U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Tae D. Johnson will be retiring from federal law enforcement duties at the end of the month, after over 30 years of serving the country.

Johnson’s announcement comes less than a week after U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz announced he, too, had decided to retire.

‘After more than 30 years of dedicated service to our nation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Direct and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson will retire from federal law enforcement at the end of the month,’ an ICE spokesperson said. ‘Throughout his career, he has been an integral part of the mission to investigate, apprehend, and remove criminals and immigration violators from the United States and dismantle terrorist and criminal organizations that exploit our borders and lawful immigration system, serving in his current role since January 2021.’

According to the ICE website, Johnson currently oversees the day-to-day operations of agency, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, leading about 20,000 employees consisting of 6,800 criminal investigators in Homeland Security Investigations and 6,000 officers in the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Before leading the day-to-day, Johnson served in multiple roles in ERO, including Deputy Executive Associate Director. In the role, Johnson oversaw and direct the coordination of arresting and removing illegal aliens who posed a threat to communities and jeopardized the integrity of the nation’s immigration laws.

The outgoing director earned a bachelor’s degree from Salisbury University and kicked off his federal career in Salisbury, Maryland in 1992 with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as a co-op student trainee.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas issued a statement regarding Johnson’s retirement, saying he was grateful for his service to ICE, the department and the nation.

‘Mr. Johnson has been an integral member of ICE’s leadership team through multiple administration,’ the secretary said. ‘I have personally benefited from his frank assessments, solid judgment, and his deep expertise drawn from decades of experience. I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Tae for more than 31 years of dedicated service. The Department is grateful for his service and sacrifice, and that of his family who has served alongside him.’

A state school board in Oklahoma voted Monday to approve what would be the first publicly funded religious school in the nation, despite a warning from the state’s attorney general that the decision was unconstitutional.

The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 to approve the application by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma to establish the St. Isodore of Seville Virtual Charter School. The online public charter school would be open to students across the state in kindergarten through grade 12.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond had warned the board that such a decision clearly violated the Oklahoma Constitution.

‘The approval of any publicly funded religious school is contrary to Oklahoma law and not in the best interest of taxpayers,’ Drummond said in a statement shortly after the board’s vote. ‘It’s extremely disappointing that board members violated their oath in order to fund religious schools with our tax dollars. In doing so, these members have exposed themselves and the state to potential legal action that could be costly.’

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma said in the ‘vision and purpose of the organization’ section of its application that: ‘The Catholic school participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out.’

Brett Farley, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, said: ‘We are elated that the board agreed with our argument and application for the nation’s first religious charter school.’

Americans United for Separation of Church and State denounced the board’s approval.

‘It’s hard to think of a clearer violation of the religious freedom of Oklahoma taxpayers and public-school families than the state establishing the nation’s first religious public charter school,’ the group’s president and CEO Rachel Laser said in a statement. ‘This is a sea change for American democracy. Americans United will work with our Oklahoma and national partners to take all possible legal action to fight this decision and defend the separation of church and state that’s promised in both the Oklahoma and U.S. Constitutions.’

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who earlier this year signed a bill that would give parents in the state a tax incentive to send their children to private schools, including religious schools, praised the board’s vote.

‘This is a win for religious liberty and education freedom in our great state, and I am encouraged by these efforts to give parents more options when it comes to their child’s education,’ Stitt said in a statement.

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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign began the week by taking aim at former President Donald Trump over his decision not to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

A video the DeSantis campaign released Monday showed multiple clips from Trump’s days on his reality show, ‘The Apprentice,’ which the former president hosted from 2004 to 2015, and included scenes of him using his signature phrase, ‘You’re fired!’ whenever a contestant was removed from the program.

It compared those clips of him firing multiple contestants, in which it labeled Trump, ‘Reality TV Trump,’ to clips of him repeatedly defending his decision not to fire Fauci, in which he was labeled, ‘Real Life Trump.’

‘Today I walk in, and I hear I’m going to fire him. I’m not firing him. I think he’s a wonderful guy,’ one clip showed Trump saying during a briefing at the White House, referencing Fauci.

‘Should you have fired Fauci?’ another clip showed a member of the media asking, and Trump responding, ‘So, a lot of people ask me that question, and I did it right. Because if you do fire him, you’re going to have a firestorm on the left again.’

One clip showed Trump being asked why he felt ‘unable’ to fire Fauci, and was followed by the former president responding he was ‘not allowed to’ before abruptly cutting to another clip. The clip was too short to provide the full context of Trump’s answer.

‘Every time he goes on television there’s always a bomb. But there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him,’ Trump said in another clip, referencing Fauci who was frequently criticized for the information related to the pandemic he would share on cable news networks that, often times, appeared to conflict with previously shared information.

‘Frankly, you can’t win that one. If I would have done it, I would have taken heat,’ Trump added in the clip.

This isn’t the first time DeSantis has taken aim at Trump over the work Fauci did as part of his administration. Last month, he said while appearing as a podcast guest that Trump ‘destroyed millions of people’s lives’ by turning the country over to Fauci after the pandemic’s onset.

When reached for comment, Trump’s campaign pointed Fox News Digital to a video it posted last week showing that DeSantis hasn’t always been a Fauci critic. The video included clips of DeSantis from early in the pandemic praising Fauci as ‘doing a good job.’

Fauci remained in his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the remainder of the Trump administration, and continued working into the Biden administration before also serving as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President and retiring at the end of 2022.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Addressing a crowd of roughly 1,000 Republican activists in the state that leads off the GOP presidential nominating calendar, former Vice President Mike Pence this past weekend teased a major announcement.

‘Come this Wednesday, I’m announcing in Iowa, Pence said to cheers and applause as he spoke at Sen. Joni Ernst’s Roast and Ride, her annual motorcycle ride and barbeque that benefits veterans.

This year Ernst’s gathering attracted all the declared Republican presidential candidates except former President Trump. Pence’s running mate in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections is the commanding front-runner in the GOP nomination polls as he makes his third straight White House run.

The former vice president, who joined Ernst on her motorcycle ride, was the only one of the 2024 speakers at the senator’s event who’s yet to launch a White House campaign, but that will change on Wednesday when Pence is expected to declare his candidacy at an event just outside of Des Moines, Iowa’s capital city.

Pence will enter the 2024 race polling the mid-single digits, far behind Trump and also significantly trailing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who trails Trump by double-digits but is firmly in second place, ahead of the former vice president and the rest of the field of actual and likely candidates.

‘Should we enter the race later this week I’m very confident that we’ll have the support to be able to carry our message, tell our story, which is not just my years as vice president but also years as governor of a conservative state leading a conservative agenda, record employment, as also being a conservative leader in the Congress of the United States, fighting against the big spenders in my own party,’ Pence emphasized in a Fox News interview this past weekend.

He pledged that ‘we’ll have the resources to tell our story and my hope is, should we enter the race, that by the time people are making decision, we won’t just be well known, we’ll be known well. They’ll know who the Pences are. They’ll know what our values are, our sense of calling, and I’m confident we can do that.’

Pence was Indiana governor when Trump named him his running mate in 2016. For four years, Pence served as the loyal vice president to Trump.

However, everything changed on Jan. 6, 2021, as right-wing extremists — including some chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’ — stormed the U.S. Capitol aiming to upend congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory that was overseen by Pence.

In the more than two years since the end of the Trump administration, the former president and vice president have further drifted apart. Pence has rebuked his former boss, calling him out by name while discussing Trump’s claim that Pence could have overturned the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Pence has described the deadly attack on the Capitol as ‘tragic’ and that ‘it dishonored the millions of people who had supported our cause around the country.’ He has emphasized that he did ‘the right thing’ and performed his ‘duty under the Constitution.’ He has also noted a number of times that he and Trump may never ‘see eye to eye on that day.’

Hardcore Trump loyalists will likely never forgive Pence, whom they view as a traitor for refusing to reject the 2020 election results.

When asked in recent months about Trump’s third White House run, Pence has reiterated that ‘I think that we’ll have better choices in 2024.’

Pence will become the first running mate in eight decades to run against his former boss, since Vice President John Nance Garner unsuccessfully challenged President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 election.

Pence, in his stump speeches, touts the Trump-Pence administration’s policy successes but contrasts himself with the controversial former president in terms of tone and tenor.

‘People around the country want us to see us restore a threshold of civility in our political debate,’ Pence emphasized. ‘You can disagree without being disagreeable. People that know me know I take very strong stands. I’m conservative, but I’m not in a bad mood about it.’

He stressed that ‘should we enter the fray in this campaign in the days ahead, we’re going to bring those principles, but we’re going to bring a commitment to civility that I think the American long to see.’

Pence is not the only veteran of the Trump White House who’s challenging the former president. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration’s first two years, declared her candidacy in February. However, Pence likely faces the trickiest path forward, due in part to his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

‘There are some unique challenges to being Mike Pence having to do with Jan. 6, having to do with the fact that he’s running against his old boss. If you want another Trump-Pence administration, you’ve got another choice, and it’s not Mike Pence,’ longtime Republican consultant Dave Kochel told Fox News.

Pundits had long viewed Pence as a likely 2024 contender, as he spent the past two years crisscrossing the country to campaign and help raise money for Republicans running in the 2022 elections. Those travels took Pence multiple times to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — the first four states to vote in the Republican presidential nominating calendar — as he strengthened relationships in the early voting presidential primary and caucus states that usually precede the launch of a White House campaign.

The former vice president also spent a couple of months late last year and early this year making stops nationwide as part of a book tour for his memoir ‘So Help Me God.’ The autobiography gives an account of his career, including his four years serving under Trump. And behind the scenes he was busy adding to his core team of long-standing advisers and building a team in the key early voting states. And in recent days a pro-Pence super PAC launched.

Pence, who has long been a champion for social conservatives, has been placing much of emphasis on Iowa, where evangelical voters play an outsized role in Republican presidential politics.

He reiterated to Fox News that he has long stood ‘without apology for the sanctity of life and traditional values.’

Pence has made roughly a dozen trips to Iowa the past two years, and his advisers see a path to the nomination that relies on a strong finish in the first caucus state. So, it’s no surprise that the former vice president will launch his campaign in Iowa, and his advisers say he’s prepared to visit all 99 of the state’s counties.

‘He’s got a very familiar message to most Iowa Republicans. It’s a message that would sell pretty well,’ Kochel, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns in Iowa and nationally, said ‘On paper he fits very well with the kind of candidate who has won Iowa in the past.’

However, Kochel, pointing to the potential hurdles ahead for Pence, added ‘it’s not the past. It’s a different time now.’

Republican strategists are growing increasingly concerned over President Biden’s ability to serve the nation after he took a tumble last week at an Air Force event, less than a year after he told voters to ‘watch me’ if they don’t believe he has what it takes to fulfill his duties for another term in office.

Several Republicans have questioned whether the 80-year-old Biden – the oldest person to serve as president of the U.S. – is physically and mentally up to the intense demands of the White House for another four years. However, many of those questioning his abilities had done so well before he fell at the commencement ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado last Thursday.

Last November, while fielding questions from reporters at the White House, Biden dismissed concerns from two-thirds of American voters who said in a poll that he should not seek re-election. ‘What is your message to them and how does that factor into your final decision about whether or not to run for re-election?’ one reporter asked at the time. 

‘It doesn’t’ Biden replied. Asked once more at the time what his message would be to those who oppose his endeavors to seek another term, Biden said, ‘Watch me.’

Some Republicans who have watched, however, tell Fox News Digital that they are not impressed.

‘We are all doing precisely what President Biden told us to do. We’re watching and listening to him, and we’re now more concerned than ever. He dismissed valid concerns about his ability to lead at his age and given he has Vice President Kamala Harris next in line, who can’t get through a written speech without getting lost and embarrassing herself, we all should be deeply concerned,’ said Jason Rantz, a Fox News contributor and radio host.

‘The body and mind deteriorate as we get older. It’s normal. But he won’t admit it and that makes it seem like he’s hiding even more issues,’ Rantz added.

Similarly, Giancarlo Sopo, a Republican media strategist, said Biden’s fall would not have had such an impact on voters if ‘things were running smoothly.’

‘While I am glad that President Biden was not hurt, his physical decline would not be as big of a political liability for him if things were running smoothly,’ Sopo said. ‘However, over 70% of Americans believe our country is on the wrong track and Biden’s job approval ratings are at historic lows. Politicians usually go on charm offensives to improve their numbers, but that is not an option at his disposal. Democrats know this, which is why they are terrified of running against a young energetic leader, like Gov. Ron DeSantis.’

Reflecting on Biden’s November remarks, Fox News contributor and civil rights attorney Leo Terrell said, ‘Biden’s ‘watch me’ moment is haunting him right now within his own party.’

‘The elephant in the room is the fact that Democrats do not want Joe Biden to run in the 2024 election. However, they are stuck with him,’ Terrell said. ‘Everyone knows Joe Biden is not mentally capable of being the leader of the greatest nation on earth. Can you imagine the number of falls outside the presence of the public? It’s not just the falls – Joe Biden cannot put a coherent sentence together. The world is witnessing a man, unfit mentally and physically, who hopes to remain in the White House for another 5 1/2 years.’

‘The biggest nightmare is his replacement, Kamala Harris. She is the most incompetent, unqualified vice president ever. If you can get Democratic leaders inside a silo, they will tell you the truth. Kamala Harris is not qualified to lead this nation. Personally, I wish Joe Biden the best health possible in order to avoid a Kamala Harris presidency.’

Colin Reed, a founding member of South & Hill Strategies who served as campaign manager for former Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown, said Biden’s fall last week ‘reinforces the narrative’ that he is too old to remain in the White House.

‘In this era of digital and social media, video reigns supreme, and the political optics of President Biden’s fall are as brutal as they are long-lasting. It reinforces the narrative that he is simply too old for the job, a belief held by nearly seven in 10 voters and one that cuts across party and ideological lines,’ he said. ‘The incident is poised to jump-start a debate over debates and a broader discussion about a Democratic primary challenge.’

‘Domestic politics aside, we live in a dangerous world and the sight of an unsteady and fragile 80-year-old commander in chief falling on the national stage sends a dangerous message to our geopolitical foes who wish our country harm,’ Reed added.

Kathy Barnette, the national grassroots director and advisor to Vivek Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign, said Biden’s ‘inability to lead our country precedes his latest stumble over a sandbag – a sandbag, mind you, that had been on stage the entire time and countless others saw it and avoided it, until Biden.’

‘Biden’s ‘watch me’ mandate is indicative of just how out of touch his entire administration is to the increasing misery of American citizens,’ added Barnette, a Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania last cycle. ‘He inherited an inflation rate of 1.7%, after being in office for less than one year it jumped to 8% and now hovers around 5%. Biden’s latest stumble is reflective of how he’s handling the country. Just like him, we’re all watching the country stumble, and we fear she may not be able to recover and get back up.’

Despite concern from Republicans over his ability to serve, others, including Democratic strategists who are closely monitoring the 2024 race for the White House, insist ‘too much is being made of the fall’ and that Biden’s accomplishments in office – as opposed to his physical and mental abilities – are of more importance to voters.

Boyd Matheson, the host of ‘Inside Sources’ for KSL News Radio and the former chief of staff to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said it would be ‘a political mistake for Republicans to run a race railing against the president’s age and health rather than running a race on a vision for the future.’

‘Many Democrats are wringing their hands in worry, while many Republicans are licking their chops at President Biden’s fall this week,’ he said. ‘Both are missing the more important issue. Americans have dealt with a president in a wheelchair, one that stumbled and bumped his head often, one whose memory was beginning to fade – just to name a few. This election will be based not on age or frailties that come with it. It will be based on the strength and agility of an American agenda to address the needs of the nation.’

‘Yes, the president will have to prove his mental dexterity in debates and showcase his grasp of the issues in interviews while being able to confidently connect in his interaction with the American people,’ Matheson added. ‘The rigors of the job are real and President Biden has had good and bad moments over the past year and people will take his challenge to, ‘watch me’ seriously. 

‘I think the fall is an embarrassing moment for a president who needs to look down and whose health is clearly fragile. Most voters say he is too old to run again,’ said Mark Penn, a Democratic pollster and Fox News contributor.

‘But more importantly, he negotiated a bipartisan budget deal and had a good jobs report, and those are more important to most Americans,’ added Penn, who served as a chief strategist for the presidential campaigns of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Weighing in on the issue, Fox News contributor and Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov said voters who are paying attention to what Biden is doing are ‘seeing a slew of accomplishments.’

‘I think too much is being made of the fall,’ said Tarlov, who also serves as the head of research for Bustle. ‘If voters are watching Biden and the job he’s doing, they’re seeing a slew of accomplishments – debt ceiling bill and incredible jobs report just this week. Concerns about his age are legitimate and he shouldn’t avoid them, but there is no evidence he can’t govern. The fall was unsightly and concerning, but doesn’t mean he isn’t a hugely effective president.’

In agreement, Joe Trippi, a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project, said Biden’s fall could not overshadow the president’s record.

‘Time and time again Joe Biden’s wisdom and experience have resulted in major bipartisan results for the American people,’ he said. ‘The big result last week was his work to crush the extremists in the House of Representatives and achieve an over 300 vote bipartisan majority budget agreement. His detractors will focus on a stumble caused by a misplaced sandbag instead.’

‘Biden got up, dusted himself off and went back to work. But maybe he was right when he quipped, ‘I was sandbagged!’ Watch what he has achieved and how he gets up, dusts himself off and goes back to work to find common ground for all Americans,’ Trippi added.

Biden announced in an April video message that he and Harris would seek re-election next year to ‘finish the job’ they started.

‘When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America – and we still are. The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer,’ Biden said in the announcement.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

A new nonprofit launching Monday intends to push back against the ‘Abolish ICE’ movement and what it says is the ‘vilification’ of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) mission and its agents in recent years – while pushing for stricter interior immigration enforcement and the end of ‘sanctuary’ cities.

The National Immigration Center for Enforcement – or NICE – intends to advocate for the embattled agency which, after receiving a boost under the Trump administration, has seen its mission narrow significantly under President Biden amid continual attacks from activists who want to scrap the agency altogether. 

The Biden Department of Homeland Security sought to slap a moratorium on all deportations but was blocked by a court order. It has since narrowed ICE’s enforcement scope, ordering agents to focus on public safety threats, recent border crossers and national security threats. That move has also been blocked by a court challenge.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last year declared that his agency had ‘fundamentally changed immigration enforcement in the interior.’

‘For the first time ever, our policy explicitly states that a non-citizen’s unlawful presence in the United States will not, by itself, be a basis for the initiation of an enforcement action,’ he said.

The administration’s moves have coincided with a sharp decrease in deportations. The agency removed 72,177 illegal immigrants in FY 2022 and 59,011 in FY 2021. Those numbers marked a sharp drop from the 185,884 deported in FY 20 (the last full fiscal year of the Trump administration) and 267,258 in FY 2019. That drop also came as the Abolish ICE movement has continued to gain steam among Democrats in Congress.

A recent DHS Office of Inspector General report, meanwhile, found that conditions at the southern border – where many ICE agents have been diverted to deal with the ongoing migrant crisis – are impacting agents’ health and morale. NICE believes their nonprofit will be welcomed by the men and women of the agency who serve on the front lines.

NICE president RJ Hauman, who comes to the role with over a decade in policy and lobbying on immigration in Congress, says interior immigration enforcement is ‘critical to national security and public safety.’

‘Instead, the Biden administration has directed the very agency in charge of enforcing our immigration laws to willfully violate them. This has triggered a historic border crisis while inflicting immeasurable harm on the American people, our communities, and the very fabric of our nation,’ he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

‘When fully operational and acting in accordance with Federal law, ICE makes America safer and more secure. Instead, political forces here in Washington have hijacked ICE and continue to prevent its brave men and women from enforcing our laws and defending our country – precisely what the agency was created to do,’ he said.

Hauman said the goal of the new group ‘is to help return ICE to the enforcement agency it was meant to be.’

The group’s advisory board includes former DHS officials, including former acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow, retired ICE Field Office Director John Fabbricatore, former DHS Office of General Counsel official Mike Howell, and Chris Russo, president of Texans for Strong Borders.

Edlow noted that the ongoing situation at the border itself often receives a great deal of attention in the media and elsewhere, but that issues related to ICE and interior enforcement are often overlooked.

‘While border security is critical, we can no longer afford to ignore larger immigration enforcement issues. The first 48 hours of a border encounter transforms into years of unlawful presence, court delays and unexecuted removal orders,’ he said.

Edlow, also a former ICE attorney, called for a ‘return to the integrity of the laws and push back against the vilification of ICE’s mission and its agents.’

‘NICE will add a narrative to the immigration debate that is largely ignored, and will seek to ensure that the American people can rely on justice, protection and fairness in the immigration system,’ he said.

Fabbricatore, who served at the agency for more than two decades, praised the commitment of those who work at ICE ‘to protect their communities and the entire nation.’

‘While politicians with questionable priorities created hot button issues around the immigration process, those of us in immigration enforcement continued to respond daily to illegal immigration, human smuggling, sex and drug trafficking, gang violence, and many other crimes. With what is happening at the border and gutting of enforcement in the interior of the country, it is time to strengthen our resolve and enforce the law as it is written,’ he said. ‘The citizens of this country deserve it and the lingering excuses for inaction are no longer acceptable.’

The organization comes with a slew of policy priorities related to enforcement, including calling for the removal of those who break immigration law, punishing of repeat offenders, ending ‘catch-and-release policies,’ mandatory E-Verify, and greater cooperation with state and local enforcement.

The group also calls for the end of what it says are illegal ‘sanctuary cities.’ Such jurisdictions forbid or limit law enforcement cooperation with ICE detainers – which are requests that a law enforcement agency notify ICE before releasing an illegal immigrant in their custody. 

Proponents of sanctuary laws argue that they encourage cooperation from otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants, but opponents argue that it leads to the release of illegal immigrant criminals who could otherwise be deported back onto the streets. Sanctuary cities have become a hot political issue in the last year after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants to sanctuary cities across the country – including Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago. 

Illegal immigration, meanwhile, is likely to remain a hot-button issue in the coming months. The Biden administration is still dealing with a border crisis that is now into its third year, and has been highlighting the removal flights it has been conducting since the end of Title 42 last month. Additionally, both border security and interior immigration enforcement are likely to be key issues in the 2024 presidential campaign.

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy made clear he did not intend to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military.

‘I would not reinstate a ban on transgender members,’ Ramaswamy said during in interview on ABC’s ‘This Week’ Sunday.

Ramaswamy’s remarks came in response to questioning about his alleged ‘anti-woke’ bona fides, with host Martha Raddatz noting that he was introduced at a recent event as the ‘godfather of the anti-woke movement.’

The candidate did note that he wanted to be ‘very clear’ that he was ‘very focused’ on transgender ‘ideology’ not being aimed at kids.

Shortly after taking office, President Biden moved to scrap a Trump-era regulation that banned people from openly serving under their self-identified gender. The move to allow transgender individuals to serve openly was finalized in June 2021, and applies to all active-duty, National Guard or Reserve members, and U.S. military service academy cadets.

Ramaswamy is seen as a long-shot candidate by many observers, trailing former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the favorites to win the 2024 GOP nomination. 

According to the latest Fox News polling, Ramaswamy is the preferred candidate of just 3% of Republican primary voters, far behind the 53% who support Trump and 21% who support DeSantis. Ramaswamy also trails former Vice President Mike Pence and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who garnered 6% and 4% support in the Fox News poll, respectively.

But Ramaswamy said he was embracing his status as an ‘outsider,’ something that was once true of Trump before he shocked observers to secure the GOP nomination and White House in 2016.

‘I’m the outsider in this race, I think you get to be an outsider once,’ Ramaswamy told ‘This Week.’ ‘I’m the first millennial ever to run for the GOP nomination for U.S. president, and I’m actually leading us to something. Too long, many other conservative have been running from something.’

Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, a Ramaswamy said the GOP hopefully sees ‘transgenderism’ as a ‘mental health disorder’ and that ‘individuals with mental health disorders should not be categorically barred from serving in the military, but should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.’

‘He believes that more Americans should serve in the military which can provide our citizenry with shared purpose and meaning that we currently lack, which itself is a key driver of the mental health epidemic in America,’ the spokesperson added. ‘Vivek is a strong opponent of trans indoctrination of young Americans.’

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday he would not rule out a potential third-party presidential run in 2024, touting the value of the ‘moderate middle’ over the far left and right extremes, after the debt ceiling package managed to clear both chambers of Congress and avoid a U.S. default. 

‘Fox News Sunday’ host Shannon Bream grilled Manchin on a recent report in The New York Times claiming that the bipartisan group ‘No Labels’ is eyeing a third-party presidential run in 2024, alarming Democrats, and that Manchin sits at ‘the top of the list of potential candidates.’ 

The report said Manchin risks bleeding support for President Biden ‘crucial to his re-election.’

‘Is a third-party run still in the realm of possibility?’ Bream asked Manchin on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ 

‘No Labels has been moving and pushing very hard the centrist middle. Making commonsense decisions,’ Manchin said, sidestepping the question. ‘People that basically expect us to do our job. And not put the political party ahead of the policy in our great country. That’s what we’ve seen happening. And there’s more noise and more extremism coming from the far left and the far right.’ 

‘It’s always what I’ve believed. I believe that basically that’s where you make the decisions,’ he said of the political center. ‘You listen to the left and the right. You make sure that you leave nobody behind. And you listen to the different persuasions that they might have, concerns. But when it comes you’ve got to make common sense.’ 

He went on to argue for a risk management evaluation of the U.S. financial situation, noting the recent collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank. 

‘But is there a risk management team assessing a third-party run for Sen. Joe Manchin with No Labels or any other option?’ Bream interjected. 

‘I think with a risk management team, you better have Plan B. Because if Plan A shows that we’re going to the far reaches of both sides, the far left and the far right, and the people don’t want to go to the far left and the far right, they want to be governed from the middle, I think there is… you better have that Plan B available and ready to go,’ Manchin said. 

‘And you’re saying it possibly could include Joe Manchin?’ Bream said. 

‘I’m not saying who it’s going to include or exclude. I’m saying you better have Plan B ready,’ Manchin responded. ‘Because that’s what it’s going to take for this country to remain the superpower of the world, to give confidence to people around the world that the reserve currency should be the U.S. dollar, that support for freedom and democracy should be the U.S. government and the U.S. Defense Department. We can do that. You can’t do it from the extremes.’ 

‘OK, ruling it out? Not ruling it out?’ Bream pushed once more. 

‘Not ruling anything in, not ruling anything out,’ Manchin concluded. 

Earlier in his appearance, Manchin – who thanked Senate Republicans and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for securing that the Mountain Valley Gas pipeline was funded in the debt ceiling package – credited centrists in both the GOP and Democrat parties for avoiding a default on U.S. debt.  

‘Both the extreme left and the extreme right voted to default – they voted against it,’ Manchin said. ‘It was the Democrats and Republicans in the middle. So that moderate middle, the centrists, well, we’re going to run this country. We can’t continue to let the extremes try to be the majority voice when it’s going to be the majority voting in the middle and the moderate centrists that will make things happen.’ 

Former FBI Director James Comey said in an interview that aired Sunday that he predicts prosecutors are facing ‘intense pressure’ to come up with a charging decision with regard to former President Donald Trump before he can possibly become the GOP nominee for president in 2024. 

Comey, who was abruptly fired by Trump in 2017 while leading the FBI investigation into whether Trump and his allies colluded with Russian in the 2016 election, recently sat down with President Joe Biden’s former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, for an interview that aired Sunday on Psaki’s MSNBC show.

Of the legal battles Trump is facing, which include an indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and an ongoing probe by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Comey said the federal case involving the classified documents found during the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022 seems to be the strongest. Last week, it was reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a recording of Trump from July 2021 during a meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in which Trump discussed the documents taken from the White House.

‘Tapes are amazing for a prosecutor because you can’t cross-examine a tape, you can’t call a tape a liar, a deep-state operative,’ Comey told Psaki. ‘A tape is you saying what you think, which is why they’re so valuable in an organized-crime case, and they’ll be so valuable and important to Jack Smith in this documents case. I don’t know where this case will end up, but it makes it immeasurably stronger to have the subject of the investigation saying in a way that can’t be impeached – no pun intended with Trump – can’t be criticized and undermined because it’s coming from his own mouth. That’s why I once said, ‘Lordy, I hope there are tapes.’ And Lordy, it’s a good thing there are tapes.’

Comey added that it would be ‘concerning to a prosecutor leading an investigation and to the FBI’ that these probes are playing out so close to a presidential election.

‘Despite history, we desperately don’t want to be involved in election-time investigations and near them, so they are feeling something else that won’t be talked about publicly. I just know the system; they’re feeling intense pressure to move, to move, to move, so they’re not in the position of making a charging decision next year when Donald Trump may be the nominee,’ Comey said. ‘So, I think they are likely working very, very hard in trying to get ahead of even the normal pace of what an investigation might be.’ 

‘I mean it’s this crazy world that Donald Trump has dragged this country into, but he could be wearing an ankle bracelet while accepting the nomination at the Republican Convention,’ he continued. ‘And it seems even crazy to be coming out of my mouth, but that’s the situation we face. It looks like the Republicans will likely nominate someone who is under serious criminal investigation, he’s indicted, and who knows where that’s going to lead us.’

EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration is getting slammed as handing a ‘major coup’ to Chinese President Xi Jinping after two senior officials made a trip to China on Sunday in an attempt to ease tensions between the two countries.

Critics immediately pointed out that Sunday, June 4, marks the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, when the Chinese military slaughtered hundreds, possibly thousands, of pro-democracy protesters.

Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Sarah Beran, the National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan affairs, arrived in Beijing to discuss ‘key issues in the bilateral relationship,’ the State Department said in a press release.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., called attention to the timing of the trip on Twitter.

‘Is the Biden Administration sending senior officials to China as we remember the anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square?’ he wrote.

Issa, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital that the trip only benefits China and Chinese President Xi Jinping while weakening the United States’ position on the world stage.

‘This is no ordinary foreign policy stumble,’ he said. ‘It’s a concession demanded by the Chinese and granted by a White House and State Department willing to bend. It’s a major coup for Xi, and America’s position in the world just got weaker – where it matters most.’ 

‘There’s no way the Congress can just look away and let this go,’ he added.

Nearly two hours after the first press release, the State Department issued another one honoring the Tiananmen Square anniversary.

‘Tomorrow, we observe the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre,’ the release said. ‘On June 4th, 1989, the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) sent tanks into Tiananmen Square to brutally repress peaceful Chinese pro-democracy protesters and bystanders alike.’ 

‘The victims’ bravery will not be forgotten and continues to inspire advocates for these principles around the world,’ it added. ‘The United States will continue advocating for people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms in China and around the world.’

Issa’s office said he plans to send a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding answers about the China trip.

A State Department spokesperson told Reuters that Kritenbrink’s official meetings will begin Monday, and that he would raise the issue of human rights in the communist country.

Michael Sobolik, a fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, responded to the press release about the China visit by asking, ‘Is this a joke?’

Isaac Stone Fish, the CEO of Strategic Risks, which ‘quantifies corporate exposure to China,’ and a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council, offered a ‘pro-tip’ on Twitter, saying, ‘Don’t be a senior government official visiting China on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square.’

Fox News Digital asked the State Department and the White House whether the Tiananmen Square massacre would be discussed, but neither responded.

Dialogue between the Biden administration and Beijing has been nearly dormant in recent months as attempts at interactions have been shuttered since the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed the country earlier this year.

A previously scheduled trip by Blinken, where he was expected to meet with Xi, was canceled because of the China spy balloon incident.

The U.S.-China relationship has been further strained over China’s military activity in the South China Sea and the United States’ support of Taiwan.

Additionally, Beijing has taken umbrage after the U.S. warned China against arming Russia to help its war in Ukraine. 

CIA Director William Burns secretly visited China last month in an effort to restore relations, meeting with his Chinese counterparts to emphasize ‘the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in intelligence channels,’ according to the Financial Times, which first reported the visit. 

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.