Julian Castro, who ran against President Biden for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, warned of a ‘softness’ around the president’s ‘electability’ come 2024.

In a Monday New York Times article, Castro warned of Biden’s ‘electability’ in the upcoming presidential election, saying he thinks there are some people who don’t believe the president has followed through on his 2020 campaign promises.

‘It’s clear there is a softness that perhaps is born out of a worry about electability in 2024,’ former President Obama’s Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary said.

‘While he’s accomplished a lot, there have been areas where I think people feel like he hasn’t quite delivered what was promised on voting rights, immigration reform, police reform and some aspect of climate,’ Castro continued.

Castro and Biden frequently butted heads on the campaign trail in 2019, with the former HUD secretary initially endorsing Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s ill-fated presidential bid after ending his own in early 2020.

The former HUD secretary eventually did endorse Biden for president — in June 2020, two months after Biden had become the de facto Democrat nominee.

Castro’s comments come as Biden faces two Democratic primary challengers ahead of 2024.

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., came out of the gate with double-digit polling numbers while fellow Democrat candidate Marianne Williamson has been gaining steam, as well.

The polls have not gotten better for Biden, either, and are a flashing warning sign for the president’s campaign ahead of 2024.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said they will not be having primary debates this election cycle, which provides cover for Biden and helps him avoid being challenged by his Democratic opponents. Fox News Digital recently asked multiple House Democrats about whether Biden should debate RFK Jr. in a Democratic primary, prompting them to dismiss this proposal, calling Kennedy a ‘fringe candidate.’

‘No,’ Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., said bluntly when asked whether the Kennedy scion should get to debate the sitting president. ‘I, you know, love the Kennedy family. I was a huge fan of his father, in fact, he was an inspiration to me. But I don’t think he’s a serious candidate. I think Joe Biden’s going to be our nominee, and he deserves to be.’

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., was equally opposed to the idea, saying, ‘He’s a fringe candidate, so I don’t think Biden is going to necessarily debate fringe candidates. Nor should he.’

In a recent Newsweek op-ed, Marianne Williamson said the Democratic Party ‘must allow President Biden to debate his opponents,’ blasting the current move as ‘candidate suppression.’

‘They believe in the power of democracy; they just don’t want to facilitate it. In fact, they’re not above thwarting it when it might challenge their own power or lay bare some inconvenient truths about how this country operates,’ she wrote. ‘They don’t really think the people can be relied upon to make their own decisions about pretty much anything, least of all who should be president of the United States.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Liz Elkind contributed reporting.

Pat Sajak’s retirement from ‘Wheel of Fortune’ will not mark his exodus from public life altogether.  

The long-time game show host will remain the chair of Hillsdale College’s Board of Trustees, a position he has held since 2019. He served as vice chair from 2003 to 2019. 

‘Hillsdale College is fortunate to have an even closer relationship with Mr. Sajak,’ Hillsdale College executive director of media relations and communications Emily Stack Davis told Fox News Digital. ‘Since 2019, we have benefited from his wisdom, intellect, and good humor as chairman of Hillsdale’s board of trustees.’

Sajak has been an icon of radio and television for decades, Davis said. He hosted ‘Wheel of Fortune’ for 42 years, starting shortly after the show premiered in 1975.

‘There are few things more intimate than appearing in the living rooms of countless Americans every evening,’ Davis said. ‘We know that he will be missed and congratulate him on his well-deserved retirement.’

Sajak shared the news of his retirement on Twitter on June 12. 

‘Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last,’ he said on Twitter.

Davis said the Michigan liberal arts college hopes to maintain its relationship with the Sajak Family. 

‘We look forward to continuing our important work together and to what we are sure will be a bright future for Mr. Sajak and his family,’ she said. 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world’s largest animal advocacy organization, was grilled on Twitter for claiming that people eat animals because of their ‘supremacy.’

‘Supremacy is at the root of why people think it’s okay to eat other animals,’ the controversial group tweeted Saturday.

Meat lovers immediately began flooding the comment section with responses such as ‘let me ponder this as I eat my burger.’

‘I will fully admit I am supreme to animals. Feels good to be able to eat 100% beef fed beef tonight,’ one user wrote.

‘So why do animals think it’s ok to eat other animals?’ another user questioned.

PETA hit back at the comment, claiming that the reason animals have to eat other animals is because they aren’t capable of making ‘ethical decisions.’

‘Most of the animals who kill for food could not survive if they didn’t. That’s not the case for us. We are capable of making ethical decisions,’ PETA argued.

The group has previously referred to meat eaters as ‘slumbering in speciesism’ – the belief that all other animal species are inferior to humans. 

Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, recently updated her will to request that after she passes, her body parts be used for a ‘human barbecue,’ her skin used to make leather goods, and sent to various individuals and groups in an effort to ‘inspire animal advocates.’

‘Newkirk’s bodily bequests will inspire animal advocates while also encouraging everyone still slumbering in speciesism to wake up,’ PETA said in defense of the will change.

When asked about the Tweet, Newkirk told Fox News Digital that ‘bragging about eating animals is a pathetic thing to do.’

‘Other animals have their own desires and needs and live complex lives, and it’s ignorant and arrogant to pretend otherwise. Bragging about eating animals is a pathetic thing to do and shows a lack of understanding and empathy. It’s easy to be kind and simply opt for a non-violent meal,’ she said in a statement Monday.

Fox News’ Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.

A conservative watchdog group is launching an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for building a government-run tax filing program that critics argue would give the agency too much power.

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) is making public records requests, first obtained by Fox News Digital, seeking communications and other documents from the IRS and the Office of Management and Budget concerning the creation of an IRS-run electronic tax filing system, commonly referred to as ‘direct file.’

The Inflation Reduction Act, a mammoth Democrat-backed spending bill signed into law last year, included $15 million for the IRS to look into creating a free direct tax return system. Specifically, the legislation required a study by an independent third party examining the idea’s feasibility, as well as a report by the IRS for Congress assessing the study, the cost of such a system, and taxpayer opinions based on surveys.

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told lawmakers several times over the past two months that no decision had been made about direct file, adding that the agency would ‘reflect’ on the issue, consult Congress, and wait for the report to determine how to move forward.

‘No decision has been made on moving forward with direct file solution,’ he testified to the Senate Finance Committee in April.

Days later, Werfel echoed that sentiment to the House Ways and Means Committee: ‘I don’t know yet whether the direct file solution is the right additional menu item to put in place so that taxpayers that prefer to engage that way can do it. What I’d like to do is have the report issued. And then engage in a conversation with the right set of stakeholders and then figure out what the go-forward is.’

However, the IRS had been quietly building an actual prototype of direct file before submitting the report to Congress, as the Washington Post first reported in May. The IRS announced its final report one day after the Post’s revelation. The IRS system will reportedly be available through a pilot program for a small group of taxpayers by January, when the 2024 filing season begins.

Critics blasted the IRS for having a prototype before its report and the third-party study were released.

‘This suggests a pre-determined outcome and flies in the face of previous commitments Commissioner Werfel made to publicly consult Congress on a potential free-file solution, and for the IRS to not act without explicit legal authority,’ Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, told the Post.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, expressed similar sentiments following the IRS’s announcement last month. 

‘Americans don’t want to give the IRS such sweeping control and authority, yet the Biden administration refuses to listen,’ Smith said in a statement. ‘The announcement of a pilot program raises serious questions about how long the Biden administration’s decision to move forward on such a program has been in the works, whether the agency had any intention of following Congress’ direction that this study be conducted in an independent and impartial way, and whether the IRS is acting outside the law in establishing a program that Congress has not authorized.’

When reached for comment for this story, the IRS told Fox News Digital that the prototype was built only to help with survey data to gauge the opinions of taxpayers on a direct file system.

‘The prototype was developed to augment survey data so taxpayers had a tool to share their views on – it is not a fully functional direct file tool and no real tax information was used in usability testing sessions or for any other purpose,’ said an agency spokesperson.

AAF’s Freedom of Information Act requests seek various correspondence and calendars in an effort to figure out what exactly is going on behind the scenes with direct file.

Supporters of a direct file system argue it would be free, easy to use, and efficient by allowing taxpayers to file directly to the government.

Critics counter that such a system would centralize too much power in the hands of the IRS as not only the auditor but also the preparer and filer of taxes, noting the infamous technical problems that plagued the government-run Healthcare.gov for people wanting to sign up for ObamaCare.

‘IRS’s ‘direct file’ option is a recipe for disaster,’ AAF president Tom Jones told Fox News Digital. ‘Imagine what will happen when the technology fails – and it will if the rollout of Healthcare.gov is any guide – and the federal taxpayers are faced with a legion of 87,000 new IRS agents waiting to audit their tax returns. Adding insult to injury, the Biden administration has decided to contract this project out to a bunch of former staffers from the Obama administration.’

The Inflation Reduction Act granted $80 billion to the IRS to hire tens of thousands of new employees over the next decade.

In February, the IRS announced that it would contract New America Foundation – a left-wing think tank funded by nonprofits founded by liberal billionaires Bill Gates, George Soros, Mike Bloomberg and Eric Schmidt – to study direct file.

House Republicans were quick to note that New America employees – several of whom are alumni of the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s staff – in 2021 wrote favorably about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Tax Simplification Act, which would set up a government-run filing system at the IRS.

The Biden administration also appointed Ariel Jurow-Kleiman, a tax attorney and professor, to work with New America. Jurow-Kleiman earlier this year co-authored a paper that stated, ‘Speaking directly to the question of a government-run e-file program: The IRS should adopt the most expansive version of the program, one that includes the maximum amount of taxpayer information and requires the least amount of taxpayer input for each individual taxpayer.’

Smith has suggested the decision to tap New America and Jurow-Kleiman was meant to ‘cook the books’ by ensuring the IRS’s final report would present direct file in a favorable light.

‘The administration handpicked a think tank with ties to the liberal wing of the Democrat Party that has already advocated for this bureaucratic expansion,’ Smith previously told Fox News Digital. ‘Can we really trust the IRS to file Americans’ taxes for them in a fair and impartial way when it already stacks the deck toward a predetermined conclusion to gain more power?’

Smith has also argued that, under direct file, Americans would be ‘powerless when the IRS completely controls the tax filing process from start to finish.’

Republicans and other critics have expressed concern that the IRS will ramp up its number of audits, including those targeting lower- and middle-income Americans, due to the additional resources granted by the Inflation Reduction Act. Both Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have said the government won’t raise audit rates above historic levels for small businesses and households making less than $400,000.

Yellen has reportedly ordered the IRS to move forward with a pilot direct file system to test the program after reviewing the agency’s report.

‘The approach directed by the U.S. Treasury is consistent with best practices for new product launches in both the government and the private sector where the transition from research and development to customer-facing is done in an incremental manner to enable additional testing of hypotheses considered during the research and development phase,’ Werfel told reporters on a call last month, adding that taxpayers will always have options for how they file their taxes and saying the IRS can’t run the tax system alone.

Direct file would present a unique challenge to private companies in the tax-prep industry.

‘Filing taxes is expensive and time-consuming for American taxpayers,’ Laurel Blatchford, a Treasury Department official tasked with overseeing IRA implementation, told reporters on the same call. ‘On average, individual taxpayers spend approximately eight hours and $140 preparing their taxes each year. Taxpayers with income from a business or those who work in the gig economy pay even more.’ 

‘Dozens of other countries have provided free tax filing options to their citizens and American taxpayers who want to file their taxes for free online should have an accessible option,’ she continued. ‘IRS’ report released today found the majority of taxpayers support having the option to file their taxes for free directly with the IRS.’

However, the public opinion findings of the IRS’s final report were based, in part, on a study conducted late last year by the nonpartisan MITRE Corp. showing direct file was relatively unpopular among Americans compared to private software or a system where the IRS automatically files returns for taxpayers.

The MITRE study found just 15% of Americans would use an IRS direct e-file system even if it was able to prepare state returns and provided the same functionality as a free commercial software. In that scenario, 48% preferred the current software they use and 37% would use a system in which the IRS automatically filed individuals’ taxes for them.

In another scenario where state returns aren’t included, just 12% of taxpayers would use direct file while 60% would opt for a commercial software.

AAF’s records requests include documents dating back to Aug. 1, 2022, about two weeks before the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law.

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said during a Father’s Day interview that strong male role models are necessary to encourage masculine traits in society’s current ‘epidemic of fatherlessness.’

Speaking with the Washington Examiner, Hawley explained that fathers have a responsibility to provide for and protect their families — despite what some critics of traditional gender roles are currently saying about fatherhood.

‘As I continue to grow as a dad, I think providing for your family, protecting them, and then really nurturing them, looking to their growth, those are the key things that I think as a dad, at least in the stage that I’m in right now, are so important,’ Hawley said.

‘Men are told all the time that to be a man is to be toxic, that if you’re a man, you make the world a worse place, and that fathers are irrelevant or maybe they contribute to the great injustice of the world,’ Hawley said. ‘All of that stuff is false. We need dads desperately.’

Hawley, who has two sons and a daughter, told the Examiner that being a father is ‘the best thing you can do with your life.’

‘There’s tremendous value in being a father, you know,’ he said. ‘I mean, I just say unapologetically the best thing you can do with your life, you want your life to matter. Get married, have a family, be a husband, be a father, invest your life in somebody else’s life, don’t just live for yourself. That will be the path to true happiness and true significance.’

The GOP lawmaker said young men lacking strong male role models has been a generational problem that can lead to the absence of purpose and life goals that builds a constructive family life.

There has been a recent decline among Americans in getting married, starting a family, moving out of their parents’ houses and becoming financially independent, which Hawley attributes to fatherlessness and the media.

Hawley also criticized ‘the Left and their messaging in the media’ for oftentimes putting men down. He said they often show fathers that are ‘either absent or abusive or idiots.’

The senator acknowledged that some men are absent or abusive and that those behaviors are ‘bad’ but explained that men need to be shown the importance of their contributions to their families.

The 43-year-old Republican emphasized that men who grew up without positive male role models can ‘break the cycle’ by committing to ‘change the destiny of your family.’

‘You don’t have to do it perfectly, but if you will try to spend time with your kids, if you will try to invest in them, that will pay huge dividends in their life and in your life,’ he said.

According to Hawley, young men lacking role models can fill that void by resorting to content widely available online.

‘Just think about the stuff that kids are exposed to today, on mobile platforms, on the internet, social media, and I think, as a parent, there’s so much out there, there’s so many people who really want to influence my kids, who would really like to raise my kids rather than me,’ he told the Examiner. ‘You’ve got [President] Joe Biden saying they’re all our kids. No, they’re not. They belong to their parents. There’s a reason for that.’

Hawley was referring to recent comments made by Biden in celebration of Pride Month in which the president said LGBTQ+ youth are ‘all our kids.’ The president said in the video these children are ‘not somebody else’s kids, they’re all our kids.’

The senator said many young men are never mentored at all and these individuals ‘are the guys who are still … in mom and dad’s basement or … living somewhere on their screens at age 30 and can’t hold down a regular job … I mean, just don’t have any sense of purpose.’

Other young men will embrace messages they hear about male toxicity and find other men who will encourage destructive, aggressive or violent behavior, according to Hawley.

‘What we need to find are role models who show what good, strong, healthy manhood looks like — that is self-sacrificial, that is willing to give up your own interests and ambitions for other people and is willing to use the strength and influence you have to benefit others,’ he added.

Hawley said this advice for young men begins at his own home as he balances his work as a senator with caring for his family.

The senator’s book, ‘Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs,’ was published last month.

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Presidential candidate Chris Christie slammed the Republican National Committee’s requirement that candidates pledge support for the GOP’s eventual presidential nominee.

‘Look, I think the pledge is just a useless idea,’ Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday during ‘State of the Union.’

Earlier this month, the RNC released the requirements Republican candidates must fulfill in order to take part in primary debates, including reaching 1% in three national polls, amassing 40,000 unique donors to their campaign committee, and signing a pledge agreeing to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee. 

The RNC said last week it would not amend its presidential campaign pledge following pushback from 2024 candidate Asa Hutchinson, who criticized the possibility that candidates would be pledging support for a potential ‘convicted felon.’ 

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner for 2024, was indicted on federal charges this month related to alleged willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty and dismissed the charges as a ‘witch hunt.’ 

‘In all my life, we never had to have Republican primary candidates take a pledge. You know, we were Republicans, and the idea is you’d support the Republican whether you won or whether you lost, and you didn’t have to ask somebody to sign something,’ Christie said Sunday of the pledge. 

‘It’s only in the era of Donald Trump that you need somebody to sign something on a pledge. So I think it’s a bad idea,’ he said. 

Christie – who ran for president in 2016 – announced his 2024 campaign for the White House earlier this month, when he took aim at Trump and slammed him as ‘a bitter, angry man who wants power back for himself.’ 

The former New Jersey governor added Sunday that he voiced his disagreements over the pledge to RNC chief Ronna McDaniel, but said he will take the necessary steps in order to take the debate stage. 

​​’I’ll take the pledge in 2024 just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,’ Christie said, referring to Trump refusing to take a GOP pledge during the first 2016 debate. 

The RNC referred Fox News Digital to McDaniel’s comments last week to CNN regarding the pledge when asked about Christie’s remarks Sunday. 

‘Once it’s all done and the dust is settled and you’ve made your best case, if the voters choose someone else, then you need to get behind who the voters chose and make sure we beat Joe Biden,’ McDaniel said Friday on CNN. ‘We can’t have division. We can’t have people who get on the debate stage who are going to come out and say, ‘I’m not going to support the eventual nominee.’’

–>

Former Vice President Mike Pence defended former President Donald Trump’s right to have his day in court, but dodged questions about whether Trump should be convicted if the allegations against him are proven true.

Pence appeared on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday for a lengthy interview with host Chuck Todd. Todd kicked off the conversation by mentioning Trump’s indictment and subsequent appearance at a Miami federal courthouse, but Pence repeatedly skirted around the host’s questions.

‘You’ve read this indictment. If the allegations are true, and it’s proven in a court of law, do you think the former president should be convicted?’ Todd asked.

‘Well first, let me begin with the news in our life, Chuck,’ Pence said, referencing that he had launched a presidential campaign the week before. ‘I think this country is in a lot of trouble. I think that President Biden has weakened this country at home and abroad. Virtually every crisis we are facing in this country both at home and abroad has been literally a result of the decisions made by this president.’

Pence went on to lament that America was in a position where one of its former presidents was in federal court, but he did not weigh in on a possible conviction. Todd then pressed the president again.

‘Please address it. Do you think if the allegations are true that he deserves to be convicted?’ Todd asked once again.

‘Well first, in moments like this I think it’s important for leaders in this country… to return to first principles. The first principle is that no one is above the law. The second principle is that everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence,’ Pence responded.

‘I’ve read the indictment in detail, and the allegations in the indictment are serious, and I can’t defend what is alleged. But the former president deserves his day in court. He deserves the opportunity to make his defense in a court of law. So I want to reserve judgment about this,’ he continued.

Trump pleaded not guilty in federal court on Tuesday to 37 federal charges stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his alleged improper retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago.

Pence criticized Trump more heavily in another interview with the New York Post, in which he blasted the former president’s willingness to increase spending just as much as President Biden. Reaffirming his support for the pro-life movement, Pence also criticized Trump for his claim that the 2022 midterm election losses were a result of the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., had scathing words for President Barack Obama on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ blasting the former commander in chief for his handling of race and education.

The 2024 presidential hopeful spoke with host Shannon Bream and homed in on the poor state of public education systems across the country, and addressed some criticism leveled at him by Obama last week.

‘There’s no higher compliment than to be attacked by President Obama,’ Scott said. ‘Whenever the Democrats feel threatened, they pull out – drag out – the former president, have him make some negative comments about someone running, hoping that their numbers go down.’

‘The truth of my life disproves the lies of the radical left,’ he added, referring to claims of systemic racism in the U.S.

Scott went on to blast Obama and the Democrats for refusing to allow school choice programs in ‘big blue cities.’ The candidate highlighted his own efforts to raise funding for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), but said Obama and the ‘radical left’ have not produced results when it comes to education.

‘They have failed, they have failed, and they have failed,’ he said.

The comments came just days after Scott and Obama exchanged barbs on racial issues. Scott repeated his argument from last week that the former president had missed a key opportunity to develop racial unity during his two terms in office.

‘If anyone should be standing and shouting at the mountaintops that America is not a racist country, it should be the man that Americans supported twice for the nomination and becoming president. The evolution of America is palpable,’ he said. ‘Progress in this nation is undeniable.’

Democratic strategist David Axelrod interviewed Obama for CNN last week and asked the former president what he thought of Scott’s discussions of race, prompting Obama to offer criticism of minority conservatives in general.

‘I think there’s a long history of African American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can make it.’ Nikki Haley, I think, has a similar approach,’ Obama told Axelrod. ‘I’m not being cynical about Tim Scott individually, but I am maybe suggesting the rhetoric of ‘Can’t we all get along’… that has to be undergirded with an honest accounting of our past and our present.’

Marc Short, who served as chief of staff for former Vice President Mike Pence, condemned the pardons former President Donald Trump handed down in the final hours of his administration.

Short made the comments during an appearance on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ telling host Shannon Bream that the pardons were among the worst parts of the end of Trump’s administration.

‘One of the most unseemly parts of the end of our administration was the pardons that Donald Trump gave to cocaine traffickers, to family members, to people guilty of violent crimes,’ Short said.

‘I think we have to have a real conversation of what would people actually do with the power of the pardon,’ he continued. ‘There’s a couple people on the stage who have been governors and understand it, but I think even when you look at Donald Trump’s record when it came to pardons, it was indefensible.’

Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 sentence commutations on Jan. 20, 2021, his final day in office. The pardon recipients included former White House adviser Steve Bannon and rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was serving a near-30-year sentence on corruption charges, was among the 70 who had their sentences commuted.

Short’s comments came the same day that Pence defended former President Donald Trump’s right to have his day in court, but dodged questions about whether Trump should be convicted if allegations against him are proven true.

Pence appeared on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday for a lengthy interview with host Chuck Todd. Todd kicked off the conversation by mentioning Trump’s indictment and subsequent appearance at a Miami federal courthouse, but Pence repeatedly skirted around the host’s questions.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu rejected a City Council proposal that would have cut funding for the city’s police department and veteran services.

‘Our budget must be responsive to the needs of our constituents, fiscally responsible, and built on a foundation of effective delivery of City services that are central to our residents’ quality of life,’ Wu said in a letter to members of the Boston City Council on Friday, according to a report from the Boston Globe.

The Democrat mayor’s letter comes after the council approved a $4.2 billion operating budget for the city that would have reduced funding for the Boston Police Department by $31 million and $900,000 in cuts to veteran services. Along with the proposed cuts were an $8 million increase funding for participatory budgeting, a city process that allows for more engagement on how tax dollars are spent by Boston residents.

The figures came in vastly different from Wu’s proposed budget, which only included $2 million for the participatory budget process. In her letter to members, the mayor said the council’s proposed cuts to the police budget ‘are illusory, as the City is obligated to cover salary and overtime expenses incurred by the department.’

The veto means the budget will now be sent back to the council where it will need two-thirds of the members to override Wu. With 12 members serving on the council, that would mean eight members would have to vote to override the veto. Seven of the 12 members voted to approve the proposal sent to Wu.

Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, chair of the city’s Ways and Means Committee, told the Boston Globe on Friday that the council’s proposed cuts would not have led to any city employees losing their jobs, instead arguing that her analysis found the Boston Police Department could have close to $25 million in extra funds next year.

Fernandes Anderson also blasted the Wu administration for not providing more transparency, saying the ‘administration does not work well with the council.’

But Fernandes Anderson, who has a son who serves in the Marines, expressed regret about the proposed cuts to veteran services, noting that funding would not have been affected because the proposed cuts were a line item that was eligible to be reimbursed by the state.

‘I want to extend my apology, I don’t want to send that message,’ she said.

Fernandes Anderson’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.

Wu’s veto was also criticized by the Better Budget Alliance, a group that has advocated for more participatory budgeting.

‘It is unacceptable that Mayor Wu vetoed a higher $10 million [allotment] for participatory budgeting and used false criticisms to undo the council’s critical investments in Boston’s underfunded working class, BIPOC communities,’ the alliance said in a statement, adding that Wu ‘has chosen to protect unused police funds and excessive overtime in the bloated BPD budget instead of funding real community investments.’

The decision to veto the proposal was praised by the head of the city’s largest police union.

‘Undoubtedly, we’re grateful the mayor saw fit to reject the council’s misguided efforts to dramatically and disproportionately impact the BPD budget, and, by extension, the department’s ability to effectively protect and serve the people of Boston,’ Larry Calderone, the president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said in a statement, according to the Boston Globe.

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.