Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer dodged questions from Fox News on Monday after being photographed last month with a man at a gala who is now facing federal charges for allegedly running a secret Chinese police station in New York City. 

The prominent New York Democrat was asked twice about the matter outside the Roosevelt House at Hunter College in Manhattan – where Schumer was the honorary speaker at an Equal Rights Amendment event this morning – but he chose not to respond. 

Before and after the event, Schumer appeared to be on his phone. 

‘Hi, Senator, what can you tell us about attending a gala last month and taking photos with a suspected CCP agent?’ Schumer was asked as he walked outside the building. 

VIDEO SHOWS SUSPECT ACCUSED OF OPERATING SECRET CHINESE POLICE STATIONS MINGLING WITH SCHUMER, ADAMS 

‘How well do you know the man accused of running the secret police station in New York City?’ Fox News’s Jennifer Johnson also asked the senator before he got into a vehicle. 

Schumer’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday from Fox News Digital. But a spokesperson later told Fox News Digital: ‘Senator Schumer attends countless events in every corner of New York, including with the Asian American community. He was attending the annual Fukinese Association dinner, as he has in years before, and took photos with those present. He had never met this man before and did not know who he was.’

Video recorded on March 18 appears to show Lu Jianwang standing alongside New York City Mayor Eric Adams at an event where Schumer also spoke. 

2 NEW YORK RESIDENTS ALLEGEDLY RAN SECRET CHINESE POLICE STATION   

Lu was arrested last week and charged with conspiring to act as an agent of China’s government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. 

The event was a fundraiser for the Fukien American Association, a cultural nonprofit linked to the Chinese province. 

When announcing Lu’s arrest last week, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) ‘has repeatedly and flagrantly violated our nation’s sovereignty, including by opening and operating a police station in the middle of New York City.’  

‘Two miles from our office, just across the Brooklyn Bridge, this nondescript office building in the heart of bustling Chinatown in Lower Manhattan has a dark secret. Until several months ago, an entire floor of this building hosted an undeclared police station of the Chinese National Police,’ Peace said. ‘Now, just imagine the NYPD opening an undeclared secret police station in Beijing. It would be unthinkable.’ 

In a statement, Adams’ office told Fox News that the mayor’s attendance at an event is either to show support for a local community or the city, and does not signal any kind of endorsement.  

A spokesperson for Adams also said he does not know Lu.  

Fox News’ Bryan Llenas contributed to this report. 

Riot police have descended on Montana’s capitol after left-wing protestors disrupted proceedings in the state House of Representatives in support of transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat, who was censured by the body last week, multiple reports have said.

According to The Independent, an unknown number of protestors were arrested Monday when police units from the Montana Highway Patrol and the Lewis and Clark County sheriff’s office commenced an operation to break up the group packing the observation gallery of the House chamber.

The group chanted, ‘Let her speak!’ for ‘nearly half an hour,’ according to another report, bringing the session to a halt in support ending the censure against Zephyr.

Zephyr, a bisexual and the first transgender lawmaker in Montana legislature history, drew criticism Tuesday after telling Republicans during a House floor debate on amendments to Senate Bill 99, which would prohibit sex change treatment for minors, that they have ‘blood on (their) hands,’ a notion the lawmaker hopes will be present in their prayers.

‘The only thing I will say, is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,’ Zephyr said referencing the body’s opening prayer.

Zephyr’s comments lead to the House voting in favor of the lawmaker’s censure on Thursday, citing ‘hate-filled testimony.’ 

‘I want to be clear: no amount of silencing tactics will deter me from standing up for the rights of the transgender community,’ Zephyr said following the censure. ‘I will not apologize for speaking with clarity and precision about the harm these bills cause. Montana Republicans say they want an apology, but what they really want is silence as they take away the rights of trans and queer Montanans.’

The bill ultimately passed both the state House and Senate, and was sent to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s desk on Friday. He is expected to sign the bill into law.

Fox News’ Kyle Morris contributed to this report.

Former Republican Ohio Gov. Bob Taft urged state lawmakers on Monday against advancing a measure that would make it harder to amend the state constitution or reviving August special elections to do it — calling the combination ‘especially bad public policy.’

Taft, the scion of one of Ohio’s most famous political families, sent a letter of protest to General Assembly members as a faction of GOP legislators and a coalition of powerful lobbyists scramble to get ahead of an amendment guaranteeing Ohioans’ access to abortion that organizers hope to get on the November ballot.

The Ohio Senate approved a resolution last week that would raise the threshold for citizens to pass future changes to the Ohio Constitution from 50%-plus-one to 60%, but the measure’s fate in the politically fractured Ohio House has not yet been determined.

A plan devised by Republican Senate President Matt Huffman and supported by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose involves setting a special August election to put the 60% question before voters.

The move comes only a few months after lawmakers passed legislation abolishing such elections in most cases. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who signed that bill in January, said on Monday that he would sign a bill to reverse it, should it clear both legislative chambers.

Taft, who served as both governor and Ohio secretary of state, said he knows from running Ohio elections that few voters show up at the polls in the summer.

‘For more than 100 years, amendments to the Ohio Constitution have been decided by a simple majority vote,’ he wrote. ‘The decision to change such a deeply embedded practice should not be made at a low turnout election.’ He said such a question belongs on a general election ballot, when there is maximum turnout.

But Taft said he also opposes raising the threshold for passing future constitutional amendments at all.

Taft noted that two of his own signature initiatives as governor — the Clean Ohio Fund and the Third Frontier Project — would not have been approved under the higher threshold. The former passed with 57.4% of the vote, the latter — after an initial defeat — with 54.1%, he wrote.

‘Both measures have stood the test of time, contributing importantly to the economy and quality of life of our state,’ Taft wrote.

Taft, governor from 1999 to 2007, also warned that Ohio can’t raise its debt limit above $750,000 without a vote of the people. Raising the threshold to 60% could mean that raising the debt limit to fund highway or school construction, environmental protection or job creation programs ‘may become impossible in the years to come,’ he wrote. A similar argument was made in January by a coalition of voting rights, faith, labor and other organizations lined up to fight the measure.

But Taft’s last-minute opposition may do little to deter the 60% measure from moving forward, possibly as soon as this week. Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said the necessary 60 representatives have committed to voting yes, and that list has been shared with Stephens.

Gonidakis let lawmakers know that their votes on the resolution, as well as the bill setting a special August election, will be counted toward their ‘pro-life’ records when scorecards are issued at election time, he said. The Buckeye Firearms Association, which supports raising the threshold to 60% to keep Ohioans from passing future gun control amendments, will use the same approach on its gun rights scorecards, Gonidakis said.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., defended her reintroduction of the Green New Deal on Sunday, admitting the bill was ‘massive,’ but saying the threat of climate change is even greater.

Ocasio-Cortez made the comments during a Sunday interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki. The divisive lawmaker introduced her Green New Deal for the second time last week, arguing that it is time to ‘aggressively’ transform the American workforce.

‘You just reintroduced the Green New Deal,’ Psaki began. ‘When you talk about big, expensive new programs, that’s where you sometimes hit resistance, I think. How do you convince those people, people who believe climate change is real, it is a crisis, but they’re concerned that some of these proposed solutions are too grand?’

‘It is important to acknowledge that the scale and the scope of what we are proposing is massive, but the scale and the scope of the climate crisis is even bigger,’ Ocasio-Cortez responded. ‘If we are not proactive about very aggressively and transformationally addressing our infrastructure, our workforce, our preparation for the climate crisis, then the costs of not addressing it are going to be far greater.’

Ocasio-Cortez reintroduced her trillion-dollar Green New Deal last week, and analysts say it could end up costing the U.S. up to $92.9 trillion if passed.

The Democrats – led by Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. – said their legislation, if enacted, would ‘tackle the climate crisis’ with a decade-long mobilization that creates millions of good-paying, union jobs. They added the bill would strengthen U.S. infrastructure and combat pollution.

Ocasio-Cortez had released her previous version of the Green New Deal in 2019 to widespread criticism. She brushed passed those criticisms in a statement announcing her second version of the bill.

‘When we first introduced the Green New Deal, we were told that our vision for the future was too aspirational,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘Four years later, we see core tenets of the Green New Deal reflected in the Inflation Reduction Act – the largest ever federal investment in fighting climate change, with a focus on creating good, green jobs.’

‘But there is still much, much more to do to make environmental justice the center of U.S. climate policy,’ she continued. ‘Today’s reintroduction marks the beginning of that process – of strengthening and broadening our coalition, and of laying the policy groundwork for the next fight.’

While the Green New Deal is just 14 pages and includes little detail about how it would achieve its lofty greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, the legislation would effectively end fossil fuel extraction and include massive investments in green energy alternatives.

Fox News Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Minn., admitted Sunday she is ‘worried’ American taxpayer money may be flowing to terrorist groups, following a bombshell claim by Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko that he could not guarantee taxpayer dollars are not funding the Taliban.

‘Well, I sincerely hope that our money is not flowing to terrorism,’ Dingell told ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Shannon Bream. ‘I think the Pentagon’s got to do a better job of showing us that that is not happening. But I am worried.’

Dingell’s statements come just a few days after Sopko testified to lawmakers on the House Oversight Committeer regarding the Biden administration’s ‘unprecedented’ lack of cooperation with his watchdog office. 

‘I’ve spent so much of my career trying to help the women in Afghanistan. And what is happening to them now makes me so devastated that we need to ensure that those dollars are going where they’re intended to do in a way that we can get them there,’ Dingell said. ‘And I think we need to ask questions and get answers.’

During his testimony, Sopko warned that the Taliban is likely taking funds meant to assist the people of Afghanistan. The funds include billions of dollars meant for food aid,  health care, agriculture, civil society and human rights. 

‘Unfortunately, as I sit here today, I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban, nor can I assure you that the Taliban are not diverting the money we are sending from the intended recipients, which are the poor Afghan people,’ Sopko said during his opening remarks. 

The inspector general specifically called on lawmakers to end ‘obfuscation and delay’ by the State Department in turning over information that would allow him to conduct full oversight over the more than $8 billion in U.S. funding made available to the Afghan people since President Biden withdrew military forces from the country in 2021. 

A SIGAR report released prior to Sopko’s testimony detailed the ‘serious risks’ posed to U.S.-funded programs in Afghanistan, of which Sopko identified Taliban interference with the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as the top concern for oversight entities. 

According to the report, the Taliban accesses international funds by levying customs charges on imports and taxes and fees on NGOs. The report also details how rampant corruption and interference from the Taliban have gravely undermined the official U.S. policy of continuing to support the Afghan people.

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report. 

The future of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is ‘in her own hands,’ Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Sunday, as Feinstein’s extended absence from the panel due to health issues has some fellow Democrats calling for her resignation.

Durbin, who succeeded Feinstein as chair of the Judiciary Committee, said during an appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that the longtime lawmaker has undergone ‘several weeks of travail’ over a health issue involving shingles, but still wants to return to serve the committee. 

‘She said to Chuck Schumer last week that ‘I want to get on a plane next Monday and be there,’’ Durbin said. ‘I want her to come back, too, but her future is in her own hands and her family’s consultation. I wish her the best and I hope she can return very soon.’

Feinstein has been sidelined since early March after her office announced she was being treated for shingles at a San Francisco hospital.

When asked if he had ‘any regrets’ over keeping Feinstein on the committee despite the senator’s health challenges, Durbin cited Feinstein’s record of service and claimed that it was the right call when he made it.

‘She’s served on this committee for decades and served with distinction,’ Durbin said. ‘She stepped aside from the chairmanship and gave me an opportunity to serve as chairman. She wanted to stay on the committee for other issues that were important to her. It made sense and I think it was the right decision at the time.’

While Durbin said he would not call for Feinstein’s resignation, other Democrats have.

Earlier this month, Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Dean Phillips, D-Minn., both commended Feinstein’s lifetime of public service but said it was time for her to step down if she could no longer fulfill her duties.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a 2024 GOP presidential hopeful, went on the attack mode Sunday against former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

During an interview with Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream, Hutchinson namely criticized DeSantis over his handling of Disney.

‘I think it is important that we make sure that we don’t become heavy-handed in government to punish those that are creating jobs for Americans and creating income and growing private sector. That’s not what Republicanism is about. It’s not what a conservative is about,’ Hutchinson said. 

DeSantis, who is presumed to be running in 2024, though he hasn’t formally declared, defended his approach to Disney at an event in National Harbor, Maryland, Friday. 

‘In reality, Disney was enjoying unprecedented privileges and subsidies. They controlled their own government in central Florida. They were exempt from laws that virtually everybody else has to follow,’ DeSantis said. ‘That’s not free enterprise, but it’s certainly even worse, when a company takes all those privileges that have been bestowed over many, many decades and uses that to wage war on state policies regarding families and children.’ 

In response, Hutchinson said, ‘I don’t believe whether you’re on the left or right of the political spectrum, government should not be telling business what they can and cannot do in terms of speech. And however, you describe it, it appears to me that the governor did not like what Disney was doing in terms of what they were saying in exercising speech, so they’re being punished.’

FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS SUPER PAC MAKES HIRES IN IOWA, NEW HAMPSHIRE AND SOUTH CAROLINA 

The former Arkansas governor, who is polling at barely 1%, said he sided with Trump in agreeing DeSantis is ‘getting it wrong on Disney,’ but added that ‘Disney is getting it wrong on themselves. ‘I don’t agree with how Disney has handled things, but you don’t use the heavy hand of government to punish a business,’ Hutchinson said. ‘I think that’s wrong, and I think’s that’s indicating motivation to go after business because you disagree with their policies or what they’re saying. The left does that. I don’t want the right or conservatives to do that either.’ 

Asked if he would support Trump if the former president received the 2024 Republican nomination, Hutchinson said he discussed the terms with the Republican National Committee. 

‘I expect to be on the debate stage. I don’t prefer party loyalty oaths, but it’s important to have the competition,’ Hutchinson said. ‘I want to participate in the debate, so I’ll see exactly what that pledge is, but I expect to be on the debate stage.’  

‘What America does not want is another repeat of 2020 where we have Joe Biden and Donald Trump running against each other. That’s reflected in the polls, certainly on the Democrat side,’ Hutchinson added. ‘And so we don’t want to repeat that it takes alternatives.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Trump and DeSantis’ office for comment. 

Vice President Kamala Harris mistakenly said last week that a government agency called the ‘Federal Drug Administration’ approved the abortion pill mifepristone 20 years ago.

While the Federal Drug Administration may seem to be the likely breakdown of the acronym for FDA, the correct agency is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Harris sat down for an interview with Noticias Telemundo’s Vanessa Hauc, which aired Friday evening, where the vice president spoke about abortion and the changes taking place in the U.S.

‘Let’s set the scene. Many months ago, the highest court in our land, the United States Supreme Court, took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America – from the women of America – which is the right to make [a] decision about your own body and your own reproductive health,’ Harris said. ‘The government should not be telling that woman what to do with her body. This evokes, in my mind, very fundamental rights, including the right to freedom for each individual about what is in their best interest.’

The vice president then turned her attention to mifepristone, an abortion pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000.

A case challenging the FDA’s approval of the drug, which was brought on by pro-life doctors and medical groups, challenges not the pill directly but whether the FDA acted appropriately when it approved the drug more than 20 years ago.

‘On the mifepristone issue, it’s politicians finding a court, targeting a specific court that they thought would be helpful to them, to take a medication off the market, which was approved 20 years ago by the Federal Drug Administration,’ Harris said.

She then asked anyone to look into their medical cabinet and look at any drug in there that was prescribed by a doctor.

Harris said any of the drugs prescribed, whether to help with pain or extend a person’s quality of life, was FDA approved.

‘Arguably, what they’re doing with mifepristone could happen to any one of those drugs in your medicine cabinet,’ she said.

On Friday, the same day the interview with Harris aired, the Supreme Court ruled that full access to the abortion pill could continue as the lawsuit works its way through the lower federal courts.

The case reached the Supreme Court after Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk issued a ruling that sided with pro-life groups by halting the FDA approval of mifepristone.

Kacsmaryk’s order was partially overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit of Appears, but the appeals court preserved restrictions that made the drug available only to be dispensed up to seven weeks, not 10, and not by mail.

The Justice Department argued that allowing restrictions on the drug to remain in place would create chaos.

Complicating things, a federal judge in Washington ordered the FDA to preserve access to mifepristone under the current rules in response to a separate lawsuit brought by 17 Democrat-led states and the District of Columbia.

Mifepristone is taken with misoprostol in a two-drug regimen that first blocks hormones needed to keep an unborn baby alive and then causes cramps and contractions to expel the dead fetus from the mother’s womb.

The drug is 97% effective in terminating early pregnancy, though approximately 3% of women who take it will ‘require surgical intervention for ongoing pregnancy, heavy bleeding, incomplete expulsion or other reasons such as patient request,’ according to the manufacturer.

Christ Pandolfo, Adam Sabes, Shannon Bream and Bill Mears of Fox News contributed to this report.

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki chatted about the dire state of the planet and ‘Forrest Gump’ over ice cream Sunday on Psaki’s new MSNBC show.

Psaki, who served as Kerry’s spokesperson at the State Department during the Obama administration, introduced the segment on ‘Inside with Jen Psaki’ by saying she caught up with Kerry ‘on the National Mall for a wide-ranging discussion and a little dessert.’

The discussion remained very light, with Kerry recalling his mother’s influence on his environmental activism and him praising younger generations for leading the fight on climate change. Immediately after Kerry declared ‘the planet is at risk,’ Psaki suggested an ice cream break. —

‘It sounds kind of highfalutin, probably, to say that, but the planet is at risk. I mean, it is at risk,’ Kerry said.

‘Now,’ Psaki pivoted, ‘I remember well that you have a bit of a sweet tooth. Do you want to go get some ice cream over there?’

‘That would be hitting the nail on the head,’ Kerry responded.

‘Let’s do it,’ Psaki said.

Some jazz music then played in the segment as Psaki and Kerry strolled over to a mall vendor and looked over the menu. They both quickly settled on the $4.50 Dove bar.

‘What do we have here? A Dove bar,’ Psaki said.

‘Dove bar? Oh, Dove, I love Dove,’ Kerry exclaimed. ‘Dove bar – I’ll have a Dove bar. What do you want?’

‘I’ll have a Dove bar, too,’ Psaki replied.

The two then ate their ice cream as they walked along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

‘So I know you like ‘Forrest Gump’ a little bit,’ Psaki said. ‘Does this remind you – you’ve lived a life a little bit like Forrest Gump.’

‘I’ve had some Forrest Gump moments,’ Kerry said. ‘Every time I’m around here I always think of him screaming to Jenny in the pool over here.’

At the end of the brief segment, Kerry and Psaki did a ‘cheers with Dove bars.’

The Republican National Committee mocked the ‘hard-hitting interview’ on Twitter.

Steve Guest, Sen. Cruz’s, R-Texas, special adviser for communications, recirculated a 2014 photo showing Psaki wearing a Russian hat bearing the communist hammer-and-sickle logo while posing with then-Secretary of State Kerry. 

Camryn Kinsey, who previously worked in the Trump administration and serves as the spokesperson for Maritime Classic Foundation, took a shot at Psaki, saying she couldn’t answer tough questions as White House press secretary and can’t ask tough questions at MSNBC.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a swipe at former President Donald Trump over Dr. Anthony Fauci’s role during the COVID-19 pandemic while delivering a keynote speech at a Republican event.

‘A leader must have the confidence to stand all alone if need be,’ DeSantis said at the Utah GOP Convention on Saturday. ‘And so for us, as I got into office, COVID presented that situation for us because we were in a situation – the third-largest state in the country – one of the highest percentage of elderly, economy based on tourism, which we needed to travel to continue.’

‘So, this situation was an existential threat to our state, but I made the judgment. Leaders take the bull by the horns and make the decisions for themselves. They don’t subcontract out their leadership to health bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci,’ he continued.

Fauci, who retired as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases last year, served as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the Trump administration, helping craft guidelines for Americans during the pandemic.

Trump and Fauci’s relationship became contentious during the pandemic, with the former president suggesting ahead of the 2020 election that he might fire Fauci. Trump called out the health leader and his colleague, Dr. Deborah Birx, for their ‘bad policy decisions’ in 2021.

‘Based on their interviews, I felt it was time to speak up about Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned,’ Trump said in 2021 after Fauci and Birx conducted interviews with CNN for a documentary that year.

‘They had bad policy decisions that would have left our country open to China and others, closed to reopening our economy, and years away from an approved vaccine – putting millions of lives at risk.’

Trump did award Fauci and other members of Operation Warp Speed, which accelerated the development and distribution of the COVID vaccines, with presidential commendations for their work in 2021.

Upon President Joe Biden taking office, Fauci went on to serve as the administration’s chief medical adviser to the president until last year, when he retired.

The governor has previously taken shots at Trump and Fauci for their leadership during the pandemic, saying last month that he would have ‘fired’ Fauci if he had been president.

‘Well, I think there’s a few things,’ DeSantis told journalist Piers Morgan last month when asked about his differences with Trump. ‘The approach to COVID was different. I would have fired somebody like Fauci. I think he got way too big for his britches, and I think he did a lot of damage.’

DeSantis was invited to deliver the keynote speech on Saturday for the Utah Republican Party’s 2023 organizing convention. The Florida governor has not announced an official run for president in 2024, but he is anticipated to throw his hat in the ring, which would tee him up against Trump and a handful of other Republicans for the nomination.

‘Utah is one of the best-governed states in the United States,’ DeSantis told the delegates in his speech. ‘Utah, like Florida, is where freedom works. Maybe Florida is the Utah of the southeast.’

His speech focused on his work in Florida during the pandemic as well as his ongoing fight against Disney as he railed against ‘wokeness.’

‘It’s what I refer to as the ‘woke mind virus.’ We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,’ DeSantis said.

Though DeSantis has yet to announce a presidential run, various polls show he’s trailing Trump, who has already announced a run for next year’s election. Trump took a shot at DeSantis during an appearance on the ‘Full Send’ podcast that aired last week, describing him as a ‘rocket man that’s crashing.’

‘You have a guy from Florida, Ron DeSantis, who I got in with my endorsement. He was at three points. He was nothing, he was not going to win. He was going to lose, and I endorsed him,’ Trump said on the podcast.

‘He was dead politically. I endorsed him and saved him. He was losing by like 25, 30 points very shortly before the election. When I endorsed him, he went like a rocket ship,’ Trump continued. ‘I should call him rocket man, but now he’s rocket man that’s crashing.’