Miami Mayor Francis Suarez officially filed paperwork on Wednesday declaring his campaign for president in 2024 as a Republican, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.

The filing comes after a newly rebranded super PAC that supports Suarez launched a digital ad blitz earlier Wednesday in the first four states that hold contests in the 2024 GOP presidential nominating calendar. 

Suarez teased a run on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ saying he’s going to make a ‘major announcement’ in the coming weeks.

‘My announcement is to stay tuned,’ he said Sunday. ‘Next week, like you said, I’m going to be making a big speech in the Reagan Library, and I think it’s one that Americans should tune into.’

The mayor has been mulling a presidential run for several months, including visiting four of the early key states for presidential primaries. Fox News Digital previously interviewed Suarez during an April visit to New Hampshire, where he expressed optimism about the GOP primary.

‘You have to compete with other things, by inspiring people. You have to compete by explaining to people you have a track record of success, a vision for the future. That you can inspire people with a positive view of what their future can look like in ways other candidates can’t,’ Suarez told Fox News Digital.

Suarez is joining the growing field of Republican candidates that already includes two fellow Floridians — former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who announced his bid late last month.

Suarez’s campaign announcement comes weeks after the Miami Herald reported that Suarez, who receives $130,000 in compensation to serve as mayor, is facing an ethics investigation for outside payments he received for private consulting.

The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust has opened an investigation in coordination with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office into Suarez’s work for developer Rishi Kapoor, who paid him at least $170,000 since 2021, according to the report.

Suarez has repeatedly denied any possible conflicts of interest. Speaking to Fox News, he accused the Herald of liberal bias.

‘All of a sudden, they assign three reporters and come up with all these allegations in advance of what appears to be a major announcement that you indicated next week,’ he told anchor Shannon Bream.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) slammed Suarez as ‘yet another contender in the race for the MAGA base who has supported key pieces of Donald Trump’s agenda.’

‘As mayor of Miami, Suarez has repeatedly used his position to benefit himself, prioritizing pay raises for himself, accepting lavish gifts, and taking shady payments – all while ignoring the biggest challenges facing the people he was elected to serve,’ DNC chair Jaime Harrison said. ‘As the MAGA field keeps growing, we’ll keep reminding the American people that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these extreme, self-serving candidates.’

The mayor will deliver remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, on Thursday evening as part of its ‘A Time for Choosing’ speaker series.

According to the Reagan Foundation, Mayor Suarez, whose father, Xavier Suarez, was Miami’s first-ever Cuban-American mayor, was ‘elected with a mandate of 86 percent’ in 2017 and then ‘re-elected with a mandate of nearly 79 percent’ in 2021.

The crowded Republican field includes former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, as well as multiple long-shot candidates, including Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson; Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Vivek Ramaswamy; and Larry Elder.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., claimed Wednesday that 2-year-olds should have been ‘required’ to wear masks throughout the coronavirus pandemic and insisted parents who opposed the notion were engaging in a form of ‘child abuse.’

Arguing in favor of vaccines, Nadler said from the House floor that ‘we have to vaccinate people to prevent diseases and pandemics’ and that ‘people should [be] required to be vaccinated’ in the event of a pandemic.

‘It protects against transmission of the disease to the next person, and the health care worker certainly ought to be required to be vaccinated,’ Nadler said.

‘When we have a pandemic, like [the] COVID-19 pandemic that we had, 2-year-olds should have been required to wear masks. It would be child abuse for parents not to do that because there was no vaccination available for 2-year-olds,’ Nadler added.

‘The only way to protect them against COVID was [to] have them wear masks. These mandates are meant to protect the public’s health and safety.’

The comments from Nadler, who has served in the House since the early ’90s, came during a debate over an amendment on vaccine mandates in the REINS Act offered by Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy. 

Roy’s amendment expands the definition of ‘major rule’ to include any rule likely to result in an increase in mandatory vaccinations, meaning Congress would have to vote to approve any rule that’s promulgated by the executive branch to push mandatory vaccinations. 

All but five Republican representatives — Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Zach Nunn of Iowa and Mike Lawler of New York — voted in favor of the amendment.

Nadler’s remarks drew criticism from those across the aisle, including Roy, who blasted the longtime New York lawmaker’s comments. 

‘I’m tempted to yield the rest of my time to the gentleman from New York because he’s basically making the case for me more effectively than I can,’ Roy said as he spoke shortly after Nadler. ‘The gentleman from New York is basically acknowledging everything that I’m sitting here saying, that I’m trying to do to protect the American people from the tyrannical state of the executive branch, but in this case my Democratic colleagues on the other side of the aisle.’

‘I want everybody in America to understand what they just heard from the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee in the United States House of Representatives,’ Roy added. ‘Your 2-year-old should be forced to be masked. That is what the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee just said here on the floor of the House of Representatives. That the power of the government, the full power of the federal government, should be a part of ensuring and enforcing your children, your 2-year-old child to be masked.’

The 2024 presidential campaign for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also weighed in on Nadler’s comment that toddlers should have been forced to mask up during the pandemic, writing in a tweet that Democrats ‘have no regrets about harming kids in the name of COVID.’

‘If given the chance … they’ll do it again,’ the DeSantis campaign added.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed Wednesday for a response to the United Kingdom’s decision to ban puberty blockers for minors despite President Biden’s claim that American lawmakers pushing such bans were ‘hysterical’ and ‘prejudiced.’

Biden made the comments on June 8 during a joint press conference at the White House with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the first person of color elected British prime minister, and declared his administration was ‘not relenting’ when it came to making sure LGBTQ Americans were ‘protected.’

‘When the president made those remarks, he was standing next to the prime minister from the United Kingdom, and afterward, the United Kingdom announced that they were going to be placing a ban on puberty blockers for minors in most cases. Will the president raise this human rights issue with his U.K. counterpart?’ RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann asked Jean-Pierre during the daily White House press briefing.

‘I didn’t see those comments, so I can’t respond to that directly. And I’m just not going to go beyond what the president said in those conversations,’ Jean-Pierre responded.

Wegmann also asked if the Biden administration intended to withhold Medicare funds or other federal healthcare dollars from states passing similar laws, but she said she didn’t ‘have anything to add to that.’

The Biden administration previously considered withholding Medicare and other funds in an effort to force Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The U.K.’s National Health Service said last week that it would not routinely offer puberty-blocking drugs to children at gender identity clinics, saying more evidence is needed about the potential benefits and harms.

It specifically said that ‘outside of a research setting, puberty-suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned for children and adolescents.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders is set to visit Europe on her first international trade mission since taking office in January.Sanders is set to meet with aerospace industry leaders at the Paris Air Show, as well as with other American, British, French and German business executives elsewhere.‘It’s time for the whole world to learn what Arkansans already know: there’s never been a better time to invest in the Natural State and call it home,’ a statement by Sanders said.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is heading to Europe on her first overseas trade mission since taking office this year.

Sanders, a Republican, said she planned to meet with aerospace industry leaders at the Paris Air Show during the trip. She also planned to meet with American, British, French and German business executives to make the case for investing in Arkansas, Sanders said in a statement released Wednesday.

Sanders said Commerce Secretary Hugh McDonald and Arkansas Economic Development Commission Executive Director Clint O’Neal will also go on the trade mission.

The governor’s office said they planned to meet with executives from several companies, including Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Raytheon. Sanders’ mission will also include meetings in Cologne, Germany, her office said.

Aerospace and defense is a major part of Arkansas’ economy and makes up about 20% of the state’s exports, according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported details of Sanders’ trip on Wednesday. Her office said the state won’t have a breakdown of the cost of the trip until after the governor returns.

‘It’s time for the whole world to learn what Arkansans already know: there’s never been a better time to invest in the Natural State and call it home,’ Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders, who served as former President Donald Trump’s press secretary, was inaugurated in January as governor.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday repeatedly dodged a question concerning whether President Biden would support ‘financial’ reparations being paid to the descendants of Black slaves in the U.S.

The question was posed by liberal reporter April Ryan, who noted the recent introduction of legislation by far-left Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., pushing for $14 trillion to be paid to reparations, and asked what the administration’s view was on ‘repairing a wrong for the descendants of Africans in this nation.’

‘As it relates to reparations, I saw just moments ago Cori Bush’s resolution. We haven’t reviewed the proposal yet — some new proposals — so we’ll take a look at it,’ Jean-Pierre responded after a lengthy explanation of Biden’s advocacy for Juneteenth to be a federal holiday.

‘So I can’t comment on that specifically. But the president has been really clear as it relates to reparations. He wants to see a study of reparations and studying the continuing impacts of slavery. He believes that is incredibly important,’ she said.

Ryan pressed Jean-Pierre on the subject, asking whether Biden would ‘support a pay-out’ and ‘financial repair’ should the results of a study agree with calls for financial reparations.

‘So, look, I will say this: We’ve got to let the study move forward. We’ve got to let — to see what the study shows, and we’ve got to continue to study the impact of slavery,’ Jean-Pierre responded, avoiding directly answering the question. 

‘That is something that the president believes that we need to do. So that’s incredibly important,’ she said.

Jean-Pierre went on to praise what she said was Biden calling out race inequality ‘as a problem’ across the country, and said he was taking ‘comprehensive action’ to ensure ‘we put equity at the center’ of federal government decisions.

‘So let’s see what the study shows. It is important to continue to study the continuing impacts, if you will, on slavery. And I think because of the president’s action — he’s been very clear. He’s been very clear how important it is, even just looking at his economic policy, how important it is to leave no one behind, have equity at the center of everything that he’s done,’ she added. 

Twenty Republicans in the House of Representatives sided with most Democrats Wednesday in voting to set aside a resolution that would have censured Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for insisting that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

The 225-196 vote effectively killed the resolution introduced by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and included two other Republican lawmakers voting ‘present’ along with five Democrats.

Here are the 20 Republicans who voted not to move forward with the measure:

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D.

Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore. 

Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. 

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. 

Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas 

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La. 

Rep. Thomas Kean, R-N.J. 

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif. 

Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif.

Rep. Michael Lawler, R-N.Y.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. 

Rep. Marcus Molinaro, R-N.Y. 

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif.

Rep. Michael Simpson, R-Idaho

Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio

Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.

Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark.

Prior to the vote, Massie said he opposed the idea of a fine against Schiff — the resolution recommended a $16 million fine but did not require it.

‘Adam Schiff acted unethically but if a resolution to fine him $16 million comes to the floor I will vote to table it. (vote against it),’ he tweeted Wednesday.

‘The Constitution says the House may make its own rules but we can’t violate other (later) provisions of the Constitution,’ he added. ‘A $16 million fine is a violation of the 27th and 8th amendments.’

It wasn’t clear late Wednesday whether House Republicans might try again with a resolution against Schiff that leaves out all mentions of possible fines.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, defended himself on Twitter after a fact-checker claimed he was wrong about former President Obama, Iran and its ‘right’ to have nuclear technology during a speech he gave last month.

In a series of tweets, Cruz described the fact-checkers as ‘partisan, left-wing liars’ and said their fact-check of a speech he gave to the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, last month was ‘ridiculous’ and ‘self-refuting.’

The Texas Republican then claimed the fact-checker misrepresented his words about the former president and then falsely rated his remarks.

‘Of course, I didn’t say Obama said Iran had a ‘right’ to nuclear weapons… they laughably rate my statement ‘mostly false’ because Obama didn’t say…what I didn’t say he said,’ the senator tweeted.

The disagreement seems to stem from the use of the phrases ‘nuclear technology’ and ‘nuclear weapons.’

Speaking at the Hudson Institute on May 17, Cruz said Obama ‘gave a speech where he said Iran has a right to nuclear technology.’ The comment appears to reference an address the former president gave at the University of Cairo on June 4, 2009.

Later in his speech, no longer quoting Obama, Cruz added in his own words: ‘I gotta say, that’s utterly imbecilic. I’m familiar with the right to life, with the right to liberty, or the right to pursuit of happiness. I’m not familiar with the right to nuclear weapons. Only a fool would want the Ayatollah to have nuclear weapons.’

PolitiFact addressed the comments and determined his line about Obama’s speech was ‘mostly false’ as the former president did not support Iran having ‘nuclear weapons.’

But, as Cruz points out in his tweets, he said ‘nuclear technology’ when quoting Obama — not ‘nuclear weapons,’ which he personally added later.

‘I said Obama said Iran had a ‘right’ to ‘nuclear technology,’’ Cruz wrote on Twitter. ‘He DID say that—as PolitiFact ADMITS—but they laughably rate my statement ‘mostly false’ because Obama didn’t say…what I didn’t say he said.’

The Texan added: ‘And, of course, they ignore my broader point: Iran doesn’t want nuclear technology bc they need electricity—they have tons of oil—the want nukes only to carry out their genocidal, theocratic war cry of ‘Death to America! and Death to Israel!’’

Fox News Digital reached out to Cruz’s office for comment but didn’t immediately receive a response.

In the 2009 address, Obama supported Iran’s use of nuclear power but condemned any country from having nuclear weapons.

Obama said in 2009 that ‘any nation — including Iran — should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,’ according to an excerpt from the White House.

The former president went on to say he wanted ‘a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons.’

His full quotation reads (emphasis added): ‘I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons. And that’s why I strongly reaffirmed America’s commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation — including Iran — should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I’m hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.’

Later in the speech, Obama applauded ‘nuclear energy’ that is ‘used for peaceful purposes.’

Cruz’s speech at the Washington, D.C. think tank addressed Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which is nearing 500 days, its cooperation with Iran, the Biden administration’s response to the invasion and the events of the Obama administration which proceeded it.

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The next generation is trusting their news-gathering and fact-checking to TikTok and Instagram personalities rather than mainstream media and journalists, according to a report.

A study conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, part of Britain’s University of Oxford, found 55% of TikTok users and 52% of Instagram users get their news from ‘personalities’ on the respective platforms.

The figure of those who get their news from mainstream media and journalists on those same platforms falls to just 33% on TikTok and 42% on Instagram, per the 2023 Digital News Report.

Nic Newman, a senior research associate at the Reuters Institute, wrote in the report: ‘Perhaps the most striking findings in this year’s report relate to the changing nature of social media, partly characterized by declining engagement with traditional networks such as Facebook and the rise of TikTok and a range of other video-led networks.’

According to Newman, young people are now, more than ever, more influenced by ‘influencers’ on the platform for trends, advice and now even news.

‘Our data show, more clearly than ever, how this shift is strongly influenced by habits of the youngest generations, who have grown up with social media and nowadays often pay more attention to influencers or celebrities than they do to journalists, even when it comes to news,’ he wrote.

This trend did not reflect on older platforms like Facebook and Twitter, where those who access those platforms chose to follow mainstream news outlets over personalities for their news, 43-38 and 55-42, respectively.

TikTok also uniquely stood out among the list of social media platforms, including YouTube and Snapchat, as more users (44%) are trusting ‘ordinary people’ for getting their news. No other platform was above 37%.

The 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report also found more young people are choosing social media to serve them the news over directly accessing news websites or apps.

In 2018, nearly 1-in-3 young people (32%) chose mainstream media websites or apps to receive their news online. This figure has fallen to just over 1-in-5 (22%) in 2023.

Conversely, the number of young people choosing social media to get their news in 2018 was 23%, jumping to 30% this year.

For comparison, most adults over 35 years old (52%) chose to access online news by going directly to a news website or app. Only 24% of people ages 18-24 did the same.

The report concluded that young people have grown increasingly critical of the news media, which is widely driven by politicians and others.

Reuters Institute director Rasmus Kleis Nielsen said in a forward that these shifts present ‘a much more fundamental change’ for broadcast news and digital platforms.

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U.S. companies that give China artificial intelligence-driven technology to violate the human rights of its citizens need to be punished by Congress with prison terms for U.S. executives, a witness told senators in a hearing Tuesday.

Geoffrey Cain, senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, warned at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing that AI is helping to power China’s growing ‘surveillance state’ and said U.S. companies have contributed to this human rights problem.

‘China built its AI surveillance apparatus with the connivance and complacency of major American technology firms,’ Cain said in his prepared remarks. ‘The science corporation ThermoFisher, for example, was caught selling DNA collection equipment directly to Xinjiang police authorities, who used them for mass gathering of genetic data on the minority Uyghur population.

‘Since the late 1990s, Microsoft has established itself as the training ground for China’s AI elites through its Beijing-based laboratory, Microsoft Research Asia,’ he added. ‘The laboratory has trained many of the AI leaders and developers who went on to found or join the executive leadership of rights-abusing firms, such as Sensetime, Megvii and iFlyTek.’

Cain’s group, the Foundation for American Innovation, said it was founded to ensure technology is ‘aligned to serve human ends: promoting individual freedom, supporting strong institutions, advancing national security, and unleashing economic prosperity. But he said China has so far used AI to inflict human rights abuses on religious minorities in China.

‘The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has engineered a vast AI-powered surveillance system literally called ‘Sky Net,’’ he said. ‘It runs AI-powered ‘alarms’ that notify the police and intelligence services when someone unfurls a banner, when a foreign journalist is traveling to certain parts of the country and when someone from an ethnic minority is present.

‘The government accuses entire groups, such as Muslim Uyghurs, of posing a terrorist threat and relentlessly persecutes them with the use of AI tools.’

Cain said that while tech leaders, including Sam Altman of OpenAI, have urged closer cooperation with China, Chinese officials have shown there’s no reason to work with China at all.

‘We must abandon the misguided idealism of working with Chinese companies and government bodies with the hope that AI will change the political system, allow for the opening of democratic discourse, and create safer global AI regulations,’ he said. ‘Rather than helping advance innovation, we will be doing the world a disservice by handing the keys to the CCP.’

Instead of working with China, Congress should be looking to ensure the U.S. remains the leader on AI innovation and is in a position to draw talent and resources away from China.

‘The most advanced American technologies and investments must not be allowed to flow in the direction of China,’ he said. ‘We must work against China’s ambitions to develop advanced AI systems, influence global standards and oppress dissidents around the world.’

The U.S. should also punish companies that help China, he added.

‘So far, American technology giants have faced no punishment for their involvement in China’s surveillance state,’ Cain said. ‘This subcommittee may consider drafting a bill that requires public corporations to publish their due diligence reports on their activities in China and the risks they have encountered with regards to human rights there.

‘The subcommittee may also consider drafting a bill that criminalizes specific American business activities in China that are likely to support, directly or indirectly, human rights abuses by the CCP,’ he added. ‘This would include prison time for American business executives involved in helping develop any form of AI in partnership with a Chinese entity if the CCP will likely use that technology for the oppression of human rights and democratic values.’

Congress has taken an active interest in regulating AI this year, but so far has yet to pass anything close to a comprehensive bill that addresses various issues raised by companies and interest groups.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been meeting with companies as he considers a broad AI bill in the Senate but has yet to introduce anything.

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Democratic legislative candidates in Virginia have a fundraising edge due in part to donations from a George Soros-linked political action committee and having more nomination contests than their Republican counterparts, a nonprofit found.

The fundraising lead comes as the historically-red state, which has leaned blue in recent years, just elected a Republican governor for the first time since 2009 and the state’s political parties see new opportunities to win additional seats in the legislature.

Candidates for the Virginia Senate and for the House of Delegates collectively raised more than $20 million from April 1 to June 8, with Democratic candidates bringing in about $14 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan tracker of money in politics.

Virginia’s primary election is next week, Tuesday, June 20, 2023.

Some of the other biggest fundraising totals came from northern Virginia, where a political action committee funded by liberal donor George Soros has shelled out major money for prosecutor races.

The races include backing incumbents in Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties — many of whom won four years ago with a focus on criminal justice reform agendas — who are seeking reelection.

Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has raised $437,775, most of which coming from the Soros-linked Justice and Public Safety PAC.

Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano has raised $208,468, including a contribution from the Soros-linked PAC.

Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj raised $163,838, although she did not receive money from Soros.

Democrats also led fundraising efforts in the state’s legislature.

Democratic legislative candidates ended it with more cash on hand, according to the nonprofit group’s analysis of campaign finance disclosures, as they had about a collective $2 million advantage in the Senate and a cash advantage of about $400,000 for House races.

All the 10 largest legislative fundraisers were Democratic candidates, the nonprofit found.

Democrats have more than twice as many Senate nomination contests to be settled next week than the Republicans, also contributing to the discrepancy.

Monday’s reporting did not include fundraising hauls for committees like Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia, only candidates seeking an office that’s on the ballot on Election Day in November.

The fundraising haul is not entirely good news for the state’s Democrats as it shows some political in-fighting as lucrative candidates are attempting to oust seasoned incumbents.

Virginia’s campaign finance law allows unlimited contributions, including those from individuals, corporations and special interest groups.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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