emphasized. "I’m going to be campaigning hard."
Making the case that Youngkin as a "successful businessman" has "brought that success to government," Sears highlighted that "we want to continue what he has begun."
"There's still much work to do, still regulations that we've got to get rid of, still educational opportunities that are needing to be taken advantage of, and I am the one to carry that, because I've been part of that," she added.
Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states in the nation to hold gubernatorial elections in the year after a presidential election. Because of that, both contests receive outsized national attention, and Virginia in particular is often seen as a bellwether of the national political climate and how Americans feel about the party in the White House.
Sears was interviewed in Virginia Beach on Thursday, with a month to go until President-elect Trump returns to the White House.
In late 2022, she described Trump as a liability after Republican candidates that the then-former president had backed underperformed in the midterm elections. And she said that she would remain neutral in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
"I supported him in ‘16 and in ’20 why? Because I saw that he was good for our country," Sears noted.
But she added that Trump "said some things, and it bothered me. And as I said, I come at this as a Christian. And so I figured, well, let's see if there's somebody else."
Sears pointed to July's attempted assassination of Trump as the moment that changed her mind.
"I was waiting to hear a change, and after he was shot and he was accepting the nomination, I heard him say, ‘miracles are happening every day. I am one of those. God has spared my life. And so, I humbly ask for your vote.’ I was on board right then," she emphasized.
But a top Trump supporter in Virginia, conservative radio host John Fredericks, has continued to criticize Sears.
"She’ll ruin Republicans' chances in Virginia in 2025, and we need a different GOP candidate that REALLY has President Trump’s back," he argued last month on his radio program and in a social media post.
Asked whether she'd like Trump to campaign with her over the next 10 months leading up to the 2025 election, Sears said, "Ithink he's going to be having a lot to do in, well, in D.C. And if he wants to come here, fine. If he wants to help, fine. I mean, you know, we could use all the help that we can get."
Sears, who launched her gubernatorial bid in early September, avoided a competitive primary when Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares announced last month that he would seek re-election rather than run for governor.
Three-term Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, is her party's candidate for governor.
Spanberger announced 13 months ago that she would run for governor in 2025 rather than seek congressional re-election this year. While a Sears-Spanberger general election showdown is expected, recent reports indicate longtime Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott is mulling a gubernatorial run.
"We will see what shakes out on the Democrat side, but I will face whoever comes, because I believe that we have the better policies," Sears said.
She is viewed by political pundits as more socially conservative than Youngkin, who hailed from the GOP's business wing.
Asked whether Sears was too far to the right for Virginia voters, Youngkin pushed back in his Fox News Digital interview, saying, "Not at all. And Winsome is a commonsense conservative leader. We have been partners literally from day one. We campaigned together. We were elected together. We have governed together."
But the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), pointing to the criticism from Fredericks, who chaired Trump's Virginia campaign in 2016 and 2020, argued that "Virginia Republicans are kicking off the 2025 election divided and already publicly calling out Winsome Sears."
"This once again confirms that Sears will have to run even further to the right and take deeply harmful and out-of-touch positions to win the GOP nomination," DGA national press secretary Devon Cruz claimed.
Sears, asked about the DGA criticism, which also includes spotlighting her stances on issues such as abortion and IVF, argued that "the Democrats are trying to figure out a way to hit me . . . I don't worry about it. I let them say what they want to say. I am proven, proven to do the right thing."
"I've always said I'm a Christian first and a Republican second. That's always who I am," she added. "So, it must mean that I don't care about politics. I care about serving."
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."
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."
A bill to avert a partial government shutdown that was backed by President-elect Trump failed to pass the House of Representatives on Thursday night.
Congress is inching closer to the possibility of a partial shutdown, with the deadline coming at the end of Friday.
The bill needed two-thirds of the House chamber to pass, but failed to even net a majority. Two Democrats voted with the majority of Republicans to pass the bill, while 38 GOP lawmakers bucked Trump to oppose it.
The margin fell 174 to 235.
It comes after two days of chaos in Congress as lawmakers fought among themselves about a path forward on government spending – a fight joined by Trump and his allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Meanwhile, the national debt has climbed to over $36 trillion, and the national deficit is over $1.8 trillion.
The legislation was hastily negotiated on Thursday after GOP hardliners led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy rebelled against an initial bipartisan deal that would have extended the government funding deadline until March 14 and included a host of unrelated policy riders.
The new deal also includes several key policies unrelated to keeping the government open, but the 116-page bill is much narrower than its 1,547-page predecessor.
Like the initial bill, the new iteration extended the government funding deadline through March 14 while also suspending the debt limit – something Trump had pushed for.
It proposed to suspend the debt limit for two years until January 2027, still keeping it in Trump's term but delaying that fight until after the 2026 Congressional midterm elections.
The new proposal also included roughly $110 billion in disaster relief aid for Americans affected by storms Milton and Helene, as well as a measure to cover the cost of rebuilding Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was hit by a barge earlier this year.
Excluded from the second-round measure is the first pay raise for congressional lawmakers since 2009 and a measure aimed at revitalizing Washington, D.C.'s RFK stadium.
The text of the new bill was also significantly shorter – going from 1,547 pages to just 116.
"All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
But the bill hit opposition before the legislative text was even released.
Democrats, furious at Johnson for reneging on their original bipartisan deal, chanted "Hell no" in their closed-door conference meeting on Thursday night to debate the bill.
Nearly all House Democrats who left the meeting indicated they were voting against it.
Meanwhile, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus also said they would vote against the bill.
"Old bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $0 increase in the national credit card. New bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $4 TRILLION+ debt ceiling increase with $0 in structural reforms for cuts. Time to read the bill: 1.5 hours. I will vote no," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X.
Some House Republicans are privately fuming after Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy got involved in congressional talks on government funding, leading the charge to tank a bipartisan deal.
Several GOP lawmakers granted anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive situation were either frustrated about the pair getting involved or believe they exacerbated long-standing weaknesses within the House Republican Conference.
"Musk and Vivek should not have jumped in at the 11th hour and should have handled it directly with the speaker. Folks on the same side shouldn’t act like these two," one House Republican said. "They’re more about the clicks and bright lights than getting the job done. I’ll have nothing to do with them after watching them publicly trash the speaker."
A second GOP lawmaker said, "If Elon and Vivek are freelancing and shooting off the hip without coordination with [President-elect Trump], they are getting dangerously close to undermining the actual 47th President of the United States."
A third lawmaker accused Ramaswamy of distorting facts.
"He didn't read the entire [continuing resolution] and the vast majority of what he was talking about is misinformation," they said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was gearing up to hold a vote on a bipartisan, 1,547-page deal to extend current government funding levels through March 14 – known as a continuing resolution (CR).
The goal was to give congressional negotiators more time to cobble together an agreement on how to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2025, while also kicking the fight into a term where Republicans control the House, Senate and White House.
But GOP hardliners were furious about what they saw as unrelated measures and policy riders being added to the bill at the last minute.
In addition to averting a partial government shutdown through March 14, the bill also includes provisions on health care and ethanol fuel, plus more than $100 billion in disaster aid funding, measures to fund the rebuilding of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.
Musk and Ramaswamy soon joined the opposition, with Musk even threatening to back primary challengers to Republicans who supported the CR.
Less than 24 hours after the legislation was released, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters the bill was dead.
House GOP leaders have been working toward a plan B, but it's unclear they'll get much, if any, Democratic support.
A fourth House Republican who spoke with Fox News Digital said of Musk's involvement, "I think he influenced weak members who didn't have direction until he tweeted."
"He's just highlighting bad governance and indirectly a weak legislative branch," they said.
Trump, meanwhile, threatened to primary Republicans who supported a "clean" CR without an increase of the debt limit – which expires January 2025.
The issue threw a wrench into negotiations on Wednesday night, given the months-long and politically brutal talks that normally accompany a debt limit increase or suspension.
One Republican bristled at his threat: "Trump threatening to ‘primary’ us also reduces his standing with many of us. I don’t want anything to do with him."
Some House Republicans are privately fuming after Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy got involved in congressional talks on government funding, leading the charge to tank a bipartisan deal.
Several GOP lawmakers granted anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive situation were either frustrated about the pair getting involved or believe they exacerbated longstanding weaknesses within the House Republican Conference.
"Musk and Vivek should not have jumped in at the 11th hour and should have handled it directly with the speaker. Folks on the same side shouldn’t act like these two," one House Republican said. "They’re more about the clicks and bright lights than getting the job done. I’ll have nothing to do with them after watching them publicly trash the speaker."
A second GOP lawmaker said, "If Elon and Vivek are freelancing and shooting off the hip without coordination with [President-elect Trump], they are getting dangerously close to undermining the actual 47th President of the United States."
A third lawmaker accused Ramaswamy of distorting facts.
"He didn't read the entire [continuing resolution] and the vast majority of what he was talking about is misinformation," they said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was gearing up to hold a vote on a bipartisan, 1,547-page deal to extend current government funding levels through March 14 – known as a continuing resolution (CR).
The goal was to give congressional negotiators more time to cobble together an agreement on how to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2025, while also kicking the fight into a term where Republicans control the House, Senate and White House.
But GOP hardliners were furious about what they saw as unrelated measures and policy riders being added to the bill at the last minute.
In addition to averting a partial government shutdown through March 14, the bill also includes provisions on health care and ethanol fuel, plus more than $100 billion in disaster aid funding and measures to fund the rebuilding of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.
Musk and Ramaswamy soon joined the opposition, with Musk even threatening to back primary challengers to Republicans who supported the CR.
Less than 24 hours after the legislation was released, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters the bill was dead.
House GOP leaders have been working toward a plan B, but it's unclear they'll get much, if any, Democratic support.
A fourth House Republican who spoke with Fox News Digital said of Musk's involvement, "I think he influenced weak members who didn't have direction until he tweeted."
"He's just highlighting bad governance and indirectly a weak legislative branch," they said.
Trump, meanwhile, threatened to primary Republicans who supported a "clean" CR without an increase of the debt limit – which expires January 2025.
The issue threw a wrench into negotiations on Wednesday night, given the months-long and politically brutal talks that normally accompany a debt limit increase or suspension.
One Republican bristled at his threat: "Trump threatening to ‘primary’ us also reduces his standing with many of us. I don’t want anything to do with him."
The revolt by conservatives and the sudden infusion into negotiations of President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and Elon Musk has House Speaker Mike Johnson and others struggling to find a way out of their political cul-de-sac and avoiding a government shutdown at 12:00:01 a.m. ET Saturday.
Fox News is told that Trump’s unexpected demand to tackle the debt ceiling in this package has complicated matters exponentially. Many conservatives won’t vote for any debt ceiling increase. And Democrats are balking because Republicans reneged on the deal.
Moreover, there may not be enough time to avoid a shutdown, especially if a new bill is to be produced – and conservatives demand that it lay fallow for three days before voting.
That does not even address getting it through the Senate.
Many members with whom Fox News spoke Wednessday night are now resigned to a very high chance of a government shutdown – perhaps one which bleeds through Christmas. There simply isn’t a combination of votes that unlocks this puzzle yet.
Congress also hasn't addressed disaster aid. Some conservatives are opposed to that for North Carolina and Florida without offsets. The fate of assistance after Hurricanes Helene and Milton is now in serious limbo.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., while speaking at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., called out House Republicans for breaking a bipartisan agreement to fund the government and avoid a government shutdown, accusing them of hurting everyday Americans across the country.
On Wednesday, House GOP leaders scrambled to search for a backup plan after reaching an initial bipartisan deal to avoid a partial government shutdown this Friday was buried by a barrage of opposition from conservative leaders.
Jeffries spoke about the failed deal, accusing Republicans and their leaders for not reaching the agreement.
"House Republicans, house democrats, Senate. Republicans and Senate Democrats reached a bipartisan agreement to fund the government, keep it open and meet the needs of the American people," Jeffries said, pointing out the agreement would provide disaster assistance for those affected by extreme weather events. "House Republicans have now unilaterally decided to break a bipartisan agreement that they made. House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country…An agreement is an agreement. It was bipartisan and there was nothing more to say."
The minority leader also fired off a post on X, saying, "House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt working class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement; you own the consequences that follow."
As of Wednesday, the U.S. national debt – which is a measure of what U.S. taxpayers were on the hook for to the nation’s creditors – had reached $36,189,345,826,140.62, and was climbing at a rapid pace, showing no signs of slowing down. The federal government's budget deficit in the recently concluded fiscal year totaled $1.834 trillion, ranking the third largest in U.S. history.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who was appointed by President-elect Trump to serve as a co-chair of the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, lambasted the bill on his social media platform, saying the 1,547-page continuing resolution (CR) bill is full of "pork."
Musk also wrote in a separate post, "The voice of the people was heard. This was a good day for America."
Trump adamantly opposed the bill on Wednesday through a series of posts on Truth Social.
"Sounds like the ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive Continuing Resolution, PLUS, is dying fast, but can anyone imagine passing it without either terminating, or extending, the Debt Ceiling guillotine coming up in June?" the incoming president asked. "Unless the Democrats terminate or substantially extend [the] Debt Ceiling now, I will fight ‘till the end. This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats!"
He continued, saying Democrats are looking to embarrass Republicans when it comes up for a vote in June, and the people who extended it from Sept. 28 to June 1, "should be ashamed of themselves."
Trump called the extension "political malpractice," and reiterated the bad timing of Congress asking for pay increases.
"Hopefully, you’ll be entitled to such an increase in the near future when we, "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he said.
In another post, Trump explained that trying to pass a clean CR without all of the bells and whistles Democrats want will be destructive to the country and his administration instead of the Biden administration.
"Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will be Primaried," Trump warned. "Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking office on January 20th, 2025."
Congressional leaders released the text of their 1,547-page CR on Tuesday evening after last-minute negotiations delayed its original planned release on Sunday. A source familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital more specifically that the deal was largely struck between the top two Democrats and Republicans in each chamber.
Since its release, the CR has seen fierce pushback from conservatives and House GOP hardliners, many of whom are frustrated with unrelenting policy riders attached to the legislation, rather than a "clean" extension of government funding.
While the bill would avert a partial government shutdown through March 14 if passed, it also includes provisions on health care and ethanol fuel, along with $100 billion in disaster aid funding and measures to fund the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The bill also includes the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he plans to double the number of state jobs that will no longer require a college degree — joining states like Minnesota, Virginia and Pennsylvania, which have already dropped degree requirements for most public jobs.
Newsom unveiled his Master Plan for Career Education framework on Monday, which included eliminating the college degree requirement for 30,000 jobs in the state.
The Democratic governor plans to double the number by removing the requirement for an additional 30,000 in the coming years in an overall effort to "help Californians translate their skills and knowledge into real progress toward a degree or career."
"Every Californian deserves the opportunity to build real-life skills and pursue a fulfilling career — including those that don’t require college degrees," Newsom said in a statement. "California is working to ensure that every person has what they need to get a well-paying, long-lasting job so we can build an economy for the future that supports all families."
The framework also includes plans to establish "Career Passports" for citizens that will create a digital record of their skills and abilities for job applications.
Veterans will also see new benefits, with the plan allowing them to gain college credit for their military experience.
Reducing the emphasis on needing a college degree to secure a career has been endorsed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump. Musk recently stated that he believes "the value of a college education is somewhat overweighted."
"Too many people spend four years, accumulate a ton of debt and often don't have useful skills that they can apply afterwards. I have a lot of respect for people who work with their hands, and we need electricians and plumbers and carpenters and that's a lot more important than having incremental political science majors," Musk said while on the campaign trail for Trump. "I think we should not have this idea that in order to be successful you need a four-year college degree."
Newsom's framework was released just months after a report found that the majority of students at for-profit colleges never graduate, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The report found that only 36% of students graduate in four years at California State University, while 62% graduate within six years.
The elimination of college degree requirements for state jobs has received bipartisan support in recent years.
Maryland, under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, became the first state in the nation to eliminate degree requirements for most state jobs in 2022, setting the stage for more than a dozen other states to follow in his footsteps with similar orders.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued an executive order in 2023 to establish that 92% of state government jobs would no longer require a college degree, a move that received praise from Republican state lawmakers who said the decision was "a step in the right direction."
Additionally, the 2024 GOP platform framework, released during the presidential campaign cycle, stated that "Republicans will support the creation of additional, drastically more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year college degree."
EXCLUSIVE: House GOP critics of how Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is handling government funding talks are already beginning to float names of possible challengers, people told Fox News Digital.
Two GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital that House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.; House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., were all mentioned in early talks about alternatives.
One of the two lawmakers said they had not heard from any of the three, adding, "That would be suicidal."
A person close to Donalds told Fox News Digital in response, "At this time, the Congressman has not made any statements regarding the future of House leadership."
A spokesperson for Emmer told Fox News Digital, "Whip Emmer supports Speaker Johnson and is focused on doing the job he was elected to do."
Fox News Digital also reached out to Jordan and Johnson's offices for comment.
But discussions about potential rivals to Johnson in the Jan. 3 House-wide speaker vote represent the latest warning shot from Republican lawmakers who are vehemently opposed to the short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR).
Congressional leaders released the text of their 1,547-page CR on Tuesday evening after last-minute negotiations delayed its original planned release on Sunday. A source familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital more specifically that the deal was largely struck between the top two Democrats and Republicans in each chamber.
Since then, it has seen fierce pushback from conservatives and House GOP hardliners, many of whom are frustrated at the unrelated policy riders attached to the legislation — rather than a "clean" extension of government funding.
In addition to averting a partial government shutdown through March 14, the bill also includes provisions on health care and ethanol fuel, plus more than $100 billion in disaster aid funding and measures to fund the rebuilding of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.
Multiple GOP lawmakers signaled Tuesday that Johnson could face a challenge to his leadership over the CR.
"The speaker definitely has some ‘no’ votes and some people considering their options," a third House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital when asked if Johnson could see blowback on Jan. 3, "There's always consequences."
When previously asked about any potential speakership challenges, Emmer, Jordan and Donalds have all said they back Johnson.
A source close to Jordan told Fox News Digital that the Ohio Republican is "not interested in challenging Johnson."
But all three ran for House Speaker last year after ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted. Johnson ultimately won after a messy three-week fight.
The Louisiana Republican, who Republicans chose unanimously to be their candidate for speaker last month, is also backed by President-elect Trump, which is likely to keep a significant amount of backlash at bay.
He is also still expected to get a large share of GOP lawmakers to vote for his plan, with most in Congress in agreement that a partial government shutdown over the holidays would have a negative political and economic impact.
But his CR plan is also under attack by members of Trump's orbit — both Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy blasted the bill on Wednesday.
"Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!" Musk wrote on X.
Johnson himself dismissed concerns about his job as the blowback began to build on Tuesday.
"I'm not worried about the speaker vote," he said. "We're governing. Everybody knows we have difficult circumstances. We're doing the very best we can under those circumstances."
The speaker and his allies have argued that they won the most they could while controlling one half of one third of government, and promised that Republicans would be in a better position to handle federal funding when the CR expires at the beginning of Trump's term.
As conservative lawmakers decry a government spending measure released at the last-minute to avert the looming prospect of a partial government shutdown, Rep. Kat Cammack quipped that conservatives should launch an OnlyFans account.
"Conservative Republicans should start an OnlyFans account considering how often we get screwed… The CR is a bad deal," the Florida Republican declared in a post on X.
GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona also playfully noted that he plans to oppose the measure.
"'Twas three days before the gov't shutdown And I’m at my desk On page 54 of this 1,547 page mess. The CR is garbage Chocked full of carnage. I’ll be a hard no I won’t stoop that low," he tweeted.
Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia referred to the measure as the "Christmas Cramnibus" and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, also of the Peach State, called it a "Christmas CR lump of coal."
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., also declared her opposition, noting, "I got a word for this CR: nope."
"Many of the loudest, self-proclaimed ‘@DOGE Heroes’ in Congress will vote for the CR—even though it flies in the face of everything @DOGE is trying to fix & perpetuates the very problems Republicans railed against while campaigning this year," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, stated in a post on X. "Then they’ll say "@DOGE will fix it!"
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to helm the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an effort to root out government waste and advocate for lower spending. The duo "will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees," they noted in a Wall Street Journal piece last month.
"Pay attention to the members of Congress who have been all in for @DOGE for media attention but will vote for the short-term omnibus. They are the Swamp," Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., declared in a tweet.
House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., made arguments in favor of approving the proposal, which according to a press release, contains billions for disaster relief.
"While a continuing resolution is not ideal, this strategy ensures President Trump has a voice in shaping the final FY25 bills. Importantly, it averts a costly government shutdown that would only serve to handcuff the start of his new administration," Cole noted, according to the press release.
"At the same time, we cannot ignore the devastation caused by natural disasters across the nation," he noted. "This bill provides crucial relief for Americans recovering from these disasters, including those in my home state of Oklahoma, and also generates economic benefits for the nation. We have a responsibility to help our fellow citizens rebuild and restore, and this legislation demonstrates shared resilience and unity in the face of tragedy."
Elon Musk chimed in to render his own verdict on the proposal, giving it the thumbs down.
"This bill should not pass," he declared in a post on X.
"Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?" he asked in another post when sharing a photo of the first page of the measure sitting atop a towering stack of papers, presumably the rest of the more than 1,500-page document.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., addressed Musk's disapproval on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, saying he had spoken to both Musk and Ramaswamy in a text. "They said, ‘This is not directed at you, Mr. Speaker, but we don't like the spending bill. I said, ‘Guess what, fellas, I don’t either. We gotta get this done because here's the key: by doing this, we're clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda."
Some lawmakers in the new Congressional DOGE Caucus are eyeing a crackdown on federal agencies work-from-home policies when Republicans take over the levers of power in Washington DC next year.
The group’s name is an acronym for Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency, coinciding with the Department of Government Efficiency – also DOGE for short – a new advisory panel commissioned by President-elect Trump and led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The caucus held its first meeting on Tuesday, which lawmakers described to Fox News Digital as largely "organizational."
DOGE Caucus co-chair Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital the room was full of interested lawmakers.
"We had 29 sign up to come, so we met in a small conference room. But it was packed – we had over 60 members attend," Bean said.
That included three Democrats – Reps. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., Val Hoyle, D-Ore., and the first Democrat to join the DOGE Caucus, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.
Documents given to attendees and shared with Fox News Digital encouraged lawmakers to think of what kind of DOGE goals would be "worthwhile lifts," "quick wins," "lower priority," and "low-hanging fruit" and other ways to organize and prioritize initiatives.
Asked about what some "low-hanging fruit" for the panel would be, Bean said, "People going back to work."
"We have a problem," Bean said. "[Federal workers] do a large amount of work from home. Which, that’s a debate – whether or not they’re productive working from home. But if they are working from home, we have between a 6 and 15% occupancy of billions of square foot of commercial buildings that we are spending billions on to upkeep and whatnot. Do we still need that much space if people aren’t using their offices?"
That was echoed by Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, who also attended the meeting.
"You know, when you take out security, you’ve got one percent of the federal government workers who are going in to work on a regular basis, and we’re paying for 100% of them all to have office space," Van Duyne said. "There’s lots of low hanging fruit. I just hope we can identify what those are."
Bean also dismissed accusations from critics of Musk and Ramamswamy’s DOGE push that it was a way for Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits
"That is not the intent," Bean emphasized. "It is not the intent [to be] cutting benefits, of either health or [veterans] or Social Security. But those benefits…have limited shelf life, unless we make reductions elsewhere. So the purpose is not to cut those things, but to safeguard them."
"It was a good introductory meeting of the caucus, kind of challenging us all to think about our expectations and how we can help, you know, take ideas and move them in to bill form and work through the normal committee process to do that," Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., said.
"I’ve even gotten a lot of ideas from constituents…I think this is a really great grassroots effort."
House GOP Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore, R-Utah, another DOGE Caucus co-chair alongside Bean and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said "there’s a billion and a half ideas, and we need to make it so it’s actually actionable for Vivek and Elon."
Both Bean and Moore indicated that the next steps for the caucus would be to split up into working groups targeting various aspects of DOGE’s mission.
The next caucus meeting is expected in January, Bean said.
EXCLUSIVE – Ahead of President-elect Trump's inauguration, conservatives in the most populous red state in America are launching a new Texas Republican Leadership Fund (TRLF) to elect "true" conservatives to crucial leadership roles.
Despite being led by a strongly conservative Republican governor and having a commanding majority in the legislature, the last four Texas House speakers have been elected through the support of Democrats. The result has been Democrats exercising an outsized level of power and influence in the largest Republican state in the nation. An inside track with the Texas speaker also gives Democrats significant control over some of the most important issues affecting the nation, such as enforcement of Texas’ more than 1,250 miles of border.
Alex Fairly, the TRLF’s principal donor, told Fox News Digital it is time for that to change.
TRLF, which is officially registering with the Texas Ethics Commission Tuesday and launching with $20 million of initial funding, has the support of many of Texas’ most influential leaders who are intent on making the state the definitive leader in conservative politics.
While he hopes that all Republicans in the Texas House will stand with the caucus to elect a conservative leader, Fairly said the $20 million will be available for use in the primaries and upcoming 2026 general election to hold elected officials "accountable" if they side with a Democratic-backed speaker.
According to Fairly, Texas conservatives are fed up with lukewarm Republicans cutting backroom deals with Democrats in the state legislature. And as Trump prepares to return to the White House in January, he said it will be more important than ever for Texas to support the new administration’s agenda through strong conservative leadership at the state level.
"Texas leads the way on many of the biggest conservative issues," he said. "I don't think there's any question that having a Republican majority in the House… has a massive impact on what happens across the country and supporting President Trump and his agenda."
This comes amid an ongoing battle in the Texas legislature over who will be the next speaker of the House. The most recent speaker, Rep. Dade Phelan, who came to power in 2021, dropped out from consideration after facing intense criticism from Republicans for failing to pass key conservative priorities such as school choice and for his role in the unsuccessful impeachment effort against vocal Trump ally Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Now, the Texas House of Representatives is set to elect a new speaker on Jan. 14. There are two frontrunners: Phelan ally Rep. Dustin Burrows and Rep. David Cook, who is backed by more hardline conservatives.
After going to the Democratic side of the aisle to help him secure the necessary 76 votes to win the speakership, Burrows declared the race over.
However, Burrows’ attempt to bargain with Democrats has caused outrage from many conservatives, even including Donald Trump Jr., who said the move was not in line with voters’ election night "mandate" to Republicans.
"It’s unbelievable what is happening in Texas right now," he said on X. "There is a group of so-called Republicans cutting a deal with liberal Democrats to elect a speaker instead of uniting behind the Republican nominee, @DavidCookTexas! Unbelievable! Republicans have a mandate!"
Fairly, who is an entrepreneur and health care executive who has been a vocal supporter of school choice, says the race for the speakership is not set in stone. This time, he believes there is strong resolve among Texas Republicans to stop moderates from handing over control to the Democrats.
"In spite of the progress made in this past election cycle toward… conservative priorities, there may still be work to do in the next primary cycle," he said. "These funds will be available to help expand a true Republican majority."
"Democrats don't give their votes away for free, they want things in return," he went on. "So, we end up with a House that's not really run by the majority, it's co-run by Democrats and a minority of Republicans. It just puts Texas in just such a weak position to accomplish what we could if we really were led by a majority of Republicans."
"This time we're bringing this out into the light."
Former Rep. Liz Cheney is facing calls from GOP legislators that the FBI investigate her for "potential criminal witness tampering" related to her former role on the Jan. 6 House Select Committee, a report released Tuesday by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight chairman, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., details.
"Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge," the report, which was provided to Fox Digital, found.
The Jan. 6 committee was founded in July 2021 to investigate the breach of the U.S. Capitol earlier that year by supporters of Trump ahead of President Biden officially taking office on Jan. 20. The Jan. 6 committee’s investigation was carried out when Democrats held control of the House.
The committee concluded its 18-month investigation last year, when Republicans regained control of the House and sent referrals to the Justice Department recommending Trump be criminally prosecuted for his involvement in the lead-up to supporters breaching the Capitol. The committee was composed of seven Democrats and two Republican lawmakers, Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom are no longer in office.
Loudermilk's subcommittee was tapped to investigate the J6 committee and its findings in January 2023.
The House Republicans' report Tuesday specifically took issue with Cheney’s alleged "direct intervention" with Hutchinson, who was considered the star witness of the investigation, including allegedly encouraging Hutchinson to hire "Select Committee-friendly attorneys to represent her," as opposed to keeping her original legal representation.
Hutchinson, who worked as an aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, had claimed before the select committee that on Jan. 6, 2021, she was told Trump allegedly became "irate" and attempted to join supporters at the Capitol ahead of them breaching the government building. The incident reportedly unfolded after Trump delivered a speech at the Ellipse, which is a park just south of the White House fence.
Hutchinson alleged she was told Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel of a Secret Service SUV before the driver reportedly told Trump to remove his hand and that they were headed to the White House, not the Capitol. Hutchinson’s account was directly refuted by Anthony Ornato, who served as White House deputy chief of staff for operations under Trump after decades in the Secret Service.
Less than two weeks after firing her original attorney, and hiring "the attorneys Representative Cheney suggested – Hutchinson sat for her fourth transcribed interview with the Select Committee under unusual circumstances," the report found.
"Prior to this interview, nearly every interview the Select Committee conducted included approximately a dozen people – including committee staff members, committee counsel, often a Member of the Select Committee, the interviewee, and the interviewee’s legal representation. Most of the interviews were done in large conference rooms or over zoom, allowing space for all participants. Hutchinson’s fourth transcribed interview, however, was vastly different. It consisted of only four people: Representative Cheney, one attorney from the Select Committee, Hutchinson, and Hutchinson’s new counsel. Additionally, instead of the Select Committee conducting the interview in a conference room or virtually, Representative Cheney used her private hideaway inside of the United States Capitol Building," the report states.
The House Republican report continued that Hutchinson’s testimony to the Jan. 6 committee was crucial, arguing "it is unlikely the Select Committee could make its assertions about President Trump’s mood, attitude, and alleged culpability in the events of January 6" without her comments.
"Hutchinson is mentioned by name in the Select Committee’s Final Report no fewer than 185 times. Inexplicably, the Select Committee discredited the multitude of legitimate witnesses who, under oath, repeatedly refuted Hutchinson’s testimony. These legitimate witnesses include senior government officials and federal agents."
Cheney, in comments provided to Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon, defended her former committee's investigation, while arguing Loudermilk's report "intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence."
"January 6th showed Donald Trump for who [he] really is – a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks to continue against our Capitol and law enforcement officers while he watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave," Cheney said to Fox News Digital.
"The January 6th Committee’s hearings and report featured scores of Republican witnesses, including many of the most senior officials from Trump’s own White House, campaign and Administration. All of this testimony was painstakingly set out in thousands of pages of transcripts, made public along with a highly detailed and meticulously sourced 800 page report. Now, Chairman Loudermilk’s 'Interim Report' intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously."
The Democratic former chair of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, also slammed Loudermilk's report in a comment to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
"Representative Loudermilk has failed to discredit the work of the January 6th Select Committee. His so-called 'report' is filled with baseless, conclusory allegations rather than facts. That’s because there’s no escaping the reality that Donald Trump bears the responsibility for the deadly January 6th attack no matter how much Mr. Loudermilk would love to rewrite history for his political purposes," he said.
The president-elect railed in an interview on NBC earlier this month that Cheney, Thompson and others on the J6 committee "deleted and destroyed" evidence related to the investigation and "should go to jail."
"Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps," he said in the interview. "They deleted and destroyed all evidence."
"And Cheney was behind it. And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee," he continued. "For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail."
Trump's claims of the committee allegedly "deleting" evidence was supported by a previous report released by Loudermilk earlier this year claiming the select committee "deleted" records and hired "Hollywood producers" to promote a political narrative while investigating Jan. 6.
The report released Tuesday found that the Jan. 6 committee failed to archive "as many as 900 interview summaries or transcripts," despite a process for committee chairs to properly archive data, including interviews.
"As part of its investigation, the Subcommittee learned that the Select Committee failed to archive or provide the Subcommittee with any of its video recordings of witness interviews, as many as 900 interview summaries or transcripts, more than one terabyte of digital data. Concerningly, of the documents that were archived, the Select Committee delivered more than 100 encrypted, password protected documents and never provided the passwords. It is unclear why the Select Committee chose only those documents to be shielded by password," the report found.
The Jan. 6 committee, the report found, failed to archive more than "one terabyte of digital data" after Thompson reported archiving more than four terabytes of data in a July 2022 letter. The subcommittee ultimately received less than three terabytes of digital data.
"One terabyte of data is equivalent to 6.5 million document pages such as PDFs or office files, 500 hours of high definition video, or 250,000 photos," the report noted.
Thompson previously denied the claims of deleting evidence in a July 2023 letter to Loudermilk, detailing that the committee had called on the federal government regarding the "proper archiving of such sensitive material to protect witnesses’ safety, national security, and to safeguard law enforcement operations."
Thompson provided three "facts" in response to the report Tuesday in comment to Fox Digital.
"Here are the facts: (1) The Select Committee was properly constituted, as every court that heard challenges found. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro would not have gone to prison for contempt of Congress had there been a legitimate issue. Not even the Republican-controlled Supreme Court stayed their sentences, despite Mr. Loudermilk’s entreaties. (2) The Select Committee followed all House Rules, and it did not withhold or destroy any record that was required to be archived. Moreover, every record the Select Committee had was turned over to the Department of Justice, which was in turn provided to the former President’s defense team through the discovery process during his criminal proceedings. Most of those records are publicly available through the Government Publishing Office’s online repository," he said.
"(3) The Members of the Select Committee and the witnesses who came before us – who were mainly Republicans from the Trump administration – acted honorably and out of patriotic duty to the Constitution. The Select Committee’s Final Report was not based on any single witness’s testimony, and it painted a damning picture of the former President’s dereliction of duty. That work stands on its own."
Thompson added that Loudermilk failed to "to find a single valid problem with the Select Committee’s work," that reflects what he said is an "inescapable conclusion."
"Donald Trump orchestrated a multi-part conspiracy that attempted to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 Presidential election by summoning a mob to Washington to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history," he said.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tapped Loudermilk to investigate both the Jan. 6 incident itself and the Jan. 6 House Select Committee’s report on the Capitol breach in January 2023.
"Over the past twenty-four months of this investigation, my subcommittee staff have faced incredible obstacles in pursuit of the truth; missing and deleted documents, hidden evidence, unaccounted for video footage, and uncooperative bureaucrats. At one point, the work of the subcommittee was completely halted due to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, and subsequently faced internal efforts to derail the investigation. However, our team persevered through the delays; and, when Mike Johnson took the gavel as Speaker of the House, he allocated even more resources to our investigation and committed to more transparency for the American people," Loudermilk wrote in a letter to colleagues accompanying the report.
A Republican lawmaker is declaring that she will forgo many of the traditional day-to-day obligations of the House GOP Conference, suggesting she will dedicate more of her time to aiding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., said she plans to reject any House committee assignments she is given and will refuse to attend the House GOP’s weekly conference meetings.
"I will stay as a registered Republican but will not sit on committees or participate in the caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing," Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., wrote on X on Monday evening.
"I do not need to be involved in circuses. I would rather spend more of my time helping [DOGE]… to save our Republic, as was mandated by the American people."
Spartz did not elaborate on how she would focus her efforts on DOGE.
She has bucked House GOP leadership several times during the 118th Congress, chiefly on issues of government spending and the national debt. She is currently a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
DOGE is a nonbinding advisory panel commissioned by President-elect Donald Trump to recommend areas for cutting spending and improving the efficiency of the federal government.
He tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead it, and the push has been met with enthusiasm among House Republicans.
A co-chair of the House of Representatives’ Congressional DOGE Caucus said there is "real motivation" behind accomplishing its mission of cutting the federal deficit.
Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, is House GOP Conference vice chair and the No. 6 House Republican, and recently joined Reps. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas, in leading the caucus.
The group’s name is an acronym for Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency, coinciding with the Department of Government Efficiency – also DOGE for short – a new advisory panel commissioned by President-elect Trump and led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The caucus’ first meeting is slated for Tuesday. Moore said he hopes they can "create some structure on what we want to accomplish and set some initial first easy wins."
He did not elaborate on what those wins would be, but suggested one of the caucus’ main goals would be delivering recommendations to Musk and Ramaswamy on how to make the federal government more efficient.
"We've got people that have great ideas from their various committees on things, areas that we can find efficiencies, and just get that all on paper and eventually, you know, provide some recommendations," Moore said.
The Utah Republican is hopeful that his unique position as a member of House leadership will allow him to be a conduit between the caucus and fellow congressional leaders.
"I was looking for another opportunity to help serve the conference," Moore said of his decision to become a co-chair. "There is a ton of bipartisan work that's already been done on this type of stuff for years leading up to it. We needed this moment as a catalyst to do it. So I am just thrilled to be a part of the leadership team."
He also suggested that the enthusiasm for DOGE was unlike anything he'd seen for prior government initiatives.
"There's real motivation behind this, and the American people are galvanized by this. For example, I'm the chair, co-chair of the Ski and Snowboard caucus. Utah has… got the best ski – greatest snow on earth and all that. That doesn't draw the attention," Moore said.
"But I became a co-chair also of the DOGE Caucus, and you could tell a widespread interest in this from both media back home [and] constituents. We have to honor that."
Moore also dismissed concerns that DOGE’s internet meme-inspired branding might make people take it less seriously, arguing instead that it will help make Americans enthusiastic about the mission.
"Doge" is also the name of an internet meme popular in the 2010s, depicting a Shiba Inu and frequently accompanied by phrases in broken English representing the dog’s supposed internal monologue.
Musk has made no secret of his affinity for the meme, and even coined the name "Department of Government Efficiency" while posting references to it on X, formerly Twitter, before Trump made it a reality. He’s also promoted a cryptocurrency of the same name.
"I've never seen so much excitement and engagement from my constituents," Moore said. "The fact that it's the Doge, I think this is how people connect now. Like, you know, that's a good thing because it makes it relatable. And so I think it's definitely something that kind of makes people laugh a little bit and just find the irony in it."
"Whatever can get people's attention, you have to use that for good. Then you've got potential for impact."
FIRST ON FOX: A potential showdown over the U.S. debt limit is projected to hit Capitol Hill by mid-June, a new calculation suggests.
The Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) released a new model Monday that said it is "possible" the U.S. government would exhaust the ability to pay its debts by June 16, 2025.
"The government is projected to run about a $2 trillion deficit next year. And so that means that the spending obligations that Congress and the government have incurred are a lot more than what we're going to bring in tax revenues," Matthew Dickerson, director of Budget Policy at EPIC, told Fox News Digital. "To be able to pay the things the government has promised to pay on time, you need to increase the debt limit."
An agreement struck by President Biden and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last year suspended the debt limit through January 2025. In that time, the national debt surpassed $36 trillion.
EPIC’s analysis projected that "extraordinary measures" that can be invoked by the Treasury Department to avoid national default can carry the U.S. for roughly six more months at most, until a day known as the "X-date."
Failure to raise the debt limit could lead to major spirals in the U.S. and global economies.
Biden and McCarthy’s deal was struck in late May of last year, just days ahead of a projected federal default on June 5. By that point, credit agency Fitch had already downgraded the U.S.’ longstanding AAA credit rating to AA+, temporarily roiling domestic financial markets.
When asked if he was bracing for another 11th-hour agreement, Dickerson pointed out that Congress already has a litany of urgent legislative priorities to start off next year even before debt limit talks.
However, those negotiations can also be an ideal opportunity for Republicans to negotiate major deficit reduction ideas into law, EPIC's paper argued.
"Reaching the debt limit should be a wake-up call and a signal to do something, sound the alarm," Dickerson said.
The report said debt limit talks "historically helped facilitate the political environment needed for deficit reduction agreements, presenting an opportunity in 2025 to pair necessary debt limit increases with reforms to control spending and promote economic growth."
It went on to blame the ballooning national debt on "excessive spending."
"Since August 2019, the debt limit has been modified four times: two suspensions and two dollar-specific debt limit increases. Over these five years, the debt has grown by about $13.9 trillion," the report said. "The current fiscal trajectory, where government spending would exceed historical norms and grow faster than the economy, is unsustainable and harmful to American families."
The debt ceiling is the total amount the federal government is able to borrow in order to pay its obligations, including Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and veterans’ payments – among countless other payments.
The talks that led to suspending the debt limit last year were part of a messy, protracted battle over government spending that fueled chaos in the 118th Congress.
In addition to dealing with Democratic demands to raise or suspend the debt limit with no preconditions, McCarthy also faced pushback from GOP hardliners who opposed acting on the fiscal cliff without steep spending cuts – which were non-starters for most on the left.
Additionally, while the players will be different next year – President-elect Donald Trump instead of Biden, McCarthy replaced by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republicans flipping the balance of power in the Senate – Dickerson pointed out that the GOP’s slim margins in Congress will mean Democrats will still need a seat at the negotiating table.
"You’re going to need to be able to have something that brings along everybody so we can get a bipartisan agreement," he said, while also adding, "President Trump is going to not want to sign something that is seen as massively increasing spending and being irresponsible on debt."
