Category: USA Politics

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf threatened to “reveal new cards on the battlefield” in a Monday evening social media post just days before the agreed ceasefire between the United States and Iran is set to expire.

“Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table — in his own imagination — into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield,” he concluded.

Ghalibaf led the Iranian delegation in Islamabad during April 11 peace talks with a U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance. That meeting happened while a two-week ceasefire, mediated by Pakistan, was in effect. The ceasefire, announced on April 8, is set to expire on Wednesday.

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Vance is now expected to land in Pakistan again Tuesday to lead a second round of talks ahead of the deadline, according to PBS.

While Vance will hope to reach a long-term peace deal, Iran has signaled intransigence. Ghalibaf’s warning came two days after the Islamic Republic announced Saturday it was reimposing restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, reversing a previously announced decision to open the key waterway.

Trump announced the Strait was “COMPLETELY OPEN” in a Friday Truth Social post, but insisted that the maritime blockade would continue “until there is a ‘DEAL.’

IRAN’S LEADER THREATENS ‘EVEN BIGGER BLOW’ AGAINST US, TRUMP SAYS HE’S IN ‘NO RUSH’ TO TALK

The next day, Iran’s joint military command said that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state… under strict management and control of the armed forces,” adding that the restrictions would remain as long as the U.S. blockade did.

Iranian leadership has gone as far as to declare they won’t participate in the Islamabad peace talks with the U.S., Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday.

“If the U.S. sends a team to Islamabad, that is a matter that concerns them,” Baqaei said in a press conference.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not accept any deadlines or ultimatums to safeguard its national interests. We have clearly stated our red lines from the beginning, and we will not change our principled positions,” he added.

President Donald Trump is urging Virginians going to the polls Tuesday to reject a redistricting ballot measure that could hand Democrats as many as four House seats in November, a large haul with House Republicans hanging onto a slim majority.

“This referendum is a blatant partisan power grab that nobody’s really ever seen anything like it,” Trump told a telerally call with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday night, The Hill reported.

Just say “no” to Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s push, he added.

“It’s the liberal extremist Gov. Abigail Spanberger, too bad, and the far-left Democrats in Richmond after Spanberger promised Virginia voters that she would never do this,” he told the call. “And if it passes, Virginia Democrats will eliminate four out of five congressional seats, so you’re going to get just wiped out in terms of representation in Washington.

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“That’s what it’s all about. Please get out and vote and vote no. It’s very simple,” the president added. “Just vote no.” 

Virginia has moved to push through a new map before the 2026 midterms, something that would not otherwise happen before the 2030 census.

Democrats currently hold six of the 11 House seats in Virginia, a state that narrowly went for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, but the new map would hand the Democrats a huge 10-1 advantage.

SPANBERGER ONCE BLASTED GERRYMANDERING AND NOW BACKS AMENDMENT CRITICS SAY COULD ERASE VIRGINIA GOP

Among the nearly 6 million registered voters in the state of Virginia, Democrats do have an edge, but not one that wide. The state is majority Democrat (51.24%), but Republicans (30.56%) and independents (18.2%) are both well represented, according to Independent Voter Project data.

“We have to stand up for fair maps and we have to vote no,” Johnson told the call. 

“As your speaker of the House, I see firsthand every single day how all five of those members are leading the fight on things like lowering costs and securing our borders and making Virginia and America great again,” he said. “And we need to return all five of them to Congress this November.”

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Johnson was referring to the vulnerable seats of Virginia GOP Reps. Rob Wittman, Jen Kiggans, John McGuire, Ben Cline, and Morgan Griffith.

The new map would leave only Griffith’s 9th Congressional District with a Republican edge, but it would pit him against Cline in a difficult primary. Kiggans’ seat would remain a swing district, but one trending further into the favor of Democrats.

“They definitely want to turn us into New England,” Cline told the Ruthless Podcast last week. “Massachusetts used to have Republican members of Congress, a much more balanced delegation. Now it’s 9-0. But Republicans vote, what, 40% of the population there. They do it in Illinois. Most of the states where they control, they’re trying to just draw Republicans completely out.”

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It is not just about gaining house seats either. The map difficulty moves future candidates further left even on the right, according to Cline.

“Their goal is the long game,” Cline added. “It is the short game of the next election, but it’s also the long game of trying to turn rural Virginia into either a non-impact on politics or convert. You either assimilate or you’re destroyed.”

Griffith is planning a legal challenge on the structure of Tuesday’s special election ballot question for its “compactness, other arguments about the process, and the question on the ballot,” he told WJHL.

“These maps are horrible, and they do not work for good government, or good representation by any of the congressmen or women of Virginia,” he added.

JD VANCE CALLS ON REPUBLICANS TO TAKE ‘DECISIVE ACTION’ TO COUNTER DEMOCRATIC GERRYMANDERING

Notably, the ballot asks a generic question about a desire to “restore fairness,” suggesting the previously democratically approved map might be unfair.

“Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, is calling out the disenfranchisement of voters in the state.

“It’s a measure to silence and disenfranchize the voices of millions of Virginians,” he told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday morning. “And you’re exactly right when even The Washington Post calls the ‘yes’ campaign brazenly dishonest, that says something: They’re definitely not a friend to conservatives.”

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“But what this is is nothing but a left-wing power grab” Miyares continued. “Virginians have already spoken on this in 2020 by a 30-point landslide. They said, ‘Hey, we don’t want politicians of either party drawing these lines,’ but Democrats, as soon as they got in power — remember Abigail Spanberger promised in August of 2025 that she wasn’t going to gerrymander Virginia — yet that was the very first bill she signed in office and is one of the reasons why she’s the least popular governor in the entire history of modern Virginia politics.“

While Spanberger has argued Virginia has to retaliate for other states efforts to redrawn favorable districts in their states for this midterm election, Miyares argued this one is the last and most blatantly lopsided.

“It’s been called the most gerrymandered map in the entire country,” he told Fox News. “And now it’s why rural Virginians are standing up saying, ‘No, do not disenfranchise our voices,’ because 56 counties in Virginia, if this passes, will effectively not have a voice in Congress.

“That’s wrong. That’s not fair. That’s not democracy. Virginians need to go vote now, today.”

A Democrat running for Congress in Michigan is campaigning on a “Made in America” platform, but has a history of outsourcing jobs and products at his own companies.

Matt Maasdam is under scrutiny for expressing a desire to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. from overseas while relying on offshore production during his time at Under Armour and at two other companies he helped found — one of which is credited with making “Joe Rogan’s favorite jeans.”

The Navy SEAL-turned-businessman is running in a crowded primary to take on Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., who flipped the seat in 2024 after Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., vacated to run for Senate.

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Maasdam’s campaign website says one of his top priorities if elected to Congress would be “making more essential goods here in America, ensuring jobs pay fair wages, and keeping our manufacturing and food supply chains strong so we’re not dependent on countries like China.”

PECOS Outdoor — a portable work table company where Maasdam is CEO — sought to use products from a Chinese vendor, according to a 2022 shipping record obtained by Fox News Digital.  The record denoted that PECOS received a container of samples from the Nanjing Tuchun Import and Export Co. in 2022. 

Additionally, both Under Armour and Revtown, which he co-founded, outsourced production of their clothing to foreign countries.

Emma Grundhauser, Maasdam’s campaign manager, argued in a statement to Fox News Digital that he took the opportunity to build a company that makes things in America, “because it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s easy.” 

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“A one-off shipment of samples doesn’t change that record,” Grundhauser said. “Matt has been clear since day one: as a congressman, he’ll fight to keep the Michigan dream alive by making more things here in America so we’re not dependent on countries like China.”

“Michigan’s labor unions are standing with Matt because they know he’ll fight to bring jobs home — unlike Tom Barrett, who voted for Trump’s reckless tariffs that have killed nearly 100,000 American manufacturing jobs,” she continued. 

During a candidate forum in Michigan earlier this month, an audience member asked Maasdam about his private sector record after he highlighted endorsements from local labor unions. He insisted it was impossible to manufacture jeans in America as an excuse for why the apparel companies found work outside the U.S.

“I worked for Under Armour. They made a lot of their stuff overseas. I wasn’t in charge of Under Armour, right? As much as I would like to make that stuff here, we didn’t,” Maasdam admitted.

After serving as a military aide to former President Barack Obama — often spotted carrying the nuclear football during his administration — Maasdam entered the private sector and worked for sportswear company Under Armour. He later started his own apparel company, Revtown, best known for producing jeans branded as podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan’s favorite.

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Under Armour relies heavily on outsourcing, and similarly Revtown sourced denim from Italy and manufactured its clothing in Guatemala.

“There were two good denim mills in the world — one is in Italy, one is in Japan. There are none in America. So when you talk about how to get denim to America, we don’t make it,” Maasdam said at the forum. “We don’t actually make the material, right? And so we would bring that to Guatemala, then it got cut and sewn, and we brought it here to sell it.”

Maasdam later co-founded PECOS Outdoor, a Texas-based outdoor table company that touts its commitment to making and sourcing products in the U.S.

“I got poached from that company to start another company, and everything in that company was made in America and assembled in America,” Maasdam said. “And so, from the perspective of like where is my heart and mind in terms of that stuff, it’s here, in the United States. So, that’s what we did.”

But the 2022 shipping record obtained by Fox News Digital shows PECOS received a shipment of sample materials from a Chinese vendor, meaning none of the companies Maasdam has helped lead are free from foreign outsourcing.

PECOS Outdoor and Revtown did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republicans are hoping to maintain control of the Michigan seat to preserve their narrow majority in the upper chamber. Meanwhile, Democrats are eyeing the district — which has proved flippable before — as a pickup opportunity in their bid to regain a majority in the House.

“Millionaire Matt Maasdam lined his own pockets by shipping jobs overseas,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon told Fox News Digital when asked about the revelations. “Maasdam has proven he will put his own bank account ahead of hardworking Michiganders.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene asserted in a Monday post on X that regardless of which political party wields power in Washington D.C., the nation continues traveling down the same path.

“Nothing ever changes in Washington. No matter which party is in charge. You still get a bigger debt. You still get foreign wars and you pay for them. Your cost of living still increases and the value of the dollar continues to shrink,” Greene wrote.

“Voting for both Democrats and Republicans is the worst ROI for the American people,” she added.

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Her criticism comes amid the 2026 midterm election cycle, which will determine whether Republicans maintain their majorities in the House and Senate.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Tuesday.

Greene, who in the past had been a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, left Congress in the middle of her term early this year after a falling out with the president last year.

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Greene wrote “25th AMENDMENT!!!” in part of an April 7 post on X after Trump, in a Truth Social post, threatened regarding Iran that “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

The president ultimately announced a ceasefire and did not follow through on his threat against Iran.

Trump-backed Republican Clay Fuller won the April 7 special election runoff to fill the House seat that had been vacated by Greene.

In an April 8 Truth Social post, the president congratulated Fuller and blasted Greene as “deranged.”

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“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown’s (GREEN TURNS TO BROWN UNDER STRESS!) seat in Congress has been taken over by a wonderful and talented man, Clay Fuller, who won convincingly, and right from the beginning, despite many people running for that ‘TRUMP’ +37 seat, and despite the stench left by Greene. Congratulations to Clay Fuller, a very large improvement over his deranged predecessor!” the president declared in the post.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., may be running out of road as Republicans lay the groundwork for an expulsion vote as soon as Tuesday.

The House Ethics Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday afternoon to formally recommend punitive action against the embattled lawmaker. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., has vowed to force a vote on Cherfilus-McCormick’s expulsion regardless of the committee’s suggested sanction.

Despite the looming expulsion threat, Cherfilus-McCormick has resisted calls to quit Congress on her own terms.

“For those asking whether I plan to resign, the answer is no,” Cherfilus-McCormick recently told Fox News Digital. “This is not the time to abandon the district, not when they too are fighting for their future.”

INDICTED DEMOCRAT SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK FACES RARE HOUSE ETHICS HEARING

A successful expulsion vote would make Cherfilus-McCormick the first lawmaker since former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., in 2023 to be expelled by the House. Just six lawmakers have been expelled from the House in U.S. history.

Cherfilus-McCormick was found guilty of more than two dozen ethics violations involving financial misconduct during a rare House ethics trial in March. She has denied any wrongdoing and is facing a separate criminal trial after being indicted by a federal grand jury in 2025.

The guilty ethics verdict centered on a charge that Cherfilus-McCormick funneled more than $5 million in disaster relief funds to her campaign that was improperly paid to her family’s healthcare company.

She did not try to return the money, which amounted to more than 100 times what the government owed the family-run company.

It takes a two-thirds majority to expel a member of Congress, meaning Steube’s resolution would have to receive buy-in from Democrats.

Former Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who are facing sexual misconduct allegations, both resigned last week to fend off expulsion threats. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., is also facing a looming expulsion vote.

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The vast majority of Democrats have yet to voice support for Cherfilus-McCormick’s expulsion, though a swath of moderates and progressives broke their silence after the House Ethics Committee’s verdict. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters last week that she would vote to expel Cherfilus-McCormick if she did not resign, citing the House Ethics Committee’s verdict. 

However, top Democrats have continued to stand by their indicted colleague.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said that Democrats would convene following the conclusion of the Ethics Committee’s proceedings to discuss Cherfilus-McCormick’s fate.

“We will proceed in a manner consistent with our approach to these types of ethics matters, which is to always and at all times follow the facts and apply the relevant law without fear of it,” Jeffries told reporters Monday.

The Congressional Black Caucus, an influential group among Democrats on Capitol Hill, has also been largely silent on the allegations facing Cherfilus-McCormick, who is a member of the group.

The CBC notably contributed $5,000 to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign during the first fundraising quarter of 2026, which runs from January to March.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., signaled his support for the expulsion effort last week, citing “alarming facts” identified by the bipartisan ethics panel.

Cherfilus-McCormick has defied calls to suspend her re-election campaign, despite having just $11,000 in the bank, according to recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. Her campaign entered April with nearly $4.4 million in debt, some of which is due to mounting legal fees. 

The indicted lawmaker represents a safe blue seat that could be carved up if Florida’s Republican-controlled state legislature moves forward with redistricting. A growing number of Democrats are vying to unseat her during the August 2026 primary, including Gen Z activist Elijah Manley, rap artist Luther Campbell and former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness.

Cherfilus-McCormick is facing a separate 15-count criminal indictment that could result in her being sentenced to more than 50 years in prison if convicted. In addition to allegedly stealing FEMA money, federal prosecutors have also charged her with participating in a straw donor scheme to allegedly conceal illicit money flowing to her campaign and conspiring to file a false federal tax return. 

A federal judge last week approved a delay in the proceedings until February 2027 at the request of both Cherfilus-McCormick’s legal team and the prosecution.

Kevin Warsh heads into his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday morning vying to be the richest-ever chair of the Federal Reserve amid mounting questions over his sizable financial portfolio.

Newly released disclosures reveal the extent of Warsh’s wealth but leave key portions of his holdings unclear, which could complicate his path toward confirmation since the position he is up for wields enormous influence over financial markets. 

The disclosures are likely to draw scrutiny from lawmakers due to potential conflicts of interest and concerns over transparency, both central focuses of the confirmation process — particularly at a time when the central bank’s credibility is already under a microscope.

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According to documents submitted to the Senate last week, Warsh reported assets valued at roughly $135 million to $226 million, positioning him to become the wealthiest chair in the Federal Reserve’s history if confirmed.

The nearly 70-page filings, released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics as part of the standard vetting process for senior nominees, detail a portfolio spanning investments, board roles and other financial interests.

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Still, the disclosures leave some gaps.

For example, certain holdings are listed in broad ranges or lack full detail, a common feature of such filings but one that can draw scrutiny when nominees are poised to oversee institutions with vast influence over financial markets.

In fact, a note from a government ethics official attached to the filings says Warsh is currently out of compliance with ethics rules for certain holdings where he did not disclose the funds’ underlying assets.

The Office of Government Ethics said the rest of the filing meets federal requirements and that Warsh would return to full compliance once he divests those assets, which he has pledged to do within 90 days of confirmation.

That dynamic could prove especially sensitive for Warsh as lawmakers weigh potential conflicts of interest and the steps he would need to take to avoid them.

Beyond that, the filings also underscore the scale of wealth tied to his family. 

They do not include the far larger fortune connected to his wife, Jane Lauder—granddaughter of Estée Lauder’s founder—which Forbes estimates at about $1.9 billion. Separate disclosures show Lauder holds millions of dollars in additional assets, further adding to the family’s overall financial footprint.

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Warsh’s potential ascent comes at a turbulent moment for the central bank.

Senators are still weighing ethics concerns tied to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, with at least one Republican vowing to block Warsh’s confirmation over the issue.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has been holding up the nomination, said he supports Warsh but will not back his confirmation until a Justice Department investigation into Powell is resolved. But that’s unlikely considering President Donald Trump’s push for the probe and refusal to back off pressuring DOJ to investigate. 

On Jan. 11, Powell confirmed that the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into his congressional testimony regarding the renovation of the Federal Reserve’s two historic buildings on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall.

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That probe comes as the Federal Reserve faces mounting pressure on multiple fronts, including a Supreme Court case testing its independence and persistent cost-of-living concerns weighing on President Donald Trump’s economic agenda.

Against that backdrop, scrutiny of Warsh’s finances—and how he manages them—is likely to intensify as his nomination advances.

Senate Republicans hope to nail down the first step of their party-line funding package for immigration operations this week, but other legislative obstacles and divisions could slow the process.

Republicans and President Donald Trump are in agreement that the partisan budget reconciliation process is the key to bypassing Democrats’ blockade of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol funding.

But in order to hit that fast-approaching deadline, Senate Republicans largely want to keep the package as narrowly tailored as possible to avoid any hiccups in the process. The main plan from Republican leadership is to fund immigration operations for the next three years with the current reconciliation package and look to a future bill as a later landing spot for other issues.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will kick off the process with a budget resolution that will act as the guiding document for the GOP as they push forward into reconciliation. That resolution will tee up the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as the main panels running the process.

“I hope we can get moving on it as early as next week,” Graham said before lawmakers left Washington, D.C., for the weekend.

Despite keeping the resolution, in theory, as slim as possible, other lawmakers in the upper chamber and in the House want more added to the package.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow last week that he was making the case that Republicans should “go big” on reconciliation. Cruz said he wants a decade of funding for ICE and Border Patrol and, more broadly, tax cuts and affordability measures.

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“Right now, leadership’s plan is to have the skinny, anorexic bill that just has funding for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. I think that is short-minded, short-sighted,” Cruz said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reiterated that the forthcoming package would have to “fall within the contours of what we’re trying to do here,” but he acknowledged that other Republicans viewed the current package as a vehicle that could fit several other issues.

“We have another vehicle available, we’ll see, but right now, keep it tight,” he continued. “That’s the plan.”

GOP RACES TO PASS ICE, BORDER PATROL FUNDING BILL AS PRIORITIES PILE UP, DIVISIONS EMERGE

Part of the problem with adding more to the package is that more committees would have to get involved, like during the crafting of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which involved every panel in the Senate and House and narrowly survived in the upper chamber.

And House Republicans are on the same page as Cruz — they want to supersize the bill to take advantage of the GOP’s trifecta in Washington, D.C., ahead of the midterm elections in the fall.

It’s a give-and-take between the chambers in their quest to end the longest shutdown in history. House Republicans aren’t keen on passing the Senate’s bill to fund the bulk of DHS, minus funding for ICE and chunks of CBP, until the reconciliation package passes.

But that could further prolong the shutdown, and Republicans in the upper chamber argue that DHS should be reopened while they hammer out the details for funding immigration operations in the background.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital that adding more to the package would slow down the process.

“Every time you add stuff to it, you add committees of jurisdiction, you add complexity, and you add more time,” Hoeven said. “So if they want it expeditiously, which is what we’re working on right now, then you wouldn’t add stuff, right?”

LEESBURG, Va. — Virginians head to the polls on Tuesday to vote on a congressional redistricting referendum that, if passed, could give Democrats a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House majority in this year’s midterm elections.

If the ballot measure is successful, it would give 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.

“It’s the most partisan map in American,” former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin told supporters at his final campaign stop on the eve of the election in this northern Virginia town on the far end of Washington, DC’s suburbs.

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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.”

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 were speaking 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 to urge voters to defeat the referendum.

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

Democrats counter that the redrawing of the maps is 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 has previously appeared in ads released by Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-aligned group working to pass the ballot initiative.

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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 are also pointing 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 are also taking 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 million, millions, of Virginians.”

Republicans have trained their redistricting firepower on Spanberger since a poll two weeks ago from 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 have accused Spanberger of pulling a “bait and switch.”

Spanberger, in an ad in support of the referendum, said she’s 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 have 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.

Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump‘s pick to lead the Federal Reserve for the next four years, heads into a high-stakes confirmation hearing Tuesday with lawmakers on Capitol Hill set to scrutinize his views on inflation, independence and the Fed’s role.

The hearing comes as the Federal Reserve faces mounting political, legal and economic pressure, making it a key test of how the next chair could reshape the central bank’s independence at a critical moment for the U.S. economy.

And with current Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term coming to an end on May 15, 2026, Republicans are scurrying to get a nominee confirmed even though they face pushback within the party.

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No institution has more influence over what people can afford than the Federal Reserve — an impact Americans feel every month. But that influence isn’t always obvious.

The Fed doesn’t set the price of groceries or cars, but it does determine how expensive it is to borrow money to pay for them. And right now, borrowing is costly. High interest rates mean larger monthly payments on mortgages, car loans and credit cards — even if sticker prices haven’t changed.

This makes the Fed’s leadership especially consequential.

Against that backdrop, Warsh’s potential ascent would come at a turbulent time for the institution.

The pressure is coming from multiple fronts: the Justice Department is conducting a criminal probe involving Powell, the Supreme Court is weighing limits on the Fed’s independence and rising costs are testing Trump’s affordability pledge—intensifying the stakes for the next chair.

Adding to the uncertainty, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has signaled he may not support Warsh’s nomination in committee unless the Justice Department drops its investigation into Powell.

Taken together, what began as tension over interest-rate policy has since broadened into a wider confrontation, marking one of the most challenging stretches of Powell’s eight-year tenure leading the Fed.

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Powell has called the DOJ investigation “unprecedented,” describing it as another example of what he sees as escalating pressure on the central bank. His unusually public response — after days of private consultations with advisers — marks a sharp departure from his typically measured approach.

In March, Powell told reporters at the Federal Reserve he has “no intention of leaving” the central bank until the DOJ investigation is “fully resolved with transparency and finality.” His term is slated to end next month.

Like Powell, Warsh is not an economist by training, instead bringing a background in law and finance that has shaped his views on the central bank.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1992 and a law degree from Harvard in 1995, before building his career at Morgan Stanley. At 35, he became the youngest person to serve on the Fed’s Board of Governors in 2006.

Though he stepped down in 2011, Warsh was widely seen as the Fed’s key liaison to Wall Street during the 2008 financial crisis. He previously served in the Bush administration as a special assistant to the president for economic policy and executive secretary at the National Economic Council.

Warsh was also among Trump’s leading candidates to replace then-Fed Chair Janet Yellen in 2017, though the president ultimately selected Powell for the role.

Another Democrat has dropped out of California’s crowded gubernatorial race as the primary election approaches in roughly six weeks.

Former state Controller Betty Yee, of San Francisco, announced her withdrawal Monday after polling showed she had failed to break into the top tier of candidates, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Her exit comes just a week after embattled former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell also withdrew from the race amid multiple serious sexual misconduct allegations.

“Today I am announcing that my campaign for governor will be suspended,” Yee said in a video announcement, Fox 11 Los Angeles reported. “This campaign has always been about something much bigger than any one candidate. It’s about building a California where opportunity is real and owned, where government regains trust by being responsible and accountable, and where no one is left behind.”

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Yee, who had been vying to become California’s first female governor as Gov. Gavin Newsom prepares to leave office, consistently lagged in the polls, never rising above roughly 3% support among likely voters, according to local nonprofit outlet Cal Matters. 

She attributed her inability to gain traction in part to fundraising challenges in a race known for its steep costs and heavy advertising demands.

“It was becoming clear that the donors were not going to be there. Even some of my former supporters just felt like they needed to move on,” Yee said, according to The AP.

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During an emotional announcement, Yee thanked her supporters who stood by her throughout her two-year campaign, which emphasized her experience managing the state budget and highlighted her family’s middle-class immigrant background.

Before serving as state controller, where she audited government agencies and oversaw the allocation of state funds, Yee previously worked as a budget director under former Gov. Gray Davis before being elected to the State Board of Equalization.

Yee’s exit leaves former Rep. Katie Porter as the primary woman in the race.

As the June 2 primary election approaches in what is expected to be one of the nation’s most closely watched state contests, other remaining key candidates include Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer, along with Republican frontrunners Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.