Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is staying neutral in the combustible GOP Senate nomination showdown in Texas between longtime Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I like John. I like Ken. They’re both friends of mine. I have supported both of them in the past. I’ve worked closely with both of them. I’ve endorsed both of them. I’ve campaigned with both of them, and so I’m staying out,” the conservative firebrand three-term senator said in a Fox News Digital interview on Wednesday.

The winner of the May 26 Republican runoff election will face off with Democratic nominee state Rep. James Talarico in this autumn’s general election in a race that’s among a handful which may decide if the GOP keeps its Senate majority in the midterms. The GOP currently controls the chamber, 53–47.

BRUISING GOP SENATE PRIMARY SHOWDOWN HEADS INTO OVERTIME

Cornyn edged Paxton by a point in the March 3 primary, as they were the top two contenders among a crowded field of Republican candidates. But since neither of the heated rivals cracked the 50% threshold to win the nomination, the race headed into overtime.

While some of Cruz’s top outsider political advisors are supporting Paxton, the senator is declining to take sides.

“I trust the voters of Texas to make this decision,” the senator said.

‘OPEN BORDERS, TRUMP-HATING RADICAL’—REPUBLICANS QUICKLY POUNCE ON TALARICO

Talarico, who is considered a Democratic Party rising star, topped progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in their party’s primary. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in right-leaning Texas.

The Cornyn campaign and aligned super PACs have spent big bucks to run ads attacking Paxton, arguing that Democrats will flip the seat in the general election if Paxton’s the GOP’s nominee.

Cornyn, his allies, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing messy divorce.

Paxton, a longtime supporter and ally of President Donald Trump and a MAGA firebrand who grabbed significant national attention by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, has pushed back by repeatedly questioning Cornyn’s conservative credentials and past support for Trump.

The president, whose sway in Republican nomination battles remains immense, stayed neutral during the primary campaign.

Hours after Cornyn and Paxton advanced to the runoff, Trump took to social media to announce, “I will be making my Endorsement soon.”

Trump added that he would “be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!”

All signs at the time pointed to Trump backing Cornyn.

But more than three weeks since his social media post, Trump still remains neutral. And that has the MAGA faithful, many of whom are backing Paxton, hopeful that the president will stay out of the race, which would be a major victory for the Texas attorney general.

Paxton traveled to the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence last weekend for a Palm Beach County GOP dinner, where he briefly met with President Trump, two sources with knowledge of the encounter confirmed to Fox News Digital. One of the sources called it a “check in” between Trump and Paxton. The news was first reported by Politico.

There’s been a dearth of public opinion polling in the runoff, but the two surveys that have been released suggest Paxton holds a single-digit lead.

The race between Cornyn and Paxton is viewed by many Republicans as a battle between MAGA world and the grassroots versus the party establishment for the soul of the GOP.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers found Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., guilty of more than two dozen ethics violations, but House Democratic leadership is standing by their embattled colleague.

“As I understand it, the Ethics Committee has one final step in their process, so I’m not going to get out ahead of the Ethics Committee process that will be completed upon our return,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday morning. “And then I’ll have more to say.”

House Democratic Conference Chairman Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., also told Punchbowl News on Friday that he had not seen the ethics panel’s findings, but added “that doesn’t sound good” when told the body determined that she committed 25 ethics violations. Those charges include money laundering, making false statements on campaign finance reports and seeking special favors from entities receiving federal funding. 

INDICTED DEMOCRAT REP. SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK ONE STEP CLOSER TO EXPULSION

The Florida Democrat is facing a separate federal criminal indictment that could result in more than five decades in prison if convicted. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of illegally transferring millions in disaster relief funds improperly paid to her family’s healthcare company to finance her run for Congress and the purchase of luxury items, including a massive diamond ring.

The House Ethics Committee said it would announce its recommended punishment for Cherfilus-McCormick in April, which could be as severe as expulsion. Under House rules, a two-thirds majority would have to support the resolution to formally remove the Florida Democrat from the chamber.

Jeffries’ refusal so far to condemn Cherfilus-McCormick’s conduct mirrors the relative silence of the Democratic caucus, though some rank-and-file members are beginning to break their silence on the Florida Democrat.

Moderate Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., was the first Democratic lawmaker to publicly issue a statement Friday calling on Cherfilus-McCormick to resign or be removed following the guilty verdict.

“You can’t crime your way into legitimate power,” Gluesenkamp Perez wrote. “Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed.”

HOUSE DEMOCRAT ACCUSES FELLOW DEM OF VIOLATING A ‘FREE AND FAIR ELECTION’ IN STUNNING PUBLIC MOVE

A handful of other congressional Democrats said Friday that they would consider backing an expulsion resolution if the indicted lawmaker did not leave on her own terms.

A Jeffries spokeperson did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Despite the looming expulsion threat, Cherfilus-McCormick has given no indication that she will resign. She is also running for a fourth term in November’s midterm elections.

“I look forward to proving my innocence,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement Friday. “Until then, my focus remains where it belongs: showing up for the great people of Florida’s 20th District who sent me to Washington to fight for them.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), House Republicans’ campaign arm, ripped congressional Democrats’ lack of outrage over Cherfilus-McCormick’s conduct.

“The Ethics Committee just confirmed that Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick broke the rules, and House Democrats are still saying nothing,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said Friday. “Their silence is a choice. Democrats can stand for accountability or keep protecting a proven ethics violator, but voters won’t forget it.”

While discussing the mystery surrounding UFOs, Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, said he believes what people think of as aliens are actually “demons.”

While interviewing Vance, conservative commentator Benny Johnson asked the vice president, “You gonna release all the UFO files?”

“Ah, we’re workin’ on it,” Vance said. 

He explained that when he took office he “was obsessed with the UFO files” but ended up being busy with other issues.

Vance asserted that he will “get to the bottom” of the matter.

JD VANCE SAYS UFOS, ALIENS COULD BE ‘SPIRITUAL FORCES’ AS VP VOWS TO ‘GET TO THE BOTTOM’ OF MYSTERY IN SKIES

“I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons anyway,” Vance noted.

Prompted by Johnson, Vance later elaborated on his view.

“Well, look, I, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people — I think that the desire to describe everything celestial… to describe it as aliens — I mean every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there, and there are things that are very difficult to explain,” he said.

“And I naturally go — when I hear about, sort of, extra-natural phenomenon — that’s where I go to is the Christian understanding that, you know, there’s a lotta good out there, but there’s also some evil out there,” he continued.

UFO SECRET FILES, DRONE SWARMS AND NUCLEAR-LINKED SIGHTINGS STUN EXPERTS IN 2025

He added that he believes that among “the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.”

Last month, President Donald Trump said he would order the release of files pertaining to the issue of aliens and UFOs.

EXPLOSIVE NEW DOCUMENTARY PROBES ‘80-YEAR GLOBAL COVERUP’ OF UFO SECRETS

“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” the president declared in a February Truth Social post.

NASA is racing to establish a permanent human presence on the moon as the U.S. looks to beat China’s ambitions on the lunar surface amid intensifying competition in space.

The Trump administration’s push for a roughly $20 billion moon base marks a major shift in NASA’s strategy, moving away from plans for a lunar-orbiting space station and toward building infrastructure directly on the moon as a long-term foothold for deep space exploration.

“This time, the goal is not flags and footprints,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said as he outlined the plan. “This time, the goal is to stay.” 

BEIJING LEVERAGES UN TROOPS, FUNDING TO EXPAND GLOBAL INFLUENCE, HOUSE REPORT WARNS

“The reason you want to have a lunar base is that it acts as a focal point of our ongoing efforts to not just be around the Earth, but go into deep space,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society space exploration nonprofit, told Fox News Digital. “It’s like the reason that we have our base stations in Antarctica.”

Dreier said a sustained presence on the moon would allow the U.S. to store supplies, build out infrastructure and expand its capabilities over time in ways that are not possible with a station orbiting the moon.

The shift also reflects a recalibration of NASA’s earlier plans, which centered on the Gateway program — a proposed space station in orbit around the moon that had been a cornerstone of the Artemis program but faced delays, funding uncertainty and growing questions about its necessity.

Originally envisioned as a staging point for astronauts traveling to and from the lunar surface, Gateway was designed to serve as a communications hub and transfer point in orbit. NASA is now redirecting resources toward building infrastructure directly on the lunar surface instead.

While the new approach sharpens NASA’s focus, Dreier cautioned that the administration’s timeline and budget remain highly ambitious.

“Probably not,” he said when asked whether $20 billion would be enough to build and sustain a lunar base. “It’s an ambitious level.”

Dreier added that the roughly seven-year timeline is aggressive, particularly given the technical challenges of operating on the moon, suggesting the effort may begin with a limited initial presence that expands over time.

China is aiming to land astronauts on the moon by around 2030, a milestone that would mark its first crewed lunar mission and significantly expand its presence beyond Earth orbit.

The push for a lunar base comes as China also rapidly advances its own capabilities, conducting increasingly complex robotic missions and laying the groundwork for a long-term presence on the moon.

“They have gone from launching one or two satellites or space science satellites to launching dozens,” Dreier said. “They have landed huge amounts of mass now on the moon, on the far side of the moon.”

He noted that China has also successfully carried out robotic sample return missions, launching material from the lunar surface back to Earth — a technically demanding feat that underscores its growing capabilities.

NASA RETURNS HUMANS TO DEEP SPACE AFTER OVER 50 YEARS WITH FEBRUARY ARTEMIS II MOON MISSION

“They’re developing their capability very fast,” Dreier said. “That is more capability than the United States has at the moon right now.”

“At the Moon, China actually has the advantage right now,” he added.

China is working with international partners, including Russia, on plans for a long-term presence near the lunar south pole — a region believed to contain water ice and other key resources.

“We find ourselves with a real geopolitical rival, challenging American leadership in the high ground of space,” Isaacman said.

Dreier said the push to build sustained operations on the moon could also strengthen broader U.S. capabilities in space, particularly as orbit becomes more contested.

“The moon is the ultimate high ground,” he said. “If we have to have space contested, let’s make it a race to the moon … rather than something far more direct and destructive in the Earth orbit.”

Fox News Digital reached out to NASA for comment. 

A group fighting to get Virginia voters to approve an April 21 referendum to let Democrats in the state redraw its congressional maps is being pumped with liberal cash, receiving over $38 million from less than a dozen left-wing entities over the last three months, including from the George Soros-backed Fund For Policy Reform Inc.

The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) tracks state spending in Virginia and, according to its database, Virginians for Fair Elections has received $5 million from the Soros-funded and founded entity, which is within his Open Society Foundations Network of groups known for pushing liberal causes. 

Soros’ latest cause is a massive gerrymandering effort in Virginia, where the state’s congressional delegation could go from effectively 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans, to 10-Democratic-leaning districts and one Republican-leaning district, per VPAP. Virginians for Fair Elections is one of the main vehicles pushing Virginia voters to vote “yes” on April 21 to redraw the state’s maps. Virginia’s decision to redraw its maps came after mid-decade redistricting efforts by Republicans in Texas, which significantly changed the state’s electoral maps.

VIRGINIA DEM ADMITS REDISTRICTING PUSH AIMS TO ‘STOP TRUMP’, NOT ABOUT ‘FAIRNESS’

Tens of millions of dollars have been pumped into the state of Virginia ahead of the April 21 referendum vote, with the vast majority going to the Democratic side of the issue.

Besides money from Soros’ network, in 2026, Virginians for Fair elections received $20 million from the nonprofit counterpart of House Democrats’ House Majority PAC, $100,000 from Sen. Tim Kaine’s, D-Va., leadership PAC, a little over $10 million from the progressive nonprofit that funds ballot initiatives nationwide, The Fairness Project, almost $500,000 from the Democratic Party of Virginia, $1 million from the Global Impact Social Welfare Fund, $1 million from a group called American Opportunity Action, and then several other smaller donations from wealthy liberal backers.

The main group opposing redistricting, Virginians For Fair Maps, has only raised a little over $3 million from just two donors in 2026. $560,000 came from the Republican Party of Virginia while the remaining $2.5 million came from a group by the same name, Virginians for Fair Maps, according to VPAP. 

OBAMA ENDORSES VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THAT COULD HELP DEMS GAIN 4 SEATS

Despite the fundraising advantage, the referendum is still expected to be close. Since polls opened March 6 for early voting, turnout in Republican-heavy counties has been high compared to the state’s election turnout in November, when Democrats performed very well and Spanberger took over the Governor’s mansion, while Jones took over the attorney general’s Office.

Democrats in the state have reportedly been urging Spanberger to get more assertive in the redistricting effort.

Democrat Beth Macy, who is running for Congress in one of the five House districts currently held by Republicans, said Virginia Democrats “gotta stop bringing a spork to a knife fight,” according to Politico. She added that it would be “helpful” for Spanberger “to be the spokesperson on redistricting because she did so well and won by so much.”

Soros’ network of groups and PACs has also been a powerful force behind supporting dozens of far-left district attorneys, such as the formerly recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Chicago’s Kim Foxx, and L.A.’s George Gascon. In 2022, 1 in 5 Americans were represented by a Soros-linked prosecutor, according to data from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. 

In Virginia, Soros’ Democracy PAC donated at least $500K to help Spanberger become governor and to help Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who fantasized about killing his Republican rival and his family, get elected. His PACs have also donated millions to the campaign coffers of far-left district attorneys in Virginia.

Fox News Digital reached out to Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the other top donors pumping millions into the redistricting battle, but did not receive a response from Soros’ group ahead of publication.

“No one wanted to take this action, but in a democracy, we can’t let entire states rig their congressional maps just to bend to the will of one person. We have to respond. This amendment is a temporary, one-time exception that gives Virginia voters a voice and meets the needs of the current moment, while ensuring Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting process will resume after the 2030 census,” Alexis Magnan-Callaway, a spokesperson for The Fairness Project, told Fox News digital. 

“The ballot measure allows Virginia voters, not politicians, to decide for themselves whether they want new, temporary districts,” she continued. “This isn’t about favoring one party over another. This is about restoring fairness across the board by temporarily changing Virginia’s congressional districts.”

Scouting America, the Texas-based national organization founded as the Boy Scouts of America, is working to shed claims it has gone “woke” in recent years as it renews its focus on training young people with life skills, providing fun and educational outdoor experiences and revitalizing its partnership with the U.S. military.

Since its inception by Lt. Gen. Robert Baden-Powell in February 1910, what is now Scouting America has remained dedicated to providing the key life tenets of faith, character and service to young people, as in one example it eliminated an otherwise recently conceived “DEI” merit badge and replaced it with a military-centric one.

Chief Scout Executive Roger Krone told Fox News Digital that scouts have been central to key moments in history, a testament to the program’s values, importance and longevity.

“In fact, I think all but one of the men that walked on the moon were Scouts. There is [also] a tendency for a certain percentage of membership to want to trade their Scout uniforms for military uniforms: we have a long tradition with the military,” Krone said.

DAVID MARCUS: ONLY HEGSETH CAN SAVE STORIED VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE FROM WOKE STATE LAWMAKERS

In 1915, professional scouter E. Urner Goodman founded Scouting America’s own honor society, the Order of the Arrow, at Treasure Island Scout Reservation in the middle of the Delaware River to recognize scouters who excel in their life of service.

John F. Kennedy was the first scout president, and Gerald Ford is the only one to date who has earned Eagle Scout. President Jimmy Carter, though never a scout, earned the BSA’s Silver Buffalo Award for service to Georgia scouts.

As part of its reaffirmation of American values, Scouting America will waive registration fees for military families’ children and participate in the America250 program.

“Just as it has for 116 years, Scouting America is dedicated to shaping patriotic Americans grounded in faith, character and service,” Krone said. “Our relationship with the United States Military reflects a shared belief that leadership, service, and love of country are not abstract ideals—they are values forged through action, discipline, and commitment. The Scouting program is uniquely positioned to instill these values in our future leaders.”

Fifteen percent of military academy cadets are Eagle Scouts, and more than 130 million Americans have been trained by the Boy Scouts since 1910.

He noted that Baden-Powell, a British military hero, conceived the idea in the wake of the Industrial Revolution to instill merit and values in wayward children in London.

VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS RETREAT ON VMI FUNDING THREAT AFTER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WARNS OF ‘EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES’

“There were kids in London that were getting in trouble because they had too much time on their hands. And so we started using these military tactics, learning how to track animals and using compasses and these things, to keep kids occupied they go on camp out some things like that. And that was the birth of the scouting program. So we have a proud tradition with the military.”

Scouts continue wearing the American flag on their Class-A uniforms from their time as Cub Scouts through earning Eagle, and, as Krone noted, their meetings also begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Scout Oath, which include pledges to honor God, country and law.

“There’s a deep connection between what we teach with character and leadership … to the military so it’s probably just natural.”

Krone pushed back on Scouting America being called woke, noting that about 70 percent of sponsoring organizations are churches. The Catholic Church is said to be the largest holder of unit charters, Krone said, while across the country other houses of worship, from Methodist to Episcopal to the United Church of Christ, sponsor troops.

“We are a very faith-based, faith-driven organization, very patriotic, we love God and country and so yeah, we strive very hard to be apolitical these days.”

Scouting received blowback for allowing girls to join in the past decade. Krone said that Scouting remains a meritocracy and rank requirements aren’t changed by gender.

“Whether you’re a young man in a program or a young woman in a program, you do the same exact thing. And it all is about using the outdoors as a classroom where you learn leadership and grit and resilience and you put the ideals of Scout … to practice in the outdoors and it is an amazing teacher. It’s an amazing program.”

AMERICA’S BOYS NEED NOBLE MASCULINITY — NOT LOWERED EXPECTATIONS

The Scouting program also takes kids away from their screens and away from potentially “woke” influences online and reconnects them with serving their community and working or camping outdoors.

“We know one of the challenges I think our kids in our country face today is that they’re glued to the devices, they’re indoors or on a couch,” Krone said.

“And I think there’s a lot of authors out there have written about the fact that it’s toxic, right? We’ve got to get kids back outdoors and get them off devices, you know, moving around. “We say it’s ‘social without the media’.”

Scouting America’s youth leaders recently visited Capitol Hill, where they met with congressional leaders who included scouters among them.

“Great day with [the] Boy Scouts. I enjoyed meeting Ricky Mason, Chair of the Scouts Executive Board, and outstanding young leader Joshua Nero, Chief of the Order of the Arrow (the highest ranked Scout), and taking him to meet Speaker Mike Johnson,” Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., said in a statement.

“Scouts is a great program and more parents should get their kids off of their phones and out into the wilderness learning life skills and confidence with Scouting for America.”

The Hill also hosts its own Congressional Scouting Caucus led by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga.

To be awarded the Eagle Scout rank, a scout must earn at least 21 merit badges, including 10 from a specific list that includes three “Citizenship” badges — Community, Nation and World — through which they learn civics and about America’s founding principles and are required to write their congressman or senator about an issue important to them.

Other required skills include Personal Management, First Aid, Swimming, Cycling or Hiking, Family Life and Environmental Science. Most scouts earn many more than required.

The Scout Law, which all scouts agree to, hosts 12 tenets for daily life:

“Trustworthy; Loyal; Helpful; Friendly; Courteous; Kind; Obedient; Cheerful; Thrifty; Brave; Clean; Reverent.”

Scouting’s motto remains “Do a Good Turn Daily,” and it is most recognized by its 116-year-old slogan: “Be Prepared.”

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security late Friday, but the 43-day shutdown could drag on for several more weeks.

The two-month funding extension approved by the House is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, where any funding bill needs to overcome a 60-vote threshold, meaning buy-in from a handful of Democrats. That hurdle has not stopped House GOP leadership from arguing that their rejection of a Senate-passed deal — and pitching a subsequent rival DHS funding proposal — is the way out of the shutdown.

“We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters leaving the U.S. Capitol on Friday night. “We just couldn’t do it.”

“House Republicans will have no part in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement,” Johnson said earlier Friday on “The Ingraham Angle,” in a scathing takedown of the Senate-passed deal that stopped short of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and portions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

TSA CALLOUTS HIT HOUSTON, ATLANTA, NEW ORLEANS HARDEST, 450 OFFICERS HAVE QUIT NATIONWIDE

But the full-court press launched by House Republicans aimed at persuading the Senate to return to Washington to take up their bill is likely to fall on deaf ears in the upper chamber.

A GOP aide told Fox News Digital that “the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.”

“We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,” they said.

Senators left Washington, D.C., for a two-week Easter recess after unanimously approving a DHS funding measure in the early morning hours Friday with some traveling abroad on congressional delegations.

“I would suggest that the Senate does come back and at least take a vote,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain said Friday. “That is what they were elected to do. So they’re going to stay out on recess for two weeks and not come back while people don’t get paid. That’s pretty sad.”

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, also called on the Senate to return to Washington “immediately” to take up the House-passed measure in a statement late Friday. 

House lawmakers are also scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks.

Left holding the tab in the cross-chamber feud are the tens of thousands of DHS employees working unpaid during the shutdown.

President Donald Trump moved Friday to shield TSA agents from further financial distress by taking executive action directing DHS to pay those employees with existing funds. 

The roughly 50,000 agents have missed two full paychecks during the ongoing funding lapse, leading hundreds to quit their jobs and forcing others to grapple with mounting financial distress.

The president’s move is likely to alleviate lengthy wait times at TSA security checkpoints, though senior officials have warned of long-term impacts due to more than 500 agents quitting during the funding lapse.

DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AFTER GOP REJECTS THEIR COUNTER, THUNE SAYS SCHUMER ‘GOING IN CIRCLES’

However, other DHS personnel, such as those employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and certain support staff working for ICE and CBP will still have their paychecks withheld until the department’s funding is restored. 

“Anybody who shows up to work deserves to get a paycheck, and the Senate needs to come back and at least do their job,” McClain told Fox News on Friday. 

Democratic lawmakers are sure to spend the next several weeks blaming Republicans for the impasse after Johnson’s decision to reject the Senate deal. 

“We’re here dealing with a partisan spending bill that the Senate has already indicated is dead on arrival,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Friday. “And so Republicans have taken the decision to own this shutdown decisively. There is no doubt.”

The short-term DHS funding patch passed by the House is a clean extension of government funding and has no partisan policy riders.

Trump also came out against the bill Friday afternoon in an interview with Fox News.

The bill notably does not include any of the reforms that Democrats have demanded for six weeks to rein in immigration enforcement, including tightening warrant requirements and prohibiting agents from wearing masks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who warned throughout the funding stalemate that nobody wins in a shutdown, has indicated that Democrats are less likely to get those demands met than when the funding lapse first started.

“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Thune said.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger flatly denied any deal was made in crafting the new boundaries of the Second Congressional District on the Eastern Shore and Virginia Beach after former Rep. Elaine Luria was followed out of an event by an individual demanding answers.

Luria, a Democrat who previously represented the Second District, is challenging Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., in a race considered “Even” under the current map but that would skew Democratic under newly drawn boundaries that pull in heavily liberal Newport News and the city of Franklin while carving out more moderate parts of Chesapeake.

An individual filmed Luria this week as she left an evening event in Hampton Roads and asked twice: “Did you make a backroom deal with your best friend Abigail Spanberger to redraw the district?”

Luria ignored the man, but the video spread on social media as observers raised questions, given the tone of the redistricting effort led by Senate President L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth.

VIRGINIA JUDGE VOIDS REDISTRICTING PUSH, RULES LAWMAKERS OVERSTEPPED AUTHORITY

Luria’s campaign formally declined comment and Spanberger’s camp flatly denied the allegation.

“There was no deal,” Spanberger’s top spokeswoman Libby Wiet told Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, Kiggans campaign spokesman Joe Link said the clip of the confrontation “speaks for itself.”

“Virginians should keep this in mind when they vote on April 21,” Link told Fox News Digital, referring to the date of the special election on the Democrats’ redistricting amendment.

5 VIRGINIA CONGRESSMEN: DEMOCRATS ARE REJECTING VOTERS TO GERRYMANDER OUR STATE

Lucas did not respond to a request for comment but has been vocal online about the redistricting effort, mocking opponents like former Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., and swearing at Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, by telling him she is “f—ing finish[ing]” what he purportedly started.

In January, Lucas took aim at Kiggans, suggesting she is intentionally trying to push her out of office. The 82-year-old progressive posted an image of Kiggans wearing a McDonald’s uniform and asking if a customer “want[s] fries with that.”

Meanwhile, across the commonwealth, Republicans continue expressing outrage at the new map being put to voters as “restor[ing] fairness” on April 21, with the Prince William County GOP posting an image of their exurban county “sliced” into five pieces next to an image of deli salami.

Prince William, Arlington and Fairfax counties appear to be anchors for most of Virginia’s congressional districts, which critics say will suppress, if not dilute, the reported 45% of the population that votes Republican or lives in rural areas.

In Rockingham County, which surrounds Harrisonburg and sits in the Shenandoah Valley and is currently represented in whole by GOP Rep. Ben Cline of Botetourt, Fairfax-based Del. Dan Helmer was pictured campaigning for the newly drawn 7th District, according to the local GOP.

Helmer dismissed claims he also helped draw his own district, saying he is doing what Democratic leaders assigned him to do in “electing a Democratic majority” in his caucus role, according to the Virginia Mercury.

Del. Joe McNamara, R-Cave Spring, told the outlet he still believes Helmer “craft[ed] maps for his benefit, and he’s just the next one.”

“My role was electing a Democratic majority two years ago so we could fight back against what Trump is doing and reelect it this year,” Helmer told the Mercury in response. Helmer, who authored the state’s new sweeping gun ban, has two previously unsuccessful congressional bids under recent maps.

The Rockingham County GOP took issue with his previous campaign pledge to be a “voice for Fairfax,” hinting, as in Kiggans’ district, that Democrats are intentionally drawing seats for themselves.

THIS CRUCIAL STATE IS THE LATEST BATTLEGROUND IN REDISTRICTING WAR BETWEEN TRUMP AND DEMOCRATS

“They have no shame,” the party said in captioning a photo of Helmer campaigning locally.

Former first lady Dorothy McAuliffe, who also does not live in the majority-rural confines of the newly drawn “lobster-shaped” district, is also running for the seat.

JP Cooney, a prosecutor who worked under much-maligned special counsel Jack Smith, is the third Democrat to seek the newly drawn district, further increasing Republicans’ ire at the process.

Earlier this week, Rep. Donald Beyer, an Alexandria Democrat, admitted that his party’s redistricting effort is aimed squarely at rebuking President Donald Trump.

That comment led to outrage on the right, including from Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore.

Kilgore, of Gate City in Scott County along the Tennessee line, represents one of the few areas rendered safe under the new map – if not simply because the aforementioned 45% of Republicans had to be collected somewhere.

“This is manifestly unfair for the Commonwealth of Virginia. We’re a 51-49 state, not a 90-10 state. If they’re willing to silence nearly half of the Commonwealth’s voters in the name of ‘fairness’ what else are they willing to do?” Kilgore told Fox News Digital.

His area is represented by Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican who collects a swath of mountainous communities from Galax, Martinsville and Independence in the east to Cumberland Gap, Wise and coal-filled Grundy in the west.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz insists that President Donald Trump will be “impeached over and over and over again” if the Democrats win back control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.

And the conservative firebrand and three-term senator from Texas, in a sit-down interview this week with Fox News Digital, argued that if Democrats win both the House and Senate majorities in the midterms, “they will do whatever they can to burn it down,” as he pointed to the agenda passed by Trump and Republicans in Congress.

As they fight to hold their slim majorities in both the House and Senate, Republicans are battling stiff political headwinds as the party in power in the nation’s capital traditionally loses seats in the midterms. And they also face a rough political climate fueled by economic concerns over persistent inflation, an unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

“I think these midterm elections are unbelievably consequential,” said Cruz, who won re-election in 2024 and isn’t on the ballot this year.

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And the senator pledged, “I am all in fighting for us to win in the midterms, fighting for us to hold the House, fighting for us to hold the Senate and, ideally, grow our majorities in both houses.”

“If the Democrats take the House, no meaningful legislation will pass for the next two years, and we will see the president impeached over and over and over again. And by the way, it won’t matter what for. They will impeach President Trump just because they hate him, because he is Donald Trump,” Cruz claimed.

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And he argued, “We will see investigations attacking the administration in every House committee if they take the House.”

Cruz said implications for Trump and the GOP are even worse if Democrats also win back the Senate.

“If they take the Senate, we would see an almost complete halt of Senate confirmations — Cabinet members. I think these radical Democrats would leave cabinet offices empty, leave them vacant, rather than confirm President Trump’s nominees. I think judicial nominations. If the Democrats took the Senate, they would essentially halt judicial nominations,” he claimed.

And he charged, “I think Chuck Schumer and the radicals are so extreme that if they get a majority, they will do whatever they can to burn it down.”

But Democrats argue it’s President Trump who’s lighting the match due to what Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called Trump’s “hurtful and harmful agenda.”

“President Trump is creating a toxic agenda that’s harming people, and they’re looking for Democratic leadership to take them out of this nightmare,” Gillibrand argued in an interview last month with Fox News Digital.

And Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer told Fox News Digital: “If Democrats take Congress, the Republicans won’t be able to give massive tax breaks to billionaires, shutter nursing homes and rural hospitals, bomb foreign countries instead of feeding kids, or turn a blind eye to Trump’s open and egregious corruption.”

Cruz heads back home to Texas this weekend, where he’ll address the crowd Saturday in Dallas at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, better known by its acronym CPAC.

But it’s a stop on May 1 in Iowa — the state whose caucuses for half a century have kicked off the race for the Republican presidential nomination — that’s sparking speculation that Cruz is gearing up for a second White House run.

Cruz was runner-up to Trump in the combustible 2016 GOP presidential primaries, and he took a look at making another run in the 2024 cycle before deciding to seek re-election to the Senate.

“There will be plenty of time to make those decisions. I don’t have an announcement for you today,” Cruz answered when asked by Fox News Digital if seriously considering another White House campaign.

But he appears to be laying the groundwork for a possible bid, as he positions himself as a conservative alternative to Vice President JD Vance, who is currently the odds on favorite to be Trump’s MAGA and America First heir.

Cruz has grabbed plenty of attention with his clashes with far-right figures, such as Tucker Carlson, and he’s enhanced already strong standing among conservative leaders and donors. And he’s bolstered his grassroots outreach with his popular and widely downloaded podcast, ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz.’

In his Fox Digital interview, Cruz also shared what seemed to be the beginnings of a possible 2028 stump speech.

“I look back to the last year with President Trump in the White House and with a Republican Senate in the house, we have accomplished more in the last year than I’ve seen Congress and the president accomplish in the preceding 13 years that I was here. It is an incredible record of success that we’ve been able to produce. And so my focus is, number one, keep delivering results, keep delivering big wins for the American people,” Cruz said.

Cruz spotlighted that he was “the author of no tax on tips. I wrote that law.” The cuts were one of the tax provisions in the GOP’s massive domestic policy bill that was passed nearly entirely along party lines last summer.

The senator also pointed to the so-called “school choice” provisions in the measure, as well as the Trump Accounts, tax-advantaged, IRA-style investment accounts for children under 18 that were also included in the law.

“Both of those provisions I wrote, both of them are in the bill,” he noted.

And Cruz predicted that in “10, 20, 30 years from now, those two provisions, school choice and the Trump accounts, will be, by an order of magnitude, the most consequential provisions in the entire bill. So we’ve got a record of wins, of victories for the American people to run on.”

Neither party escaped travelers’ ire as some estimated they had to walk miles to reach the back of the security line and wait several hours to catch their flights at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. 

Fox News Digital asked travelers waiting in line at Bush who they believed was to blame for the massive wait times. One traveler named Tim simply responded: “The politicians.”

On Thursday, lines at Bush snaked through check-in, baggage claim, out the doors and through underground subway tunnels. One traveler, who did not share his name, estimated that he and his family had to walk two miles to reach the back of the line. While many arrived several hours ahead of their scheduled departure times, those who did not could be seen frantically searching for terminals with smaller lines.

When it comes to who bears the blame, another traveler, who did not identify herself, answered: “All congressmen.”

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“All of them, regardless of their party,” she added. “They just need to do their jobs.”

Another, named Lancet, singled out the Democrats, who have demanded reinstating funding for the Department of Homeland Security contingent on broad reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

“I mean, honestly, look, the Democrats are not voting on the DHS being reinstated. And they’re the ones who pay for TSA from what I know,” said Lancet. “So, without paying the people, they obviously can’t work.”

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport has been among the airports most heavily impacted by the partial government shutdown, which has led to TSA agents missing paychecks for more than 40 days. Nearly 500 TSA agents have quit, and as of Friday, the agency has missed out on $1 billion in pay.

The partial shutdown was caused by disagreements in Congress over ICE and Border Patrol’s enforcement of immigration law in cities across the U.S., with Democrats making funding contingent on major changes in tactics and policy. Late Thursday night, the Senate passed a bill to fund most of DHS, including TSA, but it is not final. The House still needs to approve the measure and send it to the president before funding resumes and workers are paid.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday directing federal officials to ensure TSA employees are paid, calling the ongoing shutdown an “emergency,” 

One traveler named Kevin, who was waiting in a security line in an underground subway corridor with hardly functioning air conditioning, did not hold back.

“Anybody who votes for a Democrat after this should be shipped out of the country,” said Kevin. “This is a Democrat mess.”

FETTERMAN URGES FELLOW DEMOCRATS TO ‘DO THE RIGHT THING’ AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN TAKES TOLL ON WORKERS

At the front of the same line, which stretched halfway across the airport’s subway corridor, a traveler named April answered, “I have no idea to be honest with you, but also the construction doesn’t help either.”

“Having to go to Terminal A and Terminal E and going back and forth, yeah, it’s not been great,” she added.

One traveler named Maria, who despite the line bore a large smile and a chipper attitude, told Fox News Digital, “You know what? I would only blame myself for not getting to the airport sooner.”

“I’ve been flying for many, many years, so I know. Got to get to the airports soon, guys. Get your Subway, get your Starbucks, and get to airports,” she quipped, smiling.

“I don’t know, man, I don’t get political about these things,” answered a traveler named Pinal. “It is what it is, and we all are just going through the motions right now.”

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“There’s a lot of people to blame,” said a woman who did not identify herself. “But at least I think the important part is everybody’s working together to try to be as efficient as possible. I got here at 10, and my flight is at 1:30, so I got there in enough time, hopefully.”

“It’s just the division,” remarked a young man named Nick. “Everybody should be unified, working together, instead of just picking teams, fighting against each other, you know?” 

“People rather be on a team than rather just focus on a solution,” Nick continued. “If we could just focus more on the problem and working together rather than focusing on the differences, I think that would be a major change. But it’s tough, man.”