A report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is warning of widespread blackouts this summer. Two-thirds of the country has an elevated risk of potential for insufficient operations.

‘It’s really concerning because electricity is pretty critical to how we operate every minute of every day,’ National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson said. ‘You have to be able to have the lights come on when you’re counting on it. That’s an expectation we have across this country. Unfortunately, certain policies are driving us in the wrong direction.’

The NERC report lists recent efforts by the Biden administration to limit emissions as a grid vulnerability. The environmental rules could disrupt operations at coal-fired generators in 23 states. That includes locations along the Gulf Coast, including Texas, which has a recent history of blackouts from extreme weather. Other locations include desert-hot Nevada.   

‘What’s going on in this country right now is demand for electricity is growing, which is a good thing. The economy is growing, but we’re shutting down power plants, and we’re not replacing it with any capacity. So, at some point, that basic relationship starts to get in trouble,’ Matheson said. 

The report also notes that while stored supplies of natural gas and coal are at high levels, infrastructure is lacking. In the southeastern region of the U.S., coal-fired generators have reported challenges in arranging coal replenishment because of mine closures and transport delays. 

‘When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging,’ Matheson said. ‘We got to take the shovel away from the EPA.’

Matheson served as a Utah representative from 2001 until 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party but warns recent Biden administration policies are adding to a supply and demand problem for U.S. energy. 

‘It’s really hard to build something in this country these days,’ Matheson said. ‘We’re at a point where we are reducing supply, and public policy, in terms of permitting, doesn’t allow us to build new resources.’

Most of today’s power grid was built in the 1960s and 1970s. According to the White House, an estimated 70% of transmission lines are more than 25 years old. Billions of dollars from the recent Infrastructure law were set aside for updates to the grid and upgrades for transmission lines.

‘There is a lot of money for some resilience. Resilience is where you’re hardening the grid to allow it to survive more extreme weather events,’ Matheson said. ‘I hear a lot of conversation on Capitol Hill these days that we need to reform our environmental permitting process in this country. Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act decades ago. They haven’t ever reformed it. It’s a mess today.’

Recent negotiations to raise the debt limit have included permitting reforms for some energy projects. The provisions include efforts to make it easier to build fossil fuel and clean energy projects. It fails to include infrastructure for transmission lines and pipelines to get production to consumers.

‘I’m excited that we may get some pipeline permitting reform in the debt ceiling negotiations,’ Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said. ‘We’re at a point of criticality in this nation in that we have the resources to produce. We just have nowhere to put it. 

The debt deal also orders a study by NERC to assess how much transfer capacity is needed to strengthen grid reliability.  It’s a project that would likely take 2½ years to get to Congress. Duncan chairs the Energy, Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee. He says adding energy producers to the power grid is already a slow process.

‘These renewable energy projects are facing the same hurdles for regulation,’ Duncan said. ‘They’re realizing that they don’t have the money to pay all the fees necessary to go through this.’

To join the electric grid, generators must first go through the interconnection queue to get their projects approved. The process has created years-long wait times for wind and solar projects. Many have also faced higher costs than anticipated or the projects fail completely. Matheson says queue is a big concern for Electric Co-ops.

‘We serve 42 million people across the country, but we’re consumer owned. Every financial impact on the utility goes straight to the consumer’s electric bill,’ Matheson said. ‘When these decisions come to shut down existing resources that are reliable and replace them with lots of new resources, they’re going to cost more money. Not only are we concerned about reliability, we’re concerned about affordability as well.’

The Energy Department is also expected to publish its own long-term national transmission planning study later this year. It is expected to include potential solutions for a transition to clean energy.

‘They’re going to be a part of the electrical grid for a long time, but we shouldn’t rush to that as the sole source,’ Duncan said. ‘We need to really balance our energy matrix and make sure we have good, reliable, affordable electricity.’

Most lawmakers and experts agree that grid updates and additions are needed not just for the upcoming summer season, but well into the future.

‘I think it’s still pretty good. I think we take it for granted in this country compared to the rest of the world, that the lights come on every time you flip the switch. But we’re seeing signs that it started to fray,’ Matheson said. ‘I don’t want to sound like an alarmist that everything’s going to happen all at once, but the trend continues to move in a direction of greater risk of outages every year.’

Belk has scrubbed virtually all of its kids’ LGBTQ pride apparel from its website after FOX Business inquired about a transgender pride T-shirt being sold for children as young as 2.

Until Tuesday, Belk’s website was selling a boys’ T-shirt that displayed the words, ‘So happy to be me,’ and featured a blue, pink and white happy face — the colors of the transgender pride flag.

The shirt was removed from Belk’s website just hours after FOX Business reached out asking if it was aware of the merchandise. 

‘Show support with this kids Pride graphic t-shirt. Our toddler and youth t-shirt is soft and durable for everyday wear,’ Belk’s description for the shirt stated. 

While the description of the shirt said it was meant for boys ages 4 to 7, it was available in sizes as small as 2T (toddler).

Another pro-LGBTQ shirt for boys that was on Belk’s website didn’t have any words but featured various ice cream confections bearing the colors of the lesbian flag, transgender flag, gay pride flag, bisexual flag and a milkshake with the letter Q for ‘Queer.’

Both shirts on Belk’s website, which were being sold via online retailer Instant Message, have been removed from the website following Fox’s inquiry.

Instant Message did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Belk also previously boasted a ‘Pride’ section on its website that featured several dozen LGBTQ-themed shirts and products, some geared toward boys and girls as young as 4.

After FOX Business reported the story Tuesday, those items quickly started to disappear from the website, with an error page saying Belk ‘no longer carries’ the item. 

As of Thursday morning, only 21 pieces of Pride ‘apparel’ remain on the website, and only a few specify young ages.

One Disney shirt with a rainbow that reads, ‘Think happy thoughts,’ is marketed toward boys ages 4 to 7, but the item currently says its ‘out of stock.’

At least three girls’ shirts that are not in the ‘Pride’ section still appear to promote LGBTQ themes, including a shirt that says ‘Pride,’ one that says ‘Love Wins,’ and another that says ‘Love’ in rainbow colors — all marketed toward girls ages 7 to 16.

Belk did not respond to Fox News Digital’s repeated requests for comment.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – EXCLUSIVE – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says voters can judge if President Biden is up for another four years in the White House.

DeSantis, who last week launched a 2024 Republican presidential campaign, spoke Thursday with Fox News Digital in a national exclusive interview a couple of hours after President Biden tripped and fell after delivering a speech and handing out diplomas at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado.

Plenty of Republicans have questioned whether the 80-year-old Biden – the nation’s oldest president – is physically and mentally up to the intense demands of the White House for another four years. 

Asked if he agreed, DeSantis said ‘people can judge that.’

While he emphasized ‘I hope that he didn’t sustain injures and if he did, I hope he has a speedy recovery from those,’ DeSantis added that ‘I’m running for president because I want the U.S. to have a speedy recovery from the injuries that Joe Biden has inflicted on the country and at the end of the day I think that his policies have been wrong.’

‘I do think he lacks energy and all that, but he is pursuing a course that’s not been good for this country and that’s my main concern,’ DeSantis emphasized.

DeSantis repeated those comments minutes later at the top of rally at Manchester Community College, the Florida governor’s fourth and final event of a jam-packed day in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

One of DeSantis’ rivals for the Republican presidential nomination – former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – made news earlier this year by calling for mental competency tests for all politicians age 75 and older.

Asked if he agreed with such a suggestion, DeSantis answered, ‘I think it’s kind of a gimmick. I think ultimately the voters are able to make those determinations.’

‘Ultimately voters are going to be responsible for their choices and hopefully we’re going to do better in 2024,’ the governor added.

DeSantis, repeating a line he’s used in his stump speeches since launching his campaign, told Fox News that it’s going to take more than one term in the White House in order ‘to slay the deep state, this big unaccountable bureaucracy.’

The comments appear to be a swipe at former President Donald Trump, who’s the commanding front-runner in the GOP nomination polls as he runs a third straight time for the White House. After a term in office, Trump can only serve four more years if elected in 2024.

‘I’ve been watching DeSanctus go out and say ‘I’ve got eight years. It’s going to be eight years,” Trump said Thursday at a campaign event in Iowa. 

And Trump vowed that, ‘It will take me six months to have it totally the way it was.’ 

Asked about the former president’s comments, DeSantis told Fox News ‘if the former president says he can slay the deep state in six months, my question to him would be – well you already had four years, why didn’t you slay it then.’

Since declaring his candidacy for president last week, DeSantis has been stepping up his counterattacks against former President Donald Trump, who’s been blasting his main rival for the GOP nomination for months.

The former president, his political team and allies have amplified their attacks over the past couple of months.

DeSantis had mostly resisted responding to Trump’s attacks until last week. But as he kicked off his first campaign swing as a 2024 candidate on Tuesday in Iowa, DeSantis started aggressively throwing punches at the former president during a question-and-answer session with reporters.

‘So look, I’m going to respond to attacks,’ DeSantis said. ‘I’m gonna counterpunch and I’m gonna fight back on it.’

On Wednesday evening, as DeSantis was taking the stage for his fourth event in Iowa, Trump took aim at him on social media over the governor’s different pronunciations of his name.

‘Have you heard that ‘Rob’ DeSanctimonious wants to change his name, again. He is demanding that people call him DeeeSantis, rather than DaSantis. Actually, I like ‘Da’ better, a nicer flow, so I am happy he is changing it. He gets very upset when people, including reporters, don’t pronounce it correctly. Therefore, he shouldn’t mind, DeSanctimonious?’ Trump said.

Trump took aim after media reports in recent days highlighted how DeSantis has used two different pronunciations of his name in recent weeks, switching between ‘Deh-Santis’ and ‘Dee-Santis.’

‘I think it’s so petty. I think it’s so juvenile,’ DeSantis said Thursday morning in a radio interview in New Hampshire as he responded to Trump.

Getting into a personal slugfest day after day with the former president, who a master of in-your-face politics, may not be a sustainable strategy.

Asked if his pushback against Trump was getting personal, DeSantis disagree, saying ‘I’m not personal at all. Some of the stuff is very juvenile. I don’t think the voters want it. I’m not getting into the gutter.’

And when asked the correct pronunciation of his last name, DeSantis told Fox News ‘it’s ridiculous. These stupid things. Listen, the way to pronounce my last name – winner.’

FIRST ON FOX: Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley issued a stark warning after President Biden’s Thursday trip and fall episode, arguing his possible re-election as president could ultimately lead to Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the commander-in-chief.

‘No one should feel good about watching the President fall. While this is hard to see, we have to be honest with the American people,’ Haley told Fox News Digital. ‘Our enemies see the same TV clips and wonder who is in charge.’ 

‘Joe Biden is the oldest president in history, and if he’s reelected, we could end up with a President Harris. This is why I have repeatedly called for mental competency tests and term limits for politicians. It’s time for a new generation of leadership in Washington,’ she added.

According to the White House, Biden tripped over a sandbag while shaking hands after delivering the commencement address at the Air Force Academy, but was not injured by the fall.

Haley’s opponent, former President Donald Trump, also reacted to the fall while campaigning in Iowa, calling it ‘not inspiring.’

‘He actually fell down? Well, I hope he wasn’t hurt,’ Trump said. ‘The whole thing is crazy. You’ve got to be careful about that… even if you have to tiptoe down the ramp.’

‘That’s a bad place to fall… that’s not inspiring,’ he later added.

Biden’s fall Thursday comes about two years after he fell on the steps while boarding the Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews. 

Following the March 2021 fall in which Biden was filmed tripping on multiple steps, the White House said he was ‘doing 100% fine’ and blamed the stumble on the gusty conditions.

Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall and Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.

A trove of photos from Hunter Biden’s laptop has been made available to the public through a new website that launched Thursday.

The website – BidenLaptopMedia.com – houses almost 10,000 photos spanning from 2008 to 2019 and took months to complete, Garrett Ziegler, the founder of nonprofit Marco Polo, told Fox News Digital.

‘It’s taken us a couple of months to, one, go through the photos, about 10,000 of them, and redact the genitalia on the photos,’ Ziegler, a former Trump White House aide, said of the contents found on the laptop once owned by President Biden’s son.

‘The number one thing we’re about … is truth and transparency,’ he said. ‘If the American people want to know what their first family is like, they’re going to get it. And we’re not going to be taking out photos that paint the Bidens in a good light.’

Ziegler also noted that several photos containing private information were redacted – including images containing social security numbers, banking information and credit card numbers. Additionally, multiple nude photos of Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, were redacted.

Of the many photos found on the laptop, Ziegler provided Fox News Digital with two never-before-seen photos from the laptop. One photo showed Hunter Biden cozied up to his then-lover Zoe Kestan in 2018. The other image – featuring an array of drugs and a condom wrapper sitting on a table – was from a text message conversation Hunter had with Hallie Biden – the widow of Beau Biden and former lover of Hunter Biden – the same year.

Providing further insight on the type of content viewers can expect on the website, Ziegler said some content that does not carry ‘news value’ will not be featured.

‘There are, for example, screenshots of Candy Crush games where we are fairly confident in saying there’s absolutely no news value to those,’ he said. ‘So it’s going to be, I would say, 98% of the photos on the device, around 10,000 in total, although it’ll be slightly less than that.’

‘It’s going to be a completely authentic recounting of the photos on the device,’ Ziegler added.

Ziegler promised that there won’t be any genitalia visible on the site and insisted that the photo project – which will display the images chronologically – covers a ‘large swath’ of the first family’s life and includes an array of photos. He also made clear that it is not a ‘hit job’ against the Biden family.

‘There’s a picture of a letter that Hunter’s daughter, Finnegan, wrote to, I assume, troops stationed overseas, like in Iraq and Afghanistan,’ he said. ‘It’s an adorable letter. Finnegan’s around 9 years old at the time, and it definitely paints the Bidens in a good light.’

‘We’re not Republican activists. None of us are registered Republicans,’ he continued. ‘In fact, I loved and still love Trump precisely because he wasn’t a standard Republican. So this is not a hit job. We’re going to keep all the photos that paint the Bidens in a good light and keep all the photos that paint the Bidens in a bad light. The American people can judge for themselves what they think about their first family through this.’

Describing the effort as ‘the most thorough expose of any American first family while they’re in office in the history of America,’ Ziegler said the types of photos that will be shared to the website are photos that typically ‘only become available once the presidential archives are open and those photos only detail his time in the Oval while he was the president.’

Ziegler also said the website will use a ‘photo viewing app that will allow users to view the metadata in the photos.’

‘They’re going to be able to see where the photo was taken, what time it was taken, if it has latitude and longitude coordinates attached to it,’ he said. ‘They’re going to be able to see if it has metadata like aperture, lighting.’

Ziegler also noted that videos from the laptop will be available for public viewing at a later date.

Describing why it will take longer for the videos from the laptop to be uploaded to the site, Ziegler said his team has to use AI tools to assist with censoring portions of the videos because ‘there’s so much pornography.’

Ziegler said there are ‘several’ questionable photos in particular that he believes reporters should take a look at.

The White House and Hunter Biden’s attorney did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

A federal agency is pondering whether artificial intelligence might someday be used to help the government identify duplicative or overly burdensome federal rules that need to be cut back.

But officials are already hearing from skeptics who doubt AI will ever be powerful enough to wade through and understand the hundreds of thousands of pages of detailed federal rules.

The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) is an independent federal agency that works to increase the efficiency and fairness of regulations. In early May, ACUS released a report it commissioned on how AI and other algorithmic tools might be used to conduct retrospective reviews of federal rules to improve them.

That report said AI might already be able to conduct ‘housekeeping’ chores, such as finding typos or incorrect citations but said AI might also be trained to do much more.

‘A tool could identify regulations that are either outdated or redundant with another rule,’ the report said, even as it acknowledged the challenges of this work. ‘Both of these inquiries may not have an objective correct answer: A regulation might be old, but is it obsolete? A rule’s text or regulated activity might overlap with another’s, but is one superfluous?

‘An algorithm performing even more substantive tasks might identify existing regulations it believes could benefit from clarification or are overly burdensome,’ it added. ‘These are both arguably completely subjective inquiries: When is a regulation too complex or burdensome?’

The report quoted several federal staffers, most of whom were open to using AI for retrospective regulatory reviews.

But it also quoted groups affected by federal regulations, and they were much more tentative on how AI might be used. Most said that, at best, AI would be a tool for flagging rules that are ready to be reviewed, after which people would have to do the reviewing.

Two ‘skeptics’ in this group argued that AI would have trouble penetrating the dense language of federal rules to be useful in any way.

‘According to the skeptics, it would be nearly impossible to write an all-encompassing algorithm that would be accurate to flag rules in need of review given that so much of regulatory text is incredibly difficult to unpack and is so context-specific,’ the report said.

‘The concern raised was that so much of the regulatory quality depends on agency expertise and experience. The representatives were skeptical that AI could replace or even channel this.’

The report said another possible hurdle is whether government officials will want to use AI this way. The Trump administration introduced the use of AI in the regulatory process as a deregulatory tool in the Department of Health and Human Services and used AI in the Defense Department to help people understand the Pentagon’s vast network of rules.

The two ‘skeptics’ said the Trump administration’s use of AI may have ‘poisoned the well’ and could make it difficult for agencies to agree to explore AI further.

‘One representative went further to elaborate that it ‘soured the community’s thinking about retrospective review’ given that it used retrospective review ‘as a smokescreen for partisan objectives,’’
the report said.

Several federal agencies are represented in ACUS, and the group’s research director, Jeremy Graboyes, told Fox News Digital there is some hesitancy inside the government on how to use AI.

‘I think you probably see a range of emotions,’ Graboyes said, noting that the positives of cost-effectiveness and accuracy are potentially outweighed by problems like possible bias that can be built into AI systems. ‘All the debates you’re seeing outside the government, you’re seeing inside government as well.’

ACUS is recommending that federal agencies start by using AI to identify redundant federal rules and fixing small errors and by using open-source AI tools for this work. ACUS also said agencies should disclose when they use AI or other algorithmic tools in the process of reviewing regulations.

ACUS is set to meet in mid-June in Washington to decide whether to adopt the report and its recommendations. From there, Graboyes said ACUS would be working with federal agencies on implementing these recommendations, which he said was a start that could lead the agency to recommend more advanced work with AI tools in the years ahead.

‘We’ll be doing more work in the AI space,’ he said.

The president of Mexico is continuing to wage what he has called an ‘information campaign’ against Republicans in the U.S., urging Hispanics not to vote for them due to their policies on immigration and fentanyl — but the Biden administration has so far stayed quiet on the apparent election meddling by the southern neighbor.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador muscled his way into the 2024 presidential debate last week after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his candidacy and promised to shut down the border with Mexico.

Lopez Obrador accused DeSantis of pushing ‘anti-immigrant’ policies and urged Hispanics not to vote for him.

‘I hope the Hispanics of Florida wake up and don’t give him any votes, that they don’t vote for those who persecute migrants, those who don’t respect migrants,’ he said.

Those remarks are not an isolated instance however, and appear to be part of an ‘information campaign’ he announced in March, after Republican lawmakers suggested potential military action to take out the drug cartels pumping out fentanyl and sending it to the U.S.

‘Starting today we are going to start an information campaign for Mexicans who live and work in the United States and for all Hispanics to inform them of what we are doing in Mexico and how this initiative by the Republicans, in addition to being irresponsible, is an offense against the people of Mexico, a lack of respect for our independence, our sovereignty,’ he said.

‘And if they do not change their attitude and think that they are going to use Mexico for their propaganda, electoral, and political purposes, we are going to call for them not to vote for that party, because it is interventionist, inhumane, hypocritical, and corrupt,’ Lopez Obrador said, later adding that Mexico would be insisting that ‘not one vote’ goes to Republicans from Mexicans and Hispanics.

In July 2022, he also targeted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and said that Mexico is ‘going to ask our countrymen there that they don’t vote for that candidate or party.’

However, the Biden administration has so far not engaged with the remarks publicly, despite the apparent meddling in U.S. elections by a foreign government. Neither the State Department nor the White House responded to multiple requests for comment on the matter from Fox News Digital.

Lopez Obrador has also taken swipes at American lawmakers when appealing for help from the Chinese Communist regime in stopping fentanyl, which is created in Mexico using Chinese precursors.

‘Unjustly, they are blaming us for problems that in large measure have to do with their loss of values, their welfare crisis,’ he wrote. ‘These positions are in themselves a lack of respect and a threat to our sovereignty, and moreover they are based on an absurd, manipulative, propagandistic and demagogic attitude.’

The Mexican leader has also made bizarre claims that fentanyl is not made in Mexico — when it is primarily made in Mexico from Chinese precursors before being transported into the U.S. across the land border.

Meanwhile, diplomatic tensions were on display between the two countries in March when the Mexican military seized an American construction company’s facility. Mexican President Lopez Obrador had accused the company of trying to extract minerals from Mexico without the required permits and ship them to the U.S.

One week after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., demanded answers from the Department of Defense about why a ‘child-friendly’ drag show was being hosted at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the show was abruptly canceled.

‘HUGE VICTORY,’ Gaetz wrote on Twitter. ‘Drag shows should not be taking place on military installations with taxpayer dollars PERIOD!’

A drag show initially scheduled for June 1 — in celebration of Pride Month — organized by the Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council, was canceled, the group confirmed on Facebook.

‘The Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council is saddened to inform you that we are no longer able to host our annual Pride Month Drag Show on Nellis AFB.’ The group said it ‘received notification that the DoD has directed Commanders not to host Drag events on military installations.’

The cancellation came after Gaetz ‘demanded answers’ from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, the lawmaker highlighted on Twitter.

On May 23, Gaetz wrote a letter to Milley and Austin ‘demanding immediate answers on why these drag shows are still occurring’ despite their testimony in March that the Defense Department did not support or endorse such shows, he said.

The two leaders said at the time that they were not aware such events were still happening on military bases.

‘I’m demanding immediate answers on why these drag shows are still occurring despite Austin and General Milley testifying that they should not be happening,’ Gaetz wrote on Twitter, sharing the letter.

In the letter, Gaetz reminded Austin and Milley of their testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on March 29, where they expressed their disapproval of such performances.

‘On March 29, 2023, during the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the ‘FY24 Defense Budget Request,’ I questioned you about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the Department of Defense (DoD). I find it completely unacceptable that DoD is using taxpayer dollars to fund DEI programs that are divisive in nature. DoD resources should be used for mission-essential operations, not diverted toward initiatives that create cultural fissures within our service ranks,’ Gaetz wrote in the letter dated May 23.

He added, ‘When I highlighted specific cases of drag queen story hours and drag shows occurring on U.S. military bases, shockingly, you indicated you were unaware that such events are taking place. However, I am pleased to know you do not support these drag events and agree with me that they should not be happening.’

‘To aid you in executing the agreed-upon elimination of DoD-funded drag events, I have enclosed supplementary documents that further highlight the DoD’s pervasive and persistent use of taxpayer dollars for drag events,’ the Republican continued.

He also included questions about the respective instances, requiring answers to the House Armed Services Committee so it could conduct ‘further oversight of this matter.’

The letter then highlighted the June 2023 Nellis drag show as well as a similar event hosted at Nellis the year before, on June 17, 2022.

‘Under what authority does a commander approve, host, and fund burlesque shows on a military base utilizing taxpayer funding?’ Gaetz asked, referencing a drag show hosted at the Nellis Club during which time Colonel Josh DeMottis was the commander.

The letter also highlighted past events like one that took place on May 27, 2022, at the Ramstein Air Force Base, located in Germany; and, one on July 30, 2022, at the Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.

The May event was canceled, but Gaetz inquired in the letter: ‘Prior to its cancelation, how many service members were diverted from their normal duties to help plan, organize, and facilitate the drag queen story hour?’

The June 1 event was going to feature RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 star CoCo Montrese, according to its advertisement.

According to NBC News, the decision to cancel the event came directly from Austin and Milley, the latter of which was visibly agitated when he was informed about the event.

A drag show was hosted at Nellis Air Force Base each of the past two years, including 2021 and 2022.

–>

CONCORD, N.H. – EXCLUSIVE – As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heads out on the campaign trail for the first time since launching his campaign for the Democratic presidential campaign in April, he’s pointing to the latest national polling that indicates he’s grabbing double-digit support as he primary challenges President Biden.

‘The public polls speak for themselves,’ Kennedy said in a national exclusive interview with Fox News Digital ahead of his trip Thursday to the key early voting presidential primary state of New Hampshire.

The environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine critic, who’s a scion of arguably the nation’s most famous family political dynasty, stands at 16% support in the latest Fox News national poll in the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination race, with Biden at 62%. And the 69-year-old Kennedy grabbed 20% support with the 80-year-old president at 60% in a CNN poll released last week.

Both surveys – which indicated Marianne Williamson, the best-selling author and spiritual adviser who in March launched her second straight campaign for the Democratic nomination, at 8% – pointed to potential problems for Biden as he seeks a second term in the White House.

Kennedy noted that his campaign’s private polling numbers ‘are even better’ and emphasized that ‘we feel like we’re going to get a lot of independents and Republican crossovers.’

‘I think we’re doing very well, much better than expected,’ Kennedy Jr. added.

And while he wouldn’t reveal any fundraising figures ahead of his campaign’s end of the second quarter filing in a month, Kennedy indicated that ‘we’re getting a good response’ from donors.

As he’s noted, name recognition may be behind some of Kennedy’s double-digit support in the polls during this early part of the 2024 election cycle. He’s the son of the late senator, attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy and the late longtime Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. And part of the support for Kennedy and Williamson may be a type of protest against a president whose approval ratings have remained in negative territory for nearly two years.

Asked if he’s urged Williamson to drop out and support his White House bid, Kennedy answered ‘I wouldn’t ask Marianne to bow out. I think it’s valuable to have as many voices in the race as possible and I think people should have a range of voice.’ 

‘I’m all for having Marianne come in and talk about her issues and have some competition, which is part of democracy. This isn’t the Soviet system where the party picks the nominee,’ he added.

Kennedy heads on Thursday morning to New Hampshire’s State House in Concord, where he’ll address the state Senate. Declared presidential candidates from both parties are being given the opportunity this cycle to speak before the upper chamber of the state legislature. Kennedy is expected to take questions from reporters following his address to state lawmakers and then hold meetings in Manchester.

‘We’re going to New Hampshire as it’s always been treated, like a key primary, a key indicator for the rest of the country, and a state that politicians have to go to do retail politics,’ Kennedy told Fox News.

Kennedy sparked speculation about a potential White House run early this year by visiting New Hampshire, which for a century has held the first primary in the presidential nomination race. He was joined on his trip to the state by his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, best known for portraying the wife of Larry David on the popular HBO comedy series ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’

Kennedy earlier this year took aim at Biden and the Democratic National Committee over their decision to move the New Hampshire presidential primary out of its position as the first in the nation primary. New Hampshire will now vote second in the DNC’s calendar, along with Nevada, three days after South Carolina, under the DNC’s new schedule. 

Ahead of the DNC’s final approval of the schedule in early February, Kennedy wrote an open letter to the committee, urging members to keep New Hampshire in the first spot because of the state’s long history advocating for civil rights and election transparency.

The DNC changed the nominating calendar in an effort to reflect more diversity in the Democratic Party, but Kennedy said that New Hampshire already showcases the diversity in America. As a general election battleground state, he said, New Hampshire’s ‘four electoral votes could decide the 2024 election.’ 

But with New Hampshire likely to move up the date of their primary – due to a state law that mandates that the state holds the first presidential primary – it’s likely the president will stay off the ballot in New Hampshire to avoid an unsanctioned primary.

‘We’re going to New Hampshire as it’s always been treated, like a key primary, a key indicator for the rest of the country, and a state that politicians have to go to do retail politics,’ Kennedy stressed. ‘It’s an important ritual in American democracy.’

Asked about the distinct possibility of Biden skipping the primary in New Hampshire, Kennedy said ‘I just think it’s wrong from the consideration of democracy.’

It’s been over a month since Kennedy launched his presidential campaign. Asked what took him so long to stump in New Hampshire, Kennedy said ‘we have to scale up this campaign … we’ve been hiring people, building our staff, building our organization, and raising money.’

‘I plan to spend a lot of time in New Hampshire this summer,’ he emphasized. ‘I don’t think the people of New Hampshire will feel neglected by me by summer’s end.’

While Kennedy was once known mostly for his environmental efforts, in the past decade and a half he’s emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement – and a host of public experts and even members of his own family have argued his efforts have been misleading and dangerous.

Kennedy defended his work on vaccine skepticism, which could be a major liability among Democratic presidential primary voters.

Asked if his stance could hurt him at the ballot box, Kennedy answered that ‘I’m not leading with that issue. If people want to talk about that issue, of course I’m happy to talk about it. There are other issues that are a lot more important to Americans – the overarching issue of the systematic attack on the middle class and all the things that go with it, the inflation, the war, the destruction of our industrial base in this country, are all things that I’m going to be talking about.’

Former Vice President Mike Pence is speaking out against the decision by Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers to welcome an LGBTQIA+ group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the team’s annual Pride Night.

The former vice president, taking to Twitter on Wednesday, said that Dodger’s decision to honor the group after it rescinded its original invitation was ‘deeply offensive.’

Pence, who’s expected to launch a 2024 Republican presidential campaign next week, expressed his opinions as he retweeted a Fox News Digital story regarding the controversy.

‘Having been raised in a Catholic family, the Dodgers decision to invite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a hateful group that blatantly mocks Catholicism, to their event next month is deeply offensive,’ Pence wrote on Twitter. ‘Last summer the MLB moved their All-Star Game out of Georgia over a lie about voter ID and now they are apologizing and welcoming anti-Catholic bigots back to Dodger Stadium with open arms.’

The former vice president, a social conservative who’s long been a champion to evangelical voters, argued that ‘the MLB should not be apologizing to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, they should be apologizing to Catholics across America. America’s pastime should respect the faith of every American no matter what.’

The MLB team announced that it would be honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of ‘queer and trans nuns,’ during a June 16 event, but quickly received backlash from religious groups for the decision given the history of anti-Catholic messaging and shocking performances.

The team said last week it would no longer be honoring the group during the upcoming LGBTQ event.

‘Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we’ve seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,’ the Dodgers said last week.

The next day, LA Pride announced it would no longer be participating in the event. 

The Dodgers reversed their decision five days later and welcomed the group back.

The Dodgers also received backlash from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and religious advocacy group CatholicVote for allowing the group to participate in its festivities.

Longtime Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, said this week he disagrees with his team’s move.

The Dodgers’ decisions on the anti-Catholic group come amid a trend of well-known companies being called out for sponsoring individuals with controversial viewpoints and lifestyles.

Bud Light recently came under fire for teaming up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, and individuals nationwide began boycotting the brand as a result of the campaign.