Georgia Republicans and former President Trump’s campaign say that they are continuing to take legal action against ‘coordinated efforts’ by Democrat-heavy counties to accept ballots after the early voting period ended. 

A statement from the Georgia Republican Party, which was obtained by FOX Business on Sunday, detailed the party’s latest efforts to stop counties from counting ballots that were hand-delivered over the weekend. 

The lawsuit names seven counties: Clayton County, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Chatham and Athens-Clarke. Fulton County houses the capital of the state, Atlanta.

In the letter, chairman Josh McKoon claimed that these counties were ‘illegally accept[ing] ballots this weekend AFTER the end of early voting on Friday.’

‘The Georgia Republican Party, in conjunction with the RNC have filed suit in federal court to halt the counting of these ballots,’ McKoon wrote. ‘At minimum, we want to sequester the ballots that were submitted without proper oversight of our election observers.’

‘Additionally, we have requested Georgia’s Secretary of State and Attorney General get involved to resolve this matter and find answers to the burning questions we all have,’ he added.

McKoon said that the Republican Party intends to find out how a 501c3 organization ‘knew to inform voters within 15 minutes of early voting closure that six Democrat[ic] counties would be extending their weekend hours.’

‘Why didn’t these six counties inform the state board of elections, their county board of elections, the Secretary of State, or their local governments about their plans to essentially extend early voting?’ the letter asked. ‘Who gave the order to Fulton and Chatham County officials to bar poll observers from monitoring the process? Why did they do this?’

McKoon concluded the update by urging Georgia Republicans to ‘keep our foot on the gas.’

‘We will keep the public informed all along the way,’ the Republican said. ‘However, this doesn’t change our overall mission. We MUST keep our foot on the gas and turn out voters on Tuesday like our lives depend on it. Because it does.’

The Trump campaign released a statement on Sunday identifying themselves as one of the suit’s plaintiffs.

‘At the last minute several heavily Democrat counties announced they would open their offices over the weekend to receive mail ballots,’ the campaign said in a statement. ‘This is illegal, so we immediately filed a state court lawsuit. In a win for election integrity, the counties retreated from plans to keep drop boxes open over the weekend, but we continue to fight the illegal re-opening of the centers in state and federal court.’

‘This is a clear, partisan violation of the law intended to boost Democrat efforts in Georgia,’ the campaign’s statement added. ‘With just two days until our country’s most important election, it is critical for officials to follow the law and run the election in a fair and transparent manner.’

The new legal action comes a day after a similar lawsuit brought by Republicans was struck down. On Saturday, a judge in Fulton County dismissed a lawsuit about normally-closed offices allowing voters to hand in their ballots over the weekend.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer had rejected all arguments presented by GOP attorney Alex Kaufman, who claimed that absentee ballots should not be hand-delivered and accepted after the early voting period ends.

‘I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,’ the judge claimed.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Georgia Republican Party for additional comment.

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former President Trump’s campaign issued a clarification after he joked about shooting ‘through the fake news’ at a rally on Sunday.

Speaking in Lititz,Pennsylvania,, less than two days before Election Day, Trump made the remark while speaking about the July 13 assassination attempt against him.

‘I have a piece of glass over here, and I don’t have a piece of glass there,’ the Republican candidate said to his supporters, gesturing to the bulletproof glass surrounding him. 

‘And I have this piece of glass here. But all we have really over here is the fake news,’ Trump added. He appeared to reference the gaggle of journalists in front of him at the time.

‘And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind,’ he joked, causing the audience to laugh.

On Sunday, the Trump campaign’s communications director Steven Cheung released a statement arguing that the candidate’s remarks ‘had nothing to do’ with journalists being hurt.

‘President Trump was brilliantly talking about the two assassination attempts on his own life, including one that came within 1/4 of an inch from killing him, something that the Media constantly talks and jokes about,’ Cheung said. ‘The President’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the Media being harmed, or anything else.’

The spokesperson added that Trump’s remarks were about ‘threats against him that were spurred on by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats.’

‘In fact, President Trump was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also,’ Cheung said. 

‘There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own!’

In response to the remarks, Harris campaign rapid response director Ammar Moussa accused Trump of ‘violating the Ninth Commandment.’

‘Trump is spending the closing days of his campaign angry and unhinged, lying about the election being stolen because he’s worried he will lose,’ Moussa said in a statement. ‘The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth and will walk into the Oval Office focused on them – that’s Vice President Harris.’

Trump’s remarks came as he and Harris were neck-and-neck in national polls on Sunday. Pennsylvania is a major swing state that is expected to be a deciding factor in which candidate wins the Electoral College.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke on Fox News Channel’s ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ and claimed that Harris made a grave mistake by not picking Josh Shapiro, the Keystone State’s governor, as her running mate.

‘Shapiro might well have won the state of Pennsylvania for her,’ Cruz said to host Maria Bartiromo. ‘But the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat[ic] Party could not imagine, could not tolerate, such a thing.’

Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Harris was asked at the top of a press gaggle of reporters in Detroit, Michigan, ‘Simply, how are you feeling and have you submitted your ballot?’ 

Harris, 48 hours from Election Day, admitted that ‘everyone’s a little tired’ and ‘sleep-deprived.’ 

‘I am feeling great, I am looking forward to these next 48 hours to continue to talk with the voters and talk about the stakes and talk about the future of our country,’ Harris said, ‘Which I think is bright when we’re working with the same spirit of building community, building coalitions and building the strength of our economy and our country. I have, I actually just filled out my mail-in ballot, so I have voted.’ 

Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and U.S. senator before she was elected vice president in 2020, declined to answer about how she voted on Proposition 36. The California ballot measure would reverse criminal justice reforms made in her home state in recent years. 

‘I’m not going to talk about the vote on that because honestly it’s the Sunday before the election, and I don’t intend to create an endorsement one way or another around it,’ Harris said. ‘But I did vote.’ 

The initiative, if passed, would make the crime of shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increase penalties for some drug charges, including those involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl. It also would give judges the authority to order people with multiple drug charges to get treatment.

Harris also addressed election integrity concerns, telling reporters former President Trump ‘lost’ in 2020. 

‘So here we are on the Sunday before the election, and I would ask in particular people who have not yet voted to not fall for his tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t matter,’ Harris said.  ‘Suggesting to people that somehow the integrity of our voting system is not intact, so that they don’t vote. And again, I think that it is a tactic.’

The final New York Times/Siena College Battleground poll of the 2024 race shows a razor-tight election in the battleground states just days before the election.

Former President Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris in Arizona, while Harris enjoys a lead in Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Wisconsin. Michigan and Pennsylvania are tied between the two candidates, according to the poll.

‘Too close to call,’ Siena Research declared in a social media post about the poll.

In Arizona, the only state where Trump has a lead, the former president is up four points on Harris, 49-45.

Meanwhile, Harris has a one-point lead in Georgia (48-47), two points in North Carolina (48-46), three points in Nevada (49-46) and two points in Wisconsin (49-47).

The poll comes just two days before an election that promises to be one of the closest in recent memory, with the New York Times/Siena poll not being the only one showing tight margins.

According to the Real Clear Politics polling average, Trump enjoys a 2.9 point lead in Arizona, a 1.2 point lead in Nevada, a 0.3 point lead in Pennsylvania, a 1.4 point lead in North Carolina, and a 2.3 point lead in Georgia.

Harris, meanwhile, has a slim lead of 0.3 points in Wisconsin and a 0.6 point lead in Michigan.

The New York Times/Siena College battleground poll also sampled the Senate races in the battleground states for the final time, showing Democrats Rep. Ruben Gallego in Arizona, Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, Sen. Jacky Rosen in Nevada, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, with a lead in their respective races. No Republican Senate candidate held leads in their races, the poll showed.

The New York Times/Siena College poll interviewed 7,879 voters in seven battleground states between Oct. 24 and Nov. 2, with a margin of errors of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points in Arizona, 4.1 percentage points in Georgia, 3.7 points in Michigan, 3.6 points in North Carolina, 3.6 points in Nevada, 2.9 points in Pennsylvania, and 3.4 points in Wisconsin.

Two new national polls released Sunday show former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are engaged in an extremely close race for the White House, even if a majority of voters are dissatisfied with having to choose between either of the candidates. 

An ABC News/Ipsos poll of 2,267 likely voters has Harris leading Trump 49%-46%, with a 2% margin of error.  

Seventy-four percent of those voters say they feel the country is heading on the ‘wrong track,’ including 50% of those who are backing Harris, the results show. Among Trump supporters, that figure rises to 98%. 

The poll, which was taken from Oct. 29-Nov. 1, also revealed that 60% of voters are dissatisfied with the candidates presented to them in this race for the presidency.  

Meanwhile, 42% of likely voters say their personal financial situation has worsened under the Biden-Harris administration, according to the poll.

In another national survey, Trump and Harris are tied at 49%.

The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters, which was conducted from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, has a margin of error of 3.1%. 

Of those who responded, Harris leads Trump among Black voters by 87%-9%, voters under 30 years old by 57%-41% and White voters with college degrees 55%-43%, according to NBC News. 

Trump leads among rural voters 75%-23%, White voters in general 56%-42% and white voters without college degrees 64%-34%, the outlet added. 

Between genders, Harris leads Trump 57%-41% among women, while men back Trump over Harris 58%-40%, NBC News reported.

The poll also found that 60% of registered voters think America will still be divided no matter who prevails on Election Day. 

The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission lambasted NBC’s decision to host Vice President Kamala Harris on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in the final episode ahead of Election Day, while not offering equal time to former President Trump or other candidates in the presidential cycle. 

‘This has all the appearances of, at least some leadership at NBC, at SNL, making clear that they wanted to weigh-in in favor of one candidate before the election. That’s exactly why, for decades, we’ve had an equal time rule on the book, is to prevent that. Because remember, broadcasters are placed in a special position of trust. They’re not just like any other person with a soapbox on the corner. They have a license from the federal government that obligates them to operate in the public interest,’ FCC commissioner Brendan Carr told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview Sunday morning. 

Carr was reacting to Harris’s last-minute appearance on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ just days ahead of Election Day. The FCC commissioner had weighed in on X this weekend that the broadcasting company had violated the FCC’s equal time rule by hosting the Democratic presidential nominee, but not Trump or other presidential candidates such as Jill Stein or even Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who is still on election ballots after dropping out of the race earlier this year and endorsing Trump. 

The Federal Communications Commission’s equal-time rule was established in 1934 and requires radio and television broadcast stations to provide the same amount of time for competing political candidates. There are exceptions to the rule such as newscasts, documentaries and political debates.

‘NBC has structured this in a way that’s plainly designed to evade the FCC’s rules. We’re talking 50 hours before Election Day starts, without any notice to other candidates, as far as I can tell,’ Carr continued. ‘And after previously coming out and saying they weren’t going to do this precisely because they did not believe that they could do this consistent with election laws and the FCC’s equal time rule.’

‘I think every member of the FCC needs to speak up immediately, given how close we are to an election and make clear that we will follow through, enforce our laws. And I think every single remedy needs to be on the table in these circumstances,’ he said. 

Harris was scheduled to fly to Detroit on Saturday evening, but her flight landed at Laguardia, teeing up speculation she would appear on ‘SNL’ during its final airing ahead of Election Day. 

Harris did in fact appear on Saturday evening, depicting the ‘mirror image’ of herself while speaking with former ‘SNL’ cast member Maya Rudolph, who was depicting the Democratic nominee for president. Harris’ appearance came at the end of the cold open, which poked fun at Trump for wearing a sanitation vest at a rally last week, as well as Joe Biden’s repeated gaffes.

Rudolph, depicting Harris, wondered during the sketch: ‘I wish I could talk to someone who’s been in my shoes. You know, a Black, south Asian woman running for president. Preferably from the Bay Area.’

Harris then was revealed to be sitting across the table from her, leading to cheers from the audience. Harris grinned and said, ‘You and me both, sister.’

‘I’m just here to remind you, you got this. Because you can do something your opponent cannot do. You can open doors,’ she said in a shot at Trump, referring to him climbing into a garbage truck last week while on the campaign trail. 

‘The American people want to stop the chaos,’ Rudolph said at a later point in the sketch, with Harris adding, ‘And end the drama-la.’

‘With a cool new step mom-ala. Get back in our pajama-las. And watch a rom-com-ala,’ Rudolph said, with the two later touting their ‘belief in the promise of America.’

Carr is urging his fellow FCC commissioners to join him in calling for action and investigation into NBC hosting Harris on Saturday evening. 

‘One commissioner standing alone, there’s no real consequence that I can impose at this point. You need the FCC chairperson or at least three commissioners on the FCC to agree to take action. We’ll see if we end up there with this commission or otherwise,’ he said.

‘At the end of the day, the penalties range all the way up to potentially, in egregious situations, license revocations. And in my view, every single remedy needs to be on the table, at least as an initial matter. What we investigate more and find out – maybe they have some defense that I’m not aware of – but all remedies should be on the table because you obviously have to engage in some sort of response that if this proves to be an entire violation, there is a consequence sufficient enough that no broadcast station does this again. Whether it’s to benefit Republican or Democrat, that doesn’t matter to me. We have rules on the books, we have to uphold them.’

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told the Fox News Channel earlier this weekend that SNL did not extend an invitation to Trump. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung lambasted Harris’ appearance as a sign of desperation to appeal to voters as ‘her campaign spirals down the drain into obscurity.’ 

‘Kamala Harris has nothing substantive to offer the American people, so that’s why she’s living out her warped fantasy cosplaying with her elitist friends on Saturday Night Leftists as her campaign spirals down the drain into obscurity. For the last four years, Kamala’s destructive policies have led to untold misery and hurt for all Americans. She broke it, and President Trump will fix it,’ Cheung told Fox News Digital earlier this weekend. 

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate during her failed 2016 presidential run, also appeared in a skit on Saturday as a contestant on a game show who couldn’t remember who Kaine was.

Carr said Kaine’s appearance also likely violated the equal-time rule, as he is running for re-election in Virginia against Republican challenger Hung Cao.

‘Later on in the program, Sen. Kaine here in Virginia, where I am, appeared on the program, and he’s up for election on Tuesday as well. There’s an opposing campaign, the Hung Cao campaign, they may also have a right now to comparable time in programming,’ he said. 

Lorne Michaels, the creator of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ said just last month that it was highly unlikely that either Trump or Harris would appear on the comedy show, explicitly citing the equal time provision laws. 

‘You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,’ Michaels told the Hollywood Reporter in October. ‘You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.’

Carr noted in the Fox Digital interview that Michaels was aware of the FCC’s equal time rule just the other week. 

‘This is exactly why Lorne Michaels just weeks ago went public and said they would not be doing any candidate appearances, because he understood the thicket that it would throw NBC into. Something changed at the last minute, and they’ve now gone down this path. And again, I think it’s important that the FCC come together and we take action. Otherwise, our rules are absolutely meaningless,’ he said. 

Carr noted in an X thread on Saturday that during the 2016 election cycle, Trump appeared on ‘SNL,’ which sparked NBC affiliates to file equal opportunity notices to ensure that Trump’s challengers during the cycle were offered the same ‘SNL’ opportunity. When Clinton also appeared on the show that cycle, affiliates again publicly filed equal opportunity notices. 

Following the last-minute appearance on the comedy show, critics on social media also took issue with the sketch itself, saying it appeared eerily similar to Trump’s 2015 sketch on Jimmy Fallon’s ‘The Tonight Show.’ Fallon dressed up like Trump during that sketch, with the pair speaking to one another through a mirror, like Harris’ ‘SNL’ appearance. 

Critics called Harris’ sketch a ‘rip off’ of Trump’s 2015 Fallon appearance. 

‘Kamala ripped off the same bit Trump did when he was on Saturday Night Live in 2015… and Trump’s was double the length,’ radio host Ari Hoffman posted on X.

Both the Harris and Trump sketches follow other ‘in the mirror’ sketches Fallon has performed with other high-profile celebrities and politicians, including Mick Jagger in 2001 on ‘SNL’ and now-Utah Sen. Mitt Romney in 2015. 

Harris and Rudolph’s Harris character capped off the appearance with the iconic message: ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!’

An NBC spokesperson told Fox Digital that the broadcaster will comply with any regulatory obligations, and has hosted numerous political figures from either side of the aisles across the decades. 

Fox News Digital’s David Rutz and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report. 

When President Joe Biden took the podium in his hometown of Scranton, Pa., to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, many expected a return to the ‘self-professed unifier’ Biden from the 2020 election, particularly after his recent comments calling tens of millions of Trump supporters ‘garbage.’  If so, they were disappointed when it turned out to be the ‘take him behind the Gym’ Biden. Speaking through clenched teeth, Biden seethed that he wanted to ‘smack [Trump] in the ass.’ Even with the Harris campaign alarmed over his costly gaffes, Biden clearly could not resist the rage. He is not alone.

This entire election seems to be a type of political roid rage. In my book, ‘The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,‘ I discuss how rage rhetoric and rage politics have long been part of our history. Politicians will often intentionally trigger rage to rally voters not in support of their policies but in opposition to their opponents.

However, Biden’s seeming inability to keep his rage in check is a common feature of this rage politics. As I wrote in the book, ‘rage is liberating, even addictive. It allows us to say and do things that we would ordinarily avoid, even denounce in others.’ It is also contagious. Across the country, people are yelling at neighbors, tearing down signs, and even assaulting each other. What they are unwilling to admit is that they enjoy the rage. They like it.

As someone who has written about rage rhetoric and covered presidential elections for over two decades for different networks, I should be accustomed to these scenes. I am not. From the scenes outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan to the scenes outside of political rallies in Virginia, I find the rage depressing and deflating.

However, in flying to New York this weekend to join the Fox election coverage, I had a moment of real hope. I was driven to the airport by a man who told me that he was just months from his citizenship and how he and his wife were so thankful to soon be U.S. citizens. He came from a MiddleEastern nation where he long admired the United States for its freedoms, particularly the freedom of speech. Indeed, in his home country, he constantly ran into trouble with his government and was warned by his imam that he had to stop acting ‘like an American’ by speaking his mind.

He could not shut up, so he decided to become an American instead.

He then told me how confused he and his wife are by this election. They love the United States and cannot understand why people are so hateful and angry. ‘It is like they do not understand what they have here,’ he noted.

Listening to him over the course of our ride, I started to feel something that I had not felt in a while: real hope.

Sometimes, our truest citizens are found among our newest converts. As I discuss in my book, the problem with our democracy is that most citizens grew up in a nation where basic rights like the freedom of speech are guaranteed. They have never known the absence of such rights. This man and his wife have. They were not born here. They had to escape their country at great peril and cost to become U.S. citizens. They chose us and what we stand for.

They follow other great Americans drawn to these shores by something unique about this country. One was Tom Paine. The man who was credited with rallying a nation behind a revolution only landed upon these shores two years before the Declaration of Independence. His rocketing to fame with the publication of Common Sense enraged some, like John Adams, who viewed him as an unkempt, unknown rabble-rouser.

Yet, it was precisely Paine’s immigration that gave his words such clarity and power. He saw this emerging nation as unique for all of humanity, a nation where citizens could live free without the calcified social, economic, and political limits of the Old World. His voice resonated with this nation because it was so genuine and authentic.

I heard that same voice on my way to the airport. Sometimes, it takes the newest among us to remind us who we are to not only the rest of the world but also to each other.

I do not know what is coming out of that gate on election night. I have been there before. However, half of this country is going to be very, very upset either way this goes. What we need to struggle to remember is that this election does not define us. The rage does not define us. We defined ourselves almost 250 years ago and do so every day that new citizens like my new friend come to these shores. There is hope in who we are . . . even if we forget sometimes.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., slammed Democrats’ ‘scare tactics’ regarding former President Trump’s stance on women in terms of abortion and IVF access on Sunday. 

At a recent campaign stop in Wisconsin, Vice President Harris claimed that Trump would ‘ban abortion nationwide,’ ‘restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk and force states to – get this – monitor women’s pregnancies.’ Democrats have run ads across the country on the issue. 

Trump has repeatedly stated he would not sign a national abortion ban, and Stefanik, in an appearance on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ reiterated how Trump ‘believes this issue should be decided at the states’ and supports three exceptions for abortions in circumstances of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. 

‘When it comes to IVF, that is a false smear,’ Stefanik told ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Shannon Bream. ‘President Trump wants to expand access to IVF, make birth control available, and the reason why Democrats are only talking about this issue is these are scare tactics because they are losing on every other issue. Whether it’s the economy, the border, safety and security around the world, we’re going to run and win, and I think that women when they look at the key top issues, they are increasingly looking at their lives were much better under President Trump versus the crises that we’ve seen under Kamala Harris today.’ 

Stefanik also slammed Harris for failing to condemn Mark Cuban’s recent remarks about female Trump supporters. Cuban faced backlash for suggesting on ‘The View’ last Thursday that Trump neglects to surround himself with ‘strong, intelligent women,’ claiming that they intimidate and challenge him. 

Stefanik pointed to how she, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump have been traveling across the country as surrogates of the Trump campaign. Stefanik also noted that under Trump’s administration, the U.S. had ‘the highest number of women ever in the workforce, the largest wage and salary increase for working women ever,’ and ‘child care was affordable.’

The congresswoman also highlighted how inflation drove up grocery, energy and utility costs, impacting women, as well as the safety issues for women arising from the lack of border security. 

‘Kamala Harris did not condemn Mark Cuban’s just disgraceful comments saying that President Trump does not surround himself with strong, intelligent women,’ Stefanik said. ‘Whether you compare it to the first lady, his daughter Ivanka Trump or so many senior level women that are working in support of his campaign.’ 

Asked if she would accept Cuban’s apology issued after the backlash, Stefanik responded by noting how Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, described Trump supporters as ‘deplorables’ in 2016, ‘then they called us Nazis, then Mark Cuban said there are no strong or intelligent women around President Trump, and just yesterday you had Kathy Hochul smearing voters who support Republicans as ‘anti-American.” 

‘President Trump is running to unify this country on the goals of securing the border, strengthening the economy,’ she said. ‘So Kamala Harris should condemn that, and they didn’t, the campaign failed to do that, and that’s offensive to so many women across this country, not just elected official women. Gold Star moms, Gold Star wives, women veterans who are proudly supporting President Trump.’ 

Stefanik later discussed Election Day predictions for Congress. She deemed New York the ‘epicenter’ of the House majority, as several first-term Republican incumbents face competitive challenges from Democrats in the deep blue state. 

‘President Trump on the ballot is a net gain to every Republican candidate for Senate and House,’ Stefanik said. ‘I’m from New York, obviously, New York is the epicenter for the race for the House Republican majority, Republicans, when it comes to early voting, increased by 50% compared to where we were in 2022, and that was cycle where of course we flipped those five House seats.’ 

‘Kamala Harris is underperforming Joe Biden in every single swing district across the country if you look at Joe Biden’s performance in 2020,’ she said. ‘I think on a good night we can win up to 10 seats, Shannon, which would be a sizable Republican majority. We’re not taking anything for granted, but the issues are on our side.… On every top issue, Republicans are winning. President Trump is winning, and I think we could be in for some surprises on Election Day that House Republicans will overperform the predictions.’ 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that a potential Trump White House would advise communities to remove fluoride from drinking water, which would overturn decades of public health guidance. 

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral in water that oral physicians say can help to prevent cavities at the right doses. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes community water fluoridation – the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water to increase its concentration to optimal levels – as a ‘cornerstone strategy’ to prevent cavities and one of the ’10 great public health interventions of the 20th century.’ 

However, health agencies warn long-term ingestion of fluoride in excess doses carries various health risks, and critics like Kennedy have campaigned to end community water fluoridation. The Environmental Protection Agency has established a maximum allowable concentration of fluoride in public drinking water to prevent adverse health effects. 

Kennedy declared the Trump White House would advise bringing that allowable concentration to zero on its first day in power. 

‘On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,’ Kennedy posted on X. ‘Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,’ he claimed, adding that former President Trump and first lady Melania Trump ‘want to Make America Healthy Again.’ 

His statement provoked a wave of criticism on social media and renewed expert concerns about Kennedy – who has often clashed with the scientific consensus on vaccine safety – being placed in a position of authority over public health. 

‘While President Trump has received a variety of policy ideas, he is focused on Tuesday’s election,’ Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in response to media questions about Kennedy’s statement. 

Currently, more than 200 million Americans, or about 75% of the population, drink fluoridated water.

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and they continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city in the world to fluoridate its water supply. 

Experts have long said that washing teeth with fluoride is not comparable to the risks posed by ingesting fluoride, with the latter potentially triggering harmful neurotoxic effects. 

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined ‘with moderate confidence’ that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

Then in September, a federal judge in California cited that study in an order requiring the EPA to further regulate fluoride because high levels pose ‘an unreasonable risk’ to children.

‘Indeed, EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is hazardous at some level of exposure,’ U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said. ‘And ample evidence establishes that a mother’s exposure to fluoride during pregnancy is associated with IQ decrements in her offspring.’

Even so, the judge said the court ‘does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health.’

Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. For five decades before that, the recommended upper range was 1.2 ‘after evidence increasingly established fluoride’s connection to adverse effects, including severe enamel fluorosis, risk of bone fracture, and potential skeletal fluorosis,’ the judge wrote. Skeletal fluorosis is a potentially crippling disorder which causes weaker bones, stiffness and pain.

The World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5. Separately, the EPA has a longstanding requirement that water systems cannot have more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. 

Kennedy has said that Trump has promised to give him ‘control’ over the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), should the former president win the White House on Tuesday.

‘I stand ready to help him rid the public health agencies of their pervasive conflicts and corruption and restore their tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science,’ Kennedy told the New York Times in a statement. 

The Trump campaign has said no decisions have been made about Cabinet-level positions or personnel, including the secretaries of HHS and USDA.   

‘No formal decisions about Cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children,’ Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 

‘President Trump will also establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses,’ she added.

Trump told supporters at a rally on Saturday that he told Kennedy he ‘can work on food, you can work on anything you want,’ except energy policy.

‘He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,’ Trump said.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan, Alex Nitzberg and the Associated Press contributed to this report.