Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson re-introduced a death row appeals bill that would allow death row inmates the opportunity to introduce newly discovered evidence in their appeal. 

H.R. 9868, also called the Effective Death Penalty Act, was initially introduced in 2009 and later in 2020. The bill would amend a provision in the U.S. Code that currently governs circumstances under which a state prisoner can file a habeas corpus petition. 

‘We’ve got innocent people on death row right now with no opportunity to show compelling new evidence of innocence,’ Johnson said in a press statement released on Wednesday. ‘The status quo is inhumane and unconstitutional.’ 

Under current law, a federal court cannot grant a habeas corpus petition unless the petitioner has already exhausted all state court remedies. This requirement was explained by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999, with the Court stating that such a requirement ‘is designed to give the state courts a full and fair opportunity to resolve federal constitutional claims before those claims are presented to federal courts.’ 

The bill would allow a death row inmate to not only introduce newly discovered evidence that ‘demonstrates that the applicant is probably not guilty of the underlying offense,’ but to also raise an ineffective counsel claim on direct appeal. Some states do not currently allow for such a claim on direct appeal. 

The added provision comes as a result of the 2022 Supreme Court case, Shinn v. Ramirez, when the Court held that a habeas corpus court may not conduct an evidentiary hearing or consider evidence beyond the state-court record based on an ineffective counsel claim. 

‘I believe we should completely abolish the death penalty, but while 25 states – half of which are in the South – still have some form of capital punishment on their books and some states like Alabama, Texas and Georgia continue to hold state executions – America needs the Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act to help wrongly convicted people on death row present newly discovered evidence that they are innocent,’ Johnson said in the statement. 

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-ME, Democratic House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., are co-sponsoring the bill. 

The Supreme Court, which kicked off its new term earlier this month, heard oral arguments Wednesday on an appeal from Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip, who has maintained his innocence in connection with a 1997 murder-for-hire of the owner of a motel he previously worked at. Glossip’s initial conviction was reversed by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals after the court found he had received ‘constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel in numerous respects,’ according to the brief filed. 

Glossip now argues before the Supreme Court that he did not receive a fair trial as a result of the prosecution suppressing evidence of a key prosecution witness’s testimony. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in hearing the appeal due to his prior involvement in the appeals process while serving on a lower court. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, remained silent Thursday on whether he still supports eliminating the Electoral College, after the Harris campaign insisted his position did not reflect that of the campaign’s. 

‘I think all of us know, the Electoral College needs to go. We need a national popular vote,’ Walz said Tuesday during a campaign fundraiser at the home of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Walz made similar comments at an earlier fundraiser in Seattle, as well.

While running for president in 2019, Harris said she was ‘open’ to the idea of abolishing the Electoral College. However, according to campaign officials pressed on the issue following Walz’s remarks, eliminating the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote is not an official position of Harris’ current campaign.

Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Walz repeatedly to inquire whether he still supports replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote, particularly after his campaign came out against it. A response was never received, but the Harris-Walz campaign did release a statement to certain news outlets suggesting Walz’s remarks were intended to express support for the Electoral College process.

‘Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket,’ a Harris campaign spokesperson said in a statement sent to select media outlets like CNN and USA Today. ‘He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.’ 

Debate over whether a national popular vote should replace the Electoral College surged in 2016 when Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote, cementing his victory despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. ‘I think it needs to be eliminated,’ Clinton told CNN after her 2016 loss to Trump. ‘I’d like to see us move beyond it, yes.’ Clinton made similar calls earlier in her career as well.

Just last month, Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin suggested there could be deadly consequences for Americans if the Electoral College was not done away with. Raskin said a national popular vote was a far better option than the current ‘convoluted, antique, obsolete system from the 18th century, which these days can get you killed as nearly it did on Jan. 6, 2021.’

The Electoral College has been something that both Republicans and Democrats have tried to do away with in the past, but contemporary calls for its abolition surged among Democrats after Clinton’s loss. The process was established by the nation’s Founding Fathers, seen as a compromise between the election of president by vote in Congress and election by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Electoral College votes, of which 270 are needed for any presidential candidate to win, are allocated based on the Census. The process effectively allows voters in states with lower populations to have a similar impact on the election as those voters living in higher population densities. The Electoral College is also thought to be a protective measure against super thin margins and excessive recounts.

In May 2023, as governor, Walz signed a broad ranging election bill that included a provision to allocate the state’s electors based on who receives the most votes nationwide, even if it doesn’t match the outcome in their state. The measure, known as the ‘National Popular Vote Interstate Compact,’ has been supported by 17 states and the District of Columbia, but will only take effect after all the states that have signed on have a total electoral vote count of 270. Right now, those supporting the reform only have 209, according to CBS News.

Polling from the Pew Research Center released last month showed a majority of Americans favor moving away from the Electoral College. Since 2016, the sentiment has steadily increased, and, according to Pew, more than 6 in 10 Americans today prefer the national popular vote over the Electoral College. 

Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, a nonprofit that advocates in favor of retaining the Electoral College, argued Walz ‘said the quiet part out loud’ when he insisted the Electoral College should be eliminated. 

‘Democrat leaders don’t think they should have to campaign in places like Michigan and North Carolina, they want California and New York to decide every election,’ Snead argued. ‘There is a pattern here. Democrats claim to love democracy, then set their sights on any institution that stands between them and political power: the Supreme Court, the Senate filibuster, and the Electoral College.’

Kamala Harris’ most likely path to the presidency hinges on her winning the swing state of Michigan – but with just weeks left until Election Day, she is facing an unexpected groundswell of opposition from the state’s Jewish population, which has increasingly soured on the Biden administration’s response to the Middle East conflict. 

The drop-off in support among Jewish voters could spell trouble for Harris in Michigan, considered to be a must-win state, and where the state’s Muslim and Arab American populations have been increasingly vocal about their disapproval of the U.S. response to Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Now, discontent now appears to be spreading to the state’s Jewish voters as well, threatening a key bedrock of support in the state.

Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., whose suburban Detroit district is home to a large Jewish American population, told the New York Times this week that she has seen a drop-off in support for Harris among younger Jewish voters who are disenfranchised by the Biden administration’s handling of the Middle East crisis and failure to take stronger action on a policy reset in the region.

Stevens told the Times that the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that Hamas launched on Israel have indeed rallied some Jewish constituents together to combat what they see as rising hatred and antisemitism. But she noted that other, younger voters in the community are turned off by the administration’s unwavering support for Israel in the face of the intensifying conflict – policies enacted under the Biden administration, but which Harris must now confront as the party’s presidential nominee.

Nearly two-thirds of Michigan’s Jewish electorate identifies as Democratic or Democratic-leaning, according to data collected by Brandeis University’s Steinhardt Social Research Institute. In previous elections, this majority has been a fairly reliable bedrock of support for Democratic presidential nominees.

But that support is anything but guaranteed this year. ‘I do know some more independent-type voters, and I have heard from friends with young families, of friends of theirs who have traditionally voted Democrat, that they feel a little split,’ Stevens told the Times.  

This loss of support among Jewish voters in the state could be particularly damaging to Harris’ chances of victory in Michigan and her broader path to the presidency, which hinges on victory in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Still, it’s Michigan where Harris could find herself in particularly hot water. 

As the violence in the Middle East escalates, Harris has struggled to earn the support of Michigan’s Muslim and Arab American populations, including some who have organized local voters to withhold support for the vice president in order to protest the Biden administration’s response to the war. 

The state is home to roughly 300,000 voters of Middle Eastern descent, according to the most recent census data.

In recent months, some groups have urged communities to back Green Party candidate Jill Stein, while others said they are weighing the idea of backing Republican candidate Donald Trump – an almost unthinkable position just four years ago, when the former president’s so-called ‘Muslim ban’ and other policies prompted Muslim voters to support Joe Biden by a strong 64% to 84% majority in 2020, according to exit polls.

Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney won’t endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president despite his outspoken criticisms of former President Trump. 

‘I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States,’ Romney said Tuesday at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, The New York Times reported.  

‘I want to continue to have a voice in the Republican Party following this election. I think there’s a good chance that the Republican Party is going to need to be rebuilt or reoriented,’ he later added during the political forum. 

Romney announced last year that he would not seek re-election as a senator representing the Beehive State, and will leave office in January. The Republican has long criticized Trump, and indicated in June that he was unlikely to support the 45th president’s re-election. 

‘With President Trump, it’s a matter of personal character,’ Romney told CNN at the time. ‘I draw a line and say when someone has been actually found to have been sexually assaulted, that’s something I just won’t cross over in the person I wouldn’t want to have as president of the United States.’ Romney’s comments referred to a federal jury’s decision in New York City last year, which ruled Trump was not liable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll, though the former president was liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

Romney has also slammed Trump for Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of the then-president breached the U.S. Capitol, arguing Trump incited an insurrection due to his ‘injured pride’ over the 2020 election. Romney subsequently was one of seven Republican members of the Senate who voted to impeach Trump over Jan. 6. 

Romney was also the only Republican who voted to impeach Trump in 2020 over abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges. Trump was acquitted in both impeachment cases, and is the only president in history who was impeached twice and acquitted twice. 

Trump has also hit back at Romney, saying in 2020 that the Utah senator ‘can’t stand the fact that he ran one of the worst campaigns in the history of the presidency,’ referring to his 2012 bid for the White House, and calling him a ‘disgrace’ that same year for voting to impeach. 

While Romney has previously broken with the GOP on other key issues, he indicated Tuesday that he will not offer his endorsement to Harris despite other Republicans recently throwing their support behind the vice president. Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney officially endorsed Harris last week and joined her on the campaign trail in Wisconsin, while former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake also endorsed Harris. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Romney’s office for additional comment on the matter, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

New polling shows former President Trump has a 9-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris when it comes to handling the economy, the single most important issue for voters going into the 2024 presidential election.

The new poll from Gallup found that 54% of Americans say Trump is more capable of handling the economy, compared to 45% for Harris. The economy ranked as the most important issue for Republicans and for all Americans, but it didn’t rate in the top five for Democrats.

Veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf says Democrats are simply confident in Harris’ plan to handle the economy.

‘Independents are looking for a reason to vote for a candidate, but they just haven’t found it yet,’ Sheinkopf told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘Americans focus on the issue most important to them in every election. This time it’s their pockets. And they are still feeling pain no matter what candidates say. Time is running out for Harris to prove she can make it better.’

He went on to argue that the economy is no less politicized an issue as immigration or abortion, suggesting polarization has an outsized impact on voter’s opinions on the economy. 

For Republicans, the top issues after the economy are immigration, terrorism and national security, crime and taxes.

For Democrats, the top issue is democracy in the U.S., followed by the type of Supreme Court justices a candidate would pick, abortion, health care and education.

Trump also holds leads over Harris on immigration (54%-45%) and foreign affairs (52%-47%). Harris holds her own leads on the top issues for Democrats, however, including health care (54%-44%), abortion (56%-40%) and climate change (61%-35%).

Climate change ranks as the least important issue for Republicans, with just 5% saying it is a priority. The least important issues for Democrats are the federal budget deficit and trade with other nations, both tied at 16%.

Gallup conducted the poll from Sept. 16-28, surveying 941 registered voters via telephone interviews on cellphones and landlines. The poll advertises a margin of error of 4%.

A New York Times/Siena College survey released on Tuesday found that Harris has a slight lead over Trump in a national poll. The survey found that Harris stands at 49% support among likely voters nationwide, with the former president and GOP nominee at 46%.

According to the poll, Harris stands at 47% and Trump at 44% in a multi-candidate field. Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Chase Oliver each grabbed 1%, with roughly 7% supporting another candidate or undecided.

Harris’ edge – which is within the survey’s sampling error – is up from the New York Times/Siena poll from last month, when the two major party nominees were deadlocked at 47%.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Ashley Papa contributed to this report

In a five-year span, thousands of minors had gender reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers or hormone treatments at a number of children’s hospitals and medical facilities across the country, a medical watchdog is reporting via their new national database.

Do No Harm, a national advocacy group of medical professionals against ‘woke’ hospital agendas, shared the database, called ‘Does My Hospital Transition Kids?’, with Fox News Digital this week. In total, the group conservatively identified 5,747 minor patients who received sex-change surgery, and 13,994 received some sort of gender reassignment treatment between 2019 and 2023.

The data, de-identified to meet HIPAA compliance rules, shows nearly $120 million total in charges for treatments like sex change surgeries and hormone blockers. 

‘This is a very, very important issue, and it’s a very important issue to get right,’ Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm’s chairman, said in a press conference this week. 

‘And I think, as you’ll hear, we’ve really been meticulous in trying to make sure that the data are as clear as possible and are as accurate as possible. And because of that, you’re going to find that, if anything, we’re showing the lower limits of what’s going on in this whole arena,’ he said.

‘And to be certain that we’re not overstating it one iota, we’re probably, and almost certainly, understating the nature of the problem,’ he added.

Researchers analyzed insurance claims from private insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare, excluding data from Kaiser, self-pay and charity care. They also profiled 68 children’s hospitals across the country and identified what they called the ‘Dirty Dozen’ institutions, which is a ‘list of the 12 worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex change treatments for minors,’ according to the new website.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was identified as number one, followed by the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Children’s Minnesota, Seattle Children’s, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital, Rady Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Children’s Hospital Colorado, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

According to the data, there are massive differences state by state, particularly in more liberal areas.

In California, charges exceeded $28 million from over 2,000 minor patients, while Massachusetts saw around $10 million in expenses from 671 minor patients. New York also had one of the highest rates of transgender treatments for young people, with 1,154 minor patients undergoing sex changes between 2019 and 2023.

California, one of the first states to declare itself a ‘sanctuary state’ for transgender procedures, also had the most irreversible surgeries, with 1,359 minors undergoing surgical procedures, followed by Oregon with 357, Washington with 330, Pennsylvania with 316 and Massachusetts with 300.

‘Adults can do as they wish, but we feel very strongly that the science behind using these treatments in children is extraordinarily flawed and suggests that children are being harmed in that sense. One of the important issues is to develop some quantitative notion of what’s really happening in this arena,’ Goldfarb said. ‘And there are lots of myths that are out there, lots of ideas that this is a rare event, lots of ideas that this is localized to just a few places.’

Activist and detransitioner Chloe Cole, who underwent a double mastectomy at 15 years old and put on puberty blockers and testosterone at age 13, said the new database ‘proves the lies from the medical establishment and radical politicians who argue that cases like mine are rare.’

‘The stats in this database represent thousands of kids who are being treated like Guinea pigs for unproven, and sometimes dangerous, medical experiments. I hope politicians and parents alike use this database to see where these treatments are happening and protect their children from being rushed into irreversible, life-altering treatments,’ Cole said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

Some of the listed hospitals’ board members have openly advocated for transgender youth care over the years. CHOP also has a specific Gender and Sexuality Development Program department, which ‘supports children and teens up to age 21 who are gender nonconforming, gender expansive and transgender,’ according to its website.

Madeline Bell, president and chief operating officer of CHOP, affirmed at the time of the department’s launch in 2014 the hospital’s commitment to providing ‘culturally competent and affirming healthcare’ to LGBT patients and their families.

‘This is a tremendous honor that reflects CHOP’s dedication to provide culturally competent and affirming healthcare to our LGBT patients and families,’ Bell stated.

In June 2019, president of the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. David Nichols, emphasized the increasing need for ‘specialized healthcare’ for the growing transgender youth population during the release of the 30th edition of the ‘KIDS COUNT Data Book,’ published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This annual report provides a comprehensive review of child well-being in the U.S.

‘We have a growing transgender youth population that is receiving healthcare, and the pediatric community has had to adapt to that with clinics and programs to care for these kids. This was not something that existed 30 years ago when ‘KIDS COUNT’ first started,’ Nichols said. 

Pressure from conservative politicians and activists has been mounting in recent years against medical providers who conduct transgender surgical procedures on children. Last month, a group of attorneys general across the country demanded that the American Academy of Pediatrics rescind its support for transgender procedures – such as puberty blockers and surgeries – on children. 

The database is just another tool to ‘expose the dangers of experimental pediatric gender medicine and bring the practice to an end,’ Do No Harm stated in a news release. 

For a year now, freeing the hostages taken by Hamas has been a top goal for Israel, but 101 still remain unaccounted for. Hope of a deal to get them homein the foreseeable future is waning quickly. 

Of the 240 people taken hostage from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, 117 have either been freed during temporary truces or rescued during Israel Defense Forces (IDF) missions. Dozens of the 101 who have not been freed are believed to be dead. 

Four Americans – Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Omer Neutra, 22, and Edan Alexander, 21 – remain trapped among them.  

Many hostage families have lost faith in the U.S. and Israeli governments. ‘We don’t believe that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s priority is to bring home the hostages,’ Hannaha Siegel, Keith Siegel’s niece, told CNN on Monday. 

‘The ability to negotiate with [Hamas Leader Yaya] Sinwar to try to get the hostages that remain alive out is extremely unlikely,’ said Mark Schwartz, a retired Army general and former U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

‘There’s no strategic benefit at all for Hamas. The hostages are useful human shields and getting several hundred Palestinians out of prisons, big deal,’ he said, referring to a potential prisoner exchange. ‘That’s not going to extend the life of Hamas leadership that resides inside Gaza.’ 

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have for months implored Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire deal that would see the hostages returned home. 

However, as war spread from Gaza to Lebanon to Tel Aviv – and with Israel considering an aggressive response to Iran’s most recent missile attack – U.S. calls for a cease-fire increasingly rattle around an empty echo chamber. 

‘The mood is poor right now,’ said Michael Makovsky, president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

‘What’s in Sinwar’s interest to make a deal? Hamas’ military capability is pretty much destroyed. I don’t think he thinks he’s ever going to get out alive. I don’t think he necessarily wants to leave Gaza alive anyway.’

Sinwar, Hamas’ shadowy leader and the architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, is believed to be alive and still committed to the destruction of Israel. 

On the eve of the anniversary of the attacks, Netanyahu held his first meeting on the plight of the hostages in a month. According to The Times of Israel, his officials warned him intel on the hostages was quickly drying up. They reportedly told him they believed half of the hostages remained alive and were subject to increasingly squalid conditions. They also warned that Hamas militants were under orders to execute them if they felt the IDF was closing in on their position. 

Hamas executed six hostages in a tunnel in Rafah in August as the IDF drew near. 

‘You want to hold out hope for someone to be rescued, but for a hostage deal, it’s not looking good,’ said Makovsky. 

‘I think Netanyahu should have demonstrated more sympathy towards the hostages early on, and then it became kind of entrenched that half the Israeli electorate didn’t like him anyway, so he didn’t care.

‘In fairness to him, he was the prime minister that cut what turned out to be a terrible deal – which they released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners – for one Israeli hostage in Gaza,’ added Makovsky. ‘One of those prisoners was Sinwar.’

In 2011, Israel agreed to an exchange where it released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners – including Sinwar – for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar was 22 years into four life sentences he received in Israel for orchestrating the killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he believed to be collaborators in 1989. 

Gershon Baskin, who led negotiations on that deal, said he believes Hamas is ready to strike an agreement – and it is not the one U.S. officials have worked on for months. 

‘It would end the war in three weeks with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. They would release and return all the hostages, military, civilian, alive and dead, and there would be an agreed-upon release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has agreed to me in writing that they would transfer the governance in Gaza to a civilian, technocratic, professional government, which they will not be part of.’ 

Critics of such ideas say they fall short of eliminating Hamas, which could rebuild itself and once again threaten Israel.

Baskin does not work on behalf of Israel or Hamas in any official capacity, but he said U.S. officials are aware of the offer and need to pressure Netanyahu and Hamas to work it out between themselves. 

In May, Biden unveiled a three-phase deal that would see Hamas return 18–32 hostages in exchange for 800 Palestinian prisoners and a six-week pause in fighting. 

‘It’s a bad deal, and I know that the American leadership – [CIA Director Bill] Burns and [White House Middle East coordinator Brett] McGurk and others have invested themselves deeply in these negotiations, but they need to simply recognize that it’s not going anywhere,’ Baskin said. ‘It’s a dead deal, and they need to pick up another deal that might actually work.’ 

Efforts to reach the White House and the Israeli government for comment for purposes of this story were unsuccessful at press time. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant canceled a visit with Pentagon officials scheduled for Wednesday, amid a rapid escalation of the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East.

Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a briefing Tuesday that the Pentagon was informed Gallant had postponed his trip to Washington, D.C.

‘Minister Gallant was traveling to the U.S. and the secretary welcomed him to the Pentagon to host him here for a bilateral meeting,’ Singh said. ‘

One reporter asked Singh about reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Gallant not to go to Washington, which Singh said she was aware of, but preferred to stay out of Israeli politics.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, she noted, has a ‘great relationship’ with Gallant, and the two have spoken in the neighborhood of 80 times.

‘The remain in constant communication, whether it be an in-person meeting here, or, you know, meetings, phone calls that need to be done remote,’ Singh explained. ‘That relationship still maintains and can be done…at any time, any place in the world…’

When asked if there were tensions between Austin and Gallant, Singh pushed back.

‘I don’t think there’s tension,’ she said. ‘You can have direct conversations with your friends. You’re not always going to agree on everything, but that doesn’t mean that there’s tensions.’

During an exchange with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Sunday, Gallant promised that Israeli forces are considering all options in terms of its response to Iran’s attacks against Israel — even potentially striking Iranian nuclear sites.

The interview came days after Israel invaded Lebanon as part of a mission to eliminate Hezbollah, on the heels of several successful strikes against the terrorist group. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last weekend — prompting Iran to launch 181 retaliatory missiles in response.

‘At the moment, everything is on the table,’ the Israeli official said. ‘Israel will respond to the unprecedented Iranian attack in the manner of our choosing, and at the time and place of our choosing.’

President Biden told reporters last week that he would not support a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, but said Israel had the right to act ‘proportionately’ to Iran. On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to send $157 million of ‘additional assistance’ to Lebanon, which, she claimed, is ‘facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation.’

Amid the White House’s response to the IDF’s recent strikes, Gallant emphasized that he hopes the United States continues to cooperate with the Israeli military.

‘It is important for us to hold discussions on strategic cooperation between our countries and defense cooperation in light of the threats posed by Iran and its proxies,’ Gallant said. ‘We are powerful when we are aligned, and I want to make sure of it.’

Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis, Trey Yingst, Greg Norman, Stephen Sorace and Michael Lee contributed to this report.