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Schumer warns of Republican advantage that could change the battle for Senate control
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sees a path to victory for Democrats in November — but one major Republican advantage has him worried.
In a letter to his Democratic colleagues, Schumer, D-N.Y., argued that his crop of candidates and Democrats running across the country are winning the messaging battle against the GOP, but asked, "Can Republicans buy the Senate?"
"With just three weeks until Election Day, the battle for control of the Senate comes down to one defining question: Will the unprecedented tsunami of Republican money defeat the massive Democratic advantage in candidates, policies, and political climate," Schumer wrote.
"There are 22 days until Election Day, and two enormous forces are on a collision course: deep voter dissatisfaction with Republicans and an unprecedented flood of money aimed at overcoming their political liabilities," he continued. "Which force prevails could determine control of the United States Senate."
Republicans do have a distinct money advantage and have seen outside groups and President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. spending at eye-popping levels across the Senate map.
MAGA Inc., for example, has over $400 million at its disposal, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, and reportedly has plans to spend in key Senate races like Iowa, Ohio and Alaska in the waning weeks of the midterms.
SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN LIMIT ON PARTY CAMPAIGN SPENDING IN COORDINATION WITH CANDIDATES
Then there’s tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has contributed roughly $276 million to Republican-aligned political action committees (PACs) this cycle. Notably, he contributed $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Schumer lamented the funding, arguing that it was coming from a small field of deep-pocketed donors "looking to buy a pardon, curry favor, and move the needle in favor of their personal interests."
He also charged that the influx of cash was thanks in part to the Supreme Court’s decision in June to eliminate federal limits on how much political parties can spend on candidates.
DEMOCRATS THINK A BLUE WAVE IS BUILDING. HERE ARE 3 FORCES THAT COULD STOP IT
"None of us are naïve; we’ve known this day would come ever since Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas decided to give their billionaire and corporate friends permission to buy elections," Schumer said.
But Democrats’ own super PAC, the Senate Majority PAC, which is closely aligned with Schumer, broke its own fundraising records in the third quarter of this year, raking in $151 million.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) announced shortly after the court’s decision that it would be pumping in $40 million in a slew of battleground states.
And the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), also teed up over $46 million in battleground races.
"This pity pitch from Chuck Schumer is a testament to the enthusiasm of Republican grassroots donors who are re-engaging in full force to stop Democrats’ socialist march," NRSC spokeswoman Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital. "Unfortunately for Schumer, the DNC’s debt crisis is symptomatic of a dying Democratic brand, with approval ratings in the toilet and donors doubting their own chances of flipping the Senate."
Democrats have ‘dirty hands’ over complaints about Omar raid weeks before election, ex-prosecutor says
Former federal prosecutors are pushing back on Democrats' accusations that the Trump administration violated Justice Department policy by searching the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., just weeks before an election.
"It's difficult to not point out the dirty hands of the people that might complain about election interference," Jim Trusty, a former federal prosecutor, said, pointing to former special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election.
"Democrats definitely can't contend that it's a politicized investigation after everything that happened in the Trump era," Abhishek Kambil, a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a lengthy statement alleging that the Justice Department violated protocol by conducting "overt actions in politically-sensitive matters in the 60 days before an election."
HOMAN CONFIRMS 'CRIMINAL' INVESTIGATION INVOLVING ILHAN OMAR, SAYS HE KNOWS 'THINGS ARE GOING ON’
"Just 22 days before the elections, this is blatant political intimidation and an attempt to interfere with the Congresswoman’s reelection," Raskin wrote in his press release.
But Kambil pointed out that the U.S. Department of Justice Manual, which outlines procedures for federal criminal investigations, does not explicitly impose a 60-day period before elections in which investigative actions can't be conducted.
"The 60-day requirement is not something that's in the justice manual," Kambil told Fox News Digital. "That's basically an unwritten practice of what DOJ typically does, and the justice manual itself does not have the time frame on that."
Kambil said that any actions which could be perceived as influencing an election will require prior approval from either the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General.
The Justice Department has long followed an unwritten practice known as the "60-day rule," which discourages politically sensitive investigative actions close to an election. The practice came under scrutiny in a 2018 DOJ inspector general report examining former FBI Director James Comey's decision to notify Congress of new developments in the Hillary Clinton email investigation just 11 days before the 2016 presidential election. The watchdog concluded that Comey had disregarded longstanding department policy and practice, calling his decision a "serious error of judgment."
"It doesn't create a ban; it just creates effectively a consultation requirement to higher level leadership before it can happen, but there is no statute or anything else preventing this," Kambil told Fox News Digital.
The Justice Department also was accused by President Donald Trump of ignoring its "60-day rule" when special counsel Jack Smith filed a revised indictment against Trump just 70 days before the 2024 presidential election. Weeks later, Smith submitted a 165-page brief outlining evidence against Trump in the federal election interference case, which was made public just 34 days before the election. Trump and Republican lawmakers accused Smith of attempting to influence the election, but Smith maintained that his office followed DOJ policy and complied with a court-ordered filing schedule.
"For 60 days prior to an election, the Department of Injustice is supposed to do absolutely nothing that would taint or interfere with a case," Trump posted in all capital letters to his Truth Social. "They disobeyed their own rule in favor of complete and total election interference."
BIDEN-ERA FBI’S ‘NIXONIAN’ TRUMP FAMILY SURVEILLANCE DRAWS SCRUTINY FROM UNLIKELY CORNER
"Going back to Jack Smith, obviously trying to get a case tried — the January 6th case before the election — to affect the electorate," Trusty said.
Trusty pointed out that the Justice Department needed approval from a magistrate judge in Washington, D.C., before executing its search warrant.
"There's at least probable cause," Trusty said. "It's a long way off from proving a case at trial."
"But keep in mind, in D.C. President Trump and his administration don't always have friendly treatment from the judges there," Trusty continued. "So this was a magistrate judge who looked at the sworn statement, said there's enough to justify a raid, and now we've had a raid."
A judge can reject a search warrant application if investigators fail to establish probable cause. But approving a warrant does not necessarily resolve questions about whether the search complied with the Justice Department's election-year policies.
"When you see Democrats challenging the warrant or what happened, they're not really going after the merits," Kambil said. "They're challenging the timing."
The Homeland Security Investigations raid stems from an investigation into immigration paperwork Omar's father completed when she was a child. Omar, who fled Somalia's civil war, immigrated to the United States with her family in 1995 at age 12 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000.
In response to the raid on her home, Omar accused Trump of engaging in "political intimidation" against her.
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"This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies," Omar posted on X. "For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Ukraine showed Trump how easily an enemy could cripple an AI powerhouse
An adversary can interrupt an artificial intelligence system without defeating its software. It need only strike the infrastructure that keeps the system running. Ukraine proved the point inside Russia this past week.
President Trump and his national security team should take note before an enemy tries the same thing here. On October 8, a Ukrainian drone attack forced Yandex, the technology company often called "Russia’s Google," to suspend operations at its Sasovo data center. The next day, another strike knocked out several modules at its Kaluga facility, which Yandex had called its most powerful data center in Russia. On October 11, the company announced that its Vladimir-region data center had shut down completely after a drone attack. Ukraine disrupted three major Yandex computing facilities in four days.
The Sasovo facility housed two of Yandex’s three supercomputers used to train its AI models, including YandexGPT. Yandex said it could not yet determine whether the equipment could be restored. Whatever the final damage assessment, Russia’s leading AI developer lost a major computing hub in a single night.
AMERICA MUST DEFEND OUR DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE, HERE AND OVERSEAS, TO WIN THE NEXT WAR
During my years as an Army officer and Pentagon strategist, I learned to judge a military capability by whether it would be there when needed. A weapon that dazzles on the test range becomes a liability when its supply line fails in combat.
That standard should govern our dependence on AI.
The word "cloud" hides the physical machinery behind computing services. Those services require buildings, processors, electricity, cooling equipment and communications networks. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency calls energy and communications "fundamental to the operation of practically every other critical infrastructure sector."
THE AI REVOLUTION WILL GO WHEREVER THERE'S ELECTRICITY — AND CHINA KNOWS IT
That vulnerability reaches well beyond Russia. Government missions, essential services and American businesses all run on advanced computing. When a privately operated facility supports an indispensable defense or intelligence function, its continued availability becomes a national security concern. That does not mean Washington should take these facilities over. A government nameplate on the gate would not stop a single drone. What matters is who defends these sites and how quickly they recover.
An outage need not destroy equipment to cause serious harm. Intelligence that arrives after a commander must act may come too late to protect troops or shape the decision. A recovery plan that misses the mission’s deadline is no plan at all.
Russia is a war zone, and America is not. But consider Loudoun County, Virginia, which has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, and neighboring Prince William County. Fences, cameras and guards protect those campuses on the ground. None of that stops a drone, and federal law reserves the authority to bring one down for federal agencies and certified state and local police. Ukraine’s strikes give Washington every reason to test whether our essential computing would survive an attack from the air.
President Trump has already laid a policy foundation. His June 5 national security memorandum directed agencies to form partnerships with willing private companies to secure America’s most advanced AI technologies. It specifically contemplated threat intelligence sharing, joint AI red-team exercises and stronger physical and cybersecurity protections for the nation’s data centers. The memorandum gave agencies 120 days to develop those partnerships, a deadline that passed on October 3. The administration should now report what it has accomplished: which partnerships are operating, what protections they provide and whether essential missions can continue after a major facility becomes unavailable.
Trump’s new Super Intelligence Task Force, announced October 4 and led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, is the right venue to demand those answers. Reuters reported October 8 that vice chair Scott Kupor expected the full committee to convene this week and to issue a charter afterward. Infrastructure readiness belongs in that charter.
The president should direct four practical steps.
First, identify the computing capabilities essential to national defense, intelligence and other indispensable government missions. Assess the cost of losing them, the availability of alternatives and the time required to restore operations. The mission, not a facility’s price tag or size, should determine its security priority.
Second, assign responsibility. Private operators must harden their facilities and build redundancy. Defending the airspace above them is government’s job, so federal agencies and local police should plan counter-drone coverage for the most critical sites. Federal agencies must also provide timely threat information, define requirements for the missions they purchase and coordinate emergency assistance. The president should name a single official responsible for pulling those efforts together and closing gaps.
Third, establish proportionate, enforceable security requirements. Government contracts can require protection and continuity arrangements for essential services, and Congress should close demonstrated gaps in authority. Requirements should cover power, cooling and communications as well as computing equipment.
Fourth, test recovery the way Washington-area agencies have long exercised their continuity of operations plans in drills such as FEMA’s annual Eagle Horizon. Those tests should include the loss of more than one facility or a shared power or communications provider. Can another site accept the workload? Are the necessary data, equipment and personnel available? Can operations resume within the mission’s deadline? Where the answer is no, fix it before a crisis.
Congress should receive classified reports on those results. A public summary can establish accountability without revealing sensitive facilities or defensive measures.
The civilian nuclear industry offers a useful precedent. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires nuclear power plants to maintain armed security officers, physical barriers and intrusion detection, and it tests those defenses with force-on-force exercises. Most of those plants are privately owned.
AI data centers pose different hazards, and Washington should not copy nuclear rules wholesale. The principle carries over: private ownership and enforceable federal security obligations can coexist.
America should preserve the entrepreneurship that drives technological progress while requiring dependable service for essential national missions. Targeted protections can deliver both.
The larger danger lies in the Pacific. In any conflict with China, America will need computing power that survives the first blow. Washington should identify how an adversary would try to knock that capacity out and require defenses and recovery plans proven in exercises.
Ukraine’s strikes are a warning shot. President Trump should demand a tested answer to the question they raise: When a critical American AI facility goes down, can our essential missions continue?
Republicans in historically critical battleground county pull no punches in midterm homestretch: 'Lot of hope'
HAMILTON, OH - Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, is fighting for his political future in a tight race in reliably red Ohio, and he spoke to Fox News Digital along with other local Republicans about what to expect in the few weeks before the critical midterm election.
"Look, he's been there for 50 years and everywhere I go, no one can name a single thing that he ever did for them," Husted said about his Democratic opponent Sherrod Brown, who is attempting to return to the U.S. Senate after being defeated by Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in 2024.
"And think about this, you can't keep sending the same old Sherrod Brown back to Washington and expect different results. The place is broken. He's the one that broke it. He created the system. If you wanna see a better, brighter future, you can’t send the same ol' Sherrod Brown back."
Husted, speaking to Fox News Digital at a Butler County GOP event on Saturday, pointed to the recent Ohio visits from President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., as a sign the momentum is on his side in a race some polls show him trailing.
TRUMP TOUTS ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AT OHIO RALLY, URGES VOTERS TO DELIVER GOP MIDTERM WINS
"We're seeing a ton of energy and literally in the last month, you can just feel it change…we're just seeing people all around the state just rallying and the crowds have been larger and more enthusiastic than I expected in a midterm. So it gives us a lot of hope."
Despite Ohio’s Republican lean, Husted faces an uphill battle in a race that has tightened considerably and Republicans are also contending with the traditional midterm headwinds facing the party in power, making turnout and voter enthusiasm especially critical in the weeks ahead.
Republicans are also facing concerns over gas prices and affordability, with voters focused on the cost of everyday essentials ahead of the midterm elections. Fox News Digital asked Husted about those concerns and whether part of his message to voters is that the Democratic Party being put back in power won’t fix those issues.
SCHUMER PREACHES AFFORDABILITY IN DEM MIDTERM PITCH WHILE SABOTAGING GOP FIXES FOR SOARING COSTS
"Yeah, look, it's common sense versus crazy," Husted explained. "Look, we've done some good things. We have more jobs in Ohio than we've ever had in our history, the lowest unemployment rate. Now we just got to fight to get prices down. The Democrats block us at every turn trying to do that."
Democrats in the Senate recently blocked Husted’s legislation aimed at requiring large data centers to pay for the power generation and infrastructure needed to serve their facilities rather than shifting that burden onto taxpayers as the data center issue becomes a top issue on the Ohio campaign trail.
"They blocked my ratepayer protection pledge, which would have forced data centers to pay their own way. Why? Because they just wanted to use it as a political issue rather than actually solving problems for people," Husted said.
Husted continued, "We're the party of drill, baby drill. They're the part of closing down pipelines and refineries and power plants. We are going to create the energy supply to meet the demand and help lower prices. The Democrats, they don't believe in any of it. They believe in command and control of the government. They want to take more of your money out of your paycheck, send it to Washington. If you want your freedom and your fortune, then you need to vote for Republicans."
If Husted is going to be successful in November, Ohio attorney and political strategist Mehek Cooke says the key will be pushing back hard on the affordability issue.
"I think Senator Houston every single day needs to close that deal by talking about his ratepayer protection data plan, where he promised to cut costs for every single American by saying data centers will not take our resources, taxpayers will not pay for those bills, data centers will and every Democrat voted against that," Cooke said, adding that the vote against Husted’s bill shows Democrats "don’t care about data centers."
"You know what they care about? The money that data centers give them," Cooke said, referencing Fox News Digital reporting that Brown has taken money from companies that operate data centers.
"Jekyll and Hyde, I've said this about Sherrod," Cooke said. "He's a different man in Ohio. He's the aw shucks, I'm disheveled, I don't know where I am, what day is it? You love me, I love you. And then he gets to Washington and he turns his back on us. So we care about datacenters. We don't wanna pay their bills. And guess what? John Husted will make sure we never do. He's pushing affordability that Sherrod Brown could never dream of while pocketing their money."
Brown campaign spokesperson Lauren Chou pushed back in a statement to Fox News Digital, accusing Husted of supporting the war in Iran that "sent the costs of gas and diesel to record highs" and saying he "led the charge to bring 226 data centers to Ohio."
"Jon Husted puts corporations and billionaires first every time, and we all pay for it," Chou said.
Butler, Clermont and Warren counties form a critical Republican vote reservoir in southwestern Ohio, collectively producing hundreds of thousands of votes and some of the state’s largest GOP margins. Their importance was underscored in 2004, when George W. Bush’s combined margin in the three counties exceeded his statewide margin of victory.
Several Republican candidates on stage Saturday night pointed to the importance of those counties and Art Sauerwein, Butler County GOP Executive Committee Chairman, told Fox News Digital the "biggest concern" he’s hearing from Republicans is that if Democrats win the governorship, Senate seat, and contested House races "our state’s going to be in huge trouble."
"The wokeness that's been going on under the Democrat leadership has really damaged Ohio in the past and we have our platform as Republicans to cut taxes, cut spending, eliminate fraud and waste and we want to work on our schools and get the wokeness that's in our schools," Sauerwein said, adding that Republicans are "energized and motivated."
Billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also appears to be in a neck-and-neck race with his Democratic opponent, former Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton. Sauerwein expressed optimism about that race, calling Ramaswamy the "hardest working guy I have seen."
"Almost to the level of President Trump," Sauerwein said. " But I'm really impressed with how hard he's working. He's been going all over the state. His message is spectacular to what we need in Ohio. If he only delivers on half of what he says, Ohio is going to be in awesome shape."
Omar raid draws ominous warning from Vance as he blasts progressive rep's 'rage' toward America
EXCLUSIVE: TYLER, Texas — Vice President JD Vance told Fox News Digital the Trump administration has no plans to "butt in" on a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., after the raid on her Washington, D.C. home the day prior.
Vance, however, insisted that the law will be enforced if immigration fraud is uncovered.
"We don't want to be like the Biden administration. We never want to be like that — where they would allow the law to go after their political opponents," the vice president said in an exclusive interview following a midterm campaign rally in the Lone Star State on Tuesday.
"We really want to let the law, the facts drive this," he continued. "And if justice requires something else be done, then, of course, we'll take a step when we have to."
Omar's Washington, D.C., home was subject to a predawn raid on Monday conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the principle investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as first reported by Fox News Digital.
Conservatives repeatedly accused then-President Joe Biden's DOJ of politically persecuting President Donald Trump and his allies after his first term in office ended.
Most notably for critics, Trump's Mar-a-Lago home was infamously raised by the FBI as part of an investigation into alleged mishandling of classified documents. That case was closed when Trump again won the presidency in 2024.
"In the Trump administration, unlike the previous administration, we let the facts and the law drive this stuff — so the president and I really don't butt ourselves in the DOJ investigations," Vance said. "We're not trying to micromanage this. We're not trying to tell [Attorney General] Todd Blanche to do one thing or another. We try to let the facts drive this thing."
"So we're gonna let the investigation unfold," he went on before warning: "If, of course, criminal wrongdoing is discovered or potentially fraudulent immigration is uncovered, then obviously there will be legal proceedings to follow that."
While an investigation into potential immigration fraud related to a sitting member of Congress is unprecedented, Vance reiterated that authorities will go where the facts take them — no matter the circumstances of the case.
"I think we have to let the facts and the law drive this, right? So I don't think you can say because politics might be difficult or politics might be easy, you can't follow the law. You have to actually enforce the law as it exists," he said.
Additionally, the vice president slammed Omar for what he views as a negative attitude towards the United States despite it being the country where her family fled to escape civil war in Somali in 1991.
"And to the question of it being unprecedented, I mean, what I'd say is that Ilhan Omar herself is a very unprecedented person," he said.
"We have very rarely had a person in Congress who seems to have such disdain and such rage at the country that gave her a better life," Vance said. "Now, that's not a crime."
"But we're going to see whether she did commit a crime. And if she did, we're obviously going follow the law," he reiterated.
Vance made the comments after rallying on behalf of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at the Tyler Pounds Regional Airport in Tyler, Texas, a city about 100 miles east of Dallas.
Paxton is running in a neck-and-neck race with Democratic state Rep. James Talarico just three weeks before Election Day, as Republicans fight desperately to hold control of Congress.
ILHAN OMAR'S WEALTH SCANDAL TAKES A TURN JUST ONE DAY AFTER RAID OF HER DC HOME
Omar responded to the raid on social media Monday afternoon, both from her personal and government X accounts.
"I’m ok," Omar wrote on her own X hours after the search. "Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement."
"For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns," she continued. "This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced."
TRUMP RALLY CROWD CHANTS 'DEPORT' AS PRESIDENT RIPS ILHAN OMAR AFTER FEDERAL RAID
In a post from her official government X account from just after 1:30 p.m., Omar elaborated further.
"This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies. For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back," she said.
"Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies."
Fox News Digital reached out to Omar's office for comment, but did not hear back before publication.
Socialism looks appealing when schools refuse to teach its horrific, real-world cost
Ahead of the National Day for the Victims of Communism, the U.S. Department of Education issued a "Dear Colleague" letter calling on schools and universities across the country to strengthen their instruction on the history and human toll of communism and socialism. The letter highlights states that have already taken steps to make sure students learn about the destruction these centralized regimes caused.
Florida is one of them. The state recognizes November 7 as Victims of Communism Day and requires high school students in U.S. government courses to receive instruction on communist regimes and how their victims suffered.
But, the fact that the federal government had to remind schools of this at all reveals a failure in our educational system.
THE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION MACHINE IS COLLAPSING. WE SHOULD LET IT FALL
Why should anyone have to ask schools to teach the well-documented history of an ideology that claimed more than 100 million lives in the 20th century? Because educational institutions have quietly dropped the comparative study of economic and political systems.
When I was in school, this was an important topic in history and economics classes. Now it is an afterthought.
THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE. YOUNG AMERICANS ARE FALLING IN LOVE … WITH SOCIALISM
The result is a generation of graduates who feel an affinity for socialist policies without ever learning what those policies have done. A 2025 Cato Institute and YouGov survey found that 62 percent of Americans under 30 view socialism favorably, and more than a third view communism favorably. When students are taught only the shortcomings of capitalism, without ever studying the failures and human rights abuses of centralized state economies, they naturally assume socialism is the cure.
This is why I wrote College Without Communism. The goal was not a partisan attack. It was an urgent educational plea. We are committing academic malpractice when we send students into the workforce without a basic understanding of the economic philosophies that shaped modern history.
A generation will never defend a system it wasn't taught to understand.
If young Americans do not know how free markets work, how they rely on voluntary cooperation, protect individual agency, and have lifted billions out of poverty, they will not recognize when those freedoms disappear. If they never study what happened when Marxist ideology was applied in the real world, they will romanticize the idea of a centrally planned society.
BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: THE REAL REASON COMMUNISTS FEAR RELIGION AND WANT BELIEVERS SILENCED
The appeal of socialism to a 20-year-old college student makes perfect sense if the ideology only ever appears on a whiteboard in a lecture hall. On paper, socialism promises perfect equality, generous safety nets, and fairness. But students are rarely taught what happens when those theories leave the whiteboard and are imposed on real human beings.
They are not taught that whenever a state tries to centrally plan human behavior, control prices and redistribute resources from the top down, it creates crushing shortages and concentrates power into the hands of a few bureaucrats. They are not taught that these regimes have persecuted churches, imprisoned believers, and tried to replace faith in God with faith in the state.
We do not need to indoctrinate our students. We need to give them the complete historical context to compare these systems honestly. Teach them that economic freedom and personal liberty rise and fall together. A society that punishes success to enforce equality will run out of the resources needed to lift anyone out of poverty. Capitalism, while imperfect, is the only system that has consistently rewarded ingenuity, encouraged competition, and empowered the individual instead of the state.
The National Day for the Victims of Communism is a day to remember the past, but it is also a lesson for our future. If we want the next generation of American leaders to champion prosperity, innovation, and upward mobility, they need to see what happens when the theory leaves the lecture hall.
We cannot expect a generation to defend a freedom it was never taught to understand. It is time for American education to teach them.
Fraudsters robbed America's Main Street. Republicans are making them pay
As the White House's Fraud Ledger shows, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has uncovered more fraud than any other agency. Through Vice President JD Vance's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, the Trump administration is eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse at historic rates.
When COVID shut down the country, small business owners did everything they could to keep their doors open. They drained their savings, skipped paychecks, and fought to keep employees on the payroll.
While small businesses were fighting to survive, fraudsters stole billions from programs meant to keep them afloat. The Biden-Harris administration had years to hold fraudsters accountable. It never did. Under Republican leadership, that era is over.
WHITE HOUSE LAUNCHES INTERACTIVE MAP TRACKING BILLIONS IN SUSPECTED FRAUD
Last month, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler stood with Vice President Vance in Kansas City, Missouri, and announced the suspension of 870,000 borrowers linked to an estimated $39 billion in suspected pandemic fraud, the largest action of its kind in the agency's history.
As chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, I've worked closely with Administrator Loeffler to go after this money and ensure Main Street isn't left high and dry. Every dollar a fraudster took was a dollar a family business didn't get.
The Biden-Harris SBA knew COVID fraud was rampant and still failed to act. In 2023, the SBA’s Office of Inspector General estimated that more than $200 billion in pandemic loans may have gone to fraudsters. Agency leadership at the time stated the actual number was closer to $36 billion.
When our Committee asked then-SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman to explain the $164 billion difference, she refused to testify. So, we kept digging.
WHITE HOUSE PUSHES 'WATERSHED' FRAUD-FIGHTING REFORM IN CONGRESS AS VANCE CONVENES TASK FORCE
Our Committee spent 18 months investigating the pandemic loan programs. What we found was deeply disturbing. Rather than fixing its own broken controls, Biden's SBA pointed fingers at the private lenders it worked with. It even floated ending collections on fraudulent loans under $100,000, valued at about $11 billion, because it didn't want to appear to be strong-arming borrowers.
Unfortunately, pandemic loans aren't the whole story.
Just look at the 8(a) program, which helps disadvantaged small businesses compete for federal contracts. It only works if those firms do the work themselves. Pass-through schemes, in which the winning firm hands the job off to someone else, cheat the very businesses the program was meant to help.
In an effort to rein in fraudulent spending, Administrator Loeffler did something nobody had done in nearly 50 years: she audited the entire program. When hundreds of firms refused to hand over their financial records, she moved to kick them out. The SBA has also closed loopholes that let loans be issued in the names of children and the deceased, some of whom are listed as being older than 115.
House Republicans have helped lead this recovery from the start, and are ensuring these reforms stick. In June, the House passed my COVID Fraud Transparency Act, which requires the SBA's inspector general to report quarterly to Congress on COVID loan fraud. My Committee also advanced pragmatic anti-fraud bills, including Rep. Dan Meuser's (R-Pa.) Small Business Lending Fraud Prevention Act and my bipartisan Put America on Commission Act.
I've spent my career in the car business, and I know that paying commissions delivers results. My bill, the Put America on Commission Act, would reward Americans who come forward with credible tips about pandemic loan fraud, funded by penalties paid by convicted fraudsters.
When I became chairman, I said we would not write this money off. Democrats spent four years ignoring this fraud and were ready to forgive billions of dollars. House Republicans, alongside Administrator Loeffler and Vice President Vance, will continue pursuing it so that the next time mom-and-pop shops need help, they won't have to stand in line behind fraudsters.
Kamala Harris faces Democratic doubts over 2028 as allies push back on claims she’s squandered her chance
As former Vice President Kamala Harris weighs another White House run in 2028, a longtime advisor is firing back at Democratic strategists and donors who argue she has squandered an opportunity to politically reinvent herself following her 2024 election defeat.
Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, an outside advisor to Harris, pushed back against the criticism highlighted in a new Politico report, defending Harris' policy proposals and campaign activity as Democrats debate whether the former vice president deserves another shot at the White House. Cardona argued the story was "infuriating in its silliness."
The report, based on interviews with nearly 20 California-based Democratic donors and strategists, highlighted growing skepticism among some party insiders about Harris' political future and whether she has done enough to distinguish herself from her unsuccessful 2024 campaign.
Longtime Democratic strategist Doug Herman, a veteran of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, told Politico that Harris "totally blew it... She hasn’t gotten into the mix."
AOC GIVES MAJOR HINT ABOUT 2028
Former Gov. Jim Hodges of South Carolina, the lead off state in the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nominating calendar, told Politico, "I don’t see anything different myself. It seems like more of the same to me."
But Cardona, a veteran of the Bill Clinton administration, the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama presidential campaigns who currently serves as a member of the Democratic National Committee, disagreed that Harris had failed to spell out what she would offer Democrats anxious for change.
"How can you state that she hasn’t done anything new or groundbreaking or talked about new initiatives or policies and then layout exactly those policies - like proposing an expanded Supreme Court, lowering the voting age to 16, making DC and Puerto Rico states. Those are pretty groundbreaking policies!" Cardona told Fox News Digital, as she pointed to some of Harris' moves since the end of former President Joe Biden's administration.
Harris, the nation's first Black vice president, has also said that Black people should be "transactional voters," instead of automatically supporting Democratic candidates.
"She’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t," Cardona argued, adding that Harris "is still the most qualified person to be president of the United States that is mentioned as a possible candidate for 2028."
Harris has been crisscrossing the country this year, first on a book tour for her best-selling campaign memoir "107 Days" and currently to support fellow Democrats running in the midterm elections.
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While Harris has teamed up with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and congressional nominees in her home state, some Democratic nominees running in red states made headlines in recent weeks by asking the former vice president not to campaign with them.
But Cardona said, "Harris has been out there nonstop talking to young voters, women voters, black voters, Latino voters, and she has been asked by many candidates to come and campaign with them. She has focused her energies on winning the midterm elections. Can you imagine the backlash if she was out there focusing on herself and how she can remake the Democratic Party?"
Harris replaced Biden as the Democrats' 2024 presidential nominee after he ended his re-election bid following a disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump. Her truncated three-month presidential campaign ended in defeat, with Trump narrowly sweeping all the key battleground states as he won back the White House.
If she runs a third time for president, Harris will enjoy instant name ID and plenty of goodwill from within her party. But she would also face a Democratic base trying to move past the 2024 election setbacks, and she would likely be part of a very crowded and competitive 2028 primary field.
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A Democratic consultant, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital that "voters feel like they haven't heard much from Harris, which means bad memories from her 2024 election loss remain fresh in their minds."
But longtime Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso said that consultants "are not voters."
"I just don’t trust that the consulting class really has a finger on the electorate," he told Fox News Digital. "To listen to consultants saying Harris has blown it – presidential politics hasn’t really even started yet.. These consultants are just getting soundbites."
Ceraso noted that it took Biden three runs to win the White House.
"The third time was the charm and everybody said to Biden when he ran the third time, ‘why are you running.’ Well guess what, he ended up becoming the nominee and the president," he said. "Why can’t Harris look at that template and say ‘that can apply to me too.’"
Federal appeals court rules some nonviolent felons can legally own guns
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that a federal ban on gun possession by convicted felons cannot be constitutionally applied to some people whose prior offenses did not involve violence or threats indicating a risk of misusing firearms.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued two rulings clarifying when the federal prohibition on gun possession by convicted felons can be enforced under the Second Amendment.
The court, which includes several judges appointed by President Donald Trump, upheld the firearms restriction against a man with a conviction stemming from a carjacking but ruled that the ban could not be applied to another man based on his prior drunk-driving convictions.
One of the cases decided on Tuesday involved James Bost, who pleaded guilty to terroristic threats, criminal conspiracy, false imprisonment and simple assault in Pennsylvania state court following a 2002 carjacking.
Bost was later indicted on federal firearms charges after authorities found him in possession of a gun despite his prior convictions. He sought to dismiss the charges, arguing that the federal ban violated his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, writing for the majority in the decision against Bost, said people convicted of crimes demonstrating a risk of physical violence through the misuse of firearms may presumptively be disarmed based on those convictions alone.
"The right to keep and bear arms has limits, and this is one: Those who pose a risk of physical violence from misusing guns can be disarmed before that risk becomes a reality," wrote Bibas, an appointee of President Donald Trump.
In a separate case involving Edward Williams, the court ruled that the federal firearms restriction could not constitutionally be applied to him based on his prior convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol in the early 2000s. One of those convictions triggered the federal ban, which generally applies to offenses punishable by more than one year in prison.
Williams had been sentenced to a term of 90 days to two years, which he served under home confinement. After learning the conviction prevented him from owning guns, he sued to secure a declaration that the law was unconstitutional as applied to his offense.
Writing for the court, U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Matey, a Trump appointee, rejected the Justice Department's argument that historical restrictions on "habitual drunkards" justified applying the federal firearms ban to Williams.
Matey described Williams as "a peaceable citizen, capable of bearing arms consistent with the design of the Second Amendment."
"And with that rehabilitation comes restoration of the civic privileges guaranteed to citizens by the Constitution, and the freedom to again exercise the natural right of armed defense against threats and tyranny," the judge wrote.
U.S. Circuit Judge Arianna Freeman, writing separately in disagreement with the majority's reasoning, said she parted ways from the majority opinion "when it says a prior conviction is disarming on its face only if it involved violence or threats."
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Freeman argued that the Second Amendment also permits restrictions on people whose criminal conduct demonstrates a credible threat to public safety, even when their offenses did not involve explicit violence or threats.
The judge argued that while convictions for crimes that involve violence or threats qualify, other offenses, such as drunk driving, should be covered as well because they show that a person "poses a credible threat to the physical safety of others."
Joshua Prince, a lawyer for Williams, praised the ruling, saying the decision made it clear that "there does not exist any historical tradition of stripping individuals with non-violent convictions of their Second Amendment rights and whom do not pose a threat to the public in possession of a firearm."
The rulings come amid a series of cases evaluating whether modern gun restrictions are constitutional under a new legal standard established by the Supreme Court's landmark 2022 Second Amendment decision.
In a 6-3 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the high court held that modern gun restrictions must be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."
Reuters contributed to this report.
Trump announces massive oil, gas and mineral exploration plans in Greenland, touts national security benefits
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that "massive" oil, gas and mineral exploration was expected to begin in Greenland.
"Massive Oil, Gas, and Mineral Exploration is getting ready to begin in our new and beautiful Greenland!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
"There are Experts that are saying that the amount of easily available Oil is far greater than that of almost any land, anywhere in the World and, even more importantly, from a Security Purpose in the Defense and Offense of both the United States of America, and Europe, is second to none," he continued.
"Any future attack on the United States will have to come across Greenland, where our Defense will routinely knock down drones, missiles, or any other form of weapon not yet even conceived," Trump added.
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Trump said Greenland "gives us time, location, and sightline, like nowhere else in the World!"
Trump did not immediately provide additional details about when or how the exploration would begin.
Greenland's government stopped issuing new oil and gas exploration licenses in 2021, citing environmental and climate concerns. Some previously issued licenses remain valid, although drilling requires additional government approvals. Greenland is believed to hold significant untapped oil and gas resources, but commercially recoverable reserves have not been established.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump's comments come after the U.S., Denmark and Greenland signed a new security agreement last month expanding U.S. military access to the strategically important Arctic island.
While the U.S. already had extensive military rights in Greenland under a 1951 defense agreement, the new arrangement expands Washington's ability to establish additional military facilities, subject to consultation and procedures outlined in the agreement.
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The agreement also restricts military installations by non-NATO countries and establishes safeguards against potentially threatening foreign investments in sensitive sectors, including natural resources and critical infrastructure.
Although Trump had sought to acquire Greenland, repeatedly arguing that U.S. ownership was necessary for national security, the new agreement did not grant U.S. sovereignty over the island.
Greenland is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, with Copenhagen retaining authority over foreign, defense and security policy while Greenland controls many of its domestic affairs, including mineral resources.
Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips and Peter D'Abrosca contributed to this report.