Democrats were dealt another blow from within their own ranks this week as yet another state lawmaker declared he was leaving the party.

According to a Monday report by The Advocate, a Louisiana-based newspaper, state Rep. Jeremy LaCombe announced he had left the Democratic Party and would be registering as a Republican.

It was not immediately clear what prompted LaCombe’s departure, however he is now the second Louisiana Democrat in less than a month to switch party affiliations, and the third nationwide after another state lawmaker in North Carolina did the same.

Last month, Louisiana state Rep. Francis Thompson gave Republicans in the state House a supermajority after he switched his party affiliation, and earlier this month, North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham gave Republicans in the state House a supermajority with her switch as well.

The switches come as President Biden faces a near-record low approval rating among key groups, including women (43% now vs. 42% low), voters ages 45+ (41% vs. 39% low), suburban voters (41% vs. 39% low), rural voters (31% vs. 30% low) and Democrats (81% vs. 78% low) – Democratic men in particular (79% vs. 78% low), according to a recent Fox News poll.

Biden is also at a low mark of 41% approval among suburban women. 

Additionally, a separate recent poll found that only a third of Americans believed Biden deserved to be re-elected in 2024.

Fox News’ Dana Blanton contributed to this report.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on Monday joined Democrats in their call for the Biden administration to ignore a Texas judge’s ruling on the abortion medication known as mifepristone, blasting the court decision as ‘unconstitutional.’

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled late Friday that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone was unlawful, a decision that effectively banned the sale of the drug. But the issue became a legal quagmire when the Texas ruling was followed within hours by a conflicting court decision out of Washington state that ordered the FDA to maintain the drug’s availability.

On CNN Monday, Mace said she agrees with Democrats who say that Biden should ignore the Texas decision: ‘It’s not up to us to decide as legislators … whether or not this is the right drug to use or not, No. 1, so I agree with ignoring it at this point.’

Asked by Fox News Digital why she believes the FDA should brush off the Texas ban, Mace said the decision was unlawful because the judge based his decision on an invalid law.

‘I disagree with the ruling,’ she said. ‘The judge used a law from 1873, which the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional in 1983. And so the entire basis for the ruling, I would argue, was unconstitutional in that regard.’

She took it a step further in a separate interview with Fox News Digital and accused her fellow Republicans of being ‘on the wrong side of history’ on abortion rights, clarifying that she is pro-life.

Mace declined to say whether she was worried about whether ignoring the Texas judge would set a dangerous legal precedent. But she did say these sorts of decisions are being made, pointing to Missouri officials in a county who passed an ordinance to break its ties with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) after claiming the body was unconstitutional.

‘Look at Camden County in Missouri, I mean, they’re ignoring the ATF, saying that they’re unconstitutional,’ Mace said. ‘Both sides are fighting things that they believe are unconstitutional.’

‘Both sides fight things that they believe are unconstitutional,’ she added. ‘If it’s OK for one side, it should be OK for both sides. And I think that’s what we’re missing here in this argument.’

‘The other thing that we’re missing, too, is that [Republicans] are not on the right side of history, if we’re going to take the extreme position on this issue, because the vast majority of Americans are not with us on that. They’re just not,’ the moderate GOP lawmaker said.

On Monday, the Biden administration stepped up its fight against the Texas ruling by filing a request for a stay on the order that’s backed by the FDA and Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Several Democrats spoke in favor of that decision. For example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., both called on the Biden administration to ignore the abortion pill decision, which prompted criticism from Republican lawmakers over the left’s disregard for the judiciary.

‘The left is continuing its assault on the rule of law,’ Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. ‘Whether it’s packing the Supreme Court, indicting the former president on flimsy charges or urging the administration to ignore a federal judge’s ruling, the left has made it clear they have contempt for the rule of law and care only about power.’

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, compared the Democrats leading the demand to the southern Democrats of the last century who were resisting the civil rights movement.

‘Like Southern Democrats against civil rights in the 1950s, progressive Democrats today are demanding that a federal agency ignore a legal ruling they don’t like,’ the Texas conservative wrote on Twitter.

A battle over a $1 billion transmission line that won all regulatory approvals only to be rebuked by state residents in a referendum now comes down to nine regular folks.

In a rare move, a jury is being asked to decide a complicated constitutional matter — whether developers have a vested right to complete the 145-mile project, which would supply Canadian hydropower to the New England power grid.

The constitutionality of the statewide referendum on the project depends on the jury’s decision on the narrow vested-rights issue. And the case could turn on a simple majority of jurors.

‘We’re not aware of a similar instance in which the fate of a large energy asset rests in the hands of a jury. This is an unusual circumstance,’ Timothy Fox, vice president of Clear View Partners, an energy research firm in Washington, D.C., said before the trial began Monday.

The courtroom was packed Monday.

Attorneys for groups opposed to the project and the state attorney general’s office, which is charged with upholding the referendum, suggested to jurors on Monday that developers rushed construction with a goal of winning vested rights and nullifying the referendum.

But John Armando, lawyer for the developers, said the construction schedule was put in place years earlier, and that the case is ‘about fundamental fairness, about vested rights, about protection of property rights against retroactive laws.’

Last year, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court breathed new life into the stalled project when it ruled the retroactive nature of the statewide vote to stop the project would violate the developers’ constitutional rights if substantial construction already had begun in good faith before the referendum. Construction started in January 2021, about 10 months before the referendum in which 59% of voters rejected the project.

Justice Michael A. Duddy could have made the fact-finding determination himself. But he ruled in favor of project opponents, including the Natural Resources Council of Maine, who asked for a jury to make the determination. The judge seated nine jurors and two alternates.

Central Maine Power’s parent company and Hydro Quebec teamed up on New England Clean Energy Connect, which was unveiled in 2017 with a goal of supplying up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to the New England power grid. That is enough electricity for 1 million homes.

It’s one of two proposed large-scale transmission projects aimed at tapping hydropower from Quebec. The other would provide electricity to New York City.

Early on, developers envisioned smooth sailing because the transmission path would mostly follow existing corridors, with only a new 53-mile (85-kilometer) section crossing sparely populated woods to reach the Canadian border.

But the project encountered opposition each step of the way even as it received all necessary regulatory approvals. Developers already had begun cutting trees and setting poles for months when the governor asked for work to be suspended after voters rejected the project in November 2021.

Supporters say bold projects such as this one, funded by ratepayers in Massachusetts, are necessary to battle climate change and introduce additional electricity into a region that is heavily reliant on natural gas, which can cause spikes in energy costs.

Critics say the project’s environmental benefits are overstated — and that it would harm the woodlands in western Maine.

In Maine, two lawsuits over the project went before the Supreme Judicial Court, which ultimately upheld a lease for a 1-mile portion of the proposed power line that crossed state land.

The constitutional issue will likely end up back before the Supreme Judicial Court regardless of the outcome of the judge’s decision after the jury trial.

Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, one of two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled last week from the GOP-led statehouse, is being sent back to the Legislature. 

The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted unanimously Monday to restore Jones to office, less than a week after GOP lawmakers stripped him of his seat. 

Republicans expelled Jones and fellow Democratic lawmaker Justin Pearson over their role in a gun-control protest on the House floor in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville. Pearson could be reappointed as early as Wednesday by the Shelby County Commission.

A third Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, was targeted for expulsion as well, but was spared by a single vote. Johnson, who is White, has suggested that race was a factor in why Jones and Pearson were ousted but not her.

Republican lawmakers justified splitting their votes by saying Johnson had less of a role in the protest — she didn’t speak into a megaphone, for example.

Political tensions rose when the three joined with hundreds of demonstrators who packed the Capitol to call for the passage of gun-control measures just days after six people — including three children — were killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. 

As protesters filled galleries, the lawmakers approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn and participated in a chant. 

GOP leaders have said the expulsions — a mechanism used only a handful of times since the Civil War — were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings through protest would be tolerated.

Jones’ appointment is on an interim basis. Special elections for the seats will take place in the coming months. Jones and Pearson have said they plan to run in the special election.

Before the special council session began, a couple of hundred people gathered in front of the Nashville courthouse, and more were pouring in. Some held signs reading, ‘No Justin, No Peace.’ Inside the courthouse, a line of people waited outside the council chambers for the doors to open.

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s spokesperson, Doug Kufner, indicated that whoever is appointed to the vacancies by the Nashville and Shelby County governments ‘will be seated as representatives as the constitution requires.’

House Majority Leader William Lamberth and Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison said they would welcome back the expelled lawmakers if they are reinstated.

‘Tennessee’s constitution provides a pathway back for expulsion,’ Lamberth and Faison said in a joint statement. ‘Should any expelled member be reappointed, we will welcome them. Like everyone else, they are expected to follow the rules of the House as well as state law.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Senate Democrats are demanding Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts open an investigation into Justice Clarence Thomas over what they decry as his ‘misconduct’ detailed in a ProPublica report published last week.

The liberal outlet’s report accused Thomas of improperly receiving lavish vacations from Republican mega donor Harlan Crow, which reportedly included taking trips across the world on the latter’s yacht and private jet without disclosing them. 

In a Monday letter, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., along with every Democrat on the committee, cited the report as proof that Thomas has not upheld the ethical standards set for a Supreme Court justice.

‘The report describes conduct by a sitting Justice that he did not disclose to the public and that is plainly inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any person in a position of public trust,’ the letter read. ‘The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has legislative jurisdiction over Federal courts and judges, has a role to play in ensuring that the nation’s highest court does not have the federal judiciary’s lowest ethical standards.’ 

‘You have a role to play as well, both in investigating how such conduct could take place at the Court under your watch, and in ensuring that such conduct does not happen again. We urge you to immediately open such an investigation and take all needed action to prevent further misconduct,’ it added.

Experts, however, have dismissed the ProPublica report as political hit piece, and explained that justices are permitted to accept invites to properties of friends for dinner or vacations without paying for it or disclosing it.

‘This is just grasping at straws by the left that is desperate to tear down Justice Thomas because he now has a working originalist majority on the court,’ Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy and The Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital following the report’s release.

‘This is politics. Plain and simple,’ he added.

Constitutional law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital that until recently, ‘even lower court judges were not required to report such trips under a personal hospitality exception.’

‘Justice Thomas would not have been required to report the trips under the prior rule,’ Turley said. ‘Once again, the Democrats and the media appear to be engaging in the same hair-triggered responses to any story related to Thomas. This includes the clearly absurd call for an impeachment by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.’

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller and Matteo Cina contributed to this report.

Chasten Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s husband, snapped back at Americans boycotting Anheuser-Busch’s decision to make transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney the star of one of its latest Bud Light commercials.

On Monday, Chasten turned to Twitter  to speak to those boycotting the blue-canned, frothy alcoholic beverage.

‘If you’re upset about a beer company supporting civil rights, you might want to start bottling your tears,’ Buttigieg tweeted. ‘LGBTQ people drink water, too. Gonna boycott that next?’

Buttigieg was referring to criticism of the beer company’s decision to celebrate and partner with Mulvaney, a social media influencer famous for her ‘365 Days of Girlhood.’

The trans activist revealed earlier this month that Anheuser-Busch sent packs of Bud Light with the trans activist’s face on the can, as a way to celebrate Mulvaney’s first full year of ‘girlhood.’

The announcement received a significant amount of criticism, and some called the ad campaign another attempt to push gender propaganda.

In fact, conservative rocker Kid Rock was seen opening fire on several Bud Light cases in a viral video, and many have called to boycott Bud products.

Country star Travis Tritt announced that he is dropping all Anheuser-Busch products from his hospitality rider. Tritt added that many other stars are doing likewise, but not announcing it publicly.

Buttigieg’s tweet also received staunch criticism.

One Twitter user posted, ‘Goodness this is a stupid tweet…,’ while another replied to Buttigieg’s tweet by says, ‘So ‘civil rights’ for you consists of a man taking a woman’s position because he perpetuates the most regressive stereotypes of what a misogynist thinks it means to be a woman? [Dually] noted.’

Buttigieg recently spoke out against the GOP for banning sexually-explicit books from school libraries and passing laws against transgender drugs and medical procedures for minors. 

In March, he joined ‘The View,’ telling the hosts it is an ‘extremely dangerous time’ in American history.

He went on to say, ‘it’s been a very well-coordinated, well-funded effort to attack the LGBTQ+ community, specifically with the book bans.’

U.S. resettlement agencies involved in aiding approximately 72,000 Afghan evacuees brought to the U.S. in 2021 and 2022 experienced racism, sexism and verbal abuse from some of those evacuated, according to a State Department Inspector General report.

The review by the IG looked into the resettlement of tens of thousands of evacuees who were granted humanitarian parole to enter the U.S. after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The inspector general’s office found that the nine groups faced a slew of issues and challenges with such an undertaking.

‘[Resettlement agency] officials told OIG that the [Afghan Placement and Assistance Program] involved some of the most significant challenges that they had ever faced,’ the report said. 

The agencies, non-profits that are also involved in supporting regular refugee resettlement, identified a host of issues — including the fast pace of arrivals compared to the 11,840 refugees they resettled in FY 2020. Additional issues included the COVID-19 pandemic and complications related to housing, staffing, and cultural orientation.

Among those cultural issues, agencies described ‘inappropriate behavior’ from some parolees which they attributed to a lack of cultural orientation.

‘For example, some RA staff reported experiencing racism and sexism from Afghan clients unaccustomed to the norms of U.S. society,’ the report said. 

Agencies reported that some parolees refused to work with female case managers or those from minority groups. One agency reported that ‘a few local offices had issues of verbal abuse from Afghans, mostly those who were upset or frustrated by the process.’ 

‘Many parolees had very high expectations and did not understand the role of local affiliates and would become frustrated with services and housing,’ the report said.

Nine groups were involved in the resettlement and received per capita grants of $2,275, with $1,225 of that marked for direct assistance. The resettlement was coordinated by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

The report also highlighted ‘unrealistic expectations’ from some parolees regarding the resettlement process. For instance, a number of agencies said that some had been told they would receive ‘welcome money’ when they arrived. Others had unrealistic expectations regarding housing and would therefore reject housing offered to them as insufficient or of inferior quality. Some who had worked as professionals or held advanced degrees in Afghanistan ‘often believed that they would be set up in positions within their chosen field.’

The agencies recommended that PRM take measures including ‘standardized minimum requirements for cultural orientation that emphasize self-sufficiency, manage expectations, and convey U.S. societal expectations for behavior regarding gender, race, and sexual issues.’

The report also noted challenges related to mental and physical health issues, with some arriving with COVID-19, or who had experienced trauma or family separation. 

The report concluded that the resettlement was ‘an unprecedented and demanding effort that presented substantial challenges for the nine RAs that implemented the program.’

However, it found that many of the challenges were outside of the control of the PRM and also found that the agencies praised the funding provided via the program and what they said was an ‘unparalleled coordination between federal agencies’ in aiding the resettlement program.

The report is more positive than previous reports from different inspectors general, which faulted the vetting process for the evacuation and warned that national security threats may have entered the U.S.

On Thursday the White House released its review of the 2021 withdrawal, in which it defended President Biden’s decision to withdraw and called his decision ‘the right thing for the country.’ The review does acknowledge that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but blames the delays on the Afghan government and military, and on U.S. military and intelligence community assessments.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr slammed former President Donald Trump as ‘the weakest of the Republican candidates,’ predicting that Trump will ultimately lose to President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

‘I think ultimately the savvy Democratic strategists know [the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office probe] is going to help Trump, and they want him to be the nominee because he is the weakest of the Republican candidates, the most likely to lose again to Biden,’ Barr said on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday.

Barr’s comments came the week after Trump pleaded not guilty in a New York City courtroom to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The former president and leading Republican presidential candidate for 2024 was indicted on March 30 as part of the Manhattan DA’s years-long investigation into hush-money payments made during the 2016 election.

‘I don’t think anything’s going to happen before a nomination is made and even perhaps until the election, the 2024 election,’ Barr said when asked about the likelihood of Trump being convicted and sent to prison. ‘This stuff is going to drag out through ’24, and it’s going to stymie and disrupt the whole Republican primary process.’

‘I also think, though, as far as the general election is concerned, it will gravely weaken Trump,’ Barr said. ‘He’s already, I think, a weak candidate that would lose, but I think this sort of assures it.’

Barr maintained his earlier statements that the Manhattan case lacks merit, calling it ‘transparently an abuse of prosecutorial power to accomplish a political and … an unjust case.’

‘If it was fraud, it was committed in the course of fraud. And I don’t see anywhere specified in here exactly what the fraud was,’ Barr said. ‘These were his own business records. He was paying himself the hush money and the business records were his own company. He’s the owner of the company.’

Barr also said he would be most concerned about the Mar-a-Lago document case, saying Trump has ‘dug himself into a hole’ given his ‘reckless and self-destructive behavior.’

‘In many respects, he’s his own worst enemy,’ Barr said.

The hush-money payments include the $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and the $150,000 payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both women were paid for their silence on alleged affairs with Trump – affairs Trump has repeatedly denied.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Marta Dhanis contributed to this report.

A liberal group bankrolled by millions of dollars from George Soros notched a victory with the Biden administration’s newly proposed Title IX rules, which include gender identity and would bar educational institutions from banning transgender athletes.

The Education Department rolled out its Title IX proposed rule on Thursday, which mirrors an action memo from a once shadowy group called Governing for Impact (GFI). GFI quietly works behind the scenes with the Biden administration on policy and also has a high-level Soros employee on its board of directors.

‘The U.S. Department of Education (Department) proposes to amend its regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) to set out a standard that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity,’ the Education Department wrote.

‘The proposed regulation would clarify Title IX’s application to such sex-related criteria and the obligation of schools and other recipients of Federal financial assistance from the Department (referred to below as ‘recipients’ or ‘schools’) that adopt or apply such criteria to do so consistent with Title IX’s nondiscrimination mandate.’

The Education Department’s proposal is similar in structure and reasoning to a legal memo GFI earlier supplied to the department. A backbone of the Biden administration’s proposal includes bringing in gender identity, which GFI advocated for within the document.

GFI’s memo proposed ‘implementing regulations to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and transgender status; and that Title IX and its implementing regulations require schools to treat students consistent with their gender identity for purposes of Title IX and not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.’ 

GFI has received immense funding from Soros’ Open Society Foundations network. The Foundation to Promote Open Society, a nonprofit in Soros’ network, has funneled nearly $10 million to GFI since 2019, records show. The Open Society Policy Center, Soros’ advocacy nonprofit, sent $7.45 million to GFI’s action fund during that time.

While GFI’s total contributions are unknown, the sheer amount of Soros’ cash likely makes him one of the group’s largest – if not its largest – donors. GFI and its action fund are not required to file tax documents to the Internal Revenue Service since they are fiscally sponsored projects of the New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund, not standalone organizations. 

GFI’s four-person board, meanwhile, includes Tom Perriello, the executive director of Soros’ Open Society-U.S, who maintains close access to the White House. 

Perriello’s name appears in White House visitor logs 13 times on eight different days between May 2021 and September 2022, according to a review of the records. On three of the days he visited, multiple appointments appeared on the forms.

‘Open Society is proud to support Governing for Impact’s efforts to protect American workers, consumers, patients, students and the environment through policy reform,’ Perriello previously told Fox News Digital.

‘Their work gives voice to people often overlooked in a regulatory environment too often dominated by corporate interests,’ he said. ‘Our support for Governing for Impact’s work is publicly available on our website and we are transparent about our enthusiasm for their victories for American workers and families.’ 

GFI was established with a vision of preparing the Biden administration for a ‘transformative governance’ and produced ‘more than 60 in-depth, shovel-ready regulatory recommendations’ for dozens of federal agencies,’ a now-deleted job advertisement on Harvard Law School’s website read.

The group has bragged in internal memos of executing more than 20 of its regulatory agenda items as they work with the administration to reverse Trump-era deregulations by focusing on education, health care, housing, labor and environmental issues. 

GFI has also organized legal policy memos for at least 10 federal departments and agencies and 10 administrative law primers as of 2021, according to an internal slideshow from the group.

‘We’re glad the administration is revising its Title IX guidance,’ Rachel Klarman, GFI’s executive director, previously told Fox News Digital. ‘During the transition, Governing for Impact made a number of recommendations for how this policy could be improved, which are available on our public website.’

Klarman also previously said that they are proud of the ‘ongoing efforts to help ensure that the federal government works more effectively for everyday working Americans, not just for members of industry groups that have long devoted vast resources to pursuing their own policy agendas.’

The public will have 30 days to provide comments on the rule before its implementation. 

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed reporting.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued there is a crime wave within the Republican Party, citing former President Donald Trump’s indictment and controversy over Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. 

‘I admit it is very difficult to see a path in the Republican Party that refuses to hold itself accountable, and in fact, breaches the law itself,’ Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on CNN. 

‘The crime wave is within the Republican Party. It is within all…. what we are seeing, we have seen, we are seeing, breaking of the law by conservative members of the court. We are seeing a former president of the United States just indicted in recent days, I mean, we need to hold our systems accountable,’ she said. 

Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in a Manhattan court. The indictment comes as prosecutors looked into hush-money payments that the former president allegedly made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Thomas was accused of improperly receiving lavish gifts from a wealthy friend, which one expert described as a political hit job. 

‘I believe that we should pursue the course and if it is Republicans that decide to protect those who are breaking the law, then they’re the ones who then are responsible for that decision, but we should not be complicit,’ Ocasio-Cortez continued. 

Ocasio-Cortez made no mention of the Biden family’s alleged corruption, including Hunter Biden’s notorious laptop that reportedly contains information about the Biden family’s business dealings with foreign nations. 

Days earlier, Ocasio-Cortez joined Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon in advocating to ignore a court order that would block the distribution of mifepristone, a drug used to medically induce abortions.

‘Sen. Ron Wyden has already issued statements, for example advising what we should do in situations like this, which I concur, which is that I believe that the Biden administration should ignore this ruling…. The courts have the legitimacy and they rely on the legitimacy of their rulings,’ AOC continued. ‘What they are currently doing is engaged in an unprecedented and dramatic erosion of the legitimacy of the courts.’