Valentines’ is around the corner, and couples are getting busy looking for the perfect gifts for their better halves. And if your partner is a Bibliophile who lives, breathes, and inhales books, here are some perfect gifts for them.
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose vote cemented Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation last month, opened up about the effort to corroborate last-minute allegations against President Donald Trump’s nominee.
“Anytime you have an allegation and somebody is willing to put it in sworn testimony, you owe it to the process to review it and not just dispose it out of hand,” the North Carolina Republican told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“And that’s exactly what I did. And then I arrived at the conclusion that I’d support Pete’s nomination”
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In an interview with Fox News Digital, Sen. Thom Tillis walked through his thought process in the hours leading up to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation vote. (Reuters)
Hegseth was confirmed after a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance, making the final margin 51-50.
Three Republicans — senators Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted against Hegseth.
Given the Republican conference’s 53-seat majority, nominees can only afford to lose three votes, assuming all Democrats are opposed and each senator is in attendance.
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Tillis’ decision on whether to back Hegseth was not disclosed until minutes before he cast his vote. If he became the fourth Republican to oppose Hegseth, the confirmation would have failed.
The senator asked Hegseth several additional questions after the new allegations surfaced and the hours until his confirmation vote wound down.
The nominee’s response letter, which proved to be to Tillis’ satisfaction, was shared on X by Hegseth during the vote.
Speaking on the subject with Fox News Digital, the senator explained he had “developed a reputation for completing due diligence” and that he takes his role seriously.
According to Tillis, he agreed to speak with Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle, before she filed a sworn affidavit alleging that he made his ex-wife Samantha fear for her safety, in addition to claims of alcohol abuse.
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Danielle is not the sister of Hegseth’s ex-wife. She is the former wife of his brother.
The call between the senator and Danielle was about “what conceptually would be in the affidavit,” Tillis said.
“And I said, ‘If that’s true, and it could be corroborated, then it would carry weight,’” Tillis recalled.
However, he said the lack of corroboration left the allegations without credibility.
“I could never speak directly to a person who could corroborate the testimony of one person,” he said.
Tillis cemented Hegseth’s confirmation with his vote. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
After Hegseth’s confirmation, it was reported that sources said Tillis had “personally assured” Danielle that if she provided the affidavit, it would be significant and might persuade Republicans to oppose the defense secretary nominee, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Asked about the report, Tillis emphasized that he gave the caveat that it must be corroborated in his conversation with Danielle.
“Corroboration means at least two people have to be involved, and they have to be involved in the event, not a bystander. And I was unable to. I attempted to do it, but I was unable to get to that point. And, therefore, I had to make the same judgment that I did with the other allegations,” he explained.
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Hegseth was sworn in shortly after being confirmed. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
Tillis wouldn’t divulge whether Danielle or her attorney suggested she had been a witness to the alleged events.
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“I’m not going to get into those discussions because I do know that my conversation was leaked a couple of hours after I had it on Sunday. Clearly, I would have no reason to do it. But I don’t leak private conversations. I don’t even discuss them at any level of detail,” he said.
Multiple requests for comment to Danielle’s attorney, Leita Walker, from Fox News Digital went unanswered.
FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump is expected to sign a memo Friday to lift the collective bargaining agreements former President Joe Biden put into effect before leaving office, Fox News Digital has learned.
The president’s memo will direct federal agencies to reject last-minute collective bargaining agreements issued by the Biden administration, which White House officials said were designed to “constrain” the Trump administration from reforming the government.
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President Donald Trump speaks to the media after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
The memo prohibits agencies from making new collective bargaining agreements during the final 30 days of a president’s term. It also directs agency heads to disapprove any collective bargaining agreements that Biden put through during the final 30 days of his term.
The White House said collective bargaining agreements enacted before that time period will remain in effect while the Trump administration “negotiates a better deal for the American people.”
Biden’s Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley in December 2024 came to an agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees guaranteeing that the agency’s 42,000 employees would not have to come into the office during the Trump administration.
President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)
The White House told Fox News Digital that the new policy “ensures the American people get the policies they voted for, instead of being stuck with the wasteful and ineffective Biden policies rejected at the ballot box.”
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“The outgoing Biden administration negotiated lame-duck, multi-year collective bargaining agreements—during the week before the inauguration—in an attempt to tie the incoming Trump administration’s hands,” a White House fact sheet on the memo obtained by Fox News Digital states.
The White House pointed to the Biden administration’s Department of Education’s agreement that prohibited the return of remote employees and agreements for the Biden Small Business Administration and Federal Trade Commission.
The president’s new memo also is aimed to ensure that federal government agencies operate under similar rules as private sector unions and employers. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“These CBAs attempt to prevent President Trump from implementing his promises to the American people, such as returning Federal employees to the office to make government operate more efficiently,” the fact sheet states. “President Biden’s term of office ended on January 20th. Under this memorandum, he and future Presidents cannot govern agencies after leaving office by locking in last-minute CBAs.”
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The president’s new memo also is aimed to ensure that federal government agencies operate under similar rules as private sector unions and employers.
The memo comes after the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed agency and department heads to notify employees by the new return to in-person work order. That order required employees to work full-time in the office unless excused due to disability or qualifying medical conditions.
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And this week, OPM sent emails to the full federal workforce offering the option of resignation with full pay and benefits until Sept. 30 if they do not want to return to the office. Those workers have until Feb. 6 to decide.
The federal workers that did not get that option work as postal workers, military immigration officials, some national security officials, and any positions agencies decide to carve out.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says former President Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members were “shocking” and “disgusting.”
“It was shocking. I mean, it was shocking what President Biden did on the way out, pardoning his family for more than a decade of whatever activity, any nonviolent offenses. It was breathtaking to us,” Johnson said Wednesday during the House Republican leadership’s weekly press conference.
“I don’t think that’s anything like that’s ever been anticipated. And by the way, go look at the tape. You know, four years ago when it was just implied that President Trump might do something similar, they were apoplectic. Joe Biden himself, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, roll the tape. They all said that would be crazy and unconscionable. And now they’re cheering it along,” Johnson continued.
“To us, it is disgusting. To us, it probably proves the point. The suspicion that, you know, they call it the Biden crime family. If they weren’t the crime family, why do they need pardons? Right?” Johnson also said. “Look, there’s a lot of attention that’s going to be paid to this. And I think that is appropriate. And we will be looking at it as well.”
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Johnson listens as President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Monday, Jan. 20. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)
Biden pardoned his siblings just minutes before leaving office on Monday.
The pardon applied to James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens, and Francis Biden, the White House announced. The president argued that his family could be subject to “politically motivated investigations” after he leaves office.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families,” Biden said in a statement.
“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finances,” Biden added.
The pardons have been widely criticized, with Trump-Vance transition senior adviser Jason Miller describing them to Fox News as “nonsense.”
“I think for Joe Biden to do that, I thought that was nonsense,” he said.
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Biden and the former first lady board Special Air Mission 46 at Joint Base Andrews following inauguration ceremonies on Monday. Biden pardoned his family members just minutes before leaving office. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield also called them a “disappointing move.”
Biden issued another wave of pre-emptive pardons earlier Monday morning, those going to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and people associated with the House select committee investigation on January 6.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump signed off on releasing more than 1,500 charged with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Johnson speaks to reporters in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 22. (Fox News)
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“The President has made his decision,” Johnson said Wednesday when asked about those pardons.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Anders Hagstrom, Diana Stancy and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.