– Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance didn’t let a power outage derail his preparations for Tuesday’s debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic Party’s running mate.

A source familiar with the senator’s debate prep tells Fox News Digital that over the last month, former President Trump’s running mate took part in a series of murder board sessions with his team.

For those not familiar with the term, a murder board is a group of people who ask tough questions and have candid discussions to help someone prepare for a difficult examination or test, or in Vance’s case, a vice presidential debate.

According to the source, Vance conducted a mock debate over the past week, with Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the House majority whip, playing the role of Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. Former Trump administration Treasury Department assistant secretary Monica Crowley played the role of one of the moderators from CBS News, which is hosting the debate in New York City.

Halfway through the mock debate, the power went out, as a strong storm slammed through the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio, where Vance lives and where the prep session was held. But according to the source, who shared the details first with Fox News, Vance and the team continued on, using lanterns for lighting and cellphones for timers.

Emmer, who steered the House Republicans’ campaign committee in the 2020 and 2022 cycles, said last week in a Fox News Digital interview that ‘it’s an honor to be asked to play a very small part in helping JD and President Trump expose the failures of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.’

Emmer and Walz overlapped for four years in the House before Walz won election in 2018 as Minnesota’s governor. ‘I do know him probably as well or better than most on the Republican side,’ he said.

And Emmer, taking a shot at his fellow Minnesotan, argued ‘the hardest part of playing Walz… is trying to tell lies with a straight face, because that’s what he does. He’s good at the debate game, but there isn’t substance there. There’s a lot of air.’

Former President Trump, asked Monday if he’s given his running mate any advice, told reporters, ‘No, he doesn’t need it.’

But he added that he and Vance have ‘been speaking a little bit back and forth’ and that he thought the senator was in ‘good shape.’

Part of the Trump campaign’s strategy ahead of the debate is to raise expectations for Walz.

‘Walz is very good in debates. I want to repeat that. Tim Walz is very good in debates. Really good. He’s been a politician for nearly 20 years. He’ll be very well prepared for tomorrow night,’ Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters on Monday.

Vance, his family, and top aides and advisers arrived in New York City on the eve of the debate.

Fox News confirmed that Vance will speak to a conference of major Republican donors Monday evening in Manhattan.

According to a source familiar with the GOP vice presidential nominee’s plans, Vance will address the American Opportunity Alliance behind closed doors. That’s a network of major GOP contributors that includes billionaire investors/mega donors such as Paul Singer, Ken Griffin and Warren Stephens. The development was first reported by the New York Times.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for records related to Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz’s alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Comer, R-Ky., who announced last month that his committee launched an investigation into those alleged ‘longstanding’ ties, is seeking records including intelligence reports, documents, and communications from Homeland Security. 

Fox News Digital reviewed the subpoena, directed to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 

The subpoena comes after a whistleblower notified the committee of the existence of a non-classified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees, as well as additional intelligence reports, that allegedly contain information regarding Walz’s alleged connections to the CCP. 

‘The committee has recently received whistleblower disclosures informing the Committee of serious concern among Department of Homeland Security personnel regarding a longstanding connection between the CCP and Minnesota Governor Timothy James Walz,’ Comer wrote in the subpoena cover letter to Mayorkas. 

The non-classified Microsoft Teams group chat is titled ‘NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync,’ and allegedly contains information relevant to Comer’s probe. 

House Oversight Committee officials told Fox News Digital that information regarding Walz and China have been memorialized in both classified and unclassified documents under the control of DHS. 

‘Specifically, through whistleblower disclosures, the Committee has learned of a non-classified, Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees—titled ‘NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync’—that contains information about Governor Walz that is relevant to the Committee’s investigation,’ Comer wrote. ‘The Committee has also learned that further relevant information regarding Governor Walz has been memorialized in both classified and unclassified documents in the control of DHS.’ 

Comer is subpoenaing Mayorkas for all documents and communications in the Microsoft Teams group chat from July 1, 2024, to present, as well as any uploaded or embedded attachments and documents referring to or relating to Walz or his gubernatorial office or staff. 

Comer is also subpoenaing all intelligence information reports and regional intelligence notes from November 2023 to present related to Walz. 

Comer, last month, revealed that Walz has ‘engaged and partnered with’ Chinese entities, making him ‘susceptible’ to the CCP’s strategy of ‘elite capture,’ which seeks to co-opt influential figures in elite political, cultural and academic circles to ‘influence the United States to the benefit of the communist regime and the detriment of Americans.’ 

Comer has pointed to reports that Walz, while working as a teacher in the 1990s, organized a trip to China for Alliance High School students. The costs were reportedly ‘paid by the Chinese government.’ 

Comer is investigating Walz’s 1994-created private company named ‘Educational Travel Adventures, Inc.,’ which coordinated annual student trips to China until 2003 and was led by Walz. 

The company reportedly ‘dissolved four days after he took congressional office in 2007.’ 

Comer said Walz has traveled to China an estimated ’30 times.’ 

‘In its investigation, the Committee has highlighted the importance of U.S. officials being cognizant of CCP political and psychological warfare efforts that seek to threaten national security,’ Comer said last month. 

Comer then pointed to Walz’s time in Congress, noting he served as a fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University — a Chinese institution that characterizes itself as having a ‘long-held devotion to and love for the motherland.’ 

‘At the time he disclosed serving as a Macau fellow, Mr. Walz also had significant credit card debt,’ Comer said last month upon launching the investigation, noting that in 2019, Walz headlined the 27th National Convention for the U.S. China Peoples Friendship Association in Minnesota.

‘Governor Walz spoke alongside the president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which, a year later, the Department of State exposed as ‘a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments,’ including efforts to ‘directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda,’’ Comer said. 

Comer said Walz himself has ‘admitted that he does not ‘fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship.’’ 

‘Despite bipartisan efforts to identify and defeat CCP unrestricted warfare against America, Governor Walz continues problematic engagement with concerning entities and individuals,’ Comer wrote. 

Comer also pointed to a March 2024 meeting Walz had with Consul General Zhao Jian to discuss ‘China-U.S. relations and sub-national cooperation.’

Comer, in his letter to Mayorkas Monday, said his committee’s investigation of the CCP began long before Walz became the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and said it is focused on understanding ‘the extent of the CCP’s infiltration and influence campaign and to identify legislative reforms to combat CCP political warfare targeting prominent Americans for elite capture.’ 

‘In particular, if a state governor and major political party’s nominee for Vice President of the United States has been a witting or unwitting participant in the CCP’s efforts to weaken our nation, this would strongly suggest that there are alarming weaknesses in the federal government’s effort to defend the United States from the CCP’s political warfare that must be urgently addressed,’ Comer wrote. ‘Along those lines, the Committee is currently considering legislative solutions to ameliorate deficiencies it already has identified among government agencies’ strategies to combat CCP political warfare.’ 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance are set to take the stage for a debate on Tuesday, likely the only debate between the vice presidential candidates as the election enters its final stretch.

The vice presidential debate is being hosted by ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and ‘Face the Nation’ moderator Margaret Brennan, taking place on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 9 p.m. ET. CBS News will host the debate, and coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET.

Fox News will also have pre- and post-debate coverage in addition to simulcasting the event across Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox News Digital, Fox News Audio and FOX Nation.

Like the presidential debate before it, the vice presidential debate will take place without an audience and is slated to run 90 minutes, with the candidates receiving two four-minute breaks. 

Closing statements will be two minutes, while a coin toss last week determined that Vance would be the last to make the closing pitch to voters.

Each candidate will have a pen, pad of paper and a bottle of water onstage but will not receive questions in advance. Campaign staff are not allowed to interact with either candidate during breaks, and mics will not be automatically muted, though they can be muted at the determination of the moderators.

Candidates will have two minutes to answer questions and the other candidate will get two minutes to respond. From there, each candidate will be allowed one minute for rebuttals.

One year ago, national security adviser Jake Sullivan praised the Biden administration’s success at keeping the peace in the Middle East, just one week before the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

‘The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades’ Sullivan said during a Sept. 29, 2023, appearance at the Atlantic Festival. 

At the time, Sullivan pointed to a list of positive developments in the Middle East, including a truce in Yemen, a decrease in Iranian attacks on U.S. troops, and a ‘stable’ Iraq.

But just one week later, Iranian-backed Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel, with the militant group firing rockets at the Jewish state while thousands of militants breached the Gaza-Israel barrier and attacked Israeli civilians.

The attack resulted in over 1,100 deaths, over 250 people taken hostage, and sparked the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group.

The Biden administration has attempted to grapple with the conflict ever since, weighing the concerns of some wings of the Democratic Party more sympathetic to Palestinians while continuing to show support for longtime ally Israel.

Meanwhile, Iran has vowed retaliation for multiple Israeli strikes in Lebanon, one of which reportedly killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and spread greater turmoil throughout the region as the administration attempted to call for a three-week cease-fire to head off a potential all-out conflict.

Those tensions with Iran have caused Sullivan to backtrack on some of that optimism from last year, acknowledging fears over escalating tensions in the region while still expressing optimism about a potential resolution to the almost year-old conflict.

‘While the risk of escalation is real, we actually believe there is also a distinct avenue to getting to a cessation of hostilities and a durable solution that makes people on both sides of the border feel secure,’ Sullivan said last week, according to a report in Reuters.

The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Iran’s new president, Massoud Pezeshkian, traveled to the U.S. last week to present a moderate, rational face of the regime to the world.

He claimed in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that Iran did not want to be a source of instability in the Middle East, and only wanted peace. The president spoke of a ‘new era of cooperation’ with the West and made an overture to engage in nuclear talks.

He scored a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of UNGA. 

His new government appears eager to improve its relations with European countries. U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said after meeting with Iran’s foreign minister that he saw an openness from Iran to have meaningful discussions on its nuclear program.

But is it all for show, or is Pezeshkian steering Iran on a path to peace? 

Experts say Iran is sending Pezeshkian out to project a moderate front on the global stage – but behind the scenes he holds little power. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini pulls all the strings. 

‘[Pezeshkian] is a moderate by the standards of Iran… and the fact that the supreme leader let him run and win signals they want a different relationship with the West,’ Ambassador James Jeffrey, who led U.S. diplomacy in countries across the Middle East in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, told Fox News Digital. 

Iran’s last president, Ebrahim Raisi, a member of the conservative popular Front party, died in a helicopter crash on May 19. Pezeshkian, an independent, was elected in July. 

‘Economically, they’re in dire straits, despite the fact we’re not enforcing our sanctions on exporting several millions of barrels of oil a day. He’s been tasked to fix this by calming things with Western states. The problem is he’s not the real leader of Iran.’

Pezeshkian’s visit to the U.S. came as former President Trump revealed he’d been briefed about Iranian plots to kill him after Iran hacked information from his campaign and tried to peddle it to Democrats and the media. 

Earlier in the month it was confirmed that Iran shipped ballistic missiles to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine. 

While Iran has long looked to re-engage on a nuclear deal after Trump pulled out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it’s now closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. The nation is enriching uranium at 60% – close to the 90% threshold it needs for a weapon – and reports suggest renewed activity at two nuclear weapon test sites – Sanjarian and Golab Dareh. 

‘Iran can’t really reverse some of its knowledge that it’s gained by working with advanced centrifuges and higher levels of enrichment,’ said Nicole Grajewski, Iran nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Still, Iran is sure to try to lure the U.S. into lifting sanctions and pursuing diplomatic negotiations. 

‘We went into this logic hook, line and sinker… in the Obama, and to some degree in the Trump administration, until [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo took over in mid-2018. We allow these guys to eat our lunch all over the region – in Yemen, in Lebanon and Iraq and Syria.’

‘A new president will be tempted in Harris or Trump to try to do a deal with the Iranians, because nobody wants them to get a nuclear weapon, and nobody wants to go to war,’ said Jeffrey, who now chairs the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. 

‘Pezeshkian might be able to advance and put a smiley face on the Iranian offer, just like the 2015 offer, but it will be one-sided.’

Vice President Kamala Harris was sharply critical of Trump for pulling out of the Iran deal in 2018. President Biden campaigned on returning to the deal, but failed to do so in office. 

It’s not clear how actively Trump would pursue a deal with Tehran. Just one day apart, Trump said he would threaten to blow Iran ‘to smithereens’ and would be open to negotiating a nuclear deal. 

‘As you know, there have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve – but possibly do – Iran,’ Trump said at a campaign event in North Carolina on Wednesday. 

‘If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens,’ he added. 

But speaking to reporters Thursday in New York City, he said talks are necessary because of the threat of a nuclear Iran. 

‘Sure, I would do that,’ the former president said when asked if he would make a deal with Iran. ‘We have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make a deal.’

‘Trump certainly scares the Iranians more, because he’s unpredictable, but I think one way Trump is predictable is he will not be able to pass up the opportunity to negotiate a deal. It’s what he loves to do. It’s sort of how he brands himself,’ said Jonathan Ruhe, director of Foreign Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). 

‘The same thing always happens – we come in and say, ‘You know, Iran, you better negotiate in good faith this time. We really mean it.’ And then Iran drags out the talks, continues to expand its nuclear program and basically buys time for them to get closer to the bomb.’