Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ future remains unclear months after her election loss to now-President Donald Trump.

As she grapples with navigating next steps, Harris has spoken with family and close friends, including the one other person who has been in her exact position: Hillary Clinton, New York Magazine reported. The two have reportedly spoken several times since Harris’ defeat.

Some have speculated that she will stage a gubernatorial run next year in California, as her close friend, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, is limited on terms and can’t run again. Others think she still has her eye on the Oval Office and will launch another bid for the presidency. Shortly after the election, Harris reportedly told advisors not to make any plans that would preclude her from seeking the presidency in 2028, according to New York Magazine.

The former vice president has not spoken directly about her future, but she has hinted that she’s not done with politics. Last week, just days before the end of her time as then-President Joe Biden’s VP, Harris addressed a room of staff as she participated in the decades-long tradition of signing her desk drawer. During her brief remarks, Harris said she would not ‘go quietly into the night,’ saying that ‘our work is not done.’

The comments she made to staff echoed a message from her concession speech in which she told supporters, ‘While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.’

After her 2020 bid for the presidency failed, Harris was given a clear path forward as Biden’s pick to be his running mate. While Biden seemed to imply that he would be a one-term president, he announced his re-election campaign in April 2023.

However, after a disastrous debate that highlighted ongoing issues, Biden made the historic decision to drop out of the race in July 2024. This was just one week after a gunman nearly killed Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania.

Shortly after dropping out of the race, Biden endorsed his VP, moving her to the top of the ticket. Some believed this move could have hurt her prospects, as voters saw her nomination as a coronation, in stark contrast to the ‘save democracy’ message channeled by the Democrats.

Harris and Clinton have more than election losses in common. Both were backed by a long list of Hollywood A-listers, whose endorsements ultimately did not help. Not even Taylor Swift could make the ‘Harris Era’ happen.

‘The outcome of this election is not what we hoped, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,’ Harris said in her concession speech. ‘But hear when I say … the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.’

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would penalize doctors who do not provide life-saving care to infants born alive after an abortion attempt.

All but one Democrat voted against the bill, which passed 217 to 204, with all Republicans in favor. One Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, voted ‘present.’

The bill directs health care practitioners to operate with the ‘same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence’ for a baby born with a heartbeat after an abortion as during a normal birth. Doctors who run afoul of the rule would be fined or given up to five years behind bars.

House GOP leaders lauded the bill, with Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., telling Fox News Digital, ‘Requiring medical care for babies born alive after a failed abortion isn’t controversial, it’s common sense.’

‘The fact that Democrats would rather support infanticide than vote in favor of this bill shows how extreme and out-of-touch their party has become,’ Emmer said.

Democrats have argued that the bill is redundant, given existing laws against infanticide and murder, and could imperil the lives of women seeking late-term abortions due to medical emergencies while unfairly penalizing doctors.

‘No one goes through pregnancy and all that comes with it…and then after eight or nine months of that is like ‘nah, I don’t want to do this,’’ Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., said during debate on the bill, adding that late-term operations made up about 1% of abortions. ‘It is because of a serious fetal abnormality or the health of the mother.’

She said the bill was ‘not based on science or reality.’

Several Democrats who spoke out against the bill themselves went through emergency abortion procedures with a nonviable pregnancy.

Among them was Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., who said the bill would allow women to ‘die on the operating table because doctors are scared of going to jail.’

Republicans, meanwhile, argued the bill would stop babies from being ‘left to die in a closet, alone and discarded like medical waste,’ as Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., said during debate.

‘These precious babies, fellow Americans, deserve protection because they are alive,’ said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

The vote comes after Democrats tanked the bill in the Senate earlier this week. The legislation failed to pass a procedural hurdle that needed 60 votes to allow for debate on its final passage.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. 

Trump had promised to release the previously-classified documents during his 2024 campaign following decades of speculation and conspiracy theories about the killings. 

‘Everything will be revealed,’ Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.

During his first administration, Trump had promised to release all the files related to John F. Kennedy, but an undisclosed amount of material remains under wraps more than six decades after Kennedy was killed Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. The primary suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed two days later by Jack Ruby. 

After appeals from the CIA and FBI, Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records. Trump said at the time the potential harm to U.S. national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs is ‘of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure.’

‘I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue,’ Trump’s order states. ‘And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest.’

U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., praised the declassification of the JFK files. 

‘Our government, led by corrupt bureaucrats, has hidden this information from the American people for far too long. Americans deserve to know the truth, whether it makes the government look good or not,’ she said in a statement. ‘As part of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I want to continue to deliver transparency to Americans. The truth belongs to the people, and we won’t rest until they have it.’

Trump’s promise to also release outstanding documents related to King and former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy leaves questions as to how the president-elect will speed up the releases.

Robert F. Kennedy, then a Senator from New York, was on the presidential campaign trail as a Democratic candidate when he was fatally shot on June 5, 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian Christian, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after securing his party’s nomination.  

Under the Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, the remaining files pertaining to King are not due for release until 2027. King was fatally shot by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

The deaths of King and John F. Kennedy have spawned conspiracy theories over the years, many of which allege government involvement or cover-ups.  

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he supports the delay of all of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees who do not have unanimous support in the Senate.

Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., filed cloture on John Ratcliffe’s nomination for CIA director, Kristi Noem’s nomination for Homeland Security secretary and Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary on Tuesday. But a last-minute objection from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., held up a vote on Ratcliffe, triggering hours of debate that could delay confirmation votes on Trump’s national security nominees late into the week and possibly into the weekend.

‘I don’t think it’s too much to ask to make sure that we have a full, real debate that lasts two days on the Senate floor,’ Murphy said on the Senate floor, adding that Democrats have ‘serious concerns’ about Trump’s CIA pick. 

The Senate voted to confirm Ratcliffe, 74-25, on Thursday afternoon. 

Asked on Thursday if he supports slowing the confirmation process for Trump’s nominees down, Schumer indicated that he does.

‘Look, there are some nominees like [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio that got broad support, but a detailed discussion – I have some doubts about Mr. Ratcliffe, particularly when I asked him how he’d react if Tulsi Gabbard were put in charge of him in the DNI,’ Schumer said, referring to Trump’s pick to lead the Office of National Intelligence. 

‘For a day or two, or a few hours to examine these nominees who have such power thoroughly, absolutely,’ he added. ‘Our idea is to let the whole truth come out if they try to rush them through. We don’t want that to happen.’ 

Thune on Tuesday expressed frustration with Democrats over their delay tactics.

‘Do we want a vote on these folks on Tuesday or vote on them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that’s what we’re going to do. This can be easy or this can be hard,’ Thune said. ‘This is about America’s national security interests, and we’re stalling, so that’s not going to happen.’

Ratcliffe was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee by a bipartisan vote of 14-3. Because of that, Thune said the vote to confirm him ‘shouldn’t be hard.’

‘Democrats and Republicans, in a very big bipartisan fashion, agree that he is very qualified for this job,’ Thune said, adding that he isn’t sure what stalling accomplishes.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.

A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, describing the action as ‘blatantly unconstitutional.’

The decision by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee, comes in response to four U.S. states — Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington — who sued to block Trump’s executive order, which was signed by Trump shortly after being sworn in as president. 

Coughenour said Thursday that the executive order banning birthright citizenship ‘boggles the mind,’ and told the court he could not remember in his more than 40 years on the bench seeing a case so ‘blatantly unconstitutional.’

The 14-day restraining order granted by Coughenour will apply to the entire U.S. 

The ruling is a blow to the new Trump administration, and comes as 22 U.S. states and immigrants rights groups have sued the Trump administration over the ban on birthright citizenship, arguing in court filings that the executive order is both unconstitutional and ‘unprecedented.’

Trump’s ban is slated to come into force Feb. 19, and would impact the hundreds of thousands of children born in the U.S. annually.

Trump’s order seeks to clarify the 14th Amendment, which states: ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.’

It clarifies that those born to illegal immigrant parents, or those who were here legally but on temporary nonimmigrant visas, are not citizens by birthright.

The U.S. is one of roughly 30 countries where birthright citizenship is applied. 

States who have challenged the law have argued that the 14th Amendment does in fact guarantee citizenship to persons born on U.S. soil and naturalized in the U.S. 

 This is a breaking news story, more updates to come.

John Ratcliffe was confirmed to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Thursday, making him the second of President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks to secure their position. 

By a vote of 74-25, Ratcliffe was confirmed. 

The Senate’s full approval of Ratcliffe came after a 14-3 vote by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday evening, which advanced Ratcliffe’s nomination to the Senate floor Thursday. 

Ratcliffe previously served as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) from May 2020 until January 2021, during the president’s first term in office. At the time, Ratcliffe faced scrutiny over whether he was adequately qualified for the role and whether his loyalty to Trump might cloud his judgment. Ratcliffe’s eventual nomination was approved along party lines.   

Prior to Ratcliffe’s role as DNI, he was a member of the House of Representatives since 2015, serving Texas’s 4th Congressional District. During Ratcliffe’s tenure in Congress, he served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2019 until his move to DNI the following year.

Ratcliffe’s confirmation this time around has garnered support from some Democrats, including from the top Democrat on the Senate’s intel committee, Rep. Mark Warner of Virginia, who voted in favor of Ratcliffe’s confirmation.

During Ratcliffe’s first confirmation hearing last week, when lawmakers probed him over how he would handle the role as CIA director if confirmed, Ratcliffe said he would eliminate politicization and ‘wokeness’ in the agency’s workforce. Ratcliffe added that he plans on focusing on the agency’s approach to technology, saying that he thinks it has struggled to keep pace with the tech evolution occurring in the private sector.

Ratcliffe will also take a hawkish stance towards China, according to people close to Ratcliffe, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Ratcliffe’s confirmation makes him the second of Trump’s nominees to garner congressional approval, after Marco Rubio. The Republican-controlled Senate said it plans to work overtime to get the rest of Trump’s nominees approved quickly, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisting in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday evening, that they would work ‘nights, weekends, recesses’ until the process is complete.

President Donald Trump is expected to pardon pro-life activists convicted under the FACE Act during President Joe Biden’s administration in the coming days.

The pardons, first reported by The Daily Wire, would apply to activists convicted of protesting near abortion clinics during various demonstrations. The details and scope of the pardons have yet to be revealed.

Thomas Ciesielka, a spokesman for the pro-life law firm the Thomas Moore Society, confirmed plans for the pardon to Fox News Digital.

News of the plan comes just one day before the March for Life, an annual pro-life march that takes place in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., had called on Trump to pardon activists convicted under the FACE Act since the president was sworn into office.

‘No administration in history has targeted Christians like the Biden Admin. We saw one persecution after another, from shutting down churches during COVID to raiding pro-lifers homes at the crack of dawn. EVERY pro-life prisoner Biden wrongly imprisoned should be pardoned,’ Hawley wrote on X.

Hawley said he spoke with Trump about a potential pardon plan on Thursday morning, saying they had a ‘great conversation.’

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has also introduced legislation that would dismantle the FACE Act. Many lawmakers have argued that Democratic administrations have weaponized it against pro-life groups and Christians.

‘97% of FACE Act prosecutions between the years of 1994-2024 were initiated against pro-life Americans; it is laughable to argue that the law hasn’t been weaponized. Let’s put H.R. 589 on the President’s desk and end this once and for all,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said in a statement reacting to the pardon news.

Trump also issued a blanket pardon for nearly all January 6 prisoners shortly after he took the oath of office.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said on Thursday she can’t support Pete Hegseth to be President Donald Trump’s secretary of Defense. 

‘Given the global security environment we’re operating in, it is critical that we confirm a Secretary of Defense, however, I regret that I am unable to support Mr. Hegseth,’ she concluded in a lengthy statement posted to X. 

In her reasoning, Murkowski cited infidelity, ‘allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking’ and Hegseth’s previous comments on women serving in the military. 

The behaviors that he has admitted to alone, she said, show ‘a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces.’

While Hegseth has admitted to past infidelity, he has denied claims of excessive drinking and sexual assault. 

The Alaska Republican noted that she met with Hegseth ‘and carefully reviewed his writings, various reports, and other pertinent materials.’ 

Further, Murkowski said she ‘closely followed his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee and gathered substantial feedback from organizations, veterans, and Alaskans.’

However, ‘After thorough evaluation, I must conclude that I cannot in good conscience support his nomination for Secretary of Defense,’ she said. 

Other GOP senators who have yet to take a public position on Hegseth include Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Collins told reporters on Thursday, ‘I’ll be releasing a statement shortly.’ 

Hegseth will need a simple majority of the Senate to vote in his favor in order to be confirmed. With the Republicans’ 53-seat majority, he can only afford to lose a handful of the conference. If there is a tie, newly sworn in Vice President JD Vance will be needed to cast the tie-breaking vote. 

The move to oppose Hegseth’s confirmation was not unexpected from Murkowski, who has earned a reputation for occasionally bucking her party. 

Fox News was recently told it was possible Hegseth’s confirmation would need Vance’s tie-breaking vote.In particular, Fox News was told to watch McConnell, Collins and Murkowski on the pivotal confirmation vote. 

If McConnell and Collins join Murkowski in voting nay, Vance will need to come to the Capitol to break the tie and confirm Hegseth as Defense Secretary.

 No Vice President had ever broken a tie to confirm a cabinet Secretary until former Vice President Pence did so to confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary on February 7, 2017. Pence also broke ties to confirm former Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) as ambassador for religious freedom in 2018. He also broke a tie to confirm current Budget Director nominee Russ Vought as Deputy Budget Director in 2018.

Over the last few days, Hegseth’s nomination has faced new pressure with the revelation of an affidavit from his former sister-in-law that alleged he made his ex-wife Samantha Hegseth fear for her safety. Additionally, a source familiar told Fox News that Samantha had provided a new statement to the FBI, which alleged ‘Pete Hegseth has had and continues to have a problem with alcohol abuse.’

Hegseth maintained his denial of any allegations of alcohol, physical or sexual abuse. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended Elon Musk after media outlets described a gesture that the Tesla CEO made at President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally on Monday as a Nazi salute.

Netanyahu took to X on Thursday to post that Musk is ‘being falsely smeared.’

‘Elon is a great friend of Israel,’ the prime minister said. ‘He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.’ 

Netanyahu went on to thank Musk for his support.

Musk made the gesture in question while speaking to a crowd of MAGA faithful at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

‘This is what victory feels like! And this was no ordinary victory, this was a fork in the road for human civilization… I just want to say thank you for making it happen, thank you. From my heart to yours,’ an ebullient Musk said as he placed his hand over his own heart and reached out to the crowd.

PBS News Hour fired out a post on X that said the Tesla CEO ‘gave what appeared to be a fascist salute,’ while the Jerusalem post wrote, ‘US billionaire Elon Musk appeared to make a Heil Hitler salute at the Washington DC Trump parade on Monday, following Trump’s inauguration.’

CNN host Erin Burnett played the clip of the gesture and called it an ‘odd salute.’

Musk addressed the controversy Wednesday on X, which he owns, writing, ‘The radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi.’

On Thursday, Musk poked fun at the reports in another post on X.

‘Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming,’ Musk wrote, adding a crying laughing emoji.

The Anti-Defamation League also defended Musk in a statement saying that the tech billionaire had made an ‘awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.’

‘In this moment, all sides should give each one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt and take a breath,’ the statement said. 

Fox News Digital’s David Spector contributed to this report.