A congressional probe launched this week into the string of missing scientists was sparked by the disappearance of a former high-ranking official who oversaw some of the military’s most classified research programs, one House Republican revealed.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital in an interview that he was particularly taken aback by the disappearance of retired Air Force Gen. William Neil McCasland, who vanished in February from his Albuquerque, New Mexico home. His phone and prescription glasses were left behind. 

The Missouri Republican said his staff was already working to contact McCasland, who he described as the “UFO general” due to his deep expertise, about a separate congressional investigation prior to his disappearance.

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“He was on our list to talk to, and he disappeared, so that kind of piqued our interest,” Burlison detailed.

McCasland is one of the 11 individuals working in nuclear or rocket technology who have died or vanished under mysterious circumstances since 2022. Some, including McCasland, have ties to UFO research. 

The astronautical engineer’s hiking boots, wallet and a .38‑caliber revolver were reported as missing, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico.

Though federal officials have not identified a connection between the missing scientists, their shared field and potential access to sensitive research have sparked growing concern.

Asked by Fox News Digital about whether he suspects foul play is involved in McCasland’s disappearance, Burlison said, “I’m not going to jump to that conclusion, but it’s certainly suspicious.”

“How many people walk out their front door without their phone, their wallet, their keys, or anything?” Burlison added. “I don’t go anywhere without my phone. I don’t even mow the lawn without my phone.”

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“So it’s just really, really strange that in about a five-month period of time, four or five people walked out their front door and never returned, and were all doing advanced aerospace research,” Burlison said.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Burlison, who helms the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, opened an investigation into the missing scientists on Monday.

“I want them to determine if there’s any kind of foul play,” Burlison said, referring to the Trump administration. 

The duo sent letters to the FBI, the Department of War, NASA and the Department of Energy requesting more information about Americans who have allegedly vanished. They have also asked for a staff-level briefing by April 27 — giving them only a week to prepare.

A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said the panel will be releasing updates as the investigation proceeds.

NASA said Monday that it would convene an interagency effort to probe the missing scientists, but cautioned that it had yet to identify any threats.

“At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat,” NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens wrote on X. “The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as it becomes available.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has also said that Trump is “actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI” to review the cases and identify any potential connections.

U.S. forces conducted a boarding and interdiction operation overnight on a stateless sanctioned crude oil tanker in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) area of responsibility, the Department of War announced Tuesday.

The operation saw U.S. forces board the M/T Tifani, a stateless crude oil tanker previously sanctioned by the U.S. State Department for facilitating the transfer of Iranian oil between ships.

The military boarded the ship in INDOPACAM’s area, which encompasses the entire Pacific Ocean and parts of the Indian Ocean, “without incident,” according to the Pentagon’s post on X. Open source maritime trackers showed the ship halting progress in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka.

“As we have made clear, we will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran — anywhere they operate,” the post read.

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“International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels. The Department of War will continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain,” the post concluded.

Open source maritime trackers showed the Tifani departing from Dongjiakou, China, in late March. According to commodities tracker Argus News, the vessel loaded up at the terminal on Iran’s Kharg Island, the country’s premier oil export terminal.

The vessel — which has historically sailed under the flags of Botswana, Cameroon, Tanzania, Palau, and Panama — has loaded Iranian oil in ship-to-ship transfers with U.S.-sanctioned Iranian tankers at least twice in the past, according to the State Department.

The vessel was heading to Riau Archipelago near Singapore before it was eventually expected to reach mainland China.

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M/T Tifani has also conducted “dark activity” near Singapore, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. The craft routinely turns off its Automatic Identification System (AIS), a move commonly referred to as “going dark.” International Maritime Organization (IMO) mandates that all ships carrying over 300 gross tonnes on international voyages operate AIS at all times.

The interdiction was the second such naval confrontation the military made on Iranian-linked ships in as many days. U.S. forces boarded and seized the Touska, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship which the U.S. accused of attempting to bypass an ongoing maritime blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

After issuing warnings to the vessel, the guided-missile destroyer, USS Spruance instructed the Touska crew to vacate the engine room and fired missiles from the ship’s MK 45 Gun, disabling Touska’s propulsion systems, according to CENTCOM.

The Touska, like the Tifani, had previously stopped in China, highlighting a potential supply route between China and Iran for sanctioned oil.

China criticized the U.S. seizure of the Touska, with a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson calling the Strait of Hormuz situation “sensitive and complex.”

Fox News Digital contacted INDOPACOM and the Pentagon for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., remarked on Tuesday that he probably “should give up on sarcasm,” following backlash over his one-word reaction to reports that ships linked to Iran had bypassed a U.S. naval blockade.

On Monday, Murphy responded to an X post featuring a news article from Lloyd’s List. The report stated that at least 26 Iran-linked vessels had transited past the U.S. blockade, despite claims from Washington that it had successfully forced ships bound for the country to turn around. 

Murphy replied to the report with a single word: “Awesome.”

The report, which cited data tracking tanker movements tied to Iranian trade, quickly became a flashpoint. Critics immediately accused Murphy of undermining the American war effort and cheering for a breach of U.S. lines.

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“OK Twitter, I can’t believe I need to clarify this, but obviously Trump’s bungled mismanagement of this war is not ‘awesome’,” Murphy responded in a follow-up post. “As I have said a million times here, it’s a disaster and he should end the war immediately. My tweet was something called ‘sarcasm.’”

On Tuesday, Murphy further clarified his position to Fox News.

“Twitter has become kind of a cesspool,” he said, referring to the platform X. “I probably should give up on sarcasm on Twitter. But sarcasm is not something I guess that’s allowed on Twitter any longer.”

IRAN’S MILITARY COUNCIL REPORTEDLY CUTS OFF KHAMENEI FROM HIS OWN GOVERNMENT

He reiterated that President Donald Trump‘s handling of the war has been “bungled” and “mismanaged,” and urged that the conflict be ended as quickly as possible.

The White House was quick to strike back. In a statement, the White House Rapid Response account on X accused Murphy of rooting for the opposition.

“You’re a loser, Chris. You were literally cheering for the enemy—gleefully regurgitating Iranian propaganda to undermine your own country’s interests,” the statement read. “It’s an insult to the American heroes very effectively enforcing the blockade. Moron.”

The naval blockade is primarily enforced by U.S. naval and air power in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Its strategic goal is to intercept vessels after they clear the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical shipping points.

Murphy has repeatedly argued that President Trump bypassed Congress when the initial strikes against Iran began in February. 

In March 2026, he introduced a War Powers Resolution to force the removal of U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran that had not been authorized by Congress. The measure ultimately failed in a near party-line vote.

Tens of millions of dollars — much of it dark money from undisclosed donors — poured into Virginia this year ahead of Tuesday’s 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.

The referendum, which follows President Donald Trump’s push for rare but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states, could give Democrats an edge as they try to win back control of the House from Republicans, who are defending a fragile majority.

Supporters of redistricting have dramatically outraised and outspent groups opposed to the referendum, with Democrat-aligned Virginians for Fair Elections raising roughly three times as much as GOP-allied Virginians for Fair Maps. But despite the Democrats’ funding advantage, public opinion polling suggests support for the ballot initiative is only slightly ahead of opposition amid a surge in early voting, which ended Saturday.

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“They have outspent us three to one. They’ve raised over $70 million. And yet this is a close vote,” former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, one of leaders of the GOP effort to defeat the referendum, told Fox News Digital on the eve of the election.

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. This according to a Fox News Digital review of state campaign finance records and records from the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), which tracks public spending in Virginia..

“It points to the importance of this referendum,” David Richards, political science chair at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia, told Fox News Digital, as he highlighted the influx of outside money pouring into the state.

Richards said the funding “also shows how national money can cloud these statewide elections. Virginians need to decide what’s good for them and instead, it becomes a national issue that takes away from what is good for Virginia.”

REPUBLICANS SOUND ALARM ON DEMOCRATS’ ‘POWER GRAB’ IN CRUCIAL REDISTRICTING ELECTION

Given the green light from the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, nonprofit public policy groups can spend unlimited funds without disclosing their donors, which often masks large contributions from corporations or wealthy individuals.

But dark money has long come under attack over a lack of transparency, with voters not knowing who is funding the political messages they are seeing. It’s been criticized as a threat to democracy for allowing wealthy interests to influence elections and policy.

“it’s because you don’t actually know where the money is coming from,” Chris Galdieri, a professor in the political science department at Saint Anselm College, told Fox News Digital. “With dark money, it’s not even traceable to a particular interest…it means that voters don’t know what the motives of the donors are.”

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On the “yes” side, House Majority Forward, which as the chief political nonprofit wing of House Democrats does not have to disclose its donors, has contributed nearly $40 million.

Other groups pumping big bucks into the Democrat effort to pass the referendum were fueled with millions of dollars from George Soros-backed dark money groups.

Meanwhile, the “no” effort has received $9 million from a group tied to tech billionaire Peter Thiel, a GOP megadonor and longtime Trump ally.

While often frowned upon, the use of dark money in politics is accelerating. Dark money groups shelled out more than $1.9 billion during the 2024 election cycle.

“Any rational person can look at the maps in Virginia and understand that this is a political game being played. It’s to benefit one party, not people,” veteran Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams argued. “What do they care if they finance their effort with dark money. It’s just another example of political gamesmanship in this process.”

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel and Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

The U.S. has spent years racing to develop hypersonic weapons to compete with China and Russia, but delays, shifting programs and limited testing capacity constraints are raising concerns that Washington remains in a catch-up phase in a technology that could reshape modern warfare.

Key programs have faced repeated delays, including setbacks in testing and development timelines, while others have been canceled and later revived as the Pentagon reassesses its approach. 

At the same time, limited testing infrastructure has constrained how quickly new systems can be evaluated and refined, slowing the pace of development across multiple efforts.

That combination has heightened concern inside the Pentagon, particularly as China and Russia already have fielded hypersonic systems, potentially giving them an edge in a class of weapons that could compress decision-making timelines in a crisis and challenge U.S. defenses.

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Hypersonic weapons are designed to travel at extremely high speeds while maneuvering in flight, making them far harder to detect and intercept than traditional missiles.

Unlike ballistic missiles, which follow a predictable path, hypersonic weapons can change direction mid-flight and fly at lower altitudes, reducing warning time and making them more difficult for existing missile defenses to track.

Russia already has used hypersonic-type weapons in its war against Ukraine, in some cases as a signal to Kyiv and its Western allies, underscoring how the technology is beginning to shape real-world conflict.

Inside the U.S. portfolio, however, progress has been uneven. Some programs are advancing toward deployment, others have been canceled and revived, and officials are increasingly balancing investments between building hypersonic weapons and defending against them.

Part of the challenge is technical. Hypersonic systems must survive extreme heat and pressure while traveling at high speeds through the atmosphere—making them more complex to design and build than traditional missiles.

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In some cases, the Pentagon also has pursued more advanced approaches, including highly maneuverable systems and precision conventional strike capabilities, adding further complexity.

Complicating that effort further is a basic constraint: testing capacity.

With only a limited number of facilities able to simulate or sustain hypersonic speeds, programs often face delays waiting for test opportunities, slowing development across multiple efforts.

Mark Bigham, vice president of defense programs at Longshot, a company that works on hypersonic launch and testing technologies, and a former Raytheon executive, said that constraint has become a key limiting factor.

“People can innovate and create really fast,” Bigham said. “And the only way you can sort them out is to actually test them.”

He added that only a handful of facilities can test systems at hypersonic speeds, making it difficult to increase the pace of development.

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“I would say the testing is probably the bottleneck right now,” he said.

Beyond engineering and testing challenges, the U.S. effort has also been shaped by years of shifting priorities.

After leading early hypersonic research in the 2000s, defense spending shifted toward counterterrorism operations and other capabilities, while funding for high-speed weapons remained inconsistent until more recently.

At the same time, strict safety and reliability requirements can slow the transition from testing to deployment, extending timelines compared to adversaries that may field less mature systems more quickly.

The Pentagon’s most advanced effort, the Army’s long-range hypersonic weapon — known as “Dark Eagle” — has made recent progress, including a successful joint Army–Navy test in March and continued fielding of its first operational unit.

That program is part of a broader push to streamline development, including the use of a shared glide body across Army and Navy systems.

Even so, the broader hypersonic portfolio remains in flux.

The Air Force has revived its air-launched rapid response weapon, or ARRW, after shelving the program following test setbacks, requesting roughly $387 million in fiscal 2026 to begin procurement.

The move reflects a reassessment inside the Pentagon, where officials now see a need for multiple types of hypersonic weapons for different missions.

At the same time, the U.S. increasingly is investing in ways to counter hypersonic threats.

In April, the Missile Defense Agency awarded roughly $475 million in additional funding to Northrop Grumman to accelerate development of the Glide Phase Interceptor, designed to destroy hypersonic weapons mid-flight.

The funding has pushed the program’s timeline forward, with initial operational capability now expected in the early 2030s after earlier delays.

The effort is part of a broader push to build defenses against hypersonic threats, including a space-based tracking network designed to detect and follow missiles traveling at extreme speeds—something current radar systems struggle to do reliably.

The urgency stems from the fact that China and Russia already have fielded hypersonic weapons, forcing the U.S. to both accelerate its own development and rethink how it defends against a new class of threats.

“My gut tells me that we need to step on the gas and move faster,” Bigham said.

Yet despite that urgency, the administration’s latest budget places greater emphasis on missile defense, drones and other capabilities, with hypersonic programs largely embedded within broader research and procurement accounts.

That disconnect — between the strategic importance of hypersonics and the pace of U.S. development — has fueled debate over whether the U.S. can scale these systems quickly enough to compete with its adversaries.

For now, the Pentagon’s hypersonic effort is moving forward — but with programs at different stages, revived initiatives and persistent constraints, the path to fully fielding these weapons remains uncertain.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Government Accountability Office review found the Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile program fell about six months behind schedule on a key design milestone, pushing flight testing back by roughly a year and reducing the number of planned test flights. The findings highlight broader delays affecting U.S. hypersonic development.

FIRST ON FOX: Experts are calling on President Donald Trump to issue a new executive order to attack a “dominant” socialist-inspired ideology they say is the “foundation” of a growing domestic terrorist movement in the United States.

Fox News Digital exclusively reviewed a report that details how diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices have continued to thrive on hundreds of U.S. campuses through a more deeply rooted ideology, “intersectionality.” The Legal Insurrection Foundation and the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies issued the report.

“Intersectionality’s toxic influence must be confronted head-on,” the report said, emphasizing, “The future of our education system and the safety of our nation depend upon it.”

Despite several executive orders by Trump banning DEI, the report found argues progressive school administrators across the country continue to profile students by group identity and to teach students to view America and Western society as global oppressors. The result, the report says, is increasing social discord and even violence spreading across America.

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The report’s authors urge the president to take executive action to address intersectionality specifically by name, arguing that doing so will close a loophole that allows DEI practices to continue under the intersectionality banner. The report also calls on the administration to replace this school of thought with education programs that promote traditional American values.

Intersectionality has been advanced by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a Columbia Law School professor who developed the intersectional theoretical framework in the late 1980s, as a method of describing overlapping forms of discrimination. She argues that by treating race and gender as “mutually exclusive categories of experience and analysis,” society and the legal system distort and theoretically erase the multidimensional experiences of Black women.

The Legal Insurrection Foundation and the Defense of Freedom Institute’s report, however, cautions that intersectionality is “inherently socialist and collectivist,” as it “judges people based on group identity.” By emphasizing the “intersection” of perceived victimhood categories, the report says women are seen as preferable to men, “people of color” to whites, homosexual or transgender-identifying people as preferable to heterosexuals, and Muslims as preferable to Jews or Christians.

While the report says the Trump administration’s efforts to address DEI thus far are “laudable,” these actions continue to be flouted so that the U.S. educational system remains “the mechanism for intersectionality to embed in the culture.”

According to the report, the groups have documented the propagation of intersectionality in more than 700 educational institutions, consisting primarily of college campuses but also K-12 schools.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Legal Insurrection founder William Jacobson cautioned that “as much as some of the problems have been recognized, the underlying ideological foundation has not been identified or understood.”

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He explained that intersectionality goes even deeper than DEI, saying that it is “in many ways, the mother’s milk of critical race theory, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and increasingly linked to violent domestic terrorism through anarchists and other groups.”

He described the ongoing movement as a “multi-billion-dollar industry” consisting of teachers, professors, administrators, consultants and philanthropies.

“It’s massive,” he explained, adding, “This was 30 years in the making. It’s not going to go away with a handful of executive orders.”

The report draws a line between the intersectional ideology being pushed in schools and recent domestic terror plots, including by the anti-capitalist student group “Turtle Island Liberation Front.” This December, five members of the group were indicted for allegedly plotting to simultaneously bomb multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve. The individuals are also accused of plotting to target U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as well.

According to the report, “Turtle Island,” a term rooted in Native American lore, is the intersectional name being used for North America. Turtle Island Liberation Front’s call for decolonization and tribal sovereignty echoes intersectionality’s core message, says the report.

Both groups, as well as Jacobson, are calling on the president and Congress to take immediate action through executive orders and congressional hearings.

“We’re calling on the administration to update their executive orders [and] to issue a new executive order which includes intersectionality under the definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he said.

Jacobson emphasized that while any individual scholar or student can hold or advance intersectional beliefs, he said, “the question is, are federal funds being used to promote unlawful discrimination?”

“We are not calling for a ban on intersectionality as a theory,” he clarified. “What we are calling on the government to do is to make sure that federal funds are not used to promote racially and ethnically and religiously discriminatory activities that take place under the name of intersectionality.”

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He put it in simple terms: “People may have a constitutional right to espouse intersectionality, but the government doesn’t have to pay for it.”

Beyond this, he also called on Congress to get involved.

“We’ve seen on many issues, including antisemitism, that congressional hearings have proven extremely informative and extremely effective at addressing the problems,” he said.

The report also calls for the administration to use every facet of the government to root out intersectionality. Other methods suggested include updating federal agency guidance regarding intersectional practices, pursuing litigation where it is being practiced, defunding those institutions, and instead funding research and civics education programs that promote American ideals.

“It’s hard to understand unless you live in that world, which I do, how pervasive and dominant these racial ideologies are on campuses,” he emphasized, adding, “It is the dominant ideology on campuses.”

“There are very few alternatives for students on most campuses,” he went on. “And that’s why we think the Trump administration, to the extent it is supporting various educational initiatives, should insist that schools, if they want federal money, have to have traditional American civics programming as an alternative to what is there now.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Crenshaw for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: A watchdog group filed a complaint against Judge James Boasberg on Tuesday alleging he improperly coordinated with Biden Department of Justice officials on sweeping investigations tied to former President Donald Trump and his allies.

The complaint, filed by the conservative watchdog Center to Advance Security in America and obtained by Fox News Digital, accused Boasberg of engaging in “probable judicial misconduct” by consulting with DOJ officials about Arctic Frost, an FBI investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith charging Trump over the 2020 election.

The complaint cited internal DOJ meeting notes from 2023, recently made public by the Senate Judiciary Committee, that referenced briefings Smith’s team had with Boasberg and Judge Beryl Howell, both Obama appointees, as Arctic Frost and a separate probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents was underway. CASA’s complaint, filed with the D.C. appellate court, comes as part of a growing clash between Republicans and Democrat-appointed judges who presided over key developments in the investigations and prosecutions of Trump.

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CASA’s complaint suggested both Boasberg and Howell were improperly looped into discussions about investigative “strategizing” before charges against Trump were brought. At the time, Boasberg was the incoming chief judge of D.C.’s federal court and Howell the outgoing chief judge. CASA filed a similar complaint about Howell last week, Fox News Digital confirmed. The Republican watchdog called for the court to investigate Boasberg.

“While the facts strongly suggest that Boasberg violated the canons of judicial ethics, investigation should be promptly opened to confirm,” Curtis Schube, CASA director of research and policy, wrote.

The documents released by the Senate committee included notes about a briefing Smith’s team gave Attorney General Merrick Garland on Jan. 13, 2023, just after Garland appointed Smith as special counsel. The notes referenced meetings with Boasberg and Howell, both of whom became Trump nemeses known for their high-profile adverse rulings against the president.

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“[Howell] liked our approach of pursuing the executive privilege litigation in an omnibus fashion,” Smith’s team wrote in the briefing notes. Omnibus motions allow for consolidated, instead of piecemeal, litigation and are typically used by lawyers to streamline court filings. The briefing notes also referenced a forthcoming meeting with Boasberg on March 18, 2023, the day after he was set to succeed Howell as chief judge.

CASA noted in its complaint that Boasberg went on to sign numerous nondisclosure orders, also known as gag orders, that blocked telephone and tech companies from notifying Republican targets when Smith’s team subpoenaed their phone records or other data. Some of those targets included GOP members of Congress, leading the lawmakers to openly and repeatedly rebuke the Biden DOJ and Boasberg for allowing what they have alleged was a breach of the Constitution’s speech or debate clause.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said in December that Boasberg would not have known who the gag orders applied to because prosecutors would not have informed him of whose numbers were listed on the subpoenas, based on the court’s standard practice. Smith has also defended his work repeatedly, testifying to Congress that he followed DOJ policy regarding subpoenas.

CASA said Boasberg’s judicial immunity, which federal law affords judges, has limitations.

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“There is no world in which the statutes were designed to protect a judge meeting with prospective litigants to strategize with them on how to win a case in front of them in the future,” Schube wrote. “This is especially true when the meetings are designed for the government to determine ways to put its political opposition in jail, which is exactly what Arctic Frost was designed to do.”

While critics have said the meetings, which are central to CASA’s complaint, could indicate collusion between judges and prosecutors targeting Trump, others have said they were innocuous and normal, designed to achieve efficiency in an already-overwhelmed court system as major investigations took place.

Smith’s investigations eventually led to criminal charges against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election and retained classified documents. Trump called the investigations a “witch hunt” and accused all involved with them of corruption, while Republicans widely condemned the charges as an abuse of power designed to take out the then leading Republican presidential candidate.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, tossed out the classified documents case, finding Smith was improperly appointed special counsel. Smith was appealing that decision when Trump won the 2024 election. After Trump’s victory, Smith terminated both cases, citing a DOJ policy that advises against prosecuting sitting presidents.

Fox News Digital reached out to Boasberg’s and Howell’s chambers for comment.

Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders‘ anti-billionaire progressive group has endorsed its first billionaire candidate, Tom Steyer, in the crowded field campaigning to be California’s next governor.

Our Revolution’s platform centers on eliminating corporate and billionaire influence in politics and supporting candidates who vow to get big money out of politics. But that didn’t stop their endorsement of Steyer, who has spent roughly $120 million of his own money on his campaign, about 30 times more than his Democratic competitors.

While Our Revolution acknowledged that Steyer is a billionaire in its endorsement, the grassroots group suggests he is using his fortune for good by running a campaign focused on left-leaning policies such as single-payer healthcare, removing corporate influence in politics and “taxing extreme wealth.” The group also said their endorsement “is also about winning,”

“Tom Steyer understands that California’s affordability crisis is not inevitable — it’s the result of a political system shaped by concentrated wealth and corporate power at the expense of working people,” Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese said in a statement. “At a moment when too many defend the status quo, Tom has taken a different path — challenging the very system that benefits people like him.”

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Sanders, who has long railed against the existence of billionaires, has called Steyer a “friend,” but he has also said he is not a “fan of billionaires getting involved” in politics.

Our Revolution also said rallying behind Steyer is based on the need to back a “winning” candidate.

“In a high-stakes race where Republicans could take the top spot, consolidating behind a candidate who is both values-aligned and building momentum is essential,” Our Revolution said in a statement. “Our organizers on the ground in California are seeing real energy around Steyer for Governor — and that grassroots engagement helped drive this decision.”

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Steyer has raised $161,485.47 from individual donors, accounting for less than 1% of his campaign funds, with the rest coming from his his personal fortune, according to state filings.

Steyer made his wealth running a $20 billion hedge fund that invested millions of dollars in coal companies and a private prison company that owned immigration detention centers. He has publicly regretted some of his work with the hedge fund, sharing that it motivated him to take up left-leaning causes.

Since leaving the hedge fund in 2012, Steyer has invested his money and time into climate change and clean energy initiatives, and he has been behind at least three successful statewide ballot measures in California. He also made an unsuccessful 2020 presidential run.

“Our Revolution has done the hard, essential work of organizing and empowering progressive voters for a decade,” Steyer said. “I’m honored to receive this endorsement, and as Governor, I’ll work tirelessly to realize our shared vision of a California that works for working people.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Steyer and Our Revolution for comment.

Senate Republicans revealed their plan to fund immigration enforcement operations with a whopping 12-figure price tag, but not every member of the GOP is happy with the roadmap.

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Tuesday revealed the GOP’s budget resolution, which will act as the guiding document for Republicans as they launch the budget process.

It’s as Republican leadership wanted — narrowly tailored to fund only Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three years. And it comes with the eye-popping price tag of $140 billion over the next three and a half years.

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“The threats to our homeland from radical Islam are only getting more intense,” Graham said in a statement. “Now is not the time to defund Border Patrol, and now is certainly not the time to put ICE out of business. These men and women have been dealing with the consequences of the over 11 million illegal immigrants that came to the United States during the Biden Administration.”

The upper chamber is expected to vote on the budget blueprint this week, possibly even Tuesday afternoon, if lawmakers can shore up any possible defections and disagreements.

Republicans will get the chance to discuss the bill behind closed doors later in the day, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he expects any lingering issues with the framework to be addressed.

“But as I’ve said from the very beginning, the exercise here is to make sure we have something that gets 50 here and 218 in the House that is narrow and focused on ensuring that the ICE and CBP are funded well into the future,” Thune said.

The legislation instructs the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security panels that they are allowed to add to the federal deficit by up to $70 billion each over the next handful of years to fund immigration operations. 

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a member of the budget committee and deficit hawk, said that reconciliation was the only way to fund immigration operations “because of Democrats’ just obnoxious obstructionism.” 

“I mean who can you vote against this? I mean, maybe others want to do something more,” Johnson said. “I want to do something more, what’s that?”  

Republicans have opted to reignite reconciliation after last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act as an option of last resort. Congressional Democrats have refused to fund ICE and chunks of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) absent stringent reforms.

SENATE REPUBLICANS RACE TO FUND ICE, CBP WITHOUT DEMOCRATS AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS

And House Republicans have refused to consider the Senate’s bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which carves out immigration enforcement funding, until reconciliation is complete.

Some Republicans view the latest effort, which cuts out Democrats entirely from the process, as a golden opportunity to tackle several issues ahead of the midterm elections this fall. But others fear that adding more to the bill will slow the process and further prolong the ongoing DHS shutdown.

While a large contingent of Republicans, including Thune, argue that the GOP will have a third bite at the apple later in the year, some believe that this is the only shot they’ll have to craft a party-line package before the election.

“I don’t believe we’ll ever see a third reconciliation,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. “I think this is it. I’m not sure that we’ll pass any legislation after this.”

SENATE GOP VOWS TO ‘GO IT ALONE’ ON ICE FUNDING AS DEMS DOUBLE DOWN ON SHUTDOWN

Kennedy and a small handful of other Republicans want to front-load this reconciliation package with several items to address the cost of living and argued that “rather than having an anorexic bill, we should have a pleasantly plump bill.”

Graham’s framework tasks the Senate Judiciary and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees with crafting the legislative muscle and sinew of the bill.

However, Republicans could face a key roadblock there, too.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky., is not a fan of the process, particularly because of the price tag associated with it. He made that clear last year when his plan was usurped by Graham for not spending nearly as much as Republicans wanted for border funding and immigration enforcement.

“In general, I’d like to see less spending, not more,” Paul said. “The conservative notion has always been we spend too much money around here. Seems a bit ironic for Republicans to be using their partisan power to spend more money.”

An updated financial filing from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., aimed at addressing scrutiny over her previously reported income isn’t satisfying Republicans — and House Minority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., says the revisions only raise more concerns.

“Ilhan Omar is even more clueless than I thought if she thinks this financial disclosure revision clears her of suspicion,” Emmer exclusively told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

“She can backtrack, obfuscate, and distract all she wants but she’s made clear who she is: A fraud-enabling, racist antisemite who espouses anti-American rhetoric every chance she gets,” Emmer charged of his fellow Minnesota lawmaker.

EMMER WARNS WALZ COULD END UP ‘IN CUFFS’ AMID MINNESOTA FRAUD CLAIMS

Emmer went on to claim Omar is “entirely unfit to be a member of Congress” if it’s true she was “involved in fraud or improper financial gain in any capacity.”

“She should be held accountable to the fullest extent,” Emmer said. “My colleagues on the House Ethics Committee have my full backing for any and all investigations into Ilhan and her potential misdealings.”

An amended filing reviewed by The Wall Street Journal shows Omar and her husband’s assets were between $18,004 and $95,000, a sharp drop from an earlier disclosure that estimated their holdings between $6 million and $30 million.

“The amended disclosure confirms what we’ve said all along: The congresswoman is not a millionaire,” Omar spokesperson Jacklyn Rogers told the Journal, adding that the filing was corrected “as soon as the discrepancy was identified.”

The amended filing shows Omar reported between $102,503 and $1,005,200 in income in 2024 from assets she and her husband own, according to the Journal. Documentation attached to the attorney’s letter showed $213,200 in distributions to her husband from his venture capital management firm and $3,000 from a winery.

A 2025 email between Omar’s husband and his accountant valued the venture capital firm at $7.9 million and the winery at $1.5 million, though he owns roughly one-third of both businesses, according to tax documents cited by the Journal.

ILHAN OMAR DEFENDS MEALS ACT DESPITE TIES TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME

The discrepancy over how much money Omar has raked in during her time in Congress has sparked intense criticism from Republicans in Washington, D.C. as well as conservatives back in Minnesota.

“I don’t buy it,” Townhall columnist Dustin Grage posted on X. “Investigate, expose, and prosecute the fraud.”

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., similarly criticized Omar on Sunday, telling “Fox & Friends Weekend” that he has been pushing for the panel he leads to investigate the matter because of alleged links to the Somali fraud scheme in Minnesota.

“We’re not supposed to do that [investigate it] on the Oversight Committee, but because she’s a person of interest in the Somali fraud, I’ve been trying to get that,” Comer said, referencing Omar’s associations with individuals implicated in the unfolding Minnesota fraud scandal.

The controversy swirling around Omar comes at the same time her colleague, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., is rebuffing calls to resign as she faces possible expulsion after being found guilty of more than two dozen ethics violations involving financial misconduct.

Fox News Digital reached out to Omar’s office for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Taylor Penley contributed to this report