The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will have to turn over unredacted copies of a White House officials’ correspondence with DHS that refers to VP Kamala Harris as the ‘border czar,’ if Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., gets his way. 

Last month, Rep. Matt Gaetz demanded all correspondence from the DHS that refers to Harris as the ‘border czar’ by Aug. 30. According to documents from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Heritage Oversight Project, Ian Sams, a White House official, reportedly intervened to block the release of the documents.

‘At the time [Sams] was engaged in a cover-up for her using government resources, he already had lined up his job on her campaign, which he officially started less than two weeks later,’ Gaetz wrote in a letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday. ‘This is shady.’

Gaetz is requesting unredacted copies of the correspondence involving Ian Sams related to his oversight request by Oct. 25. 

‘In fact, the day before the due date, on August 29, 2024, they raised the issue again to political appointees. Kudos to them. But the reason they did not respond to my request, apparently, is that the White House got involved,’ Gaetz wrote.

Gaetz suggests that Sams’ actions may have violated the Hatch Act and other ethics rules, and he expects DHS to produce the requested emails as well as his initial request for emails with the term ‘border czar’ by the end of the month.

The Heritage Foundation submitted their FOIA request on July 30, but DHS denied it, saying it was ‘too broad in scope and did not specifically identify the records which you are seeking,’ the lawsuit states. The plaintiffs were asked to specify what records they wanted. 

‘If she wasn’t the border czar then there shouldn’t be any. Amongst other excuses, DHS says this request is too big a burden for them,’ the Oversight Project posted on X. 

Harris’ immigration record has been a major talking point since she announced her candidacy for president after President Biden dropped out of the race.

Harris was widely dubbed the ‘border czar‘ after Biden tasked her in March 2021 to address the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. 

The term has become a cornerstone of GOP attacks on Harris as she continues her White House bid.

The Biden administration has rejected ‘border czar’ as an unofficial title for Harris’ role, but the term was embraced by multiple news organizations before she ascended to the top of the presidential ticket.

Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS for comment but did not hear back by publication deadline.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM—Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., recently sent a letter to the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, disclosing that some of the $1 billion in American taxpayer money was likely diverted to Hamas.

Cotton’s shocking claim came just weeks after the U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Hamas, executed the 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin in late August.

Cotton slammed the main U.N. relief agency for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, known as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA),for its links to Hamas terrorists.

The senator told Fox News Digital ‘It has become very clear that not another dime of American taxpayer money should ever go to UNRWA again. All aid to Gaza should be paused immediately.’  

Last month, Fox News Digital reported that Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said the scandal-plagued UNRWA has been taken over by Hamas terrorists.

Cotton wrote in his letter to Samantha Power, the administrator of USAID, that he has ‘grave concerns about the likely misuse of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid sent to Gaza since October 2023. As I predicted would happen from the outset, credible reporting indicates that Hamas terrorists have diverted this aid; indisputable evidence demonstrates that the aid was always at high risk of diversion.’

He added that ‘In all likelihood, the Biden-Harris administration has prolonged the Gaza war, allowed aid to flow to Israel’s enemies, and misused taxpayer funds.’

Cotton wrote that last month, USAID ‘announced approximately $336 million in additional humanitarian funding for Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. On the same day, the United Nations acknowledged that Fateh al-Sharif, a Hamas leader in Lebanon killed in an Israeli airstrike, was employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA, a major USAID partner before October 7, remains a chief conduit for U.N. humanitarian assistance in Gaza despite extensive evidence of its ties to Hamas.’ 

Judea and Samaria is also known as the West Bank. 

Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and slaughtered nearly 1,200 people, including over 30 Americans.

When approached for a comment about Cotton’s accusations, UNRWA Washington Office Director William Deere told Fox News Digital, ‘We wish the Senator’s office would have reached out to us as the letter contains numerous errors, the sum of which renders it largely a series of mismatched facts and unsubstantiated allegations – particularly its assertion that providing desperate people with food, medicine and shelter somehow prolongs a war. First, UNRWA is not a partner with USAID, not before or after October 7, which makes even the letter’s addressee, USAID Administrator Power, the wrong person to whom to write if the Senator’s concerns are with UNRWA.’

He added that ‘The only credible reporting on possible aid diversion by Hamas in Gaza comes from the recent U.S. Special Envoy for Middle Eastern Humanitarian Affairs, Ambassador David Satterfield, who stated, ‘No Israeli official has come to me, come to the administration, with specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance delivered by the U.N.’’

Deere said ‘Fateh al-Sharif was placed on administrative leave without pay in March and the Agency investigation was proceeding despite protests, which included the closing of UNRWA’s Lebanon field office for several months and ongoing threats against UNRWA staff.’

Cotton added that ‘In July, the USAID Inspector General identified multiple ‘shortcomings and vulnerabilities in its overnight mechanisms’ for Gaza aid, such as inadequate vetting of local partners, reliance on self-reporting of terrorist ties from partners, reliance on inadequate vetting by U.N. partners.’

He urged Power to ‘immediately suspend all aid until taking credible and serious steps to stop Americans’ tax dollars from funding terrorists.’

A USAID spokesperson refuted the allegations against it, claiming in a statement to Fox News Digital that, ‘USAID does not provide any funding to UNRWA, nor did we do so prior to October 7, 2023. In addition to extensive risk mitigation procedures, USAID works closely with the Government of Israel to assist with the coordination of and discuss potential risks to all humanitarian assistance entering Gaza. USAID has not received evidence from the Government of Israel, our partners, or other sources to support the claims in Senator Cotton’s letter.’

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told Fox News Digital, ‘The United States ceased funding UNRWA in January immediately following knowledge of allegations that some UNRWA staff may have participated in the heinous October 7th attacks.’

The spokesperson added ‘In March, the U.S. Congress prohibited any U.S. funding of UNRWA through at least 2025. We have and continue to redirect our assistance to other partners and avenues to help Palestinians. We support steps to strengthen UNRWA impartiality and neutrality, including to respond to allegations of ties to terrorism. ‘

According to the State Department spokesperson, ‘UNRWA is not a terrorist organization.  We appreciate UNRWA’s critical role in providing life-saving assistance to Palestinians and essential education, health, relief and social services programs and emergency assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.’

In July, Israeli lawmakers approved the first reading of a bill that would cut ties with the controversial UNRWA agency and declare it a terrorist entity. Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky, the bill’s sponsor, called UNRWA ‘a fifth column within the State of Israel’ and said it was high time that the agency was outlawed in the country.

Congress’ House Foreign Affairs Committee passed initial legislation in July that would build on an already existing funding freeze of the multimillion-dollar organization and direct the State Department to recover previously donated monies.

After Israel revealed that UNRWA employed Hamas terrorists, including many who reportedly participated in the massacre on Oct. 7, the U.S. suspended aid to UNRWA. 

Deere said that ‘Left out of Senator Cotton’s analysis was the fact the Israeli Government had not informed UNRWA since 2011 of any concerns relating to Agency staff.’

A spokesman for Cotton told Fox News Digital in response to UNRWA’s charges that, ‘Administrator Power and USAID do not have an adequate vetting process to ensure that American taxpayer dollars do not end up with terrorists. If a terrorist front organization like UNRWA is the only ‘distribution system’ in Gaza, Power should reconsider sending aid there in the first place. Our tax dollars should not fund a group that has assisted in the kidnapping and murder of Americans.’ 

Former President Donald Trump’s administration had pulled the plug on UNRWA. The Biden administration quickly restored funding. 

Last week, Israel’s mass circulation daily, Israel Hayom, reported that ‘The Israel Land Authority (ILA) is seizing the land of UNRWA’s headquarters in Jerusalem, in order to build 1,440 housing units.’

The paper said ‘As the extent of UNRWA and its employees’ collaboration in the massacre at Gaza border communities by Hamas and their role in providing assistance for murder, kidnapping, and more continues to be revealed, a significant step has been taken for the first time against the refugee agency.’

Fox News’ Ruth Marks Eglash contributed to this report.

With the election on the horizon, America’s eyes are glued to battleground states. Days after the national election, however, a new battleground will emerge in the United States Senate. Even if Donald Trump wins the White House, he could quietly lose his ability to govern in the Senate.

With Sen. Mitch McConnell stepping down, Senate Republicans will choose a new leader for the first time in 18 years this November. With this decision, we have an opportunity to decide how the Senate conducts business going forward – and the ability to either strengthen or undermine a second Trump term. 

The Stakes

Should Trump win a second term, he will have only four years to implement his agenda and reverse the tide of radical progressivism swamping our government and weakening our country. With the uncertainty of 2026 midterms and the inevitable legislative lethargy during campaign seasons, those four years for lawmaking suddenly become much shorter. We cannot afford to lose any time in energetically passing America First policies.

The Divide Within

Practically all Senate Republicans understand that four more years of recycled Biden policies would be a disaster for millions of Americans and their families. But not every Republican in Congress is aligned with Trump’s vision for the country. Some see themselves as stewards of a more moderate brand of conservatism. Still others disagree on policy areas from trade to immigration to foreign policy. 

The Path Forward

How Senate Republicans choose to conduct business going forward – and whom they choose as a leader – will determine whether those disagreements lead to infighting that foils President Trump’s agenda, allowing Democrats the upper hand in policy battles. If we hope to quickly pass a legislative agenda that will make America great again, we need to find a way to resolve and overcome these differences. 

Even with a Senate majority, Republicans will probably lack the 60 votes needed to pass most legislation, including crucial spending bills that define what the executive branch can and can’t do. Trump’s second term could turn into a series of compromises that accomplish little. 

Moderates will be tempted to join Democrats to pass funding bills that tie Trump’s hands. Per usual, the uniparty will write these bills in a backroom, load them up with swampy priorities and hold the government hostage with shutdown threats unless Trump and his allies back down.

To avoid the gridlock of business as usual, it is imperative that we structure the Senate in a way that gives individual senators real legislative power, not just lip service. We must be able to amend bills, debate issues openly, and advocate for conservative priorities in a meaningful way. Earlier this month, in a letter to my Senate Republican colleagues, I offered a few practical proposals to get there, which I will summarize here. 

First, we should resolve our differences through votes on amendments. Most Americans would be shocked to learn that their senator often cannot offer amendments to legislation. Since former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid centralized control of the legislative process in the early 2010s, it has been common practice for the majority leader to block all other senators from offering amendments. 

The best way to resolve inevitable disagreements is to allow senators to vote on amendments to legislation. This process allows us to see whether various proposals have enough support to pass. Rather than throwing together massive take-it or leave-it bills, we can build consensus by crafting the legislation, provision by provision, on the Senate floor until we reach consensus. This is how the Senate was intended to function, as it did until recent years.

Second, we must have time to consider legislation. Going forward, the Senate majority leader should establish an annual schedule for considering funding bills. With a reasonable schedule, Congress and the White House will have advance notice to consider and refine proposals for how to fund the government while tackling the bloated administrative state.

When we must consider omnibus funding legislation, which funds the entire government in one bill, we should debate and amend it on the Senate floor for at least four weeks. Those of us planning to advance Trump priorities in such legislation can offer and refine those proposals until they have enough support to pass. The negotiation would happen in the open, rather than in a backroom between House and Senate leadership.  

Third, Republicans must be organized to strategically advance our agenda. Senate Republicans should ask our next leader to offer clear goals at the start of each year to be ratified by our whole conference. This will help to focus our firepower to advance the policies hardworking American families have been promised. 

As an extension of this, the Republican leader should present a strategy to achieve victories on every piece of must-pass legislation. We can mitigate infighting by focusing on a shared strategy. 

As a last line of defense against Democrats gaining the upper hand, Republican leadership should whip for or against a bill only after first getting the support of a majority of our conference. This protects us from being pressed into funding harmful Democratic policies, as often happens when must-pass legislation is up against a critical deadline.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line: If President Trump doesn’t have a strong Senate committed to executing his legislative vision, his second term will be sabotaged. His appointees could be left unconfirmed, his policies undermined, and his power to govern steadily chipped away by a weak and divided Senate, quietly handing his opponents the victory they couldn’t win at the ballot box. The consequences would be devastating – not just for his second term, but for the country.

A reformed and functional Senate will be essential for translating a Trump victory into real, lasting change. If we want to make America great again, we need a Senate that can lead again.

Facing off against former President Trump in a margin-of-error showdown with less than three weeks to go until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her conversations with the media during the final stretch on the campaign.

That effort ramps up a notch on Wednesday, as the vice president is scheduled to sit down in battleground Pennsylvania with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier for an interview that will run on ‘Special Report’ at 6 p.m. ET.

Harris will speak with Fox News following an afternoon campaign event in Bucks County, a crucial swing county in Philadelphia’s northern suburbs.

Baier said the Democratic presidential nominee is expected to sit for approximately 25-30 minutes at around 5 p.m. ET, about an hour before ‘Special Report’ airs live.

‘We are going to run it uninterrupted, unedited, all the way,’ Baier said on the eve of the interview.

The vice president’s first formal interview on Fox News will give her a chance to speak directly to viewers across the ideological spectrum who normally don’t watch the rival cable news networks CNN and MSNBC.

‘Special Report’ is regularly among the most-watched programs on cable news, and the show’s Common Ground segment features political leaders from across the aisle discussing the issues of the day with the goal of finding compromise.

‘We have a lot of eyeballs. We have Democrats, independents and Republicans,’ Baier said. ‘We have the biggest cable news audience. And this is probably going to get a lot more eyeballs. I think tough but fair is what I pitched it as. And I think that’s what they’re going to see.’

Harris largely avoided interviews after replacing President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket in mid-July. Her first formal sitdown interview – with CNN – didn’t occur until late August. But she has ramped up her media appearances in recent weeks, including interviews with CBS News’ ’60 Minutes,’ ABC’s ‘The View,’ late night talk show host Stephen Colbert, radio personality Howard Stern, and numerous podcasts. Most of those encounters were perceived as friendly interviews.

But the interview with Baier on Fox News may feed the perception that the vice president in the closing stretch of the campaign is open to facing tough questions.

‘She knows there are going to be hard questions. She can handle those,’ seasoned Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer told Fox News. ‘Going through that process and handling that, you’re kind of going behind enemy lines a little bit.’

Moyer, a veteran of multiple Democratic presidential campaigns, argued that ‘doing well in that is a good boost for the campaign, and voters like to know that they’re going to elect somebody who can handle not just the friendly interviews.’

Harris becomes the first Democratic presidential nominee in eight years to sit for an interview on Fox News – 2016 standard-bearer Hillary Clinton spoke with Chris Wallace.

But leading Harris surrogates – including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – have made high-profile appearances on Fox News this summer and autumn.

And Democratic vice presidential nominee, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, was interviewed on ‘Fox News Sunday’ the past two weekends.

Aides to the Harris running mate reached out to Fox News to schedule his second appearance. 

‘Folks deserve to hear where we stand on this. Vice President Harris and I have an agenda for, you know, a new way forward, a manufacturing agenda. I was just in Michigan this week. And I think folks are still undecided out there. And I appreciate you. You ask good, hard questions and your viewers get a chance to hear,’ Walz told ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Shannon Bream this past weekend.

The Harris sitdown with Baier comes the same day that Fox News will run a townhall with Trump, with the former president fielding questions on issues such as abortion and child care from an all-female audience.

The program, recorded on Tuesday in battleground Georgia, will air Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET on ‘The Faulkner Focus.’

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report

More than 230 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are calling on former President Trump to release his medical records after Vice President Kamala Harris did so.

In an open letter dated Oct. 13, first reported by CBS News, the health care providers raise concerns about Trump’s advanced age and argue that the 78-year-old Republican nominee should be transparent about his health and medical history. 

‘On August 20, Donald Trump said he would ‘very gladly’ release his medical records. In the 55 days since, he has yet to do so,’ the letter states. ‘With no recent disclosure of health information from Donald Trump, we are left to extrapolate from public appearances. And on that front, Trump is falling concerningly short of any standard of fitness for office and displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity.’ 

Most of the signatories support Harris for president. The letter asserts that Trump appears to ‘ramble, meander, and crudely lash out at his many perceived grievances’ during his campaign events and questions whether this behavior is the result of cognitive changes associated with old age. 

‘The American people deserve to have confidence in their elected officials’ mental and physical capacity to do the jobs that they’ve elected them to do. Trump ought to be going above and beyond to provide transparency on his physical health and mental acuity, given his advancing age.’ 

The letter comes while Harris is goading Trump into releasing his health information after the White House put out a ‘Healthcare Statement’ on Saturday that declared her to be in ‘excellent health.’

The statement from Harris’ doctor also indicated she had her most recent annual physical exam in April of this year. Trump released his own health records while campaigning in 2016, and once he took over the White House he continued the trend. In August, with the 2024 election quickly approaching, Trump told CBS News that he would release updated medical records to the public. However, he has yet to do so, with roughly three weeks until Election Day.

‘He won’t put out his medical records,’ Harris said Monday morning during an interview with podcast host Roland Martin. She also slammed Trump for refusing to debate a second time and questioned why Trump’s ‘staff’ would not allow him to do an interview with CBS’ ’60 Minutes,’ particularly when it is tradition for both presidential candidates to do a sit down with the show.

‘It may be because they think he’s just not ready and unfit and unstable and should not have that level of transparency for the American people,’ Harris suggested.

The Trump campaign responded by pointing out several times the former president has voluntarily released updates about his health. They also noted that he shared records from a July screening conducted by Dr. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician turned GOP congressman, following the second assassination attempt on his life. 

‘All have concluded [Trump] is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief,’ said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. ‘He has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history.’ Meanwhile, Cheung slammed Harris as being ‘unable to keep up with demands of campaigning,’ arguing that compared to Trump her schedule ‘is much lighter because, it is said, she does not have the stamina of President Trump.’

Trump himself reacted to Harris’ medical statement on social media, calling it ‘really bad.’ 

‘With all of the problems that she has, there is a real question as to whether or not she should be running for President!’ he wrote. ‘MY REPORT IS PERFECT – NO PROBLEMS!!!’

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.