Former President Donald Trump is throwing his support behind ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s chosen successor for his empty seat in Congress.
Vince Fong, a California Assembly member who worked as McCarthy’s district director for almost a decade, is one of nine candidates running to replace him in Central Valley for his House seat.
One of his opponents, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, has courted the endorsements of former Trump officials like former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and ex-chief deputy, Kash Patel.
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"I am proud to join California’s Republican Congressional Delegation, and give Vince Fong my Complete and Total Endorsement!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "Vince was one of only 6 Republicans in the State Assembly to stand with me, and reject the Second Impeachment Hoax. In Congress, Vince will work with me to Grow the Economy, Lower your Taxes, Cut Burdensome Regulations, Champion American Energy, and Protect and Defend the Second Amendment, which is under siege by the Radical Left."
Endorsing Boudreaux last month, Grenell and Patel described him as the anti-establishment, America First choice. "Sheriff Mike Boudreaux is an America First patriot who has proven he is a principled fighter for freedom," Grenell said, The Porterville Recorder reported at the time. "California needs leaders with courage to stand up to Washington bureaucrats. His record proves he is the right choice for the Valley."
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Patel said, "Sheriff Boudreaux is the kind of leader we need in Congress, one with the courage to stand up and fight, not back down, and put American first," The Recorder reported.
Patel declined to comment further when reached Wednesday by Fox News Digital. Grenell did not immediately respond.
McCarthy resigned from the House of Representatives on Dec. 31, nearly three months after he became the first speaker in history to be ousted from the job.
It’s a deep-red district, anchored in Bakersfield, and Fong’s Republican opponents have already been fighting to appeal to Trump’s MAGA base.
Another of his opponents, Kyle Kirkland, is a business owner and nonprofit animal rescue operator who is attempting to portray himself as an outsider. His website proudly declares he’s "not a career politician."
Trump’s endorsement of Fong is likely to give him a boost with voters who may have been wary over his years-long ties to the GOP establishment. Fong wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, soon after the former president’s announcement, "Thank you… for your endorsement! Let’s get to work to secure the border, improve our economy, and defend our water and energy resources!"
Fox News Digital reached out to Fong for further comment.
The election to replace McCarthy is scheduled for May 21. Before that, the pool of nine candidates will get whittled down to two in a March 19 primary.
Rather than holding party-specific primaries to nominate candidates for the general, California’s election laws mandate a single "jungle primary" where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.
McCarthy is widely held as an establishment Republican who also worked to become a staunch Trump ally.
Just before a group of eight hardline GOP lawmakers voted with all House Democrats to oust McCarthy, the former president wrote on Truth Social, "Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves?"
On Wednesday, the Republican-led House of Representatives impeachment inquiry will question James Biden behind closed doors on the very critical matter of how he repaid a loan to his brother. Banking records have already revealed that there is absolutely nothing to find in this investigation. Joe Biden loaned his brother James $200,000. Two months later, James paid him back. Neither did one thing wrong.
This hearing is a perfect example of why everyone called before this inquiry should demand to testify publicly. Not only has House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer accused both the president and Democrats in Congress of lying about the loan, even though Comer already had all the evidence in hand to show everything was accurate and above board, but Democrats are being denied their rightful opportunity to rub Republican noses in the ugly collapse of every piece of “evidence” behind this so-called investigation.
In the last few days, the FBI form that Republicans demanded to see, then released themselves after threatening to hold the FBI director in contempt, turns out to be the product of a Russian mole who was fed false information by Russian agents. Meanwhile, a picture of “cocaine” that was included in a court filing in charges against Hunter Biden turns out to be an image of sawdust.
The only real questions that remain in this investigation are: How much did James Comer, Jim Jordan, and Chuck Grassley know, and when did they know it?
As Spiderman might say, let’s do this one last time …
In 2019, Rudy Giuliani went to Ukraine on orders from Donald Trump and came back with a story. That story was so ludicrous that everyone passed on it, including Fox News. But there was one place where Giuliani could still get this mess published: The New York Times.
According to that story, Joe Biden went to Ukraine and demanded the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin because Shokin was investigating Burisma, the energy company where Hunter Biden served on the board. Biden allegedly threatened to withhold U.S. aid from Ukraine until Shokin was canned so Hunter could continue to collect his paycheck, and this oh-so-good prosecutor was unjustly fired.
The Times ran the story verbatim, without seeming to do anything like check Giuliani’s sources or look at public records. However, within a few days, Bloomberg dispatched a reporter to Ukraine to check on what Giuliani was selling, and sure enough, it was all bullshit.
Not only had Shokin not been investigating Burisma, he was so notoriously corrupt that officials in both the U.S. and the U.K. called for his removal for years. Biden didn’t start the push to remove Shokin, and he didn’t act alone. Everything that happened in Ukraine was very public, and European officials celebrated when Shokin was finally sacked.
There was no story. There never had been a story. But that didn’t stop Republicans from continuing to repeat Giuliani’s fairytale.
Then a miracle happened. Republicans learned that the FBI had been given a tip about this subject, one that resulted in an FD-1023 form that seemed to back up everything Giuliani had said in 2019. Over objections from the FBI, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Jim Jordan demanded the form. Then Grassley and Comer released the form to the public, and it became the beating heart of the Republican “impeachment investigation.”
And the form was perfect. Referring to Joe Biden as the “big guy” was in there. A claim that Hunter Biden was hired to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems” was right on the front page. The “17 recordings” of phone calls that supposedly included Joe Biden getting directly involved with his son’s business came from this form. Best of all, it included the claim that a Burisma executive complained about how "it cost 5 (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden.”
The form was everything. The absolute proof that Republicans wanted.
Except, of course, everything in it completely contradicted years of public records and statements from those involved. Republicans didn’t let that bother them. Comer defended this form repeatedly, calling Democrats who challenged its contents liars. Grassley declared the importance of those recordings mentioned in the form, even while admitting they might not exist. Jim Jordan practically quoted the form in his questioning of Devon Archer, and then lied about Archer’s testimony when it failed to match up.
Then last Thursday, Alexander Smirnov, the man behind that FD-1023, was charged with lying to the FBI and creating false records. According to CNN, Smirnov has informed investigators that he has “‘extensive and extremely recent’ contacts” with Russian spies. And in an interview after his arrest, Smirnov admitted that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about Businessperson 1.”
“Businessperson 1” is Hunter Biden.
So, Republicans have not only spent the last year pressing an investigation of the president’s son largely instigated by a document that turns out to have been tailor-made for them by Russian intelligence, they opened an impeachment inquiry with a Russian agent as the “heart” of their investigation.
The answer to why the FBI was so reluctant to release the document is simple: They don’t release unfounded accusations (unless they come from James Comey or Robert Hur, of course). And that ongoing investigation that had Republicans so excited was the investigation of Smirnov, not Hunter Biden.
All of this was a lie, and Republicans knew it. Just ask one of the men who toured Giuliani around Ukraine in the first place.
Republicans are plowing on, keeping up the pretense that this source they made such a big deal about for so long was just “ancillary” to their investigation into what they love to call “the Biden crime family.” They have other evidence, dammit. Like how Joe Biden once loaned his son some money for a truck.
But in the last day, another part of the investigation into Hunter Biden has crumbled into dust. As in sawdust.
Federal prosecutors mistakenly claimed in a court filing that a photo of sawdust they found while searching Hunter Biden's electronics was cocaine, attorneys for the president's son said Tuesday.
How anyone could have ever thought that this material, which was tan in color and sitting on a table saw, was anything other than sawdust is astounding. But a picture of any kind of dust seemed to be convincing to Sean Hannity, so Fox News audiences aren’t likely to be threatened by the truth. (This also raises questions about just what Hannity has been putting up his nose.)
A Russian agent. A fake document. A pile of sawdust. That’s what Republicans have to show for their big investigation.
It would be really great to hear what’s happening behind those closed doors today. Democrats should be having fun.
Campaign ActionJames Biden told House GOP investigators on Wednesday that his brother, President Joe Biden, wasn’t involved in any of his financial deals.
In a 10-page opening statement obtained by POLITICO, James Biden kicked off what is expected to be an hours-long closed-door interview with lawmakers by trying to draw a hard line between his brother and his decades-long business arrangements. House Republicans had asked the president’s brother to testify as part of their sweeping impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, which has largely focused on deals cut by his brother and son Hunter Biden.
“I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures. Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None. I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else,” James Biden told lawmakers and staff from the Oversight and Judiciary Committees.
However, James Biden didn’t directly rebut a growing blitz of public reporting in recent years that have increased scrutiny over his business ventures. That included a recent POLITICO report that James Biden emphasized his ties to his brother as part of his pitch to work at Americore, with one former Americore executive saying James Biden spoke about giving his brother equity in the company.
Instead, James Biden tried to distance himself from those claims broadly, telling investigators in his opening statement that in every business venture “I have relied on my own talent, judgment, skill, and personal relationships — and never my status as Joe Biden’s brother.”
“Those who have said or thought otherwise were either mistaken, ill informed, or flat-out lying,” he said.
He added about his work at Americore specifically: Joe Biden “played no role, was not involved with, and received no benefits from my work with Americore.”
Republicans are now expected to spend hours trying to poke holes in his claims, as they hunt for clear evidence that would link official actions taken by Joe Biden as president or vice president to his family’s business deals.
“I think there’s an enormous amount of circumstantial evidence that shows that Hunter and Joe were selling the brand and Joe Biden was profiting from it, financially. So we’re going to find out if that's true. That’s why we’re here,” Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) told reporters on Wednesday during a break in the interview.
So far, Republicans haven’t been able to establish irrefutable evidence Biden committed a crime — a criticism lobbed at the investigation even from some GOP lawmakers. A faction of Republicans believe the investigation has uncovered damaging information, particularly about Biden family members, but not an impeachable offense.
Asked if they were concerned about reports that James Biden name dropped his brother as part of his business deals, Democrats on the committee argued that was a separate issue than the center of Republicans’ impeachment inquiry — which centers on a theory that Joe Biden was involved in and benefited from his family’s financial arrangements.
"I think it's time for Chairman Comer and the Republicans to fold up the circus tent,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told reporters.
FIRST ON FOX: James Biden testified Wednesday that his brother, President Biden, "has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest" in his business ventures, Fox News Digital has learned.
The president’s brother arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning for a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees.
Fox News Digital obtained the first brother’s opening statement.
"I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures," James Biden said in his opening statement. "Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None."
James Biden went on to defend his brother, the president, saying that because of his "intimate knowledge of my brother’s personal integrity and character, as well as my own strong ethics, I have always kept my professional life separate from our close personal relationship."
"I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else," James Biden said. "In every business venture in which I have been involved, I have relied on my own talent, judgment, skill, and personal relationships—and never my status as Joe Biden’s brother."
He added: "Those who have said or thought otherwise were either mistaken, ill informed, or flat-out lying."
James Biden stressed that Joe Biden "played no role, was not involved with, and received no benefits" from his work with Chinese energy company CEFC, or the healthcare company Americore.
"With my appearance here today, the Committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my relationship with my brother Joe are wrong," James Biden said.
So far in the investigation into Biden family businesses, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he has found that Biden family members, their business associates and their "related companies" received "significant payments from individuals and companies in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania."
Comer said the committee has learned throughout its investigation that the Biden family and their business associates brought in more than $24 million between 2014 and 2019 by "selling Joe Biden as ‘the brand’ around the world."
Republicans have also focused on a "$200,000 direct payment" in the form of a "personal check" from James Biden and Sara Biden. That check was labeled "loan repayment."
"On March 1, 2018, Americore wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account — not their business bank account," Comer continued. "And then, on the very same day, James Biden wrote a $200,000 check from this same personal bank account to Joe Biden."
"Americore — a distressed company — loaned money to James Biden, who then sent it to Joe Biden," Comer said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.