President Biden’s former executive assistant from his time as vice president has agreed to testify before Congress next month about his handling of classified documents, Fox News has confirmed. 

Kathy Chung, who joined Biden’s staff in 2012 and stayed in the role through the end of the Obama administration, will sit down with members of the House Oversight Committee. 

The president’s personal attorneys first discovered documents with classified markings on Nov. 2 of last year at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which Biden previously used as a personal office. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wrote in a letter to Chung on Feb. 4 that lawmakers have ‘obtained evidence showing that you had keycard access to Penn Biden Center.’

‘Recent reporting indicates in January 2017 you—while serving as then-Vice President Biden’s executive assistant—helped pack up the departing Vice President’s office,’ Comer wrote in the letter. 

‘The Committee believes your proximity to Vice President Biden and role as handler of his personal matters gave you access not only to classified material he maintained after leaving the White House, but also to the Biden family’s business schemes.’ 

Since the initial discovery in November, Biden’s attorneys and the FBI have turned up additional classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney, as a special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents in January. 

The discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center came about three months after the FBI raided former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago and seized a tranche of classified documents. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence informed Congress in January that he also found documents bearing classified markings at his home in Carmel, Indiana. 

Chung was recommended to the president in 2012 by his son, Hunter Biden, according to emails obtained from the younger Biden’s abandoned laptop and verified by Fox News Digital.

‘I cannot thank you enough for thinking about me and walking me thru this,’ Chung wrote in an email to Hunter on June 13, 2012, after she was hired. ‘What an incredible opportunity! Thanks, Hunter!!’

Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci, Jessica Chasmar, and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report. 

Tammy Brady began her career as an Atlantic City casino dealer at the age of 18. Now 55, she has stage 2 breast cancer.

‘While I’m not sure we will ever know the exact cause of my illness, I can’t help but wonder if it would have happened if the casinos hadn’t forced me to work in second-hand smoke,’ said Brady, who works at the Borgata casino.

Holly Diebler, a craps dealer at Tropicana, is undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer.

‘I don’t even know how long I’m going to live,’ she said. ‘I love my job; I don’t want to leave it. But all my oncologists have told me this is a life-and-death choice.’

They were among numerous casino employees who testified Thursday before two state Assembly committees in favor of a bill that would prohibit smoking in Atlantic City’s nine casinos.

No vote was taken on the bill, as in an identical hearing on Feb. 13. Gov. Phil Murphy has promised to sign the bill if it passes the Legislature, but thus far, leaders of the Democrat-controlled Assembly and Senate have not committed to allowing the bill to move forward and be voted upon.

The bill would close a loophole in the state’s 2006 indoor smoking law. That measure was written specifically to exempt casinos from bans on smoking indoors. Currently, smoking is permitted on 25% of a casino floor in Atlantic City.

‘I don’t want to take away your right to kill yourself by smoking,’ said Assemblyman Don Guardian, a former mayor of Atlantic City. ‘I do want to take away your right to kill someone else by smoking in a casino.’

The casino industry opposes a smoking ban, saying it would lose customers and revenue if smoking were banned while still being allowed in casinos in nearby states.

But Andrew Klebenow of Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming, said many casinos that have ended smoking are thriving financially, including casinos near Washington, D.C., and Boston, and in Maryland.

Business groups opposed a ban, and Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite Here casino workers union, predicted that prohibiting smoking would cost the industry 10% of its revenue and cause the closure of at least one casino.

‘Down south, there are no other jobs,’ he said. ‘It’s like Hooterville. No one is for cancer. The issue is do we end up closing a casino or not?’

The Casino Association of New Jersey said the true impact of a smoking ban could be closer to 20 to 25% of casino revenue being lost.

‘The Atlantic City casino industry is still very much in a rebuilding and recovery phase from where it was at the start of the pandemic,’ its statement read. ‘Visitation to Atlantic City is near a 20-year low, while gas and toll prices are increasing. Adding a smoking ban could cause a devastating effect to the community and state in this difficult economy.’

Iris Sanchez, a housekeeper at Caesars, said she fears being laid off if smoking is banned and business levels decrease.

‘I’m not opposed to smoking; I’m opposed to losing jobs,’ she said.

But many more casino workers felt differently.

Every time Robin Vitulle clocks in at her job as a dealer at Hard Rock, she has the same thought: ‘Is this the day I inhale the cloud of smoke that gives me cancer? Or is it too late already?’

Dealers say they are forbidden by their employers from waving the smoke away.

‘They say it would embarrass the customer,’ said Janice Green, 62, a craps dealer at the Tropicana. ‘I think, ‘You mean the customer that’s killing me?”

Whether to ban smoking is one of the most controversial issues not only in Atlantic City, but in casinos in other states where workers have expressed concern about secondhand smoke. They are waging similar campaigns in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The issue is among the most divisive in Atlantic City, where even though casino revenue matched its all-time high of $5.2 billion last year, only half that amount was won from in-person gamblers. The other half was won online and must be shared with third parties including tech platforms and sports books.

Just three of the nine casinos — Borgata, Ocean and Resorts — surpassed their pre-pandemic revenue levels in terms of money won from in-person gamblers last year.

Support for a smoking ban is widespread among New Jersey lawmakers, with a bipartisan majority in both chambers.

The bill needs to be voted upon in committees of the Senate and Assembly, then voted on by the full membership of those legislative bodies before going to the governor. Those hearings and votes have not yet been scheduled.

The Biden administration quietly acknowledged in a court filing earlier this week that it won’t issue a final decision on future offshore oil and gas leasing until the end of 2023.

Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys wrote in the briefing filed late Monday evening that the Interior Department (DOI) won’t be able to publish its highly-anticipated five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan for at least another nine months. The filing came in response to an ongoing lawsuit from fossil fuel industry groups led by the American Petroleum Institute (API), challenging the agency’s delay in issuing the plan.

‘Interior is proceeding expeditiously to approve the next Five-Year Program in December 2023, only three months after API’s requested date,’ the filing stated. ‘API has not provided compelling reasons why the Court should accelerate Interior’s timeline.’

Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal government is required to issue plans every five years laying out prospective oil and gas lease sales. The most recent plan, which was implemented in 2017, expired in June.

On July 1, the DOI published a proposal for the five-year plan, which laid out multiple options for leasing between 2023 and 2028. The plan included an option with no lease sales during the time span and a maximum option of 11 lease sales. The plan ruled out any lease sales in the Atlantic or Pacific, mainly proposing Gulf of Mexico sales.

The delay in issuing a finalized plan represented a departure from precedent set by both Republican and Democratic administrations, which historically have finalized replacements immediately after plans expired. The option to hold no lease sales over the course of five years also represented an unprecedented departure. 

The most recent two plans, both formulated under the Obama administration, included more than 10 offshore oil and gas lease sales each. The Trump administration sought to hold a total of 47 lease sales across the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coasts between 2022 and 2027.

‘The continued, prolonged, and unprecedented delay of the U.S. offshore oil and gas leasing program is injecting substantial and unnecessary uncertainty into the investment outlook for U.S. energy and national security,’ said National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) president Erik Milito. ‘The U.S. offshore region competes with other offshore regions throughout the world for investment in energy producing projects.’

‘Historically, the U.S. has been able to compete effectively under its statutory and regulatory framework,’ Milito added. ‘However, as certainty and predictability has continued to erode as a result of stifling energy policy decisions out of Washington, investment dollars may begin to flow to other producing regions.’

NOIA, which represents both offshore fossil fuel and wind producers, was among the groups to sue the DOI over its delays in issuing a finalized plan. NOIA and API issued a report last year showing that failure to hold more lease sales over the next five years would have a negative impact on jobs, gross domestic product and domestic oil production.

‘Beyond its legal requirement, the prompt finalization of an offshore oil and gas leasing program is critical to meeting fundamental energy realities and ensuring Americans have affordable supplies of energy for decades to come,’ Milito continued.

In addition, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman, blasted the subtle admission from the administration in a scathing statement Wednesday.

‘Monday night, the Department of the Interior made it painfully clear — again — that they are putting their radical climate agenda ahead of our nation’s energy security, and they are willing to go to great lengths to do it,’ Manchin stated. ‘The earliest that Interior will release a legally required program for 2023-2028 offshore oil and gas leasing will be the end of this year. That’s 18 months late.’

‘This is the first time in our nation’s history that we haven’t had a five-year leasing program released before the old plan expired,’ he continued. ‘Every other administration, Democrat and Republican, has managed to follow the law in a timely fashion. Let me be clear — this is not optional. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act mandates that the secretary of the Interior ‘shall prepare’ this program to ‘best meet national energy needs.”

‘What is even more terrifying is that on top of this disturbing timeline, Interior refuses to confirm if they intend to actually include any lease sales in the final plan,’ Manchin added.

A DOI spokesperson told Fox News Digital the filing speaks for itself.

GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer of Kentucky are planning to visit Jan. 6 defendants being held in the Washington, D.C. jail. 

A spokesperson for Comer has confirmed reports saying Greene is leading the effort, though concrete details are still being worked out. 

Greene and Comer told The Hill a letter to start the process of the visit is expected to be released on Thursday. 

‘We’re going to be addressing the human rights abuse, such as the fact that they’ve been held in solitary confinement up to 23 hours a day, denied the ability to see their families,’ Green told the outlet. 

Greene previously visited the defendants in November 2021. During an appearance on Steven Bannon’s ‘The War Room’ on Real America’s Voice, the Republican lawmaker claimed the prisoners were being kept in conditions worse than Guantanamo Bay. 

‘Last night I finally got into the deplorable jail, the D.C. jail where these people are being held for months on end in conditions like I’ve never seen in my life,’ Green said. ‘It’s beyond anything I’ve ever seen and every American in this country should be outraged at what’s happening. I don’t care how you vote.’ 

That same week, the U.S. Marshals Service completed an inspection of the jail complex where 30 Jan. 6 defendants were being held. The Marshals’ inspection determined the defendants were being held in sufficient conditions. 

It was not immediately clear which other Republicans will accompany Greene and Comer on the visit. 

The news comes after U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg denied a request from a Jan. 6 defendant to push back the start of her trial to allow time to review about 44,000 hours of Capitol riot footage from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday voted against legislation that would permanently classify both fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances (FRS) as Schedule 1 drugs that carry the toughest penalties for trafficking and possession.

Republicans say the growing fentanyl problem in America means the U.S. should permanently treat those drugs as Schedule 1 substances in the hopes of boosting penalties and stopping their spread. In 2018, the Trump administration temporarily scheduled FRS as a Schedule 1 drug in light of the growing number of fentanyl-related deaths, and Congress has extended that temporary status a few times since then.

House Republicans argue that it’s time to permanently reclassify fentanyl and FRS, and they called up a bill to do so in the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee on Wednesday to stop what several Republicans called the poisoning of tens of thousands of American citizens.

The subcommittee approved the bill in a 17-10 vote in which every Democrat voted against it except for Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn. Other Democrats rejected the bill after arguing that the change should be coupled with an end to mandatory minimum sentences for FRS charges.

Specifically, Democrats said FRS cases that don’t lead to death or serious bodily harm should not carry mandatory minimum sentences, and they broadly argued that Republicans need to treat the matter more like a health crisis and less like a criminal crisis.

‘Mandatory minimums should take into account whether the cases involve overdoses or serious bodily harm,’ said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.

Another Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, said Democrats support the Biden administration’s plan to only apply mandatory minimum sentences for FRS unless an offense results in serious harm or death, and to let people sentenced to seek lower sentences if an FRS is later classified as a less-harmful drug.

‘Republicans have refused to work with us’ on those and other provisions, Pallone said.

Groups that normally support Democrats, such as the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, argued in 2021 that maintaining tough penalties related to fentanyl would ‘exacerbate pretrial detention, mass incarceration and racial disparities in the prison system, doubling down on a fear-based, enforcement-first response to a public health challenge.’

But law enforcement groups have called for tougher penalties — in 2021, the National Fraternal Order of Police called on the government to address the ‘growing illicit fentanyl overdose epidemic that has gripped this country.’

Republicans said Wednesday that the deaths of tens of thousands of people due to fentanyl mean Congress must take swift action to ensure tough penalties against fentanyl and FRS. The government attributed 106,000 fentanyl-related deaths in 2021, and Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, one of the sponsors of the bill, said fentanyl and FRS have become ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that must be policed.

‘This should not be a political issue,’ Latta said. ‘It’s about addressing the largest poisoning of Americans in the history of our country and taking steps to end the scourge.’

Republicans also rejected the idea from Democrats that tough fentanyl penalties are creating unfair sentences. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said the growing number of fentanyl deaths of Americans is ‘murder at this point,’ and Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said that making fentanyl and FRS riskier to bring into the country will both reduce the deaths and lower the number of fentanyl sentences.

‘The point is you can’t die from ingesting something that was never created, nor can you be incarcerated for selling something that doesn’t exist,’ he said.

Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., added that because there are tens of thousands of fentanyl analogues already in existence, it makes no sense for Congress to try to analyze each one and assess which ones might pose no harm to people. He also said the GOP meets one demand being made by Democrats, which is to make it easier for researchers to access FRS in order to study these drugs.

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security has removed just 409 unaccompanied child migrants (UAC) encountered at the southern border since the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year despite a massive surge in encounters that has seen over 345,000 UACs at the border, according to government data obtained by a conservative legal group.

America First Legal (AFL) obtained data from the administration through a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The data show that there have been 409 unaccompanied children returned since October 2020, when FY 21 began, up until the 10th week of FY 2023.

The first three months of FY 2021 took place under the Trump administration, but the majority of the returns occurred during the Biden administration — which has been in charge amid a historic migrant crisis at the southern border.

The number of UACs encountered at the border jumped from just 33,239 in FY 2020 to 146,925 in FY 2021 and 152,057 in FY 2022. So far in FY23, there have been more than 46,000 UAC encounters.

But according to the data obtained by AFL, which has repeatedly sued over a number of administration policies, there were just 151 removals in FY 2021, 220 in FY 2022 and 38 in the first ten weeks of FY 2023.

Typically, UACs who are encountered at the border are processed and transferred into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which seeks to unite the minors with parents or sponsors already in the country. There have been a number of high-profile instances of children being handed over into the hands of smugglers, who then abandon the children at the border.

Recently, the New York Times published a story on how migrant children are being forced to work in dangerous jobs across the U.S.

AFL noted that the 345,000 total population of UACs encountered in the timeframe is roughly the size of Honolulu, Hawaii, and challenged prior claims by Biden administration officials that the border is ‘not open.’

Stephen Miller, president of AFL and a former senior Trump White House official, pointed to the decision by the Biden administration to exempt minors from expulsions under the Title 42 public health order.

The Trump administration included UACs in Title 42 expulsions but was temporarily blocked toward the end of the administration by a federal judge.

‘When President Trump initiated Title 42 for UAC the smuggling of minors hit record lows. Numbers plummeted,’ Miller said. ‘Agents couldn’t remember a time so few UAC were in custody. Biden’s decision to unilaterally and categorically exempt UAC from Title 42 triggered the largest wave of child smuggling in known world history for which he is solely responsible.’

Miller said the move was aggravated by the ending of other Trump-era border policies and prosecution initiatives by the Biden administration.

‘The UAC catastrophe is arguably Biden’s single most ignominious open borders crime in a list of open borders wrongdoing almost without end and certainly without equal,’ he said.

AFL is also behind a lawsuit currently before the courts that seeks to block a humanitarian parole program announced by the Biden administration in January which allows for up to 30,000 migrants from four countries each month to enter the U.S.

Separately, the Biden administration has recently unveiled a rule automatically making migrants ineligible for asylum if they have crossed the border illegally and failed to claim asylum at a previous country through which they traveled. The proposed rule would, however, exempt unaccompanied children.

A number of Democrats across the country celebrated International Women’s Day on Wednesday, despite having previously been either unwilling or unable to provide a definition of what a ‘woman’ is.

The apparent inability by many on the political left to provide a definition of a ‘woman’ became a point of contention following now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson refusing to define the word when asked during her confirmation hearing last year.

‘Today, on [International Women’s Day], we celebrate all the women around the world who lead the way, all while contending with the weight of parenting, cost of child care, scourge of sexism – including pay disparities – and now, for many, the loss of their right to abortion care,’ Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote on Twitter Wednesday.

Last year, however, Becerra struggled to respond during a congressional hearing when asked by Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., ‘What is a woman? Can you define the word?’

‘Congresswoman, I’m looking at you, and I think you’re a woman. How much more do you want me to give you?’ he responded at the time.

Becerra was joined by Sens. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who also wouldn’t provide the definition of a ‘woman’ when asked by Fox News Digital last year.

‘Today, we celebrate the invaluable contributions and accomplishments of women in Georgia and around the world. Happy International Women’s Day!’ Warnock said on Twitter, while Bennet thanked ‘every woman’ who he said taught him to stand up for the ‘rights of all.’

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who also refused to answer Fox’s questions on the definition of a woman tweeted, ‘This [International Women’s Day], we honor the women who blazed the path of equality before us and celebrate the women leaders of today and tomorrow! Together, we will work to carry the torch left to us – and will make it glow even brighter.’

Multiple Biden administration agencies also celebrated International Women’s Day despite previously refusing to answer, ‘What is a woman?’

The U.S. Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services and National Institutes of Heath also each recognized International Women’s Day even though they were unable to provide a definition of a ‘woman’ when asked by Fox last year.

A number of Republican women have sharply pushed back on Democrats’ seeming unwillingness to define what a woman is, including Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

‘Many of the same people who want to destroy Title IX and who can’t even define what a woman is are now celebrating Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. The irony is certainly not lost on me,’ Britt told Fox News Digital. 

‘Throughout history, Alabama women have strengthened their communities, our state and our nation through everyday deeds and landmark achievements. These incredible women should be honored – not erased by a radical leftwing agenda,’ she added.

Blackburn echoed Britt’s sentiment, describing the left’s push for ‘equality’ as a ‘full scale war on women.’

‘Men and women are already equal under the law, but they have real biological differences that we must respect and celebrate,’ Blackburn told Fox. ‘By insisting that men can become women, the left is destroying what it means to be a woman and is pushing women and girls out of sports, public life, and positions of leadership.’ 

‘Instead of promoting and supporting real women, this administration is fixated on promoting folks that used to be men. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson showcased this absurdity for the American people and proved how far the left will go to promote their anti-women agenda,’ she added.

Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

California cannot ban the importation and sale of crocodile and alligator products, a federal judge has ruled, in a victory for the state of Louisiana, which challenged the ban along with businesses in multiple states.

Federal law controls trade in those products and preempts California from barring trade in them, Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento, California, wrote in a ruling dated Tuesday.

Mueller had already blocked enforcement of the law while lawsuits challenging it played out in her court. Plaintiffs included businesses based in California, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Montana and Wyoming.

The California ban had covered products made from alligators and two species of crocodile — Nile and Saltwater. All can be sold legally under international treaty and U.S. federal law.

Mueller rejected arguments that California was only seeking to regulate activity within the state. ‘California is not regulating crocodile takings with its borders,’ she wrote. ‘Nothing in the record suggests crocodiles reside in California, migrate into California or have been introduced into California.’

According to the court record, the Nile crocodile is listed as threatened and some species of saltwater crocodile are threatened or endangered.

The American alligator is no longer threatened or endangered — there are now an estimated 2.9 million in Louisiana in the wild or on farms — but it’s treated as threatened because alligator products can be difficult to tell apart from products made from endangered crocodiles.

Louisiana argued in filing the suit that the economy surrounding alligators has played a key role in bringing back the American alligator population and is an important factor in protecting wetlands and other species besides alligators that depend on the wetlands.

Louisiana said that because most of the state’s coastal habitat is privately owned, the state does not have direct control over how it is managed. But the alligator industry provides economic incentives for landowners to take steps to protect marshlands that serve as habitat for the alligators.

Conservationists noted those similarities in arguing to keep the California ban, saying that products from threatened and non-threatened species are so nearly identical that traffickers can easily disguise illegal products.

But Mueller, nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2010, said federal law and regulations spelling out how and when skins and other products from the animals can be imported, exported and sold cannot be preempted by California.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said Mueller’s ruling helps preserve the state’s successful alligator conservation efforts.

State officials have long held that careful wildlife management, together with alligator farming, have led to a recovery of the state’s alligator population from fewer than 100,000 five decades ago. The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates the value of alligators harvested in the wild or farm-raised at $245 million annually.

‘The alligator trade has directly led to the resurgence and conservation of the American alligator as well the protection and maintenance of their natural wetland habitat,’ Landry said in a news release Wednesday. ‘California’s ban would have completely disrupted the entire supply chain – not only decimating the industry and our wetland protection programs, but also removing over $100 million from Louisiana’s annual economy.’

An attorney for California did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The House on Wednesday rejected a resolution from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., requiring the U.S. to remove the roughly 900 service members stationed in Syria that some say are beating back terrorists that could threaten the U.S. homeland if left unchecked, but others warn have become mired in Syria’s civil war.

The resolution failed in a 103-321 vote that split both parties. Republicans opposed it in a 47-171 vote, and Democrats rejected it 56-150.

Similar to debates in past years, critics of the decision to place a small force in Syria say that force is there without any authorization from Congress. Officially, they are justified under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that was used to authorize action against those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks, but Gaetz and others said Congress needs a more current authority to send troops abroad than one that was passed more than 20 years ago.

They also argued more plainly that the U.S. needs to stop acting as a global police force, and that it should remove itself from a civil war in Syria regardless of warnings that Syria could play a determining role in the strength of ISIS and other terrorist groups.

‘I do not believe that what stands between a caliphate and not a caliphate are the 900 Americans who have been sent to this hellscape with no definition of victory, with no clear objective and purely existing as a vestige to the regime change failed foreign policies of multiple former presidents,’ Gaetz said.

Others argued that most Americans don’t see a military presence in Syria as a priority.

‘No one in my district ever demands, ‘Marjorie, we must go to war in Syria,’’ said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

Most other lawmakers on both sides opposed the resolution and say that while they agree Congress should update the AUMF so it can better apply to the situation in Syria, it would be a mistake to quickly require U.S. troops to leave.

‘None of us want our soldiers overseas and in harm’s way any longer than is absolutely necessary,’ said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas. ‘If we withdraw our troops from Syria now, we could see a resurgence of ISIS or another legal successor in short time.’

‘This measure forces a premature end to our mission at a critical time for our efforts,’ said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on McCaul’s committee.

These opponents argued that the 2001 AUMF does provide a valid legal justification for the presence of troops in Syria, and that both President Trump and President Obama used that authority to put troops into operation there.

Gaetz introduced his resolution last month, shortly after U.S. Central Command confirmed that four U.S. service members were injured in Syria during a joint operation with Syrian Democratic Forces to kill ISIS leader Hamza al-Homsi.

That admission prompted Gaetz to argue that only Congress has the power to declare war and that Congress has never authorized the use of U.S. troops in Syria.

Republican Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin let loose on Teamsters president Sean O’Brien during a heated Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Wednesday as the two clashed over O’Brien’s salary compared to that of his union members.

The minutes long confrontation began with Mullin, who owns and operates a plumbing business, declaring he was ‘not against unions,’ but also pointing to the intimidation he said he and his employees received from unions when they started being awarded jobs that typically went to union workers.

‘They would show up at my house. They’d be leaning up against my trucks. I’m not afraid of a physical confrontation, in fact sometimes I look forward to it. That’s not my problem. But when you’re doing that to my employees?’ Mullin said. 

‘For what? Because we were paying higher wages? Because we had better benefits, and [weren’t] requiring them to pay your guys’ absorbent salaries?’ he added, before asking O’Brien what he made as a salary.

O’Brien began to answer, but Mullin continued, saying he made $193,000 a year in 2019 while stating the average driver makes $35,000 a year. ‘And what do you bring to the table?’ he then asked O’Brien.

‘That’s inaccurate. State facts. That’s inaccurate,’ O’Brien responded as the two began to talk over each other.

Mullin repeated his statistic on salaries and said, ‘If you don’t know your facts, then maybe you shouldn’t be in your position.’ He then restated his earlier question to O’Brien, asking what he brought to the table for his large salary.

‘What job have you created – one job – other than sucking the paycheck out of somebody else?’ he asked.

‘You’re out of line man,’ O’Brien responded as committee Chair Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., attempted to stop the back and forth and provide space for O’Brien to respond to Mullin.

The two ignored Sanders and continued talking over each other, appearing to grow increasingly frustrated, before Mullin said, ‘Sir, you need to shut your mouth because you don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘You’re going to tell me to shut my mouth?’ O’Brien responded, before mocking Mullin’s opening statement in which he said he wasn’t ‘afraid’ of a physical altercation.

Sanders eventually quieted the two and made Mullin provide O’Brien time to speak.

O’Brien, however, continued digging at Mullin, saying, ‘As far as my salary goes – my salary, if you follow me around – I actually looked at this building. I bet you I work more hours than you do. Twice as many hours.’

‘That’s impossible,’ Mullin responded, to which O’Brien said, ‘That’s true.’

‘Sir, you don’t even know what hard work is,’ Mullin said. 

O’Brien went on to claim ‘most’ tractor trailer drivers make over $100,000 a year before the two continued sparring over each other’s salaries and taking personal digs at each other.

After the hearing, Mullin continued to slam O’Brien in a statement to Fox News Digital, also ripping Sanders for not addressing what he called O’Brien’s ‘lack of decorum’ at the hearing.

‘The behavior we saw today was typical of how union bosses, many of whom have never created a single job, use intimidation tactics to pressure employees into joining unions which some workers may deem to be against their interests,’ Mullin said. ‘I find it unacceptable that Chairman Bernie Sanders did nothing to address the lack of decorum from the witness panel.’

‘As a business owner, I’ve seen firsthand how unions have tried to intimidate employees who receive better pay and benefits than unionized workers. Union bosses conveniently ignore the fact that defending the rights of all workers means defending those who do not want to join a union. If union bosses, like those we saw today, reject common sense measures like private ballots and right-to-work, I have a major problem with that,’ he said.

‘This should be simple: American workers and their families should have the freedom to decide what to do with their hard-earned income. As the Senator from Oklahoma, a booming right-to-work state, I will always support workers’ free ability to choose for themselves whether or not to join a union,’ he added.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Teamsters for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Watch the full video of the altercation here.