As Republicans advocate for spending cuts in their debt ceiling stand-off with Democrats, an anti-government waste group called out three GOP lawmakers for shuffling more taxpayer dollars to pet projects than anyone in Congress.

Two now-retired Republican senators each raked in over half a billion dollars for their home states through earmarks in fiscal 2023, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) reported in its annual Congressional Pig Book. And a GOP congressman was the top spender in the House, funneling over a quarter of a million dollars to his district. 

‘Legislators are now well on their way to breaking the all-time record,’ CAGW President Tom Schatz told Fox News. ‘And it may happen as soon as next year.’

‘MOST CORRUPT’ GOVERNMENT PRACTICE AT NEAR-RECORD LEVELS: WATCHDOG

Earmarks, or pork, are line items lawmakers add to spending bills that designate tax dollars to programs and projects in their home states or districts, circumventing regular budgetary procedures. Last month, CAGW’s Pig Book exposed the 7,396 earmarks that weaseled their way into legislation throughout fiscal 2023 and cost taxpayers $26.1 billion. 

‘Earmarks are the most corrupt, costly and inequitable practice in the history of Congress,’ said Schatz. ‘It encourages a lack of fiscal discipline because members are looking for their little piece of pork and they in turn vote for the whole bill, which they might not otherwise support.’ 

Republicans hog top Oinker Awards

While Democrats took advantage of earmarking more often than Republicans, according to Pig Book, it was GOP lawmakers who received the largest sums in both chambers. Now-retired Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama’s 18 earmarks in fiscal 2023 cost taxpayers $666 million, and retired Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe worked in 63 earmarks, costing $541 million, CAGW reported.

The top spender in the House was Rep. Randy Weber received 10 earmarks costing $288 million, Pig Book shows. The report also highlighted another Republican, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, as a winner in its ‘Oinker Awards’ for allocating $6 million to the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University in Starkville.

‘I have seven ports deeply tied to shipping goods and energy products worldwide, and given the nature of my district, I’m advocating on behalf of the gulf coast of Texas and the entire nation,’ Weber told Fox News. ‘I was tired of faceless and nameless Washington bureaucrats making decisions we were elected to make.’ 

‘Our country cannot afford the woke and weaponized spending that has been foisted upon us,’ the Texas Republican added. ‘We must shrink Washington and grow America.’

Shelby, Inhofe, and Hyde-Smith didn’t immediately return Fox News’ request for comment.

‘Taxpayers understand that the increase in spending has been a key factor in inflation,’ Schatz told Fox News. ‘Taxpayers are more and more aware that not only is there wasteful spending, but there are ways to stop the government spending so much money.’ 

The $26.1 billion of earmarked spending revealed in this year’s Pig Book marks the third-highest total since CAGW began tracking the practice in 1991. In 2006, earmarks hit $29 billion and $27.3 billion in 2005.

The 89 members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, which make up only 17% of Congress, were responsible for 41.4% of the earmarks in 2023, CAGW found. 

While earmarking only accounts for 1% of government spending, Schatz said that money bypasses the appropriate budgetary processes ‘and benefits a small group of members of Congress.’

‘That’s what people need to understand about earmarks, and then perhaps they will be eliminated,’ Schatz added.

President Biden is set to meet with top Republicans and Democrats in Congress this week to try to resolve a standoff over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and avoid default before the end of the month. 

Democrats, including the president, are calling to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit without conditions. House Republicans, however, passed a bill in April that would raise the debt limit but also make sweeping spending cuts over the next decade.

The fact that tying the debt ceiling to spending cuts ‘seems to be gaining popularity is certainly a sign that taxpayers have had enough of overspending,’ Schatz said. 

The GOP bill would reduce spending back to 2022 levels — a 9% cut from the 2023 budget — while raising the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever came first, and reducing future deficits by nearly $5 trillion over the next decade.

‘That’s the least that can be done. Anybody can find 10% to cut back,’ Schatz told Fox News. ‘The impact of inflation over the last year has been a 10% increase for a lot of people on a lot of the goods and services they buy. They’ve had to cut back.’ 

‘Benefits their districts or states, not the whole country’

Congress imposed an earmark moratorium in 2011 following multiple cases of corruption and misuse. But in 2021, Democrats in both chambers as well as House Republicans voted to lift the moratorium, though restrictions were added to stave off abuse, including capping earmarks at 1% of discretionary spending, barring funds from going to for-profit entities and requiring lawmakers to disclose their earmark requests. 

Since 1991, CAGW has identified 124,212 earmarks costing $437.5 billion.

‘Members of Congress add these projects and programs because it benefits their districts or their states, not the whole country,’ Schatz said. ‘Many of them think it helps them get re-elected, but that became problematic when members and lobbyists went to jail as a result of the corruption associated with the earmarks.’

‘That hasn’t happened yet with the revival of earmarks, but it may happen soon enough,’ he added. 

Schatz said lawmakers treat the Department of Defense in particular as ‘a bottomless money pit.’

CAGW found $1.5 billion allocated through three earmarks for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Included was funding for 18 aircraft that the Pentagon didn’t request.

All told, the Defense Department received $10.1 billion from 134 earmarks in 2023, acocording to the report. 

Lawmakers, ‘in the name of national security, add money, but they are not following what the Pentagon wants,’ Schatz said.

Additionally, the watchdog group found $67 million earmarked for museums, $26 million for theaters and $13 million for presidential libraries. 

‘There are numerous programs throughout the federal government that provide grants and loans to museums already,’ Schatz said. ‘These museums went around that grant process, and they got the money directly through their members of Congress.’

A number of Republicans have supported the idea of permanently eliminating earmarks. Rep. Tom McClintock, for example, put forward an amendment to bar member-directed spending in November, but House Republicans killed it in a 52-158 vote.

Schatz said Congress needs to show more fiscal restraint, stop using earmarks and push for spending cuts. 

‘Almost $4 trillion was spent over the last two years, some of it for quote-unquote COVID-19 relief,’ Schatz told Fox News. ‘Now the pandemic emergency is over. Whatever is left that is not spent should be taken back.’ 

‘That should be the very least that’s done on this debt ceiling bill,’ he said. ‘And there are a lot of other examples of duplication and overlap.’

To watch the full interview, click here. 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an emergency declaration on Tuesday in response to illegal migrants being sent to her city by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Lightfoot issued the emergency declaration following the arrival of 48 migrants on Tuesday, according to a press release, which states that the city and state have provided emergency care for over 8,000 migrants since August 2022.

‘We should all understand that this crisis will likely deepen before we see it get better, so as we move forward, the City of Chicago will have to bring additional locations online to prepare for the arrival of more individuals and families and to relieve Chicago Police Department districts,’ Lightfoot’s office said. ‘The City of Chicago is in the midst of a national humanitarian crisis, and through a unified effort in accordance with its values as a welcoming city, Chicago is doing everything it can to respond to the urgency of this matter. The City has continued to call on federal and state governments to support the new arrival mission with much-needed additional funding and resources for emergency shelter and resettlement, as there are not enough resources currently to meet the need.’

The emergency declaration signed by Lightfoot states that Chicago’s resources are ‘now stretched to the breaking point,’ adding that hundreds of migrants are temporarily ‘sheltering in police stations.’

Video obtained by Fox News’ Matt Finn shows what appears to be migrant families taking shelter inside Chicago’s 19th police district. Migrants appear to be sleeping on the floor without proper access to showers or bathrooms. 

Chicago leadership has boldly advertised the city as a sanctuary city for more than five years, despite not having adequate resources to house migrants. 

Lightfoot, who is only in office until May 15, also reserved the authority to request a mobilization of the Illinois National Guard to address the influx of migrants.

The state of emergency declaration comes just days before Title 42 is set to expire, which is expected to cause a surge of migrants to cross the United States’ southern border.

Lightfoot sent a letter to Abbott in late April pleading with him to stop sending migrants to the sanctuary city.

‘Nearly all the migrants have been in dire need of food, water, and clothing and many needed extensive medical care,’ Lightfoot wrote. ‘Some of the individuals you placed on buses were women in active labor, and some were victims of sexual assault. None of these urgent needs were addressed in Texas. Instead, these individuals and families were packed onto buses and shipped across the country like freight without regard to their personal circumstances.’

Abbott began sending migrants to Chicago in response to ‘President Biden’s open border policies overwhelming border communities in Texas.’ The Republican governor has also sent migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C.

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, says he learned from the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, that more than 80,000 migrants, primarily from Venezuela, are moving toward the U.S.-Mexico border, ahead of Thursday’s expiration of Title 42.

President Giammattei also said he tried to call the White House on the matter, but nobody would take his calls.

The news of the exodus comes as several migrants continue to surge along the border ahead of the end of Title 42 on May 11.

Title 42 is a public health order that has been in place since 2020 to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants quickly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once the order ends, droves of migrants are expected to arrive at the border, believing they have a better chance of being admitted into the U.S., although the Biden administration has said that is not true.

The president and his team have warned that penalties will be stiffened for those who enter the country illegally, and they are encouraged to use expanded legal pathways instead.

But it has not stopped migrants from trying to sneak into the U.S. for freedom illegally.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced it was launching a ‘targeted enforcement operation’ in El Paso, Texas, to process and possibly deport illegal immigrants.

The operation was to be executed by agents and officers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in one of the border’s hotspots for migrant crossings.

On Tuesday morning, illegal immigrants who were camped on the sidewalks in downtown El Paso told Fox News they were woken up by authorities and handed pamphlets urging them to turn themselves in to CBP.

One man told Fox News the person who handed him a pamphlet had a badge and a gun. That was not enough to scare the man, though. In fact, he told Fox News, ‘I’m not gonna turn myself in.’

Migrants are also lined up along the border in Brownsville, Texas, nearly 800 miles south of El Paso.

In one video, a group of several hundred migrants are seen illegally crossing the border, with more coming.

Last week, the Biden administration announced the deployment of 1,500 troops to the border. It also announced the establishment of migrant processing centers across Latin America and a deal for Mexico to take back non-Mexican illegal immigrants.

The Department of Homeland Security announces the distribution of $332 million in funding to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and local governments to help migrants who are released from custody.

Along with these additions, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas continues to say the border is not open, stressing that migrants can face consequences such as re-entry bans and criminal prosecution if they enter the U.S. illegally after Thursday.

Adam Shaw of Fox News contributed to this report.

Democrats are calling out the Biden administration’s handling of the souther border, as lawmakers brace for the crisis to go from bad to worse with the coming end of the Trump-era Title 42 policy. 

The May 11 expiration of Title 42, the COVID-era policy that allows the speedy expulsion of illegal immigrants from the U.S., is raising concern from representatives on both sides of the aisle, as several states already face thousands of migrant encounters daily.

Several Democratic lawmakers in border state Arizona accused the Biden administration of unpreparedness, as their state gears up for the influx of migrants seeking asylum in America.

‘The Biden administration had two years to prepare for the end of Title 42 and did not do so, and our state is going to bear the brunt,’ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., said during an interview with CBS on Sunday.

Sen. Mark Kelly, R-Ariz., told 12News in April that he does ‘not have a high level of confidence’ in the Biden administration’s current plan for after Title 42.

‘On May 11, we expect higher levels of migrants, and I made it clear to them [Biden administration] that it is unacceptable to be releasing people into the streets and communities across Arizona,’ the Democrat shared ahead of pandemic-era policy’s end.

‘The numbers need to match the resources, if they don’t, Border Patrol could find themselves in a position where they are just being overwhelmed by the numbers,’ the senator said.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who launched a 2024 campaign for Sinema’s Senate seat, also warned in a letter to the administration that communities ‘are simply unequipped to handle the surge of migrants.’

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, also joined ‘Fox News Sunday’ to discuss the crisis facing his state.

‘You’ve gotta have repercussions. If you don’t have repercussions at the border, people will see the border as a speed bump,’ Cuellar told Fox News’ Shannon Bream on Sunday. ‘The administration needs to go to the center – and I’ve asked them to go to the center. And I think some of the policies that they’re about to implement brings them to the center. In my opinion, a little bit too late.’

Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., issued a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling for a bipartisan plan to combat the multitude of migrants expected to be encountered at the southern border in the coming days.

‘As the president has decided to lift the [Title 42] order this week, we now face a doubling of illegal crossings at our southern border by some estimates, exacerbating the current humanitarian and refugee crisis,’ the congresswoman wrote. ‘While you have presented a list of ways you plan to address the surge of migration, some of which I agree with, we still have not reached a comprehensive, long-term plan with bipartisan support.’

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources reported about 8,000 migrant encounters a day border-wide in the first days of May, but the Department of Homeland Security is anticipating up to 14,000 migrant encounters daily after the expiration of Tite 42.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

Republican leaders on Senate and House committees with oversight of federal energy policies are requesting a watchdog investigation into the Biden administration’s depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

The lawmakers – House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member John Barrasso, R-Wyo. – requested in a letter Monday that the Government Accountability Office probe the Department of Energy (DOE). They argue that the agency’s heavy reliance on the SPR has undermined U.S. energy security.

‘DOE’s mismanagement of the SPR has undermined America’s energy security, leaving the nation more vulnerable to energy supply disruptions, and increasing the ability for OPEC and Russia to use energy as a geopolitical weapon,’ McMorris Rodgers and Barrasso wrote in the letter to Gene Dodaro, the GAO’s comptroller.

‘DOE has failed to establish long-term plans for the optimal size, configuration, maintenance, and operational capabilities of the reserve,’ they added. ‘We are concerned that the rapid depletion of the SPR may have caused structural damage to the SPR’s pipelines and caverns, compromising its ability to meet its energy security mission in the event of a true energy supply disruption.’

They noted that the SPR, which consists of four storage facilities in Texas and Louisiana, is made up of a system of wells, pipelines and pumps that use water and brine to control oil flows. The lawmakers expressed concern that the repeated drawdown of oil stocks from the system could ultimately erode the SPR’s physical integrity.

Overall, in three separate releases, President Joe Biden has ordered the DOE to release a total of about 260 million barrels of oil stored in the SPR since taking office to combat record fuel prices hitting American consumers.

The SPR, which has a capacity of about 714 million barrels, has fallen from about 638 million barrels to 362 million barrels, its lowest level since October 1983, since Biden took office.

‘DOE also recently created new rules, without Congressional authorization, for ‘fixed-price’ purchases of crude oil, rather than conventional purchase contracts,’ McMorris Rodgers and Barrasso continued in the letter Monday.

‘The failure of DOE to secure contracts to purchase oil under the new ‘fixed-price’ bidding scheme raises serious questions about DOE’s replenishment strategy and the ability of the SPR to protect the American consumers and the economy in times of emergency,’ the letter stated.

The White House unveiled a plan last year to refill SPR stocks by buying back oil at between $67 to $72 per barrel, a plan it said would amount to purchasing oil at a discount. However, DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested in March that it could take years to refill the emergency reserve to its previous level.

The Government Accountability Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has signed into law a bill protecting schoolteachers and state employees who choose to ignore transgender pronouns used by students and colleagues.The law also requires teachers to inform legal guardians of students’ transgender identification, and requires bathrooms be used according to biological sex absent parental approval.The law ‘largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech,’ Burgum said, commending it for ‘balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers.’

North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has signed a bill into law that allows public school teachers and state government employees to ignore the pronouns their transgender students and colleagues use, the governor’s office announced Monday.

The new law also requires teachers to tell a parent or legal guardian if the student identifies as transgender. It also prohibits transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice without prior approval from a parent or guardian.

It is effective immediately.

Burgum said in a statement that the new law ‘largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech … balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers.’

Opponents countered that the state’s Republican leaders are violating the constitutional rights of students and teachers by compelling the speech of adults and potentially exposing children to dangerous repercussions if an abusive parent doesn’t approve.

‘Mandatory outing of a student’s trans identity violates their privacy rights at school – particularly for trans youth who cannot be safe at home. And creating a supportive working and learning environment also requires treating people with dignity and respect, including – at a minimum – calling them by the name and pronouns they want to use. These are both unlawful and discriminatory practices,’ said Cody Schuler, advocacy manager of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota.

Supporters have said the measure boosts parental rights and brings peace of mind to teachers. Others said the governor should have done more to limit trans rights.

It’s only the latest measure restricting trans rights that Burgum signed after they were passed by North Dakota’s House and Senate with veto-proof majorities, part of a larger push by Republican officials nationwide to roll back the rights of their LGBTQ+ constituents.

Other new North Dakota laws prohibit transgender girls and women from joining female sports teams, from K-12 through college. They criminalize health care providers who give sex changes to minors. And they limit transgender children and adults in accessing the bathrooms, locker rooms and showers of their choice, from schools to state-run colleges and correctional facilities.

At least 21 states have restricted or banned female transgender athletes’ participation in female sports, and at least 14 states have restricted or banned sex changes for minors. Additionally, at least eight states have enacted laws preventing transgender people from using the restrooms associated with their gender identities.

New results from a U.S. Census Bureau simulation suggests a significant number of noncitizens were missed in the 2020 census, a national head count during which the Trump administration tried but failed to prevent people in the country illegally from being tallied.

A simulated head count by the statistical agency utilized 31 types of administrative records from government agencies and third-party sources to produce estimates of the U.S. population on April 1, 2020 that could be compared to the survey-like responses used in the last official tally of every U.S. resident. The simulation was an experiment which doesn’t change the results of the once-a-decade count of every U.S. resident that helps determine political power and the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal funding in the U.S.

Almost a fifth of noncitizens found in the administrative records had addresses that couldn’t be matched in the 2020 census, suggesting that ‘a significant fraction of noncitizens’ were missed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau report released Friday. By comparison, that same figure was 5.4% for citizens.

Using administrative records from government agencies that have records on immigration, welfare programs, motor vehicle registrations and other data, the test tallied 2.3% more people than in the actual census in 2020 that produced a head count of 331 million U.S. residents, primarily because the simulation captured more noncitizens residing in the U.S., the report said.

The simulation was a test to see how good a job administrative records perform in counting historically undercounted groups like racial and ethnic minorities, renters and young children. Its results actually bumped up the numbers for Hispanic and Black residents, two groups who were undercounted in the 2020 census, respectively, by 8.3 million people and 2.8 million people, the report said.

The administrative records census produced estimates of 11.6 million people in the U.S. with an unknown legal status.

Opponents have said Trump administration policies in 2019 and 2020 created a chilling effect which likely deterred immigrants, Hispanics and others from participating in the 2020 census.

In 2019, the Trump administration attempted to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census questionnaire, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked it. In the middle of the 2020 census, President Donald Trump directed the Census Bureau to exclude people in the country illegally from numbers used for divvying up congressional seats among the states. An influential GOP adviser had advocated excluding them from the apportionment process in order to favor Republicans and non-Hispanic Whites. Trump’s memo was rescinded when President Joe Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021, before the census figures were released.

Using administrative records produced lower population estimates in rural areas, mainly because of the more common use of post office boxes and rural route addresses rather than physical addresses, according to the simulation results. Counts from administrative records also were lower than the 2020 census figures for people between ages 65 and 74, Asians and people who identified as being two or more races. Among the reasons is that these populations were more likely to be double counted in the 2020 census.

Along with noncitizens, Blacks and Hispanics, the administrative records produced higher counts for males, working-age adults, children under age 15 and non-Hispanic Whites.

At the state level, Minnesota and several other Midwestern states had the highest match rates between a person identified in an administrative record and a 2020 census record, while Hawaii had the lowest. Minnesota also had the highest rate of residents who answered the census questionnaire on their own without needing prompting from a census taker visiting their home.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed the federal government under President Biden has run a near-$1 trillion federal deficit in the ‘first seven months of fiscal year 2023.’

CBO’s report dropped on Monday, giving lawmakers insight into the current state of the federal deficit.

The nonpartisan agency found that in the first seven months of FY2023 alone, the federal government has racked up $928,000,000,000.

‘The federal budget deficit was $928 billion in the first seven months of fiscal year 2023, the Congressional Budget Office estimates—$568 billion more than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year,’ CBO wrote on Monday.

‘Revenues were 10 percent lower and outlays were 8 percent higher from October through April than they were during the same period in fiscal year 2022,’ the agency continued.

CBO wrote that shifts ‘in the timing of certain payments affect that comparison.’

‘Outlays this fiscal year were reduced by the shifting of certain payments—totaling $63 billion—from October 1, 2022 (the first day of fiscal year 2023), into fiscal year 2022 because October 1 fell on a weekend,’ the agency wrote.

‘Also, outlays in the first seven months of fiscal year 2022 were $65 billion higher than they otherwise would have been because several federal payments that were due on May 1, 2022, a Sunday, were paid in April 2022. If not for those timing shifts, the deficit in the first seven months of fiscal year 2023 would have been $991 billion, compared with a $295 billion shortfall during the same period in 2022—an increase of $696 billion.’

The high spending numbers come as Biden enters into his 2024 re-election campaign.

The economy will likely be a major factor in 2024 as Biden will likely have to face questions on high inflation and other economic issues facing his presidency. A new ABC News/Washington Post survey found that 54% of American adults believe Trump did a ‘better job’ handling the economy during his administration, compared to 36% who said Biden is handling the economy better.

Last month, Biden received a ‘bottomless Pinocchios’ rating from the Washington Post for repeatedly touting ‘misleading’ claims on the deficit.

Earlier this week, Biden told a group union workers that in his first two years in office, he ‘lowered the deficit by a record $1.7 trillion,’ a claim Kessler gave ‘three Pinocchios’ in September.

‘Yet he keeps saying it over and over,’ Kessler wrote Friday. ‘By our count, at least 30 times since June he’s taken credit for reducing the budget deficit by $1.7 trillion.’

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Jessica Chasmar contributed reporting.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing on Monday that the U.S. has averaged more than one mass shooting per day since the start of 2023, before later saying the country averages one per week.

At the top of the White House press briefing on Monday, Jean-Pierre told reporters that May 8 is the 128th day of 2023, and yesterday, the U.S. had its 201st mass shooting of the year.

‘That means we are averaging more than one a day, more than 200 mass shootings in 128 days,’ she said, adding that more than 14,000 people died this year from gun violence. ‘This is a crisis. It is a crisis that the Republicans in Congress are refusing to address. We are talking about the number one killer of kids in America, and Republicans in Congress are saying there is nothing that we can do about it.’

Mass shootings are taking place in schools, shopping centers, churches, movie theaters, grocery stores, temples and other communal areas, interrupting everyday lives, the press secretary explained.

These public spaces come under attack from ‘weapons of war,’ that Jean-Pierre said have ‘no place on our streets.’

She then pointed the attention to Congress, saying it must address the crisis.

On Sunday, President Biden asked Congress to send him a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, ending immunity for manufacturers, requiring safe storage of guns and enacting universal background checks, according to Jean-Pierre.

‘It’s just common sense, and it’s what the American people, majority of the American people, want when we have 200 mass shootings in less than 130 days, more than one a day. This is a crisis. Congress must do something about it now.’

A little bit later, though, Jean-Pierre said the shootings are averaging much less.

‘It is frustrating, and I’m sure you all are frustrated, too, to talk about this over and over again,’ Jean-Pierre told reporters. ‘…averaging out one mass shooting a week? That’s not ok.’

Earlier numbers presented by the press secretary were much more accurate, and what she said later during the press conference was likely a slip up.

Still, Jean-Pierre said Biden has taken two dozen executive actions in two years on gun legislation, including the bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

‘This is a president that has taken action,’ she said. ‘Where’s Congress’s responsibility on this? Where’s their responsibility on this? We need legislation.’

Tara Reade, who has accused President Biden of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, tweeted a cryptic message about death before she potentially testifies to Congress following an invitation from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. 

‘I want to make something clear. If something happens to me, all roads lead to Joe Biden,’ Reade wrote Sunday afternoon. ‘Joe Biden and DNC political machine threats, bullying and intimidation over the last three years will not work.’

‘I am not suicidal,’ she added.

The message includes a promise to testify before Congress, to address ‘what happened and what’ she knows.

Reade worked as a staff assistant in Biden’s office from 1992 to 1993 when he was a U.S. Senator.

‘I should not be under investigation nor am I a foreign agent. I am a private citizen. I was a former staffer of Joe Biden’s that has chosen to step forward to tell the truth,’ Reade continued.

She added: ‘The tactics using intimidation and bullying to silence me and suppress me using DOJ and FBI and social media will not work. Leave me alone. I will testify under oath in Congress if asked to do so and tell what happened and what I know.’

‘The Biden corruption must end. Period,’ Reade said. 

She concluded her tweet by thanking Reps. Greene and Gaetz for inviting her ‘to testify and caring about the truth!’

Reade also responded to a user who accused her of being paid by Gaetz and Greene to testify.

‘No I am not getting paid to testify about being raped by my former boss. You are an absolute ghoul. Sexual assault is non-partisan,’ Reade tweeted.

Biden has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct. 

The cryptic message was posted after Dr. Gal Luft, a co-director of a Washington D.C.-based think tank, claimed he was arrested in an effort to stop him from revealing information about the Biden family.

‘I’ve been arrested in Cyprus on a politically motivated extradition request by the U.S. The U.S., claiming I’m an arms dealer. It would be funny if it weren’t tragic. I’ve never been an arms dealer,’ Luft tweeted on Feb. 18.

He added: ‘DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim, and Hunter Biden. Shall I name names?’

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo that his committee is trying to communicate with Luft and tried to get his testimony.

‘This is something we take very seriously. We had already identified this individual. We had hoped to talk to this individual by now but for whatever reason we have been unable to,’ Comer told Bartiromo on March 2.

His committee is continuing to investigate alleged coordination between the FBI and members of the Biden family, including the president and Hunter Biden.