President Biden and his family are huddling in secrecy this week at an exclusive home on the shores of Lake Tahoe in Nevada amid the special counsel investigation into his son Hunter.

According to the White House, the Bidens are renting the $18 million home of environmental activist, businessman and former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer at fair market value for a nine-day vacation following the president’s trip to Hawaii to survey damage from the recent devastating wildfires.

Biden is being joined on the vacation, which began Tuesday, by first lady Jill Biden, their daughter Ashley, son Hunter, his wife Melissa Cohen, their son Beau, and a number of grandchildren.

Its unclear whether the Bidens will be receiving any visitors during their stay as the future of Hunter’s legal troubles remains in limbo as special counsel Andrew Weiss’ investigation into the president’s son continues.

When asked if anyone was expected to pay any visits to the president or his family, a White House spokesperson told Fox New Digital that there had never been any visitor logs kept at the first family residences or lodgings during travel, and that they intended to continue following that precedent. 

The official also noted that the same policy was kept during former President Obama’s administration as well.

The misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter were dismissed by a federal judge in Delaware last week, an expected move after his ‘sweetheart’ plea deal fell through in July during his first court appearance in the case.

After the plea deal fell apart, Biden pleaded ‘not guilty’ as federal prosecutors confirmed he is still under federal investigation. He was expected to plead guilty to the two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of the plea deal to avoid jail time on the felony gun charge.

Attorney General Merrick Garland named Weiss special counsel in Hunter’s case earlier this month.

Weiss and Biden’s attorneys are still fighting over a diversion agreement concerning the felony charge that would allow him to avoid any jail time. Weiss has indicated he plans to potentially take Biden to trial in the future in either Washington, D.C., or California.

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans from New York are criticizing the Biden administration for considering plea deals for alleged orchestrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

‘The 9/11 conspirators should be punished to the fullest extent of the law for the pain they inflicted on America,’ Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a former NYPD detective, told Fox News Digital Monday.

‘Offering plea deals to these terrorists is a slap in the face to the families who lost loved ones.’

More than 2,000 relatives of those killed 9/11 appealed to President Biden in a letter Monday urging him to block any plea agreement between his Justice Department and five defendants, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the attacks. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

It comes after the Pentagon informed several relatives of victims it is considering accepting guilty pleas from the defendants in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table in each of their cases, according to CBS News.

‘Khalid Sheikh Mohammed orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks, personally pitching the plan to Osama Bin Laden. It is beyond the pale that the Biden administration is proposing a plea deal that would let him and other 9/11 perpetrators, who murdered nearly 3,000 innocent lives, avoid the justice they deserve,’ Rep. Mike Lawler told Fox News Digital. 

‘We owe it to the victims and their families to deliver justice, and that should mean the death penalty for these murderers.’

Rep. Nick LaLota, a U.S. Navy veteran, argued the reported plea deal is unjustly favorable to those accused of plotting the terror attacks. 

‘If the only thing the 9/11 mastermind and his accomplices are offering for a lesser sentence is merely accepting responsibility for murdering 3,000 people, the Justice Department is wrongfully denying [victims’] families of the maximum accountability they deserve,’ he told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Pentagon for a response to the lawmakers’ comments.

No plea agreement is in place at the moment. The cases have dragged on for years due to questions about controversial methods — such as waterboarding — used to obtain evidence from them and other Guantánamo Bay detainees.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in 2001 when two hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City. A third slammed into the Pentagon just outside of Washington, D.C., and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. More than 2,700 people died in Manhattan alone. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took to social media late Tuesday evening to swipe his Democratic competition, highlighting the small crowd that showed up to a recent campaign event.

‘Wow, Six people showed up in San Antonio,’ Cruz wrote on X, responding to a post from Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred, one of eleven candidates running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas on March 5, 2024.

In the initial post, Allred shared four photos at what appears to be a small tropical-themed bar during a stop on his Lone Star Listening Tour. The photos included the lawmaker taking a selfie with a supporter and another photo of about a dozen people, although some of those in the photo could be employees of the bar.

He also said Bexar County, the state’s fourth-most populous county that encompasses San Antonio, was ‘ready to fire Ted Cruz.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Cruz’s office and Rep. Allred’s office for additional comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Allred, a former undrafted free agent for the Tennessee Titans, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018.

He initially defeated then-incumbent Pete Sessions, who switched congressional districts and was later re-elected to the House. The Democrat was then re-elected two other times.

Allred easily won re-election in 2022 — garnering 116,005 votes to his opponent’s 61,494 — and is looking to use his support to win the Democratic primary to challenge Cruz in the general election in Nov. 2024.

He launched a bid to move into the upper chamber of Congress in May of this year.

‘I’m running for U.S. Senate because Texans deserve a Senator whose team is Texas. Ted Cruz only cares about himself,’ Allred said in a post announcing his candidacy.

Some Democrats have considered Cruz’s Senate seat particularly vulnerable as the senator was a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, who was twice-impeached and faces four federal investigations over his role in the Capitol protest on Jan. 6, 2021, his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, his alleged election interference in Georgia, and over allegedly falsifying business records in New York.

Cruz, a 2016 presidential candidate, most recently won re-election in Nov. 2018, when he defeated former Rep. Beto O’Rourke. O’Rourke went on to lose a bid for the presidency and for Texas Governor.

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MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN—When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis takes the debate stage Wednesday night, he’ll remind voters of his ‘proven conservative record’ and pitch his ‘vision to reverse America’s decline.’ 

DeSantis, who will stand center stage at Wednesday night’s Fox News-hosted debate in Milwaukee, is the highest-polling candidate participating in the showdown.

And his campaign is prepared for attacks from the Republican candidates standing alongside him.

‘Gov. DeSantis will be the number one target on the stage,’ DeSantis’ Deputy Campaign Manager David Polyansky told Fox News Digital.

The Republican National Committee stated that ‘qualified candidates will be placed on stage according to polling, with the highest polling candidate in the center.’

In the center of the stage, alongside DeSantis, will stand biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. On either side of DeSantis and Ramaswamy will be former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina will stand in the number five and six positions, with former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum standing on the wings of the debate stage. 

Polyansky added that DeSantis will ‘receive the most incoming from many, if not all, of the candidates on the stage—and off—because they recognize it is a two-person race.’

Former President Donald Trump is currently the leading the 2024 GOP presidential primary field but has chosen not to attend the debate Wednesday night, pointing to his large lead, with DeSantis standing in second place in most polls.

But DeSantis will use Wednesday’s debate as an opportunity to share his vision for the future of America with the Republican electorate.

‘DeSantis in particular has a chance to explain to GOP voters why he deserves to be their nominee based on his proven conservative record and vision to reverse America’s decline,’ Polyansky told Fox News Digital. ‘And also why he feels that nobody is going to be handed this nomination.’

‘You are going to have to show up on the debate stage and make your pitch to Republican voters,’ he said. ‘Through all of the noise, this remains a two-person race.’

DeSantis, during an interview with Fox News Digital over the weekend, said his debate strategy includes ‘defending’ himself, but ‘more importantly showing why we are the leader to get this country turned around.’

Fox News is hosting the first GOP presidential primary debate on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. The debate begins at 9 p.m. ET. Rumble is the online live-streaming partner and Young America’s Foundation is also a partner in the first debate.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Sen. Tim Scott said he has the ‘power of persuasion’ and will present himself on the debate stage as the ‘only competent, qualified’ candidate to run the country, telling Fox News Digital he will put forth ‘commonsense solutions from a conservative platform.’

Scott, R-S.C., in an interview with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the first Republican presidential primary debate of the 2024 election cycle, laid out his plan for Wednesday night.

‘I have to make sure that the American people know that I am the candidate that has the power of persuasion,’ Scott said. ‘And when there is a contrast opportunity on the stage, you should present yourself as the only competent, qualified asset out there.’

Scott said if elected, he will ‘focus on restoring hope, creating opportunities and protecting the America that we love.’

‘For me, protecting America means backing the blue. The Democrats wanted to defund the police; we want to re-fund the police,’ he said. ‘We’re gonna focus on closing the southern border… and finally, you have to stand toe-to-toe with China and protect America.’ 

Scott told Fox News Digital that there are a number of threats facing the nation.

‘The greatest threat to us domestically is this culture of grievance that feels like quicksand sucking us all in,’ he said. ‘And it comes with a drug of victimhood and then narcotic of despair.’

Scott said the greatest ‘national threat’ is the ‘open southern border.’

‘Closing that southern border will save American lives he said. ‘And long-term – the greatest existential threat facing America is China.’ 

Scott, who sits on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital that China is ‘spying on our kids, buying our farm lands, and stealing our intellectual property to compete against us.’

‘As commander in chief, it’s really not about the strength of China or President Xi – it is about the weakness of President Biden,’ he said.

Scott told Fox News Digital that ‘as the next president of the United States, I would focus on decoupling our economies so that we’re more independent in the crucial areas of medicine, microchips and minerals.’

‘If we do that, we will find ourselves more resilient and more able to withstand this threat that’s looming that is China,’ Scott said. ‘We also need to invest more resources for our military.’

‘Having the resources, the capabilities and the equipment so that when our men and women go into the theater of war, they come home safe – that should be the primary responsibility of the president of the United States,’ he said.

Scott said he can deliver and address all issues facing the nation – citing his experience in the Senate and his record.

‘I can tell you that with me on the top of the ticket – the good news is – we’ll have a red wave,’ he said. ‘We’ll control the Senate for the first time in years, we’ll expand our majority in the House.’ 

He added: ‘And that red wave will give us the margin necessary to simply focus on commonsense solutions from a conservative platform.’

Ahead of Wednesday night’s debate, Scott told Fox News Digital he will spend the day with his family, specifically his mother, Miss Frances. A campaign official told Fox News Digital the senator will also spend time in prayer in the book of Proverbs and devotionals, and will also set aside some time to go to the gym.

Fox News is hosting the first GOP presidential primary debate on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. The debate begins at 9 p.m. ET. Rumble is the online live-streaming partner and Young America’s Foundation is also a partner in the first debate.

Parents protesting against progressive school policies that aim to keep children’s gender identity a secret clashed with counterprotesters who support the policy in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon, leading the police department to declare an unlawful assembly.

Nonetheless, the rally of nearly 200 people – organized by the group behind the Instagram handle ‘Leave Our Kids Alone’ – continued as the LAPD reportedly began making arrests among the smaller group of unruly counterprotesters. Officers created a barrier to keep the groups separated.

According to reports, an officer at the scene told KTLA5 that certain crowd members pushed officers and threw objects at them, leading to two arrests.

The school policy protesters chanted slogans like ‘Stand up, fight back’ and ‘Leave our kids alone.’

The group, made up of mostly parents in the Los Angeles Unified School District, hit the streets to advocate for parental notification policies that require schools to notify parents if their children identify as transgender, use different pronouns or try to identify as a gender different to how they were born.

Protesters carried a large banner that read, ‘Cali parents do not co-parent with Newsom,’ a jab at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent battle with local school districts in Temecula and Chino Hills over state-sponsored curriculums.

‘This is not about gay or trans people,’ one speaker said at the rally. ‘This is about the public school education telling me, you as a parent, what they’re going to teach our children. … I’m never given anything before school starts.’

Another protester said, ‘We’re all here today not because we have anything against the gay and lesbian community or families. On the contrary, I feel that everyone should be free to live their lives as they wish … but that’s not what we’re seeing. We’re seeing an agenda shoved down our throats that goes against our God-given parents’ values, morals and traditions.’

Proponents of keeping students’ gender identity private argue it protects them from backlash from unaccepting families.

Earlier this month, State Attorney General Rob Bonta said he would investigate whether the Chino Valley Unified School District, roughly 30 miles southeast of L.A., had infringed upon students’ civil rights by implementing a parental notification policy.

The Murrieta Valley School Board in Riverside County followed suit and received criticism from Bonta, who branded the mandate as a ‘a forced outing policy.’

But parents in several California school districts have been pushing back against the state’s school agenda, which often champions diversity studies and curricula that involve gender identity. Last week, Newsom unveiled a new ‘family agenda’ that promotes ‘educational freedom’ by eliminating ‘political censorship’ in classrooms.

On Monday, several hundred people protested at the state capitol against several controversial bills, one of which would allow children as young as 12 to self-admit themselves into residential mental health programs if signed into law. Critics call it the ‘state-sanctioned kidnapping’ bill.

A planned offshore wind farm moved a step closer to construction Tuesday with the Department of the Interior announcing it has approved the project, to be located in federal waters near Rhode Island south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

The Revolution Wind project will have an estimated capacity of more than 700 megawatts of renewable energy, capable of powering nearly 250,000 homes, and is expected to create about 1,200 jobs during construction, regulators said.

It’s the department’s fourth approval of a commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project, joining the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts, the South Fork Wind project off Rhode Island and New York, and the Ocean Wind 1 project off New Jersey.

The Revolution Wind project is another step toward the Biden administration’s goal of developing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030, said U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

‘Together with industry, labor and partners from coast to coast, we are building an entirely new industry off the east and west and Gulf coasts,’ Haaland said in a statement.

The final version of the plan approved by the department calls for installing fewer turbines than originally proposed by the developer. The goal is to help reduce impacts to visual resources, the ocean floor habitat, and other ocean activities.

The plan identifies possible locations for the installation of 65 wind turbines and two offshore substations.

Revolution Wind will create a fund to compensate for losses by recreational and commercial fisheries in Rhode Island and Massachusetts — as well as fisheries from other states — directly related to the construction of the turbines.

The project will also take steps to reduce potential harm to protected species like marine mammals, sea turtles, and Atlantic sturgeon.

The Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management remains on track to complete reviews of at least 16 offshore wind project plans by 2025, representing more than 27 gigawatts of clean energy, the bureau said.

Vineyard Wind, a separate project, is under construction 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. It includes 62 turbines and is expected to put out 800 megawatts, enough electricity to power more than 400,000 homes, beginning this year.

The first U.S. offshore wind farm opened off Rhode Island’s Block Island in late 2016. But with five turbines, it’s not commercial scale.

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The latest Fox News polling shows immigration and border security rate as the second most important issue facing Americans, but border residents are concerned their message won’t get to Middle Americans in time. 

‘America needs to wake up because this — it’s not happening just down here. It’s happening in all 50 states. This is not a border state issue or a border city issue anymore. That’s done and over with,’ warned Brownsville, Texas, resident Norman Esquivel. 

Ahead of the first GOP presidential debate, immigration lawyer Chris Richardson explained that the candidates need to do a better job at laying out their policy plans.

‘Everyone has a plan on their website, but we need immigration strategy, a consistent, comprehensive strategy of leadership,’ he stated.

Richardson spelled out how the chaos at the border is being caused by a breakdown in America’s legal immigration system, pointing to backlogs in work permits, approvals, and case reviews. ‘Essentially what’s happening is, is because these people can’t use the legal immigration system. They’re trying to use irregular migration to enter the country.’

According to a June PEW Research poll, 73% of U.S. adults think illegal immigration is a moderately or very big problem. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has taken measures at the border into his own hands, erecting floating barriers and putting up razor wire to deter migrants from crossing. 

Esquivel teared up as he described the state of the land he used as his childhood playground. His neighbor Debra Bell detailed the impacts to the community. 

‘We’ve got trash galore. We’ve got people running in the streets, we’ve got bridges being rushed. I mean, this is an issue and you can bet that the American people are gonna remember this come election day,’ Bell said.

Bell worries that Americans who don’t live next to the border may not see the impact immigration policies have beyond what they see on TV. ‘They don’t see it day to day,’ she said. ‘They hear about it, here and there, to no fault of their own, but to see it everywhere you walk — the people on the streets, the trash that’s been left behind.’

Voters like Sandra Kerr-Porcara of Maryland expressed the disbelief that large migration would dramatically affect American life. ‘I don’t understand what all the hoopla is about,’ she said. ‘They’re not here to take our jobs. They’re not here to take our homes, just seriously.’

Sixty percent of Americans, however, disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border. Iowa voter Kim Schmett wants to see more done. ‘Your back door is open on your house. You really don’t own or control your house. The same thing is true for our country. We’ve got to control it,’ she said.

When asked why Middle America should pay more attention to the border, Esquivel points toward fentanyl. ‘What about the fentanyl deaths? What we’re doing down here is stopping the killing field,’ Esquivel said.

President Biden’s retelling of a 15-year-old story about a minor fire at his Delaware home is facing renewed backlash after he told victims of the deadly Hawaii wildfires Monday he shared ‘a little sense’ of what they were going through.

While visiting the fire-ravaged remains of Maui, Biden recalled the fire that started at his Wilmington home due to lightning.

‘I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it was like to lose a home,’ Biden said. ‘Years ago, now 15 years, I was in Washington doing ‘Meet the Press’. … Lightning struck at home on a little lake outside the home. Not a lake. A big pond. It hit the wire and came up underneath our home, into the … air condition ducts.

‘To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette and my cat.’

Biden has recalled the story multiple times in recent years in an apparent attempt to connect with victims of natural disasters. 

A 2004 report from The Associated Press, archived by LexisNexis, said lightning struck the Bidens’ home and started a ‘small fire that was contained to the kitchen.’ 

The report said firefighters got the blaze under control in 20 minutes, and they were able to keep the flames from spreading beyond the kitchen.

The Republican National Committee posted videos Tuesday showing Biden telling multiple variations of the story.

In October of last year, Biden told Hurricane Ian victims in Florida that he lost ‘an awful lot’ of his home due to the fire. 

In January 2022, Biden told Colorado wildfire victims he ‘almost’ lost his home to the fire and that the fire destroyed about 25% of it. But when speaking to the Summit on Fire Prevention and Control in October 2022, he said the smoke from the fire destroyed ‘everything’ from the basement to the attic, and that ‘we almost lost a couple firefighters’ who responded to the blaze.

In November 2021, Biden said he ‘had a house burn down with my wife in it. She got out safely, God willing.’

Biden’s comments Monday to the victims in Maui drew comparisons to when the president was accused of showing a lack of empathy to the Gold Star families of the service members killed by a terrorist attack in Kabul during the Afghanistan military withdrawal in 2021.

Several Gold Star families recalled Biden repeatedly talking about the death of his son Beau, who served in Iraq with the Army but ultimately died of brain cancer in 2015.

‘It’s the same callousness Biden showed toward the Gold Star Families after his Afghanistan withdrawal,’ Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted on X, formerly Twitter. ‘The cruelty and lack of empathy shows Biden’s real character.’

Several Gold Star families are still speaking out against Biden’s treatment toward them following the Kabul airport terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. service members Aug. 26, 2021. 

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he’s still awaiting a response from the White House about a meeting he requested between Biden and the families, who will be in Washington, D.C., this month.

Following the death of her brother in Kabul, Cheyenne McCollum said the president would not look her family in the eye and spent their three-minute conversation talking about Beau.

‘I was able to stand about 15 seconds of his fake, scripted apology, and I had to walk away,’ Cheyenne told ‘Fox & Friends’ in 2021.

Shana Chappell, the mother of Lance Cpl. Nikoui, wrote a scathing Facebook post at the time saying Biden hijacked their conversation by talking about Beau and that he rolled his eyes when she challenged him.

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

Wisconsin Republicans grilled members of the state’s judicial ethics commission who are up for Senate confirmation, pressing them Tuesday to say how they would handle complaints that could come against the new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court.

The hearing foreshadows what could be a looming battle between Republicans who control the Legislature and the state Supreme Court, which liberal justices took control of this month for the first time in 15 years. The committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. Van Wanggaard, said after the hearing that he was impressed with all three nominees, but he conceded that he hadn’t discussed their status with his party’s leadership.

Republican legislative leaders have been calling on Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose victory tipped the court to liberal control, to recuse herself from cases expected before the court on redistricting and abortion. Protasiewicz made abortion rights central to her campaign earlier this year and also called the Republican-drawn legislative maps ‘rigged.’

Her comments outraged conservatives but appeared to fall short of saying how she would rule on those issues. Judges may publicly express their beliefs and opinions but are prohibited from saying how they would rule on cases that could come before them.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the state’s top Republican, threatened to impeach Protasiewicz if she doesn’t step back from a redistricting case filed with the court the day after she took office.

GOP senators on Tuesday quizzed the three judicial ethics commissioners up for reappointment about their past political contributions, when they would recuse themselves from a case and how they would weigh comments similar to those made by Protasiewicz.

The full Senate, which Republicans control 22-11, will ultimately vote on whether to confirm Janet Jenkins, Mary Beth Keppel and Judy Ziewacz. Senate rejection carries the effect of firing them.

The nine-member Judicial Commission is one of the few avenues through which people can challenge the actions of Supreme Court justices. It is tasked with investigating judges and court commissioners who are accused of violating the state’s judicial code of conduct and can prosecute officials before the Supreme Court. Its members include two lawyers and two judges appointed by the Supreme Court and five non-lawyers appointed by the governor to three-year terms.

Lawmakers honed in Tuesday on Ziewacz’s position on the board of Law Forward, one of the liberal groups behind the redistricting lawsuit before the Supreme Court. Ziewacz assured them that she would consider recusing herself from any complaints involving the group’s litigation, and other commissioners provided examples of cases in which they had recused themselves due to conflicts of interest.

Sens. Kelda Roys and Lena Taylor, the committee’s Democratic members, called Republicans’ line of questioning ‘disrespectful’ to the commissioners’ experience and professionalism.

After the hearing, Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, the committee’s chair, noted his concerns about Ziewacz’s involvement with Law Forward but said he was impressed by each of the commissioners. Wanggaard also said he had not discussed the appointments with Senate leadership.

‘I liked the testimony from all three,’ he said. ‘From the answers that I got, and the demeanor that each one of these candidates brought to today’s interview, I think it was pretty positive.’a

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