Tag

Slider

Browsing

– Former Attorney General William Barr says he is ‘dumbfounded’ that the Justice Department released a chilling letter penned by would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh on Monday, calling the decision ‘rash’ and serving no purpose ‘other than to risk inciting further violence.’

Routh is the suspect in former President Donald Trump’s second foiled assassination attempt. The DOJ obtained the letter from a witness who says they received it inside a box delivered to them by Routh several months prior to the assassination attempt.

The box contained several handwritten letters as well as ammunition, among other things. One of the letters, addressed ‘Dear World,’ admitted to an assassination attempt on Trump. He also offered money to anyone willing to finish the job.

‘I was dumbfounded that the DOJ made public this morning the contents of the letter that, Ryan Routh, left with an acquaintance prior to the attempted assassination of former President Trump,’ Barr said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

‘The letter calls on people to ‘finish the job’ of killing President Trump, attempts to rouse people in incendiary terms to do so, and offers $150,000 to anyone who succeeds. There was no apparent justification for releasing this information at this stage,’ he continued. 

Barr, who served during both the Trump and George H. W. Bush administrations, says that ‘DOJ had more than enough evidence to have Routh detained pending trial, without publicizing these details.’

‘Even if DOJ thought it important to provide the letter to the court, it could have redacted inflammatory material or arranged to have the letter submitted under seal. It was rash to put out this letter in the midst of an election during which two attempts on the life of President Trump had been made,’ Barr said. 

‘It served no purpose other than to risk inciting further violence,’ he added. 

The department’s detention memo revealed that Routh traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 14, a month before the Sept. 15 golf course incident. One of Routh’s cell phones pinged cell towers near Trump’s golf course and his Mar-a-Lago residence ‘on multiple days and times’ from Aug. 18 to Sept. 15, the detention memo alleged.

Investigators say they also found a book Routh had authored in 2023, titled ‘Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, WWIII and the End of Humanity.’

The detention memo also provided a fresh detail on the witness who saw Routh flee the sniper’s nest. The witness made eye contact with the suspect before Routh jumped into a Nissan Xterra and sped away. The witness is credited with photographing the vehicle and reporting it to law enforcement.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Routh will likely face additional charges in the coming days, which could include aggravated assault for allegedly pointing the rifle at a Secret Service agent and making threats against a former president, State Attorney Dave Aronberg previously told Fox News Digital.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is pushing back against the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling, suggesting Democrats are eyeing ways to limit former President Trump’s abilities that were expanded by the high court’s decision.

‘It is up to Congress, the representative branch of the people, to defend the constitutional order against presidents who would trample the freedoms of the people,’ Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said at a press conference alongside former GOP Rep. Joe Walsh.

‘This declaration is about protecting the freedoms of the people by closing statutory loopholes that could allow a president to exploit the executive power to trample constitutional freedom and liberty.’

He’s helping to spearhead an effort urging members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to sign a ‘No Dictators Declaration.’

Raskin, who held the press conference backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday, did not mention Trump by name. 

The website for the effort similarly stresses that ‘this isn’t a partisan issue.’ 

When explaining the ‘five pillars’ of the pledge, however, Raskin alluded to a host of accusations that have been lodged against the former president.

‘It’s got five main pillars to it – one, limiting the president’s power to declare bogus domestic and foreign emergencies to seize power and bypass congressional authority. Two, restricting the president’s ability to use the Insurrection Act to deploy the military domestically against the people,’ Raskin said.

‘Three – preventing the adoption of partisan, personal and ideological loyalty tests, loyalty oaths and similar authoritarian measures designed to purge the professional civil service, and replace qualified workers with unqualified party loyalists and sycophants.’

‘Four, ensuring that presidents who abuse their powers to commit crimes can be prosecuted like all other citizens. Because no one is above the law in America, and those of us who aspire and attain to public office are nothing but the servants of the people,’ he continued. ‘And fifth, constraining the president’s ability to use investigative and prosecutorial decisions and resources to pursue personal political vendettas against disfavored groups and perceived enemies of the president.’

Trump’s Supreme Court case stems from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probe into the ex-president and his allies’ alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Smith filed an amended, superceding indictment against Trump in the case after the court’s conservative majority granted the office of the president broad immunity for ‘official’ acts, the specifics of which were to be determined by lower courts.

Asked by Fox News Digital whether the effort could turn into legislative action if Democrats win the House majority in November, Raskin suggested it was possible.

‘I hope that when we get back in, that we will be able to have at least a couple of serious hearings about the problem of overreach in the executive branch and weakness to potential tyrants and despots and dictators,’ Raskin said.

‘I hope that those hearings would lead us to create a legislative package to address these structural deficiencies in our statutory system.’

He added, ‘I would hope that Republicans would come along.’

Walsh, a Tea Party Republican who left office in January 2013 and who has been a vocal Trump critic, also heavily suggested Trump inspired the ‘No Dictators’ effort but noted it brought together himself and Raskin, despite their larger political disagreements.

‘We’re locked in arms right now because we have somebody running for president who has promised to be a dictator,’ Walsh said. ‘This is a bipartisan effort every member of the House and every member of the Senate should easily sign and pledge that they don’t want – we will not have a dictator as president.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

The campaign for former President Donald Trump said it is giving ‘maximum attention and resources’ to its ground game in battleground states, and it’s working.

In key battleground states where voters register by party, and where the margins in 2020 were razor-thin, Republicans have cut into Democrats’ voter registration advantage — in some cases by hundreds of thousands of registered voters. 

During the 2020 election cycle in Pennsylvania, there were approximately 685,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. But going into Election Day 2024, that gap has been cut down significantly, with approximately 343,000 more Democratic voters than Republicans, according to the Trump campaign, which said it compiled the data from secretaries of state offices in Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina and Arizona.

Similarly, in Nevada, there were 87,000 more Democratic voters in 2020 than Republicans. But going into Election Day 2024, there are just 19,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. 

North Carolina shows a similar shrinking gap for 2024, with just 126,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, down from the 391,000 Democratic voters last cycle. 

And in Arizona, by the end of July, there were 259,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats, doubling the GOP advantage since 2020.

‘Everyone who will vote in this election has lived through both administrations, and President Trump wins the comparison easily over Kamala Harris,’ Trump campaign senior adviser Tim Murtaugh told Fox News Digital. ‘The election will be won by those who show up, and that’s where the ground game comes in, which has been a combined effort of the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, and many Republican allies.’ 

Murtaugh told Fox News Digital that the ‘Democrats’ massive lead in voter registration in key states is gone.’ 

‘And in states where the winner will be decided by mere percentage points, it could make all the difference,’ Murtaugh said. 

Neither the Harris campaign nor the Democratic National Committee (DNC) immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

The Trump campaign’s joint-ground game efforts are continuing to expand, but it is focusing its ‘Get Out the Vote’ efforts on low propensity voters and encouraging voters to vote early. 

Across battleground states, the Trump campaign and RNC have hundreds of paid staff, with more than 300 Trump/GOP offices. 

In July, the Trump campaign launched its ‘Trump Force 47‘ grassroots effort to recruit new voters. 

The program, which the campaign says is focused on mobilizing ‘highly-targeted voters in critical precincts across the battleground states and districts,’ has already engaged tens of thousands of volunteers. 

Trump campaign officials told Fox News Digital they already have more than 27,000 trained Trump Force 47 captains and continue to train daily, adding thousands per week. 

The efforts stretch beyond the Trump Force 47 leaders, with hundreds of thousands more volunteers for phone banking, canvassing, postcard writing, community organizing and poll watching. 

The joint effort and the Trump Force 47 model are focused on spending ‘maximum attention and resources’ on turning out infrequent or ‘sometimes voters,’ the campaign said.

‘We put a high premium on personal contacts with voters that are less likely to participate in the election and are more disconnected from politics than high propensity or persistent voters,’ a campaign official told Fox News Digital. 

Campaign officials also said they are focused on ‘meeting voters where they are’ more than ever before. 

‘From traditional voter canvassing like calls, doors, post cards, mail, to TikTok, to outside groups, our efforts to reach voters have never been more modern or efficient,’ the official said. 

Fox News Digital has learned that the Trump campaign’s allied efforts will knock on approximately 15 million doors in the voting window across battleground states. 

The Trump campaign’s field efforts have been focused on volume, where its in-house program is focused on reaching voters that were previously missed or less politically engaged. 

‘We have to get our voters to do what they always do — show up at the polls and vote,’ the official said. 

Meanwhile, specifically in Pennsylvania, Team Trump is registering voters at doors, campaign rallies, grocery stores, sporting stores, places of worship, college tailgates and more. 

Officials told Fox News Digital that the team is reaching out to voters of all backgrounds through a wide variety of communities, including Hispanic voters, Jewish voters, Black voters, young voters and senior voters. 

‘President Trump is well positioned to win in November thanks to our robust ground efforts and vast coalition of supporters and endorsers,’ an official said. 

New polls published by The New York Times and Siena College on Monday showed Trump has gained a lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in Arizona, putting the former president at 50 and Harris at 45. Trump is also ahead in Georgia, 49 to 45, and North Carolina, 49-45. 

A RealClearPolitics Average shows Harris leading Trump by less than a point in Pennsylvania, and it shows Trump and Harris are tied in Nevada. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

A group of Republican lawmakers is introducing a new bill that would cease all aid dollars to Afghanistan over concerns of interception by the Taliban.

‘The Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous withdrawal has plunged the country back under Taliban rule, and now it turns out that our taxpayer dollars are being used to the benefit of the Taliban,’ Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., sponsor of the legislation, told Fox News Digital. 

‘This legislation is needed so we can ensure that no more of our tax dollars are being irresponsibly used in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.’

The House bill is co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Nick Langworthy of New York, Barry Moore of Alabama, Erlic Burlison of Missouri, Matt Rosendale of Montana and Randy Feenstra of Iowa. 

The U.S. is the largest donor to Afghanistan. It spent a total of $21 billion on the nation and Afghan refugees who have been evacuated since the withdrawal. However, critics say much of that aid ends up in lining the pockets of the Taliban, who they say have taken control of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the country.

The United Nations (U.N.), meanwhile, has flown in some $2.9 billion in U.S. currency cash to Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control, the bulk of that being from funds allocated by the U.S., and at least some of which ends up in the Taliban-controlled central bank, according to the SIGAR report from July. 

The Taliban ‘taxes’ this cash at multiple points of distribution. 

The bill would prohibit federal agencies from giving any direct cash assistance to Afghanistan and prohibit any taxpayer dollars from going to the U.N. for the purpose of assisting Afghanistan. It also prohibits Federal Reserve Banks from selling U.S. currency to the U.N. for the purpose of direct cash assistance to Afghanistan. 

In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council on March 6, Roza Otunbayeva, the U.N.’s special representative for Afghanistan, did not mention the money going to Da Afghanistan central bank but said it was necessary to get medical care and food for Afghans. 

The shipments have ‘injected liquidity to the local economy that has in large part allowed the private sector to continue to function and averted a fiscal crisis,’ Otunbayeva told the council. 

In a letter provided in response to the SIGAR report, the State Department said the U.N. was in charge of managing the cash transfer program. 

‘We remain committed to providing critical, life-saving humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. We will continue to monitor assistance programs and seek to mitigate the risk that U.S. assistance could indirectly benefit the Taliban or could be diverted to unintended recipients,’ the letter said.

For 20 years prior to the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan received some $8 billion in foreign assistance per year, representing 40% of its gross domestic product and financing three quarters of the government’s public expenditures. When the U.S. and other foreign entities stopped supplying aid, the country fell into an economic crisis – and aid dollars began flowing once again. 

In June, the House passed a bill that would force the State Department to investigate which countries give aid to the Taliban – and also get U.S. assistance themselves. 

It would also force the secretary of state to weigh if those countries should keep getting U.S. dollars and develop a strategy to discourage them from continuing aid to the Taliban. However, that bill did not cease all aid to Afghanistan. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is putting the U.S. intelligence community on the spot after Iranian hackers tried to disseminate private information from former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

‘Congress is outraged by the Biden-Harris Administration’s inaction and unwillingness to hold Iran accountable for its cyberattacks on the Trump campaign,’ Johnson wrote in letters to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

‘As you have shared, Iran hacked into the Trump campaign and distributed private information directly to the Biden campaign and to American media, which, like Iran, favors Kamala Harris.’

In his letter, he also claimed Harris was Iran’s ‘preferred candidate’ in the race.

Last week, the three agencies released a rare joint statement, revealing that ‘Iranian malicious cyber actors’ sent stolen Trump campaign materials to people linked to President Biden’s since-defunct re-election campaign, beginning in June. They also sent non-public materials to U.S. media organizations, the agencies said.

However, Johnson told their directors that ‘several unanswered questions remain.’

‘The American people must be informed of how the cyberattacks and distribution of information happened, the timeline indicating when the attacks occurred and were verified, and the concrete steps your agencies have taken to deter future attacks,’ Johnson wrote.

He accused the Biden administration of failing to deter election interference efforts by Iran or other hostile foreign powers and pointed out that Iran has also recently been accused of trying to kill the former president.

‘To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has not offered or executed any meaningful action to show our enemies such interference will not be tolerated, nor shared what steps, if any, it has taken to deter future attacks on Donald Trump or his campaign,’ Johnson wrote.

‘With less than 45 days until the election, much more needs to be done to protect our nation’s sovereignty and stop Iran from tipping the election in favor of its preferred candidate.’

He gave the agencies a deadline of Oct. 4, roughly a month before Election Day.

Multiple outlets reported earlier this month that the Justice Department and FBI are planning to file criminal charges against those involved with the Trump campaign hack.

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned in February that foreign adversaries posed a threat to the U.S. having ‘free and fair elections.’

‘The U.S. has confronted foreign malign influence threats in the past, but this election cycle, the U.S. will face more adversaries, moving at a faster pace, and enabled by new technology,’ he said during a national security forum.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign, as well as the FBI, CISA and the DNI, for comment.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

A conservative super PAC backed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk launched a website over the weekend, enabling supporters to canvass in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Trump and other GOP candidates. 

America PAC operates in key battleground states like Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The PAC also operates in more than a dozen competitive districts within normally Democratic strongholds like California and New York. 

According to its website, America PAC aims to ‘promote free speech, free markets, and a merit-based society.’ 

‘Together, we’ll ensure that every vote counts towards a stronger, more vibrant America,’ reads America PAC’s website. 

The new website enables anyone in the U.S. to sign up and be deployed to one of these key states or districts for canvassing.   

Now the largest ‘get out the vote’ outside group in the U.S., America PAC was formed early in the summer and has, according to sources, amassed hundreds of canvassers. The super PAC believes the new website will help scale operations going into the November election, which is just over six weeks away. 

Filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show America has already invested at least $2.4 million in more than a dozen key congressional races. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Oil and gas industry leaders are skeptical of Vice President Kamala Harris’ stance on critical state issues and are calling for clarity on her positions before Election Day.

Harris said there is ‘no question’ she would be in favor of banning fracking, during her 2020 presidential campaign, but after becoming the 2024 Democratic nominee, the vice president said that she will not ban hydraulic fracturing if elected.

‘As a native Pennsylvanian, who understands the importance of oil and gas to local communities and consumers nationwide, I have to be skeptical of the vice president’s pivot on fracking. And we still haven’t seen an energy policy plan,’ Jeff Eshelman, Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) President & CEO, told Fox News Digital.

Eshelman added that her shift signals that fracking is a winning issue.

If the VP is now endorsing a pro-fracking plan, we are the experts and would encourage a meeting with oil and gas producers. However, Harris’ endorsement of hydraulic fracturing shows how important energy issues are to voters who understand increased oil and natural gas development is key to bringing down gas prices and decreasing reliance on foreign oil,’ Eshelman said. ‘Her shift makes it clear that unleashing abundant and affordable American energy resources through safe and responsible fracking technology is a winning issue.’

The issue remains of top concern to swing state voters in Pennsylvania, as well as on a national level, after a New York Times/Siena College poll released in September found that 43% of voters somewhat or strongly oppose a ban on fracking.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) echoed the questions surrounding her position. 

‘I think the Vice President should be held to account for what exactly she means. And she has been successful to this point in not having to say a lot. And I would posit the reason why she is all of a sudden talking about fracking is because the path to the presidency runs through Pennsylvania, and they know full well how important the oil and gas sector is to the nearly half a billion people in the state of Pennsylvania that are employed in and around the industry,’ said Amanda Eversole, Executive Vice President of API.

API also suggested that swing state voters could be a driving force behind her decision to change face on the issue.

‘President Trump – we know where he stands on energy. But voters deserve to know what the vice president’s philosophy is, and just articulating support of hydraulic fracturing is not enough. There are a lot of questions that voters deserve to have answers to.’

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign told Fox News Digital that the vice president has been clear on where she stands on the issue.

‘Vice President Harris was proud to cast the tie-breaking vote on the largest ever investment to address the climate crisis and under the Biden-Harris administration, America is more energy secure than ever before with the highest domestic energy production on record. The Biden-Harris administration ignited an American manufacturing boom and created 300,000 energy jobs, while Trump lost nearly a million, and his Project 2025 would undo the enormous progress we’ve made the past four years. 

‘Vice President Harris is focused on a future where all Americans have clean air, clean water and affordable, reliable energy, while Trump’s lies are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class,’ the campaign told Fox.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel on Sunday in response to a series of Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, pushing both sides closer to the brink of full-scale war.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon killed dozens, including one of the group’s top commanders, Ibrahim Akil.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Kassem, said Sunday’s rocket attack was just the beginning of what’s now an ‘open-ended battle’ with Israel.

At Akil’s funeral, Kassem vowed Hezbollah would continue military operations against Israel but also warned of unexpected attacks ‘from outside the box,’ pointing to rockets fired deeper into Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take whatever action was necessary to restore security in the north and allow people to return to their homes.

‘No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities. We can’t accept it either,’ he said.

Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, told reporters the army is prepared to increase pressure on Hezbollah in the coming days, adding, ‘We have many capabilities that we have not yet activated.’

The Israeli military said it struck about 400 militant sites, including rocket launchers, across southern Lebanon in the past 24 hours, thwarting an even larger attack.

‘Last night, hundreds of thousands of Israelis woke up to rocket sirens as Hezbollah launched over 20 rockets towards northern Israel that left communities in ruins,’ IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said. ‘This attack could have caused much more damage, but we were able to minimize their attack with a preemptive strike on rocket launchers across southern Lebanon.’

The latest tit-for-tat between Israeli forces and Hezbollah comes as Lebanon is still reeling from a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday. The explosions killed at least 37 people and wounded about 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility.

Israeli forces have been trading fire with Hezbollah fighters almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking another 250 as hostages. Hezbollah leadership has said its attacks on Israel are in solidarity with its ally Hamas in Gaza.

The low-level fighting has killed dozens in Israel, hundreds in Lebanon and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the frontier. But the fighting has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel shifting its focus from Gaza to Lebanon. Some have expressed concerns that the fight against Hezbollah will strain resources and complicate prospects for an already elusive cease-fire deal.

Retired Army Brig. Anthony Tata told ‘Fox & Friends’ that the conflict would only grow and chided the Biden administration for what he deemed a lack of ‘moral clarity.’ 

‘It’s critical that Netanyahu keeps his eye on the main fight, which is Hamas, and he eliminates Hamas,’ Tata said. ‘The main effort is still Hamas. And I think what they have to do is hold what they’ve got and hold off Hezbollah until they finish up Hamas, and then they can move to the north and … destroy Hezbollah. You can’t do two things at once equally well.’

Asked Sunday if he was worried about rising tensions in the Middle East, President Biden said, ‘Yes, I am.’

‘But we’re going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. And we’re still pushing hard,’ Biden added. 

Hamas is still holding around 100 captives from its attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, a third of whom are believed to be dead. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said Sunday it intercepted multiple aerial devices fired from the direction of Iraq after Iran-backed militant groups there claimed to have launched a drone attack on Israel.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Former President Trump indicated during an interview Sunday that he would not make a run for the Oval Office in 2028 if his current bid falls short in November.

Trump was a guest on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ‘Full Measure,’ hosted by Sharyl Attkisson, which aired Sunday morning.

At the end of the interview, Attkisson asked Trump if he was not successful in his bid for president in November, could he see himself running again in four years?

‘No, I don’t. No, I don’t. I think that that will be, that will be it. I don’t see that at all,’ the former president answered. ‘I think that hopefully we’re gonna be successful.’

Trump, 78, is on his third run for president, having beaten Hillary Clinton for the Commander in Chief seat in 2016, and losing to President Biden in 2020. He now faces Vice President Kamala Harris for a second, four-year term in office.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump campaign for clarification on the former president’s comments. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Trump’s statements.

With over six weeks to go until Election Day on Nov. 5, and early voting and absentee balloting underway in a growing number of states, a number of public opinion polls agree that the race in key battleground states that will decide the 2024 Presidential election is within the margin-of-error.

The polls also show Harris has a healthy advantage among voters when it comes to the issue of abortion, while Trump has an equally large margin in dealing with the border and immigration.

When it comes to the economy, the polls show the issue remains the top issue on the minds of American voters as they prepare to cast their ballot in November.

A Fox News national poll also in the field entirely post-debate spotlighted that 39% of voters surveyed said the economy was their most pressing issue, far ahead of immigration (16%) and abortion (15%). All other issues tested were in single digits. 

Trump spoke with Attkisson about several issues, including his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said he did ‘an amazing job’ handling.

‘I never got the credit for it. Remember that more people died under Biden-Harris than died under Trump,’ he said. ‘And they had a much easier time because when it came in here, nobody knew what it was. It came from the Wuhan labs, which I always said. But nobody really knew what it was, where it came from…nothing. They knew nothing, and we got hit.’

Trump also said he got credit with the military and knocking out ISIS, saying, ‘we rebuilt the military.’

After speaking about his accomplishments, Attkisson asked him what he does to stay healthy.

‘I used to play golf a little bit…but it seems to be quite a dangerous sport, in retrospect,’ Trump said, referring to a recent incident in which a man hid in the bushes with a gun before being shot at by Secret Service and fleeing. The man was later arrested, and the matter is being handled as an assassination attempt on Trump.

‘I try and eat properly,’ Trump told Attkisson, getting back to her question.

The host told Trump she though he ate hamburgers and drank soda, which the former president acknowledged he did.

‘But proper hamburgers,’ he said. ‘But I like, perhaps, all the wrong food. But then I say, ‘does anybody know what the right food is?’

He continued, saying people lectured him for years on what to eat, and they’re gone because they passed away.

‘And here I am,’ Trump said. ‘So, I’m not sure I wanna make too many changes.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took a swipe at his Republican colleagues for ‘wasting precious time’ after his GOP counterpart unveiled a plan to avoid a government shutdown.

The bipartisan plan was announced by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., earlier on Sunday. The tentative agreement maintains government funding until Dec. 20, with the House likely to vote on the bill as early as Wednesday. 

The agreement – which still needs to be voted on in order to be implemented – comes after weeks of uncertainty about whether a government shutdown could be avoided before the current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. The hypothetical government shutdown would begin on Oct. 1.

In a statement released by Schumer on Sunday evening, the New York Democrat accused Johnson of ‘follow[ing] the MAGA way.’

‘Over the past 4 days, bipartisan, bicameral negotiations have been underway to reach an agreement that maintains current funding through December 20 and avoids a government shutdown a month before the election,’ Schumer’s statement read.

‘While I am pleased bipartisan negotiations quickly led to a government funding agreement free of cuts and poison pills, this same agreement could have been done two weeks ago.’

Schumer referred to Johnson’s attempt to try passing a more Republican-friendly continuing resolution (CR) that would have extended funding for another six months, despite the awareness that many Republicans would not support it. The CR failed by a narrow 202-220 vote last week.

‘Instead, Speaker Johnson chose to follow the MAGA way and wasted precious time,’ Schumer said in his statement. ‘As I have said throughout this process, there is only one way to get things done, with bipartisan, bicameral support.’

Johnson also attempted to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a Republican-backed bill that would require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process.

The Republican leader’s funding agreement, which is closer in line with what the Senate Democrats wanted, is expected to anger the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.

The bill also includes $231 million for the U.S. Secret Service with conditions that the agency cooperates with congressional investigations. The bipartisan deal made on Sunday excludes any agreement to pass the SAVE Act.

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

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS