FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., broke from his Senate GOP colleagues on Tuesday over their opposition to TikTok, arguing that banning the popular social media app ‘goes against the First Amendment.’

‘I think it’s a really bad idea. And people need to ask themselves, ‘Why does the Chinese government ban TikTok, and do we want to emulate the Chinese government?’ So, I think it’s a mistake,’ Paul told Fox News Digital after weekly Senate lunches. ‘If you ban a social media platform, you know, I don’t know if you get any clearer that that goes against the First Amendment.’

There are currently two bipartisan Senate bills aimed at banning TikTok, a video app that exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic but has raised alarms over its connection to the Chinese Communist Party.

While congressional Democrats are divided on whether TikTok should be handled as a national security threat, Republicans have nearly all gotten on board with curbing it – save for at least one notable exception.

Asked why he’s opposed to a bill introduced by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Thune, R-S.D., that would give the president a pathway to banning TikTok, Paul replied, ‘I’m for the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says that companies that operate in the United States, we shouldn’t limit their speech or people who try to broadcast speech on those platforms.’

He shared similar sentiments about an earlier bill introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., that would outright ban the app from operating in the U.S.: ‘Any bills that name a particular organization have a constitutional problem … not allowed to write a specific law against a person or a company. The First Amendment also requires the government to stay out of regulating speech or preventing speech.’

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before a House of Representatives panel last week. He repeatedly denied that the app’s parent company, ByteDance, part of which is owned by China’s authoritarian government, allows Beijing to spy on American users’ data.

Paul pointed out that precedent shows that banning the social media app may not work out.

‘The courts have already struck that down when the Trump administration tried to ban TikTok,’ Paul said. ‘It was struck down.’

Election Day shortages of the paper needed to run voting machinery caused significant problems in a northeastern Pennsylvania county in November, but the extent of the problem or what caused it are still unclear, witnesses told a congressional committee Tuesday.

The three-hour hearing of the U.S. House Administration Committee into events in Luzerne County on Nov. 8 brought outrage from members of both parties about the problems that contributed to a delay in reporting results from the country’s largest swing state.

The fact-finding, billed by the Republican majority as a look into ‘government voter suppression’ in Luzerne, included anecdotal reports of problems voting in a county where a judge agreed to order polls to remain open for two extra hours, until 10 p.m., to accommodate those who may have been unable to cast ballots earlier in the day.

‘This is catastrophic, in my view,’ said U.S. Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the committee’s ranking Democrat. ‘This is a complete breakdown.’

Elections officials ‘rushed to stores’ in an effort to get paper for ‘voter-created emergency ballots,’ said committee Chairman Rep. Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican, calling it ‘unbelievable in American elections today.’

‘To date, no official action has been taken in Luzerne County,’ Steil said. ‘No report from the district attorney. No report from the secretary of state. No report from the Luzerne County Board of Elections. There must be accountability.’

The hearing did not include the Luzerne County officials who oversee and run elections, as they apparently received legal advice not to participate while Luzerne District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce investigates what happened.

The Pennsylvania Department of State also declined to testify, telling Steil in a March 22 letter that the statewide elections agency did not want to interfere in or compromise the results of Sanguedolce’s investigation.

‘Though the Department offers guidance and assistance to counties on election administration issues, the Department of State, with very few exceptions, unrelated to the issues here, has limited authority under Pennsylvania’s Election Code to dictate how counties run their elections,’ wrote Jonathan Marks, Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary for elections and commissions.

Sanguedolce, who watched the hearing, declined to comment afterward on his investigation or when he might disclose its findings. Sanguedolce said he ‘wouldn’t narrow it to a criminal investigation,’ noting his office has jurisdiction to look into anything involving voter irregularity.

‘If everyone in that hearing operates from the assumption that the facts set forward are true, then everyone should be concerned,’ Sanguedolce said. ‘But I’m not sure you should assume the facts are true.’

The hearing included claims that paper shortages were widespread, questions about the procedures used to cast emergency or provisional ballots, and reports some voters were unable to cast ballots at all. There was also testimony about employee turnover problems within Luzerne’s elections office.

‘We don’t have the answers that we need,’ said Jim Bognet, a Republican who lost by less than three percentage points in a challenge to Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright in November. ‘That’s why we’re so happy you guys are looking into it.’

Luzerne, formerly a reliable Democratic majority county, has become much more Republican in recent years, although Democrat Josh Shapiro won the county by barely one percentage point in the November governor’s race. In recent presidential contests, Donald Trump easily beat Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 in Luzerne.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Tuesday that an income tax rate reduction expected to be triggered for the 2023 tax year by the state’s high revenues will be temporary and will revert back to the normal rate the following year.

Nessel’s opinion, which the state is expected to follow, comes after the state House Fiscal Agency predicted in January that Michigan’s revenues have been running high enough to automatically trigger a drop in the income tax rate to 4.05% from 4.25%, under a 2015 law. The reduction will save Michigan taxpayers an estimated $700 million.

The law, enacted by the Republican-controlled Statehouse at the time, provides a mechanism to reduce the income tax rate when the percentage increase in the general fund exceeds the inflation rate during a fiscal year.

‘Because that situation is only temporary, it makes sense that, rather than provide a permanent tax reduction based on the economic circumstances of a single fiscal year, the Legislature intended the relief to taxpayers to be only temporary as well,’ wrote Nessel, a Democrat, in an opinion addressed to state Treasurer Rachel Eubanks.

In a joint statement with other Republican leaders released after Nessel’s opinion, former Gov. Rick Snyder, who led Michigan from 2011 to 2019, said the law ‘was intended to be a permanent reduction activated when the state government had a large surplus.’

‘State government is sitting on $9 billion of your money, and Democrats are fighting tooth and nail to keep every penny of it from you,’ Republican Senate Leader Aric Nesbitt said on social media.

Last month, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer unveiled a record $79 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year after her budget director, Chris Harkins, predicted in January that Michigan’s surplus could exceed $9 billion by the end of year. Whitmer also announced plans to send $180 ‘inflation relief checks’ to all tax filers, which would have cost the state around $800 million and lowered revenues enough to avoid the trigger.

With a slim majority in both chambers, Democrats weren’t able to secure the votes necessary for the $180 checks to be sent this year, and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, a Democrat, had said the income tax reduction was ‘likely’ to be triggered.

Democrats were able to pass legislation phasing out taxes on public and private pensions and significantly expanding the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit from the current 6% to a 30% match of the federal rate.

President Joe Biden responded to Monday’s fatal school shootings in Nashville, Tennessee, during a stop in North Carolina on Tuesday, spreading misinformation about the Second Amendment in the wake of tragedy.

The president made a scheduled stop in Durham, North Carolina, to speak about his economic agenda and the advancement of semiconductors.

But before he got to the meat of his speech Tuesday, the president addressed the tragedy that occurred at a private Christian school in Nashville, the Covenant School, on Monday.

Six victims were shot and killed when 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a transgender woman and former student of the school, entered the building with two ‘assault-type rifles’ and a handgun before opening fire.

After killing three 9-year-old students and three adults, Metropolitan Nashville Police officers killed Hale at the scene.

Biden told the crowd in Durham on Tuesday that Monday’s incident was the families’ ‘worst nightmare.’

Biden said he lost a child to an accident and another to cancer, noting that there was nothing like losing a child, especially when taken in a senseless and heartbreaking act.

‘They should be with us … as a nation, we owe these families more than our prayers. We owe them action,’ the president said. ‘You know, we have to do more to stop this gun violence that is ripping communities apart, ripping apart the soul of this nation. Protect our children so they learn how to read and write instead of duck and covering in a classroom.’

The president, who describes himself as a ‘Second Amendment guy,’ said the weapons used on Monday were ‘weapons of war’ and that the right to bear arms is not absolute.

‘You’re not allowed to go out and own an automatic weapon. You’re not allowed to own a machine gun. You’re not allowed to own a flamethrower,’ Biden said. ‘You’re not allowed to own so many other things. Why in God’s name do we allow these weapons of war on our streets and in our public schools?’

In the U.S., it is not illegal to own a flamethrower nor is it illegal to own a machine gun.

To own a machine gun, or fully automatic weapon, a person must not be considered a ‘prohibited person,’ must be at least 21 years old, a legal resident of the U.S., eligible to purchase a firearm, pass an 8-10-month background check and pay a one-time $200 transfer tax to obtain a stamp.

Biden has previously said that the Second Amendment also banned the ownership of cannons when it was passed in 1791, but that, too, has been debunked.

He continued making claims about firearms, especially when it comes to the death of children.

‘This is hard to believe,’ he said. ‘I never thought when I started my public life that guns would be the No. 1 killer of children in America. Guns. No. 1. It’s sick and overwhelming; a majority of gun owners agree we have to do something.’

Based on the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, firearms are not the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 17 – motor vehicles are.

Firearm deaths listed under the CDC’s data category ‘Unintentional Injury,’ shows that out of 4,552 deaths of children between the ages of 1 and 17, motor vehicles accounted for 2,159 of those deaths. Drownings accounted for 753, poisoning accounted for 502, suffocation accounted for 212, fires accounted for 204, transport accounted for 152 and firearms accounted for 120.

Under the ‘Homicide’ category, firearms accounted for 1,366 deaths, and when added up with firearm deaths considered unintentional, the total number of deaths by firearm for children between 1 and 17 years of age is 1,518 – 641 less than motor vehicle deaths of the same age bracket.

The most up to date and available data is from 2020 and can be found on the CDC’s website.

U.S. officials say the United States will no longer be sharing nuclear information with Russia over Moscow’s noncompliance with the New START treaty, which Russian President Vladimir Putin backed out of last month. 

The arms control pact between the U.S. and Russia, signed by then-Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages on-site inspections to verify compliance.

Officials at the White House, Pentagon, and State Department said the U.S. offered to continue providing this information to Russia – even after Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the treaty last month. Still, Moscow informed Washington that it would not be sharing its data. Now, both the U.S. and Russia have stopped sharing biannual nuclear weapons data altogether. 

‘We obviously would like to see Russia back in New START in full compliance. We believe that the New START Treaty is good for both our countries. It’s good for the world when our two countries are in full compliance,’ National Security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. 

‘Since they have refused to be in compliance with that particular modality of New START, we have decided to likewise not share that data.’ 

The White House, which has previously accused Russia of multiple treaty violation, has said Russia’s refusal to comply is ‘legally invalid’ and the decision to withhold the nuclear data is yet another violation.

Despite being extended shortly after President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, New START has been tested by Russia’s war in Ukraine. It has been on life support for more than a month since Putin announced Russia would no longer comply with its requirements.

On-site inspections have been dormant since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussions on resuming them were supposed to have taken place in November 2022, but Russia abruptly called them off, citing U.S. support for Ukraine. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t review a congressional redistricting law enacted by the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature that some voters and Democrats saw as political gerrymandering.

The nation’s highest court said Monday without explanation that it won’t hear an appeal of a Kansas Supreme Court ruling from May 2022 that upheld the redistricting law, which was challenged by 11 voters.

The appeal centered on the Kansas court’s rejection of critics’ claims that the new congressional map was racially gerrymandered. The Kansas court also ruled that the state constitution permits partisan gerrymandering.

The GOP map had appeared to hurt the chances of reelection last year for the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, in her Kansas City-area district. But Davids still won her race in November by 12 percentage points.

The law also moved the liberal northeastern Kansas city of Lawrence into a district with heavily Republican western Kansas.

The Legislature must redraw political boundaries at least once every 10 years to ensure that districts are as equal in population as possible. The Kansas Supreme Court split 4-3 on whether the state constitution allows partisan gerrymandering.

The Kansas court’s majority said the state constitution doesn’t bar lawmakers from considering partisan factors in drafting their maps. It added that state courts would have no clear standard for what constitutes improper gerrymandering absent a ‘zero tolerance’ standard.

The press secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized a children’s book about deceased former Cuban leader Fidel Castro while also assailing progressives who criticize Republicans over book bans. 

Christina Pushaw retweeted an image Monday of the back of the ‘Who was Fidel Castro?’ children’s illustration novel being sold in a bookstore.

‘Found in the Florida Keys,’ she wrote along with a sickly-green face emoji. ‘The same progressives who scream all day that Republicans banned teaching ‘true history,’ think THIS is true history and want to indoctrinate your kids with it.’

Republicans have been criticized over what critics have said are attempts to ban books in from public school libraries. Those books tend to contain graphic sexual content. Pushaw’s tweet was in response to a tweet about the illustration book about the communist leader being sold in a Florida bookstore. Florida is home to more than 1 million Cuban exiles who fled Castro’s regime. 

An image tweeted of the book shows the back asking about who was the Cuban leader, whether he was a ‘boy who loved sports – especially baseball,’ a lawyer that helped the poor or the leader of the Cuban revolution. 

The correct answer in the book was ‘All of the above!’ Castro died in 2016 after nearly 50 years of inspiring both loyalty and loathing from his countrymen while maintaining an iron grip on Cuban politics as its militaristic communist dictator. His brother, Raul Castro, took power when Fidel’s health declined. Miguel Diaz-Canel has ruled Cuba as the communist party’s first secretary since 2018.

The novel is part of the ‘Who Was?’ book series by Penguin Random House. The series features children’s books about various leaders and famous figures such as deceased athlete Jim Thorpe, civil rights icon U.S. Rep. Jon Lewis, Frank Sinatra and Sen. John McCain. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the publisher. 

President Joe Biden on Tuesday falsely claimed it’s illegal to own a flamethrower while delivering remarks on jobs and the economy, which veered into weapons following Monday’s deadly school shooting in Nashville.

‘We need to act. These are weapons of war,’ Biden said in Durham, North Carolina. ‘I’m a Second Amendment guy – I have two shotguns. … You know, but our states – everybody thinks somehow the Second Amendment is absolute.’

‘You’re not allowed to go out and own an automatic weapon,’ he continued. ‘You’re not allowed to own a machine gun. You’re not allowed to own a flamethrower. You’re not allowed to own so many other things.’

‘Why in God’s name do we allow these weapons of war in our streets and at our schools?’ he added.

WATCH: BIDEN FALSELY STATES FLAMETHROWERS ARE ILLEGAL

Flamethrowers, however, are widely legal in the United States and are not considered a firearm by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Flamethrowers are only illegal in Maryland and require a permit in California. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden’s administration also said that staying away from partisan politics after the Covenant School shooting is impossible. Audrey Hale, a transgender former student at the private Presbyterian school, killed three children and three adults in the attack.

Principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton made the comments during a Tuesday Air Force One press gaggle. Dalton stated that partisan politics would be a necessary part of the conversation until Republicans can ‘get behind’ an assault weapons ban and other gun control measures.

‘This is yet another attack in a school — six people shot dead,’ a reporter said. ‘Without getting into partisan party politics, what is it about America that this can happen, and we don’t see any meaningful momentum for gun control?’

‘What you’ve seen from this president is a commitment to act, adding the most significant bipartisan gun safety legislation in 30 years. … This president has been extremely forward leaning and aggressive in trying to tackle this issue of gun safety … but there is a limit to his executive power, and there is a need for Congress to do more in this moment,’ Dalton responded.

‘You asked me to stay away from partisan politics here, but it’s impossible for me to do that,’ Dalton continued. ‘The reality is we need Republicans in Congress to get on board with an assault weapons ban, to get on board with universal background checks, to get on board with requiring safe storage.’

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed reporting.

The death penalty could be abolished in Ohio under upcoming bipartisan legislation announced Tuesday — the latest in what has been years of effort to end capital punishment in the state.

State senators from both sides of the aisle called for an end to the practice, citing the financial blow to taxpayers to keep an inmate on death row, the lack of lethal injection drugs that has led to an unofficial moratorium on executions in the state, the danger of executing an innocent person and questions over a state’s right to end a life.

‘This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue,’ said bill sponsor Sen. Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat. ‘No matter what a person’s reason for supporting this legislation, it’s critical for our own collective humanity.’

The proposal is far from new. Antonio and GOP Sen. Steve Huffman of Tipp City introduced the measure last session. It failed to get any traction, as it has for several legislative sessions despite support from some of the majority Republicans.

But growing public opposition to the death penalty has Antonio hopeful this time around, she said at Tuesday’s press conference, as does a fresh General Assembly that includes a dozen Senators who support ending the death penalty.

First-term Republican Sen. Michelle Reynolds said she backs the measure because she is ‘pro-life’ and believes human life should not be used as a bargaining chip.

‘Life is our most precious gift, and our statutes should uphold and uplift this,’ Reynolds said.

It’s not clear where legislative leadership could take the bill. GOP Senate President Matt Huffman — Steve Huffman’s cousin — supports the death penalty, though he previously said he’s open to debate and discussion on the topic. Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens also said he was open to further debate in Legislature.

Currently, Ohio has an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment, after GOP Gov. Mike DeWine instructed lawmakers to find an alternative method to lethal injection, citing the state’s inability to obtain the needed drugs. He has delayed several executions since.

The state’s last execution was July 18, 2018, when Ohio put to death Robert Van Hook for killing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985. Ohio currently has 134 people on death row, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association opposes the legislation, calling it ‘dangerous’ and saying it would cut Ohio’s ‘worst criminals’ a break.

Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, a supporter of the death penalty, said in a statement that the bill provides a platform to discuss a needed overhaul of Ohio’s capital punishment system, calling it ‘a farce and a broken promise of justice.’

President Biden has been traveling across the country to meet with state leaders in an effort to ramp up semiconductor production across the United States.

‘America is coming back. We’re determined to lead the world in the manufacturing of semiconductors,’ President Biden said Tuesday.

In 1990, the U.S. produced around 37% of chips used around the world. That percentage has plummeted over time to just 12%. Constructing and operating a fabrication facility, or ‘fab,’ in the U.S. became more expensive. Costs soared 25% to 50% higher than abroad. 

‘We sort of had this blasé attitude that if we had the MIT graduates here, we won the Nobel Prizes here, we did the design here. Manufacturing didn’t matter,’ Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said. ‘Both parties just watched as industry after industry went offshore. Whether that was steel, whether it was aluminum, and unfortunately, all of the semiconductor production.’

Nearly three years ago, the coronavirus pandemic exposed the first signs of U.S. vulnerability when it came to semiconductor manufacturing.

‘The reality is we had a whole world clambering for electronics to work at home and to study at home, and those electronics are chock full of chips. So, no surprise, demand for chips just went off the charts,’ Semiconductor Industry Association President John Neuffer said. 

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said shortages of masks and gloves revealed other vulnerabilities in U.S. manufacturing, since many items needed during the pandemic were made in China. He worked alongside Democratic colleagues including Virginia Sen. Mark Warner and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly to look into other products made almost exclusively overseas.

‘The advanced semiconductors that operate everything from your cell phone to the F-35 to Javelin and Stinger missiles, virtually all of that was made in Asia and not here in America anymore,’ Cornyn said.

Neuffer said most U.S. fabs were operating at full capacity but they couldn’t keep up with the demand needed.

Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law last year following a bipartisan push from lawmakers. It’s incentivized companies to build and manufacture on U.S. soil.

‘We eventually were able to catch up. That’s the short term. The CHIPS Act is really for the long term,’ Neuffer said. ‘There’s been an overconcentration of certain aspects of our supply chain and what we’re trying to do right now is diversify. Right now, 75% of manufacturing has happened in Asia. That’s been in East Asia. That’s probably too much.’

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke about the CHIPS for America Program on ‘Special Report’ this past February. Semiconductor companies have been able to apply for those incentives through the initiative.

‘Congress has sent $52 billion to us here at the Commerce Department and it’s our job to invest that, working with companies to make chips in America,’ Raimondo said. ‘Every governor out there thinks the next chip factory will be in their state. They will compete. I’m sure they’ll put incentives on the table and that’s what they should do.’

Many companies began breaking ground on new facilities and expansions before the CHIPS Act was officially signed, including New York-based GlobalFoundries.

‘We need the right economics to continue to add capacity in the U.S.,’ GlobalFoundries CEO Thomas Caulfield said. ‘We have a facility that needs to grow to full scale in upstate New York in what we call Fab 8. The chips will be an integral part of the economics to close the funding gap, to create that capacity that can compete globally against all the players in manufacturing.’

Since the end of 2022, at least 23 new chip fabs have been announced and nine will increase production, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Companies including Intel and TSMC have announced plans to build new fabs in Arizona.

‘Nationwide, we have suppliers that all over the country that’ll be providing the tooling and the materials needed to build the best semiconductor chips in the world,’ Kelly said. ‘These are also jobs that you don’t need a four-year degree to get and you can actually get a salary you can raise a family on.’

Private investments topping $210 billion in all are expected to help create around 44,000 jobs in the industry. Over $60 billion is being invested in Texas manufacturing. Companies including Samsung and Texas Instruments are planning new facilities in that state.

‘It takes a while to change, to open up diverse sources, so it’s probably going to be 2024 until you see manufacturing,’ Cornyn said. ‘But Texas Instruments is expanding their current footprint. Samsung in Texas, Intel in Ohio, Micron in New York, so all this takes a little while, but we’ve got not a minute to waste.’

U.S. domestic production is expected to increase in the near future, but competing abroad with Taiwan could take some time.

‘I would say it’s going to take us years. The CHIPS funding gives us the tools we need to start manufacturing these semiconductor chips here,’ Kelly said. ‘What it means for our country: that we don’t have to go across the Pacific Ocean to get something so critical that’s in everything that has an on/off switch.’

Caulfield pointed out it took around three decades to create the imbalance in semiconductor production around the world.

‘This didn’t happen overnight for our industry,’ Caulfield said. ‘It’s going to take decades to correct that issue. So this is a good start and the sooner we get going on this as an industry, the better we’ll be.’

The shortage has also eased, but technology is enhancing, and the demand for chips is expected to grow.

‘If you’ve ever sat in an electric car or you have a big display panel, that all requires a lot of chips,’ Neuffer said. ‘Where we have 5G now, we’re going to be moving to 6G. These are all products that require a ton of chips. The combination of existing and emerging markets for chip technology suggests demands for semiconductors are going to be very, very high for the years and decades ahead.’

Lawmakers and experts have agreed it’s not just semiconductor manufacturing that needs to step up. 

‘Our products, our cars, our dishwashers, our dryers, our refrigerators are still not produced in the United States,’ Khanna said. ‘I don’t want a situation where the advanced chips are made in America, but everything consumers buy is made in China, so we need to do a lot more.’

Caulfield agreed and said U.S. manufacturing for products requiring chips needed to keep up with U.S. semiconductor production. 

‘Probably the biggest issue we still need to contend with is to make sure the demand for all this capacity we want in the U.S. materializes,’ Caulfield said. ‘The last thing we want to do is in industry, create capacity in the U.S. and have it go underutilized.’