Biden’s Cabinet condemns attempted assassination of former President Trump

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

Amid a sea of inflammatory political rhetoric this election season, President Biden and White House Cabinet members unequivocally condemned political violence after the attempted assassination of former President Trump over the weekend, with many also expressing sympathy for Trump and condolences to the family of a spectator killed during the attack.

Vice President Harris wrote on X that "assassination attempts have no place in our nation," adding that she and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were praying for the family of the deceased victim, identified as a former fire chief, Corey Comperatore.

"As @POTUS said, we must work toward unity as Americans. Assassination attempts have no place in our nation, or anywhere. Doug and I pray for the family of the victim who was senselessly killed yesterday and hope for a speedy recovery for those injured.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas also condemned "political violence in America."

"I’m shocked and saddened by the shooting at former President Trump’s rally and grateful that he is safe. As @POTUS said, there is no place for political violence in America and we must all condemn it," Blinken posted to X on Saturday night.

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Austin said the "entire" Department of Defense "condemns this violence, which has absolutely no place in our democracy."

"This is not the way that we resolve our differences in America — and it must never be. I’m relieved that reports indicate former President Trump is safe, and I am praying for him and his family and everyone affected by this appalling incident," he said.

Garland – who caught the ire of House Republicans this year who voted to hold him in contempt of Congress over the Biden-Hur audio recordings – released a lengthy statement on Sunday offering condolences to the victim's family and thanking law enforcement officers who responded to the attempted assassination.

"I want to reiterate that the violence that we saw yesterday is an attack on our democracy itself," Garland said. "The Justice Department has no tolerance for such violence. And as Americans, we must have no tolerance for it. This must stop."

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Becerra, who previously brought a lawsuit against Trump during his presidency over allegedly violating the Clean Air Act, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, said he was "relieved" to hear that Trump was safe.

"Political violence is never acceptable. While we learn more about what happened, there is no escaping the fact that gun violence is an urgent public health crisis in this country," Becerra's post on X read.

Buttigieg, who has been one of Trump's vocal critics over the years, called the incident a "horrible moment" and said he was "encouraged" that Trump was doing well.

"An entire nation must speak with one voice today to completely and unequivocally reject all political violence," he wrote on X.

Other Cabinet members offering sympathies include Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Denis McDonough and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

"My prayers are with all of the victims who were injured or killed during yesterday's attack, and with those traumatized by the violence. Such acts ought not to happen at a political rally, or any place else, in our country," Vilsack wrote on X.

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"We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms and commend the Secret Service for their swift action today," Mayorkas – who has also been the subject of House GOP impeachment inquiries – wrote on X. "We are engaged with President Biden, former President Trump, and their campaigns, and are taking every possible measure to ensure their safety and security."

He added that maintaining the safety of presidential candidates is one of the department's "vital priorities."

The statements come just a day before the Republican National Convention is scheduled to begin on Monday in Milwaukee, where delegates will officially select Trump to be the presumptive GOP presidential candidate. Biden said early Sunday he instructed the Secret Service to thoroughly examine all the Republican National Convention's security measures ahead of its start time, but the agency said it will not change its current protocol for the weeklong event.

Comer reveals White House physician was involved in Biden family business deals, demands he testify

Posted on July 7, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

FIRST ON FOX – House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is demanding that the White House physician appear before Congress to answer questions on President Biden’s "declining mental state," while also revealing that the doctor has been involved in the Biden family’s business dealings.

Fox News Digital obtained the letter Comer, R-Ky., sent to Dr. Kevin O’Connor on Sunday. Comer is seeking to question O’Connor, given his "connections" with the Biden family, on whether he is "in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the President’s fitness to serve."

Comer wants to know whether O'Connor's medical assessments of the president have been improperly influenced by his work with the Biden family with the company Americore.

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"After a concerning debate performance by President Biden against former President Donald Trump on June 27, journalists have rushed to report on what Americans have seen plainly for years: the President appears unwell," Comer wrote.

Comer said that because Americans have been questioning Biden’s "ability to lead the country," his committee has been investigating circumstances surrounding O’Connor’s February assessment of the president.

Comer noted that O’Connor determined in February that the president "is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old-male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency."

Comer, though, pointed to reports that O’Connor did not recommend that Biden take a cognitive test.

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"The Oversight Committee is concerned your medical assessments have been influenced by your private business endeavors with the Biden family," Comer wrote.

Comer said the committee has obtained evidence that shows he was involved with Americore Health, LLC, along with the president’s brother, James Biden.

Americore, a company which operates rural hospitals, has been investigated by the committee as part of its impeachment inquiry against the president – specifically related to James Biden's work, which brought him more than $600,000.

The committee says James Biden, while serving as a principal at Americore, received payments for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The committee found that James Biden received a $200,000 wire in 2018 from the company that he then used to write a $200,000 check to his brother, President Biden, which he labeled as a "loan repayment."

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James Biden, according to testimony from other Americore employees, did not provide any services to the company, but instead, promised that his "Biden" name could bring funding to the struggling hospital operator from the Middle East.

That employee, Carol Fox, a Chapter 11 trustee for Americore, testified that the loan was provided to Biden with no documentation in return for the promise of funding from the Middle East that never came. She filed a lawsuit against James Biden, saying he made "representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections."

But during James Biden’s interview with the committee earlier this year, he told investigators that O’Connor "provided him counsel in connection with the alleged work he was performing for Americore."

"I met with, for example – my brother wasn’t in office at the time. He was a private citizen. And I had gotten through his – as vice president, his personal physician was Colonel Kevin O’Connor," James Biden testified. "And Kevin O’Connor – there was a very – and still there is an outcry for a solution for post-traumatic stress disorder."

James Biden said O’Connor "introduced me to a team" that worked with PTSD and alcoholism amid a "backlog" at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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Comer, in the letter, also notes that O’Connor, along with Hunter Biden, "joined a meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by Americore."

Meanwhile, the White House maintains that Biden has not been examined by a doctor since February. But during a call with Democratic governors last week, the president himself told governors "he was checked out by a doctor and that everything was fine."

"The statements by the White House Press Secretary and President Biden appear inconsistent, and the Committee seeks to understand the extent of your role at the White House at this time," Comer wrote. "Given your connections with the Biden family, the Committee also seeks to understand if you are in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the President’s fitness to serve."

Comer requested that O’Connor make himself available for a transcribed interview with counsel for the House Oversight Committee by July 14. He is also demanding all documents and communications that O’Connor has regarding Americore and James Biden.

The request for O'Connor's cooperation with Congress comes amid calls for Biden to suspend his re-election campaign – even from top Democrats, former staffers and allies.

But the White House maintains that President Biden is "absolutely not" considering dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

"I am running. I am the leader of the Democratic Party. No one is pushing me out," Biden said last week.

Republicans furious that Hunter Biden is reportedly sitting in on White House meetings

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

House Republicans are crying foul over reported revelations that first son Hunter Biden has been sitting in on President Biden's White House meetings in recent days.

"Joe and Hunter Biden have a record of selling their last name to foreign adversaries like Russia and China. Having Hunter now engaged in official, executive business only further enhances the urgency for transparency and accountability regarding the Biden family's corrupt business dealings," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., called Hunter Biden "a walking national security threat."

"He's raked in more than $20 million from foreign entities, including the CCP, for the Biden [family]. He's also the owner of the FBI-investigated laptop from hell. … Does Hunter have the clearance necessary to sit in on high-level White House meetings with his dad?" Steube told Fox News Digital.

HUNTER BIDEN HAS MAJOR CONFLICTS OF INTEREST AS TOP ADVISER TO THE MAN WHO COULD PARDON HIM

It comes after NBC News reported that the president's son has sat in on meetings between Biden and his top White House aides in recent days.

He began joining the sessions after Biden returned from Camp David on Monday, according to the report.

"Hunter Biden wants Joe Biden to remain president more than anyone in America. He should be worried [about] what a new attorney general would consider criminal activity under a possible Trump administration. No more sweetheart deals the moment his father leaves office," said Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis.

Hunter Biden has long been a target of Republican scrutiny, with House GOP impeachment inquiry investigators accusing him of enriching himself via foreign business dealings by using his father's political stature and connections. House GOP leaders also believe President Biden himself participated in and benefited from the schemes, something he and his allies have denied.

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Hunter Biden was also recently convicted on three felony firearm charges and faces more legal troubles in a federal probe into his taxes. The latter case is going to trial in California in September.

The report comes as Biden is facing mounting pressure to step aside as the 2024 Democrat presidential nominee after his performance in last Thursday's CNN debate, with concerns over his advanced age and mental fitness for office plastered across headlines this week.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said on Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria" that Hunter Biden has a vested interest in keeping his father in power because it's a shield from the worst scrutiny.

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"I think it's probably very predictable that Hunter wants his dad to be in the White House. His best option for protection and immunity going forward is his dad in the White House," Ogles said when asked about the report. "The moment you have a change of regimes, you're going to have a change of personnel. And suddenly, Hunter is not going to have the umbrella and the protection of his father."

The NBC News report said aides were "struck" by Hunter Biden's sudden presence at White House meetings. One was quoted as saying, "What the hell is happening?"

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president's son was also present during debate prep, and she dismissed concerns about his presence when asked in Tuesday's regular news briefing.

"It is a week where there's going to be more family members who are going to come to the White House. I'm sure you'll see some of them on Fourth of July," she said.

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

House Republicans say Hunter Biden used dad’s role as VP to ‘discourage’ further SEC scrutiny in 2016 probe

Posted on June 18, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans say Hunter Biden "gratuitously" used his father's role as vice president in an effort to "discourage" further scrutiny in a 2016 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation involving his business associates and their entities, Fox News Digital has learned.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, penned a letter to the chairman of the SEC as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Biden.

"In 2016, attorneys within the SEC’s Enforcement Division were investigating a tribal bond scheme in which several individuals were charged with violating federal securities laws. As part of this investigation, several of Robert Hunter Biden’s (Hunter Biden) business associates and inter-connected entities were implicated by the alleged conduct," Comer and Jordan wrote.

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As part of the investigation, the SEC subpoenaed individuals and entities "for documents, communications, and testimony."

At the time, the SEC subpoenaed Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, and Rosemont Seneca Bohai – an entity utilized by both Archer and Hunter Biden.

Comer and Jordan revealed that Hunter Biden was also subpoenaed as part of the investigation in March 2016, while Joe Biden was serving as vice president.

The subpoena for Hunter Biden compelled him to produce documents and communications regarding Rosemont Seneca Bohai.

Comer and Jordan wrote that Rosemont Seneca Bohai "was directly implicated in the tribal bond scheme."

Citing the initial complaint, Comer and Jordan noted that in October 2014, Rosemont purchased "the entirety of the Second Tribal Bond Issuance" for $15 million.

Archer, during his interview before the House Oversight Committee last year, testified that Hunter Biden, at the time, was "a corporate secretary" of Rosemont and that "they had a handshake 50-50 ownership."

Comer and Jordan also noted that last month the House Ways and Means Committee voted to release IRS documents that showed that Hunter Biden certified on a document that he was, in fact, the secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai.

"According to Mr. Archer, ‘Rosemont Seneca Bohai was set up to hold the equity of BHR,’ which stands for Bohai Harvest Rosemont [Partners]. BHR was supposed to be a private equity fund based in China to engage in cross-border investments," they wrote. "The RSB bank account was used to funnel other foreign payments and benefits to Hunter Biden, including money from Ukraine and a new sports car from an oligarch in Kazakhstan."

Comer and Jordan revealed that Hunter Biden was responsive to the subpoena in 2016 and provided 1,749 responsive documents to the SEC as part of the investigation.

But Comer and Jordan said that, "concerningly," Hunter Biden’s attorney reminded in his response that his father was the sitting vice president.

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"As a threshold matter, we request that you treat this matter with the highest degree of confidentiality, consistent with Commission policy and applicable law," Hunter Biden’s attorney wrote on April 20, 2016. "The confidential nature of this investigation is very important to our client and it would be unfair, not just to our client, but also to his father, the Vice President of the United States, if his involvement in an SEC investigation and parallel criminal probe were to become the subject of any media attention."

Comer and Jordan said Hunter Biden’s response "gratuitously invoked his father’s position as the Vice President in what could be interpreted as an effort to discourage further SEC scrutiny."

Comer and Jordan also noted that on May 11, 2016, the SEC published its press release announcing the charging of seven individuals, with no mention or charging of Hunter Biden.

His business associates Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, however, were charged.

Galanis pleaded guilty to securities fraud based on bonds issued by a company affiliated with a Native American tribe in South Dakota. The funds were reportedly supposed to be used for certain projects but were instead used for his personal finances. He was sentenced in 2017 to 14 years. House Republicans interviewed Galanis from his prison cell as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Archer was also tied to the scheme and convicted in 2018 for defrauding the Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through fraudulent and deceptive means. Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

As part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry, Comer and Jordan are demanding all documents and communications between the SEC and the White House, including the Office of the Vice President and all documents provided by Rosemont Seneca, Archer, and Hunter Biden in the SEC investigation.

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They also are demanding the SEC’s "justification for seeking documents from Hunter Biden" in the matter; all internal documents and communications regarding Hunter Biden’s response; and any internal ethics opinions rendered by the SEC regarding Hunter Biden or then-Vice President Biden.

Comer and Jordan are also asking the SEC to make Tejal D. Shah, a former staff attorney who led the investigation who now serves as a principal adviser, appear for questioning by the committees in the form of a transcribed interview.

"In short, the records sought by this request are critical to the impeachment inquiry," they wrote.

The requests come after the Comer, Jordan and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, earlier this month, sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department recommending Hunter Biden and James Biden be charged with making false statements to Congress about "key aspects" of the impeachment inquiry.

One of the false statements allegedly made by Hunter Biden was regarding his role at Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC as corporate secretary.

House Republicans allege that during his deposition before Congress earlier this year, Hunter Biden made false statements about holding a position at Rosemont Seneca Bohai. The committees describe the entity as one which was used to receive millions of dollars from foreign individuals and entities who met with then-Vice President Biden before and after transmitting money to the RSB account that then transferred funds to Hunter Biden.

House Republicans are continuing their impeachment inquiry against the president. They are investigating his role and knowledge of his family’s international influence-peddling schemes that they say generated more than $18 million for Biden family members and their companies, and more than $27 million, when including the payments to their business associates, who they say were often used to transfer funds to Biden family members.

White House stymied bipartisan support for presidential ethics bill, says top House Dem

Posted on June 17, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

A Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee alleged Monday that several in her party who had initially indicated support for a bipartisan presidential ethics bill got cold feet after talking to the White House.

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., previously announced the filing of a "landmark federal ethics reform bill" with Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the committee’s chairman, targeting financial disclosures, family members joining official travel junkets and other issues.

Comer and Porter announced the Presidential Ethics Reform Act in late May, which itself reportedly stemmed from a back-and-forth between lawmakers during a March hearing on the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

Porter, who lives in Orange County, California, claimed Monday that after she and Comer worked to recruit an equal number of bipartisan co-sponsors, the deal imploded while she was in the air on her way back to Washington.

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"I … was proud that I had found three senior Democratic co-sponsors. When I landed, I was really disappointed to learn that those co-sponsors had decided not to support the bill and had had conversations with the White House," Porter claimed in comments to The Hill newspaper.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment, as the paper cited three Democratic lawmakers it reported to be whom Porter was referring – Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.

Mfume declined comment and the other two lawmakers did not respond. Porter’s office also did not provide comment.

A source familiar with the situation, however, confirmed reports on the matter to Fox News Digital.

The ethics bill did garner at least one major public supporter, as billionaire "Shark Tank" investor Mark Cuban posted, "All for this."

Congress’ official website shows Comer introduced the legislation on May 22 and listed Porter as its only current co-sponsor. Congress.gov indicated the bill has since been referred to the Oversight Committee.

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During a March 20 Biden impeachment inquiry hearing, Porter said the probe hit a "dead end" and that the next step should be to "stop bipartisan attacks on each other."

"The American people think that the rules that prevent corruption are way too weak to stop politicians from both sides of the aisle from influence peddling," Porter added.

After she ended her remarks, Comer interjected to say he believed the Democrat was "sincere" and that he "look[ed] forward to working with [her] on that legislation" in the future.

The bill would require presidents and vice presidents to record and disclose payments or "items of value" given to them by foreign sources two years prior to and after their terms, as well as while they are in office.

It would also require the two top national executives to disclose inter-familial payments of more than $10,000 during that same time period, and also provide stricter rules regarding disclosure of conflicts-of-interest.

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"Influence peddling is a cottage industry in Washington, and we’ve identified deficiencies in current law that have led to a culture of corruption," Comer said of the bill.

"By creating this bipartisan legislation to provide greater transparency to the financial interactions related to the office of the president and vice-president, we can ensure that moving forward, American presidents, vice presidents, and their family members cannot profit from their proximity to power."

Biden’s inner circle deeply involved with family’s business dealings: report

Posted on June 9, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

President Biden has long attempted to distance himself from his family’s business dealings as he ran for and eventually became president, but a new report details just how involved those in the president’s inner circle have been in Biden family ventures.

Biden has shared a personal bookkeeper with this son, Hunter Biden, a personal lawyer with this brother, Jim Biden, and the former head of then-Vice President Biden’s Secret Service detail helped Jim Biden investigate a potential Chinese business partner, according to a report from Politico.

While the Bidens have long said they observe strict "firewalls" when it comes to discussing business with each other, the Politico report details just how involved those in the president’s orbit have been in dealings with Hunter and Jim Biden.

In one case, the president’s brother, Jim Biden, hired the head of the former vice president’s Secret Service detail, Dale Pupillo, to investigate a Chinese executive the president’s son, Hunter Biden, was traveling to meet in 2017.

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The president’s brother stressed during the February impeachment inquiry that he personally commissioned the investigation into the executive so that he was not going into the situation blind, but insisted he did not know the details of the potential venture being led by his nephew.

"I wanted to know who I was meeting with and if there were any complications at all," he said at the impeachment interview, noting that it was common in the Biden family to keep the details of business dealings away from each other.

The executive, Patrick Ho, was later arrested and convicted on federal corruption charges.

The Politico report notes that Jim Biden had a long habit of tapping those connected to his powerful older brother. In one case, in 1975, during Joe Biden’s first Senate term, Jim Biden secured a loan from the senator’s old law firm, Walsh, Monzack & Owens, to help fund his nightclub business.

One of those partners, Mel Monzack, has gone on to serve as the president’s personal attorney and campaign treasurer. Monzack’s current firm has also served as the registered agent for the president’s personal S Corporation, CelticCapri, which handles income from activities such as writing and speaking fees.

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Monzack has also served as Jim Biden’s personal attorney, helping to negotiate a proposed deal that would have given the president’s brother’s company a 35% stake in the Americore hospital chain.

While the deal fell through, Monzack’s involvement raised questions, though Jim Biden has insisted he does not have knowledge of the attorney’s arrangement with President Biden.

"I don’t have the full depth of what he does or doesn’t do," he said in February. "But I know that he’s intricately involved and has been, you know, for the last 40 or 50 years."

Another close associate of President Biden, body man Fran Person, stayed involved with Hunter Biden after leaving government in 2014. Emails showed that Person, who the Bidens have said became like a son to them over the course of Joe Biden’s service in the Senate and as vice president, pitched Hunter Biden on a plan to develop SeaWorld parks in China in a deal between Person’s business and the state-owned Chinese Development Bank in 2015.

WhatsApp messages that were revealed as part of an IRS investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax matters also showed conversations between Person and Hunter Biden, including conversations in which Person told Hunter Biden his Chinese business partner, Bo Zhang, was eager to help the president’s son overcome his growing financial troubles.

GOP LAWMAKER SAYS REPUBLICANS ‘DON’T HAVE THE GUTS’ TO IMPEACH BIDEN

The Politico report also detailed the role another Hunter Biden business partner, personal bookkeeper Eric Schwerin, played in the family, with President Biden leaning on the bookkeeper to handle his own finances.

Nevertheless, Schwerin testified during the impeachment inquiry that there was no intermingling between the president and his son’s finances.

The connection between the president’s orbit and his family even extended to President Biden’s personal physician, Army doctor Kevin O’Connor. O’Connor served as then-Vice President Biden’s personal physician and grew close to Biden throughout his time in the Biden administration. The doctor now serves as Biden’s White House physician, the report notes.

In between those two roles, the president’s brother, Jim Biden, sought O’Connor’s help as part of his proposed Americore deal. According to the report, the president’s brother wanted to partner with the Veterans Affairs Department "to use vacant space at rural hospitals to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder."

The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

House GOP drafting Biden impeachment articles over Israel aid cutoff threat

Posted on May 9, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., is preparing impeachment articles against President Biden over his threat to halt U.S. offensive aid to Israel, the first-term lawmaker told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

Mills accused Biden of forcing Israel into a "quid pro quo" situation by leveraging U.S. dollars against the Israeli government's actions in Gaza, drawing parallels to Democrats' first impeachment of former President Trump over his handling of Ukraine aid.

"The House has no choice but to impeach President ‘Quid pro Joe’ Biden. As Vice President, Biden was caught threatening to withhold funding and aid to Ukraine unless they fired the attorney general investigating Burisma, a company financially benefiting his son Hunter, not to mention the 10% share for 'the big guy' himself," Mills said in a statement.

"Now, Joe Biden is pressuring Israel, our biggest ally in the Middle East, by pausing their funding that has already been approved in the House, if they don't stop all operations with Hamas. It’s a very clear message, ‘this for that.’

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"These are the same accusations made against President Trump, which resulted in his impeachment by Democrats. The same must happen for Joe Biden, which is why we’re drawing up articles of impeachment now," Mills finished.

Biden made the high-stakes ultimatum to Israel's government in a CNN interview that aired Wednesday night as it prepares for a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The city is currently home to more than a million Palestinians who left other parts of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has conducted its mission to eradicate the terrorist group Hamas.

Biden said Israel would continue to see U.S. support for its defensive systems, like the Iron Dome, in the CNN interview. He added, however, "if they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem."

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The remarks prompted a flurry of backlash from Republicans and some moderate Democrats. Several more GOP lawmakers voiced support for impeaching Biden over the decision, arguing there are parallels to Trump's withholding of weapons aid to Ukraine in exchange for announcing an investigation into the Biden family.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., called on the House to open an immediate impeachment inquiry, arguing that Biden was motivated by political reasons.

"Given Democrats’ Trump-Ukraine precedent, President Biden’s decision to withhold lethal aid to our ally, Israel, for political gain is undoubtedly an impeachable offense. Clearly, the nefarious motive behind our commander in chief’s move to condition U.S. aid to Israel is to appease radical leftists and Hamas sympathizers ahead of the 2024 election," Clyde said. "The House must immediately open an impeachment inquiry due to the president’s disastrous decision to play politics with national security."

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital, "The Democrats made their bed, and now they're [lying] in it. This is just the latest on a long list of reasons to impeach Biden, including the deadline withdrawal in Afghanistan and allowing more than 9 million illegal immigrants to invade our southern border."

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It's highly unlikely for the push to reach the level of a Senate trial, with the House's current ongoing impeachment inquiry into Biden still searching for smoking gun evidence amid a mountain of accusations of improper behavior and bribery.

But it shows the sky-high tensions that have taken over Washington amid Israel's war on Hamas after the terrorist group's Oct. 7 attack.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., stopped short of calling for impeachment, but said, "The president is essentially threatening an arms embargo on our closest ally in the Middle East that is fighting a terror army holding American citizens hostage. Withholding critical munitions that Congress appropriated and Biden himself signed into law is wrong."

The first member of Congress to make the call was Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posting on X early on Thursday morning, "The House has no choice but to impeach Biden based on the Trump-Ukraine precedent of withholding foreign aid to help with reelection. Only with Biden, it’s true."

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

Sen Hawley calls on Energy Secretary Granholm to resign in heated exchange over stock trades

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to resign Tuesday following a heated exchange over her past financial transactions.

Hawley's tense back-and-forth with Granholm came during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing held to review the Department of Energy's (DOE) 2025 budget request. The Missouri Republican excoriated the energy secretary for violating the STOCK Act and for continuing to own shares of individual companies last year despite testifying that she did not own any individual stock.

"It is outrageous that you misled us. It is outrageous that you are continuing to mislead us," Hawley remarked. "This has got to change. And, frankly, you should go."

Early in her tenure leading the Department of Energy, it was revealed that Granholm violated the STOCK Act nine times by failing to disclose $240,000 worth of stock sales within the legally-mandated time frame.

GOP REP CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY INTO BIDEN ENERGY SECRETARY GRANHOLM: 'SHE LIED, UNDER OATH'

And separately, in a June 2023 letter to Energy and Natural Resource Committee leadership, Granholm said she owned shares of six unnamed individual companies worth up to $120,000 and that her husband owned $2,457.89 worth of shares in Ford Motor Co. at the time of her under-oath testimony before the panel months prior.

During the April 20, 2023, hearing, Granholm told Hawley that she was "not owning individual stocks." After discovering her and her husband's ownership of stock, Granholm sold her husband's Ford shares on May 15, 2023, and sold her remaining individual stock holdings days later, according to her letter.

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"You neglected to report it to this committee for months afterwards," Hawley asked Granholm during the hearing Tuesday. "Why did you mislead this committee?"

"Oh, my goodness," Granholm responded. "I believed that I had sold all individual stocks, and I was incorrect. So, I came back as soon as I found out that, in fact, I had not sold all individual stocks."

Hawley then interrupted her, saying she had waited a month before informing the committee of the transactions.

"I did not hide it because I brought it forth to the committee when I realized that we had made a mistake," Granholm added.

In addition, the GOP lawmaker blasted Granholm for allowing agency employees to own individual stocks. Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that hundreds of senior DOE officials owned stocks related to the agency's work, a potential conflict-of-interest violation.

He said that senior DOE officials owning stocks reveals the "institutionalized corruption in the Department of Energy."

Granholm responded by saying officials strictly own stocks in companies in areas they do not have any influence over. She also said the agency has a strong ethics office that reviews relevant transactions.

White House deems House impeachment inquiry ‘over,’ President Biden formally declines to testify

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

The White House formally declined an invitation by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., for President Biden to testify in connection to his son Hunter’s business dealings.

"As our Office has demonstrated, and you acknowledged in a recent fundraising email, your impeachment investigation is over," Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, wrote in a letter to Comer on Monday. "It is past time for the House to focus on the issues that matter to the American people rather than continuing to waste time and taxpayer resources on this partisan charade."

Sauber said the House Oversight Committee’s impeachment inquiry "has succeeded only in turning up abundant evidence that, in fact, the President has done nothing wrong."

"Yet rather than acknowledge this reality, your March 28, 2024, letter contains the same litany of false allegations that have been repeatedly debunked and refuted by the very witnesses you have called before your Committee and the many documents you have obtained," the special counsel told Comer. "Your insistence on peddling these false and unsupported allegations despite ample evidence to the contrary makes one thing about your investigation abundantly clear: The facts do not matter to you."

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The National Review published a full copy of the letter also obtained by The Associated Press and other outlets.

Reacting to President Biden’s refusal to testify, Comer issued a blistering statement on his X account, declaring, "The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Biden family."

"Like his son, Hunter Biden, President Biden is refusing to testify in public about the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling," Comer wrote. "This comes as no surprise since President Biden continues to lie about his relationships with his son’s business partners, even denying they exists when his son said under oath during a deposition that they did. It is unfortunate President Biden is unwilling to answer questions before the American people and refuses to answer the very simple, straightforward questions we included in the invitation. Why is it so difficult for the White House to answer those questions? The American people deserve transparency from President Biden, not more lies."

Despite providing testimony behind closed doors, Hunter Biden declined to testify in a public committee alongside former business associates, Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis, regarding alleged "pay-for- influence" schemes to provide access to certain offices in exchange for payments to the Biden family.

Notably, Bobulinski at the committee hearing accused Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden, of lying under oath regarding the nature of their dealings with the Chinese conglomerate CEFC.

In a March 28 letter, Comer invited President Biden to "explain, under oath," what involvement he had in the Biden family businesses, claiming the committee "has accounted for over $24 million that has flowed from foreign sources to you, your family and their business associates."

FBI INFORMANT CHARGED WITH GIVING FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN IN 2020

The letter included questions about Biden’s interactions with specific foreign business officials.

Comer told President Biden that "you have asserted your pressuring Ukraine in 2015 to fire a government official investigating a company in which your son has a financial interest was wholly in line with U.S. policy."

The committee received bank records showing Hunter Biden was paid $1 million per year for his position on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma until Joe Biden left office, when Hunter’s salary "was inexplicably cut in half," Comer wrote. The letter specifically asks if President Biden has interacted with executives at Burisma Holdings, which was at the center of the indictment of a former FBI informant in February who the Justice Department accused of providing false information to the FBI.

The indictment says the former informant, Alexander Smirnov, claimed that during meetings with Burisma executives, they admitted to hiring Hunter to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems," and later that they had specifically paid $5 million for such protection. But the DOJ goes on the claim that those events that Smirnov first reported to the FBI Agent in June 2020 were "fabrications."

Sauber, who was brought on in 2022 to oversee the president’s response to congressional investigations into the Biden family, is leaving the White House early next month to return to the private sector.

To replace him, the White House is elevating his deputy, Rachel Cotton.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Biden resists pulling controversial judicial nominee Adeel Mangi despite Democrat defectors

Posted on April 13, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

The White House is not taking any cues from Republicans who have advised President Biden to withdraw a controversial judicial nomination.

Instead, it's digging in its heels to lobby Democratic senators to support Adeel Mangi for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

A White House official updated Fox News Digital on the status of Mangi's nomination, which has been scrutinized over his ties to two groups, one accused of antisemitism and another that has supported "cop killers," as Republican critics have alleged.

Biden is not considering withdrawing the judicial nomination despite a call from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Mangi served on the board of advisers for the Rutgers University Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR) from 2019 to 2023. The center has been accused by Republicans of antisemitism due to its sponsored events and speakers. One such event was held on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and featured controversial speakers like Hatem Bazian, who in 2004 called for an "intifada," according to video from an anti-war protest in San Francisco, and Sami Al-Arian.

In 2006, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to "conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," according to the Justice Department.

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Noura Erakat, who had previously been advertised as a panelist for a separate event alongside Hamas commander Ghazi Hamad, was also hosted at a CSRR event.

The Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ), whose founding board member, Kathy Boudin, pleaded guilty to the felony murder of two police officers in 1981 after they died following an armored truck robbery, features Mangi as a current advisory board member. The robbery was carried out by Boudin's group, the Weather Underground Organization, which was recognized as a domestic terrorist organization by the FBI.

Neither the CSRR nor AFJ provided comments to Fox News Digital.

As pressure has been applied by Republican lawmakers and an ad campaign from Judicial Crisis Network targets vulnerable Senate Democrats, Biden's nominee has begun to lose support from his party. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., have come out publicly against Mangi, citing his AFJ affiliation.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has also complicated the nomination by claiming he won't support anyone who can't garner at least one Republican supporter.

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"The opposition to Adeel Mangi — in and outside the Senate — is growing by the day," a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Republicans told Fox News Digital in a statement.

"It’s clear the math is not there for the White House," the statement added, calling Biden's decision not to withdraw Mangi's nomination "puzzling indeed."

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates pushed back in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"President Biden is proud to have chosen Adeel Mangi," he said, calling Mangi "an extraordinarily qualified nominee" and noting he "would make history on the bench" as the first Muslim in such a position.

"The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved Mr. Mangi’s nomination, and the rest of the Senate should side with what makes America the greatest nation on Earth and support him, not cave to vicious, undignified attempts to drag America into the past," Bates added.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Shuwanza Goff, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs Ali Nouri, White House Counsel Ed Siskel and White House senior counsel in charge of nominations Phil Brest, continue to press senators to support Mangi, who would be the first Muslim federal appellate court judge, a White House official revealed.

MORE THAN 40 SENATE REPUBLICANS CALL FOR MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IN LETTER TO SCHUMER

Through these officials, the White House is persisting and pushing back on the concerns over Mangi's two group affiliations in question, telling senators they are false and a smear campaign. They are also reiterating to lawmakers that the nominee is qualified for the role.

Senate Judiciary Chariman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will also keep up pressure on his colleagues to support Mangi and dismiss what he also considers to be a smear campaign.

"The treatment of this nominee before the Senate Judiciary Committee has reached a new low in many ways," he said in a recent speech on the chamber floor, insinuating Mangi's status as a Muslim is the reason for opposition to his confirmation.

If Biden does not withdraw Mangi's nomination and it is not scheduled for a confirmation vote in 2024, the nomination will expire on its own. In this case, he would need to be nominated again in the next Congress.

The nomination has not yet been scheduled for a vote by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has noted his own support for Mangi but hasn't given any indication whether he plans to schedule a vote.

Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, a former spokesman to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and former chief of staff of the Senate Republican Conference, said it was "unlikely" Mangi's nomination survives a Senate confirmation.

"The White House has not put up an aggressive defense of Mangi, which is really sending my message that he should withdraw [on] his own," said Bonjean, who also ran communications for the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. "Unless the Biden administration changes its strategy, the Mangi nomination is dead in the water."

Mangi did not provide comment to Fox News Digital.