Happy New Year 2025

Tag: election

Obama-appointed judge who became Trump rival during election interference case overseeing pivotal DOGE hearing

A federal judge President Donald Trump once described as “the most evil person” is now hearing a lawsuit brought by blue states to stop the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing government data.

First named to the bench in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia Court rose to notoriety in 2021, when she presided over the criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Though, her role Monday centered on whether billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE should be blocked from accessing government data or firing federal employees.

Chutkan is a longtime legal foe of the current president – at least, if her actions from her more than 10 years on the bench are any indication.

LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP’S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS

Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys, from left to right, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Lauro depart federal court after a hearing on then-former President Donald Trump’s election interference case on Sept. 5, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In 2021, Chutkan rejected Trump’s claims of presidential immunity in the 2020 election interference case. The decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court, whose ruling considerably expanded the notion of immunity for U.S. presidents.

The judge did little to remedy any strained tensions in the months that followed. Beyond boasting the harshest sentencing record for all criminal defendants that appeared before her for their roles in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, Chutkan has been outspoken about her view of the day. After Trump moved to pardon and grant clemency to the more than 1,500 convicted, she said the president’s actions “cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake.”

“And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power,” she continued.

Chutkan also denied Trump’s attempt to block the release of records requested by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, supplying them with some 1,800 pages of documents despite the staunch opposition from Trump’s legal counsel. Trump famously described her, in response, as the “most evil person.”

These actions and words have made her a target of Trump allies.

In 2024, Chutkan was the victim of a “swatting” attack in her Washington, D.C., home, where police responded to what was later determined to be a false shooting report.

DOGE SCORES BIG COURT WIN, ALLOWED ACCESS DATA ON 3 FEDERAL AGENCIES

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after landing at the Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 16, 2025. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP via Getty Images)

While it seems unlikely she will side with the states to block DOGE access to federal government data, her record of opposition to Trump’s agenda is unlikely to reassure Trump and his supporters.

During the first Trump administration, Chutkan was criticized by administration officials for many actions they saw as harmful to their policy agenda. In 2018, she temporarily halted the U.S. from blocking the abortions of illegal teenage immigrants – a ruling that was later overturned.

The following year, she ruled then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos had illegally delayed implementing an Obama-era special education equity rule, which required states to identify and correct for racial disparities in special education programs across the country. She ordered the administration to begin implementing the program “immediately,” despite requests from Education Department officials who said they needed more time to do so.

‘WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS’: DOGE’S TOP FIVE MOST SHOCKING REVELATIONS

President Donald Trump, right, speaks as Elon Musk listens in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

She has also not been shy about using her position on the bench to criticize Trump’s actions.

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Following Trump’s decision to grant a mass pardon of the 1,600 criminal dependents involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Chutkan reportedly had to reassure Capitol Police who were at the scene that the “rule of law still applies,” as Politico reported last month.

However, she added at the time, “I’m not sure I can do that very convincingly these days.”

Breanne Deppisch is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.

February 18, 2025
Expert reveals what should happen next with Biden DOJ’s lingering ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ election lawsuit

As President Donald Trump’s administration continues to form and top officials are confirmed, questions remain about the future of a highly publicized and pending Biden administration lawsuit against Georgia’s election laws that then-President Joe Biden famously referred to as “Jim Crow 2.0.”

The Biden administration sued Georgia in 2021 over its election integrity laws, arguing that it contains “racially discriminatory provisions” that were “adopted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race” and “particularly” harmed Black voters.

“The right of all eligible citizens to vote is the central pillar of our democracy, the right from which all other rights ultimately flow,” then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press release at the time.

“This lawsuit is the first step of many we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote; that all lawful votes are counted; and that every voter has access to accurate information.”

LAWMAKERS DEMAND BONDI’S DOJ INVESTIGATE BIDEN’S POST-ELECTION DAY DISMISSAL OF GREEN ENERGY FRAUD LAWSUIT

The Biden administration sued Georgia in 2021 over its election integrity laws, arguing that it contains “racially discriminatory provisions” (Getty)

In October 2021, Biden described the law as “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” and later repeated that claim by calling the law “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Since that lawsuit, which court filings show is currently on appeal in the 11th Circuit, Georgia has experienced record voter registration and turnout in several elections.

“The Trump administration should immediately dismiss this lawsuit,” the Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies Hans von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital.

“It had no merit and there was no evidence justifying its filing. Events since then, including record registration and turnout in the 2022 and 2024 elections, with all of the reforms in place that DOJ was attacking, prove what a sham this lawsuit is. DOJ filed it for political reasons because Joe Biden was calling the commonsense Georgia reforms ‘Jim Crow 2.0,’ an outrageous claim that was clearly wrong and simply made to try to scare voters.”

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT DISMISSES CLASSIFIED RECORDS CASE AGAINST FORMER TRUMP CO-DEFENDANTS

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky/File)

Last week, Georgia’s secretary of state called for the lawsuit to be dropped.

“The Biden Administration and Stacey Abrams created a false narrative regarding Georgia’s elections,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a press release.

“The DOJ should never be leveraged for political purposes, and I hope Attorney General Bondi will join us in ending this frivolous lawsuit against the state of Georgia, and release documents exposing the coordination between the Biden DOJ and the liberal left.”

Raffensperger’s press release came days before Trump’s Justice Department dropped another high-profile Biden-era investigation into New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The Justice Department declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital.

Democrat criticism of the law from Biden, former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and others resulted in a negative economic effect on Georgia residents after Major League Baseball announced it was moving its the All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the law.

That move cost the majority-Black city an estimated $70 million or more in revenue, Fox Business previously reported. Major League Baseball later decided to hold the game in Atlanta in 2025 where the election law remains the same as when the game was pulled.

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Joe Biden (Susan Walsh/AP)

“Opponents of SB 202 previously called for economic boycotts against Georgia, most notably the relocation of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game following advocacy efforts led by Stacey Abrams,” Raffensperger’s press release stated. “Despite these efforts, Georgia’s voting laws remain unchanged, and the 2025 MLB All-Star Game is set to return to Atlanta.”

“Recent data underscores the effectiveness of Georgia’s election reforms. A 2022 University of Georgia poll found that 99% of voters reported no issues casting their ballots, and a follow-up poll in 2024 reflected a similarly high satisfaction rate, with 98% of voters experiencing no problems at the polls.”

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

February 17, 2025
‘Woke is their god’: Ex-Dem fundraiser says party ‘in shambles’ after 2024 election losses

EXCLUSIVE: A prominent former fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) revealed that donors are fed up with the Democratic Party, claiming that it is in “shambles” following the presidential election.

Lindy Li, a well-known fundraiser who raised money for the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign, announced her exit from the party in December after being ostracized for criticizing then-Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Speaking to Fox News Digital after President Donald Trump assumed office, Li, who has raised tens of millions of dollars for Democrats over the years, said the party she once stumped for is now “completely rudderless.”

“Democratic donors absolutely, without a single exception, they are so angry and upset with the state of the party. They think the party is in complete shambles,” Li told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SAYS HIS PARTY IS ACTING ‘PATHETICALLY’ TO THWART MUSK’S DOGE

Lindy Li spoke with Fox News Digital about the state of the Democratic Party. (Fox News Digital)

“I don’t know how they’re going to get out of this wilderness,” Li said, adding that the party has been “hijacked” by “woke” ideology.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS ANGRY AT LIBERAL GROUPS FOR STIRRING UP DIVISION IN PARTY: REPORT

“It’s their religion, it’s their god, woke is their god. This trans, woke insanity – they are enthralled by it,” Li said.

“Companies are running as fast as they can from this toxic agenda, yet the Democratic Party is doubling down time and time again on this,” the former Democratic fundraiser added. “Honestly, it’s gender hysteria. It’s almost like a social contagion.”

A ‘Day in the Life’ profile of then-congressional candidate Lindy Li on August 8, 2015, in Philadelphia. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post)

Celebrities, such as Beyoncé and Cardi B, were criticized for reportedly accepting payments from the Harris campaign to appear and speak at events.

The artists have denied accepting payments from the campaign, but Li said that they “lied about not getting paid.”

“All their production companies were getting compensated,” Li told Fox.

After Beyoncé did not perform during her appearance at a Harris campaign event in October, critics claimed attendees had been intentionally misled.

Beyoncé and Harris embrace as they attend a Harris campaign rally in Houston on Oct. 25, 2024. (Reuters/Marco Bello)

“I honestly believe that the campaign used that to generate attention and publicity for their event,” Li said in an interview.

After suffering defeat in the 2024 presidential election, Li said there is “no one on the horizon” to lead the Democratic Party into the next election cycle.

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The former DNC official said the “humanity and kindness” she has received from Republicans has been “unbelievable” and that she is “optimistic” that she will retain her donors after leaving the Democratic Party, as she will now raise money for Republican candidates.

Aubrie Spady is a Writer for Fox News Digital.

February 16, 2025
NY Democrats blink as controversial state election bill affecting Rep. Stefanik seat declared dead: reports

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect reporting that New York Democrats have decided not to move ahead with the legislation.

A controversial New York state election bill will no longer come to fruition, as multiple reports said the bill was put on hold at the behest of Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Sources separately told the New York Post and City & State New York that Hochul asked the Democrat-majority legislature not to take any action on the legislation – which would give the governor more power to decide when special elections can be held and potentially delay the filling of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik’s deep-red upstate seat once the Republican is confirmed as U.N. Ambassador.

The Post reported some of the reasoning stemmed from negotiations between Hochul and the Trump administration as to the longevity of the state-operated MTA’s “Congestion Pricing” tolling program in New York City – which the president has opposed.

City & State reported state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, declared the bill at least temporarily a non-starter at an afternoon meeting.

Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, R-Oswego, also confirmed the bill is “no longer moving forward.”

“It was a terrible piece of legislation in policy & principle. Thanks to strong pushback from Republican legislators & North Country residents, the bill has been halted,” Barclay wrote on X.

State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-Niagara Falls, added in a statement to Fox News Digital that while the bill “appears to be defeated for now, we will remain vigilant against any effort to bring it back.”

The reform bill had been set to come up for a vote Monday.

Critics called it a naked attempt to keep Stefanik’s North Country congressional district without a representative until November, while Democratic sponsors say it will save local and taxpayer resources.

The bill, which would allow Hochul to postpone elections or combine them with upcoming general elections, was marketed by Democrats as a cost-saving measure that helps ensure more voters will cast ballots in specials.

However, Ortt said that for all Democrats’ claims about President Donald Trump being a threat to democracy, the truth is belied in their own legislation.

“It’s all about the outcome, not process, democracy, voter participation – they could give a s—. They could give a s—,” Ortt said.

TOUGH DECISIONS FOR SANCTUARY CITIES AFTER BONDI’S FUND-WITHHOLDING ORDER

“I can’t shame them; they have none… 800,000 folks [in Stefanik’s soon-to-be-former district] will not have a representative in Congress ‘til November. That’s a disgrace for a party that says it cares about democracy,” he said, predicting Hochul will use the law to its maximum extent when enacted.

Ortt said the bill has two different provisions – one for federal elections and one for state legislative elections and ruminated how they could benefit Democrats.

He pointed out that state Sen. Simcha Felder, D-Brooklyn, is likely to seek an open seat on New York City Council in the politically-moderate, majority-Jewish Borough Park area.

Felder caucused with Senate Republicans from 2013-18, which gave the GOP a slim, technical majority in Albany for part of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s term.

Ortt said Democrats stand to potentially lose Felder’s Senate seat, which explains the reported two-tiered changes in the bill.

Meanwhile, Barclay said 44% of New York state voted for Trump and the legislation shows his opposition is still smarting about it.

GOP RIPS HOCHUL’S INFLATION REFUNDS

Senate GOP Leader Rob Ortt (Reuters)

“No, they don’t accept that result,” said Barclay.

“So they’re going to do everything they can, including depriving 800,000 people of a say in the budget [or] the SALT (tax deduction for high-taxed states) bill.”

Barclay noted that if Stefanik’s seat remains vacant when the Farm Bill is voted on later this year, a significant portion of New York’s agricultural lands will lack representation.

But Democrats remained united, with Senate President Andrea Stewart-Cousins saying in a statement that New Yorkers currently face “unprecedented challenges, including the strain on our democracy and our high cost of living.”

“[T]his legislation is a common-sense approach that saves taxpayer dollars while maximizing voter turnout,” said Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers.

Currently, Hochul has 90 days to call a special election once Stefanik, or Felder, resigns.

The bill’s text suggested the current special elections’ framework in Albany is an operational and financial drag on counties and taxpayers – additionally citing “voter confusion and fatigue.”

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Therefore, giving the governor the power to potentially consolidate elections is pertinent.

As NY1 reported, the bill also does not mandate Hochul – or any governor – to combine special and general or primary elections, but now gives her the power to do so.

Some in Stefanik’s district, however, believe Ortt’s claims may have substance.

“By holding up a special election, they’re keeping the North Country from having congressional representation at a critical moment,” state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, told Plattsburgh’s NBC affiliate.

Stec is one of several Republicans vying for the seat, along with Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino, Assemblyman Chris Tague of Schoharie, and author Liz Joy, who previously ran against Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko in the neighboring Capital Region district.

Tague told Fox News Digital that Hochul’s political career began via a special election using the same laws Democrats are seeking to change.

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“She’s tossing them aside to cut backroom deals … leaving the people of Upstate and the North Country without a voice,” Tague said.

A spokesman for Stewart-Cousins told NY1 that state Democrats will not “be lectured to by a party that openly celebrated the release of violent felons that attempted to overthrow a presidential election and have opposed every single voting reform that increases voter participation.”

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].

February 11, 2025
Ecuador’s presidential election goes to runoff between conservative incumbent, leftist lawyer
- Ecuador will choose its next president in a runoff election in April between conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González.
- Crime is a major issue for voters. The trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru has contributed to skyrocketing rates of homicide, kidnapping and extortion.
- Ecuador’s National Electoral Council said that with 92.1% of the ballots counted, Noboa received 44.31% of the voite, while González received 43.83%. The 14 other candidates in the race were far behind them.
Ecuador will choose its next president in a runoff election in April between conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González.

Neither won outright in Sunday’s first-round election, but they were both well ahead of the other 14 candidates and each within a percentage point of garnering 44% of the vote, according to results Monday.

The run-off election set for April 13 will be a repeat of the October 2023 snap election that earned Noboa a 16-month presidency.

EXCLUSIVE LOOK INTO TRUMP REPATRIATION FLIGHT ON C-17 MILITARY PLANE TO ECUADOR

Noboa and González are now vying for a full four-year term, promising voters to reduce the widespread criminal activity that upended their lives four years ago.

The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. So many voters have become crime victims that their personal and collective losses were a determining factor in deciding whether a third president in four years could turn Ecuador around or if Noboa deserved more time in office.

Noboa, an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, and González, the protégée of Ecuador’s most influential president this century, were the clear front-runners ahead of the election.

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, running for re-election, waves after accompanying his running mate, Maria Jose Pinto, to cast her ballot during the presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, on Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

Figures released by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council showed that with 92.1% of the ballots counted, Noboa received 4.22 million votes, or 44.31%, while González received 4.17 million votes, or 43.83%. The 14 other candidates in the race were far behind them.

Voting is mandatory in Ecuador. Electoral authorities reported that more than 83% of the roughly 13.7 million eligible voters cast ballots.

Crime, gangs and extortion

Under Noboa’s watch, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people last year. Still, it remains far higher than the 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019, and other crimes, such as kidnapping and extortion, have skyrocketed, making people fearful of leaving their homes.

“For me, this president is disastrous,” said Marta Barres, 35, who went to the voting center with her three teenage children. “Can he change things in four more years? No. He hasn’t done anything.”

Barres, who must pay $25 a month to a local gang to avoid harassment or worse, said she supported González because she believes she can reduce crime across the board and improve the economy.

Noboa defeated González in the October 2023 runoff of a snap election that was triggered by the decision of then-President Guillermo Lasso to dissolve the National Assembly and shorten his own mandate as a result. Noboa and González, a mentee of former President Rafael Correa, had only served short stints as lawmakers before launching their presidential campaigns that year.

To win outright Sunday, a candidate needed 50% of the vote or at least 40% with a 10-point lead over the closest challenger.

More than 100,000 police officers and members of the military were deployed across the country to safeguard the election, including at voting centers. At least 50 officers accompanied Noboa, his wife and their 2-year-old son to a voting center where the president cast his ballot in the small Pacific coast community of Olón.

Testing the limits of laws and norms of governing

Noboa, 37, opened an event organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas. His political career began in 2021, when he won a seat in the National Assembly and chaired its Economic Development Commission.

As president over the past 15 months, some of his mano dura, or heavy-handed, tactics to reduce crime have come under scrutiny inside and outside the country for testing the limits of laws and norms of governing.

Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, speaks after polls closed for the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, on Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

His questioned tactics include the state of internal armed conflict he declared in January 2024 in order to mobilize the military in places where organized crime has taken hold, as well as last year’s approval of a police raid on Mexico’s embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive who had been living there for months.

His head-on approach, however, is also earning him votes.

“Noboa is the only person hitting organized crime hard,” retiree German Rizzo, who voted to get the president re-elected, said outside a polling station in Samborondón, an upper-class area with gated communities separated from the port city of Guayaquil by a river.

‘Things are not going to change’

González, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president. He was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2020 in a corruption scandal.

González was a lawmaker from 2021 until May 2023, when Lasso dissolved the National Assembly. She was unknown to most voters until Correa’s party picked her as its presidential candidate for the snap election.

Quito’s University of the Americas professor Maria Cristina Bayas said Sunday’s result was “a triumph” for Correa’s party because pre-election polls projected a wider difference between Noboa and González.

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Esteban Ron, dean of the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences at the International University SEK in Quito, said Noboa will be forced to reengineer his campaign at the risk that he may have already reached his vote ceiling. Ron attributed the outcome to the problems Noboa faced during his administration.

Waiting for her turn to vote in Guayaquil, architecture student Keila Torres said she had not yet decided who to vote for. None, she said, will be able to lower crime across Ecuador due to deep-rooted government corruption.

“If I could, I wouldn’t be here,” said Torres, who witnessed three robberies in public buses over the past four years and barely escaped a carjacking in December. “Things are not going to change.”
February 10, 2025
Army recruiting is up, but data show trend began before the election, current and former Army officials say

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Sen. Tom Cotton attributed increased Army recruiting numbers to “America First” leadership and “the Trump effect.” However, data indicates that recruiting numbers began to improve months before the U.S. Presidential election, according to current and former officials.

“You had some number of young men and women who didn’t want to join the army over the last four years under Joe Biden and Christine Wormuth, the former secretary of the Army, when they thought it was more focused on Wokeness and DEI and climate change,” Cotton told Fox’s America’s Newsroom. “That’s not why young men and women join our military. They do it because they love the country.”

The uptick in recruiting started months before the election on November 5.

“No, it did not all start in December,” former Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, who served until Jan. 20, said in an interview with Fox News.

ARMY RECRUITING SHATTERS RECORDS AFTER PRESIDENT TRUMP ELECTION WIN

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., praised President Donald Trump’s election for having a positive effect on Army recruitment, but the numbers tell a different story. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“Army’s recruiting started getting better much earlier. We really started seeing the numbers, the monthly numbers, go up in February of 2024. We were seeing sort of in the high 5000 contracts per month, and that accelerated, you know, into the spring all the way into August, when the Army really hit a peak.”

Starting in Oct. 2023, the Army put 1,200 more recruiters in the field. By Sept. 2024, before the election, the Army announced it had exceeded its recruiting goals.

The groundwork was laid that October when Wormuth and Gen Randy George, the Army chief, began a sweeping initiative to help those who did not meet academic standards or fitness requirements. The six-week pre-boot camp, called the Future Soldier Prep Course, helps lower-performing recruits meet enlistment standards. They also moved away from just recruiting in high schools to posting on job message boards. Recruiters got trained by Amazon, Wells Fargo and other industry leaders in talent acquisition. And the Army brought back the “Be All That You Can Be” branding campaign from the 1980s.

“We’ve been selecting soldiers who have personalities that are more suited to recruiting. We improved our marketing very dramatically in terms of being very data driven and very targeted. And then, of course, the future Soldier Prep course, which the Army established some time ago, has been a big success and has accounted last year for about 25% of the new recruits that came in,” Wormuth said. “If you look at our Army ads, we show young people, you know, jumping out of helicopters. We show kids doing, you know, night patrols in the jungle.”

DEMOCRATS PRESS ARMY SECRETARY NOMINEE IF ‘READINESS’ AFFECTED BY SOUTHERN BORDER DEPLOYMENTS

U.S. Soldiers of the 330th Movement Control Battalion stand in formation at Zagan, Poland, April 1, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joseph Aleman)

Army data shows the Army has struggled with recruiting numbers since COVID, including a shortfall of 15,000 recruits in 2022.

It reported record-breaking recruitment in Dec. 2024, with nearly 350 recruits enlisting daily and the total number of active duty soldiers reaching 5877 recruits that month. Secretary Hegseth praised the recruiting numbers in a post on X:

“@USArmy: @USAREC had their most productive December in 15 years by enlisting 346 Soldiers daily into the World’s greatest #USArmy!

“Our Recruiters have one of the toughest jobs – inspiring the next generation of #Soldiers to serve.

“Congratulations and keep up the great work!”

But August of last year, three months prior to the election, saw a higher number of recruits than in December – 7,415 recruits compared to the 5,877 in December. And January 2025 still has not surpassed August 2024 for the highest monthly count of the past year.

In other words, the positive recruiting trend began before the election.

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

Miami Beach, Florida, Hyundai Air & Sea Show, Military Village vendor, Army soldier recruiter, goarmy.com, Warriors Wanted truck. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Image)

The increased recruiting numbers resulted from more women joining. Women made up 19% of the recruits last year, the highest rate to date.

“For example, right now, 16% of the overall Army is women. And so, having a year where almost 20% of the new recruits are women is a notable increase,” Wormuth said. “In 2024, we also had the highest ever recruiting year for Hispanics.”

There is a lag of about 10–12 weeks from the time a recruit enters a recruiting office and actually signs up due to medical exams and other paperwork.

“The biggest reasons young people are hesitant to join the Army is because of fear of death or injury, fear of leaving their families, a sense that maybe somehow, you know, joining the Army will put their lives on hold for a period of time,” Wormuth said. “Concerns about so-called wokeness are very low on the list of obstacles for most young people. And the last time the Army ran that survey, we didn’t really see a change. That remains to be a small concern.”

During its recruiting crisis, the Army had seen a drop in the number of families who typically send their children to serve, families whose members have served for generations. Many of those families tended to be white and from one of the 10 states that make up nearly half of the recruits: Texas (13.3%), California (10.5%), Florida (9.7%), Georgia (5.1%), North Carolina (4.6%), New York (4.3%), Virginia (2.9%), Ohio (2.8%), Illinois (2.6%) and Pennsylvania (2.4%).

There is no data suggesting a surge in white males joining the Army last year. In FY2024, 40% of the Army recruits were Caucasian, 25% were Black and 26% were Hispanic.

“From the data we saw, there was no discernible change in young white men joining the Army compared to the spring of 2024. The Army had about 7400 recruits in August, and in December it was about 5800,” Wormuth said.

The Army is also set to expand its basic training capacity in the spring.

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“U.S. Army Recruiting Command is on track to exceed the fiscal year 2025 recruitment goal of 61,000 new Soldiers and an additional 10,000 in the Delayed Entry Program,” Madison Bonzo, U.S. Army Recruiting Command spokeswoman, said in a statement. “As of today, USAREC has contracted 59% of the current FY25 goal. Our success couldn’t be possible without the hard work of our Recruiters, continued transformation of the recruiting enterprise and modernization initiatives to attract qualified talent into America’s most lethal fighting force.”

Wormuth said: “I would say we saw in the Army recruiting numbers, we started seeing us really get traction in February of 2024.”

“And we continued to build those numbers up to about, you know, high 5,000, 6,000 a month in August. And the Army has continued that momentum going into the end of the year. And I think the winds are at the Army’s back for coming into 2025,” she continued.

Former Army officials warn that it is dangerous to link Army recruiting successes to the election cycle, since the military is supposed to be apolitical. Soldiers sign up not to serve a president or a party but to serve the Constitution.

Jennifer Griffin currently serves as a national security correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) and is based out of the Washington D.C. bureau. She joined the network in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent.

February 7, 2025
Fired Federal Election Commission leader rants on social media after removal by Trump

President Donald Trump fired the U.S. Federal Election Commission Commissioner and Chair Ellen Weintraub, sending her a letter regarding her “removal.”

Trump took office Jan. 20, and since then has taken on a massive government makeover, sidelining and firing hundreds of top agency officials and civil servants as he attempts to install more loyalists and downsize the bureaucracy.

Weintraub, like many others, was in Trump’s crosshairs, but she did not appear to be standing down.

“Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of [the FEC],” Weintraub wrote Thursday in a post on X. “There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners — this isn’t it. I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon.”

HOUSE GOP DEMANDS FEC PROBE ‘POTENTIALLY ILLEGAL’ ACTBLUE FUNDRAISING AS DEM PLATFORM HAULS HARRIS MILLIONS

U.S. Federal Election Commission Commissioner Ellen Weintraub Jan. 14, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Federal Election Commission/Handout via Reuters, File)

Along with her post, Weintraub posted a copy of the letter from the White House.

“Dear Commissioner Weintraub,” the letter states. “You are hereby removed as a Member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately. Thank you for your service on the Commission.”

The letter was dated Jan. 31, 2025, and signed by Trump.

FEC CHAIR: TRUMP IS ‘DAMAGING TO OUR DEMOCRACY’ WITH ‘BASELESS’ VOTER FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

Weintraub took aim at President Trump in 2019, when she said his “baseless” claims about voter fraud were “damaging to our democracy.”

She criticized the president during an appearance on CNN and claimed he was spreading information for which he had no proof.

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“I think it is damaging to our democracy,” Weintraub told host John Berman, “to spread information like that if there is no proof.”

Weintraub insisted there was no evidence of rampant voter fraud in 2016, responding to Trump’s repeated claims to the contrary.

Fox News Digital’s Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.

Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter @GregWehner.

February 7, 2025
‘Fulfill the mandate’: New election integrity report calls for critical changes to guarantee secure elections

FIRST ON FOX: A nonpartisan election integrity watchdog has released a detailed report outlining what it says are must-needed reforms to be taken up in states across the country to ensure election integrity.

The Honest Elections Project (HEP) released its 2025 “Safeguarding our Elections” report that lists over a dozen “critical” measures, ranging from voter ID to cleaning up voter rolls to banning foreign influence in elections.

“Election integrity ballot issues passed with flying colors across the board on election night. Now that state legislative sessions are starting up, lawmakers have a duty to fulfill the mandate the American people gave to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” HEP Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital.

“Honest Elections Project’s 2025 ‘Safeguarding Our Elections’ report gives legislators a roadmap to do exactly that.”

SELLING AMERICANS A ‘LIE’: HOW ELECTION INTEGRITY ATTORNEYS BATTLED LEFT-WING EFFORTS TO UPEND VOTING LAWS

An elections official prepares to count mail-in ballots on the first day of tabulation on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix. (AP/Matt York)

HEP has been active in recent years advocating against foreign influence in statewide elections via dark money and various loopholes, which the report discusses in the first section and points to polling showing 78% of Americans oppose foreign funding in elections.

“It is illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to political candidates, but a legal loophole allows them to contribute both directly and indirectly to ballot measure campaigns,” the report states.

STEPHEN A. SMITH ARGUES HE CAN WIN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AFTER DEMOCRATS’ ‘PATHETIC’ 2024 RUN

Ballots are stacked on a table at the central count in Baird center, during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, in Milwaukee on Nov. 5, 2024. (REUTERS/Vincent Alban)

“A single left-wing group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, has simultaneously accepted approximately $243 million from foreign billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and spent $130 million supporting or opposing ballot issue campaigns in 25 states. Ballot issues can rewrite election laws and change state Constitutions. These campaigns should not be a Trojan Horse for foreign influence, whether from activists like Wyss or hostile foreign powers like China and Russia.”

The report also warns against Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), which some states have banned but other states, including Alaska, continue to use it.

“RCV makes it harder to vote, harder to understand election results, and harder to trust the voting process,” the report explains.

“Nevertheless, a small group of left-wing megadonors are pushing RCV as a way to drag politics to the left. In 2024, donors like John and Laura Arnold collectively spent $100 million on ballot measures to bring RCV to six new states. Voters rejected them all, defeating ballot issues in states as diverse as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon.”

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Voting booths stand during the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Election Day at the Detroit Police Department, 12th Precinct in Detroit on Nov. 5, 2024. (REUTERS/Emily Elconin)

“Zuck Bucks” became an increasingly controversial aspect of election security after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg poured $400 million in grants during the 2020 election to fund a variety of work and equipment. HEP’s report urges states to prevent similar instances from occurring in the future.

“Elections should be accountable to the public, not to special interest groups and liberal megadonors,” the report says. “In 2020, left-wing nonprofits pumped more than $400 million from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg into thousands of election offices, giving more money to places that ultimately voted for Joe Biden.”

Other issues in the report include, requiring transparency and robust post-election audits of election processes and procedures, ensuring that elected lawmakers write election laws, and protecting vulnerable mail ballots.

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

February 6, 2025
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
After stinging election defeats, DNC eyes rural voters as key to midterm success

FIRST ON FOX— The Democratic National Committee (DNC) plans to focus much of its campaign efforts on winning over rural voters in the 2026 midterm elections, according to the party’s outgoing chairman— a sprawling effort they hope will help the party engage with and educate new voters, and loosen what many see as President Donald Trump’s ironclad grip on many red state voters.

The new strategy was previewed exclusively to Fox News Digital by outgoing DNC Chair Jaime Harrison ahead of the DNC’s slated vote Saturday to select his successor as next party leader.

In an interview, Harrison said the strategy, which has been weeks, if not months in the making, is designed to refute many of Trump’s campaign trail claims on the economy, health insurance and taxes for average Americans.

Rather, Harrison said the aim is to tie Trump more closely to these policies and to make the case to voters directly that Trump is “using rural America, and giving rural voters nothing in return.”

“An examination of Trump’s second term agenda and first administrative actions reveals that rural families and the resources they rely on are in greater jeopardy than ever before,” the DNC said in a preview of its new election strategy memo, shared exclusively with Fox News.

“One can conclude, Donald Trump is using rural America and giving rural voters nothing in return,” the memo continued.

TRUMP’S ULTIMATUM TO FEDERAL WORKERS: RETURN TO OFFICE ‘OR BE TERMINATED’

The stage is prepared ahead of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump’s rhetoric has long been praised as refreshing by voters, who resonate with what many said they see as his unorthodox, anti-establishment bona fides. However, there is a difference between Trump as a presidential candidate and Trump as president. It is “him just saying things and not having the power to implement them,” compared to being back in the Oval Office, Harrison said.

The DNC’s effort, however, will seek to challenge that assumption by highlighting victories secured by former President Joe Biden in his first term, including tightening CAFE fuel economy standards for gas-fired vehicles, investing in EV manufacturing and battery supply chains, cracking down on PFAS contaminants and pollution, and allocating billions of dollars in clean energy and climate spending.

Trump has vowed to undo many of these policies after retaking control of the Oval Office.

To date, he has made good on his promise. Trump used his first week in office to sign hundreds of executive orders and actions, a dizzying flurry of orders that, among other things, sought to crack down on immigration, unleash U.S. liquefied natural gas exports and freeze all congressionally approved spending, if only temporarily.

Democrats, for their part, have sought to use Trump’s vice-grip on the post-inauguration news cycle to double down on their efforts to appeal to voters and prepare for the midterms, no matter how far-off they might seem.

This includes focusing on issues like healthcare coverage and medical providers, both of which have suffered “major” disparities in rural America, and where doctors have exited en masse amid a flurry of hospital closures and a dearth of insured patients.

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

People register to vote during a Republican voter registration in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 2020. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Many of the Republican-led states that did not opt to expand Medicaid saw wide hospital closures, higher out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions and much more limited access to opiod recovery or substance abuse programs, Harrison said.

Rural communities are also seeing more limited access to doctors, emergency treatment centers and a lack of access to important medication, as Biden-era programs wane.

“These things are going to have a detrimental impact on rural America,” he said.

Still, Harrison acknowledged that the Democratic Party also needs to do its part to meet voters where they are at in 2026, just months after the party’s humbling defeat in the 2024 presidential election.

SWING STATE’S SUPREME COURT ISSUES PIVOTAL RULING ON MAIL-IN BALLOTS SENT WITHOUT POSTMARK

DNC chair Jaime Harrison was pressed on whether former President Joe Biden was “bullied” out of the race. (Screenshot/NBC/Today)

However, changing hearts and minds will not happen overnight, he said.

Rather, it will require many conversations from state party leaders at the local level, who can both identify key issues for voters and help recruit good candidates for the upcoming election cycle.

“I think what we have to do is paint a picture for the American people of all the things that we rely upon— all the things that are necessary and needed in these communities, and that sometimes we don’t even know are [programs] that the federal government is funding,” Harrison said.

“Those things are in jeopardy under this administration.”

Rural scene near Janesville, Wisconsin. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“We want to let people know these things aren’t just happening by happenstance. It’s happening because Donald Trump is taking this radical right wing extremist agenda and trying to implement and therefore impacting the quality of your life.”

The DNC’s effort will also spell out to voters what they say will happen if these policies are rolled back, in accordance with Trump’s plans, Harrison said.

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“The second thing is having our cannons— we go out, and we work with our state parties, and recruit candidates to run in 2026,” he said of candidates who are well-positioned to speak to the communities they are representing.

In Harrison’s view, this will also help explain to voters how Trump’s drastic cuts or reductions will impact their communities specifically.

“And then we continue to have that conversation, one-on- one, in small and larger groups with the people in those communities,” he said. “And that is how we put ourselves on a much stronger foot going into the 2026 midterm election. “

Breanne Deppisch is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the 2024 election and other national news.

January 31, 2025