Category: USA Politics

FIRST ON FOX: The House Judiciary Committee escalated scrutiny of the Southern Poverty Law Center on Thursday, demanding documents from the nonprofit after a federal indictment alleged the group funneled millions in donor funds to extremist organizations.

Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital to SPLC President Bryan Fair that the GOP-led committee was investigating any coordination between the SPLC and the Biden Department of Justice and FBI, both of which had used the left-wing nonprofit as a resource. 

Jordan demanded a slate of documents from the SPLC by April 30, a request that comes after his Republican counterparts in the Senate also ramped up scrutiny of the SPLC and after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche hinted at more possible indictments related to the group.

The intensifying investigations into the SPLC, expanding from the DOJ to Congress, come after Jordan’s committee previously investigated the group, saying it was known for “maligning several mainstream conservative and religious organizations as ‘hate groups,’” such as Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA, and that the Biden DOJ improperly used it for civil rights enforcement.

SPLC SAW REVENUE SURGE AFTER CHARLOTTESVILLE RALLY AS DOJ ALLEGES INFORMANT TIES

“Publicly available documents revealed how the Justice Department partnered closely with the SPLC during the Biden-Harris Administration, including scheduling regular meetings, giving the SPLC early access to federal law-enforcement data, and allowing SPLC employees to train federal prosecutors,” Jordan wrote. “The new information about the SPLC alleged in the indictment only raises further questions.”

Jordan also noted that a controversial internal memo originating from the FBI Richmond Field Office during Director Christopher Wray’s tenure, which framed so-called radical-traditionalist Catholics as a group of people more prone to violent crime, used the SPLC as a source for its findings. The memo surfaced in 2023, with Wray later retracting it and saying it was an “appalling” breach of religious freedom.

Jordan’s letter pointed out that the Richmond memo was among more than a dozen FBI documents that used the SPLC as a resource.

The DOJ on Tuesday charged the SPLC with several counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit money laundering, alleging the group defrauded donors for more than a decade.

RADICAL HOUSE DEM APPOINTED TO GOP-LED COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING JANUARY 6: ‘WE WILL EXPOSE THE LIES’

Prosecutors said the nonprofit, which promotes its efforts to fight White supremacy, misled donors by using shell companies to mask how donor funds were used. More than $3 million was paid through the shell companies to informants who participated in activities involving the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, among others, prosecutors alleged.

“The SPLC’s paid informants … engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website,” prosecutors wrote, noting one informant allegedly went so far as to help plan the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Congress has an important interest in protecting Americans from extremist violence and criminal activity,” Jordan wrote in his letter. “The Committee on the Judiciary has been conducting oversight of the Biden-Harris Administration’s close coordination with the SPLC on federal civil rights matters.”

BIDEN DOJ SUBPOENAED JIM JORDAN’S PHONE RECORDS COVERING MORE THAN TWO YEARS

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday set its sights on a woman previously affiliated with the SPLC who was a federal judge and Biden appointee serving a lifetime appointment on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

“Every individual associated with SPLC should have to answer for what they knew about the organization’s extremist ties, and when,” committee Republicans wrote in a statement on X. 

“That includes Nancy Abudu, SPLC’s former litigation director who Biden appointed as a lifetime judge on the 11th Circuit.”

Just before the DOJ announced charges, Fair said in a public statement that the federal investigation was political rather than sincere.

“They have made no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy,” Fair said, noting the group no longer works with paid informants but adding they had “risked their lives” to infiltrate extremist groups.

Fox News Digital reached out to the SPLC and Abudu’s chambers for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to immediately block taxpayer funding for sex change treatment for minors, warning that billions of federal dollars could soon flow to providers like Planned Parenthood.

In a letter penned to Johnson on Thursday afternoon, Hawley emphasized that “time is of the essence,” noting a current federal ban on taxpayer payments to abortion and “trans-treatment” providers is set to expire July 4.

Hawley’s recent attempt to pass a similar ban in the Senate was rejected Wednesday night, putting the responsibility squarely on the House.

TEXAS LAWMAKER PROPOSES BILL TO BAN GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENT FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING ADULTS

“If the House fails to act immediately as part of reconciliation, billions of Federal dollars will go to Planned Parenthood and other medical ‘providers’ for hormones, puberty blockers, and irreversible treatments for minor children,” Hawley wrote, calling the prospect “unconscionable.”

Hawley warned that billions of dollars will potentially be diverted from Medicaid.

Citing a Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimate, the senator pointed out that Planned Parenthood alone received more than $1.5 billion in Medicare and Medicaid funds between 2019 and 2021.

Hawley also referenced a new study from Concerned Women for America, which found a more than 40% increase in sex change treatment and related services at Planned Parenthood clinics.

He argued that the organization is “positioned to supercharge its transgender agenda with taxpayer funding taken from the elderly and those in need,” demanding Johnson take action “without delay or hesitation.”

Had it passed, the budget amendment presented by Hawley on Wednesday would have been added to the Congressional budget resolution for fiscal year 2026 and created a pathway to defund abortion providers — provided it did not increase the national debt.

FIRST ON FOX: A conservative policy group is launching an investigation into Virginia’s redistricting amendment vote after a court blocked certification of the results, raising new questions from critics about how the referendum was conducted and whether election procedures were properly followed.

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is initiating a multipart probe focused on mail-in ballot handling and alleged classroom political influence, Fox News Digital has learned.

The move comes as the legal fight over the amendment intensifies, with multiple lawsuits pending and the Virginia Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments Monday.

VOTER ROLL SCRUTINY ESCALATES IN MINNESOTA AS BIGGEST COUNTIES FACE SWEEPING RECORDS DEMANDS

AFPI’s legal team said the first phase of its investigation will involve records requests to several Virginia counties seeking communications and documentation related to how mail-in and absentee ballots were handled during the election. 

The requests target how applications were processed, how ballots were distributed and accepted, how they were stored and what guidance election officials were operating under.

The group argues those materials are public records required under Virginia law and should clarify whether proper procedures were followed.

“The questions we’re asking aren’t complicated,” said Leigh Ann O’Neill, AFPI’s chief legal affairs officer. “Was the election conducted according to state and federal law? Did teachers improperly turn students into a private grassroots army? 

“And, if so, what will the school district do about it? These are basic questions that demand answers no matter how you voted on Tuesday.”

A second component of the investigation focuses on Fairfax County Public Schools, where AFPI is seeking records related to civics class materials and instruction.

CARVILLE AND CO-HOST LAMENT THAT TRUMP SPARKED A REDISTRICTING WAR, MAKING BOTH PARTIES LOOK CYNICAL

According to the group, some parents have alleged that teachers commented on parents’ political beliefs and encouraged students to persuade their parents how to vote on the referendum. AFPI argues that, if confirmed, such conduct could violate state law, federal law and school district policy governing political activity in publicly funded classrooms.

The group said it is also sending a letter to the Fairfax County superintendent urging an internal investigation into what it described as “highly concerning reports of partisan voter influence.”

The investigation lands amid a growing legal fight over the amendment. A Virginia court has already moved to block certification of the vote, and the dispute is now moving toward the state’s highest court.

VIRGINIA JUDGE VOIDS REDISTRICTING PUSH, RULES LAWMAKERS OVERSTEPPED AUTHORITY

There are three legal challenges pending in Virginia courts, including an original lawsuit brought by state Republicans, which the Virginia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Monday. There is also a separate case filed in Richmond by GOP Reps. John McGuire and Rob Wittman and a challenge in Tazewell County, where Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley ruled the referendum unconstitutional. An appeal from Virginia Democrat Attorney General Jay Jones is expected.

A ruling in the primary case could come within weeks, with courts under pressure to act before Virginia’s August primary and late July deadlines for voter registration and mail-in ballots.

AFPI said its investigation is intended to ensure transparency as the legal process unfolds, arguing that if election procedures were properly followed, the records will confirm it, and, if not, Virginia voters deserve answers.

The Virginia Supreme Court hearing will be livestreamed, allowing the public to follow arguments as the case moves forward. 

AFPI said its probe will continue in phases, with additional findings and requests expected in the coming weeks.

The Virginia Department of Elections and Fairfax County Public Schools did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Bill Mears and Mark Meredith contributed to this reporting.

A Mexican native green card holder who recently served as mayor of a small Kansas town pleaded guilty to voter fraud after illegally voting multiple times, according to federal authorities. He also falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on voter registration documents.

The case comes as debate continues over voter fraud and election integrity, with the Trump administration pushing measures aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and tightening election safeguards.

Jose “Joe” Ceballos, who formerly served as mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, for two terms, pleaded guilty this week to three counts of disorderly election conduct following a prosecution by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Ceballos also has a prior conviction for battery in 1995. He was issued a green card in 1990 and applied for U.S. citizenship in February.

COLOMBIAN WOMAN CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY VOTING IN 2024 ELECTION STEALING $400,000 IN TAXPAYER FUNDED BENEFITS

On that citizenship application, federal authorities allege he falsely claimed that he had never previously claimed to be a U.S. citizen.

Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis credited the Trump-era SAVE program for helping bring Ceballos to justice.

The database is used to help states determine who is in the country legally versus illegally, but Democrats, including the Shapiro administration in Pennsylvania, have blamed alleged discrepancies in the system after illegal immigrant truckers were found to hold their state’s CDLs.

“The SAVE program is a critical tool for state and local governments to safeguard the integrity of elections across the country,” Bis said. “President Trump has been unequivocal: Nothing is more fundamental than the integrity and security of our elections.”

Bis said the Ceballos case is an exemplar for why Congress must pass the SAVE America Act, which she called “commonsense legislation that requires voters to present photo ID and implements other critical measures to protect federal elections from fraud.”

“Our elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens,” she said.

STATE CONSERVATIVES DEMAND ACTION ON NONCITIZEN VOTING: ‘TIME FOR CONGRESS TO LISTEN’

Bis’ office shared with Fox News Digital a facsimile of a Kansas state voter registration form on which Ceballos falsely claimed to be a citizen, as well as his naturalization application on which he had attested that he had never made such a claim.

Since April 2025, more than 24,000 cases have been identified via the SAVE system as potential noncitizens who were on the voter rolls, according to DHS.

In November, Kobach announced the original charges against Ceballos, describing him as “recently reelected” in Coldwater.

NICK SHIRLEY ALLEGES POTENTIAL VOTER FRAUD LOOPHOLE IN CALIFORNIA THAT COULD ENABLE ILLEGALS TO VOTE

At the time, USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser called the situation “absolutely unacceptable and sad,” but said it was no surprise “given the years of lax voting security in the United States.”

 “From day one, the Trump administration has made strengthening the SAVE program a top priority so states can verify that only U.S. citizens are on the voter rolls,” he said.

“I’m grateful that President Trump implemented the SAVE program to help states and to prevent situations like this,” added Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab.

Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.

A Guatemalan man living illegally in the U.S. has been arrested by federal immigration agents after he was released from jail by Virginia authorities, despite being charged with possessing child pornography, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Roni Mendez-Escobar was arrested Wednesday in Fairfax County, which has drawn national media attention amid a series of crimes committed by illegal immigrants there in recent months.

“This sicko has been charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography and possession of child pornography with intent to distribute. Despite these heinous crimes, sanctuary politicians in Fairfax County, Virginia, refused to honor ICE’s detainer and released a child predator from jail without notifying ICE,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said Thursday.

DHS SLAMS ‘INSANE’ 5-YEAR PLEA DEAL FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO ADMITTED FATAL STABBING IN VIRGINIA

Mendez-Escobar was initially arrested in October 2025 and charged with 15 felony counts of possession of obscene material and two felony counts of possession of child porn with intent to distribute. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer with Fairfax County, but it was ignored and he was released days after his arrest without ICE being notified, DHS said.

Mendez-Escobar, who had been deported from the U.S. three times since 2015, entered illegally for a fourth time at an unknown place and date, authorities said.

ICE PRESSURES SPANBERGER AS FAIRFAX MURDER SUSPECTS TRIGGER NEW DETAINERS IN ‘SANCTUARY’ CLASH

Fairfax County has made headlines in recent months over a string of crimes tied to illegal immigrants.

Earlier this month, Misael Lopez Gomez, also an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was arrested and charged with murder and felony child abuse after bludgeoning his own 3-month-old daughter to death.

In March, Anibal Armando Chavarria Muy, also from Guatemala, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder after fatally stabbing a man inside his home.

Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone with a long criminal history including more than 30 arrests, was charged with murder after fatally stabbing Stephanie Minter at a bus stop.

This week, Israel Flores Ortiz, 18, was sentenced to 360 days in jail after being convicted of groping several female classmates in Fairfax High School hallways earlier this year.

There’s no let up in the verbal fireworks between House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in their war of words over congressional redistricting.

One day after DeSantis on Wednesday taunted Jeffries, saying “there’s nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Jeffries … everywhere around this state,” the top Democrat in the House fired back.

Pointing to the announcement Thursday morning from a top super PAC aligned with House Democrats that it will shell out $20 million to target potentially vulnerable Florida Republican members of Congress, Jeffries said the move is “making it clear that we’re on offense. That’s our Democratic gift to Ron DeSantis and the Florida Republicans, who he is putting in jeopardy.“

The trading of trash talk between the congressman from New York and the two-term Sunshine State governor comes ahead of next week’s special session of the Florida legislature that DeSantis called to enact congressional redistricting to create additional right-leaning U.S. House seats.

DESANTIS, JEFFRIES TRADE VERBAL FIRE OVER CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING

Florida is the latest battleground between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats in the high-stakes showdown over congressional redistricting. Both parties have been redrawing the House district lines in states they control to gain partisan advantages heading into this year’s midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin congressional majority.

Pressure from fellow Republicans is mounting on DeSantis to take action after the passage earlier this week in Virginia of a congressional redistricting referendum, which if it clears legal hurdles, will give the Democrat-controlled legislature — rather than the current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election.

It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.

VIRGINIA VOTE GIVES DEMOCRATS MIDTERM MAP EDGE – SPARKS GOP BLAME GAME

DeSantis called next week’s special session to create more GOP-friendly congressional seats in a state where Republicans currently control 20 of 28 congressional districts.

But the road ahead for Florida Republicans isn’t easy: they already changed the House district lines four years ago, and it’s illegal under the state constitution to draw maps for partisan gain, which is known as gerrymandering.

Jeffries on Wednesday took aim at what he’s dubbed “dummymander,” which is a play on gerrymander, and argued that redrawing the maps in a state where the GOP suffered setbacks earlier this year in special legislative elections would harm Republican members of Congress.

“Our message to Florida Republicans is, ‘F around and find out,’” Jeffries told reporters as he referenced next week’s redistricting legislative session. Jeffries said the redistricting move would lead Democrats to increase their target list of vulnerable Florida House Republicans.

He warned DeSantis and Republicans that “the electoral tide is turning in Florida,”

DEMOCRATS NARROWLY WIN CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING SHOWDOWN IN VIRGINIA

Pushing back, DeSantis said “Please. Be my guest. I will pay for you to come down to Florida to campaign.”

“I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion. We will take you fishing,” the governor added.

Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.

Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

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California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.

In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention.

Virginia was in the redistricting spotlight the past month, leading up to this week’s election, where the Democrat-supported referendum passed by a narrow three-point margin.

Now, the fight moves to Florida, where the special legislative session gets underway Tuesday.

But no proposed maps have been circulated yet to state lawmakers, and DeSantis and Republicans in the legislature have had strained relations.

Regardless, there’s pressure coming from Washington, in wake of the Virginia vote, for Florida to take action.

“Florida has the right and the intention to do it. And my view is that they should,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday when asked if Florida’s maps should be redrawn in time for the midterms.

House Republicans are sharply divided over a bipartisan immigration reform bill, with one GOP lawmaker calling on President Donald Trump to intervene. 

For months, GOP lawmakers have fiercely debated the Dignity Act, whose Republican sponsor, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, is pushing for the immigration proposal to be marked up in committee and receive a vote on the floor.

The Miami Republican has quickly run into opposition from a swath of conservatives in the GOP conference who have ripped the proposal as “mass amnesty” and a wholesale rejection of the president’s immigration enforcement agenda.

“The DIGNIDAD Act … is a betrayal of the values that we ran on last election cycle,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in an interview, referring to the bill’s original Spanish name. “We ran on mass deportations. We said we’re going to do that, so we should.”

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But Salazar, whose Latino-heavy district Trump narrowly won in 2024, is offering a starkly different approach. 

“Now that the border is secured … what are we going to do with those people who do not have a criminal record and have contributed to the economy,” Salazar said at a press conference Wednesday. “The economy still needs them.”

The immigration standoff highlights the fissures in the coalition that elected a Republican trifecta in 2024. The Miami Republican is one of Democrats’ top targets in November’s midterm elections.

Salazar, who first introduced the legislation several years ago, said she has been in conversation with the White House but did not specify whether she had talked directly with Trump. 

“It’s up to him, as an elected official, to determine when is the right timing,” Salazar said of Trump. “When does he want to do this within his presidency?”

“No other president has the political guts to do this, Republicans or Democrats, in the last 40 years.”

When reached for comment, a White House official told Fox News Digital the administration is happy to review legislation but is “focused on enforcing the current immigration laws and deporting the millions and millions of criminal illegal aliens that Joe Biden let in our country.”

Salazar’s Dignity Act does not provide a pathway to citizenship, but it would make millions of migrants who came into the United States prior to Biden’s presidency eligible for work without fear of deportation. 

The legislation would also increase funding for border security, require employers to use E-Verify to verify an individual’s legal status and create a pathway for DACA recipients to obtain permanent residency, among other provisions.

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GOP supporters say the bill is attempting to appeal to the “mass middle” who want some legal protections for long-term migrants with no criminal records who are contributing to their communities, while also slamming the door shut on those who illegally entered the country beginning in 2021.

“I think, frankly, this is what America is looking for,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a Republican cosponsor of the bill, told Fox News Digital. “It covers a lot of concerns left and right.

“I think most people want some level of decency,” Bacon added. “You’ve been here for a while, you’ve got a family, you’re working, no criminal record.”

Conservative Republicans aren’t buying it. 

“It’s just amnesty. That’s all that is,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., an immigration hawk, told Fox News Digital. 

Gill said he remains vigorously opposed to the bill after meeting with Salazar for nearly an hour Wednesday to discuss the Dignity Act.

“This is one we’re just diametrically opposed to in irreconcilable ways,” the Texas Republican said, adding that he and Salazar agree on many other policy issues. “I do believe that it very clearly constitutes amnesty.”

Despite no clear path forward, Salazar has vowed to continue engaging skeptics about the immigration reform legislation. 

She has also shot down the idea of using a discharge petition to team up with Democrats and force a vote on the House floor.

“I’m going to do it the hard way,” Salazar told Fox News Digital.

“I am sure we’re going to be able to get to a yes, and we’re going to be able to solve immigration within the Trump administration,” she added. “I have no doubt about that. Only God the Father knows the time. I’m just waiting.”

A cohort of Senate Republicans joined Democrats to sink a late-night attempt to attach a version of voter ID and citizenship verification legislation to the GOP’s bill funding federal immigration enforcement.

Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., all voted against a modified version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act early Thursday morning.

Their defection came during the Senate’s marathon “vote-a-rama,” where lawmakers could force votes on any number of amendments, regardless of whether they mesh with the underlying budget blueprint.

The amendment’s 48-to-50 failure crystallized what several Republicans had warned for weeks before launching a quasi-floor takeover to debate the SAVE America Act last month — it didn’t have the support among the GOP to pass.

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It appears the proposal was doomed even if Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., launched an oral filibuster to advance the measure with a simple 50-vote majority.

Still, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pushed his version of the SAVE America Act after threatening to hold up the process until Thursday.

Kennedy acknowledged that his effort may not comport with the strict Senate rules that guide the reconciliation process, known as the Byrd Rule, but countered that critics of his move “can’t predict the future.”

“I respect everybody in this body, everybody,” Kennedy said on the Senate floor. “If you vote against this bill, I’m not going to say a word. And I’m sure as hell not going to go on social media and call you an ignorant slut. That’s not the way I roll, unless I’m pushed too far.”

SENATE GOP LAUNCHES ALL-NIGHT VOTE-A-RAMA TO FUND ICE, BORDER PATROL THROUGH END OF TRUMP’S TERM

Had Kennedy’s bid been successful, it could have instructed the Senate Rules Committee to craft legislation that would require voter ID to register and cast ballots in federal elections, limit voting to Election Day only and require that ballots be counted within 36 hours of an election.

It also would have set a $10 billion ceiling for the committee to use in crafting and implementing the legislation.

Notably, McConnell chairs the Senate Rules Committee and would have been tasked with creating the new legislation if Kennedy’s idea worked out.

Collins previously said she would support the SAVE America Act, but rejected this version of the legislation. Meanwhile, Murkowski and Tillis pushed back against the proposal ever since Republicans launched their floor takeover. 

SENATE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL IMMIGRATION FUNDING PLAN WITH $140 BILLION PRICE TAG AS DIVISIONS SIMMER

President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed for passage of the SAVE America Act. Last month he vowed not to sign any other bills until it gets through, and said he wouldn’t approve of a “watered down version.”

Top Senate Rules Committee Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., charged that Kennedy’s amendment was a “solution in search of a problem.”

“We’ve already gone down this road for several weeks now to debate the so-called SAVE America Act,” Padilla said. “But I think, despite how you felt about the SAVE America Act, which certainly cannot pass the Senate, even my Republican colleagues would say the measure suggested by our colleague from Louisiana is an even more extreme version.”

Kennedy’s failed attempt comes as debate over the SAVE America Act has taken a back seat in the Senate in recent weeks.

The GOP’s reconciliation gamble, reauthorizing the nation’s controversial spy powers, and the war in Iran have all dominated the Senate floor. Still, Republican leadership has no immediate plans to end its floor takeover.

West Virginia leaders renewed calls for like-minded Virginians to join their neighbors across the Allegheny Front after voters approved a Democratic Party-favored 10-1 congressional map on Tuesday.

West Virginia’s 55 counties seceded from then-Confederate Virginia in June 1863 to remain with the United States. Since then, there have been varied calls for those in the old Commonwealth who believe they’ve lost their political voice to discover redder pastures.

West Virginia state Sen. Chris Rose, R-Morgantown, announced his “VEXIT” movement — a portmanteau of Virginia and British conservatives’ “BREXIT” bid — is inviting “every true Virginian to take those country roads home to Best Virginia.”

Rose said it is west of Richmond where “your Appalachian heritage, values, and freedom are still honored and protected.”

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In a statement, Rose said he watched “the swamp score another victory” on Tuesday as a “YES” vote passed to redistrict Virginia in favor of Fairfax County and the Richmond-Petersburg metro area.

Posting an image of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag to social media as used by then-Gen. George Washington during the Revolutionary War, Rose invited disaffected Virginians to consider becoming Mountaineers.

Much of what is now West Virginia abhorred or did not utilize slavery, and abolitionist John Brown famously led a raid against the federal armory in Jefferson County in what became the easternmost point in the Mountain State, hoping to spur a slave revolt.

Brown was ultimately hanged for treason in Charles Town in 1859, while the 1863 secession passed in the then-capital of Wheeling. Today, the two Virginias’ differences are largely based on urban-vs.-rural geopolitical divides and issues such as gun control and taxation.

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When asked, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey told Fox News Digital he is onboard with the “VEXIT” idea in that regard, saying that Charleston will welcome people and businesses looking for a better environment.

“West Virginia is open for business and is ready to welcome those freedom loving neighbors who were disenfranchised by the radical left this week,” Morrisey said.

“While the commonwealth is attacking democracy, hiking taxes, and reinstating woke nonsense, our shining state in the mountains offers hope and opportunity.”

The effort follows the introduction of a bill in Charleston to formally invite a several-hundred-mile swath of western Virginia counties — from Big Stone Gap up through Luray — as well as rural counties in Maryland’s panhandle, long represented in Congress by Democrats from the D.C. suburbs, to secede to West Virginia.

That move would likely provide West Virginia an additional congressional seat, as Reps. Riley Moore’s and Carol Miller’s districts currently split the state generally crosswise.

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Fox News Digital also reached out to current Sen. Jim Justice — who as governor championed similar ideas.

In 2020, Justice joined prominent Virginia preacher Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr. to push for “VEXIT” as the then-governor said Appalachian Virginia has more in common with West Virginia than denser parts of the commonwealth.

“If you’re not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or wherever you may be,” he said in Martinsburg, West Virginia, just a stone’s throw from Frederick County, Virginia.

Meanwhile, West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Charles Trump IV put forth a bill as a then-senator from Martinsburg arguing Frederick County should already be part of West Virginia.

The rural county at Virginia’s northern tip surrounds but does not include the otherwise bluer city of Winchester, and Trump said in his bill that counties formed from the original Frederick are part of the original West Virginia.

Hampshire County, which features the city of Romney, is considered West Virginia’s oldest county and was formed from greater Frederick to the east.

Trump’s bill requested that Frederick County voters consider joining West Virginia, citing an 1862 Virginia state law consenting to “Berkeley, Jefferson and Frederick” joining West Virginia. The other two form West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, but Frederick never acted and therefore still can.

Del. Gary Howell, R-Keyser, a proponent of the Trump-era effort told WVMetroNews that Virginians in the Shenandoah Valley and southwestward are culturally, demographically, and geographically similar to West Virginia.

“They share more with us than they do with Tidewater, Richmond and Northern Virginia. We look at it like, they’re coming home,” he said.

The issue also arose during the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial race, when Republican Winsome Sears pledged to create a “second governor’s office” west of the Blue Ridge Mountains to serve constituents she said are geographically closer to five other capitals and are forgotten by their own.

Indeed, lawmakers and locals in far southwestern Virginia toward Wise and Cumberland Gap have often said “Virginia ends at Roanoke” as far as Richmond is concerned.

Navy Secretary John Phelan was removed from his post after months of tensions with senior Pentagon leadership, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Multiple officials told Fox News Digital that both War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg had concerns with Phelan’s leadership, and tensions had simmered for months. One flashpoint came after Hegseth fired Phelan’s chief of staff, John Harrison, in October 2025, according to sources.

Those frustrations were in part fueled by concerns over Phelan’s execution of major shipbuilding programs, one source confirmed.

But President Donald Trump struck a different tone publicly, praising Phelan in a post on Truth Social Thursday afternoon. 

NAVY SECRETARY DEPARTS IMMEDIATELY AS UNDERSECRETARY TAKES OVER IN ACTING ROLE

“John Phelan is a long time friend, and very successful businessman, who did an outstanding job serving as my Secretary Of The Navy for the last year,” Trump wrote. “John helped my Administration rebuild Sleepy Joe Biden’s rapidly depleted, and almost abandoned, Navy. Now, because of John, and all of the Great Men and Women lovingly and tirelessly involved, we have the strongest Navy in the World — BY FAR!”

Trump added that he would “certainly like to have him back within the Trump Administration sometime in the future” and said Phelan “decided to move on,” a characterization at odds with what other administration officials have told Fox News Digital.

A senior administration official said Trump and Hegseth “agreed new leadership at the Navy is needed.” 

The official added that Hegseth informed Phelan of the decision before Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the move in a post on X Wednesday. 

The leadership shakeup comes at a critical moment for the Navy, as U.S. forces confront escalating tensions amid a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks and mine threats have disrupted a vital global oil choke point. It also comes as Trump has pushed the Navy into a “wartime footing” for expanding the nation’s lagging shipbuilding capacity. 

Phelan, a billionaire and former fundraiser for Trump, and his wife, Amy, hosted a bridal shower for Donald Trump Jr’s fiancé at Mar-a-Lago in mid-April. 

Other Navy insiders described the tensions as more personal, saying Hegseth grew frustrated that Phelan at times bypassed him and took issues directly to Trump.

Phelan declined to comment to Fox News Digital. Hegseth aides could not be reached for comment on the tensions. 

Phelan is the second senior level Pentagon official to lose his job in April after Army chief of staff Randy George, in the midst of the U.S. operation against Iran. His exit also comes amid a broader Cabinet shakeup: Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer all departed their roles since March.

Phelan’s departure also comes amid heightened pressure on the Navy to address persistent shipbuilding challenges. The Navy’s Columbia-class submarine program — its top priority — remains behind schedule and over budget, with delivery of the lead vessel now expected to be delayed by roughly 17 months into 2029.

More broadly, major Navy shipbuilding programs have continued to face delays and cost pressures during Phelan’s roughly yearlong tenure, even as he made shipbuilding a central focus of his leadership. He launched reviews of major programs and pushed changes aimed at accelerating production, while the Navy has invested heavily in efforts to address workforce shortages and production bottlenecks, including a $900 million initiative in 2026 to automate submarine manufacturing.

Tensions escalated as Feinberg moved to centralize oversight of major shipbuilding programs, in some cases stripping Phelan of authority over key efforts, according to New York Times reporting citing a congressional official.

Phelan also drew scrutiny in recent days after suggesting the Navy could explore alternatives such as outsourcing shipbuilding as it grapples with capacity constraints.

“Everything’s on the table,” Phelan said at the Sea-Air-Space conference Monday. “We just need to look at it, understand it, understand the implications behind it and decide if we think that makes sense or not.”

ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF ORDERED TO RETIRE IMMEDIATELY AS HEGSETH CONTINUES PENTAGON SHAKEUP

Hung Cao, the Navy’s under secretary, has stepped in as acting Navy secretary following Phelan’s removal, bringing a sharply different background and leadership profile to the role. Unlike Phelan, a businessman, Cao is a retired Navy captain and special operations officer who served more than two decades in the military, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, before entering politics and later joining the Pentagon’s civilian leadership.

Cao has also emerged as a prominent voice within the Trump administration on military culture and readiness, taking a hardline stance on recruiting and force standards.

In a political debate while he was running for the Virginia Senate seat in October 2024, Cao said: “When you’re using a drag queen…to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we need. What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds.”