The chief administrator of President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posed for a photo at the Democratic National Convention with one of the ‘top soldiers’ of notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan, who has compared Jews to termites and previously called them ‘Satanic.’

‘Maaaaaaaaan, I had a great time seeing My Environmental Justice Squad along with My Political/Social Justice Squad mixed in with some HBCU LOVE, while here in Chicago,’ Terence Muhammad, the lead events and field coordinator for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Hip Hop Caucus, said in a now-deleted Facebook post last week with a photo alongside EPA Administrator Michael Regan. 

‘Yea, the EPA Administrator of the President’s Cabinet is an AGGIE,’ he added.

Muhammad’s social media profiles are littered with pro-Farrakhan posts and the Hip Hop Caucus, whose stated mission is to fight injustice and enact change, has been involved in key Biden administration policy decisions, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Hip Hop Caucus President and CEO Lennox Yearwood, who was also pictured with Regan and Muhammad, once referred to Muhammad as one of Farrakhan’s ‘top soldiers’ and thanked Farrakhan for allowing Muhammad to be part of his organization.

‘Bless Minister @LouisFarrakhan allowing one of his top soldiers [Muhammad] 2 be w/ me for #MOW50. Much LOVE to the NOI,’ Yearwood wrote in a now-deleted 2013 post, referring to Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

‘Happy Birthday [Terence Muhammad] You’re a blessing to our Movement & our People!’ Yearwood wrote in 2016. ‘Thank you for your love [Louis Farrakhan].’

In a 2014 Facebook post, Muhammad posted a photo of Yearwood and Farrakhan with the caption, ‘I am that I am(The Good) because I was introduced to a man named the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and a Life giving teaching from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I can move/help my people like I do cause of Rev Lennox Yearwood, CEO/President of the Hip Hop Caucus. I work for these great men.’

‘Maaaaaaaaan [Louis Farrakhan] gave me life and [Rev Yearwood] gave me a lifestyle thru @HipHopCaucus to serve our people. I’m sooooo grateful,’ Muhammad wrote in 2017 with the same photo.

Despite the social media posts, the Hip Hop Caucus claimed they are not involved with the Nation of Islam in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘The Hip Hop Caucus and Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. have no relationship with the Nation of Islam and condemn the anti-semitic statements by Louis Farrakhan,’ a spokesperson said. ‘As a multi-platform organization, Hip Hop Caucus centers Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Queer folks in our voting rights, racial justice, and climate and environmental justice work, we believe in building true allied relationships with well-intentioned communities, who want to collaborate in good faith, as we work to make the United States a more just place.’

White House visitor logs show Yearwood has visited at least seven times since Biden took office, with six of those visits happening in 2023. In the most recent example, Yearwood and two other Hip Hop Caucus officials, Tanya House and Cynthia Swann, were hosted in the West Wing for a private meeting with White House Domestic Policy Council adviser Sofia Carratala.

During a 2021 speech, Regan referred to Yearwood as a ‘good friend.’

EPA spokesperson Timothy Carroll doubled down on defending Regan’s partnership with Yearwood, telling Fox News Digital that the ‘EPA appreciates the important on-going work of the Hip Hop Caucus and Reverend Yearwood to advocate for environmental justice across the country’ and that the ‘EPA condemns any statements of hate or prejudice against any group or individual based on religion, race, or background.’ 

This statement is almost verbatim what Carroll said in March of this year when Fox News Digital asked about his association with one of Farrakhan’s ‘top soldiers.’ Muhmmad’s Facebook post appears to have been deleted shortly after Fox News Digital reached out to the EPA and Hip Hop Caucus.

In April 2015, during an event protesting police brutality, Muhammad posted a picture of Yearwood ‘with Malik Farrakhan and the brothers of the F.O.I.’ The acronym ‘F.O.I.’ appears to be a reference to the Fruits of Islam, the paramilitary wing of the Nation of Islam. 

Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam have been heavily criticized by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which was founded to stop the defamation of Jewish people and by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The ADL has called Farrakhan ‘one of the most prominent antisemites’ and SPLC has classified Nation of Islam as a hate group.

Muhammad – who Yearwood described as a ‘dear brother and friend’ in 2020 – has a long history of himself praising and, on multiple occasions, raising money for Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

‘Just for the record AGAIN. I love [Louis Farrakhan]. He is my heart,’ Muhammad said in a March 2018 post that included a picture of him with Farrakhan.

In addition to Regan, Muhammad posted photos with several other attendees at the DNC, including MSNBC host Al Sharpton, who has a long history of associations with Farrakhan, and disgraced Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory, who has also praised Farrakhan and attended several events with him over the years.

Mallory previously faced backlash after she said that the controversial Farrakhan was the ‘greatest of all time because of what he’s done in Black communities.’ Mallory admitted to attending dozens of the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviour’s Day addresses, including one where Farrakhan said ‘the powerful Jew is my enemy.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House.

Fox News Digital’s Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report

A Harris campaign adviser conceded Sunday that Vice President Kamala Harris ‘owes responses’ to the American public about why she has shifted her stance on policies like fracking, adding that she will sit for an interview ‘before the end of this month.’

News of Harris’ first formal interview since becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee for president came Sunday, during an appearance by Harris’ deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, on Fox News’s ‘Media Buzz’ with Howie Kurtz. During the discussion, Kurtz pressed Fulks on whether he felt Harris needed to explain to voters why – on issues like fracking and health care – she has backtracked on several of her formerly far-left, progressive stances touted amid Harris’ 2020 presidential run.

‘Look, I think that the vice president owes responses to the American people,’ Fulks said. He pointed the finger at former President Trump for stirring up misinformation about Harris’ views on topics like fracking and health care. ‘We’re not going to be worried about explaining anything to Donald Trump, or people – the vice president is going to talk to the American people about what her positions are.’ 

Harris has been criticized for failing to take interviews or hold press conferences since becoming the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee over a month ago. The Harris-Walz campaign lacks any information about the pair’s policy views on their campaign website as well, and the recent policy platform unveiled by the Democratic National Convention (DNC) cited President Biden and his policies more than it did Harris’. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign to glean more details about the vice president’s upcoming interview, but did not receive a response.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday on ABC News that Harris ‘owes’ the American public an explanation on when and why she changed her policy positions on various issues.

‘She needs to address the American people and speak to these questions because the only basis they have to conclude what she will be like as president is what she’s done for four years in this administration and what she said in her own voice in the last campaign,’ Cotton said.

Meanwhile, some of Harris’ supporters think she should continue dodging the media. 

For example, Rick Wilson, former GOP strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said last week that Harris ‘has no f—ing necessity to do interviews right now.’ 

‘They should go out and keep racing along and doing the big things, do what’s working right now – which is going out and holding massive, enthusiastic rallies that are bringing people into the Democratic fold again, that are exciting voters,’ Wilson continued.

The same opinion was echoed by legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, who told talk show host Bill Maher that ‘sometimes it’s just about f—ing winning.’ 

‘She’s not stopping to stumble,’ Tarantino told Maher. ‘And there’s nothing wrong to – and I’m going to vote for her f—ing anyway, no matter what she says in a stupid f—ing interview. So don’t f— s— up!’ 

Delegates at the DNC last week had similar, albeit less aggressive, takes on Harris’ failure to go in front of the media.

‘Let’s give some time,’ Heather Pirowski, a delegate from Indiana, said last week. ‘I think just be patient because it’s all gonna come.’

‘Right now, our main concern is uniting the party,’ said another. ‘And once that’s done, I think she’s gonna come out and speak to the American people.’

At least one delegate couldn’t understand why Harris was being criticized for not going in front of the media. ‘I don’t know what that’s about,’ the Texas delegate said at the convention last week. ‘I mean, when they have to resort to those tactics and the name-calling and the vitriol and the misogynistic – he’s back to 2016 when that’s all he did against Hillary.’

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement Monday morning honoring the 13 U.S. service members who were killed during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago, but has been conspicuously absent from public memorials or events on the anniversary of their deaths. 

Harris released a statement early Monday morning naming the 13 U.S. service members who were killed during the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, mourning their deaths and calling on Americans to ‘come together as one nation to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice three years ago.’  

‘Today and everyday, I mourn and honor them. My prayers are with their families and loved ones.  My heart breaks for their pain and their loss.  These 13 devoted patriots represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves and deploying into danger to keep their fellow citizens safe,’ Harris wrote in the statement. 

Harris also posted her statement to her vice president X account on Monday. 

Fox News Digital reached out to both Harris’ campaign and her vice presidential office asking if she had plans to honor the service members during live events, whether public or private, but did not receive responses. 

The anniversary of the tragic military deaths comes after Harris wrapped up in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention last week, where she officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Oval Office after President Biden dropped out of the race last month amid mounting concern over his mental acuity. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are slated to visit Georgia next week in their first public event following the DNC, NBC News reported. 

Biden also honored the 13 fallen U.S. service members in an early morning statement. The president is in Delaware at his beach home this week, and has no public events scheduled, Fox Digital reported earlier Monday. 

‘These 13 Americans—and the many more that were wounded—were patriots in the highest sense. Some were born the year the war in Afghanistan started. Some were on their second or third tour. But all raised their hand to serve a cause greater than themselves—risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, Allies, and Afghan partners. They embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill,’ Biden wrote in his statement, which also included the 13 names of the service members. 

During her acceptance speech last week, Harris touted her foreign policy record and support of veterans, but left out any mention of the Biden-Harris administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

‘I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists. And I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un, who are rooting for Trump. Because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors. They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable — because he wants to be an autocrat,’ Harris touted from the DNC’s stage in Chicago Thursday evening.

‘As president, I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals. Because, in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand — and where the United States of America belongs.’

In addition to the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members defending the Kabul airport during the botched withdrawal, hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies were left in the country under Taliban rule. Critics such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the withdrawal paved the way for adversaries such as Russia to invade Ukraine. 

The Taliban ultimately claimed control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal. 

Harris previously confirmed that she was the ‘last person in the room’ with Biden before he made the decision to withdraw and also told the media that she was ‘comfortable’ with the operation that ultimately turned deadly and chaotic.

On the Republican side of the presidential race, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly honored the fallen service members, including families of those killed during the withdrawal, taking the RNC’s stage last month in Milwaukee for 20 minutes in an emotional remembrance. The families also criticized Biden in their remarks from the RNC’s stage, calling on the president to apologize to them. 

‘Look at our faces. Look at our pain, and our heartbreak. And look at our rage. [The Afghanistan withdrawal] was not an extraordinary success,’ Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, said. ‘Joe Biden owes the men and women who served in Afghanistan a debt of gratitude, and an apology.’

On the anniversary Monday, Trump traveled to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia for a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and was again joined by the families of those killed in Afghanistan three years ago. 

The 45h president was seen listening to taps, laying the wreath at the tomb, and meeting with family members during the solemn ceremony. 

Trump has consistently slammed the Biden administration for its botched withdrawal from the country in 2021, calling it the ‘most embarrassing moment’ in U.S. history in a Truth Social post on Monday. 

‘​​This is the third anniversary of the BOTCHED Afghanistan withdrawal, the most EMBARRASSING moment in the history of our Country. Gross Incompetence – 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds of people wounded and dead, AMERICANS and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND. You don’t take our soldiers out first, you take them out LAST, when all else is successfully done. Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became, and is, a laughing stock all over the World,’ Trump posted on Truth Social. 

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby fielded questions from the media regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal on Monday, including a reporter asking why Biden and Harris felt they ‘did not need to host or attend public events in the way that former President Donald Trump did today.’

‘You don’t have to look very far at the president and the first lady’s track record and the vice president’s track record, over the last three and a half years to see how deeply devoted they are to the men and women of our military and to our veterans and to their families. Everything from Joining Forces to the Pact Act,’ Kirby responded. 

He added that Trump was personally invited by the families to join them at Arlington National Cemetery, and that there are ‘many ways’ for U.S. leaders to honor the fallen service members that does not include ‘a lot of fanfare.’ 

‘Another way is to continue to work. Maybe not with a lot of fanfare. Maybe not with a lot of public attention. Maybe not with TV cameras, but to work with might and main every single day to make sure that the families of those, of the fallen and of those who were injured and wounded, not just at Abbey gate, but over the course of the 20 some odd years that we were in Afghanistan, have the support that they need,’ he said. 

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday appealed federal Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling dismissing his classified records Mar-a-Lago case against former President Donald Trump, arguing that his appointment is valid. 

Cannon, the U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, last month dismissed Smith’s case against Trump, ruling that it violated ‘the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.’ 

Cannon said Smith’s appointment of special counsel was unconstitutional. 

But Smith appealed Monday. 

‘The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded,’ the filing states. ‘In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels.’ 

Smith also argues that he was ‘properly funded through the congressionally enacted ‘permanent indefinite appropriation’ to ‘pay all necessary expenses of investigations and prosecutions by independent counsel appointed pursuant to” U.S. code. 

The Appointments Clause says, ‘Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.’ 

Smith, however, was never confirmed by the Senate.

‘Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme – the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,’ Cannon wrote in her decision last month. 

‘The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers. That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere – whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not,’ she continued.

‘In the case of inferior officers, that means that Congress is empowered to decide if it wishes to vest appointment power in a Head of Department, and indeed, Congress has proven itself quite capable of doing so in many other statutory contexts. But it plainly did not do so here, despite the Special Counsel’s strained statutory readings,’ Cannon added.

‘In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny,’ she said.

Trump had faced charges stemming from Smith’s investigation into his possession of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago residence. He pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

GOP presidential nominee former President Trump on Monday promised that if he were to retake the Oval Office he would demand on Day 1 the resignation of ‘every single official’ responsible for the ‘Afghanistan calamity.’

‘The voters are going to fire Kamala and Joe on Nov. 5, we hope, and when I take office I will ask for the resignation of every single official. We’ll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day,’ Trump said, speaking to a crowd at the National Guard Association in Detroit.

‘You know, you have to fire people,’ Trump said. ‘We never fire anybody. You got to fire them, like on ‘The Apprentice.’ You’re fired. You did a lousy job,’ he continued, paying homage to his reality TV series. 

‘You did a terrible, terrible disservice to our country. You get fired when that happens. Nobody got fired,’ Trump said of the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. ‘Nobody ever gets fired in this administration. It’s amazing, all the bad things that have happened. Nobody ever gets fired.’

Monday marks three years since the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 American service members and more than 100 Afghans. Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack.

Roughly four months before the tragic terror attack, Vice President Kamala Harris talked about her role during a CNN interview in which she confirmed she was the last person in the room before Biden made the deadly decision to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. That video is making the rounds on social media three years later. 

CNN anchor Dana Bash asked, ‘Afghanistan, were you the last person in the room?’

‘Yes,’ Harris responded. 

‘And you feel comfortable?’ Bash followed up, to which Harris responded, ‘I do.’

Last month, President Biden faced criticism from Gold Star families after falsely claiming during the CNN Presidential Debate that he’s the ‘only president this century, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world.’

Darin Hoover, Gold Star father of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, who was one of those 13 American service members killed in Kabul, had a strong reaction to Biden’s debate claims.

‘You know, the stumbling, bumbling buffoon that we have in the White House had the audacity to say that, under his watch, that no military members have died,’ Hoover said in an interview with Fox News Digital in June.

The Gold Star dad added, ‘The rage, the absolute disgust that I got from hearing him say that. I started yelling back at the TV just out of frustration. He’s never acknowledged, not one time, any of our kids. He’s never said their names. Even to this day, I doubt very seriously that he even knows their names.’

Hoover said the Biden administration sent the 13 Afghanistan Gold Star families letters a year after the attack. 

‘All the 13 families get a canned letter. It said the same exact same thing. And it looked like it was a photocopy of all of that. It was basically, we’re sorry that your service member had died, and that’s been it. We’ve had absolutely nothing before, nothing since,’ Hoover added. 

Responding to Hoover’s criticism, a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital in June that the president ‘cares deeply about our service members, their families, and the immense sacrifices they have made.’

‘As he said then and continues to believe now: Our country owes them a great deal of gratitude and a debt that we can never repay, and we will continue to honor their ultimate sacrifice,’ the spokesperson added.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Brian Flood contributed to this report. 

The Trump campaign is calling out a potential conflict of interest ahead of the first presidential debate. 

The Trump campaign told Fox News Digital that Karen Dunn, who is part of the team prepping Vice President Kamala Harris for the Sept. 10 showdown, is simultaneously working as Google’s lead defense attorney in the Biden-Harris administration’s lawsuit against the tech giant. 

That lawsuit, United States v. Google LLC is the Biden-Harris administration’s antitrust lawsuit targeting Google’s digital advertising practices. The trial is set to begin Sept. 9 — a day before the first presidential debate. 

Dunn, who is Google’s outside counsel through law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, is listed in the lawsuit as a ‘lead attorney.’ 

Dunn also advised Harris ahead of her 2020 vice presidential debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence. 

‘Kamala Harris will never stand up to Big Tech because she’s being coached on what to say in the debates by Google’s top lawyer,’ Trump campaign senior adviser Tim Murtaugh told Fox News Digital. ‘Think about how outrageous it is — their administration is suing Google, but Harris is taking political advice from the defendant’s lawyer.’ 

Murtaugh said, ‘any first year law student knows that’s a conflict of interest.’ 

‘But it’s not surprising because Big Tech and the Biden-Harris White House have been conspiring to censor and trample the rights of law-abiding citizens since they gained power,’ he said. 

Murtaugh added, ‘They don’t even try to hide their cozy relationship — it’s all been reported by the media — but it is disgusting and dangerous.’ 

Murtaugh pointed to reports by The Washington Post and Bloomberg News last month that said Dunn had joined the newly minted Harris campaign to, again, help with debate prep. 

‘Some prosecutor she is,’ Murtaugh said. ‘She’s being coached by the defendant’s lawyer.’ 

Neither the Harris campaign nor Dunn responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

The revelations also come after Google came under scrutiny following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. Google’s autocomplete search results did not initially register the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump. 

Google admitted that it initially blocked and eliminated search prompts for the assassination attempt against Trump, saying they were prohibited by design and part of the company’s policy to prevent search results for ‘hypothetical political violence against current figures.’ 

‘We do not allow predictions that can be interpreted as accusations against individuals or groups of serious malevolent acts, where there is a lack of well-established or expert supporting evidence,’ he said. 

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is clashing with the Trump campaign over debate rules for the Sept. 10 debate. The vice president’s campaign is seeking to have microphones live throughout the event, despite the fact that the original agreement had microphones muted unless the candidate was directed to speak. 

‘We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,’ Harris campaign senior adviser for communications Brian Fallon said in a statement Monday. 

‘Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,’ Fallon said. ‘We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.’ 

‘The Vice President is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.’ 

However, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller is firing back, telling the Harris campaign, ‘enough with the games,’ and accusing them of trying to ‘get out’ of the debate against the former president. 

‘We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate. The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules,’ Miller said in a statement. ‘If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem.’ 

Miller said this is a ‘pattern’ for the Harris campaign.

‘They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate,’ Miller said. ‘My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump.’ 

He added, ‘Regardless, there’s no way Harris is ready to be Commander in Chief.’ 

Regarding Harris’ debate prep with Dunn, Murtaugh chimed in. 

‘Isn’t it funny that the Harris camp is starting to complain about debate rules again, now that they’ve actually begun to prep their candidate with Karen Dunn’s help?’ Murtaugh told Fox News Digital. ‘I guess Google’s lawyer sees something they don’t like, and now they’re panicking.’