A hate speech watchdog group Republicans have accused of coordinating with the federal government to censor conservatives on social media says GOP lawmakers are mistaken.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) responded to an inquiry from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Thursday, writing in a letter that Republicans ‘may not have a clear understanding’ of the group’s mission or work. 

Jordan previously sent a letter to CCDH accusing the organization of participating in a ‘censorship regime’ facilitated by the Biden administration with cooperation from social media companies.

‘Given the stated purpose of the letter and its requests for documents and information, we fear that the Committee may not have a clear understanding of CCDH’s mission or work,’ a lawyer representing CCDH wrote in response to the House Judiciary Committee Thursday. 

‘Considering the seriousness of this allegation and the underlying concerns regarding online disinformation, we feel compelled to set the record straight.’ 

On Aug. 3, Jordan demanded that CCDH turn over documents and communications between the organization and the executive branch and social media companies. Judiciary Republicans also requested information on any and all funds CCDH received from the federal government.

In its response, CCDH explained its status as a non-for-profit 501(c)(3) and non-governmental organization ‘that seeks to disrupt the architecture of online hate and misinformation.’ The letter reiterated CCDH’s stated mission and highlighted its work with both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The group claimed it has an obligation ‘to remain nonpolitical and nonpartisan.’ 

The letter also addressed lawmakers’ questions over CCDH’s funding. 

‘CCDH is funded entirely by private donors and has never received any grants, entered into any contracts, or received any donations from the United States Government,’ the letter emphasized. 

READ CCDH’S RESPONSE TO REP. JIM JORDAN BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

CCDH’s lawyers noted that Jordan’s initial Aug. 3 letter was sent on the same day the Judiciary Committee released a press release that cited a lawsuit filed by X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, against the organization. Questioning the timing, the letter said CCDH ‘will not be dissuaded from pursuing its vital mission by litigation, governmental inquiry, or public pressure.’ 

In the lawsuit filed earlier this month, X Corp. claimed CCDH published ‘misleading claims’ and exaggerated the prevalence of harmful content on X to thwart investment from advertisers. 

X Corp. said the ‘scare campaign’ was accomplished by illegally scraping data and cherry-picking inflammatory posts to support the CCDH’s thesis about hate speech on the platform.

CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed denied the allegations and stood by his group’s claims that hate speech increased on X after Musk bought the platform. 

Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department and the FBI for documents related to its investigation into Big Tech censorship, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained and reviewed the subpoenas Thursday, which compel the DOJ and FBI to turn over responsive documents and communications to the House Judiciary Committee by Sept. 18 at 9:00 a.m. 

‘The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of how and the extent to which the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,’ House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wrote in letters to both Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray Thursday.

Jordan, R-Ohio, and committee Republicans have asked for communications between the Justice Department, private companies and other third-party groups in addition to other information for months, requesting the agencies to voluntarily cooperate with its oversight probe back in April.

‘Your response without compulsory process has, to date, been woefully inadequate,’ Jordan wrote.

Jordan said the committee’s ongoing investigation, along with publicized discoveries out of the ongoing federal court case Missouri v. Biden, has exposed how the federal government ‘has pressured and colluded with Big Tech and other intermediaries to censor certain viewpoints on social and other media in ways that undermine First Amendment principles. 

‘The First Amendment prohibits government officials from imposing viewpoint-based censorship restrictions,’ Jordan wrote, saying that documents that are already publicly-available ‘reflect the weaponization of the federal government’s power to censor speech online directly and by proxy.

‘It is necessary for Congress to gauge the extent to which DOJ officials have coerced, pressured, worked with, or relied upon social media and other tech companies to censor speech,’ Jordan wrote. 

Jordan said the Justice Department has produced ‘only a single document: a publicly available transcript’ of a civil deposition of FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan from Missouri v. Biden.

‘Through its investigation, the Committee has uncovered evidence that contradicts several statements in Agent Chan’s deposition, particularly as they relate to his communications with social media platforms,’ Jordan wrote. ‘This production is woefully inadequate and omits voluminous responsive material, including communications between DOJ and tech companies, internal communications, and communications between DOJ and other executive branch entities.’

Citing the federal Missouri v. Biden case again, Jordan said that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana found that government defendants ‘jointly participated’ with social media companies so that they had become ‘pervasively entwined’ in the companies’ workings ‘to such an extent as to blur the line between public and private action.’

‘The Department, including the FBI, does not censor content on social media platforms,’ a DOJ spokesman said. ‘Private companies have the sole authority to make decisions to protect their platforms and users. As with all the Committee’s various requests, the Department remains committed to working with the Committee to fulfill their informational needs.’

Jordan earlier this year subpoenaed the chief executive officers of Google, Amazon, Facebook and others for documents related to the government’s alleged collusion with Big Tech companies to suppress free speech.

Meanwhile, last month, the federal judge presiding over Missouri v. Biden blocked key Biden administration agencies and departments from communicating with social media companies to avoid potential First Amendment violations. The Biden administration is asking a court to stay a preliminary injunction.

In the ruling, the court found that ‘‘Domestic disinformation’ was also flagged by the FBI for social media platforms. Just before the 2020 election, information would be passed from other field offices to the FBI 2020 election command post in San Francisco. The information sent would then be relayed to the social-media platforms where the accounts were detected.’

Last week, Republicans on the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Government Weaponization filed an amicus brief in the case of Missouri v. Biden.

Jordan has released several tranches of internal company emails, court records and various documents related to Facebook that Republicans are pointing to as ‘smoking gun’ evidence that the Biden administration and Big Tech firms ran afoul of the First Amendment.

Revelations from those ‘Facebook Files’ were included in the  amicus brief, which accuses the Biden administration of exerting ‘direct and coercive’ pressure on social media companies.

The Justice Department and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, a Republican, is continuing to build momentum in his campaign to unseat three-term Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., in what’s expected to be one of 2024’s most watched races.

Sheehy, who is also a business owner and firefighter pilot, has racked up a number of high-profile endorsements from local and national Republicans since launching his Senate campaign in June, but added another big name to that list this week: former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

‘I want you to know that I’ve looked carefully, and I think Tim Sheehy is going to be a great United States senator. He’s a patriot, he’s hard-working, he’s a good businessman, he served in the military, and I think, with your help, he’s going to help straighten Washington out,’ Gingrich said in a video obtained by Fox News Digital.

In addition to Gingrich, Sheehy has won the backing of Republican Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte; Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.; and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont.; as well as Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss.; Ted Budd, R-N.C.; Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.

Before entering the political scene, Sheehy served in Iraq, Afghanistan, South America and the Pacific region, receiving the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Combat and the Purple Heart Medal. On top of also owning several businesses, the veteran recipient shares four kids with his Marine veteran wife, Carmen Sheehy.

No other Republicans have jumped into the race to challenge Sheehy’s path to a general election matchup with Tester, but Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., an outspoken member of the House Freedom Caucus who lost his own challenge to the Democrat in 2018 by 3.5 points in the deep-red state, is reportedly mulling another run.

The race could ultimately determine whether Republicans gain control of the Senate, where Democrats currently hold a one-seat majority with the backing of three independent senators that caucus with the party.

Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

A Florida felon filed a motion Wednesday to block Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from removing the state attorney handling his case, an official the governor says is soft and refuses to adequately prosecute crimes.

The felon, Melizaire Dorsica, petitioned Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit court to revoke DeSantis’ executive order removing State Attorney Monique Worrell. DeSantis accused Worrell of ‘dereliction of duty’ and being ‘soft’ last week and replaced her with Florida Judge Andrew Bain.

Dorsica’s filing argues that the executive order was unconstitutional, and he is requesting that Bain be removed and Worrell be reinstated to prosecute his case.

Dorsica was convicted of his first felony in 2022, pleading guilty to possession of dimethylpentylone, a drug similar to amphetamines. He is now facing another felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon as a convicted felon, making him precisely the sort of defendant granted ‘extremely reduced sentences’ by Worrell, according to DeSantis.

Dorsica’s gun charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years, a requirement Worrell’s replacement would in all likelihood respect. DeSantis pointed to Worrell’s refusal to adequately prosecute gun crimes as a primary reason for her removal last week, saying she ‘prevented or discouraged’ prosecutors from pursuing those sentences.

Dorsica’s attorneys argue that the executive order removing Worrell and replacing her with Bain is unconstitutional because Worrell was simply exerting prosecutorial discretion.

‘All of the grievances cited in support of [DeSantis’ order] are attributable to DeSantis’ dissatisfaction with Worrell’s exercise of prosecutorial discretion, not a ‘blanket policy,” the motion reads.

The governor said during a press conference last week that he was confident the Florida constitution granted him the authority to remove Worrell. This is the second time DeSantis has taken drastic action against a Florida prosecutor. He also suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren in August 2022 for refusing to enforce the state’s abortion ban.

That suspension was upheld in court in a January decision from a federal judge.

Worrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. She did fire back after DeSantis’ move to remove her last week, however, calling the suspension ‘a smokescreen for Ron DeSantis’ failing and disastrous presidential campaign,’ in which the governor is trailing behind former President Donald Trump.

‘He needed to get back in the media in some positive way, in a way that would be red meat for his base and he will have accomplished that today,’ Worrell said. ‘He will be in the news nationally and internationally for the individual who has single-handedly destroyed democracy in the state of Florida.’

North Carolina has banned sex change surgeries and related care for minors after Republican lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s opposition. 

GOP supermajorities in the state’s House and Senate on Wednesday enacted a bill barring medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical sex change procedures to anyone under 18, with limited exceptions.

The law takes effect immediately. But minors who had begun treatment before Aug. 1 may continue receiving that care if their doctors deem it medically necessary and their parents consent.

The Senate voted 27-18 to complete the veto override after the House voted 74-45 earlier. Two House Democrats joined all present Republicans in supporting the override bid.

Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein, North Carolina’s only out LGBTQ+ state senator, said the bill ‘may be the most heartbreaking bill in a truly heartbreaking session.’

Republican Sen. Joyce Krawiec, the bill’s primary sponsor, argued the state has a responsibility to protect children from receiving potentially irreversible procedures before they are old enough to make their own informed medical decisions.

North Carolina is one of nearly two dozen states to enact legislation restricting or banning sex change surgery for minors. Local LGBTQ+ rights advocates have vowed to take the ban to court. 

The law was among a slew of bills passed Wednesday touching on gender in sports and LGBTQ+ instruction in the classroom. 

Earlier, the Senate and House voted minutes apart to override another veto of a bill limiting LGBTQ+ instruction in the early grades. The law now requires that public school teachers in most circumstances alert parents before they call a student by a different name or pronoun. It also bans instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms, which critics have previously likened to a Florida law opponents call ‘Don’t Say Gay.’ 

Both chambers also voted Wednesday to override Cooper’s veto of another bill banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams from middle and high school through college. It, too, immediately became law.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

A state senator in Georgia is moving to impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over the charges brought against former President Trump.

Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore is moving to impeach Willis, accusing the prosecutor of carrying out a political agenda against Trump.

‘As a Georgia State Senator, I am officially calling for an emergency session to review the actions of Fani Willis,’ Moore said on social media Thursday.

‘America is under attack. I’m not going to sit back and watch as radical left prosecutors politically TARGET political opponents,’ he added.

Moore also published a letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to demand a special session be called to address ‘the actions of Fani Willis.’

‘We, the undersigned, being duly elected members of the Georgia House of Representatives and Georgia Senate, and comprising 3/5 of each respective house, pursuant to Article IV, Section II, Paragraph VII(b), hereby certify to you, in writing, with a copy to the Secretary of State, that in our opinion an emergency exists in the affairs of the state, requiring a special session to be convened under that section, for all purposes, to include, without limitation, the review and response to the actions of Fani Willis.’

Willis held a press conference late Monday after a Fulton County grand jury handed up charges against the former president and numerous others.

The Georgia district attorney gave Trump and the other 18 people in the indictment until noon on Aug. 25 to surrender to law enforcement.

Willis said during the press conference that she would like a trial to take place within six months.

Trump’s campaign set its sights on Willis as a public target after his indictment Monday night, saying her family is ‘steeped in hate’ while drawing attention to her father’s Black Panther ties.

After the charges came down, Trump’s campaign emailed supporters about the Georgia prosecutor. The message included quotes from a 2021 Time magazine article and the Fulton County government website.

The campaign wrote that Willis comes from a ‘family steeped in hate’ and is the ‘daughter of a former Black Panther’ before referencing the Time magazine piece.

Willis’ office declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital’s Houston Keene and Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report.

Hunter Biden’s misdemeanor tax charges have been dismissed by a federal judge in Delaware, an expected move after his ‘sweetheart’ plea deal fell through last month during his first court appearance in the case.

The Justice Department submitted a filing last week to dismiss the case ahead of a possible trial on Biden’s felony gun charge in a different district.

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.

Biden’s attorneys and Special Counsel David Weiss 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.

On Tuesday, Weiss strongly rejected claims by Biden’s legal team that his office ‘reneged’ on the plea deal for President Biden’s son to resolve the federal tax and gun charges, while stressing that agreement was ‘not in effect.’

In a court filing, Weiss fired back at the Biden attorneys, which, over the weekend, filed a motion stating that ‘the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement.’

He added that Biden ‘chose to plead not guilty at the hearing on July 26, 2023, and U.S. Probation declined to approve the proposed diversion agreement at that hearing. Thus, neither proposed agreement entered into effect.’

Weiss said that Biden ‘rejected these counterproposals on August 7, 2023.’

‘Seeing that the parties were at an impasse, the Government informed the Defendant, in writing on August 9, 2023, that it was withdrawing the most recent version of its proposed plea and diversion agreements,’ Weiss wrote in the filing. ‘That is why the Government has asked the Court to vacate its briefing order and has moved to dismiss the criminal tax information.’

Fox News’ Greg Norman and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Republican White House candidate Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is dishing out roughly $8 million to run ads starting Thursday in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to vote in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

The announcement, shared first with Fox News and a handful of other organizations, comes as Scott’s standing in the race to be the 2024 Republican standard-bearer is on the rise. And the large seven-figure buy underscores a key advantage for the Scott in a crowded field of contenders – his well stocked campaign war chest.

The new ad buy by the Scott campaign includes $6.6 million to run TV spots, with the rest for digital and radio commercials. 

The new buy is the second major ad blitz by Scott. His campaign shelled out nearly $6 million to run spots in the early voting states as he declared his candidacy for the presidency in mid-May.

Scott’s campaign touted that the senator is the only candidate to date to have ads placed post-Labor Day.

In addition to the new ad blitz, the Scott-aligned super PAC announced last month that it would spend $40 million to reserve TV and digital ad time to run ads starting Sept. 7 in Iowa, New Hampshire and the senator’s home state of South Carolina, which votes third in the GOP presidential nominating calendar. TIM PAC said its spots will run through January, when the first votes in the GOP primaries and caucuses are cast.

Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and a rising star in the GOP, has been spotlighting an uplifting conservative message as he seeks his party’s presidential nomination.

Scott is in third place in the initial edition of the Fox News Power Rankings in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, which were unveiled Wednesday. He trails only former President Donald Trump – the commanding front-runner as he makes his third straight White House run – and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The senator stood at 11% in July in the most recent Fox News polling in Iowa, putting him in third place behind Trump and DeSantis.

And in his home state, he stood at 10% last month in Fox News polling, putting him in fourth behind Trump, DeSantis and his fellow home state candidate, former U.N. ambassador and former Gov. Nikki Haley.

Scott, who’s also known for his fundraising prowess, entered July with a very healthy $21 million in his campaign coffers, according to his fundraising filing with the Federal Election Commission. That was second only to Trump.

The senator, in an interview last month in New Hampshire with Fox News Digital, emphasized that he and his campaign are going to ‘keep doing what we’re doing. It’s working. So, we have to continue to show up, continue to have the resources to put on TV.’

Scott’s war chest – which is paying for the new ad blitz – is fueled by grassroots support for his White House bid as well as a massive transfer of funds from his 2022 Senate reelection campaign.

‘Tim Scott is the only candidate who has shown steady, upward momentum since entering the race. As he prepares to take the debate stage, it is clear he not only is the best messenger and most consistent conservative in the race but also has the resources to win,’ the Scott campaign said as it pointed to next week’s Fox News-hosted first GOP presidential primary debate.

FIRST ON FOX — Top Republicans on Capitol Hill are vowing a crackdown on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for allegedly destroying documents related to a congressional probe.

‘By deleting documents, the FTC likely violated federal law. It also impeded Congressional oversight of the FTC’s recent, unprecedented actions, including its proposed rule banning non-compete clauses,’ Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and ranking member on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, wrote in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, which was dated for Thursday and shown to Fox News Digital ahead of its release.

‘Congress and the public deserve an explanation of why the FTC improperly destroyed records, what records it improperly destroyed, and what steps will be taken to ensure it never happens again,’ Cruz wrote, joined by Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican and the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

The letter by Republican legislators comes about a year and a half after the FTC’s in-house watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), found multiple failure’s in the FTC’s record-keeping process. 

The Republicans allege that the FTC ‘improperly deleted’ documents that Jordan had requested in relation to the agency’s new rule that would ban private-sector employers from requiring workers to sign noncompete clauses that restrict them from working for competitors or starting new businesses that offer similar services for a period of time.

Jordan in February said the rule would wipe out roughly 30 million existing noncompete agreements, and while the FTC highlights estimated benefits of the rule, it made little effort to quantify the costs, according to Jordan.

Jordan said the rule ‘exceeds [the commission’s] delegated authority and imposes a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach that violates basic American principles of federalism and free markets.’

Jordan sought at the time, among other things, documents related to the litigation risks due to the rulemaking, economic analysis related to the rulemaking, and communications between the FTC and third parties about the rulemaking.

In May, the FTC informed House Judiciary Committee staff that it had ‘deleted material likely responsive to the Committee’s requests,’ including records of the employee on detail from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who led the FTC’s rulemaking.

‘The FTC’s deletion of documents responsive to a Congressional inquiry underscores the OIG’s conclusion in 2022 that ‘the FTC has not prioritized records management nor embedded it as a value in the agency’s culture,’’ the top Republicans wrote.

‘Moreover, it suggests that the agency is not committed to complying with the law, and that it may continue to delete records that are relevant to ongoing investigations. This is not how a federal agency should be run,’ they wrote.

The GOP trio notes in their letter that ‘Federal law imposes important recordkeeping requirements on the FTC.’

The Federal Records Act (FRA) requires the head of every federal agency to ‘make and preserve records’ about the agency’s ‘functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions.’ It further requires agency heads to ‘establish and maintain’ a ‘records scheduling’ process, pursuant to which the agency must identify the records it has, determine how long each type of record is deemed valuable, and when there is no longer a need for them at the agency, request authority to either legally destroy the records or transfer them to the National Archives.

The FRA explains that such recordkeeping is necessary to ‘furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency’s activities,’ the lawmakers note.

‘It turns out the FTC has struggled to comply with the law,’ they write.

In a February 2022 memo, the OIG ‘alert[ed] FTC leadership’ to two key issues with the FTC’s records management processes: the agency (1) was not adhering to the National Archives and Records Administration (‘NARA’) records scheduling requirements and (2) had not set up ‘automated practices for properly storing and timely disposing of records in a manner across the agency.’

The lawmakers note that the OIG found it ‘[p]articularly noteworthy’ that ‘the Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection do not use a comprehensive case management system for their case files’ and that FTC management had ‘no plans’ to store files on the FTC’s cloud platform rather than various shared drive folders.

‘To date, the FTC has not adequately addressed concerns about its record retention policy,’ the Republicans say in the letter.

‘The agency has not explained how documents were deleted related to a rulemaking that the FTC should have known would face litigation, FOIA requests, and Congressional oversight. In addition, the FTC has not explained how federal records from senior advisors (sic) at the FTC could be deleted, regardless of whether there were litigation or other holds placed on the documents.’

The FTC did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the letter.

The Republicans requested an exhaustive list of communications from the agency, including what documents the FTC may have deleted in relation to 12 additional congressional oversight probes into the agency.

House Democrats are launching a working group aimed at crafting artificial intelligence policy, the latest attempt by federal lawmakers to wrap their heads around legislating the rapidly-advancing sector. 

The New Democrat Coalition, a group of nearly 100 House Democrats that touts itself as ‘pragmatic,’ unveiled the new initiative this week. 

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., one of the initiative’s vice chairs, told Fox News Digital he hopes the working group will ‘help develop real, practicable ideas that will put guardrails in place for AI.

‘I continue to be focused on a variety of areas related to AI, including safety and security, transparency, the future of work, preventing civil rights abuses, health care and suicide prevention, and more, and have discussions ongoing about legislation in these areas with members of both parties,’ Beyer said. ‘Congress has to get up to speed on this issue, and I think the New Dems’ AI working group will be a constructive setting for progress.’

Working group Chair Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., suggested it could lay the groundwork for an AI regulatory framework in the House of Representatives. ‘We are already seeing how breakthroughs in this emerging technology present both great opportunities and challenges with potential disruptions for workers, for democracy, and for national security,’ Kilmer said.

‘As AI’s applications expand and change, it is incumbent on lawmakers to address its unique opportunities and challenges by creating a regulatory framework that both encourages growth while guarding against potential risks.’

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., another member of the working group and a Marine veteran, said he was concerned with how AI would ‘transform warfare’ and called on Congress to put up responsible guardrails against the technology’s most devastating possibilities.

‘It’s going to be impossible for Congress to really stay ahead of AI, but what we can and should do is to take very seriously AI’s most dangerous use cases and develop solutions and safeguards that apply directly to those cases,’ Moulton told Fox News Digital. ‘I’m also particularly concerned about how AI will transform warfare. We need a Geneva Convention for AI in warfare so that Beijing or Moscow aren’t empowered to set the goalposts. The New Dems are known for prioritizing practical solutions to our biggest challenges, so this working group makes a lot of sense and I expect it to be very productive.’

He also added, ‘I’m glad this working group will be focusing on protecting our democratic institutions from AI interference. Trust in our elections is already eroding and AI could do irreparable harm if left unchecked.’

It follows a similar effort by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who launched a bipartisan AI working group with the aim of crafting regulation earlier this year. 

And while efforts to regulate AI appear to be in their infancy so far, it’s already clear that Democrats in Congress’ lower chamber would have a more uphill battle than in the Senate.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who set up a bipartisan group of AI learning sessions for House lawmakers alongside Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital in April that it was early to start discussing regulatory barriers. 

‘What you want to first do, you want to gather all the information,’ he said at the time. ‘That’s why I think the best approach here is to bring in some of the brightest minds to talk about it before you’re crafting any legislation on it.’

Fox News Digital reached out to McCarthy’s office to inquire whether his position has since shifted but did not immediately hear back.