GOP lawmakers sent a letter this week to CIA Director William Burns after a whistleblower claimed that analysts probing COVID-19 origins were offered money to alter their stance that the virus likely came from a Wuhan lab leak.

Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., joined their House counterparts in demanding answers from Burns, such as all of the ‘documents and communications between or among the members of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team(s) regarding the origins of COVID-19.’

Paul told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday, ‘This is one of the biggest cover-ups in our nation’s history, and we deserve answers.’

‘Department of Energy scientists concluded COVID-19 came from a lab,’ Paul wrote. ‘FBI scientists concluded COVID-19 came from a lab. We’ve been told six of seven CIA scientists also concluded COVID-19 came from a lab but were paid to change their minds.’

In Tuesday’s letter, the senators wrote that the whistleblower allegations ‘are deeply concerning and raise serious questions about the Agency’s investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.’

They also demanded to know all ‘communications regarding the pay history, to include the awarding of any type of financial or performance-based incentive/financial bonus to members of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team.’

The request seeks documents and communications related to the origins of COVID-19 among members of the COVID Discovery Teams as well as exchanges with employees or contractors of various federal agencies, including the State Department, FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services (including NIH and NIAID) and the Department of Energy.

Lawmakers set a Sept. 25 deadline for a response.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified report on COVID-19 origins in June, which analyzed the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s role in the lab leak theory.

The intelligence community remains undecided on whether the pandemic resulted from a lab leak or natural animal exposure. Different agencies hold varying opinions, with the National Intelligence Council favoring natural origin while the Energy Department and FBI lean toward a lab leak.

The CIA and other intelligence agencies have not reached a conclusion due to conflicting evidence and assumptions.

Fox News Digital previously obtained letters that the House Coronavirus Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, sent to the CIA and a former official with regard to the whistleblower claims.

‘The Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence have received new and concerning whistleblower testimony regarding the Agency’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19,’ Wenstrup and Turner wrote to CIA Director William Burns on Tuesday.

‘A multi-decade, senior-level, current Agency officer has come forward to provide information to the Committees regarding the Agency’s analysis into the origins of COVID-19,’ they wrote.

The CIA purportedly assigned seven officers to a COVID Discovery Team, the whistleblower said, which included ‘multi-disciplinary and experienced officers with significant scientific expertise.’

‘According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed that intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,’ the House pair wrote.

‘The seventh member of the Team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the one officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis,’ or an animal origin.

Fox News’ Digital reached out to the CIA for comment. In a previous statement, spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp said, ‘At CIA we are committed to the highest standards of analytic rigor, integrity, and objectivity. We do not pay analysts to reach specific conclusions. We take these allegations extremely seriously and are looking into them. We will keep our Congressional oversight committees appropriately informed.’

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Rich Edson contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump is taking aim at the Justice Department over its indictment of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden on federal firearms charges.

The former president claimed in a Truth Social post that the gun charge was ‘the only crime that Hunter Biden committed that does not implicate Crooked Joe Biden.’ 

Hunter Biden, in an indictment filed Thursday in federal court in Delaware by a special counsel overseeing the case, is accused of lying about his drug use when he purchased a weapon in 2018, during a time when he’s acknowledged struggling with a crack cocaine addiction.  

The charges, which come weeks after a plea deal collapsed, are the latest twist in a long-running investigation into the president’s son which could result in a high-profile trial ahead of a likely rematch between the elder Biden and Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump, taking to social media moments after the news broke of the Hunter Biden indictment, reiterated his unproven claims that the Justice Department is working to undermine him in the 2024 election.

GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Wednesday that he was directing a committee to open an impeachment inquiry into the president. House Republicans allege that the president — when he was serving as vice president in the Obama administration — profited off his son’s foreign business deals. 

Trump also slammed the Justice Department, and Democrats, for what he claimed are the ‘horrible, very unfair, and mostly illegal Witch Hunts,’ as he referred to his own federal indictments related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

The former president concluded his post: ‘They have opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box, and it is possible that the USA will never be the same again. SO SAD!!!’

Trump wasn’t the only Republican presidential candidate to react to the bombshell Hunter Biden developments.

Multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who’s Trump’s biggest supporter in the large field of contenders vying for the GOP presidential nomination, argued in a social medial posting that ‘Today’s indictment of Hunter Biden is a smokescreen. Don’t fall for it.’

‘This is a fig leaf designed to deflect attention away from the real problem: the Biden family is selling out U.S. foreign policy for their own family’s private financial gain,’ Ramaswamy charged. ‘That’s really what’s wrong, and we must hold politicians in both major political parties when they use our foreign policy to enrich their family members.’

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who’s also campaigning for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, said in an interview on Fox News’ ‘Your World with Neil Cavuto’ that ‘I think is just the tip of the iceberg with these indictments.’

‘The bigger issue is influence peddling and the fact that the United States could be compromised on foreign policy with countries because of illegal payments, you know, channeled through these shell companies. But I think it’s good the inquiry is going on. I think it’s good that they’re continuing to pursue,’ Burgum added. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is declaring the new felony indictment against Hunter Biden a ‘smokescreen’ for the ‘real problem’ plaguing the Biden family. 

Special Counsel David Weiss charged President Biden’s son with federal gun crimes including making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. 

But Ramaswamy is urging Americans to not ‘fall for it.’

‘Today’s indictment of Hunter Biden is a smokescreen. Don’t fall for it,’ Ramaswamy wrote Thursday. ‘This is a fig leaf designed to deflect attention away from the real problem: the Biden family is selling out U.S. foreign policy for their own family’s private financial gain. That’s really what’s wrong, and we must hold politicians in both major political parties when they use our foreign policy to enrich their family members.’ 

The GOP hopeful called House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s launch of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden ‘a step in the right direction,’ but reiterated ‘the public shouldn’t fall for the trick of diverting attention away from the true problem.’

‘It’s also no accident that today’s indictment comes at a moment when President Biden’s own popularity within the Democratic Party is cratering,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘I predict this is the first step for the Democrat Party managerial class to pressure Joe Biden out of the race. Biden will become a sacrificial pawn in service to the deep state that wants to keep power at all costs.’

According to the indictment, ‘on or about October 12, 2018, in the District of Delaware, the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, in connection with the acquisition of a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL Revolver with serial number RA 551363…knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm…in that the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.’ 

The indictment also states that ‘on or about October 12, 2018, through on or about October 23, 2018, in the District of Delaware, the defendant Robert Hunter Biden, knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance…did knowingly possess a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver with serial number RA 551363, said firearm having been shipped and transported in interstate commerce.’ 

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel last month after IRS whistleblowers came forward alleging that Weiss was blocked by the DOJ to bring more serious charges as U.S. Attorney, a claim both Weiss and Garland denied. 

The gun crimes were previously involved in what was dubbed by critics as a ‘sweetheart deal’ between Hunter Biden and the DOJ that ultimately fell apart in court upon scrutiny. 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: House Democrats acknowledged Wednesday that Hunter Biden’s then-business partner, Eric Schwerin, handled President Biden’s finances for the duration of his vice presidency.

A spokesperson for the Democrat minority of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability told Fox News Digital that Schwerin, the former president of Hunter’s Rosemont Seneca Advisors and a frequent visitor to the Obama-Biden White House, served as then-Vice President Biden’s ‘bookkeeper’ from 2009 to 2017.

‘Notably, Mr. Schwerin, who served as then-Vice President Biden’s bookkeeper from 2009 to 2017, explained that he was not aware of any transactions into or out of the then-Vice President’s bank account related to business conducted by any Biden family member,’ the spokesperson said in a statement.

The statement came after Fox News Digital inquired about a section of the White House’s lengthy memo to the media on Wednesday as it scrambles to respond to House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

The White House issued a memo that urged news outlets to ramp up scrutiny of the impeachment inquiry announced Tuesday by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said House Republicans have ‘uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct.’

The White House memo included a 14-page fact-check of Republicans’ claims made throughout the Biden investigation with regard to the president’s purported role in his son’s foreign business dealings and whether the Biden family used the former vice president’s public office for personal profit.

‘Republicans’ own witnesses such as Eric Schwerin, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, said President Biden was not involved in their business dealings,’ the White House said on page 13 of the memo.

‘’In a March 2023 interview with Republican and Democratic Committee staff, Mr. Schwerin told Committee staff he was not aware of any involvement by President Biden in the financial conduct of the President’s relatives’ businesses, much less any transactions into or out of the then-Vice President’s bank account related to business conducted by any Biden family member,’’ the White House continued, citing a paragraph from the Oversight Democrats’ memo in May.

A person familiar with Schwerin’s role in handling then-Vice President Biden’s finances told Fox News Digital that Schwerin worked on Biden’s personal budget and helped coordinate with his tax preparers.

The individual also pointed to the frequency of Schwerin’s communications with Biden and his top aides and said it was ‘inevitable’ Rosemont Seneca business came up in conversations.

A House Oversight spokesperson for the Republican majority told Fox News Digital that the committee ‘never interviewed Schwerin’ as claimed by committee Democrats and later by the White House.

‘This is false,’ the spokesperson said. ‘The Committee never interviewed Schwerin. There was a meeting but it was about document production. There has never been a transcribed interview or deposition.’

The committee Democrats spokesperson fired back in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying Schwerin, who Hunter previously admitted was a ‘close confidant and counsel’ of then-Vice President Biden, was indeed interviewed by committee staff for multiple hours on March 31, 2023, following a request from Comer.

‘In written correspondence to the Committee, Mr. Schwerin’s counsel described this as a ‘non-transcribed interview,’’ the statement continued. ‘Majority and Minority staff had equal time and switched off asking Mr. Schwerin questions about his relationship with Hunter Biden, as well as the history, structure, and activities of Hunter Biden’s business entities, to which Mr. Schwerin responded.’

Schwerin’s lawyer, however, told Fox News Digital that Schwerin was not technically a ‘bookkeeper’ to the then-VP but rather he simply assisted the then-VP with his finances.

Fox News Digital has previously reported on Schwerin’s extensive ties to the Biden family, both personal and professional, and how he was instrumental in Hunter expanding his enterprise in China.

Peter Schweizer, the president of Government Accountability Institute and an expert on Hunter’s business dealings, told ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ host Maria Bartiromo last month that ‘Eric Schwerin was the money guy’ in Hunter’s business ventures.

Schwerin, who visited the Obama White House and then-Vice President Biden’s residence at least 36 times between 2009 and 2016, was also a founding partner and managing director of Hunter’s now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca Partners. He was working with Hunter’s firms when he was appointed in early 2015 by then-President Obama to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, an independent U.S. government agency.

Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, who was married to the president’s son from 1993 to 2017, revealed in a memoir in June 2022 that Schwerin ‘managed almost every aspect of our financial life.’

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

President Biden has finally broken his silence on his possible impeachment, telling attendees during a campaign reception at a private residence in McLean, Virginia on Wednesday such efforts were because Republicans in Congress ‘want to shut down the government.’

According to the official White House transcript of the event, Biden said, ‘Look, before I close, I want to say a word about impeachment,’ as those in attendance laughed.

‘It was pointed out to me today that [Republican Georgia Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first day she was elected, said, ‘First thing we want to do is impeach Biden.’ Well, I tell you what, I don’t know quite why, but they just knew they wanted to impeach me. And now, the best I can tell, they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government,’ he said.

One attendee expressed agreement with Biden, leading the president to say, ‘No, you think I’m kidding. Watch.’

‘Look, I’ve got a job to do. Everybody always asks about impeachment. I get up every day — not a joke — not focused on impeachment. I’ve got a job to do. I’ve got to deal with the issues that affect the American people every single solitary day,’ he said.

‘And a couple of years ago, I met my Cabinet; and I met them again when I appointed them; and I met them today in the Cabinet Room, focusing on how we end cancer as we know it as a country. And I’m focused on these things,’ he added.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the formal impeachment inquiry against Biden on Tuesday, stating at a press conference that House Republicans had ‘uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct.’

He listed allegations of ‘abuse of power, obstruction and corruption’ made against Biden by several GOP-led committees who have been investigating the president and his family’s foreign business dealings.

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: The National Rifle Association hit Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with a lawsuit Thursday in the state’s Supreme Court over an ‘unconstitutional’ rule temporarily suspending open and concealed carry across Albuquerque and the surrounding county. 

‘Please rescind your unlawful and blatantly unconstitutional orders and uphold your oath to defend the constitutional rights of those in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. Until then, we’ll see you in court,’ NRA-ILA Executive Director Randy Kozuch wrote to Lujan Grisham on Thursday, according to a letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital. 

The suit, filed Thursday in the New Mexico Supreme Court, names Lujan Grisham, Chief of New Mexico State Police Troy Weisler and New Mexico Department of Health Secretary Patrick Allen. 

The NRA was joined by every single GOP state House and Senate member, along with retired law enforcement, the Republican Party of New Mexico and the Libertarian Party of New Mexico as petitioners. 

The lawsuit argues Lujan Grisham’s gun order is unconstitutional and unlawful, and called on the state’s highest court to ‘issue an extraordinary writ invalidating’ the order. 

Lujan Grisham temporarily suspended open and concealed carry laws in Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque is located, for at least 30 days in a public health order announced Friday. The governor cited the fatal shootings of a 13-year-old girl in July, a 5-year-old girl in August and an 11-year-old boy this month as motivation behind the rule. 

The governor has been hit with at least four other lawsuits over the order, all of which argue the rule defies the U.S. Constitution. On Wednesday, a federal judge appointed by President Biden blocked part of the public health order that suspended carrying firearms in public. 

Lujan Grisham argued following the judge’s ruling that she will ‘stand up to protect families and children’ from crimes involving guns. 

‘I refuse to be resigned to the status quo. As governor, I see the pain of families who lost their loved ones to gun violence every single day, and I will never stop fighting to prevent other families from enduring these tragedies,’ she said. 

Lujan Grisham said when she announced the order that she anticipated legal challenges and raised some eyebrows over her remarks on the Constitution. 

‘No constitutional right, in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute,’ Lujan Grisham told a reporter who asked whether it’s ‘unconstitutional’ to order Americans not to exercise their right to bear arms.

Kozuch, the director of the NRA’s lobbying arm, hit back in his letter to Lujan Grisham Thursday that the NRA ‘strongly disagrees’ with her comment that her oath is not ‘absolute.’

‘You claim that your oath to uphold the rights covered by these amendments is ‘not absolute.’ The National Rifle Association strongly disagrees. New Mexicans and other law-abiding Americans visiting or travelling through Albuquerque and Bernalillo County have an absolute right to carry the firearm of their choosing to defend themselves and their families,’ he wrote. 

The NRA pointed to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Section 6 of the New Mexico state Constitution as both ‘clearly’ protecting ‘the right of peaceable people to carry firearms for self-defense.’ 

Article II, Section 6 of the New Mexico Constitution states: ‘[n]o law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.’

Quickly following the announcement last week, Second Amendment groups, New Mexico residents, Democrats and even gun control activist David Hogg spoke out that the rule was unconstitutional. 

‘In a shocking move, Governor Lujan Grisham is suspending Second Amendment rights by administrative fiat, ignoring the U.S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution,’ Kozuch told Fox News Digital earlier this week. 

‘Instead of undermining the fundamental rights of law-abiding New Mexicans, she should address the soft-on-criminal policies which truly endanger its citizens,’ he added. 

Kozuch again stressed in his letter Thursday that the governor should ‘hold criminals responsible’ for spreading violence, and highlighted that even the governor admitted in her press conference last week that criminals would not follow the 30-day gun ban. 

‘When announcing these orders, you claimed that they are meant to deal with the very real problem of violent crime in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. Yet, in the very press conference where you made that claim, you admitted that the criminals responsible for that rising violence will not follow these orders,’ he wrote. 

‘The NRA urges you to hold criminals responsible for the damage they inflict, but we will not stand by as you attempt to blame and restrict the rights of peaceful Americans who simply want to protect themselves, their families, and their community.’

The governor’s press secretary Caroline Sweeney told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the ‘order does not suspend the Constitution but instead state laws over which the governor has jurisdiction.’ Sweeney added that the governor ‘was elected to serve the people of New Mexico, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t hear from a constituent asking for more to be done to curb this horrific violence.’

Before the lawsuits against the order grew larger Thursday, New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez distanced himself from the governor, telling her he would not defend her administration in court. 

‘Though I recognize my statutory obligation as New Mexico’s chief legal officer to defend state officials when they are sued in their official capacity, my duty to uphold and defend the constitutional rights of every citizen takes precedence. Simply put, I do not believe that the Emergency Order will have any meaningful impact on public safety but, more importantly, I do not believe it passes constitutional muster,’ Torrez wrote in his letter to Lujan Grisham this week. 

The governor also does not have support from the Bernalillo County Sheriff, who called the order ‘unconstitutional,’ while Bernalillo County district attorney, the Albuquerque police chief, and Albuquerque mayor have all said they won’t enforce the order. Lujan Grisham said the state police would enforce the order, and that violations could carry a fine of up to $5,000.

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A revised version of the federal policy known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which prevents the deportation of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, has once again been deemed illegal by a federal judge who gave the same ruling previously.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen said in his decision Wednesday that on July 16, 2021, the court vacated the DACA program created by the 2012 DACA Memorandum, which prohibited the U.S., its departments, agencies, officers, agents and employees from granting new DACA applications and administering the program.

Hanen’s decision then was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Wednesday, reaffirmed by him.

‘That program is vacated, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is enjoined from implementing Final Rule DACA until a further order of the Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, or the Supreme Court of the United States,’ Hanen wrote.

The judge also said defendants may continue to administer the program to individuals who received their initial DACA status before July 16, 2021, which may include processing and granting DACA renewal applications for those individuals.

He also said DHS can continue to accept initial applications, though it ‘may not grant any,’ and the department was advised to post a public notice of the injunction on its website and websites of all relevant agencies involved in DACA administration or processing.

‘A Final Judgment has not been entered in this case, so all matters not being addressed by an appellate court are still pending in this Court and subject to its jurisdiction,’ Hanen wrote.

The decision comes more than a month after attorneys representing the states of Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi — all states that sued to end the Obama-era program — as well as lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice and DACA recipients were to appear before Hanen to debate the issue.

Hanen, in 2021, declared DACA illegal, ruling that the program had not been subjected to public notice and comment periods required under the federal Administrative Procedures Act. He also said the nine states seeking to stop DACA had standing to file their lawsuit because they had been harmed by the program.

The White House issued the following statement Wednesday night expressing its disappointment with the ruling.

‘We are deeply disappointed in today’s DACA ruling from the District Court in Southern Texas. On day one of his Administration, President Biden issued a memorandum directing the federal government to take all appropriate actions to ‘preserve and fortify’ the DACA policy. Consistent with that directive, the Administration has defended the DACA policy from legal challenges, and issued a final rule codifying this longstanding policy. During this Administration, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients have been able to live and work lawfully in our country without fear of deportation.

‘As we have long maintained, we disagree with the District Court’s conclusion that DACA is unlawful, and will continue to defend this critical policy from legal challenges. While we do so, consistent with the court’s order, DHS will continue to process renewals for current DACA recipients and DHS may continue to accept DACA applications.’

The White House added that it is ‘committed to protecting all the Dreamers’ who have enriched communities and the country, and it will call on Congress to provide ‘permanent protection’ to all who remain in the US.

The states claimed they incur hundreds of millions of dollars in health care, education and other costs when immigrants are allowed to remain in the country illegally.

While the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Hanen’s ruling in 2022, the court sent the case back to the judge to review changes made to the program by the Biden administration.

In court filings, Texas and the other states argued that the updated program is essentially the same as the 2012 memo that first created it and remains ‘unlawful and unconstitutional.’ The states also argued that the White House overstepped its authority by granting immigration benefits that are for Congress to decide.

The U.S. Justice Department argued in court filings that the states failed to show any direct injury because of DACA, and that Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security the ‘authority and duty to set immigration enforcement policies.’

There were 580,310 people enrolled in DACA at the end of December, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former Vice President Mike Pence – and candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination – said he commends U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., for blocking hundreds of military appointments in response to the Pentagon’s controversial abortion policy announced earlier this year.

At a town hall hosted by NewsNation in Chicago Wednesday night, Pence was asked by the host if Tuberville should stand down as his position on the matter faces criticism by former secretaries of defense.

The former veep, who is staunchly against abortion, responded clearly with, ‘No. The Pentagon should stand down.’

Adding that he is pro-life and he ‘[doesn’t] apologize for it,’ Pence went on to question why taxpayer dollars are being used to ‘undermine pro-life laws in states around the country.’ He said the idea that generals at the Pentagon on a ‘liberal Democrat agenda’ are using the money to undermine state laws ‘is just wrong.’

‘I commend Sen. Tuberville, and rather than asking him to stand down, I’d ask the Pentagon to stand down,’ Pence said. ‘I promise you, if I’m President of the United States, we’re going to get all this woke business out of the Pentagon.’

The Pentagon’s formal plan, which was released on Feb. 16, revealed it would pay for the travel of service members who seek an abortion or want to accompany a spouse who is seeking to terminate their pregnancy. It said troops would have up to five months, or 20 weeks into their pregnancy, to notify their departments and request travel for an abortion.

‘The DOD health care provider will place the service member considering pregnancy termination in a medical temporary nondeployable status without reference to the service member’s pregnancy status, until appropriate medical care and the necessary recovery period are complete,’ the memorandum stated.

The memo also directs the military branches to grant administrative absence – which includes no loss of pay – for those seeking abortion or fertility treatments not covered by military health care providers.

Pence continued to criticize the policy by saying, if elected, he would ensure that the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff focus on the US military’s mission, ‘which is preparedness and ensuring that they can defend this nation and defend our interests around the world.’

He added that Tuberville is defending the rights of ‘tens of millions of pro-life, taxpaying Americans’ who are ‘happy to invest in our national defense’ but do not support the military using taxpayer dollars to advance a ‘liberal social agenda.’

When asked what his response would be if a Democratic senator held up military promotions to advance a ‘woke’ agenda, Pence said he would take it to the American people and ‘see what they think about that.’

The approval of military nominations and promotions is historically a bipartisan duty of the U.S. Senate, but Tuberville’s blanket hold shattered the norm, prompting criticism by defense officials and members of both parties on claims of jeopardizing national security.

Tuberville has said he refuses to budge unless Democrats allow a vote on the policy. The Senate could move forward by voting on each individual nomination, but Democrats argue that would tie up the floor for months and giving in would encourage similar situations in the future.

The Pentagon has estimated that the move has already stalled more than 260 nominations of senior officers in all five branches – a figure could potentially balloon to 650 by the end of the year.

Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said earlier this week the Pentagon was not subsidizing abortions, but ‘providing equitable reproductive health care for all of our service members.’

‘The Department does not pay for abortions,’ Ryder said. ‘What this is doing is facilitating access which a service member would have had previously.’

He added: ‘[I]f you are now assigned to a state where those types of services are not available, we’re not going to pay for those services. But what we will do is we will – just like we would if you were stationed overseas – get you to a place where you can then pay for those services.’

Ryder said the Pentagon did not want a force comprising ‘haves and have-nots where some people are going to have access and some people are not, by virtue of where the military assigns them, period.’

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.

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FIRST ON FOX: A longtime Democratic operative and activist says he will be investigating the families of Republican lawmakers in response to the move by the GOP to investigate President Biden and son Hunter’s overseas business dealings, sparking backlash from a pair of House Republicans.

‘Gloves are off, families are on,’ David Brock, Democratic activist and president of Facts First USA, recently told Puck News. ‘We’ve been looking into how the children of those same members may have benefited from their parents’ position. We’re not shy about going after the members.’

Brock, a longtime Clinton ally who founded Media Matters for America and American Bridge 21st Century, announced in November he was leaving the left-wing groups after nearly two decades to launch Facts First USA to help President Biden fight Republicans in the new Congress.

‘This work has been ongoing, and we will soon have more to share publicly about a key member of Republican leadership whose family has gotten multiple jobs from their Congressional donors,’ a spokesperson for Facts First USA told Fox News Digital. 

‘If people want to investigate the Biden family, then what’s good for the goose is good for gander. But no one should feel intimidated if they aren’t doing anything improper.’

Brock, who got his start as a conservative freelance reporter before switching to the Democratic Party in the mid-1990s, was once described by former Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden, who is currently a top Biden aide, of being ‘bats— crazy.’ 

He’s been a prominent face in Democratic circles for nearly two decades. The New York Times reported in November that Brock’s progressive groups ‘play important roles in the Democratic Party’s ecosystem.’

GOP Congressman Darrell Issa, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital the move from Brock reeks of desperation. 

‘Nothing says desperation like threatening to sic a smear merchant on innocent families,’ Issa said. ‘This is all you need to know about how worried Democrats and the White House are about having to answer for Joe Biden’s culture of corruption.’ 

Rep. Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, told Fox News Digital that Republicans will not be intimidated by ‘radical outside groups.’

‘The far left and their radical outside allies are desperately trying to cover up and distract from Joe Biden’s illegal corruption,’ Stefanik said. 

‘They know they cannot pressure House Republicans into stopping our investigation into President Biden, so they are now attempting to intimidate Republicans into stopping our investigations by targeting our families with opposition research attacks from dark money groups. House Republicans will not be intimidated by these radical outside groups.’

That alleged culture of corruption led to an announcement this week that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is directing House committees to launch an official impeachment inquiry against Biden looking at ties between the president and son Hunter’s overseas business dealings.

‘Over the past several months, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct — a culture of corruption,’ McCarthy posted on social media Tuesday.

Democrats have insisted that the impeachment inquiry is politically motivated, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday Republicans have ‘no evidence, none, that [Biden] did anything wrong.’

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

Fox News Digital’s Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Wednesday slammed the White House for ‘telling the press what to say’ with a memo that urged stricter ‘scrutiny’ of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry. 

White House spokesperson Ian Sams wrote a letter to major news organizations Tuesday calling for the media ‘to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.’ The letter came a day after McCarthy directed House Republicans to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden.

‘It’s really concerning to me that the president, the White House is telling the press what to say. I think the press should be wanting to know the answers to, ‘Did the president know when he went to dinner with his son that he would get a Porsche?’’ McCarthy told reporters Wednesday.

‘Did he know when the son was selling the brand?’ he continued. ‘That when he was talking and using an email address? That wasn’t his own name? So people couldn’t find it?

‘Did he know when he was talking about the president of Ukraine, was that in referring to his son serving on the Burisma board with the prosecutor coming after them?’

McCarthy referenced several findings from the GOP-led investigations into the Biden family, including that Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev wired $142,000 to Hunter Biden in April 2014 so he could buy a sports car. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who is leading the impeachment inquiry, has alleged that payments the Bidens received through various foreign connections and shell companies were given for no services other than ‘access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden himself.’ 

The White House has denied any wrongdoing. Sams’ letter to news outlets insisted Republicans have provided no evidence that the president has committed a crime.

‘It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,’ he wrote. ‘When even House Republicans are admitting that there is simply no evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong, much less impeachable, that should set off alarm bells for news organizations.’ 

The letter continued: ‘For years, Republicans in Congress have tried to muddy the waters by attracting media coverage of their allegations, and as they choose to move forward with impeachment, it is the responsibility of the independent press to treat their claims with the appropriate scrutiny. Covering impeachment as a process story — Republicans say X, but the White House says Y — is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable.’

‘House Republican leaders should be held accountable for the fact that they are lurching toward impeachment over allegations that are not only unfounded but, in virtually all cases, have been actively disproven — including by witnesses and documents in their own investigations, as well as years-old congressional probes and even the former President’s first impeachment inquiry,’ Sams added, and included a 14-page appendix he said addressed seven ‘key lies’ the impeachment effort was based upon.

The letter was sent to some of the country’s largest media organizations, including Fox News, CNN, The New York Times and others.

McCarthy on Tuesday said Republican congressional probes have uncovered allegations of ‘abuse of power, obstruction and corruption’ against Biden that need further investigation.

‘Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings. Eyewitnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions, dinners resulted in cars and millions of dollars into his sons and his son’s business partners,’ McCarthy said.

‘We know that bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to the Biden family members and associates through various shell companies. The Treasury Department alone has more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family,’ he continued. ‘Another business associates that were flagged as suspicious activity by U.S. banks. Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family. Biden used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partners about Hunter’s role in Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company.’

House Oversight Chairman Comer said Wednesday the first impeachment inquiry hearing taking up these matters will happen later this month. 

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.