A Gold Star mom sobbed before members of Congress on Monday as she accused the Biden administration of lying to her about the circumstances of her Marine son’s death in Afghanistan in August 2021. 

Kelly Barnett, whose son Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, was one of 13 U.S. servicemembers killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul during the military’s evacuation two summers ago, was the first of several relatives to speak at a Congressional forum held by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. It’s the first time the relatives of all 13 fallen troops are together to speak at a public event. 

‘I’m going to be brave and in tell you about my kid. He’s an amazing kid. And I want you to know that I am not a victim. We’re not victims. We’re parents to some mighty heroes. I want you to know that,’ Barnett said. 

She said her son’s concern about the controversial withdrawal ‘began the moment that he landed’ there for his final deployment. He saw ‘chaos, no communication, lack of leadership,’ she said. 

Barnett’s voice, full of emotion, broke when she said her son was told to ‘clean up the airport’ because ‘we can’t leave it dirty for the Taliban.’

‘What kind of disrespect? What kind of hatred for our military? What kind of mess? Confusion. Deceit. Lost. Angry. Sad. Heartbroken and disgusted. These are the feelings that the service members felt. And are still feeling. These are the feelings I’m feeling,’ she cried.

The families of the fallen were subsequently ‘told lies, given incomplete reports, incorrect reports, total disrespect,’ the grieving mother said.

‘I was told to my face, he died on impact. That’s not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth,’ Barnett claimed. ‘I was lied to and basically told to shut up.’

‘He lived for a little while…he was giving out his ammo. He tied a tourniquet at around his leg. I don’t understand the reasoning of that lie. It makes no sense other than the fact that, did they really even do an investigation? Did they talk to witnesses? I don’t know.’

Taylor’s father Darren Hoover later angrily called on President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley to resign. 

To Biden directly, Hoover said, ‘Be a grown a** man. Admit to your mistakes. Learn from them so that this doesn’t happen ever, ever again.’

‘You all need to resign immediately. Our sons, daughters have more integrity in their little toes than every one of them combined,’ he added.

A Defense Department spokesperson’s statement on the Gold Star families’ testimony said, ‘The Department of Defense expresses our deepest condolences to the Gold Star Families who lost loved ones during the tragic bombing at Abbey Gate. We are forever grateful for their service, sacrifice, and committed efforts during the evacuation operations. We also commend the historic and monumental efforts of all our service men and women who served honorably during the withdrawal period from Afghanistan.’

Following Devon Archer’s bombshell congressional interview last week alleging President Biden’s deep involvement with Hunter Biden’s business dealings, a new light is being cast on his son’s longtime business partner who stands to know even more.

Eric Schwerin visited the Obama White House and then-Vice President Biden’s residence at least 36 times between 2009 and 2016, likely to make him the next target of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.

Schwerin was the founding partner and managing director of Hunter’s now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca Partners when he was appointed by then-President Obama to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, an independent U.S. government agency, in early 2015. 

‘Eric asked for one of these the day after the election in 2008,’ Hunter revealed about Schwerin’s appointment in an email on March 13, 2015.

Obama reappointed Schwerin to the commission in January 2017.

The number of Schwerin’s visits to the White House could be much higher than 36 if any of his meetings fell under its voluntary disclosure policy exception of ‘purely personal guests,’ due to his handling of the Biden family’s personal finances.

‘The White House will not release access records related to purely personal guests of the first and second families (i.e., visits that do not involve any official or political business)’ the Obama administration’s archived website says.

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.’

Hunter also acknowledged that Schwerin was a ‘close confidant and counsel’ to his father in a February 2014 email thread with Schwerin, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Peter Schweizer, the president of Government Accountability Institute and an expert on Hunter’s business dealings, told ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that ‘If Devon Archer was the sort of business guy, the deal guy in how you structure this, Eric Schwerin was the money guy.’

One of Schwerin’s visits to the White House – in November 2010 – was a sit-down with Biden in the West Wing. Schwerin also visited Biden’s residence at least 15 times for various holiday receptions, including the Dec. 12 holiday reception in 2015 that came a couple of days after Biden’s infamous trip to Ukraine, where he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid if the country’s leaders did not fire their top prosecutor.

According to White House visitor logs, Schwerin attended the reception along with Hunter, Archer and Sebastian Momtazi, an associate who worked in Rosemont Seneca’s New York City office with Archer. Archer, who was also on the Burisma board with Hunter, and Momtazi both had Burisma.com email addresses, according to emails previously reviewed by Fox News Digital.

On March 2, 2012, Schwerin met with Hunter and former Colombia President Andrés Pastrana Arango at Vice President Biden’s Naval Observatory residence, according to an entry in Hunter’s personal calendar previously reported by the New York Post. 

Later the same day, Hunter, whose Rosemont Seneca had entered a contract months earlier with OAS, a Brazilian construction company with Colombian interests, scheduled a lunch at Café Milano with Arango and Juan Esteban Orduz, the president of Colombian Coffee Federation, the Post reported.

In April 2015, one month after his initial appointment in the U.S. government, Schwerin visited Vice President Biden’s residence for what the visitor logs labeled a ‘meeting.’

The visitor log for April 15 does not list who he met with or whether Vice President Biden was present, but the timing will likely spark some questions from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee due to the meeting taking place one day before Vice President Biden’s infamous dinner at Café Milano with multiple business associates of Hunter, including top Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi. 

Schwerin also appears to have been present at the Café Milano dinner.

Archer confirmed last week that Vice President Biden showed up at the upscale Georgetown restaurant on April 16 and ‘had dinner’ with several of Hunter’s business associates including ‘Vadym P. from Burisma,’ blowing the lid off the narrative that the Biden campaign and Biden White House repeatedly pushed denying then-Vice President Biden attended the dinner.

Schwerin also visited with several of Biden’s aides throughout the tenure of the Obama-Biden administration, including his first documented visit at the Obama White House in late 2009 with Evan Ryan, who is married to Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken and is currently serving as the White House cabinet secretary. 

She was also in frequent communication with Hunter and Schwerin throughout the administration about White House events, including the Mexico State Dinner and the annual ‘Easter Egg Roll’ in 2010.

‘OVP has 250 tix to the Easter Egg Roll and your Mom has an additional 200. Family, etc is coming out of your Mom’s allotment,’ Schwerin said in the email to Hunter, referring to Ryan. ‘Evan is handling your Dad’s and we can pass on names to her for outreach purposes. Let’s discuss. I don’t think we have 50 spots, but if we had 20 or so names we’d probably be fine.’

In 2016, Schwerin met with Steve Ricchetti, who was Biden’s chief of staff at the time and is currently White House counselor, at least twice in room 272 on Feb. 29 and room 276 on Aug. 17 at the Old Executive Office Building.

In one September 2015 email, Schwerin tells Hunter to look at his ‘text about Slim and Azcaraga scheduling,’ appearing to refer to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcarraga, another billionaire in Mexico running Televisa, a mass media and entertainment company.

‘I can work it with Steve R if you want,’ Schwerin said, referring to Ricchetti. ‘Timing would be interesting and I can discuss with you offline if you want more. Will probably take awhile to coordinate schedules but can’t imagine it would be until October if we started process now.’

Hunter arranged a video conference the following month with his father and Carlos Slim, whom Hunter was seeking to do business with at the time on Oct. 30, 2015.

Less than a month after the video conference, Slim and a couple of Hunter’s business associates attended a meeting with then-Vice President Biden, Hunter and Hunter’s business partner and family friend Jeff Cooper at the vice presidential residence at Number One Observatory Circle, Washington, D.C., according to photos dated Nov. 19, 2015 and published by The Daily Mail.

Schwerin also met with Anne Marie Person, who served as a general assistant at Rosemont Seneca until 2014 before joining Biden’s office, at least three times between February and June 2016, a Fox News Digital review found. 

According to White House visitor logs, Schwerin met Person in Vice President Biden’s ‘West Wi[ng]’ office on Feb. 24, April 8, and June 9. It is unclear if Biden was present for the meetings. Person was also the point of contact for a West Wing tour Schwerin took in August 2015.

Person is the sister of Francis ‘Fran’ Person, a longtime Biden aide who left the White House a few months after his sister joined Biden’s office in May 2014. He served as an advisor to Biden between 2009 and 2014, when he traveled to 49 of the 50 countries Biden visited, including China. 

FOX Business previously reported on Fran’s ties to Hunter and Schwerin and that Rosemont Seneca had a financial stake in a company run by Fran and a Chinese executive with ties to officials at some of the highest levels of the Communist Party of China.

In 2017, Schwerin emailed Hunter a breakdown of all his financial stakes, which included an equity stake in multiple Washington, D.C.-based affiliates of the China-based Harves Century Group. 

Person previously claimed that ‘Hunter Biden, Rosemont Seneca Advisors or any affiliate or associate have never held any equity in any Harves affiliated company,’ despite multiple emails from Hunter and Schwerin contradicting this claim. The Harves website was taken down, and Fran deleted his Linkedin shortly after previous reporting.

When Fran unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016, then-Vice President Biden attended multiple fundraisers for him while Hunter and Schwerin were simultaneously working behind the scenes to solicit donations for his campaign and secure business deals for his company in China, Fox News previously reported. 

Both Person siblings kept in frequent contact with Hunter and Schwerin during their Obama-Biden administration roles using their government emails.

In addition to Person and Ricchetti, Schwerin made three other visits with staffers from Vice President Biden’s office in 2016. Schwerin met with John McGrail, who was a counselor to Biden, on July 15 and Sept. 9 at the White House. 

He also met with Kaitlyn Demers, who was serving as an associate counsel in Biden’s office in 2016, on June 28. She was serving as a special assistant to President Biden and then-chief of staff Ron Klain until last August.

Fox News Digital previously reported about Schwerin’s cozy relationship with Biden’s office when he was vice president.

In 2015, Schwerin worked closely with Kate Bedingfield, who was serving as Biden’s communications director and who recently left the Biden administration in the same role to join CNN, in trying to quash a Bloomberg News story about Hunter, according to emails published in March.

Emails also showed that Schwerin fielded book deal requests for the elder Biden and worked on his tax returns, as well as managed bill payments between the father and son duo.

‘Sorry – too much indecision and I was dealing all afternoon with JRB’s taxes (but solved a big issue – so it was all worth it),’ Schwerin wrote in an email to Hunter on April 9, 2010, referring to the elder Biden, whose full name is Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

‘Your Dad’s Delaware tax refund check came today,’ Schwerin told Hunter in an email on June 10, 2010. ‘I am depositing it in his account and writing a check in that amount back to you since he owes it to you. Don’t think I need to run it by him, but if you want to go ahead.  If not, I will deposit tomorrow.’

‘Your Dad just called me (about his mortgage) and mentioned he’d be out a lot soon and not really back until Labor Day so it dawned on me it might be a good time (also he could use some positive news about his future earnings potential!),’ Schwerin wrote on July 6, 2010.

On Dec. 9, 2016, Schwerin demanded Hunter refill his bank account in order to pay for an array of forthcoming autopay bills, including an AT&T bill in the amount of $190 for ‘JRB.’

Hunter has previously claimed that he and his father shared a bank account.

Schwerin also served with Hunter for several years on the board of advisers for the Philadelphia-based project development firm ABD Group.

Fox News Digital previously reported that John Nevergole, the co-founder and current CEO of ABD Group, was tapped earlier this year to serve another term on President Biden’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA), which advises the president on African engagement through the Department of Commerce.

Nevergole previously worked as a senior adviser to Rosemont Seneca and strategized with him on brokering multiple business deals in Western Africa while Biden was vice president.

Schwerin and Hunter were also instrumental in helping President Biden’s current campaign co-chair, Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, fundraise for his successful 2010 Senate bid, using their network of in-state and out-of-state business associates to contribute to Coons’ campaign, Fox News Digital reported in April.

In addition to managing the finances for the Bidens, Schwerin was instrumental in the planning process for Biden’s life after the Obama administration, including the Biden Institute and library at the University of Delaware. 

Schwerin was copied on dozens of emails discussing Biden’s future after the Obama administration and was in communication with Biden’s sister and longtime campaign manager, Valerie Biden Owens, in July 2016, telling Hunter, Owens, longtime Biden confidante Ted Kaufman, and Delaware’s now-chief deputy attorney general Alexander Mackler that he and Hunter had a meeting with multiple University of Delaware officials, Fox News Digital reported in February.

Biden has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of his son’s business dealings.

The news of Schwerin’s frequent trips to the Obama White House comes days after Archer spoke with the House Oversight Committee, alleging that the elder Biden sat in on more than two dozen business calls with his son as vice president.

Schwerin is not accused of any crime but has faced pressure from House Republicans to provide documents relating to his business dealings with the first family.

More than a dozen House Republicans sent a letter to Schwerin in April 2022 inquiring about an email regarding funds from a tax refund check that Schwerin apparently transferred to Hunter from his father’s account.

‘An email obtained by Committee Republicans shows that in 2010, while serving as president of Hunter Biden’s company, you received then-Vice President Biden’s tax refund check and facilitated the transfer of that amount to Hunter because now-President Biden owed money to his son,’ the letter stated. ‘This raises questions about how much money President Biden owed his son and what role his son played in managing the President’s finances. Committee Republicans request additional information regarding this transaction and any other instances of President Biden owing money to his son, Hunter.’

‘If President Biden and Hunter are sharing funds or if President Biden is in debt to his son—the American people deserve to know it especially in light of the millions of dollars Hunter’s businesses have received from countries adversarial to U.S. interests,’ the letter read.

Schwerin and the White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Schwerin made headlines earlier this year after classified documents were discovered at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence and his former office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.

Fox News Digital found that in March 2010, Biden’s vice presidential office expressed concerns to Schwerin in an email about the University of Delaware’s terms for the ‘deed of gift’ for his Senate papers ‘due to the political sensitivities’ that could arise from releasing the papers to the public. 

Biden has repeatedly defended not releasing his Senate papers to the public. Under a revised agreement with the university, they will not be released until two years after he retires from public life, or unless he gives express consent.

A former FBI agent accused by U.S. prosecutors of working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch may now plead guilty to evading U.S. sanctions and money laundering after initially entering a not guilty plea.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden in Manhattan wrote in a brief order filed Monday that a change of plea hearing has been scheduled for August 15 for 54-year-old Charles McGonigal, Reuters reported. 

McGonigal, who retired in 2018, was the former special agent in charge of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York and was involved in the probe into former President Trump’s ties to Russia.

The former FBI official previously pleaded not guilty to conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, money laundering, conspiring to commit money laundering and conspiring to violate federal law against doing business with sanctioned individuals in connection with his work for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Prosecutors arrested McGonigal in January for allegedly receiving concealed payments from Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminum company Rusal, in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch and unsuccessfully pushing to lift U.S. sanctions on Deripaska in 2019. He has been free on a $500,000 bond since his arrest.

McGonigal was legally required to report his contact with foreign officials to the agency, but allegedly hid the ties and instead pursued business and overseas travel conflicting with his work.

The charges against McGonigal came as U.S. prosecutors increased efforts to enforce sanctions on Russian officials and monitor their alleged enablers because of Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Deripaska was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by the U.S. in 2018 over allegations Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Deripaska and the Kremlin have denied any meddling in the election.

McGonigal reportedly played a central role in the investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign’s connection to Russia.

While serving as chief of the cybercrimes section at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., McGonigal was reportedly one of the first bureau officials to learn former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos allegedly boasted that he knew Russians had information on then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, launching the Russian election interference probe.

Reuters and Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

–>

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, announced that a new taxpayer-funded tent city for illegal migrants will be going up in the Big Apple.

Adams announced Monday that Randall’s Island in New York City will be the new spot for the more than 57,000 illegal migrants living in the city that never sleeps.

‘As the number of asylum seekers in our care continues to grow by hundreds every day, stretching our system to its breaking point and beyond, it has become more and more of a Herculean effort to find enough beds every night,’ Adams said in a press release on Monday.

‘We’re grateful to Governor Hochul and New York state for their partnership in opening this new humanitarian relief center and covering the costs, and we need more of the same from all levels of government,’ Adams continued.

‘We will continue to work with the governor and elected officials across the state to address this crisis as New York City continues to do more than any other level of government,’ the mayor said.

Former New York Gov. David Paterson said the migrant crisis in New York City was reaching its ‘tipping point’ in a recent radio interview.

‘I think it’s at a tipping point,’ Paterson, a Democrat, said during a radio interview with business mogul John Catsimatidis on Sunday.

‘Look what happened at the hotels where the hotels were filled up,’ he said. ‘They were trying to get the excess migrants, mostly males, who couldn’t get into the hotels, and they chose to sleep on the streets instead of going to another facility,’ the former governor said.

New York City lawmakers have pleaded for help as migrants have started sleeping on the sidewalks in Midtown Manhattan. Councilwoman Vickie Paladino warned that the surge of illegal migrants is affecting New Yorkers’ quality of life and that the situation is ‘absolutely out of control.’

New York City has more than 50,000 migrants in its shelter system in what has become one of the most publicized migrant crises on the East Coast. Adams recently said that the sanctuary city has ‘run out of room’ for new migrants and even called for a ‘state of emergency’ in the city to battle the crisis.

New York lawmakers announced in June that the city would receive $104.6 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for its Shelter and Services Program.

Fox News Digital’s Jeffery Clark contributed reporting.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. – Dylan Thomas

The time is short. There’s always a rush. And if you are a member of Congress, you are always on the clock.

Six years in the Senate. Two years in the House. The cycle is relentless.

Lawmakers are defeated, they retire or resign. Most of them lament that they never accomplished everything they wanted in office.

That’s not because they didn’t try. The political circumstances weren’t right. The issue hadn’t ripened yet. Their proposal got left out on the parliamentary cutting room floor.

But lawmakers always grumble. No matter how long they were in office, there simply wasn’t enough time.

Politicians generally are not shrinking violets. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten into this business. They can be stubborn. Unwilling to be pushed around. Plus, as lawmakers grow older, they are sprinting against the dying of the political light – be it the length of their political terms or time on this mortal coil.

That’s why recent incidents involving 81-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pose questions about whether age and health should be a factor in someone’s fitness to serve.

How long is too long?

They may be among the most powerful leaders in America. But they are no match for the great equalizers: health and age.

McConnell froze for nearly 20 seconds at the Senate GOP’s weekly press conference recently. Other Republican senators led the Kentucky Republican away before he returned a bit later to field questions from reporters.

Feinstein appeared addled at a recent Senate Appropriations Committee meeting. Feinstein began giving a speech at the meeting – even as the committee was voting on a specific proposal. An aide appeared to try to guide Feinstein.

‘I would like to support a ‘yes’ vote on this. It provides $823 billion…’ said Feinstein before Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., interrupted.

‘Just say ‘aye,’’ coached Murray.

‘OK. Just ‘aye!’’ said Feinstein, with a laugh.

Age stalks 80-year-old President Biden. Republicans routinely question the president’s age and fitness for office – especially after he tripped over a sandbag while handing out diplomas at the Air Force Academy this spring. Mr. Biden also gave meandering remarks last month while meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

‘I think that it’s legitimate to discuss the age of the president who’s running for re-election,’ said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

To be fair, Lummis also mentioned that former President Trump – now the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination – is not exactly a spring chicken at age 77.

The White House historically dismisses concerns about the age of the current commander in chief.

‘The age comment has been out there,’ said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. ‘And what has this president done? He beat Republicans in 2020. He beat Republicans in 2022.’

As for McConnell, there are stage whispers in the Senate’s marble corridors that the minority leader isn’t the same since missing six weeks earlier this year. McConnell suffered a concussion and cracked ribs after a tumble in the restroom of a Washington, D.C., hotel.

McConnell generally speaks more quietly and with a deep rumble since returning to the Senate after the accident.

‘He should tell us if something bigger is going on,’ said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

McConnell appeared over the weekend at the annual ‘Fancy Farm Picnic’ in southwestern Kentucky. The fete dates back to the late 19th century. The Bluegrass State’s political royalty from both sides gives speeches and chats with voters.

When McConnell spoke, Democrats in the crowd jeered the minority leader with chants of ‘Retire! Retire!’

McConnell observed this was his 28th appearance at the Fancy Farm soiree.

‘I want to assure you it’s not my last,’ said McConnell. ‘The people of this state have chosen me seven times to do this job. I want you to know how grateful I am.’

However, McConnell has also tripped and fallen on two other occasions this year.

That’s why Senate Republicans are tiptoeing around this delicate question surrounding McConnell, his health and whoever may eventually emerge as the leader of Senate Republicans.

‘I think he’ll know when the time is right,’ said Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., when asked about McConnell’s future.

These health episodes trigger subtle political jockeying among those who could prospectively succeed McConnell as the Senate GOP leader.

The focus is on the ‘three Johns.’ That’s Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. All three have leadership chops. As GOP whip, Thune stepped into the void when McConnell was absent earlier this year. One source noted that before McConnell’s injury, his office handled almost all leadership issues. But even since McConnell’s return, Thune continues to tackle a handful of leadership responsibilities.

Barrasso currently serves as the Republican conference chair, the third-highest ranking GOP slot. Cornyn served as majority whip from 2015 through 2019.

A reporter asked Thune in late July if McConnell should seek the top leadership post in the next Congress.

‘The new Congress is 18 months away,’ replied Thune, pivoting immediately to another subject. ‘I’m trying to figure out how to get the defense authorization (bill) off the floor today.’

Such a response is common for those with leadership aspirations. They want to be talked about as in the running for whenever another leader moves on – for one reason or another. But they don’t want to talk themselves about pushing to get the leadership slot. It’s an artful dance to make yourself part of the conversation – yet simultaneously not appear as though you are shoving someone out the door.

That said, time is undefeated. Nearly half of all senators are now age 67 or older. And the time for all leaders is eventually up, one way or another.

For instance, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., remains in Congress as a rank and file member. But Pelosi ceded the speaker’s gavel in January at age 82. She turned 83 this past March.

‘I believe there should be a criteria of fitness to serve of cognitive testing or cognitive assessment,’ said Dr. Mark Siegel, a medical contributor to Fox. ‘That’s what the senators owe us and that’s what should be done.’

Siegel and others raised that issue after the election of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., last year. Fetterman struggles to speak and has issues processing audio after a 2022 stroke. He often uses a tablet to communicate or help him digest oral questions. Fetterman took office in January, but almost immediately took medical leave from the Senate for depression.

Despite Fetterman’s issues with audio and speaking, there’s no evidence the senator has cognitive problems.

But here’s the constitutional issue with Siegel’s proposal.

Voters may be concerned about lawmakers who are older or suffer from visible health issues like McConnell and Feinstein. But imposing other qualifications for service may be out of bounds. Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution only lists three requirements for someone to serve in the Senate. Persons must be 30 years of age, a U.S. citizen and live in the state they represent at the time of the election.

The Senate has long seen many members hang around too long.

Former Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., come to mind. Byrd stepped down as majority leader in the late 1980s – yet remained in the Senate until his death in 2010 at age 92. Thurmond was still a senator when he was 100.

Siegel says he counsels people who are older yet healthy to keep working as long as they can.

‘But the problem is that the last person to know that they’re no longer functioning is usually the person themselves,’ said Siegel.

Siegel also said it’s one thing to continue to serve as senator. But it’s another enterprise to shoulder official leadership responsibilities at an advanced age. That’s why Byrd and Pelosi stepped aside.

Before McConnell’s latest episode, multiple senators remarked how he rattled off facts and figures at the closed door lunch without notes.

‘He was at the top of his game,’ said one Republican senator.

However, another GOP senator told Fox McConnell didn’t appear well on the Senate floor the day before he froze.

So it’s hard to say when is when for anyone. But once elected, voters can’t do much about it if someone is infirm or in failing health.

After all, as Dylan Thomas wrote, lawmakers are fighting ‘against the dying of the light’ from the moment they’re sworn in. A six-year term. A two-year term. So much to do. So little time.

And that same mantra applies to the rest of us, too.

Whether we serve in Congress or not.

A group of nearly 30 House Republicans are pressing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm over her recently disclosed talks with a Chinese government official ahead of the Biden administration’s decision to tap emergency oil stocks.

In a letter to Granholm sent Monday afternoon, 29 Republicans led by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers expressed concern that the energy secretary privately consulted China National Energy Administration Chairman Zhang Jianhua, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party, before the White House announced its first Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) release.

According to internal Department of Energy (DOE) calendars obtained by Americans for Public Trust and shared last week with Fox News Digital, Granholm held private calls with Jianhua on Nov. 19, 2021, and two days later on Nov. 21, 2021. On Nov. 23, 2021, the White House announced a release of 50 million barrels of oil from the SPR.

‘We are troubled by recent reports that you, in your official capacity as Secretary of Energy, had multiple conversations with the Chinese Communist Party’s top energy official just days before the Biden administration announced it would release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2021,’ McMorris Rodgers and the other Republicans wrote.

‘This is concerning given the Department of Energy’s mismanagement of the SPR, which has left our country more vulnerable to energy supply disruptions and strengthened the leverage of our adversaries to use energy as a geopolitical weapon,’ the Republicans continued.

Republicans have repeatedly raised the alarm on the Biden administration’s SPR policy, noting that it has drained the critical emergency stock of crude oil while potentially giving an advantage to adversaries who have built up their reserves in the meantime.

Since November 2021, Biden has ordered the DOE to release a total of about 260 million barrels of oil stored in the SPR to combat high fuel prices hitting American consumers.

The SPR’s level has fallen to about 347.8 million barrels of oil, the lowest level since August 1983, according to Energy Information Administration data released Monday. The current level is roughly 42% lower than its level recorded days prior to the November 2021 release.

The DOE told Fox News Digital that Granholm only held one conversation with Jianhua, a 30-minute call one day before the White House announcement. The calendars reviewed by Fox News Digital do not indicate the Nov. 19, 2021, meeting was canceled.

‘When global supply fell short and prices soared, the Biden administration took decisive action. Secretary Granholm and other Administration leaders organized countries like China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the UK to follow America’s lead on oil releases, bridging the gap and giving American producers time to meet energy demands,’ a DOE spokesperson said in a statement.

‘The goal was to bring relief to families and we delivered — oil prices dropped nearly 10 percent,’ the spokesperson continued.

Gasoline prices skyrocketed after the administration’s SPR releases, hitting an all-time high in June 2022. According to AAA data, gas prices hit $3.83 a gallon Monday, nearly 13% higher than they were a day before Biden announced the first release.

In addition, the Biden administration has sold at least 2 million barrels of oil from the SPR to Unipec, an affiliate of the state-controlled China Petrochemical Corp. Jianhua, who met with Granholm in 2021, served in a leadership role for years at the China Petrochemical Corp., Reuters previously reported.

The first such sale was part of an SPR sale of 20 million barrels awarded to eight companies in September 2021. The other two — both sales for 950,000 barrels of oil — came in April 2022 and July 2022.

‘China now likely controls one of the world’s largest stockpiles of oil, at the expense of American taxpayers and our energy security,’ the Republicans continued in their letter to Granholm on Monday. ‘The Biden administration has helped support China’s national security at the expense of our own security by using our strategic energy supplies to help the Chinese build up their own strategic reserves.’

‘China poses one of the greatest economic, security, and geopolitical threats to the United States, while continuing to be one the world’s worst polluters,’ they added. ‘As a result of this administration’s war on American energy and political abuse of the SPR, Americans have become more vulnerable to true energy and national security emergencies while China has profited.’

As part of its announcement in November 2021, the White House said it was releasing oil from U.S. reserves in conjunction with ‘other major energy consuming nations including China.’

President Biden, though, said in remarks after the announcement that China ‘may do more as well,’ and Granholm told reporters during a separate press briefing that China ‘will make its own announcement.’

A final North Carolina state budget won’t be enacted until September, the House’s top leader said Monday. That could scuttle efforts by Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration for Medicaid expansion to begin in early fall.

House and Senate Republicans are whittling down dozens of outstanding spending and policy issues within a two-year spending plan that was supposed to take effect July 1.

While some big-ticket items like tax cuts and worker raises have been settled, other details remain unresolved. Add travel and vacations by rank-and-file lawmakers and the narrow GOP veto-proof majorities in the General Assembly, and House Speaker Tim Moore said the periods during which formal business can be conducted in Raleigh are limited.

Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican and one of the chief budget negotiators, told reporters that votes on a budget agreement could happen in two weeks if differences can be worked out in a reasonable time. Any final budget could be vetoed by the Democratic governor, with override votes to follow.

When asked later Monday to describe the chances that a final budget could be carried out by the end of August, Moore replied: ‘Zero.’

‘Just with some absences I know that the Senate has on their side, and with just some of the logistics that have been talked about … you’re talking about a September date for actual passage — signing (the bill) into law and all that,’ Moore said.

A separate law that Cooper signed in March would expand Medicaid to potentially 600,000 low-income adults, but it can’t happen until a state budget law is enacted.

Cooper health Secretary Kody Kinsley unveiled a plan last month by which the expanded coverage could begin Oct. 1 as long as his agency received a formal go-ahead by legislators to accept expansion by Sept. 1. Otherwise, Kinsley said, implementation would be delayed until at least Dec. 1.

Legislative leaders have refused to permit the implementation of expansion without the budget’s passage, as Cooper has sought. But Moore suggested that Sept. 1 wasn’t a hard deadline.

Legislative leaders have provided few details on neither the agreed-upon pay raises for state employees and teachers nor the extent of additional individual income tax rate reductions. Moore said any pay raises would be made retroactive to July 1.

State government has benefitted in recent years from revenue overcollections, giving lawmakers the ability to spend more, borrow less and reduce tax rates.

The Office of State Budget & Management said Monday that government coffers collected $33.5 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, or slightly over $3 billion above what had been anticipated to carry out last year’s state budget law. The total was $89 million less than was projected to be collected in a May consensus forecast by the state budget office and General Assembly staff.

Cooper and State Budget Director Kristin Walker have warned that deeper individual income tax cuts considered by GOP legislators could lead to shortfalls that could affect the state’s ability to adequately fund education.

Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger have said this year’s tax agreement contains language allowing deeper rate reductions only if the state reaches certain revenue thresholds. Berger and Moore planned more budget talks early this week, Moore said.

Moore said he still anticipated that legislators in his chamber would return to Raleigh next week to cast override votes on several vetoes that Cooper issued last month. Other non-budget business also could occur, he said.

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Wind power developers proposed four new projects off the New Jersey Shore on Friday, a surge that would more than double the number of wind farms built off its coast if they are approved by regulators.

At least two of them are more than twice as far out to sea than others that have drawn the ire of residents who don’t want to see windmills on the horizon. These two would not be visible from the beach, the companies proposing them say.

They would join three wind farms already approved by New Jersey regulators as the state races to become the East Coast capital of the fast-growing offshore wind industry.

In the first project to be made public Friday by the companies proposing it, Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid applied for permission to build a wind farm in the waters off Long Beach Island. Their joint venture is called Community Offshore Wind, and it aims to generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.

Unlike other projects that have drawn intense opposition from homeowners in part because they are close enough to the Atlantic City and Ocean City shorelines to be seen by beachgoers, this project would be built 37 miles offshore and would not be visible from the shore, said Doug Perkins, president and project director of Community Offshore Wind.

He said the project has ‘the potential to transform New Jersey into a nation-leading clean energy development, training and manufacturing hub.’ He said his company is the second-largest wind power developer globally, following Danish wind developer Orsted.

Community Offshore said it has not yet determined how many wind turbines would be built as part of the project.

The second bid was submitted by Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE for a project 40 miles off Long Beach Island called Leading Light Wind. It would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.

The company is playing up its American ownership as the foreign ownership of key players in New Jersey’s offshore wind industry has generated opposition in some quarters.

‘Leading Light Wind is ready to build out a world-leading domestic offshore wind industry with American-led ingenuity and expertise,’ said Ryan Brown, energyRE’s chief operating officer.

And the two companies that received approval to build the Atlantic Shores wind farm — Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America — submitted a bid to build a second as yet unnamed project 10 to 20 miles offshore. The companies have lease areas in the large expanse of ocean between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light on the northern tip of Long Beach Island, but they did not specify exactly where the second project would be built.

They also did not say how many turbines it would include or how many homes its electricity could power.

Friday night, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said a fourth application had also been received, but would not release any information about it. The company or companies proposing it had not come forward publicly to discuss their plans.

Community Offshore and Leading Light said that while they plan to take advantage of existing federal tax credits, they will not seek the same sort of tax break that New Jersey recently approved for Orsted, which is being challenged in a lawsuit brought by opponents of offshore wind.

Atlantic Shores, which earlier this year indicated it wanted similar tax relief to that given Orsted, said Friday it is not asking for anything specific from state government but is in talks with the governor’s office, the utilities board and the Legislature about what might be possible.

The proposals unveiled Friday come in addition to the three projects already approved by New Jersey regulators. Orsted is building two wind farms, called Ocean Wind I and II. And Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America are partnering on the Atlantic Shores project.

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Former President Trump blasted President Biden as the ‘most incompetent and corrupt president in U.S. history’ while slamming his ‘protectors’ and the ‘rabid’ prosecutors who he says are engaging in 2024 ‘election interference’ after indicting him three times this year.

Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, spoke Friday night at the Alabama Republican Party’s annual summer dinner event.

He spoke at the event just a day after he pleaded not guilty to four federal felony charges from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation.

Trump pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

‘Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a truly great badge of honor,’ Trump said Friday night. ‘Because I’m being indicted for you.

‘On Election Day 2024, we are going to evict crooked Joe Biden from the White House. We are going to expel the criminals and thugs from the halls of power in Washington. And we are going to make America great again.’

Trump said the MAGA movement ‘has been the only force in American politics that has ever dared to stand up to the entire corrupt political establishment.’

‘We said no to open borders, no to globalist trade deals, no to endless wars and no to the Godless values of the communist left,’ Trump said. ‘We always put America first.

‘In response, our enemies unleashed an army of rabid left-wing lawyers, corrupt Marxist prosecutors, deranged government agents and rogue intelligence officers to try to stop our movement.

‘As an example, every one of these many fake charges filed against me by the corrupt Biden DOJ could have been filed 2½ years ago, but they waited and waited until I became dominant in the polls. And then they filed them all, including local DAs and AGs, and other cases, right in the middle of my campaign, where I am leading the Republicans by a lot and also leading Biden by a lot,’ Trump said. 

Trump said it is ‘called election interference — a commonly used tactic in Third World countries.’

‘Biden and his protectors know he cannot win this race any other way, so they are trying election interference,’ Trump said. ‘The reason this is happening is simple: Joe Biden is the most incompetent and corrupt president in U.S. history.’

Trump slammed the ‘Biden crime family’ and questioned the timing of his three indictments this year.

‘The Biden crime family was taking in money from China, Ukraine, Russia and so many more. And now, every time more Biden corruption is exposed, his henchmen indict me the very next day,’ Trump said. ‘It’s called a cover-up.’

In April 2023, the U.S. House heard testimony related to Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified records. Soon after, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts in New York of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.

On June 8, Fox News Digital was first to report the detailed contents of the FBI’s FD-1023 form, which contained allegations the CEO of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings paid Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each.

Hours later, Trump was indicted in Smith’s probe into Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records from his presidency. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Last week, just a day after Hunter Biden’s plea deal fell apart in federal court, Smith charged Trump with an additional three counts as part of an indictment in the classified records probe.

Trump was indicted Tuesday as part of the investigation into the Jan. 6 riot, just a day after Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner, Devon Archer, testified before the House Oversight Committee and shared details of Joe Biden’s involvement and knowledge of Hunter’s business deals.

‘They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom,’ Trump said. ‘They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you.

‘In the end, they’re not after me, they’re after you — and I’m just standing in their way.’

Trump also vowed, if elected, to appoint a special prosecutor on his ‘first day in office’ to ‘study each and every of the many claims being brought forth by Congress concerning all of the crooked acts, including bribes from China and many other foreign countries that go into the coffers of the Biden crime family.’ 

‘The deep state is destroying our nation,’ Trump said. ‘But the tables must turn, and we will destroy the deep state.’ 

A zoning committee has ordered a northern Wisconsin brewery that has supported Democratic political figures to close its doors.

The Oneida County committee revoked Minocqua Brewing Company’s permit on Wednesday, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. The committee members said owner Kirk Bangstad violated prohibitions on outdoor sales.

Bangstad told the committee he has allowed people to sit outside the establishment but insists he’s really just being punished for his liberal views.

Bangstad ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2015 and for State Assembly in 2020. Among the beers the brewery offers are Evers Ale, named for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, and Tammy Shandy, in honor of U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Bangstad also runs the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, which has purchased billboard ads attacking Republicans and raised more than $1 million during the 2022 campaign cycle, federal campaign finance data on OpenSecrets.org showed.

The zoning committee’s chairperson, Scott Holewinski, told Bangstad during Wednesday’s meeting the committee has treated him fairly and that there was ‘nothing political’ between the two of them.

‘You keep (saying) we’re after you because you’re a liberal, because you’re a Democrat,’ Holewinski said. ‘You make this all up against us.’

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