Author: NOVA Corp

A member of House GOP leadership is jumping into the open race for a Senate seat likely being vacated by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., after he was tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

House GOP Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., is officially launching his campaign for the Senate on Wednesday with support from at least four Republicans in the upper chamber.

“The American dream is under threat by the radical left and RINO Republicans who oppose President Trump’s America First agenda and want to turn the United States into a third-world country,” he says in his campaign debut video. 

“That’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate — to ensure President Trump has a loyal ally, a leader who stood by his side when RINOs turned their backs on him, who will fight against Democrat insanity, keep the southern border secure, deport dangerous illegal immigrants, stand with law enforcement, and deliver economic affordability.”

40+ HOUSE REPUBLICANS RALLY BEHIND MARKWAYNE MULLIN FOR DHS, CALL IT A ‘CRITICAL MOMENT’ FOR BORDER SECURITY

Hern, who grew up in poverty without indoor plumbing until his teenage years, found considerable wealth as a McDonald’s franchisee before coming to Congress in 2018.

He’s the first major Republican candidate to declare his intent to run for Mullin’s seat in November — and whoever wins the GOP primary in the deep-red Midwestern state is the likely favorite to win.

Mullin is expected to leave the Senate after being tapped by President Donald Trump to lead DHS following Kristi Noem’s firing. He’s facing a confirmation hearing later this month.

Traditionally, Senate vacancies are filled by the state’s governor to serve out the remainder of the previous senator’s term. That person is also usually the favorite to win the seat in the subsequent election cycle.

But in Oklahoma, the governor’s appointee must sign an affidavit swearing they will not run in the next election — which in this case is coming in November, with Mullin’s term ending at the end of 2026.

It’s not clear yet how crowded the GOP primary for Mullin’s open seat will get. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., has previously said she is considering her own campaign but has not made any final decisions.

MULLIN PROMISES TO EARN DEM VOTES AS GOP COLLEAGUES POUNCE ON HIS SEAT

Hern, meanwhile, is already stacking his team with Trump operatives.

He’s recruited pollster Tony Fabrizio, who is closely aligned with the president, as his campaign’s senior advisor.

Fabrizio said in a statement that Hern is in a “strong position” to win the seat, citing his “record of support for President Trump’s agenda, the trust he has built with Oklahoma voters, and his experience in public service and in business.”

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s, R-S.D., first goal is to get Mullin’s seat quickly filled. He is set to meet with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a common practice when an appointment needs to be made, this week, a source familiar told Fox News Digital. 

It’s common practice for a governor to meet with the leader of the Senate to work on appointing a replacement, as is the case with Mullin, who is set to begin his confirmation process in the upper chamber next week. 

Further down the line, Thune has no preference as to who would replace Mullin, who is currently a member of his leadership team. 

“You know, obviously we want — we’re going to have to fill that seat for Markwayne here by the end of the month in the near term, and then the long-term issue will be decided by the voters of Oklahoma,” Thune said. “So whoever they decide to send us, we’ll be happy to receive.”

Still, Hern has already snatched up the endorsement of a handful of senators, including Sens. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

Trump has given a deadline of March 31 for Mullin to take over and for Noem to get out, and he is expected to easily pass through the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Whether Mullin hits hurdles during a full confirmation vote remains an open question. 

Passage of the SAVE America Act is of paramount importance to President Donald Trump and many congressional Republicans.

In his State of the Union speech, the president implored lawmakers “to approve the SAVE America Act to stop illegal aliens and other unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections.”

The House approved the plan to require proof of citizenship to vote last month, 218-213. There’s now a different version of the legislation that’s in play. And, as is often the case, the hurdle is the Senate. Specifically, the Senate filibuster.

So some Republicans are trying to save the SAVE America Act.

It’s important to note that Trump never called for the Senate to alter the filibuster in his State of the Union address. But in a post last week on Truth Social, Trump declared, “The Republicans MUST DO, with PASSION, and at the expense of everything else, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.”

Again, the president didn’t wade into questions about overcoming a filibuster. But “MUST DO” and “at the expense of everything else” is a clear directive from the commander in chief.

That’s why there’s a big push by House Republicans and some GOP senators to alter the filibuster — or handle the Senate filibuster differently.

It’s rare for members of one body of Congress to tell the other how to execute their rules and procedures. But the strongest conservative advocates of the SAVE America Act are now condemning Senate Republicans if they don’t do something drastic to change the filibuster to pass the measure.

Some Senate Republicans are pushing for changes, or at the very least, advocating that Senate Republicans insist that Democrats conduct what they refer to as a “talking filibuster” and not hold up the legislation from the sidelines. It takes 60 votes to terminate a filibuster. The Senate does that by “invoking cloture.” The Senate first used the cloture provision to halt a filibuster on March 8, 1917. Prior to that vote, the only method to end a filibuster was exhaustion — meaning that senators finally just run out of gas, quit debating and voted.

So let’s explore what a filibuster is and isn’t and dive into what Republicans are talking about when they’re talking about a talking filibuster.

The Senate’s leading feature is unlimited debate. But, ironically, the “debate” which holds up most bills is not debate. It’s simply a group of 60 lawmakers signaling offstage to their leaders that they’ll stymie things. No one has to go to the floor to do anything. Opponents of a bill will require the majority tee up a cloture vote — even if legislation has 60 yeas. Each cloture vote takes three to four days to process. So that inherently slows down the process — and is a de facto filibuster.

But what about talking filibusters? Yes, senators sometimes take the floor and talk for a really long time, hence, the “unlimited debate” provision in the Senate. Senators can generally speak as long as they want, unless there’s a time agreement green-lighted by all 100 members.

That’s why a “filibuster” is hard to define. You won’t find the word “filibuster” in the Senate’s rules. And since senators can just talk as long as they want, they might argue that suggesting they are “filibustering” is pejorative. They’re just exercising their Senate rights to speak on the floor.

A true filibuster is a delay. For instance, the record-breaking 25-hour and 8-minute speech last year by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., against the Trump administration was technically not a filibuster. Booker began his oratory on the evening of March 31, ending on the night of April 1. Once Booker concluded, the Senate voted to confirm Matt Whittaker as NATO ambassador. The Senate was supposed to vote on the Whitaker nomination on April 1 anyway. So all Booker’s speech did was delay that confirmation vote by a few hours. But not much.

In October 2013, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, held the floor for more than 21 hours. It was part of Cruz’s quest to defund Obamacare. But despite Cruz’s verbosity (and a recitation of “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss), the Senate was already locked in to take a procedural vote around 1 p.m. the next day. Preparations for that vote automatically ended Cruz’s speech. Thus, it truly wasn’t a filibuster either.

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So, this brings us to the talking filibuster, which actually gums up the Senate gearboxes. A talking filibuster is what most Americans think of when they hear the term “filibuster.” That’s thanks to the iconic scenes with Jimmy Stewart in the Frank Capra classic, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Most senators filibuster by forcing the Senate to take two cloture votes — spread out over days — to handle even the simplest of matters. That elongates the process by close to a week. But if advocates of a given bill have the votes to break the filibuster via cloture, the gig is up.

However, what happens if a senator, or a group of senators, delays things with long speeches? That can only last for so long. And it could potentially truncate the Senate’s need to take any cloture vote, needing 60 yeas.

Republicans who advocate passage of the SAVE America Act believe they can get around cloture — and thus the need for 60 votes — by making opponents of the legislation talk. And talk. And talk.

And once they’re done talking, the Senate can vote — up or down — on the SAVE Act. Passage requires a simple majority. The Senate never even needs to tangle with 60.

Senate Rule XIX (19) states that “no senator shall speak more than twice upon any one question in debate on the same legislative day.”

Easy enough, right? Two speeches per day. You speak twice on Monday, then you have to wait until Tuesday? Democrats would eventually run out of juice after all 47 senators who caucus with Democrats have their say — twice.

But it’s not that simple. Note the part about two speeches per “question.”

Well, here’s a question. What constitutes a “question” in Senate parlance? A “question” could be the bill itself. It could be an amendment. It could be a motion. And just for the record, the Senate usually cycles through a “first-degree” amendment and then a “second-degree” amendment — to say nothing of the bill itself. So, if you’re scoring at home, that could be six (!) speeches per senator, per day, on any given “question.”

Questions?

But wait. There’s more.

Note that Rule XIX refers to a “legislative day.” A legislative day is not the same as a calendar day. One basic difference is if the Senate “adjourns” each night versus “recessing.” If the Senate “adjourns” its Monday session on calendar day Monday, then a new legislative day begins on Tuesday. However, the legislative day of “Monday” carries over to Tuesday if the Senate “recesses.”

It may be up to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., whether the Senate “adjourns” or “recesses.” The creation of a new legislative day inhibits the GOP talking filibuster effort.

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Democrats would obviously push for the Senate to adjourn each day. But watch to see if talking filibuster proponents object to Thune’s daily adjournment requests. If the Senate votes to stay in session, that forces the legislative day of Monday to bleed over to Tuesday.

Pro tip: Keep an eye on the adjournment vs. recess scenario. If a talking filibuster supporter tries to prevent the Senate from adjourning, that may signal whether the GOP has a shot at eventually passing the SAVE Act. If that test vote fails and the Senate adjourns for the day, the SAVE Act is likely dead in the water.

We haven’t even talked about a custom practiced by most Senate majority leaders to lock down the contours of a bill when they file cloture to end debate.

It’s typical for the presiding officer to recognize the Senate majority leader first on the floor for debate. So Thune and his predecessors often “fill” what’s called the “amendment tree.” The amendment tree dictates how many amendments are in play at any one time. Think of the underlying bill as a “trunk.” A “branch” is for the first amendment. A “sprig” from that branch is the second amendment. Majority leaders often load up the amendment tree with “fillers” that don’t change the subject of the bill. He then files cloture to break the filibuster.

That tactic curbs the universe of amendments. It blocks the other side from engineering controversial amendments to alter the bill. But if Thune doesn’t file cloture to end debate, then the Senate must consider amendment after amendment, repeatedly filling the tree and voting on those amendments. This would unfold during a talking filibuster, not when Thune is controlling the process by filing cloture and “filling the tree.”

This is why Thune is skeptical of a talking filibuster to pass the SAVE Act.

“This process is more complicated and risky than people are assuming at the moment,” said Thune.

In fact, the biggest “benefit” to filing cloture may not even be overcoming a filibuster, but blocking amendments via management of the tree. Republicans are bracing for amendments Democrats may offer.

“If you don’t think Democrats have a laundry list of amendments, talking about who won the 2020 election, talking about the Epstein files — if you don’t think they have a quiver full of these amendments that they’re ready to get Republican votes on the record, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you,” said George Washington University political science professor Casey Burgat.

Plus, forcing a talking filibuster for days precludes the Senate from passing a DHS funding bill. That’s to say nothing of confirming Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as Homeland Security secretary. His confirmation hearing likely comes next Wednesday, but a protracted Senate debate would block a confirmation vote from the floor.

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Thune all but killed the talking filibuster maneuver on Tuesday — despite the president’s ultimatum.

“Do you run a risk of being on the wrong side of President Trump and your resistance to do this talking filibuster, tying the Senate in knots for weeks?” asked yours truly.

“We don’t have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one if we got on it,” replied Thune. “I understand the president’s got a passion to see this issue addressed.”

I followed up.

“Does he understand that, though?”

“Well, we’ve conveyed that to him,” answered Thune. “It’s about the math. And, for better or worse, I’m the one who has to be a clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve here.”

And there just doesn’t appear to be any parliamentary way to get there with the talking filibuster.

Like many things in Congress, it all boils down to one thing.

As Thune said, “It’s about the math.”

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is introducing a new bill to strip FDA approval from the popular abortion pill mifepristone. The new bill builds upon proposed legislation Hawley introduced last year that would ban mifepristone and allow women to sue manufacturers profiting off of what the lawmaker deems an “inherently dangerous” drug.

The Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act was introduced in the Senate Tuesday and would prohibit the use of mifepristone for ending pregnancies. 

“The science is clear: The chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse. Yet major companies like Danco Laboratories are making billions off it,” Hawley told Fox News Digital in a statement. “That’s why I am introducing new legislation to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion and empower women to sue its manufacturers. Congress must act now to protect the health and safety of women.”

If passed, the legislation would withdraw FDA approval for the drug and classify its distribution for abortion as a violation of federal law. In 2023, mifepristone was used in 63% of all abortions in the U.S., according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

PRO-LIFE ORGANIZATION CALLS ON HHS AND FDA TO SUSPEND ABORTION PILL APPROVAL, TIGHTEN SAFETY RULES

The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research organization formerly affiliated with Planned Parenthood, also estimates there were 1,038,100 clinician-provided abortions in 2024. However, that figure accounts only for states without abortion bans and does not include abortions performed outside the formal healthcare system or in states where abortion laws differ.

Hawley raised concerns about the abortion pill last May when he introduced a separate bill that would direct the FDA to create safeguards on mifepristone, allowing women who suffered complications the right to sue telehealth providers and pharmacies for damages. 

Research by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) in Washington, D.C., showed the rate of side effects when using mifepristone is 22 times higher than indications from the FDA-approved drug label.

PRO-LIFE GROUP URGES SENATE TO PRESS RFK JR. ON ABORTION PILL SAFETY, DEMAND SAFEGUARDS RETURN

The study revealed more than 1 in 10 women have reported experiencing “infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious or life-threatening adverse event.”

EPPC assessed 865,727 insurance claims between 2017 and 2023 for women who used the medication to terminate early pregnancy. The pill can be taken up to “70 days since the first day of their last menstrual period,” according to the FDA.

During the Biden administration, the FDA revised rules allowing mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth, meaning patients would not have to physically go to the doctor to receive the abortion drug.

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In 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected an Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine challenge that was brought to reverse the FDA’s approval and expansion for access to the drug. The ruling allowed mifepristone to remain available through telehealth and mail.

The Supreme Court’s rejection was based on the group’s inability to bring a lawsuit, saying Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine lacked the legal standing to challenge FDA approval. The merits of the abortion drug were never discussed or questioned in the ruling. 

Last May, Hawley sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, whom Hawley questioned during Makary’s Senate confirmation hearing last year.

“[D]uring your confirmation hearing, you pledged to me that you would ‘review the totality of the data and ongoing data’ to inform action on the drug,” Hawley’s letter to the FDA chief states. “I urge you to follow this new data and take all appropriate action to restore critical safeguards on the use of mifepristone.

“The health and safety of American women depend on it.”

Dorothy McAuliffe, the wife of former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, announced Wednesday that she is entering the Democratic primary race for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.

“As a mom of five, grandmother, former State Department official & First Lady of Virginia, I’ve spent my life fighting for children, families, and those without a voice,” she wrote in a post on X.

The Associated Press reported that Virginia voters will decide April 21 whether to approve a constitutional amendment establishing a new congressional map. 

McAuliffe would seek to represent the proposed new 7th District stretching from the D.C. suburbs to western Augusta County if the map is approved.

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Virginia’s primary elections are scheduled to be held Aug. 4 after the General Assembly moved the date from June to August under legislation signed in February.

Early in-person voting begins June 19, with absentee ballots mailed by that date, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

“We need a leader who has a record of delivering and can finally bring down costs for families, who will increase access to affordable healthcare, and who will never back down from holding Donald Trump and ICE accountable,” McAuliffe said in a statement to the AP.

“I look forward to traveling this district — from Arlington to Augusta and Prince William to Powhatan — and sharing that vision for this community that I’ve long called home,” she added.

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McAuliffe was Virginia’s first lady from 2014 to 2018 and was later appointed by former President Joe Biden as the U.S. Special Representative for Global Partnerships in June 2022.

According to Ballotpedia, incumbent Rep. Eugene Vindman is running in the Democratic primary for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, along with state Del. Dan Helmer and Alex Thymmons, a U.S. Army veteran.

A top Department of Justice official brushed off a lawsuit brought Tuesday by the Democratic National Committee over the administration’s work on election security, describing the suit as frivolous.

Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon mocked the legal challenge in an X post in response to Marc Elias, a prolific Democratic election lawyer, promoting it.

“Maybe we should all just file lawsuits demanding things we used to ask the tooth fairy for, shall we?” Dhillon said. “This is not how executive power works.”

Dhillon’s remarks came as her division and the Trump administration more broadly have ramped up their focus on election security, demanding voter roll data from states, launching investigations into past elections and pushing for passage of a voter ID bill. 

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Democrats have accused the administration of also hiding information about alleged federal deployments at polling places. They cited White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying earlier this year that she could not rule out potential federal deployments, while she added that it’s “not something I’ve ever heard the president consider.” 

The lawsuit, brought in Washington, D.C., seeks records from the DOJ, Department of Homeland Security and Department of War under the Freedom of Information Act about the possible deployments. DNC lawyers said their FOIA requests were triggered last year by “repeat threats to free and fair elections from President [Donald] Trump and his administration.”

The lawsuit was filed against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s intensifying focus on election security. The FBI has pursued expanded inquiries into the 2020 and 2024 elections in at least two battleground states, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and sought extensive voter registration records from state election officials, which critics have argued encroaches on states’ rights.

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the Republican National Committee said of the lawsuit that Democrats did not support “commonsense safeguards like voter ID.”

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“We’re surprised the DNC actually has any money to file a lawsuit,” RNC election integrity spokeswoman Ally Triolo said, adding that the DOJ was “simply doing its job to fix the election chaos that Democrats across the country have created.”

Triolo said the DNC was filing “fake, nonsensical lawsuits and grasping at straws, leaving only one explanation: they want to cheat in our elections.”

The DOJ is able to send federal officials to monitor polling places to check that federal voting laws are being followed, but concerns have mounted that the federal government will go beyond that. DHS, for instance, has shut down rumors that it would send immigration authorities to polling places.

In its complaint, the DNC alleged that it has “yet to receive a substantive response to any of the FOIA requests at issue,” despite deadlines passing. The DNC lawyers claimed the departments have “violated their duties … to conduct a reasonable search for responsive records [and] to take reasonable steps to release all nonexempt information.”

The lawsuit also referenced statements by Trump, including the president saying he “regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines” after the 2020 election.

The DNC asked the court to force departments to produce all the requested records, as well as to pay the organization back for legal fees.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DNC on Wednesday morning. 

Republican House candidate Clay Fuller says his playbook for the runoff election for a vacant congressional district in solidly red northwest Georgia that was once held by Marjorie Taylor Greene is simple.

“We’re just going to continue to get that message out about President Trump supporting us, and my experience, being a military officer, an elected district attorney and an America First fighter too,” Fuller told Fox News Digital.

Fuller was interviewed soon after he advanced to the runoff after coming in the top two in the special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. He will face off in the runoff with Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired brigadier general and cattle farmer. 

Harris grabbed 37% of the vote, with Fuller at 35% amid a field of 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans.

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Tuesday’s special election and the April 7 runoff are being held as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218–214 majority in the House.

The congressional seat was left vacant when MAGA firebrand Greene stepped down at the beginning of January. Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a very public falling out with Trump mostly over her push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. 

The GOP cannot afford any surprises and allow the Democrats to pull an upset in a district which extends from Atlanta’s northwest exurbs to Georgia’s northwestern border with Alabama and northern border with Tennessee — that Trump carried by a whopping 37 points in his 2024 presidential victory.

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“President Trump truly matters in Georgia 14,” emphasized Fuller, a local prosecutor and Air National Guard member. 

Trump teamed up with Fuller during a stop in the district in March. Speaking ahead of the president at an event in Rome, Georgia, Fuller described himself as a “MAGA warrior.”

“It’s Christmas every time he’s here,” Fuller told Fox News Digital. “Let’s get him back as many times as we can. I’d love to have him here every day. I know he’s got bigger issues than Georgia 14 to deal with, but I’d love to see him. Let’s get Vice President JD Vance down here. Let’s get everybody down here.”

Fuller was also backed by the deep-pocketed political group Club for Growth, which pushes a pro-growth, limited government agenda.

Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey, pointing to Harris topping the field Tuesday, argued that “Georgians are sick and tired of cost-raising, health care-cutting, failed Republican leadership — and Shawn’s performance tonight is the proof.”

Harris, taking to social media Wednesday, said, “Last night we came out on top in a crowded field and earned our spot in the runoff. That’s no small thing in Northwest Georgia. Now it’s one-on-one on April 7. We’re going right back to work — and we’re going to win again.”

But Harris, who lost to Greene by nearly 30 points in 2024, will face a steep climb in the runoff election.

Democrat sources tell Fox News Digital it’s highly unlikely Democratic-aligned groups will invest resources in the runoff. 

Fuller said he would be reaching out to the other Republican candidates who were on the ballot, including former state Sen. Colton Moore, a vocal Trump supporter who enjoys plenty of support from the far right. Moore finished in third place, with nearly 12% of the vote.

“We know that the Republican Party is going to consolidate around President Trump’s choice. We’re going to drive out the vote,” Fuller said.

And he emphasized, “Everybody in the field understands that a Democrat cannot represent Georgia 14. It would be a tragedy for Georgia 14, a tragedy for the MAGA movement. And we’re going to rally around as a party and go and win this thing and defeat Sean Harris.”

FIRST ON FOX: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rolled out a new platform, backed by artificial intelligence, that will streamline publicly accessible reporting of negative or unexpected health effects linked to medicines, vaccines, cosmetics, animal food and other consumer products.

The FDA Adverse Event Monitoring System (AEMS) began operation Tuesday and will consolidate outdated systems used to process millions of adverse event reports and produce results in real time for consumers to access online. 

“The FDA’s fragmented adverse event systems have wasted taxpayer dollars and created large blind spots in our post-market surveillance,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We’re addressing this critical issue by conducting a major modernization initiative on an accelerated timeline.” 

“Moving forward, the FDA will have a single, intuitive adverse event platform that will better equip us and any interested researcher to access key data and insights about the safety of products on the market,” Makary added.

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Adverse event reports are critical to determining the safety and effectiveness of certain drugs and products after they are approved for clinical trials and reach the wider consumer market, though the agency says the reports have been undermined due to current inefficient infrastructure.

The general concept of AEMS is that consumers will be able to access the new website and search for FDA-approved cosmetics, drugs, vaccines, or foods that have adverse effect reports as they are reported by healthcare professionals, consumers, manufacturers, and user facilities for medical devices. 

The agency estimates that roughly 6 to 7 million adverse event reports per year are evaluated through a seven database system. The FDA says that the collective cost of utilizing the database is an estimated $37 million bill to taxpayers. AEMS is expected to save the FDA approximately $120 million over the next five years, according to the agency.

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The new website will be more accessible than the current quarterly report issued by the agency, and senior sources at the FDA told Fox News Digital they saw a 3,000% increase in users in a pilot program that launched last September.

“Consolidating the FDA’s adverse event systems and converting to real-time publication was challenging, but made possible by a highly aggressive schedule,” the FDA’s Chief AI Officer Jeremy Walsh told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The team executed with perfection and delivered the biggest technical transformation in agency history. This is the new FDA.”

The legacy systems that are currently in place include the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS),  Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), and Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS), which will be replaced with the new system effective immediately. 

In May, the AEMS will also replace the Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE), Human Foods Complaint System (HFCS), and Center for Tobacco Products Adverse Event Reporting System (CTPAE).

Each one of these systems will be integrated into the new AEMS, with artificial intelligence assisting for manual data entries and coding adverse events. 

Sources at the FDA told Fox News Digital that the next phase of the rollout will be implementing a front-end system that makes it easy for reports to be submitted. The agency estimates that 80% of reports are never entered due to the complexity of filing a report — potentially resulting in some untold side effects never being made public. 

President Donald Trump, who is backing challenger Ed Gallrein over incumbent GOP Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District Republican primary, highlighted his endorsement again on Tuesday ahead of his planned Wednesday visit to the Bluegrass State.

Trump then followed that up by targeting Massie again in a Wednesday morning Truth Social post.

“I predict that ‘Representative’Thomas Massie will go down as the WORST Republican Congressman in the long and fabled history of the United States Congress, even worse than Crazy Liz Chaney, Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger, and Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown (Remember, Green turns to Brown under stress!). They are all misfits and losers, but Massie, who is running against a great American Patriot in the Kentucky Primary, will hopefully lose BIG. I LOVE KENTUCKY!!!” the president declared in the Wednesday morning Truth Social post.

In a text message to Fox News Digital, Massie wrote, “It was actually Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who teamed up with Trump in March of 2020 to try and defeat me.”

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In a post on X, Massie wrote, “I predict ‘President’ DJT will begrudgingly sign my beautiful Epstein Files Transparency Act, causing beleaguered princes and ambassadors and prime ministers and CEOs around the world to be arrested or resign in total shame. Oh wait, that already happened.”

The president had declared in part of a Truth Social post on Tuesday, “Captain Ed Gallrein has my Complete and Total Endorsement against ‘Congressman’ Thomas Massie — He only votes AGAINST the Republican Party, making life very easy for the Radical Left. Unlike ‘lightweight’ Congressman Massie, a true hater of Israel, and a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET KENTUCKY DOWN!” 

“Someone’s upset to learn Woke Eddie left the Republican Party when Trump won the nomination! Here’s today’s Truth Social post. It’s just a copy and paste from several months ago. Says Ed ‘filed today,’ which isn’t even possible since the filing deadline passed in January,” Massie wrote in a Tuesday post on X.

Massie on Tuesday posted a document on X that he said was Gallrein’s voter registration card — the document shows Gallrein registering as an independent in May 2016. 

“Here’s Ed’s Voter Registration card documenting when he abandoned the GOP to protest Trump securing the nomination just days before,” Massie wrote in the post.

In a text message to Fox News Digital on Wednesday morning, Massie said of Trump’s Tuesday post, “His Truth Social post was recycled from months ago, but our ad is brand new. We’ll be running the ad in this X post on TV and radio today,” Massie wrote, pointing to a post that features a campaign ad attacking Gallrein over his party affiliation history.

Massie’s campaign ad claims that Gallrein switched his registration back to the Republican Party in 2021.

GOP REP MASSIE JOINS DEMOCRATS IN OPPOSITION TO US IRAN STRIKES

“I was proud to vote for President Trump all three times and donate in 2020 and 2024, unlike Thomas Massie who campaigned against him in 2024 and sides with the Democrats to vote against President Trump every week in Congress,” Gallrein said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.

PATRIOT OR ‘PATHETIC RINO’? MAVERICK REPUBLICAN THOMAS MASSIE TRADES ‘AMERICA FIRST’ LABEL FOR ‘AMERICA ONLY’

Trump is slated to appear at an event in Hebron, Kentucky, on Wednesday.

A Tuesday post on Gallrein’s X account said, “President Donald Trump is coming to Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District this Wednesday to support Ed Gallrein for Congress.”

When asked about the visit, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told Fox News Digital, “President Trump will visit the great states of Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday to tout his economic victories and detail his Administration’s aggressive, ongoing efforts to lower prices and make America more affordable.”

In a text message to Fox News Digital on Wednesday morning, Massie wrote, “I have other previously scheduled events in the district today, including a visit to two public schools that are about 3 hours from the President’s speech.”

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report

EXCLUSIVE: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is hammering Democrats over the partial government shutdown as its effects begin to hit millions of travelers at airports across the country.

“This is expected to be one of the busiest spring travel seasons on record. Over 171 million travelers are estimated to fly in the coming weeks, and they expect the agencies responsible for keeping them safe to be fully operational,” Scalise told Fox News Digital.

“The longer Democrats hold the Department of Homeland Security hostage, the longer they’re forcing [Transportation Security Administration (TSA)] agents to work without pay and the worse the pain will be that Democrats inflict on regular Americans.”

It comes as TSA agents, whose agency operates under DHS, are set to miss their first full paychecks next week. And with Democrats continuing to withhold the department’s funding in protest of President Donald Trump’s handling of illegal immigration, the standoff still has no clear end in sight.

STEVE SCALISE RIPS DEMOCRATS FOR ‘PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES’ WITH DHS SHUTDOWN AMID IRAN THREAT

Scalise’s own hometown travel hub, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, is facing hours-long delays due to the ongoing shutdown.

The airport’s official X account warned travelers to arrive two to three hours before their scheduled departure time earlier this week due to a “shortage of TSA workers” at its security checkpoints owing to “impacts from the federal government’s partial shutdown.”

“The recent chaos at my airport in New Orleans, and airports across the country, is impossible to miss — wait times longer than three hours, lines stretching out to the parking lot,” Scalise said. “It’s ridiculous, shameful, and it never should have happened.”

Scalise said his office was in contact with airport staff about the issue, and that they are concerned about their own welfare as the shutdown continues.

“They’re worried about the impact the shutdown will have on TSA employees and the ability for the airport to get travelers through security and make their flights in a timely fashion,” he said. “This is the third time in six months that TSA agents are being forced to worry about missing a paycheck because Washington Democrats keep using them as leverage.”

The airport in New Orleans is not the only one battling staffing issues because of the shutdown.

TRUMP URGES CONGRESS TO PASS SAVE AMERICA ACT, FULLY FUND DHS AS TSA WORKERS GO WITHOUT PAY

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas urged travelers to arrive earlier than planned due to fewer airport security lines being open due to personnel shortages. Nearby William P. Hobby Airport asked people to arrive three hours early for domestic flights and four hours early for international flights.

The partial shutdown is in its 25th day as Democrats continue to refuse the GOP’s compromise offers on funding DHS.

Unlike last year’s 43-day government shutdown, however, roughly 97% of the federal budget has been accounted for already. In other words, all agencies but DHS are funded through the remainder of the fiscal year.

But DHS is a wide-ranging department that oversees the TSA, U.S. Coast Guard, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Secret Service, and others.

In addition to travel delays hitting U.S. airports over TSA shortages, the shutdown’s effects have also come into sharper focus as national security threats grow in the U.S. over the Trump administration’s joint operation with Israel targeting Iran.

The House has now twice passed a bipartisan DHS funding bill, the product of bipartisan negotiations in the previous shutdown’s wake. But in the Senate, where Democrats are critical to advancing the legislation past the 60-vote filibuster threshold, progress has all but stalled.

After an illegal immigrant was discovered to have been voting for more than a decade in Philadelphia, immigration experts are warning that the “system can fail” and that loss of voter confidence represents the true “serious threat” to American democracy. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said that “the most important thing is perception.”

“People have to believe that their vote counts. And so that’s, I think, a much more serious long-term threat,” said Hankinson. 

“We have a perception in the United States,” he continued, “that elections were free and fair. If even the appearance of impropriety, the appearance of corruption, is bad enough to turn people off, to make people not interested in going to vote, to think, ‘Well, my vote doesn’t count anyway.’ Then that’s really what undermines democracy.”

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Earlier this week, Fox News Digital learned that Mahady Sacko, a Mauritanian citizen and illegal immigrant, allegedly voted in every federal election since 2008. He has been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and charged with voter fraud in Philadelphia. This comes as congressional lawmakers fiercely debate the SAVE Act, a measure proponents say would strengthen election integrity laws. 

Despite being given a removal order in 2000, Sacko, 50, registered to vote in 2005 and falsely stated on several occasions that he was a U.S. citizen, authorities allege. The voting records showed that he cast ballots in the general elections in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. In addition, he voted in the 2016 and 2020 primary elections, prosecutors said. 

Hankinson said that while he believes such cases are more isolated and are not widely prevalent in the U.S., it is a “potentially big problem, and it’s one that’s very easy to fix.”

“The average Joe who does vote doesn’t think he’s setting fire to his ballot. He thinks it’s actually going to count for something. That’s what’s at risk here,” Hankinson continued, adding, “That I think is a long-term serious threat to our democracy.”

Meanwhile, Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of the election integrity research group True the Vote, told Fox News Digital that “an illegal alien allegedly voting in every presidential election since 2008 is proof the system can fail — and we have no reliable, codified way to determine how many others may be doing the same.”

“Millions could be voting illegally, but we don’t know because comprehensive voter roll audits are being fought tooth and nail, instead of being standard operating procedure,” she went on. “What’s most disturbing is how vicious the fight has become to block analyses, stop audits, and shut down even the most basic questions about eligibility and voter record maintenance.”

“That kind of resistance leaves millions of Americans with the unmistakable impression that something is very wrong in our system, and that feeling, that loss of trust, is likely the biggest impact of all.”

SPARKS FLY AS GOP SENATOR REACTS TO BIDEN ADVISOR’S ‘I DON’T KNOW’ ANSWER ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAW

She posited that “we should treat voter rolls the way serious industries treat sensitive record management.” She suggested bringing in independent third-party auditors, setting clear state and national standards, and using real-time verification of identity, residency, and citizenship as a matter of routine.

“The data exists, the technology exists, and other sectors use it every day — what’s missing is political will to apply those same basic safeguards to our elections,” she said.

On the other hand, in a statement shared with Fox News Digital, David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), said, “We have a very good sense of the depth of the problem here” and “it is extremely rare that noncitizens get registered, and it is infinitesimally rare that they vote.”

CEIR released its latest review of noncitizen registration and voting claims last month. That review concluded, “CEIR continues to find that sweeping allegations about noncitizen registrations or voting appear to arise from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data.”

Becker said that President Donald Trump’s “own Department of Homeland Security has checked more than 49 million voter records, and they themselves admit that 99.98% of those records represented confirmed citizens.”

He added that “in several states that are politically aligned with President Trump, the number of alleged noncitizen voters has precipitously dropped when subjected to scrutiny.”

“We see consistently that the number of potential or confirmed noncitizens registered is very small, and those who are voting are even smaller,” he said.

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However, Hans von Spakovsky, a former commissioner at the Federal Election Commission and a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital, “The point is that we have an honor system currently with most states doing absolutely nothing to verify citizenship. And we have hundreds of close elections all the time in this country where even a small number of aliens could make the difference in an election.”

He shared information from his 2024 testimony to Congress in which he said that findings based on official registration records of thousands of aliens showed they are registered in various jurisdictions, including Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and sanctuary cities like Philadelphia and Chicago.

Despite these reports, he said, “virtually no prosecutors have expressed any interest in investigating and potentially prosecuting these aliens.”

“The indicators that it is occurring are there, and it is important to understand that every vote by an alien cancels and effectively voids the vote of a citizen,” he said.