FIRST ON FOX: Betsy DeVos – who served as head of the Education Department under former President Donald Trump – remains undecided on whom she will support in the 2024 race for the White House.

‘She’s watching the race closely but has not yet made a decision on an endorsement,’ Nate Bailey, DeVos’ chief of staff, told Fox News Digital. ‘She’s very encouraged to see all of the candidates talking seriously about expanding education freedom and empowering parents.’

DeVos, the 11th person to serve as the U.S. secretary of education from 2017 to 2021, was one of few Trump-era Cabinet members to maintain her post for his entire term in office.

As education secretary, the Michigan native championed school choice, arguing that parents should have the power to take tax dollars allocated for their child to different schools if their local public school doesn’t meet their needs.

DeVos touted Trump’s 1776 Commission as an alternative to the historically inaccurate 1619 Project, which pegs slavery as the foundation of American history.

But the former education secretary, now 65, has shown warmth to a number of other 2024 Republican candidates.

On May 31, DeVos appeared with former Vice President Mike Pence in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a conversation on what conservatives believe.

The DeVos family financially backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaigns. According to state campaign finance records, DeVos personally contributed $5,500 to a super PAC that backed DeSantis’ reelection bid in April 2022.

DeVos continues to be an influential voice about American education. Last year, she released her best-selling book, ‘Hostages No More: The Fight for Education Freedom and the Future of the American Child,’ which covers critical race theory in education, COVID-19 pandemic school lockdowns and how to fix America’s schools.

Before serving as education secretary for the Trump administration, DeVos advocated for school choice, charter schools and free speech on campuses.

She and her husband started All Children Matter in 2003 in support of voucher programs. In 2010, she helped found the school choice advocacy organization American Federation for Children.

DeVos and her husband founded the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation in 1989, which donated to charter and Christian schools, organizations supporting school choice, and various universities and arts foundations.

Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that is designed to reduce the number of people on probation and in jail, by limiting the length of probation and preventing people from being sent back to jail for minor violations.

The bill passed on a 45-4 vote and now goes to the House of Representatives, where two similar Senate bills have died without votes in previous legislative sessions. However, with the House now controlled by Democrats, the bill’s backers said they were optimistic that it will reach Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.

Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, said the state’s probation system is in urgent need of reform.

‘I can’t tell you how many generations of people have been lost to the probation process,’ he said during floor debate.

The bill, which has the backing of the Senate’s Republican and Democratic leaders, has emerged as part of a nationwide reconsideration of probation and parole measures, as states try to find alternatives to prison for nonviolent offenders and the mentally ill.

Pennsylvania is among the states with the highest rates of people under community supervision, according to federal statistics.

The case of rapper Meek Mill helped shine a light on it after he spent most of his adult life on probation — including stints in jail for technical violations — before a court overturned his conviction in a drug and gun case in Philadelphia.’

The bill aims to limit the length of probation sentences and the circumstances under which a non-violent offender on probation can be sent to jail. It does not, however, put a cap on the length of a probation sentence.

Under it, a judge can order an end to probation, regardless of any agreement on a sentence between a prosecutor and the defendant. Judges would also no longer have wide latitude to extend probation.

State law currently does not limit the length of probation sentences and critics say non-violent offenders are often incarcerated for technical violations that aren’t crimes, disrupting their families and employment. It also disproportionately affects racial minorities, they say.

Under the bill, probation review conferences would be required within certain periods of time, including two years for someone who committed a misdemeanor and four years for someone who committed a felony. Probation review cases can be held earlier for good behavior.

Probation would be required to end unless the defendant commits a crime that demonstrates that they are a threat to public safety, has not completed certain treatment or has not paid restitution under some circumstances.

The bill also prohibits courts from extending someone’s probation for not paying fines or court costs if they are found to be unable to afford it.s or court costs if they are found to be unable to afford it.

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Zeneta Everhart defeated India Walton, a prominent activist, in the Democratic primary for a seat on the Buffalo city council. Everhart has been speaking out against gun violence and racism in the country ever since her son survived the racist supermarket mass shooting that killed 10 people.The politician says that she most likely would have run for city council if the attack hadn’t happened, but it still influenced her decision to run.

Zeneta Everhart, who became a voice against racism and gun violence last year after her son survived a mass shooting, won a Democratic primary on Tuesday to represent a Buffalo neighborhood near the supermarket where the massacre happened.

Everhart defeated India Walton, another prominent activist who in 2021 upset Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in a Democratic primary, only to lose to him in the general election.

The two Black women had vied for a seat on Buffalo’s Common Council, representing an area of the Rust Belt city still healing from a white supremacist’s attack that killed 10 people at a neighborhood supermarket just over a year ago. That mass shooting was followed by a punishing December blizzard that killed 47 people in the city and its suburbs, with a disproportionate number of the victims coming from Buffalo’s Black neighborhoods.

‘This is for y’all. It is for the community. This is for my community mommas. This is for everybody,’ Everhart told supporters in her victory speech.

‘This is about fixing our community and just showing people that there is hope,’ Everhart said. ‘I don’t want people to lose hope.’

Walton was gracious in her concession speech, saying that she would be ‘graceful in defeat.’

‘I think Zeneta is going to do a great job,’ Walton said of Everhart.

But Walton said she would continue her activism. ‘My intention is to keep doing what I’ve been doing: speak truth to power, to continue organizing,’ she said.

Everhart is no newcomer to politics. She had been on the staff of state Democratic Sen. Tim Kennedy for five years when she received a call on May 14, 2022, from her son Zaire Goodman, then 19, telling her he had been shot while working at the Tops Friendly Market near their home.

Ten Black people died in the attack by a white supremacist gunman. Goodman, hit in the neck, was one of three victims who survived.

Weeks after the shooting, Everhart testified before Congress and has continued to speak publicly in the months since about racism and gun violence in the U.S.

Running for a seat in Buffalo’s Masten District, Everhart campaigned on the need for affordable housing, education and elevating the East Buffalo community whose social and economic challenges took on new urgency after the supermarket shooting.

Walton, 41, was trying to make a comeback after a rollercoaster defeat in the city’s mayoral race in 2021. In that contest, she stunned the political establishment by scoring an upset win over the longtime incumbent, Byron Brown, in a primary where she ran far to his left as a democratic socialist.

With no Republican on the ballot, Walton briefly looked like a sure winner in the general election, too, but Brown came back as a write-in candidate and won with the support of centrist Democrats, Buffalo’s business community and Republicans who said Walton, a former nurse and labor organizer, was too liberal.

While Walton remained a political outsider in Buffalo, Everhart, a former television producer, had been quietly building a more conventional career in politics as an aide to a state senator when tragedy thrust her into the spotlight.

Everhart, 42, said she probably would have run for city council, even if the attack never happened, but that it influenced her decision.

‘Part of me wanting to run for Masten is about paying it forward because of the love that was shown to my son,’ Everhart said during a phone interview Monday. ‘People are still dropping off gifts, leaving things on my doorstep for Zaire. And that, to me, means that I have to give back to my community.’

The supermarket targeted by an 18-year-old white supremacist now lies just outside the district the two women are running to represent.

In interviews and on the campaign trail, the two candidates highlighted their different approaches to governing, with Everhart citing her abilities as a coalition-builder and Walton stressing that she’s willing to fight a political establishment she says hasn’t done enough.

‘The Democratic party here in Buffalo and a lot of people in power know that I’m going to bring something different,’ Walton had said in a phone interview Tuesday. ‘I’m not beholden to anyone. I have no political allies or enemies.’

Everhart had been endorsed by the county Democratic Party while Walton was endorsed by the left-leaning Working Families Party.

The two women have known each other for years and Walton said they hug every time they see each other.

‘We’re not adversaries, in my book,’ Everhart said.

Buffalo’s 9-person council hasn’t had a female member since 2014.

Primaries held across the state Tuesday were selecting party nominees for a variety of local offices, including some county legislators, town supervisors, district attorneys, mayors and members of the New York City Council.

There are no statewide offices on the ballot in 2023.

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EXCLUSIVE: Republican Rep. Darrell Issa said President Biden ‘lied’ about his involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, and slammed the White House Counsel’s office for providing a ‘shield’ to protect against answers to questions on the matter. 

Issa, R-Calif., in an interview with Fox News Digital, pointed to the White House’s apparent shift in messaging after the House Ways and Means Committee released testimony last week from two IRS whistleblowers who alleged the Justice Department was influenced by politics in its investigation into Hunter Biden; slow-walked the probe; blocked questioning about Joe Biden and his involvement; and more.

Last week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began fielding questions on whether the president was involved in his son’s business dealings–questions she then directed to the White House Counsel’s office. 

‘When the White House spokesperson gets caught in what turns out to be untrue, lawyering up becomes the standard,’ Issa told Fox News Digital. 

‘For months and months, both the president and, on his behalf, spokespeople, have been saying the president did not have business communications with his son Hunter Biden,’ Issa said. ‘It switched just a couple of days ago now—it switched to he was ‘never in business’ with his son.’ 

‘Huge difference,’ Issa continued.

‘What we can take from the change is that it is no longer considered to be true that he did not have communications with his son,’ Issa said, pointing to recent reporting of emails, messages, and alleged conversations that have involved the president himself in discussions related to Hunter Biden’s business ventures.

Meanwhile, Issa also went on to tell Fox News Digital that the White House Counsel’s office is ‘providing a shield because the White House Counsel is not answering the questions.’

‘The White House spokesperson is supposed to answer questions, and when they refer a question to a non-answer, that becomes the obstruction,’ Issa said.

But Issa stressed that the White House’s ‘story has changed.’

‘It is clear that the president has lied—he has lied as to his relationship with Hunter Biden in business dealings that netted initially tax-free millions of dollars to Hunter Biden,’ he said.

A spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office told Fox News Digital: ‘The President was never in business with his son.’

The president, when asked directly on Monday whether he lied about not having communication with his son regarding his business dealings, said: ‘No.’

Issa’s comments come after an IRS whistleblower shared a WhatsApp message from 2017 in which Hunter Biden allegedly told a Chinese business associate that he and his father would ensure ‘you will regret not following my direction.’

‘I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,’ Hunter Biden told Henry Zhao, the director of Chinese asset management firm Harvest Fund Management, in the message provided by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley. ‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.’

The House Ways and Means Committee released that testimony after the Justice Department announced that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of a deal that is expected to keep him out of prison. 

The president’s son also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement with regard to a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

CONCORD, N.H. – Former President Donald Trump insists that he did ‘nothing wrong’ as he reacted to a leaked recording of him apparently discussing what he described as ‘highly confidential’ documents in his possession post-presidency.

Trump, the commanding front-runner in the latest GOP presidential nomination polls as he runs a third straight time for the White House, argued in a Fox News Digital interview on Tuesday that ‘this is just another hoax.’

‘I would say election interference more than anything else. It’s a disgrace that they can do it,’ Trump said. ‘Everything was fine. We did nothing wrong and everybody knows it.’

Trump was indicted and arraigned this month for his alleged improper retention of classified records. He pleaded not guilty in federal court to criminal charges that he illegally retained national security records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, following the end of his term in office and that he obstructed federal efforts to recover the documents. In total, Trump faces 37 felony charges.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier last week, the former president said ‘there was no document’ and that he was just discussing news clippings.

But an audio recording obtained by CNN appears to show Trump discussing classified materials during a July 2021 meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The former president is heard saying, ‘These are the papers,’ while he’s apparently discussing top-secret U.S. military attack plans on Iran. Trump said on the tape that the plan came from Pentagon officials.

On the recording, Trump is also heard saying ‘it’s so cool’ and that the information was classified and ‘highly confidential.’ The conversation is believed to be a key piece of evidence in the special counsel’s indictment against the former president.

Asked by Fox Digital how the audio recording squares with what he told Baier last week, Trump answered, ‘I said it very clearly – I had a whole desk full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories, having to do with many, many subjects, and what was said was absolutely fine. … We did nothing wrong. This is a whole hoax.’

But Trump didn’t repeat his response from a week earlier that there was no document. 

Fox Digital followed up by asking the former president if he was concerned about his own voice on the audio recording.

‘My voice was fine. What did I say wrong on those recordings? I didn’t even see the recording. All I know is I did nothing wrong,’ Trump said. ‘We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up. In fact, you hear the rustle of the paper. And nobody said that I did anything wrong other than the fake news, which is Fox, too.’

Asked if there were any other recordings that may materialize, Trump said, ‘I don’t know of any recordings that we should be concerned with because I don’t do things wrong. I do things right. I’m a legitimate person.’

And taking aim at President Joe Biden, Trump charged, ‘I’m not like Biden that gets hundreds of millions of dollars from people and countries.’

‘We do things right, so I don’t care about any recordings,’ Trump added.

The former president was interviewed in Concord, New Hampshire, ahead of his keynote address to the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women’s annual fundraising gala.

Trump arrived in New Hampshire as a new public opinion survey indicated him expanding his already large double-digit lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP nominating calendar. 

DeSantis was also in New Hampshire on Tuesday, holding a town hall in southern town of Hollis. Three other Republican presidential candidates — former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur, author and conservative commentator Vivek Ramaswamy, and ex-CIA spy and former Rep. Will Hurd — were also holding events in New Hampshire on the same day.

Trump has repeatedly targeted DeSantis for months, as his lead over the Florida governor in the GOP nominations polls has increased.

DeSantis, in an interview with Fox News’ Mark Meredith ahead of his Tuesday town hall in New Hampshire, emphasized that ‘we are pushing back’ and said he can effectively respond to Trump’s attacks or ‘otherwise I would be running.’

And DeSantis pointed to his numerous endorsements in New Hampshire and touted that ‘we’re going to continue to build momentum as we go through here.’

Trump’s campaign on Tuesday unveiled its initial New Hampshire grassroots leadership team.

‘We just announced 150 town captains, ward captains, and chairmen of all the counties and cities in the state,’ Trump campaign senior adviser in New Hampshire Steve Stepanek told Fox News. ‘We’ll probably be adding another 150 to that so that every single town, every single ward in the state will have a Trump captain who’s a Trump supporter and then we’re going to build a team around every single one of those people, and we’re going to train those people in the door knocking.’

Stepanek, a former state GOP chairman, predicted that ‘by September we’ll probably have well over 3,000 people who will be local people, Trump supporters who are passionate about the president who are going to be knocking their neighbors doors.’

After keynoting the luncheon in Concord, Trump stopped in Manchester to formally open his New Hampshire 2024 campaign headquarters.

Trump’s double-digit victory in the 2016 New Hampshire primary over a crowded field of rivals boosted him towards the Republican nomination and eventually the presidency.

Asked in his Fox News Digital interview about a potential second Trump administration and who he would possibly ask to return to duty, Trump said ‘we’ve had a lot of people. [Senior adviser] Stephen Miller. [Acting National Security Adviser] Gen. Kellogg. I could name so many. [Acting Director of National Intelligence] Ric Grenell was fantastic. We had mostly fantastic people.’

‘Everybody has bad ones. You have some that are good, but they turn out to be not so good. Not courageous enough like a [Attorney General] Bill Barr. He had no courage,’ Trump said. ‘But for everyone like that, I’ve had I would say at least 10 that were great.’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democrats who control the state Legislature agreed late Monday on how to spend $310.8 billion over the next year, endorsing a plan that covers a nearly $32 billion budget deficit without raiding the state’s savings account.

The nation’s most populous state has had combined budget surpluses of well over $100 billion in the past few years, using that money to greatly expand government.

But this year, revenues slowed as inflation soared and the stock market struggled. California gets most of its revenue from taxes paid by the wealthy, making it more vulnerable to changes in the economy than other states. Last month, the Newsom administration estimated the state’s spending would exceed revenues by over $30 billion.

The budget, which lawmakers are scheduled to vote on this week, covers that deficit by cutting some spending — about $8 billion — while delaying other spending and shifting some expenses to other funds. The plan would borrow $6.1 billion and would set aside $37.8 billion in reserves, the most ever.

‘In the face of continued global economic uncertainty, this budget increases our fiscal discipline by growing our budget reserves to a record $38 billion, while preserving historic investments in public education, health care, climate, and public safety,’ Newsom said.

Republicans criticized the budget plan as unsustainable, noting it would leave the state with projected multi-billion dollar deficits over the next few years. They said the state’s gas tax is scheduled to increase on Saturday, an automatic adjustment that is tied to inflation. Republicans have repeatedly tried to halt those increases, but to no avail.

‘What do Capitol Democrats have in store for you this holiday weekend? Higher gas prices!’ Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher posted on Twitter.

Budget talks stalled over the weekend as Newsom sought major changes to the state’s building and permitting process. Newsom said the changes are needed to speed up vital construction projects, including expanding the state’s energy capacity and upgrading the state’s aging water infrastructure.

But a group of lawmakers from the Central Valley feared Newsom was using the proposal to push through a long-delayed project to build a giant tunnel to send water to Southern California. In the end, Newsom got most of the changes he wanted — but lawmakers made sure the changes wouldn’t benefit the tunnel project.

GAVIN NEWSOM SAYS HE ‘ASPIRES’ ‘TO BE RONALD REAGAN’ ON THIS KEY ISSUE 

The budget includes a lifeline for public transit agencies struggling to survive following steep declines in riders during the coronavirus pandemic. It allows transit agencies to use some of the $5.1 billion in funding over the next three years for operations.

Still, some San Francisco Bay-area lawmakers said the spending wasn’t enough to forestall painful service cuts over the next few years. Monday, they proposed legislation that would increase tolls on seven state-owned bridges — including the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge — by $1.50 over the next five years. State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who supports the proposal, said it would generate $180 million in revenue.

Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer said he would oppose any toll increase, saying in a statement ‘Transit riders and taxpayers have witnessed first hand the trail of broken promises by advocates for bridge toll increases.’

‘The status quo is failure and we should not put in another penny to support it,’ he said.

The budget does not raise income taxes to cover the deficit, but it does impose a new tax on managed care organizations — private companies that contract with the state to administer Medicaid benefits. The tax would generate an estimated $32 billion over the next four years.

Some of that money would go toward increasing how much money doctors get for treating Medicaid patients. It would also offer $150 million in loans to hospitals that are at risk of failing. That’s in addition to $150 million lawmakers approved earlier this year.

‘In good years, we buckled down so that in tough years this one, we could meet our needs,’ Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins said. ‘That pragmatic approach works for household budgeting, and it works for state budgeting.’

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The Biden White House has repeatedly claimed they are the ‘most transparent administration in American history,’ but a Fox News Digital review found that the visitor logs from the beginning of the Biden administration through February 2023 have not included any of Hunter Biden’s White House visits or extended stays.

Fox News Digital reviewed several articles to piece together Hunter Biden’s whereabouts during his dad’s administration and found that he has visited the White House over a dozen times through February 2023, the month accounted for in the most recent batch of visitor logs released last month.

A majority of the White House visits that Fox News Digital found were from 2022, which include the annual egg roll, Medal of Freedom ceremony, France State Dinner on the South Lawn, Christmas tree lighting, his daughter’s wedding, among others. However, they are all absent from the visitor logs, including what appear to be extended stays at the White House.

While many of these events are ceremonial and a tradition at the White House, Fox News Digital previously reported how Hunter Biden sought to use such events for his personal financial gain during the Obama administration. 

Hunter and his longtime business partner, Eric Schwerin, would coordinate with his father’s White House staff to invite business associates and potential business partners they were courting to official events. 

When asked why the White House logs omit Hunter Biden’s visits, a spokesperson pointed Fox News Digital to a policy released at the start of the administration. 

‘The White House will not release access records related to purely personal guests of the First and Second Families (i.e., visits that do not involve any official or political business),’ the policy states, which appears to be less transparent than the Obama administration.

A Fox News Digital review found that while the Obama administration does not reveal all the Biden family member visits and omitted several Hunter visits, they included over 70 logs, including Hunter, Hunter’s daughters and now ex-wife, Biden’s brothers and other relatives.

In addition to Hunter, several other Biden family members are absent on the visitor logs from the Biden administration, including President Biden’s brothers, his daughter, his granddaughters, among others. While his sister, Valerie Biden Owens or Valerie J. Owens, shows up a few times as visiting the White House, she has likely visited several more times due to her role as her brother’s closest confidante and her close working relationship with several members of Biden’s senior staff.

Hunter and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden; Hunter’s sister, Ashley Biden; and his aunt, Valerie Owens, were all guests at the state dinner honoring French President Emmanuel Macron in December 2022, but their names are not listed.

Between March and June 2023, months that have not been cataloged yet through visitor logs, Hunter Biden has been seen frequently at the White House, igniting rumors that he is living there full-time, according to the New York Post. Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy said back in April on ‘Fox & Friends’ that it is ‘unclear’ whether Hunter has been living there full-time, but said, ‘We do see him there a lot.’

Hunter was listed as a guest at the White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his wife last Thursday, which drew scrutiny because it was hours after the House Ways and Means Committee revealed its interview with an IRS whistleblower, who shared a WhatsApp message from 2017 in which Hunter Biden allegedly told a Chinese business associate that he and his father would ensure ‘you will regret not following my direction.’

‘I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,’ Hunter Biden told Henry Zhao, the director of Chinese asset management firm Harvest Fund Management, in the message provided by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley. ‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.’

Videos of the state dinner surfaced showing him rubbing elbows with other guests while smiling and laughing. A couple days later, he was seen boarding Marine One to go to Camp David where he would stay until he returned to the White House on Monday afternoon with his dad and young son.

In April, he attended the White House egg roll during that same week he flew off with his dad and Aunt Valerie for the multi-day trip to Ireland where he was seen helping explain a question from a child to President Biden, drawing mockery online.

Biden’s brother, Francis or ‘Frank,’ was also at the White House in April, attending the White House state dinner alongside his partner, Mindy Ward, for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. It is unclear if the visitor logs for March-June 2023 and future months will show any of the Biden family members attending events at the White House. 

Bloomberg published an analysis Monday on Biden’s White House visitor logs, finding ‘duplications, anomalies and missing names’ in the records. The publication said the gaps raise ‘questions about the accuracy and completeness of the logs that record business meetings, social functions and receptions with Biden and other officials at the White House complex, which includes adjacent office buildings.’

Bloomberg’s deep dive, for example, found that former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain reported only six visitors over two years despite his high-level position. 

The records can also conceal who visitors are meeting. A White House official previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that George Soros’ son, Alex Soros, twice visited Klain, but the records did not outright list Klain as the intended host. Instead, it listed lower-level staffers.

Biden’s lack of transparency for visitors at both of his Delaware residences, including the beach house, has also come under scrutiny as Biden faces questions about his role in his son’s foreign business dealings and who is visiting him while he takes frequent weekend trips back to Delaware. Earlier this year, Republicans requested the records after Biden’s lawyers discovered classified documents inside his home’s garage. However, the president’s lawyers said they do not maintain a list of who visits the house.

‘Like every President in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,’ the White House Counsel’s Office told Fox News Digital in January. ‘But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.’

House Oversight and Accountability Committee chairman James Comer, R-Ky., demanded to see the residence logs following the discovery of the classified documents at Biden’s home.

‘Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log,’ Comer wrote to then-White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain. ‘As Chief of Staff, you are head of the Executive Office of the President and bear responsibility to be transparent with the American people on these important issues related to the White House’s handling of this matter.’

Comer also sought records of any home searches conducted by Biden aides. The letter noted that Biden’s assistants and personal attorneys had scoured the premises even though the Justice Department was already investigating the situation. The lawyers continued to go there even after the appointment of a special counsel.

Biden is facing a special counsel investigation into his handling of the classified documents, which were discovered between November and January at the Wilmington home and the Washington, D.C., office for the president’s think tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Peter Doocy and Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.

Republicans in the state legislature on Monday began efforts to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the General Assembly’s annual farm bill, with the Senate successfully voting to enact the legislation despite his objections about how it would treat wetlands.

Cooper had blocked the measure last Friday, citing criticisms that also came from environmental groups about a provision that they said would increase risks of pollution and flooding when combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision and existing state law.

But Republicans downplayed the threat, saying the changes would align the state’s scrutiny of wetlands with federal law and regulation and largely affect isolated terrain that rarely floods.

‘It is obvious that we have a huge divide in our philosophies of what wetlands are … in the state of North Carolina, as well as some discrepancy on how many acres will be affected,’ said Sen. Brent Jackson, a Sampson County Republican and the bill’s chief sponsor, before the 29-17 vote.

Cooper’s administration has said it would leave about half of the state’s wetlands unprotected.

‘This will be a matter of difference of impact when we have a hurricane that drops millions of gallons of water on us and then it has nowhere to go,’ said Democratic Sen. Graig Meyer of Orange County, who opposed the provision. ‘That will be so damaging to our people, including the farmers of North Carolina.’

The measure now goes to the GOP-held House and would become law if that body also votes to override the veto by a margin similar to that in the Senate. The House set votes on Tuesday on the farm measure and on override motions on four other vetoed measures for which overrides were passed by the Senate last week.

The North Carolina Farm Act of 2023 also contains provisions on more than 30 other agriculture-related topics. They include limits on monetary penalties for cutting down timber in certain areas near bodies of water and telling veterinarians at least a week in advance before state regulators inspect their offices.

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The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ignored a ‘massive amount’ of intelligence indicating the true scope of protests planned for Jan. 6, 2021, according to a new report.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a report on the issue Tuesday, finding that both organizations had downplayed or ignored plans by certain right-wing groups prior to the pro-Trump storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Panel Chairman Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said the issue was ‘largely a failure of imagination to see threats that the Capitol could be breached as credible.’ For instance, law enforcement received one tip claiming that the Proud Boys were planning to ‘literally kill people.’

Officials took most threats leading up to the event, such as calls for Trump supporters to ‘come armed,’ and prepare to ‘burn the place to the ground’ as internet hyperbole. That proved to be the case only some of the time, however.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., reacted to the release of the report in a Tuesday appearance on Fox News, saying what is truly needed is an investigation by an independent third party.

‘We haven’t had an opportunity to have a real objective analysis of what happened on January 6, before and after. What the Democrats in the House did was basically a partisan car wreck. We only got half of the information. Republicans were excluded. There have been no attempts in the Senate, by Senator Schumer. I think what we need is an objective look, if necessary, by some nonpartisan outside experts. The American people would like to know. But it’s gotten so politicized,’ he said.

‘I was there on the 6th. It was an abomination. I’m sorry that it happened. I wish it hadn’t happened, but we’re entitled to know, the American people are, why it happened. And if [the] federal government had advance notice and if so, why wasn’t it better prepared? I just don’t think any of that’s reasonable. But it’s all shot through with politics now,’ he continued. ‘I just don’t know why the Justice Department and the leadership in the House and Senate and the FBI won’t just tell the American people the truth. The institutions in Washington are not going to regain their integrity in the eyes of the American people until they start telling the truth, and I’m afraid the problem is that all these people think the American people are morons.’

READ THE SENATE REPORT – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Non-U.S. citizens would be able to teach in Pennsylvania classrooms in a measure passed by the state House of Representatives on Monday.

The bill passed 110-93. It now goes on to the state Senate, which is considering its own version of the measure.

The legislation would allow teachers with a valid immigrant visa, work visa or employment authorization documentation to be eligible for certification to teach in Pennsylvania schools.

Currently, the state prohibits non-U.S. citizens from teaching unless they are applying to teach a foreign language or have a green card and have documented their intent to become a citizen. Additionally, young immigrants, who are living in the country undocumented and are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and can legally work, are not eligible for teacher certification in the state.

Sponsors for the bill say it will help offset the decline in teachers — with fewer new teachers certifying and higher teacher attrition in the state. It also would help chip away at the gap between the percentage of students of color and teachers of color, sponsors said.

‘Let’s as a collective tackle this growing problem and let’s continue to eliminate some of these barriers that don’t apply to most careers in the Commonwealth, let alone in the United States,’ said the bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, a Democrat from Berks County. ‘We have so many people that are qualified.’

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