FIRST ON FOX: The super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president in 2024 dropped a new ad going after former President Trump with the two prominent Republicans slated to speak at the National Rifle Association (NRA) leadership forum in Indianapolis.

DeSantis and Trump are both set to speak at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum Friday in a potential showcase of 2024 GOP candidates. DeSantis has not officially announced a bid for president yet.

Ahead of the forum, Never Back Down, the super PAC backing DeSantis as a potential 2024 GOP candidate, dropped an ad around the forum and will be handing out flyers with similar messaging.

‘Trump promised NRA members he’d have their back,’ the video ad exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital says. ‘But when Second Amendment rights came under attack, Trump abandoned us and stood with liberal Democrats.’

‘Half of you are so afraid of the NRA,’ Trump says in a clip included in the ad. ‘We have to fight them every once in a while, that’s OK.

‘Some of you people are petrified of the NRA,’ Trump continued. ‘You can’t be petrified. They have great power over you people. They have less power over me. I don’t need them. What do I need?’

The ad highlighted Trump’s call ‘for red flag laws,’ raising the age to buy assault weapons and clips of him backing ‘taking the guns early.’

‘Take the guns first, go through due process second,’ Trump said.

The ad highlights Trump endorsing Democrat-backed gun control measures, including raising the age to buy an assault rifle to 21 as well as red flag laws.

The ad also links Trump to several prominent Democrats, saying he ‘agreed with’ former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and his rival President Biden, as well as several others.

The flyers that will be handed out by Never Back Down say Trump agreed ‘with Joe Biden on Red Flag Laws,’ attacked ‘the NRA and sided with Michael Bloomberg,’ agreed with ‘Kamala Harris on banning bump stocks’ and sided ‘with Liberals on their gun control wish list.’

‘Trump the gun grabber doesn’t deserve a second chance,’ the flyer states.

When asked for comment on the ad and flyers, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, ‘Where’s Ron?’

Trump is slated to give a speech at the NRA forum alongside other prominent Republican leaders this weekend.

The event will be held in Indianapolis Friday with a ‘stacked lineup’ of leaders such as Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and others. 

This will also mark the first time DeSantis has spoken at the annual event. He will be brought in via a ‘special video appearance,’ according to the NRA. Florida made history recently when DeSantis signed a permitless carry bill into law, making the U.S. a constitutional carry-majority nation.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed reporting.

President Biden repeated a long-debunked claim while addressing Ireland’s parliament Thursday, boasting that he ‘traveled 17,000 miles’ with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

‘I met more with Xi Jinping than any world leader has over the last 10 years – 91 hours of just one-on-one conversations, 68 in person, I traveled 17,000 miles with him through Asia, primarily, and through China,’ the president said. 

‘He once asked me on the Tibetan Plateau, he said, ‘Can you define America for me?’ It’s the God’s truth. I said, ‘Yes, I can, in one word,’ he added. ‘Possibilities.’

Biden previously made the ‘17,000 miles’ the claim in November, prompting Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler to give the president a ‘bottomless Pinocchio’ rating, meaning he had said it over 20 times during his presidency up to that point.

Kessler previously fact-checked Biden’s claim in February 2021, calling it ‘bogus,’ saying he could only confirm one instance in which Biden and Xi appeared to have traveled together when they visited Qingchengshan High School in Dujiangyan when he was vice president in August 2011.

‘This was a reference to the total travel back and forth — both internally in the U.S. and China, and as well as internationally — for meetings they held together,’ a White House official explained at the time. ‘Some travel was in parallel, some was separately to joint destinations.’

Even so, the miles only add up to 5,600 at the most, Kessler reported, 

The Bottomless Pinocchio rating, which was previously reserved only for former President Donald Trump, is designated for ‘false or misleading statements repeated so often that they became a form of propaganda,’ Kessler reported.

President Biden received a somewhat hostile welcome during his visit with President Michael Higgins of Ireland on Thursday — from the Irish president’s dog.

As the two leaders strolled around Higgins’ residence, they approached the president’s furry friend, who appeared excited until Biden neared.

The Bernese mountain dog, who goes by the name Misneach, immediately began barking and backed away from the group as Biden approached.

Biden appeared to reason with the dog, pointing his finger at it and speaking, but Misneach remained at a distance.

Biden arrived in Ireland on Tuesday to speak on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, but his tour around the country became unexpectedly eventful.

On Tuesday, Northern Ireland police reported a ‘security breach’ around Biden after a five-page document that contained classified information was found on a Belfast street.

On Wednesday, Biden mixed up a New Zealand soccer team known as the All Blacks with the Black and Tans, a British police force group known for its brutal occupation of Ireland in the 1920s.

While engaging in conversation at the Windsor Bar in Dundalk, Biden began talking about the tie he was wearing: ‘This was given to me by one of these guys, right here,’ Biden said. ‘He was a hell of a rugby player. He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans.’

Fox News’ Greg Norman, Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Patrick Ward contributed to this report.

The penalties associated with New Hampshire’s 24-week abortion ban will remain in place after the state Senate on Thursday killed legislation that would have removed them.

The Republican-led Senate voted 14-10 along party lines to reject a bill that would have removed the civil and criminal penalties from the 2021 ban on abortion after the 24th week of pregnancy. It also rejected adding an explicit right to abortion up to 24 weeks to state law. Both bills had passed the House, where Republicans hold a narrow 201-196 majority.

Democrats unsuccessfully argued that the state should codify abortion rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade and ending the nationwide right to abortion.

‘Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, this Legislature has not taken one single, proactive affirmative step to protect access to abortion,’ said Democratic state Sen. Becky Whitley, of Hopkinton. ‘We have not taken one single step to reassure women that we do not intend to further restrict their fundamental rights. Words spoken on this floor are important, but they are not law. They are not enough. Granite Staters want action.’

Republicans insisted that the existing law is sufficient.

‘I really think that our law is crystal clear,’ said Republican state Sen. Sharon Carson, of Londonderry. ‘A woman can safely get an abortion here in New Hampshire up to 24 weeks. This is not needed.’

The votes came a day after a federal appeals court in Texas issued a ruling that at least temporarily preserved access to the abortion pill mifepristone but reduced the period of pregnancy when it can be used and said it could not be dispensed by mail. The Justice Department said it would ask the Supreme Court for an emergency order to put any action on hold.

While that court fight plays out, lawmakers in states dominated by Democrats are seeking to protect access and Republicans are trying to tighten restrictions. New Hampshire lawmakers are considering more than half a dozen bills on both sides of the issue, but with the closely divided Legislature, none have been enacted.

On Thursday, state Senate Democrats argued that the penalties associated with New Hampshire’s ban — up to seven years in prison and fines up to $100,000 — have made it more difficult to attract health care providers to the state at a time when hospitals are struggling with staffing shortages.

‘Leaving these criminal penalties in place will send a message to the providers here, and especially those considering moving here, that we as a state believe that a decision that should be fundamentally between a woman and their doctor could potentially be a criminal one,’ said Democratic state Sen. Donna Soucy, of Manchester.

But Republicans countered that having no penalty would make the law unenforceable, and that there was no evidence that the penalties have scared doctors away.

‘I think what we should do is see what the data is in a couple of years, and then we can really make an informed decision,’ said Republican state Sen. Daryl Abbas, of Salem.

The House rejected multiple bills last month to further restrict abortion access while also killing a proposal that would have asked voters to weigh in on adding ‘reproductive autonomy’ to the state constitution.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who considers himself an abortion rights supporter but also signed the current abortion ban into law as part of the state budget, supported both of the bills that failed in the state Senate Thursday.

EXCLUSIVE: The ex-husband of California Democrat Senate candidate Rep. Katie Porter said he does ‘not recant’ his domestic abuse allegations against the congresswoman after her campaign said that he did.

The allegations against Porter include claims that she dumped hot potatoes on her then-husband’s head and smashed a glass that led to him being cut by shards of glass. Porter has separately faced accusations of running a toxic, emotionally abusive workplace by former staffers.

According to divorce documents received by Fox News Digital, Porter and her ex-husband, Matt Hoffman, both filed domestic violence restraining orders against each other after an April 2013 altercation at the home they shared while legally separated.

Hoffman alleged that Porter hit him ‘in the arm, causing a large bruise,’ dumped boiling potatoes on his head and ridiculed him as ‘too dumb’ to have a cellphone. He said that the congresswoman ‘waited all day, then called the police’ and ‘made false allegations’ against him 11 hours after a confrontation while brushing their teeth the day the police were called to their residence.

Police arrested Hoffman on battery charges at the residence after the confrontation in April 2013. Porter requested the temporary restraining order the next day.

Documents obtained by Fox News Digital state that Hoffman regretted making the allegations against Porter in a court-ordered child custody evaluation, but it doesn’t specify whether his regret was due to a lack of veracity or another reason.

Porter’s campaign told Fox News Digital that Hoffman had ‘retracted’ his statement, but Hoffman said he did ‘not recant’ his allegations against the congresswoman.

Hoffman said he did not ‘recall stating I regretted making the allegations but, again, it’s been a long time.’

‘I do not recant the allegations,’ Hoffman added.

Porter’s spokesperson, Lindsay Reilly, told Fox News Digital that on ‘the morning of the hearing on Porter’s request for a temporary restraining order following documented violence by her then-husband, her then-husband’s lawyer filed a reciprocal request for protection.’

‘This common defensive tactic is designed to intimidate a victim. Her then-husband later admitted, as evidenced by the attached document, that ‘he regretted making these allegations,’’ Reilly said.

‘Porter’s then-husband’s allegation was not supported by any evidence, other than his false and later retracted statement,’ she continued.

‘Porter’s account was supported by police accounts, a doctor’s recommendation after a child custody evaluation, her sole request for a move-out order and property control, and ultimately a judge’s decision granting her majority physical custody,’ Reilly added.

Porter has repeatedly denied the abuse allegations, which Hoffman made amid a contentious separation and divorce process in 2012 and 2013. But the accusations bubbled back to the surface after multiple former Porter staffers blew the whistle on what they described as Porter’s toxic, emotionally abusive management style.

Porter and Hoffman separated in March 2013 and continued to live with each other until their divorce was finalized in December of that year, but the two alleged abuse from each other while living together during their separation.

Divorce filings obtained by Fox News Digital included 2012 allegations from Hoffman that Porter shattered a glass coffee pot after becoming angry over their dirty house, causing him to cut his hands and arms.

Hoffman also alleged that, while married, the congresswoman frequently berated him as a ‘f—ing idiot’ and ‘f—ing incompetent’ and dumped ‘steaming hot potatoes’ on his head during a 2006 confrontation.

‘She would not let me have a cellphone because she said, ‘You’re too f—ing dumb to operate it,” Hoffman said in comments first resurfaced by the Daily Mail this week.

In her restraining order, Porter alleged Hoffman swore at her and called her names and ‘grabbed both [of her] hands and squeezed’ during the April 2013 confrontation that led to his arrest.

The congresswoman also alleged that Hoffman had used his elbow to push her aside after rushing toward her, causing her to stumble and catch herself on a nearby bookshelf.

Porter said she went to find her daughter during the altercation and that Hoffman had yelled at her that she ‘was ruining’ their family with the divorce.

‘He would not let me leave. It seemed like five minutes or more that I was trapped in the laundry room with him,’ Porter said in the divorce documents.

‘He told me that I better not call the police, because if I did, our children would go to foster care,’ Porter said. ‘More terrifying, respondent then said, ‘Do you want me to kill myself? Is that what you are trying to make happen here?”

Hoffman was the primary caretaker of the couple’s three children while Porter was the breadwinner for the family.

On April 30, 2013, Hoffman filed a restraining order with Orange County Superior Court the day before Porter’s temporary order was set to expire.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

A Missouri Republican state lawmaker on Tuesday said children as young as 12 years old should be able to get married as he defended a proposed bill banning gender-affirming care for minors.

Sen. Mike Moon, a Republican from Ash Grove, sat before a panel on Tuesday to defend and debate a bill that would ban all gender transition procedures for anyone under the age of 18.

The bill passed the Missouri Senate in March and is now before the House.

During the questioning, Rep. Peter Meredith, a Democrat, called Moon out for his stance on marriage of 12-year-olds if parental consent were given.

‘You voted ‘no’ on making it illegal for kids to be married to adults at the age of 12 if their parents consented to it,’ Meredith said to Moon. ‘You said, actually, that should be the law because it’s the parents’ right and the kid’s right to decide what’s best for them. To be raped by an adult.’

Moon did not deny supporting the measure. In fact, he defended it, to a degree.

‘Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12?’ he asked Meredith.

‘I don’t need to,’ Meredith said.

‘I do,’ Moon said. ‘And guess what? They’re still married.’

Video of the senator making the statements made the rounds on social media, catching the eye of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who tweeted about them on Wednesday.

‘Meanwhile, in Missouri: State Senator Mike Moon is advocating for 12-year-old kids to be married off to adults,’ Newsom tweeted.

Moon retweeted Newsom’s post with a statement of his own.

‘To be clear, I did not advocate for minors to be married off to adults,’ he tweeted, directing followers to a video he made to help clear the air. ‘Keep your California politics out of Missouri. Democrats will say whatever they can to make sure they can keep mutilating children.’

A spokesman for Moon spoke to Fox News Digital on Thursday, who said the one-hour committee meeting had strict time constraints and the senator did not have time to clear up his comments before Meredith moved on to the next.

Had he been given the time, the spokesman explained, Moon would have clarified he did not support 12-year-old children getting married to adults.

Moon does support, though, 12-year-olds getting married to people closer in age, like another 12-year-old.

During the debate, Moon said he knew kids who were 12 years old when they got married. According to the spokesman, one of the 12-year-olds got pregnant, and the parents encouraged them to get married.

The two children got married but were raised in two different states. Once they became adults, the spokesman said, they got back together, and they have been happily married ever since.

When asked how old the married couple is today, the spokesman said they are in their 50s.

Moon also addressed the issue on YouTube on Thursday.

‘If there’s an instance in which an adult has recently married a minor in this state of Missouri, I’ll make it a priority to remove and prohibit adults from marrying minors,’ he said. ‘Furthermore, if a person is raped, no matter the age, the rapist should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.’

The question referred to a state law that looked to raise the age that minors can get married from 15 to 17, which Moon voted against.

EXCLUSIVE — A group of Republican attorneys general is demanding that Democrats retract their suggestion that the Biden administration should defy a court order aimed at stopping the distribution of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Last week, a federal judge in Texas signed an injunction that directed the FDA to halt its more than 20-year-old approval of mifepristone while a lawsuit challenging its safety and approval works its way through court.

Democrats were incensed by the ruling, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who said that the Biden administration should ‘ignore’ it. She said ‘deeply partisan’ judges have ‘engaged in unprecedented and dramatic erosion of the legitimacy of the courts.’

‘The interesting thing when it comes to a ruling is that it relies on enforcement,’ Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN. ‘And it is up to the Biden administration to enforce, to choose whether or not to enforce a ruling.’

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued a similar statement that called on President Biden and the FDA to ignore the ruling that he said has no ‘basis in law’ but is ‘rooted in conservatives’ dangerous and undemocratic takeover of our country’s institutions.’

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said on CNN last week, ‘What you saw — by that one judge, in that one court, in that one state — that’s not America.’

Nine Republican AGs say those statements are so egregious, the Democrats need to retract them ‘or resign.’

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, along with eight other Republican AGs who filed briefs in support of the ruling, sent a letter to those outspoken Democrats that scolded them for their statements, which they said are ‘akin to a call to overthrow the Constitution.’

‘This is the most anti-rule of law administration we’ve had in recent history. The fact that Becerra is even considering this means he should resign immediately,’ Bailey told Fox News Digital in a statement.

‘Expressing mere disagreement with a court order, as all attorneys have done, is nothing like your call for the FDA not to comply with a court order. The difference between the two is enormous. For a party to defy a court order simply because one does not like it is an attack on our very system of government and the rule of law,’ the AGs stated in the letter exclusively reviewed by Fox News Digital.

‘You ought to know better,’ the AGs wrote. ‘Like each of us, you have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution. Your anti-Constitution rhetoric is more than just wrong. It also erodes the culture of the rule of law that has taken centuries to build.

‘Other nations have fallen into tyranny quickly when those who should have been upholding the rule of law chose instead to lead mobs against it. Your rash, inflammatory, anti-Constitution statements are unacceptable.

‘You must retract or resign.’

On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled 2-1 to keep mifepristone available only to be dispensed up to seven weeks, not 10, and not by mail, a decision that partially overturned the Texas ruling.

On Thursday, the Justice Department weighed in by asking the Supreme Court to issue a stay on the entire injunction issued by the Texas judge.

‘The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA to deny, in part, our request for a stay pending appeal,’ Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. ‘We will be seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the FDA’s scientific judgment and protect Americans’ access to safe and effective reproductive care.’

Representatives for AOC, Wyden and Becerra did not immediately respond to Fox New Digital’s request for comment on the letter.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is expected to join the House Judiciary Committee in next week’s hearing focused on the crime crisis in New York City, Fox News Digital has learned.

The House Judiciary Committee is holding a field hearing in New York City to ‘examine how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s pro-crime, anti-victim policies have led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents.’

The hearing, ‘Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,’ is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday at the Javits Federal Building.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked for Stefanik to join the panel for Monday’s hearing.

Stefanik, who represents New York’s 21st Congressional District, is not a member of the House Judiciary Committee, but Republicans are expected to let her participate in the panel’s highly anticipated hearing in lower Manhattan.

‘New York City is the epicenter of the crime crisis,’ Stefanik told Fox News Digital. She blamed ‘far-left radical district attorneys like Alvin Bragg’ for ‘causing this crime crisis.’

Stefanik felt strongly about participating in the hearing, saying ‘victims need a voice’ and stressing that victims of violent crime come from ‘all political backgrounds.’

‘New Yorkers fear for their safety,’ Stefanik said, pointing to the ‘revolving door of criminals released back into the communities’ who are ‘wreaking havoc’ on the city.

‘I intend to make sure New Yorkers are represented at this hearing,’ she said.

Jose Alba, a bodega clerk charged with murder after acting in self-defense, will be one of the witnesses at the hearing.

Bragg took over as district attorney in January 2022 from Cyrus Vance. The crime wave has intensified under Bragg’s watch.

‘He is refusing to go after criminals but is prosecuting Joe Biden’s top opponent,’ Stefanik said of his investigation into former President Trump.

Trump last week pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in New York. The charges, which are related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign, came out of Bragg’s investigation.

Bragg alleged Trump ‘repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.’

Trump has slammed the DA’s investigation and the indictment as ‘political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.’

‘New Yorkers are smart,’ Stefanik said. ‘They want their DA to prosecute violent criminals.’

As for Democrats, Stefanik said, ‘They continue to put their heads in the sand.

‘Their policies have caused the crime crisis in New York. Republicans stand strongly with police, with law enforcement and with victims.’

Trump was back in New York City Thursday for a deposition before New York State Attorney General Letitia James. James, a Democrat, has been conducting a civil investigation into the Trump Organization since she took office in January 2019.

James brought a lawsuit against Trump in September alleging he and his company misled banks and others about the value of his assets. She also alleged Trump ‘inflated his net worth by billions of dollars’ and said his children helped him to do so.

When asked for comment, Stefanik told Fox News Digital that James is ‘part of the far-left radicals.’

‘It is just another chapter of the political witch hunt going back to 2016,’ she said.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – EXCLUSIVE – Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said there’s ‘no question’ he would support a 20-week federal ban on abortion and would potentially consider a 15-week limit.

Scott, a rising star in the GOP and the only Black Republican in the Senate, made news early Thursday in New Hampshire as he told local TV station WMUR that if elected president, he would support a 20-week ban on abortion. He reiterated that position a couple of hours later in an interview with Fox News at a café in Manchester — the state’s most populous city — but went a step further.

‘At least 20 weeks. There’s no question that I think the 15 weeks — there’s a lot of reasons for us to understand that, the viability,’ Scott told Fox News on his second day of campaigning in the crucial early presidential nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire after launching a presidential exploratory committee.

Abortion, always an important issue on the campaign trail, took center stage following the blockbuster move last June by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the landmark nearly half-century old Roe v. Wade ruling, which allowed for legalized abortions nationwide. The decision by the high court moved the divisive issue of abortion back to the states. Last year, following the Supreme Court ruling, Scott’s GOP colleague from South Carolina, Sen. Lindsey Graham, proposed a 15-week federal ban on abortions.

‘There’s no question that the health of the child, the viability of the child, 20 weeks in my opinion is a no question. But the 15-week threshold is something that I believe is a place where you find a national limit that says ‘no more.’ States can do less. That’s got to be a state’s opportunity to do what they want to do.’

Taking questions from reporters after a stop at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, a longtime must stop for White House hopefuls from both major political parties, Scott criticized Democrats for being hypocrites on the abortion issue and took aim at Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for suggesting at a Senate Banking hearing that participation in the workforce by African American women in poverty could be increased by having abortions.

‘The most egregious form of restrictions are the lack of restrictions that our friends on the other side of the aisle have been voting for. They voted for late-term abortions up until the time of birth,’ Scott argued in his Fox News interview. 

The senator charged that ‘the most egregious form of this conversation gets so little coverage and so there’s no doubt that we have to find a threshold where we know that while the issue allows the states to be as aggressive or permissive as they want to be, I think there is the need for some kind of threshold that says we’re going to limit access to abortions for x number of weeks because we continue to see the rise of the far radical left wanting abortions up to the day of birth.’

And he emphasized that ‘we can’t be a country aligned with North Korea and China,’ which allow abortions for any reasons even after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Scott, who’s co-sponsored restrictive abortions bills during his tenure in the Senate, including the 2021 Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which called for jail time for physicians who perform abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The senator, who’s reiterated when asked about abortion that he’s ‘100% pro-life,’ on Thursday declined to answer when asked whether he would support legislation to prosecute doctors who performed late-term abortions.

Speaking with reporters, Scott declined to weigh in on whether medication abortions should remain legal, in the wake ruling this week by a federal appeals court that preserved access to the abortion pill mifepristone for now reduced the period of pregnancy when the drug can be used, and said it could not be dispensed by mail. The Justice Department says it will ask the Supreme Court for an emergency order to put any action on hold.

‘The courts are on their way to solving the problem,’ Scott said.

Democrats spent millions attacking Republicans over abortion ahead of last year’s midterm elections, and it was a contributing factor in turning the hoped for red wave by Republicans into a trickle. Democrats increased their razor-thin Senate majority by one seat, and while they lost control of the House, they kept their losses to a minimum. Democrats also won a number of crucial gubernatorial contests and flipped a handful of GOP controlled state house chambers. And Democrats last week won a crucial state supreme court election in battleground Wisconsin — where abortion was a top issue — by double digits.

Scott has long highlighted his faith and has been a champion to social conservative voters, who overwhelming oppose abortion rights. He’s likely to heavily court evangelical voters, who play an outsized role in Republican politics in Iowa and his home state of South Carolina, which votes third in the GOP presidential nominating calendar. 

Among his stops on Wednesday in Iowa was a roundtable discussion with homeschool families. And following his visit to the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, New Hampshire, Scott privately met with a group of pastors.

Asked if that’s his path to victory in the GOP nomination race, Scott told Fox News: ‘I think my path to victory is just talking to people about commonsense. Commonsense conservatism works in New Hampshire as much as it does in South Carolina.’ 

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom took aim at a Florida college that he called ‘ground zero’ for what Republicans want to do to education nationwide.

The progressive champion singled out the Sarasota-based New College of Florida, whose board of trustees was revamped by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a Wednesday message to his 2 million Twitter followers. Newsom said the institution is banning books, among other allegations of limiting speech.

‘Last week, I went to New College in Florida – ground zero for what the [Republicans] are trying to do to education in this country,’ Newsom said on Wednesday.

‘Take a moment to watch this. Books are banned. Speech is limited. Faculty are scared. Students are bullied. This is just a small dose of what’s to come.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office asking them to provide a list of the alleged banned books at the institution. However, they failed to do so and did not respond to the inquiry.

Newsom’s attacks further add to the speculation he may be exploring a future presidential run. DeSantis, also a likely presidential contender, appointed six members to New College of Florida’s board of trustees in January. The college has since taken a rightward turn in pushing back against educational policies, including abolishing its diversity office.

Meanwhile, one of the college’s DeSantis-appointed trustees, Christopher Rufo, responded to Newsom’s message by saying he’s spreading falsehoods.

‘Gavin Newsom is spreading lies and falsely claiming that ‘books are banned’ at New College of Florida,’ Rufo said. ‘He wants to put all Americans under the boot of DEI commissars and California’s failed policies.’

Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, later said that Newsom visited the college to ‘spread lies about Ron DeSantis’ higher-education reforms’ and that ‘no amount of hair gel’ could stop them from ‘restoring classical liberal arts education in Florida.’

GAVIN NEWSOM CAMPAIGN DONORS RECEIVED BILLIONS IN CA STATE CONTRACTS, INVESTIGATION FINDS 

During Newsom’s visit, he met with students and faculty who were reportedly upset with the school’s current trajectory, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

‘I’m crawling out of my skin for you guys,’ Newsom said during his visit. ‘I want you to know you’re not alone. You matter, we care. This is the ‘why I’m here.’ I’m not your governor. But I’m a member of the larger community all bound together.’

The California Democrat also took direct shots at DeSantis while at the college.

‘Weakness, Ron DeSantis – weakness masquerading as strength,’ Newsom said. ‘So, I want you to know you’re on the right side of history. You have something he’ll never have: moral authority.’

New College of Florida did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.