Happy New Year 2025

Tag: Democrats

Democrats elect new chair as party aims to rebound following major 2024 election setbacks

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Saturday elected Minnesota party leader Ken Martin as its next national chair, in the wake of major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections.

The election of Martin is the party’s first formal step to try and rebound from the November elections, in which President Donald Trump recaptured the White House, and Republicans flipped the Senate, held on to their fragile majority in the House and made major gains with working-class, minority and younger voters.

“We have one team, one team, the Democratic Party,” Martin said following his victory. “The fight is for our values. The fight is for working people. The fight right now is against Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought this country.”

Martin, over the past eight years, has served as a DNC vice chair and has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs.

FINAL DNC CHAIR DEBATE ROCKED BY PROTESTS

Minnesota Democratic Party chair Ken Martin (left) and Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler (right), two leading contenders in the Democratic National Committee chair race, at the DNC executive committee meeting, on Dec. 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

He topped Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler by over 100 votes among the 428 DNC members who cast ballots as they gathered for the party’s annual winter meeting, which this year was held at National Harbor in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

Martin O’Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration during former President Biden’s last year in office, was a distant third in the voting.

Among the longshot candidates were Faiz Shakir, who ran the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Marianne Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations. Williamson endorsed Martin on Saturday, ahead of the vote.

The eight candidates in the race were vying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who decided against seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee.

With no clear leader in the party, the next DNC chair could become the de facto face of Democrats from coast to coast and will make major decisions on messaging, strategy, infrastructure and where to spend millions in political contributions.

Candidates for the Democratic National Committee take part in a forum at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on January 30, 2025. (Fox News Digital/Paul Steinhauser)

“It’s an important opportunity for us to not only refocus the party and what we present to voters, but also an opportunity for us to look at how we internally govern ourselves,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital.

Buckley, a former DNC vice chair who backed Martin, said he’s “very excited about the potential of great reform within the party.” He emphasized that he hoped for “significantly more support for the state parties. That’s going to be a critical step towards our return to majority status.”

In his victory speech, Martin stressed unity and that the party needed “to rebuild our coalition.”

“We need to go on offense,” Martin said. “We’re going to go out there and take this fight to Donald Trump and the Republicans.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who succeeded President Biden last July as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer, spoke with Martin, Wikler and O’Malley in the days ahead of Saturday’s election, Fox News confirmed. But Harris stayed neutral in the vote for party chair.

In a video message to the audience as the vote for chair was being tabulated, Harris said that the DNC has some “hard work ahead.”

But she pledged to be with the party “every step of the way,” which could be a signal of her future political ambitions.

The debate during the three-month DNC campaign sprint mostly focused on the logistics of modern political campaigns, such as media strategy and messaging, fundraising and grassroots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts. On those nuts-and-bolts issues, the candidates were mostly in agreement that changes are needed to win back blue-collar voters who now support Republicans.

But the final forum included a heavy focus on race and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, issues that appeared to hurt Democrats at the ballot box in November.

A protester is removed by security after heckling at a Democratic National Committee chair election debate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

The forum, moderated and carried live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., devolved into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns of climate change and billionaires’ influence in America’s elections before they were forcibly removed by security.

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The chair election took place as a new national poll spelled more trouble for the Democrats.

Only 31% of respondents in a Quinnipiac University survey conducted over the past week had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 57% seeing the party in an unfavorable light.

“This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question,” the survey’s release noted.

Meanwhile, 43% of those questioned had a favorable view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the highest favorable opinion for the Republican Party ever in Quinnipiac polling.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

February 1, 2025
Democrats rally around lightning rod issue during unruly DNC debate despite voter backlash in 2024

There was a heavy focus on systemic racism and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs during the final debate among the eight candidates vying to chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC), as the party aims to exit the political wilderness.

The forum, moderated and carried live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in the nation’s capital city, develed into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns of climate change and billionaires’ influence in America’s elections before they were forcibly removed by security.

Thanks in part to their repeated targeting of DEI efforts under former President Joe Biden’s administration, President Donald Trump recaptured the White House in November’s elections, with Republicans also retaking control of the Senate from the Democrats and the GOP holding onto its razor-thin majority in the House.

Jaime Harrison, the DNC chairman for the past four years, declined to seek another term steering the Democrats’ national party committee. The DNC will vote for a new chair on Saturday, as they hold their annual winter meeting this year at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

FIRST ON FOX: AFTER 2024 ELECTION SETBACKS, DEMOCRATS EYE RURAL VOTERS

The eight candidates vying for Democratic National Committee chair sit for a forum that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

“Unlike the other party, that is demonizing diversity, we understand that diversity is our greatest strength,” Harrison said at the start of the debate before bringing the candidates out.

Biden and many Democrats portrayed DEI efforts as a way to boost inclusion and representation for communities historically marginalized. However Trump and his supporters, on the 2024 campaign trail, repeatedly charged that such programs were discriminatory and called for restoring “merit-based” hiring.

DEMOCRATS’ NEW SENATE CAMPAIGN CHAIR REVEALS KEYS TO WINNING BACK MAJORITY IN 2026

Since his inauguration on Jan. 20 and his return to power in the White House, Trump has signed a slew of sweeping executive orders and actions to end the federal government’s involvement in DEI programs, reversing in some cases decades of hiring practices by the federal government. Trump’s actions are also pushing large corporations in the private sector to abandon their diversity efforts.

At Thursday’s showdown, there was plenty of focus on diversity and racism.

Candidates for the DNC chair position at the DNC chair debate at Georgetown University, on Jan. 30 2025. (Fox News Digital/Paul Steinhauser)

At one point, the candidates were asked for a show of hands about how many believed that racism and misogyny played a role in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in the 2024 election to Trump.

All eight candidates running for DNC, as well as many people in the audience, raised their hands.

“That’s good. You all pass,” MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, one of the moderators of the forum, quipped.

However, far from everyone in the party wants to see such issues dominate the discussion without the added inclusion of economic concerns such as inflation, which were top of mind at the ballot box in November.

DEMOCRATS’ HOUSE CAMPAIGN CHAIR TELLS FOX NEWS HER PLAN TO WIN BACK MAJORITY

“The Democrats pathway to power runs directly through kitchen table economics and the notion we can fight for economic opportunity and ensuring everyone is treat with dignity and respect,” said Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, who is attending the party’s winter meeting.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, considered one of the frontrunners in the DNC chair race, in speaking with reporters after the forum, pointed to the gains made by Trump and Republicans among diverse voters in the 2024 election and argued that the party did not spend enough time concentrating on “the kitchen table issues.”

“Whether you’re Hispanic, whether you’re transgender, whether you’re gay, whether you’re straight, whether you’re Black, whether you’re White. Everybody needs to eat. And the people we lost in every segment were people who struggled the most to put food on their family’s table. And they were the ones we lost across the board,” O’Malley argued.

A protester is removed by security after heckling at a Democratic National Committee chair election debate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

The protests, staged in waves, include calls for the DNC chair candidates to bring back the party’s ban on corporate PAC and lobbyist donations that was in effect during former President Barack Obama’s administration.

The youth-led, left-wing climate action organization known as the Sunrise Movement, said the first three protesters were affiliated with their group.

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Another protester, who was not believed to be affiliated with the Sunrise Movement, as he was dragged out of the debate hall by security, yelled, “What will you do to get fossil fuel money out of Democratic politics? We are facing a climate emergency!”

Much of the audience, which consisted of many DNC voting members, appeared frustrated by the repeated interruptions.

“Protest the Republicans. Protest the people who are actually hurting you!” a member of the audience shouted out.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

January 31, 2025
Democrats rally around lightening rod issue during unruly DNC debate despite voter backlash in 2024

There was a heavy focus on systemic racism and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs during the final debate among the eight candidates vying to chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC), as the party aims to exit the political wilderness.

The forum, moderated and carried live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in the nation’s capital city, develed into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns of climate change and billionaires’ influence in America’s elections before they were forcibly removed by security.

Thanks in part to their repeated targeting of DEI efforts under former President Joe Biden’s administration, President Donald Trump recaptured the White House in November’s elections, with Republicans also retaking control of the Senate from the Democrats and the GOP holding onto its razor-thin majority in the House.

Jaime Harrison, the DNC chairman for the past four years, declined to seek another term steering the Democrats’ national party committee. The DNC will vote for a new chair on Saturday, as they hold their annual winter meeting this year at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

FIRST ON FOX: AFTER 2024 ELECTION SETBACKS, DEMOCRATS EYE RURAL VOTERS

The eight candidates vying for Democratic National Committee chair sit for a forum that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

“Unlike the other party, that is demonizing diversity, we understand that diversity is our greatest strength,” Harrison said at the start of the debate before bringing the candidates out.

Biden and many Democrats portrayed DEI efforts as a way to boost inclusion and representation for communities historically marginalized. However Trump and his supporters, on the 2024 campaign trail, repeatedly charged that such programs were discriminatory and called for restoring “merit-based” hiring.

DEMOCRATS’ NEW SENATE CAMPAIGN CHAIR REVEALS KEYS TO WINNING BACK MAJORITY IN 2026

Since his inauguration on Jan. 20 and his return to power in the White House, Trump has signed a slew of sweeping executive orders and actions to end the federal government’s involvement in DEI programs, reversing in some cases decades of hiring practices by the federal government. Trump’s actions are also pushing large corporations in the private sector to abandon their diversity efforts.

At Thursday’s showdown, there was plenty of focus on diversity and racism.

Candidates for the DNC chair position at the DNC chair debate at Georgetown University, on Jan. 30 2025. (Fox News Digital/Paul Steinhauser)

At one point, the candidates were asked for a show of hands about how many believed that racism and misogyny played a role in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in the 2024 election to Trump.

All eight candidates running for DNC, as well as many people in the audience, raised their hands.

“That’s good. You all pass,” MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, one of the moderators of the forum, quipped.

However, far from everyone in the party wants to see such issues dominate the discussion without the added inclusion of economic concerns such as inflation, which were top of mind at the ballot box in November.

DEMOCRATS’ HOUSE CAMPAIGN CHAIR TELLS FOX NEWS HER PLAN TO WIN BACK MAJORITY

“The Democrats pathway to power runs directly through kitchen table economics and the notion we can fight for economic opportunity and ensuring everyone is treat with dignity and respect,” said Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, who is attending the party’s winter meeting.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, considered one of the frontrunners in the DNC chair race, in speaking with reporters after the forum, pointed to the gains made by Trump and Republicans among diverse voters in the 2024 election and argued that the party did not spend enough time concentrating on “the kitchen table issues.”

“Whether you’re Hispanic, whether you’re transgender, whether you’re gay, whether you’re straight, whether you’re Black, whether you’re White. Everybody needs to eat. And the people we lost in every segment were people who struggled the most to put food on their family’s table. And they were the ones we lost across the board,” O’Malley argued.

A protester is removed by security after heckling at a Democratic National Committee chair election debate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

The protests, staged in waves, include calls for the DNC chair candidates to bring back the party’s ban on corporate PAC and lobbyist donations that was in effect during former President Barack Obama’s administration.

The youth-led, left-wing climate action organization known as the Sunrise Movement, said the first three protesters were affiliated with their group.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Another protester, who was not believed to be affiliated with the Sunrise Movement, as he was dragged out of the debate hall by security, yelled, “What will you do to get fossil fuel money out of Democratic politics? We are facing a climate emergency!”

Much of the audience, which consisted of many DNC voting members, appeared frustrated by the repeated interruptions.

“Protest the Republicans. Protest the people who are actually hurting you!” a member of the audience shouted out.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

January 31, 2025
Hakeem Jeffries pledges Democrats will ‘fight’ Trump agenda ‘in the streets’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is being criticized by Republicans after pledging Democrats would fight President Donald Trump’s agenda “in the streets.”

“Right now, we’re going to keep focus on the need to look out for everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans who are under assault by an extreme MAGA Republican agenda that is trying to cut taxes for billionaires, donors, and wealthy corporations and then stick New Yorkers and working class Americans across the country with the bill,” Jeffries said.

“That’s not acceptable. We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pledged to fight Trump’s agenda (Getty Images)

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., immediately demanded that Jeffries apologize.

“House Minority Leader [Jeffries] should promptly apologize for his use of inflammatory and extreme rhetoric,” Emmer wrote on X. “President Trump and the Republicans are focused on uniting the country; Jeffries needs to stop trying to divide it.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Jeffries’ office for clarification.

A senior White House official told Fox News, “Hakeem Jeffries must apologize for this disgraceful call to violence.”

The House Democratic leader was holding a press conference in Brooklyn on Friday aimed at criticizing Trump’s federal funding freeze and his handling of the tragic aircraft collision in Washington, DC earlier this week.

Jeffries is the top House Democrat (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Jeffries credited Democrats with stopping the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze.

“As was demonstrated this week, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Democratic governors, and everyday Americans all across the country rose up in defiance as it relates to the illegal, unlawful, and extreme federal funding freeze that is part of the Republican rip-off agenda,” Jeffries said. “We fought it, we stopped it, and we will never surrender.”

The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued an order earlier this week pausing most federal funding while directing agencies to conduct thorough reviews of where taxpayer dollars are being spent.

He criticized Trump’s federal funding freeze and handling of the DCA aircraft collision (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

The White House later clarified the memo to mean funding going toward progressive causes that Trump had explicitly blocked through executive orders.

Nevertheless, it was still blocked by a federal judge, and hours later, the memo was rescinded.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the OMB memo was rescinded in light of the court order but clarified that funding blocks set up by Trump’s executive orders were still in effect.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]

January 31, 2025
Biggest clashes between Patel and Senate Democrats

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President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee Kash Patel sparred with Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday in his lengthy confirmation hearing, where he faced off with lawmakers on issues ranging from Trump’s pardoning of Jan. 6 rioters, his role in elevating a song released by the Jan. 6 inmate choir, and his previous call to shut down the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

He also answered questions about his views on QAnon and on his book, “Government Gangsters.”

Here were the four biggest clashes of the day.

Blumenthal: Patel’s actions giving ‘the appearance’ he has something to hide

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., blasted Patel for refusing to share his grand jury testimony from the probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS REJECT WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIM THAT FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL BROKE HOSTAGE PROTOCOL

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing on Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The charges against Trump were dropped in Florida and New York after he won the presidential election, in keeping with a long-standing DOJ policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Blumenthal told Patel on Thursday that refusing to share his remarks with the panel gave “the appearance” that he is being less than transparent.

“The appearance here is that you have something to hide,” Blumenthal told him. “I submit to my colleagues on the committee, we need to know what the grand jury testimony is … and you have no objection to our seeking it, but you won’t tell us.”

“Even in a classified, confidential setting, I think that position is disqualifying,” he said, before adding, “What are you hiding?” “Why won’t you tell us?”

Patel declined to give a satisfactory answer.

“The appearance here is that you have something to hide,” Blumenthal said.

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DEFENDS TRUMP’S FIRING OF INSPECTORS GENERAL

FBI director nominee Kash Patel, left, and Sen. Adam Schiff (AP | Getty)

Jan. 6 pardons

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also traded barbs with Patel on Thursday over the president’s sweeping pardon and sentence commutations to the more than 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the panel, asked whether Patel believed the U.S. is “safer” after the mass pardons were granted, to which Patel attempted to equivocate the action to pardons issued by former President Joe Biden.

He told Durbin that he has “not looked at all 1,600 individual cases” before adding, “I also believe America is not safer because of President Biden’s commutation of a man who murdered two FBI agents,” Patel said, referencing Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist convicted of murdering two FBI agents on a South Dakota reservation.

The agents’ families, he said, “[D]eserve better than to have the man that point-blank range fired a shotgun into their heads and murdered them released from prison.”

“So it goes both ways.”

The January 6 rioters, and their pardons, were a frequent topic of the hearing.

Supporters of President Donald Trump are seen at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

J6 inmate choir, ‘Justice for All’

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., hit Patel with rapid-fire questions regarding his involvement in and promotion of a song recorded by the “J6 Prison Choir,” a group of Capitol rioters, during their incarceration.

Patel shared the song, “Justice for All,” on social media. He said that at the time he “did not know about the violent offenders,” noting that he “did not participate in any of the violence in and around Jan. 6.”

In response, Schiff gave Patel a harsh public dressing-down over the violence and assault endured by the Capitol Police on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Turn around and look at them,” Schiff told Patel before motioning to the officers lined up for protection along the back of the room.

Patel declined to do so.

“I want you to look at them if you can, if you have the courage to look them in the eye, Mr. Patel. Tell them you’re proud of what you did,” Schiff said.

“Tell them you’re proud that you raised money off of people that assaulted their colleagues, that pepper sprayed them, that beat them with poles. Tell them you’re proud of what you did,” Schiff said, adding, “They’re right there. They are guarding you today.”

FIRST ON FOX: TRUMP CABINET NOMINEE LEOFFLER PLEDGES TO DONATE SALARY TO CHARITY IF CONFIRMED

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images/File)

Booker doubles down on classified documents

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s questions to Patel regarding any efforts by Trump to declassify documents after leaving the White House were among the most heated moments of the hearing.

Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, asked Patel repeatedly whether he witnessed Trump handling documents marked as classified or moving to declassify them after leaving the Oval Office.

“In the name of all the values you have said today, did you or did you not testify to witnessing the president of the United States declassify documents?” Booker asked, his voice rising several octaves.

Patel told Booker he did not know if the documents he saw being declassified at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida were seized by FBI agents in the special counsel probe, and he urged Booker to obtain them legally.

“The question is: Will you lie for the president of the United States?” Booker said. “Would you lie for Donald Trump?”

“No,” Patel said.

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Booker urged Patel to testify to the Senate over what he said to the grand jury.

It “would be utterly irresponsible for this committee to move forward with his nomination … if we do not know that the future head of the FBI would break the law and lie for the president of the United States,” Booker said.

“He’s refusing the transparency that he claims to adhere to. He is refusing to be direct with the United States Senate,” he continued.

“Did he or did he not lie for the president? That is the question.”

January 31, 2025
Democrats press Army secretary nominee if ‘readiness’ will be affected by southern border deployments

Democrats sounded off about the White House sending U.S. troops to the southern border, but Army secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll insisted that he did not believe it would affect readiness.

“Is there a cost in terms of readiness?” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat in the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Driscoll during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.

“The Army has a long, 249 history of balancing multiple objectives,” Driscoll said. “If this is important to the commander-in-chief, the Army will execute it.”

“I think border security is national security,” he went on. “We’ve had soldiers at the border for a number of years, and the Army stands ready for any mission.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., also voiced concerns about sending the military to the U.S. border.

“We’re seeing now active duty military, Army, be sent to the border, being sent on missions right now to support DHS,” she said. “But according to our Constitution, the US military active duty cannot perform law enforcement roles.”

ARMY SEC NOMINEE QUESTIONS WHETHER MILITARY PILOTS SHOULD TRAIN NEAR DC AIRPORT

U.S. soldiers patrol the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 24, 2025. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

Slotkin, a former CIA agent, said she was concerned that without proper training an incident could occur that would turn public opinion against the nation’s armed forces.

“I’m deeply concerned that active duty troops are going to be forced into law enforcement roles, and we’re already hearing stories that really, really touch right on the line,” she said.

“They’re not properly trained. There’s going to be an incident,” she said. “Someone’s going to get hurt, there’s going to be some sort of blow up, and suddenly we’re going to have a community that’s deeply, deeply angry at uniformed military who were just told to go and drive those DHS vehicles through that building, perform support for somebody.”

Slotkin asked Driscoll if he would follow an order from President Donald Trump or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if it “contravened with the Constitution.”

“I reject the premise that the president or the secretary would ask for an order like that, but I will always follow the law,” Driscoll said.

HEGSETH SHARES DETAILS ON BLACK HAWK CHOPPER TRAINING FLIGHT

Slotkin shot back: “Your predecessor, Army Secretary [Mark] Esper, had this exact thing that he wrote about in his book, 82nd Airborne Army was asked to come in and clean up a peaceful protest in Washington, DC. So I reject your rejection that this is theoretical.”

“We’re counting on you to protect the integrity of a non-political military that is not trained in law enforcement roles.”

Daniel Driscoll, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the Army, said: “I think border security is national security.” (AP)

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a former CIA agent, said she was concerned that without proper training an incident could occur that would turn public opinion against the nation’s armed forces. (Reuters)

Immediately upon taking office, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and 1,500 active duty troops — 1,000 Army personnel and 500 Marines — deployed to the southern border.

There already were 2,500 U.S. service members stationed at the southern border. The troops were ordered there in May 2023 during the Biden administration under Title 10 authorities approved by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and are planned to be there until the end of fiscal year 2025, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson.

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“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” Hegseth said Monday, hinting at the possibility of additional deployments in the coming weeks.

Trump also signed an executive order designating drug cartels in Latin America as foreign terrorist organizations, granting the military greater authority to interdict them.

January 30, 2025
Democrats coordinate multi-state response to Trump’s funding freeze

Morally indignant Senate Democrats piled on President Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze Wednesday, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announcing a coordinated response with Democratic governors to come.

The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo on Monday issuing a pause on all federal grants and loans aiming to eradicate “wokeness” and the “weaponization of government” to improve government efficiency. The memo claims nearly $3 trillion was spent in 2024 on such assistance programs.

The White House insists this freeze does not touch programs including Social Security, Medicare, or other entitlement payments, but Schumer called Trump’s action “chaotic,” “careless,” and “cruel” at the Democratic leadership’s weekly press briefing.

“In one instant, in the blink of an eye, in the dark of night, Donald Trump committed one of the cruelest actions that I have seen the federal government do in a very long time,” Schumer said, claiming Trump had shut off “billions, maybe trillions of dollars that average American families need.”

FEDERAL JUDGE PAUSES TRUMP ADMIN’S TEMPORARY FEDERAL GRANTS, LOANS FREEZE

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks on the Trump Administration’s federal air freeze during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Also pictured is Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The minority leader said there are ongoing discussions between Capitol Hill Democrats and various Democratic governors on a coordinated response to Trump’s action. Two dozen blue state attorneys general have already announced legal action to keep the federal grant, loan and other aid flowing.

Democrats said they have received an avalanche of phone calls from local officials, non-governmental organizations, charities and individual constituents demanding to know if OMB’s memo meant taxpayer dollars they rely on to serve people were about to disappear.

“Chaos reigned. I got calls from a whole lot of Republican town supervisors and mayors, asking, what about flood prevention? What about sewer construction projects?” Schumer said. He recounted additional calls from food bank operators, nonprofit groups that treat addiction and church groups worried they would not be able to make payroll.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that the OMB memo would not impact individuals who receive direct assistance from the federal government. She described the pause as “temporary” and likened it to simultaneous efforts by the Trump administration to freeze hiring and regulations in an effort to shrink the government.

FACT OR FICTION: WILL TRUMP’S FEDERAL FUNDING FREEZE IMPACT STUDENT LOANS, GRANTS?

Schumer points to a chart showing programs at risk from Trump’s federal funding freeze. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” the memo, obtained by Fox Digital, reads.

A federal judge on Tuesday imposed a stay on Trump’s action, delaying it until Monday as a torrent of lawsuits against the administration were announced this week.

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday led a coalition of 22 other attorneys general suing to stop the implementation of the memo.

In a statement from James’ office, she said the policy “puts an indefinite pause on the majority of federal assistance to states” and would “immediately jeopardize state programs that provide critical health and childcare services to families in need, deliver support to public schools, combat hate crimes and violence against women, provide life-saving disaster relief to states, and more.”

‘ANSWERED THIS QUESTION FOUR TIMES’: LEAVITT PUSHES BACK ON MEDIA’S ‘UNCERTAINTY’ ABOUT FEDERAL FUNDING FREEZE

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Republicans have mostly backed Trump, insisting that the new presidential administration has a right to examine how taxpayer dollars are spent.

“This is not unusual for an administration to pause funding and to take a hard look and scrub of how these programs are being spent and how they interact with a lot of the executive orders that the president signed,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters, though he expressed hope that the White House would “further clarify what exactly will be impacted by this.”

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Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democratic appropriator, said Trump’s actions have endangered chances for a bipartisan spending agreement when the government funding deadline arrives in March.

“It is extremely difficult to agree to a compromise on anything if the White House is going to assert that they control the funds, we don’t,” Murray said. “So this is really putting that in jeopardy.”

Chris Pandolfo is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.

January 29, 2025
Costco board members donated hundreds of thousands to Democrats in 2024 cycle

Storch Advisors CEO and former Toys”R”Us and Target executive Gerald Storch reacts to a strong November retail report and explains how industry winners are ‘value-based’ players.

Costco’s chairman of the board donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats in the last election cycle, and multiple other board members heavily donated to Democrats as well, according to data from the Federal Elections Commission.

The grocery wholesaler is grappling with a public backlash after the board overwhelmingly came out in favor of the company’s controversial DEI policies.

Chairman of the Board Hamilton E. James gave $100,000 to the Harris Action Fund in May 2023. Hamilton, who was formerly with the Blackstone group, donated $150,000 to the Harris Victory Fund in Oct. 2024, FEC data reveals.

The Costco chairman donated $250,000 to the Senate Majority PAC, a political action committee dedicated to electing Democrats to the Senate, and gave $100,000 to the House Majority Pac, which works to elect Democratic candidates to the House of Representatives, between Sept. and Oct. 2024.

COSTCO BOARD MEMBER DEFENDS DEI PRACTICES, REBUKES COMPANIES SCRAPPING POLICIES

Costco board members donated heavily to Democrats in the 2023-24 election cycle. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Hamilton, 73, donated $41,000 to the PAC for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the Jeffries Victory Fund in Sept. 2024, among numerous other Democratic PACs, federal data reveals, and made donations to numerous state Democratic parties and committees.

Costco board member and former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Jeff Raikes, appears to be one of the more prolific donors among the board, giving over $400,000 to Democratic candidates and causes in the last two years. On October 28, 2024, Raikes gave $25,000 to the Harris Victory Fund, just days before the presidential election. A month earlier, he gave $25,000 to the House Majority PAC.

Costco board member Kenneth Denman made numerous donations to left-wing candidates and groups as well. In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, Denman made two $2,500 donations to Harris for President in one week, on Oct. 20 and Oct. 26.

Sally Jewell, who has sat on Costco’s board since 2020 and served in the Obama administration as secretary of the interior, made 49 contributions in support of Democratic candidates between January 2023 and December 2024. She gave thousands to groups supporting the campaigns of Democrats across the country, including former Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and former Montana Sen. Jon Tester.

Director Helena Buonanno Foulkes gave $3,300 to Harris for President and $3,500 to the Harris Victory Fund in August, and donated in support of Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar, Tammy Baldwin, and Bob Casey. Foulkes is the niece of former Democratic Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, and she made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor of Rhode Island in 2022.

Of the Costco board members that Fox News Digital could independently verify, only John Stanton gave to Republican-aligned PACs. Stanton donated to PACs supporting Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, and he also contributed to Michigan Rep. John James. He also donated to a Washington Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, last cycle.

None of the other board members appeared to have donated to Republicans or right-wing PACs. According to their website, Costco’s board currently consists of 11 members. The remaining members did not appear to make individual political donations in the 2024 cycle, or could not be verified to have done so, according to the FEC’s website.

COSTCO SHAREHOLDERS REJECT ANTI-DEI MEASURE

Costco board member Jeff Raikes has been an outspoken advocate for DEI. (Getty Images)

The significant left-wing political contributions among Costco’s board members come in light of a raging controversy over the wholesale grocer’s DEI policies. Nineteen state attorneys general urged the grocery wholesaler to drop DEI on Monday in light of President Donald Trump’s executive orders purging it from the federal government.

Raikes has been an outspoken supporter of DEI. In November 2024 he wrote, “Attacks on DEI aren’t just bad for business—they hurt our economy. A diverse workforce drives innovation, expands markets, and fuels growth. Let’s focus on building a future where all talent thrives,” in a post on X.

Larry Ellison, Executive Charmain Oracle listens to US President Donald Trump speak in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on January 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Denman frequently reposts criticisms of Trump and praise for Democrats on his X and Bluesky accounts.

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The company’s founder, James Sinegal, who retired from his executive position in 2012, was a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party. He spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 as a backer of President Barack Obama.

Fox News Digital reached out to the board members who donated in the 2024 election cycle and have yet to receive a response. Jewell, James, Stanton was unable to be reached.

January 29, 2025
House Democrats demand answers on DOJ’s move to fire former special counsel officials

House Democrats are demanding answers regarding the Justice Department’s move this week to fire more than a dozen officials involved in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, arguing the action was in “complete contradiction” of President Trump’s effort to keep a “merit-based system” for government employees.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Gerald Connolly, D-Ma., penned a letter to acting Attorney General James McHenry Tuesday, obtained by Fox News.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FIRES MORE THAN A DOZEN KEY OFFICIALS ON FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH’S TEAM

“We write to you with alarm and profound concern about reports of the administration engaging in the widespread summary firing and involuntary reassignment of excellent career prosecutors and federal agents throughout the Department of Justice (DOJ),” they wrote. “This onslaught against effective DOJ civil servants began within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, in complete contradiction of the president’s repeated pledges to maintain a merit-based system for government employment.”

The seal for the Justice Department is photographed in Washington, Nov. 18, 2022. The Justice Department has announced three arrests in a complex stolen identity scheme that officials say generates enormous proceeds for the North Korean government, including for its weapons program. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Raskin and Connolly added that the officials worked “strenuously to defend the rule of law have been removed from their positions without any evaluation—much less any negative evaluation—of their work.”

McHenry, on Monday, fired more than a dozen key officials on Smith’s team who worked to prosecute the president, saying that they could not be trusted in “faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.”

Fox News Digital first reported the news exclusively on Monday.

TRUMP TO TAKE MORE THAN 200 EXECUTIVE ACTIONS ON DAY ONE

Raskin and Connolly argued that the officials terminated on Monday were “part of an expert, non-political workforce tasked with protecting our national security and public safety.”

Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“They have been hired and promoted based on their professional merit and excellence,” they wrote, adding that “many of them have decades of experience under their belt and have served under, been promoted by, and received awards from presidential administrations of both major political parties, including President Trump’s first administration.”

The Democrats argued that McHenry removed them from their posts “without regard to their demonstrated competencies, their recognized achievements, or their devoted service to the Department, in some cases reassigning them to areas that are outside of their legal expertise.”

“By removing them from their positions in this hasty and unprincipled way, you have very likely violated longstanding federal laws,” they wrote, also accusing McHenry of having “taken aim at law students who applied to, interviewed for, and received offers from the Department based on their demonstrated academic achievements and their commitment to public service.”

DOJ RELEASES FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH’S REPORT ON INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE

The Democrats claimed that the DOJ “rescinded job offers to summer interns and entry-level attorneys hired through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, a highly competitive 72-year-old recruitment program that receives applications from students at hundreds of law schools across the country.”

Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly, R-Ma. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

“We have also received disturbing reports surfacing that White House staff are playing a substantial role in these employment decisions and examining career civil servants’ LinkedIn and other social media profiles to ascertain their personal political leanings,” Raskin and Connolly wrote. “Taken together, your actions raise significant concern that you are determined to fill the ranks of the DOJ and FBI with career employees selected for the personal loyalty or political services they have rendered to President Trump.”

Raskin and Connolly are demanding the DOJ provide them with a list of names of officials who have been reassigned or terminated; and provide any communications between the DOJ and the White House since Inauguration Day regarding the content of personal social media accounts of career DOJ employees or applicants.

Raskin and Connolly demanded the information by Feb. 11 at 5:00 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for North Carolina at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., January 24, 2025. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Their letter comes after McHenry, on Monday, transmitted a letter to each official notifying them of their termination, a Justice Department official exclusively told Fox News Digital. It is unclear how many officials received that letter. The names of the individuals were not immediately released.

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“Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” a DOJ official told Fox News Digital. “In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.”

This action “is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,” the official told Fox News Digital.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.

January 29, 2025
Health experts teach Democrats about anti-vaccine claims ahead of RFK hearings

A group of Democratic senators previewed several anti-vaccine arguments during a roundtable discussion, including a claim that vaccines cause autism, several days before Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s scheduled confirmation hearings later this week.

Even though Kennedy’s name was “not supposed” to come up during the hearing, according to at least one of the health experts present at the discussion, his nomination to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was invoked frequently by lawmakers seeking answers about how to combat anti-vaccine claims and so-called “misinformation,” including arguments about vaccines that Kennedy has promoted in the past.

One claim the senators asked the public health experts at the roundtable about was whether vaccines cause autism, a claim Kennedy has discussed publicly in interviews.

“This is something that I hear a concern about quite a lot,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., asked the panel. “What, if any information, can you give us to help us push back against that?”

RFK IS THE LEAST ‘SCARY’ THING HAPPENING TO THE US HEALTH SYSTEM, DR MAKARY WARNS

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/File)

The doctors on the panel explained the lack of robust studies proving this link while highlighting the wide breadth of studies that have shown no links between vaccines and autism.

“Academic researchers, pediatricians, scientists took that concern seriously enough to spend tens of millions of dollars to answer the question,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician with an expertise in virology and immunology. “The more impactful part of your question is how do you get that information out there, because frankly, once you’ve scared people it’s hard to unscare them.”

Offitt added that since there is no clear cause of autism, it makes it harder to refute claims from Kennedy and others. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein of Johns Hopkins pointed lawmakers to preeminent medical authorities within the U.S., such as the National Academy of Sciences, as places they could go for evidence that vaccines do not cause autism.

TULSI GABBARD, RFK JR EXPECTED TO FACE OPPOSITION IN SENATE CONFIRMATION HEARINGS

The Democratic group of lawmakers, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, asked questions about, and learned ways to refute, other anti-vaccine claims, such as whether vaccine manufacturers are immune from being held accountable for vaccine injuries.

The experts pointed out the presence of a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program that allows certain vaccine injury victims to receive compensation from the government, but they suggested that if Kennedy upended the current system and opened up more companies to liability, it could potentially put vaccine manufacturers out of business.

TRUMP’S REINSTATEMENT OF TROOPS BOOTED OVER COVID VACCINE HAILED AS WIN FOR FREEDOM: ‘GREAT DAY FOR PATRIOTS’

“Am I right that the HHS secretary has some discretion about removing vaccines from that list [and opening them up to civil litigation] if they were to choose?” asked Sen. Time Kaine, D-Va. “Because if that were the case, I would obviously worry about – that would be one worry I would have and a set of questions I might like to ask people nominated for positions within HHS.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (Getty Images/File)

Other questions from lawmakers that the health experts helped answer included queries about how to distinguish between vaccine side effects versus vaccine complications, how to combat claims that vaccines are not studied enough, questions about how the government monitors the safety of vaccines, questions about how undermining vaccine efficacy can impact public health and more.

DIET AND NUTRITION EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON HOW RFK JR’S NOMINATION COULD IMPACT HOW WE EAT

Kennedy will face tough questions about his stance on vaccines this week during his confirmation hearings in front of both the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).

Robert Kennedy Jr. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images/File)

The chair of the Senate’s HELP committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called Kennedy “wrong” on vaccines during an interview earlier this month.

Democrats, meanwhile, have been more pointed about their criticism. During the roundtable discussion with public health experts, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called Kennedy “dangerous” and “unqualified” for the position of HHS secretary.

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“The bird flu, if it explodes, we’re going to need to have some confidence, especially in those people who should be vaccinated, that they can trust the government when they say that it’s safe, they can trust the medical community, and I’m just very afraid of Robert F. Kennedy’s candidacy,” Markey said.

“Say goodbye to your smile and say hello to polio,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said after news of Kennedy’s nomination to head HHS. “This is a man who wants to stop kids from getting their polio and measles shots. He’s actually welcoming a return to polio, a disease we nearly eradicated.”

January 28, 2025