Category: USA Politics

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to extend protections for Haitian migrants, and Republicans say it’s a perfect example of him putting the interests of illegal immigrants over Americans. 

Schumer fast-tracked a House-passed bill that would extend the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of Haitian migrants for three years earlier this week onto the Senate schedule. Whether it actually makes it to the floor is ultimately up to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

The top Senate Democrat’s desire to pass the legislation in the Senate comes at an inflection point for both the protected status of Haitian migrants and a funding battle started, in part, over immigration operations in the country. 

HOUSE REPUBLICANS DEFY TRUMP TO SHIELD HAITIANS FROM DEPORTATION

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who led negotiations for Senate Republicans to try to strike a compromise deal to end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, told Fox News Digital, “I’m so glad that he is prioritizing people who are not American consistently.”

“What about the countless Americans that have died at the hands of illegal aliens? I mean, the fact that you’re literally trying to defund the organization that is tasked with keeping our streets safe, our borders secure, keeping Americans — allowing Americans to go home to their families at night,” Britt said. “It’s just totally, his priorities are completely and totally off.”

While Schumer is trying to extend the protected status of Haitian migrants, DHS is still shut down over disagreements on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) funding.

SENATE TAKES FIRST STEP TO FUND ICE, BORDER PATROL IN BID TO CUT DEMS OUT OF THE FUNDING PROCESS

The legislation made it through the House last week after 10 Republicans bucked President Donald Trump and joined Democrats to shield more than 350,000 Haitian nationals from deportation.

The TPS program allows foreign nationals whose home countries face humanitarian crises or dangerous conditions to temporarily live and work in the United States without fear of deportation, but it does not provide a pathway to citizenship.

Schumer noted on the Senate floor earlier this week that Haitian migrants became a political flash point during Trump’s campaign, in which he claimed that a community of Haitians in Ohio were eating pets. 

SENATE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL IMMIGRATION FUNDING PLAN WITH $140 BILLION PRICE TAG AS GOP AIMS TO SPEND LESS

“Despite ongoing violence, gang violence, civil instability, terrible medical infrastructure, and poor food access in Haiti,” Schumer said, “Trump directed Kristi Noem to strip Haitian immigrants of their TPS, their Temporary Protected Status, disregarding the process Congress set into law.”

Trump tried to revoke the program for Haiti and argued that because conditions have improved in the country, granting Haitians legal protections runs counter to American interests. But his administration’s effort is currently snarled in the courts. 

And if it were to make it to a vote, Republicans plan to swiftly kill it.

When asked whether the bill stood a chance in the upper chamber, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, flashed a zero sign by connecting his index finger and thumb. 

“Zero point zero,” Moreno told Fox News Digital.  “Schumer is all illegals first, it’s crazy.”

California Angel Mom Agnes Gibboney, who lost her son in an illegal alien-involved shooting, is blasting Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats over a proposed bill that would use taxpayer dollars to fund legal defense for immigrants facing deportation. She urged voters to “stop this insanity.”

State lawmakers are considering a proposal that would expand access to taxpayer-funded legal representation for immigrants facing deportation proceedings. The measure would build on existing state programs by creating a framework to provide attorneys to adults in immigration court, regardless of legal status, with priority given to those in detention. This comes as California, and other sanctuary states across the country, are facing increasing pressure and scrutiny from the Trump administration for allegedly prioritizing illegal aliens over citizens.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Gibboney, whose son, Ronald, was shot and killed by an illegal alien, ripped into Newsom and California Democrats over the bill. She claimed that it is further proof that they care for illegal immigrants more than citizens.

“My son was murdered,” she said. “Not one politician has ever contacted me. Not one politician said, ‘I’m so sorry that this previously deported criminal illegal alien shot and killed your son.’ Not one of them.”

NEWSOM ADMINISTRATION ALLEGEDLY KNEW OF $2B CALIFORNIA BUDGET ERROR FOR MONTHS: REPORT

Gibboney said that since losing her son in 2002, she sent Newsom “many, many emails,” and “never once did I get a response, not even from his office, much less from Newsom.” 

Newsom has not signaled whether he would sign the bill into law. He previously signed legislation that created and expanded a state-funded legal aid program to ensure legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children in deportation proceedings.

Ronald da Silva, 29, the son of a law enforcement official, was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant gang member while standing in his driveway.

Gibboney asserted that “Newsom doesn’t care about citizens of this country, about legal immigrants like myself. He cares about free votes from illegal aliens.”

Regarding the legal defense bill, Gibboney said she is “outraged.”

“California is about three to 400 billion, with a ‘B,’ dollars in debt. How is that possible? How much more can you milk us citizens?” she railed.

Meanwhile, for citizens, she said, “everything has gotten worse” under Newsom.

ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE GETTING TAXPAYER-FUNDED BOOB JOBS AND SEX CHANGE OPS IN NEWSOM’S CALIFORNIA, WATCHDOG SAYS

“We have the highest tax in the entire country, we have the highest cost of living, the most homeless,” she said, adding, “We are number one on everything, and nothing number one in good things, it’s always on the bad things.”

“We taxpayers keep paying more and more each year for taxes just so our government, actually Gavin Newsom, can hand it out and squander our tax dollars and give it to illegal aliens.”

The bill, introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Mia Bonta in February, advanced out of two Assembly policy committees and is currently under review in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

In addition to Gibboney, the bill has garnered significant outrage, including from The American Border Story, a group that advocates on behalf of the families of victims of migrant crime. Earlier this month, the group condemned the measure as “a grave affront to Angel Families across the country who have suffered immeasurable loss at the hands of foreign criminals.” The group asserted that the bill “actively incentivizes illegal immigration and directly undermines the progress achieved by the Trump administration since the President’s second inauguration.”

At the same time, the bill has been lauded by some, such as Abraham Bedoy, manager of California policy and government affairs for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Bedoy said in a March statement that “increasing immigrant legal defense is critical to address the mass deportations, unprecedented numbers of people held in detention, and indiscriminate arrests devastating families, communities, and our economy across our state.” 

He called the measure “another important step in our state’s strong trajectory towards universal legal representation.”

DOJ SUES NEWSOM OVER CALIFORNIA MEASURE GIVING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS COLLEGE TUITION BENEFITS

While the bill does not explicitly outline all its exclusions, existing California policy suggests some immigrants with certain criminal histories could be excluded or deprioritized under any expanded program. California has already moved to limit state-funded legal aid in certain immigration cases, particularly for individuals with serious or violent felony convictions.

Bonta, who represents the Oakland area, framed her bill as ensuring “every Californian’s right to a fair hearing.”

In a March statement, Bonta’s office said the bill “builds on” her earlier bill to expand access to counsel for unaccompanied minors and other young immigrants in removal proceedings. That bill was signed into law by Newsom last year.

“Every person deserves their day in court, with a lawyer by their side. In California, thousands of our neighbors are being swept into one of the most complex legal systems in the country, often in a second language, without an attorney or a fair shot,” she said in a March statement.

She decried the Trump administration’s “mass deportation machine,” saying it is “accelerating that injustice.”

“[The bill] represents California’s chance to stand up for our values: a commitment to due process, dignity, and the principle that justice shouldn’t depend on what you can afford,” said Bonta.

Gibboney, however, said California should “use that money appropriately.”

“Use it for our education, which is failing … Use it for the veterans for better healthcare and for the seniors for better healthcare,” she suggested.

She urged Newsom to “recall his oath of office is to serve us, the public, we the people, not those that broke into our country and came here illegally.”

“Ronald was my firstborn and only son. He was 29 years old, a father of two. They were eight and 10,” she shared. “The media usually doesn’t talk about that kind of family separations, six feet of dirt in a coffin. But they talk about the ones that are deported to their country, where they can go back and visit and be reunited. I can never be reunited with my son.”

While expressing she is grateful that Newsom is term-limited, Gibboney urged California voters to vote to “stop this insanity,” saying, “Yesterday it was my son that was shot by a previously deported criminal illegal alien. Tomorrow it could be your child.”

FIRST ON FOX: NEW YORK, N.Y. — As thousands of New York City residents prepare to hit the road to leave town for Memorial Day and summer travel, Democratic House candidate Jack Schlossberg is calling for an investigation into the way rental car companies, and potentially other industries, are using artificial intelligence.

Schlossberg, the only grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to look into reports that Hertz began using AI last year to scan cars for rental damages, prompting warnings that consumers could end up being overcharged.

“AI is being used in consumer-facing financial products, and Hertz is using AI to scan for microscopic damage on cars, invisible to the human eye, to charge people with fees for damage that they might not even be aware of, they have no opportunity to dispute, and the FTC should act here to investigate whether or not this constitutes an unfair trade practice,” Schlossberg told Fox News Digital outside a midtown Manhattan Hertz location. 

Schlossberg’s concerns stem in part from a report from The Drive where a Hertz customer at location using the technology said he was notified minutes after dropping off his car that a 1-inch scuff on the driver’s side rear wheel resulted in a $440 charge that included $250 for the repair, $125 for processing, and a $65 administrative fee.

FROM CAMELOT TO ‘OUTSIDER’: JFK’S GRANDSON SHAKES UP NYC HOUSE RACE TAKING AIM AT GATEKEEPING DEM ‘MACHINE’

The report claims the situation for the customer got even worse when he tried to dispute the charges, and the company’s chatbot did not offer a way to reach a live representative, instead routing the issue for review at a later time.

Hertz has been partnering with Israel-based Uveye to deploy AI scanning technology at airport locations over the past year and uses cameras and machine learning algorithms to scan returned cars in hopes of improving the “frequency, accuracy, and efficiency” of the process and phase out the need for manual inspections, Car & Driver reported.

Schlossberg is calling on the FTC to take four actions, adding that if elected to Congress in NY-12 he would move to enshrine them into federal law: conduct a full investigation into Hertz’s use of AI-driven damage detection, determine whether the practice constitutes an unfair or deceptive act under federal law, establish clear guidelines for the use of AI in consumer-facing financial decisions, and ensure that consumers have a transparent, fair, and accessible process to dispute charges.

‘GODFATHER OF AI’ WARNS MACHINES COULD SOON OUTTHINK HUMANS, CALLS FOR ‘MATERNAL INSTINCTS’ TO BE BUILT IN

“I think that this is a harbinger of what’s to come,” Schlossberg said. “This is the new frontier of corporate fine print because AI is being used in ways we couldn’t imagine to price gouge, price fix, jack up prices on consumers without their consent, and basically just squeeze every nickel and dime out of consumers that they possibly can. And sometimes this can be unfair.”

“We have elected officials in New York City who quietly work for the AI industry — meanwhile, like in the case of Hertz, consumers are being taken for a ride,” Schlossberg’s campaign said in a Wednesday press release first obtained by Fox News Digital, adding that “innovation must not come at the expense of the consumer.”

A Hertz spokesperson pushed back on Schlossberg’s concerns in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying, “Digital vehicle inspections bring precision and transparency to a historically manual and inconsistent process while also enhancing the safety, quality, and reliability of our fleet. They protect customers from being charged for damage that didn’t occur during their rental while enabling faster, fairer resolution when it does.”

The company added, “Since launching over one year ago, we’ve been listening, learning, and improving based on customer feedback — increasing communication, enhancing awareness at digital inspection locations, and strengthening our support channels. We’re committed to building upon the progress we’ve made to continue providing our customers with a more consistent rental experience and safer fleet.” 

A company spokesperson also told Fox News Digital that customers are not charged for damages invisible to the human eye and are provided comprehensive reports that include before-and-after photos that can easily be discussed with a Customer Care team via email, phone or chat.

Schlossberg told Fox News Digital that his announcement in mid-April is intended to “get ahead of the peak season booking” as New Yorkers plan their Memorial Day weekend trips and should be aware of the potential pitfalls of renting a car within the landscape of emerging AI technology. 

The FTC declined to comment.

Schlossberg is running as a Democrat in a crowded primary on June 23 to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District in Congress, where the winner is widely believed to be in the driver’s seat to win the general election in one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the country.

House Democrats are launching an investigation into FBI Director Kash Patel following a bombshell story from The Atlantic alleging he had “alarmed colleagues” with excessive drinking and erratic behavior. 

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and House Judiciary Democrats are demanding that Patel complete a 10-question test identifying “hazardous drinking behaviors” under the penalty of perjury.

“These glimpses of your relationship to alcohol would be alarming to see in an FBI agent; for us to see them in the FBI Director himself is shocking and indicative of a public emergency,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Patel late Tuesday evening. 

Patel has vigorously denied the allegations in The Atlantic story and said Tuesday he has “never been intoxicated on the job.”

LEFT-WING GROUP CHASES PROOF OF KASH PATEL’S ALLEGED ‘EXCESSIVE DRINKING’ AS DEMS EYE FBI DIRECTOR’S OUSTER

“I can say unequivocally that I never listen to the fake news mafia, and as when they get louder, it just means I’m doing my job,” he added, during a joint press conference with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Raskin also sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Chairman Jim Jordan, demanding that the top Republican require Patel to testify under oath in person if he does not provide the requested information.

The missive is likely to fall on deaf ears, with a spokesperson for the committee Republicans slamming the letter as “unserious” in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Crime is down to record-low levels. Criminals are behind bars, and America is safer thanks to the leadership of President Trump and Director Patel,” the spokesperson said. “This is just another unserious effort from anonymous sources and partisan actors to attack the President and his Administration.” 

Democrats’ probe comes after Patel on Monday sued the outlet and Sarah Fitzpatrick, the story’s author, for $250 million in a defamation lawsuit alleging “actual malice.”

 KASH PATEL CALLS ‘BULLS**T’ ON SWALWELL IN HEATED EXCHANGE OVER EPSTEIN FILES

The story, relying completely on anonymous sourcing, cited several officials detailing an alleged “emotional outburst” Patel had after being logged out of his computer. The outlet also reported officials alleging several instances of the FBI director engaging in copious drinking that led to difficulties waking him up.

“Defendants are of course free to criticize the leadership of the FBI, but they crossed the legal line by publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office,” the lawsuit states. 

The Atlantic released a statement defending its reporting and argued Patel’s lawsuit is “meritless.”

Trump administration officials have publicly defended Patel following the viral story.

Blanche told reporters Tuesday that he had “a lot of concerns” with the report’s anonymous sourcing, but said he had not read it.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Atlantic that “Director Patel remains a critical player on the administration’s law and order team.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI for comment.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill Tuesday allowing nursing home residents to drink alcohol, clearing the way for “happy hour” in senior living facilities.

Previously, Minnesota law barred facilities from organizing events that included alcohol without a liquor license. The new “Grandparents’ Happy Hour” law allows nursing homes and assisted living facilities to serve alcohol without one.

The measure also updates the state’s liquor laws, allowing some cities to issue licenses and easing rules for certain businesses, including nursing homes and University of Minnesota facilities.

Walz announced the bill in a post on X, encouraging seniors to enjoy a drink.

STATE OFFICIALS AND DAYCARE MANAGER PUSH BACK ON VIRAL VIDEO FRAUD ALLEGATIONS IN MINNESOTA

“Living in a nursing home shouldn’t mean giving up everyday freedoms,” Walz wrote in a post on X. “I just signed a bill allowing seniors living in nursing homes to consume alcohol – so that everyone can enjoy happy hour!”

The law requires staff serving alcohol to be at least 18 years old, and facilities are responsible for ensuring residents do not overindulge.

The bill drew attention during the legislative session, largely due to Anita LeBrun, an 88-year-old resident of an assisted living facility whose support went viral.

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS OPEN INVESTIGATION INTO WALZ, FREY OVER ALLEGED IMPEDING OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

“My friends and I love happy hour, just like many of you do, I am sure,” LeBrun said before the House Commerce, Finance and Policy Committee last month. 

“Over a shared drink, we get to reminisce about parts of our lives, military service, raising a family, the loss of a friend, and celebrating the golden phase of our lives too,” she said.

LeBrun also told a state Senate committee that living in an assisted facility “doesn’t mean that we should have fewer freedoms than anyone else.”

BIDEN-ERA HEALTH OFFICIALS QUIETLY URGED LIMITING ADULT ALCOHOL INTAKE AS TRUMP TAKES REINS FOR NEW GUIDANCE

She later appeared on “Fox & Friends,” describing social gatherings with snacks and music where residents previously had to bring their own alcohol due to restrictions.

While policies vary, senior living communities in many states allow residents to drink or host informal social hours.

Minnesota’s rules stood out because they limited how facilities could organize and serve alcohol in communal settings.

“Living in a nursing home or assisted living facility should not mean giving up everyday freedoms,” Walz said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill increases independence and safety under clear regulations, while ensuring residents are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve—including the ability to get together for happy hour.”

As the bill was considered, industry advocates said it would preserve small routines that support quality of life.

“Ultimately, the ‘free the happy hour’ bill is about restoring a fundamental expectation — that moving into a senior living community does not mean giving up one’s autonomy,” LeadingAge Minnesota, an industry group that represents senior living providers, said in a statement last month.

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Bardolf contributed to this report.

California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, who is running for lieutenant governor, is facing blowback for promising jobs and internships to students at a China-based boarding school accused of committing diploma fraud in conjunction with a California school district, after the school’s founder poured tens-of-thousands of dollars into her campaigns.

Pegasus California School, based in Qingdao, China, was the subject of a probe completed in February by California education officials in Riverside County, following concerns that the Val Verde Unified School District was illegally issuing diplomas to Pegasus’ China-based students. It also identified other potential concerns related to Pegasus and California education officials working for the district and the California Department of Education, indicating there was evidence of them engaging in potential fraud, misappropriation of funds and other illegal fiscal practices. The audit concluded that investigators found “a pattern of favors, official acts, promises, and payments” leading to the California Department of Education’s ultimate approval of a pilot program that allowed wealthy Chinese students to obtain a U.S. high school diploma overseas.

Meanwhile, a post on the school’s website shows Ma visiting in 2023, telling students, parents and teachers there that she would be able to help the enrollees at the school get jobs and internships back in the U.S. The same post on the school’s website heralded Ma’s visit as evidence of “the California government’s recognition and attention to Pegasus,” which became a sister-school to California’s Val Verde Unified School District in 2016 and started its pilot program issuing California diplomas a year later.

“Fiona chose Pegasus as the only school to visit in China, which shows the California government’s recognition and attention to Pegasus,” Pegasus bragged in the now-archived post from its website.

CHINESE EDUCATOR WITH SEVERAL CCP TIES COZIES UP TO TOP NEW YORK DEMOCRATS: ‘OUR OLD FRIEND WHO LISTENS’

It then included an excerpt from Ma: “I am honored to come to Qingdao Pegasus California School today to see many students perform and communicate with them. If they want to intern in California, they can come to me, I will provide some internship and employment opportunities.”

Steven Ma, who is unrelated to Fiona Ma but is Pegasus’ founder, directly contributed over $13,200 to her campaigns for State Treasurer and Lt. Gov., according to California campaign finance records dating back to 2021.

The Pegasus founder’s college-admissions consulting firm, ThinkTank Learning Inc. also contributed $23,800 to Ma’s campaigns since 2010, according to state campaign finance records.

TRUMP ADMIN SENDS WARNING TO CALIFORNIA AS TRANS ATHLETE ADVANCES IN STATE TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP

Fox News Digital reached out to Ma multiple times for comment on her visit to the China-based school, and to the Val Verde school district itself to inquire whether it was aware of Ma’s visit, but did not receive a response.

Business Insider released a scathing report in 2021 calling out the Pegasus California School for its improper relationship with the Val Verde Unified School District, which Business Insider argues spurred the recently completed audit into Pegasus by California education officials. The China-based school, according to Business Insider, was charging up to $34,000 a year for students to enroll and, despite drawing on Val Verde resources, it functioned as a private boarding school. The school’s own website describes itself as an “independent” international school that uses a “fee payment and registration” framework for students after gaining admission, similar to how private schools in the U.S. operate, according to a Fox News Digital review.

A February 2018 Memorandum of Understanding between the China-based boarding school and Val Verde, reviewed by Fox News Digital, indicated that in return for receiving diplomas and teachers from the United States, ten students from the Val Verde school district would be afforded the opportunity to travel to China and attend Pegasus for 10 days at the cost of $300 a student. It also laid out an exchange program for students at Pegasus to visit schools’ in California. While the audit does not appear to identify any clear direct repayment from Pegasus to Val Verde itself, it does highlight travel, consulting opportunities, scholarships and other perks, like “great publicity,” that benefited officials and the district more than its own students.

Meanwhile, Pegasus was allegedly telling its students and parents that it could guarantee them admission to one of the top 100 universities in the U.S., and if that didn’t happen, they would get a complete tuition reimbursement. A 2019 Memorandum of Understanding, included in the California audit, showed the University of California – Riverside even made a commitment that students who met certain academic thresholds would “receive a UCR scholarship.”

Following the completion of the audit from Riverside County officials in February, announced publicly in March by Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Edwin Gomez, the California Department of Education issued a cease-and-desist demanding Pegasus terminate official statements on its website claiming it was founded in 2016 with the department’s “blessing and support.”

“California Business and Professions Code Section 17533.6 makes it unlawful for a non-governmental entity to use a state government name in a manner that could reasonably be interpreted or construed as implying connection, approval or endorsement by the state government,” stated the March cease-and-desist. “The above statement on your website could reasonably be interpreted or construed to imply that the California Department of Education is connected to, approves or endorses Pegasus California School. You are on notice that the California Department of Education is not connected to, does not approve and does not endorse Pegasus California School.”

FIRST ON FOX — Former Vice President Mike Pence is urging congressional Republicans to cut off federal taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, warning in exclusive comments to Fox News Digital that failure to act would hand the organization a massive paycheck on Independence Day.

Pence’s demands come alongside a new policy roadmap from his conservative think tank, the Advancing American Freedom Foundation (AAFF), which outlines 20 key legislative priorities for an upcoming “Reconciliation 2.0” package. 

One of the top items on Pence’s agenda is ensuring that a temporary ban on Medicaid funding for abortion providers, initially passed in a sweeping legislative package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), does not expire July 4, as scheduled.

FORMER VP PENCE VOWS TO BE A ‘VOICE AGAINST’ TRUMP WHEN PRESIDENT VEERS FROM ‘CONSERVATIVE AGENDA’

“Congressional Republicans must deliver for pro-life Americans by extending the ban on federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers,” Pence told Fox News Digital. 

“If Congress does not act, Planned Parenthood will celebrate America’s 250th birthday with taxpayer funding. Renewed federal funding for Planned Parenthood is unacceptable to me and to millions of pro-life Americans across the United States.”

The AAFF memo provides GOP lawmakers with a strategy to permanently ban or extend the temporary pause on taxpayer funding for abortion providers.

If Congress faces challenges in directly cutting off the cash flow, the group suggested hitting abortion providers with a new tax that matches the exact amount of Medicaid funds they receive in a given year.

While defunding abortion providers is one of the cornerstones of Pence’s push, the AAFF roadmap proposes 19 other priorities, including targeting companies that hire illegal immigrant workers, requiring strict citizenship and address checks for voters and repealing “green energy” subsidies.

It also recommends expanding tax-advantaged Trump Accounts for children’s savings, rewarding states that adopt school choice programs and slashing federal spending by penalizing states that hand out fraudulent or improper Medicaid and welfare payments.

“By sending 20 solid, conservative policy proposals to Congress that will help eliminate waste, fraud and abuse; strengthen election integrity; and expand on the tax policy wins of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the policy team at Advancing American Freedom Foundation continues to directly impact the day-to-day policy debate in Washington, D.C.,” Pence said.

“Policy memos from dedicated conservative think tanks are essential to advancing conservative policy through the legislative process,” he added. “I trust that representatives and senators and their policy teams will continue to find AAF’s memos as their go-to resource for need-to-know information on policy.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Planned Parenthood for comment.

Democrats scored a major victory on Tuesday as a congressional redistricting referendum that could give the party a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House of Representatives majority in this year’s midterm elections was passed by Virginia voters, The Associated Press reports as of 8:49 p.m. ET.

The ballot measure gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state’s 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.

That would give the Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms as the party tries to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.

The standalone spring referendum capped months of political crossfire and court battles, sky-high early voting turnout, and tons of national attention and money poured into the ballot box showdown.

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Even though a majority of voters gave the ballot initiative a thumbs up, it still faces legal challenges.

The Supreme Court of Virginia allowed the referendum to move forward after a lower court struck it down. But legal challenges to the referendum remain unresolved and are still before Virginia’s highest court.

Republicans had railed against the Democrat-backed referendum.

“It’s the most partisan map in America,” former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin told supporters at his final campaign stop, in northern Virginia, on the eve of the election.

Pointing to the Democrats pushing new maps, Youngkin charged, “What they are doing is immoral.”

Teaming up with Youngkin to crisscross the state in leading the GOP opposition to the ballot initiative was former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who told the crowd the Democrats’ map is one that “you draw when you’re drunk with power.”

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE RUNS THROUGH VIRGINIA AS COURT OKS HIGH-STAKES REDISTRICTING VOTE

Speaking with Fox News Digital ahead of their final election eve rally, Miyares charged that “Democrats want to take away the voices of millions of Virginians and gerrymander the state.”

Youngkin, pointing to the duo’s relentless campaigning in recent weeks, said: “What we’re hearing over and over and over again is Virginians want fair maps. And what the yes vote represents are unfair maps.”

And the two Republicans reiterated their charge that the referendum was an “unconstitutional power grab” by the Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democrats who control the state legislature.

As Youngkin and Miyares spoke in Leesburg, President Donald Trump took to the airwaves on a popular Virginia-based conservative talk show and later teamed up with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to urge voters to defeat the referendum.

Pointing to congressional Democrats, Trump warned that “if they get these additional seats, they’re going to be making changes at the federal level.”

SPANBERGER FACES ‘BAIT AND SWITCH’ BACKLASH AHEAD OF CRUCIAL ELECTION

Democrats countered that the redrawing of the maps was a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented by Republicans in other states at Trump’s urging.

“By voting yes, you have the chance to do something important — not just for the commonwealth, but for our entire country,” former President Barack Obama said in a video released Friday on the eve of the final day of early voting. “By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.”

“By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we’re counting on you,” the former president added.

The video by Obama was the former president’s latest effort tied to the referendum. He had previously appeared in ads released by Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-aligned group working to pass the ballot initiative.

OBAMA GOES ALL IN ON HIGH-STAKES REFERENDUM THAT MAY IMPACT MIDTERM ELECTIONS

But Virginians for Fair Maps, the leading Republican-aligned group opposing redistricting, used past comments by Obama against political gerrymandering in its ads opposing the referendum.

“Because of things like political gerrymandering, our parties have moved further and further apart, and it’s harder and harder to find common ground,” the former president said in an old clip showcased in the spot.

Republicans pointed to comments from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, who acknowledged this past weekend in a “Fox News Sunday” interview that the new maps don’t represent Virginia’s partisan breakdown.

“Ninety percent of Virginians are not Democrats, that’s true,” Kaine said.

But Kaine added that “about 100% of Virginians want election results to be respected.”

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And Republicans took aim at Spanberger, who won last November’s gubernatorial election by over 15 points as Democrats also captured the lieutenant governor and attorney general offices.

“Abigail Spanberger told everybody last summer that she had no interest in redistricting and then the first bill she signs is a bill to enable the gerrymandering of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginians don’t like this and that’s why independents and a lot of Democrats are voting no too,” Youngkin told Fox News Digital.

Minutes later, Youngkin told the crowd that Spanberger is “trying to disenfranchise millions, millions, of Virginians.”

Republicans trained their redistricting firepower on Spanberger since a poll two weeks ago by The Washington Post indicated that the new governor’s approval rating was barely above water, with the highest unfavorable rating for a new Virginia governor in two decades.

“She’s an unpopular governor with an unpopular agenda, and she lied to the voters,” Miyares charged.

And Miyares and other top Republicans accused Spanberger of pulling a “bait and switch.”

Spanberger, in an ad in support of the referendum, said she was backing the measure because “it’s directly in response to what other states decide to do and a president who says he’s quote entitled to more Republican seats before this year’s midterms. Our approach is different. It’s temporary. It preserves Virginia’s fair redistricting process into the future.”

Supporters of redistricting dramatically outraised and outspent groups opposed to the referendum, with Virginians for Fair Elections outraising Virginians for Fair Maps by a roughly three-to-one margin. Much of the funding raised by both sides came from so-called “dark money” from nonprofit public policy groups known as 501(c)(4) organizations that are not required to disclose their donors.

Despite the Democrats’ funding advantage, recent polling suggested support for the ballot initiative was only slightly ahead of opposition amid a surge in early voting, which ended on Saturday.

“They have outspent us three to one. They’ve raised over $70 million. And yet this is a close vote,” Youngkin said.

Pointing to the ads in support of the referendum, Youngkin said Virginians “aren’t believing the mistruths. They aren’t believing the lies on TV. They’re actually doing the work themselves and understanding that a no vote is for fair maps and a yes vote is for the most gerrymandered maps in America.”

And Miyares emphasized that Democrats “outspent us but we have the truth.”

Virginia is the latest battleground in the high-stakes fight between Trump and the GOP and Democrats over congressional redistricting.

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.

Florida is next up.

Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session that kicks off April 28.

Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case that may lead to the overturning of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.

If the ruling goes the way of the conservatives on the high court, it could lead to the redrawing of a slew of majority-minority districts across the county, which would greatly favor Republicans.

But it is very much up in the air when the court will rule and what it will actually decide.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Tuesday a sweeping indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), accusing the far-left nonprofit of fraudulently paying members of extremist groups.

A grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to Blanche.

The SPLC is a nonprofit that claims to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups, and conducting research to inform law enforcement groups with the goal of dismantling the groups.

Blanche said the SPLC was paying roughly $270,000 to a member of the leadership group that planned the Unite the Right protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, that resulted in the death of one person and injured dozens more. 

He added that between 2014 and 2023, SPLC paid at least $3 million to eight people, three of whom were allegedly affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, the Nationalist Socialist Party of America Nazis and the American Front. 

“It was doing the exact opposite of what its told its donors it was doing, not dismantling extremism, but funding it to carry out this scheme,” Blanche said. “SPLC created bank accounts in the name of at least five completely fictitious organizations that had no bona fide employees or legitimate business purpose.”

“The money was passed from SPLC to one sham account, to a second sham account, and then loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members of the extremist groups,” he continued. “This was designed to shield the source of those funds, and because of this, SPLC is also charged with one count, as I said earlier, of conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

Patel said the FBI’s investigation revealed the SPLC also attempted to hide their alleged criminal activity from financial banking networks. 

“They set up shell companies and entities around America so that the financial institutions that we rely on as everyday Americans were deceived in believing that money was not coming from the Southern Poverty Law Center in the perpetration of this scheme and fraud, but rather fictitious entities,” Patel said. “They stood up to perpetuate this ongoing fraud. This is a serious and egregious violation of a group that purported to dismantle violent extremist groups, but in turn actually only fueled that hatred.”

A federal appeals court upheld a Texas law requiring public schools across the state to display the Ten Commandments.

The ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals came after Texas Republican-led legislature passed the law.

“This is one of the most important religious liberty victories for Texas in our glorious history,” said Jonathan Saenz, president and attorney for Texas Values, which defended the law. “Texas continues to lead the nation in defending both religious liberty and constitutional truth.”

“Today’s ruling confirms that our state can honor the moral heritage that undergirds our legal system without violating the First Amendment,” he added. “This decision makes clear that acknowledging the historical foundations of our laws is not only permissible — it is fully consistent with the Constitution.”

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