Fox News

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to appear together for the first time since Election Day at a Veterans Day ceremony on Monday. 

Biden and Harris are to participate in a Presidential Armed Forces Full Honor Wreath-Laying Ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at 11 a.m. ET, according to the president’s public schedule. First lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are also scheduled to attend. Afterward, Biden is expected to deliver remarks at the National Veterans Day Observance at the Memorial Amphitheater. Harris, the first lady and second gentleman will be in attendance as well. 

As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory, some of Harris’ backers are expressing frustration that Biden’s decision to continue his re-election campaign until the summer — despite long-standing concerns about his age, inflation and border security – all but sealed his party’s surrender of the White House. 

“The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful run, said, according to The Associated Press. “If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we may be in a very different place.”

PSAKI ADMITS DEMS MADE A MISTAKE BY TRYING TO REACH NEVER-TRUMP VOTERS AND IGNORING DISAFFECTED DEMOCRATS

“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these achievements,” Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, told the AP. “But in the shorter term, I don’t know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”

On Thursday, Biden delivered a short address in the White House Rose Garden regarding the election results. 

SANDERS DOUBLES DOWN ON HIS CRITICISM OF DEMOCRATS, FIRES BACK AT PELOSI’S PUSHBACK

“I know it’s a difficult time. You’re hurting. I hear you and I see you. But don’t forget, don’t forget all that we accomplished,” Biden said in the address attended by Cabinet members and top aides but not by Harris. “It’s been a historic presidency. Not because I’m president. Because what we’ve done, what you’ve done. A presidency for all Americans.”  

Biden said he had congratulated Trump over the phone, and the two are expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss the presidential transition. 

The president issued a statement shortly after Harris delivered her concession speech Wednesday, praising her for running an “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Democrats got caught up in a wave of anti-incumbency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that upturned governments in democracies around the globe irrespective of ideology. She did not directly respond to questions about criticism that Biden waited too long to bow out.

“He believed he made the right decision,” Jean-Pierre said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

There remain 18 races in the House of Representatives that have yet to be called, and the GOP needs to win just four to secure control over the chamber.

Here is where each of these tight races sit as of Monday.

At-large district

Democratic incumbent Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola is in a tight race in Alaska’s at-large congressional district, where she is trailing Republican entrepreneur Nick Begich.

As of Monday morning, Begich holds a 4-point lead at 49.5% of the vote compared to Peltola’s 45.5%. The vote count sits at 125,222 to 115,089, with roughly 80% of the vote counted.

ALL EYES ON CALIFORNIA AS HOUSE MAJORITY STILL HINGES ON TIGHT RACES

6th Congressional District

The race in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District is tight, with the Republican candidate barely leading.

Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a first-term lawmaker, is barely leading former Democratic state lawmaker Kirsten Engel in a 49.1% to 48.5% race as of Monday morning. The vote count sits at 180,913 to 178,820 with 83% of votes counted.

13th Congressional District

Republican Rep. John Duarte is leading former Democratic state assembly member Adam Gray in California’s 13th Congressional District, but the highly contested race remains uncalled as of Monday.

Roughly 61% of the vote has been counted, and Duarte holds a 51.3% to 48.8%. The pair is separated by just over 3,000 votes, however.

21st Congressional District

Incumbent Democratic Rep. John Costa leads his Republican challenger, Michael Maher, in a 50.5% to 49.5% race as of Monday morning.

So far, 66% of the vote has been counted, and Costa’s lead is just over 1,000 votes.

22nd Congressional District

Republican incumbent Rep. David Valado leads Democratic Challenger Rudy Salas in a 53.6% to 46.6% race as of Monday. Valado holds a lead of just under 10,000 votes with 77% of the vote counted.

39th Congressional District

Democratic incumbent Rep. Mark Takano holds a 12-point lead over his Republican challenger, David Serpa, as of Monday. Takano holds a 21,000-vote lead with 70% of votes counted.

41st Congressional District

Republican incumbent Rep. Ken Calvert holds a 51.4% to 48.6% lead over Democratic challenger Will Rollins. Roughly 70% of the vote has been counted as of Monday, and Calvert’s lead sits at roughly 8,000 votes.

45th Congressional District

Incumbent Republican Rep. Michelle Steel leads her Democratic challenger Derek Tran with 51.1% of the vote as of Monday. Roughly 80% of the votes have been counted, and Steel’s lead sits at roughly 6,000 votes.

47th Congressional District

The race to succeed outgoing Democratic Rep. Katie Porter in California’s 47th Congressional District is also razor-thin.

Republican Scott Baugh, a former state assembly member, and state Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat, are vying for the open seat, and Min holds a less than 1% lead.

Roughly 80% of the vote has been counted, and Min’s lead sits at just over 3,000 votes.

SHUTDOWN STANDOFF LOOMS IN CONGRESS’ FINAL WEEKS BEFORE TRUMP’S RETURN TO WHITE HOUSE

49th Congressional District

Democratic incumbent Rep. Mike Levin holds a 3-point lead over Republican challenger Matt Gunderson as of Monday morning.

With 77% of votes counted, Levin’s lead sits at roughly 11,000 votes.

8th Congressional District

Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat, is trailing Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District by less than 1% with 96% of the vote counted.

1st Congressional District

Republican incumbent Rep. Mariannet Miller-Meeks holds a less than 1% lead over challenger Christina Bohannan with 99% of the vote counted. Miller-Meeks’ lead sits at just under 1,000 votes.

6th Congressional District

The 6th District has no incumbent in the race, and Democratic candidate, Cleo Fields, leads his Republican opponent, Elbert Guillory, by 13 points with 99% of the vote reported. Fields’ lead sits at just under 49,000 votes as of Monday.

2nd Congressional District

Democratic incumbent Jared Golden holds a razor-thin lead over Republican challenger Austin Theriault as of Monday.

With 98% of the votes counted, Golden’s lead sits at less than 800 votes.

9th Congressional District

Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur leads her Republican challenger, Derek Merrin, by less than 1 point with 99% of the votes counted. Kaptur’s lead sits at just over 1,000 votes as of Monday.

5th Congressional District

Republican incumbent Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer is trailing her Democratic challenger, Janelle Bynum by nearly 3 points with 87% of the votes counted Monday.

Bynum’s lead sits at just over 10,000 votes.

4th Congressional District

Republican incumbent Rep. Dan Newhouse leads his Democratic challenger, Jerrod Sessler, by 5 points with 84% of the votes counted.

Newhouse’s lead sits at just over 12,000 votes as of Monday morning.

FIRST ON FOX: Data shows that the State Department discriminates against men when it comes to offering promotions in the foreign service, according to a new report from the Heritage Foundation.

In all five foreign service officer career tracks, which include consular affairs, economic affairs, political affairs, public diplomacy and management, open sourced State Department data shows women were promoted at a higher rate than men in 2023, up to 13% in some cases, even though men outnumber women in the foreign service officer corps. 

The challenge for men in foreign service is nothing new, however. Heritage also found that men were being promoted at a significantly smaller rate across the board in all five foreign service officer career tracks between 2020 and 2022. 

Furthermore, a 2020 Government Accountability report found that between 2003 and 2018 “women in the Foreign Service generally spent fewer years in each rank relative to men.”

BIDEN-HARRIS DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY OFFICIAL CALLS FOR ‘QUEERING NUCLEAR WEAPONS’ AS PART OF RADICAL DEI AGENDA  

Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the author of the organization’s report highlighting the discriminatory concerns facing men in the State Department, told Fox News Digital that the agency’s current path “opens the department to legal action by employees,” noting that such discrimination lawsuits have been filed in the past. 

SPACE FORCE COMMANDER WHO SAYS HE LOST PENSION FOR CRITICIZING DEI IN MILITARY OPENS UP ON BEING ‘BETRAYED’

“This report exposes the administration’s pattern — under the guise of ‘equity’ — of promoting women at higher rates than men, with no logical explanation other than preference based on sex alone,” Hankinson said. “Today’s findings urge corrective action to restore merit-based promotion.”

Upon taking office in 2021, President Biden mandated each federal agency to submit a detailed report on how they have and will continue to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in order to deliver “equitable outcomes.” Several months later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed the agency’s first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer.

Under the Biden administration, the State Department also pledged to hire 30% more women for its Diplomatic Security Service by 2030, recommended “periodic assessments of the practice of [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility] in [public diplomacy],” and engaged in other efforts to promote “diversity” aimed at females and people of color at the agency. 

Furthermore, these efforts by the Biden administration were matched by efforts in Congress as well. In 2021, a cohort of House Democrats introduced a bill to increase diversity in the foreign service’s promotion practices to “improve retention and fairness” for women and minorities. 

“It’s imperative in my judgment that we continue to build a department that fully reflects our diversity – it is our strength around the world – and we’ve been working to do that,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress earlier this year.    

NEW STATE DEPARTMENT DIVERSITY CHIEF BELIEVES US IS A ‘FAILED HISTORIC MODEL’ WITH A ‘COLONIZING PAST’

Spokespeople for President-elect Donald Trump indicated during his campaign that when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion under the Biden administration “all staff, offices, and initiatives … will be immediately terminated” once he takes office. During Trump’s first tenure in the Oval Office, he passed an executive order meant to “combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating” in employment practices. 

Amid the speculation about Trump’s incoming administration, diversity, equity and inclusion proponents have been sounding the alarm.

“We as DEI leaders across sectors will need to step up now more than ever into advocacy and educator roles to provide the tangible corporate benefit—from business development to bottom-line profits—and ensure that these roles and initiatives are not washed away,” Nicole Ridley, head of operations at the Financial Alliance for Racial Equity, told Fortune.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment but did not receive a response by press time. 

President-elect Trump named Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Fox News has confirmed.

First reported by the New York Post, the appointment is one of the first announced in the early days of Trump’s transition period.

“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement to the Post. 

Stefanik, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, provided a statement of her own to the outlet. 

“I am truly honored to earn President Trump’s nomination to serve in his Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” Stefanik told the Post. “During my conversation with President Trump, I shared how deeply humbled I am to accept his nomination and that I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the United States Senate. President Trump’s historic landslide election has given hope to the American people and is a reminder that brighter days are ahead — both at home and abroad.” 

STEFANIK SLAMS DEMOCRATS’ ‘SCARE TACTICS’ ON TRUMP’S RECORD WITH WOMEN ON IVF, ABORTION

Stefanik, the fourth-highest ranking House Republican, is a frequent figure on television where she advocates for the GOP side on a number of issues, including Israel and what she refers to as the “Biden Crime Family.” 

By contrast, the Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, does not seek much press coverage. 

IRAN’S CYBER STRIKE ON TRUMP CAMPAIGN: STEFANIK SLAMS FBI FOR ‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’ TO AID DEMS

Stefanik, who was elected to her sixth term in the House last week, made national headlines for grilling the presidents of Ivy League universities about the rising antisemitism on college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. 

“The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak U.S. leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries,” Stefanik added in her statement to the Post. “I stand ready to advance President Donald J. Trump’s restoration of America First peace through strength leadership on the world stage on Day One at the United Nations. “

Centrist Democrats are slamming their far-left colleagues following Election Day, arguing that their emphasis on “identity politics” and other issues handed huge victories to the GOP.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., argued that President-elect Trump has “no greater friend than the far left.” Like-minded Democrats say racial politics, anti-police rhetoric and gender hysteria are alienating millions of voters.

“There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world,” Torres wrote on X. “The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling.”

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville put it more bluntly in a Sunday interview with the New York Times, calling “defund the police” the “three stupidest words in the English language.”

“We could never wash off the stench of it,” he said.

INSIDE SAN JOSE STATE’S POLICE BATTLE TO PROTECT WOMEN’S ATHLETES THREATENED BY A TRANSGENDER CULTURE WAR

Torres is one of several Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate who have called out his party’s “nonsense.” One centrist House Democrat complained to Axios on Monday that the “identity politics stuff is absolutely killing us.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., argued on Sunday that Democrats are “out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA.”

“We don’t listen enough; we tell people what’s good for them. And when progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base,” Murphy wrote.

Not all Democrats are ready to make a change, however. When Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., broke with his party to condemn biological males playing in women’s sports last week, he faced an avalanche of hate.

“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton said in a New York Times report. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

The statement resulted in calls for Moulton to resign, and at least one of his staffers quit in protest.

Massachusetts state Rep. Manny Cruz suggested Moulton’s stance was “a betrayal” in a post on X.

“Congressman Moulton, your commitment then was protecting the LGBTQ community, standing up for their rights, and compassion. Now, on a political whim, our Congressman has betrayed the words he signed onto just last year by scapegoating transgender youth in sports for the failures of the national Democratic Party and leaders to win the presidential election. You said you ‘would stand with Nagly and with all our community … against all forms of bigotry, discrimination, bullying, and harassment,'” Cruz wrote. 

Salem city Councilor Kyle Davis, another Democrat, called for Moulton to resign. 

“I’m not looking for an apology from [Moulton], I’m looking for a resignation,” Davis wrote in a post on X.

Moulton refused to apologize and instead doubled down in a statement late last week.

“I will fight, as I always have, for the rights and safety of all citizens. These two ideas are not mutually exclusive, and we can even disagree on them. Yet there are many who, shouting from the extreme left corners of social media, believe I have failed the unspoken Democratic Party purity test,” he said.

“We did not lose the 2024 election because of any trans person or issue. We lost, in part, because we shame and belittle too many opinions held by too many voters and that needs to stop. Let’s have these debates now, determine a new strategy for our party since our existing one failed, and then unite to oppose the Trump agenda wherever it imperils American values.”

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

A Washington, D.C. councilmember accused by federal authorities of accepting $156,000 in bribes is expected to appear in court this week just days after he won re-election in a landslide. 

The legal saga surrounding D.C. Ward 8 Councilman Trayon White Sr. is unfolding as the D.C. Council is considering expelling him from his position. Last week, the Democrat secured re-election by capturing nearly 76% of the vote, defeating Republican challenger Nate Derenge by a tally of 20,181 to 3,940.

“I feel confident that the people of Ward 8 have spoken. I feel like I’m going to win by a landslide but I’m still humbled and prayerful. I hope [it] sends a loud message to the DC Council about keeping the decisions in the hands of the people.” White told WJLA on Election Day. 

“I’m under a lot of scrutiny right now on this season in my life but I am forever prayerful and grateful for all God has done in my life and the people that have been supporting me along the way,” he added. 

DC COUNCILMAN STUFFED POCKETS WITH ENVELOPES OF CASH IN ALLEGED BRIBERY SCHEME, FEDS ALLEGE 

The Justice Department, citing a criminal complaint charging White with bribery, alleges that “beginning in June 2024, White corruptly agreed to accept $156,000 in cash payments in exchange for using his position as a D.C. Councilmember to pressure government employees at [the] Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and [the] D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services to extend several D.C. contracts.” 

“The contracts at issue were valued at $5.2 million and were for two companies to provide Violence Intervention services in D.C.,” the Justice Department added.  

“According to the complaint, White’s agreement with a confidential human source (the owner of the companies) – including the source’s payments to White of $35,000 in cash on four separate occasions (June 26, July 17, July 25, and August 9, 2024) and the source showing White a document reflecting how White’s three-percent cut was calculated based on those contracts – was captured on video,” the DOJ also said. 

White reportedly faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. 

FBI ARRESTS DC COUNCILMAN WHO IN 2018 ACCUSED JEWISH FINANCIERS OF ‘CLIMATE MANIPULATION’ 

In September, White – who once chaired the Committee on Recreation, Libraries, and Youth Affairs – was removed from that committee position by the D.C. Council, according to Fox5 DC. 

The local station reported that the Council has brought in an outside legal firm to help it conduct an investigation into White’s alleged actions, with a report on that expected by Dec. 16. 

If the Council decides to expel White, that would not happen until early next year, Fox5 DC reported. 

White is expected to appear at a court hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 13, for his federal case. 

He previously rejected a plea deal and prosecutors are now asking for jury selection to begin in July 2025, according to WTOP. 

Fox News’ Pilar Arias, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

President-elect Trump reportedly named Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations. 

“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement to the New York Post. 

Stefanik, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, confirmed the appointment in a statement of her own to the outlet. 

“I am truly honored to earn President Trump’s nomination to serve in his Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” Stefanik told the Post. “During my conversation with President Trump, I shared how deeply humbled I am to accept his nomination and that I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the United States Senate. President Trump’s historic landslide election has given hope to the American people and is a reminder that brighter days are ahead — both at home and abroad.” 

STEFANIK SLAMS DEMOCRATS’ ‘SCARE TACTICS’ ON TRUMP’S RECORD WITH WOMEN ON IVF, ABORTION

Stefanik, the fourth-highest ranking House Republican, is a frequent figure on television where she advocates for the GOP side on a number of issues, including Israel and what she refers to as the “Biden Crime Family.” 

By contrast, the Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, does not seek much press coverage. 

IRAN’S CYBER STRIKE ON TRUMP CAMPAIGN: STEFANIK SLAMS FBI FOR ‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’ TO AID DEMS

Stefanik, who was elected to her sixth term in the House last week, made national headlines for grilling the presidents of Ivy League universities about the rising antisemitism on college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. 

“The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak U.S. leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries,” Stefanik added in her statement to the Post. “I stand ready to advance President Donald J. Trump’s restoration of America First peace through strength leadership on the world stage on Day One at the United Nations. “

Montana has officially solidified itself as a red state, ending a long period of Democratic leadership with the ousting of the last statewide Democrat in the 2024 election.

Montana’s first two senators, selected after joining the union in November 1989, were Republican. The state elected another set of Republicans to the Senate in the early 1900s, but Montana would not see another GOP pair elected to the chamber until 2024 – more than 100 years later.

And for the first time since 1897, Montana is seeing a sweep of Republican leadership across the Senate, governorship and congressional seats.

But Montana’s road to red started in 1997, the year the state started consistently electing Republicans to the House of Representatives.

NAVY SEAL OUSTS 3-TERM SEN. JON TESTER IN MONTANA SENATE RACE

When Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, took office in 2007, he locked in a predominantly blue Montana with two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor that year. 

IN & OUT: TRIO OF LONGTIME DEM SENATORS ELECTED SAME YEAR WERE VOTED OUT IN 2024

But the state saw a significant shift in 2014 when Republican Sen. Steve Daines flipped one of the long-held Democratic Senate seats in Montana – the beginning of a red wave that would eventually overtake the entire state.

As of 2021, Montana’s gubernatorial seat has remained consistently occupied by a Republican.

Tester eventually became the only Democrat to hold a statewide seat in Montana, but his 18-year stand came to an end on Tuesday when Republican Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy ousted him in one of the most closely watched Senate races of the 2024 cycle.

Daines recently spoke with Fox News Digital about Montana’s changing electorate.

“I think what’s happened is Montana, in terms of their voting and their thinking, has moved a bit more right,” said Daines. “The biggest problem for the Democrats is they’ve moved so far left. This is not the same Democrat Party that I grew up with here in Montana.”

Daines, who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for the 2024 election cycle, noted that the shift to the right is also the result of many Republicans having moved to Montana from blue states over the years. 

“We’ve just seen an influx of New Montana residents over the course of the last five, six years. And those new residents, from states like California, Oregon, Washington, even Colorado, are fleeing heavy-handed blue states and coming to a red state,” the senator said in an interview.

“And so it’s not just the quality of life that is attracting these newly minted Montanans. It’s also the quality of leadership. They want to see center-right leaders who hold their values as they flee these liberal states. So we refer to these new Montanans as political refugees, not as political missionaries. They’re coming to join us, not to change us.”

As of 2025, Montana will be represented by Daines, Sheehy, Gov. Greg Gianforte, Rep. Ryan Zinke and Rep.-elect Troy Downing.

EXCLUSIVE: As President-elect Donald Trump privately storyboards his cabinet choices, one top state official who is rumored to be on the shortlist for Secretary of Education is releasing his game plan for shifting the department’s duties to states and parents, Fox News Digital has learned.

In a memo to Oklahoma parents and school administrators, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters will state that the federal agency has “hijacked our education system using taxpayer dollars to impose harmful policies and control what’s taught in our schools.”

Some issues Walters said he is bringing to the fore both in the memo and what he is calling a Trump Education Advisory Team to be announced Monday.

The Department of Education is a relatively new stand-alone cabinet agency created under former President Jimmy Carter, which his successor, Ronald Reagan, called to shutter during his 1982 State of the Union.

OKLAHOMA SCHOOLS CHIEF BILLS KAMALA HARRIS $474M FOR COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Tenets include ending “social indoctrination” in the classroom and promoting patriotism through curriculum.

In a Friday interview, Walters said the team will organize priorities for schools to be in line with Trump administration education policies, based on what the president-elect has signaled that he will do in that regard.

With the prospect of a shuttered Department of Education, Walters said that he will plan out how to fill any holes left by federal programs and develop legislative recommendations.

At an October rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump said he is “going to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states.”

“And we’re going to do it fast. We’ll get somebody great [as secretary].” He namedropped former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. who had accompanied him, as well as Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Walters also remains “on Republicans’ radar” in that regard, according to Education Week.

He said on Friday that Democrats failed to challenge Trump on education policy likely because his positions already resonated with the American public, alluding to the recent scholastic controversies in Virginia and elsewhere.

“We’re going to be the tip of the spear in instituting President Trump’s agenda. This is to ensure that we are in complete alignment with the most aggressive, comprehensive and conservative education agenda the country has ever seen,” he said.

Walters said he is confident that Trump will follow through and shutter the agency, and that it will result in increased aptitude among students less burdened by red tape, redundancies to state agencies, and social policy edicts.

STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF DIRECTS MILLIONS TO FUND A BIBLE IN EVERY SCHOOL

“I mean, President Biden came out in the middle of the summer and told us we had to put boys in girl’s bathrooms,” he said.

Whether Trump ultimately chooses him, Walters said he will remain focused on bringing Oklahoma in-line with Trumpian policies, and creating a roadmap for other states.

Improving education, he added, goes far beyond curriculum and will have lasting impacts on the economy, jobs and more.

“Parents wanted to hear that . . . our schools are not here to tell our kids this is an evil, racist country and building this indoctrination,” he said. “We want to support families and school choice.”

The transition plan he crafted also depicts how the education system can continue to run without the influence of teachers’ unions that comes with the present top-down system.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He said that American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten put his picture on a screen after Trump’s during a recent union convention, and that his response was Tuesday’s “definitive win” by pro-school-choice candidates.

“It’s just it’s so exciting to see this agenda come to fruition,” he said. 

In the current Congress, Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., also authored a bill abolishing the Department of Education. It was referred to and remains in committee. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for information on the cabinet shortlist, as well as to the Department of Education for a response to Walters’ plans. A representative for the latter referred Fox News Digital to the Trump campaign.

No Republican presidential candidate has won Philadelphia County since Herbert Hoover’s ill-fated 1932 contest, and Donald Trump was no different.

Pennsylvania’s largest city and several other blue bastions saw marked movement in the mogul’s direction last week, according to post-mortem figures.

Of the top 10 counties where Trump overperformed his 2020 numbers the most, six are or were majority Democrat.

Trump increased his margin the most – by 7.5 points – in the Poconos’ Monroe County, a rapidly suburbanizing area that has been trending blue with ex-pats from New York City suburbs moving in.

Philadelphia fell to sixth out of 67 counties, according to New York Times data. 

TRUMP TRAIN CHUGS PAST 2020 MARGINS PARTICULARLY AMONG HISPANICS, NORTHEASTERNERS

Vice President Harris still won Philadelphia by 59 points, but Trump increased his margin by five points, which, accounting for the exponentially larger population, is many more voters than other counties with similar margins. The turnout for Trump in the city may also have positive implications beyond the presidency.

Republicans are also on the rare verge of picking up a state Senate seat in the city, as local outlets reported Thursday. The challenger, Joe Picozzi, is primed to pick up Democrat Jimmy Dillon’s seat in the working-class neighborhood of Mayfair. 

All three of Pennsylvania’s row offices – attorney general, auditor and treasurer – will be Republican, no doubt buoyed by raw-vote tranches from dense counties where Trump overperformed.

After Republicans upset Democrats’ voter-registration advantage in Luzerne County – home to Wilkes-Barre – two months before the election, Trump also made his second-biggest gain there over 2020, by 5.7 points.

President Biden was born in Wilkes-Barre’s twin city, Scranton, where reliably Democrat Lackawanna County saw Trump’s third-best improvement.

Harris narrowly won Lehigh County, where the state’s third-largest city sits. Both candidates visited Allentown in the closing days.

Statistics yet to come will show whether Trump’s reported boost from Hispanics helped the trend in Lehigh, Philadelphia and Berks, home to Latino-majority Reading.

TRUMP RALLIES IN PA CITY WITH HIGHEST PROPORTIONAL HISPANIC POPULATION

Trump’s fourth-best improvement came from Lehigh, where the growing Latino population in bluer areas lives alongside historically redder Pennsylvania German communities.

Trump also won back Lehigh’s sister county, Northampton, from Biden after pulling off a shocking upset there in 2016. 

Together, Lehigh and Northampton form the postindustrial Lehigh Valley. On Election Day, local outlets reported hourslong lines at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem, where energized Democrat-supporting students at Lehigh University queued to cast their ballot.

In the end, it was Trump who overperformed in the bellwether region, which colloquially includes New Jersey’s Warren County. Trump handily won there, too, along with Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J.; another closely watched contest in a blue area.

Trump’s coattails also ran long in the Lehigh Valley as its Democrat congresswoman, Susan Wild, tweeted her concession to state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Macungie.

Wild survived three nail-biters since taking the seat upon the retirement of anti-Trump Republican Charlie Dent in 2018.

Trump also overperformed in rural Pike County, the state’s northeast corner, which is anchored by reliably Democrat Milford. 

He also squeaked out a 0.1% win in Bucks County, the most “swing” of Philadelphia’s suburbs. None of Philadelphia’s other collar counties have gone for a Republican since George W. Bush won Chester County in 2004.

Republicans historically saw their widest declines in those Philadelphia collar counties in the time since the Bush-Kerry contest, until Tuesday.

The prospect of a Republican Senate leader being elected from the region seems impossible at present. But now-Judge Dominic Pileggi of Delaware County did just that 20 years ago, and the Democrat supermajority city of Chester even elected Republican Wendell Butler Jr. for one term at the time.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But Trump made progress in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia this year.

One place that Republican activists had worked hard to flip red this year was otherwise-rural Centre County, home to Penn State University. While Harris ultimately took Centre by two points, Republicans made gains there with Trump performing three points better than in 2020.

Pennsylvania wasn’t all GOP gains, however, as Harris gave Democrats marginal hope in several mid-state counties, particularly those within the hard-fought contest between Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Democratic news anchor Janelle Stelson.

Trump won suburban Cumberland County, bordering Harrisburg, by 10 points, but Democrats performed one point better there than in past years, according to Times data.

The same could be said for neighboring deep-red Perry County, where Trump won by 50.

Adams County, home to Gettysburg; Jefferson County, home to Punxsutawney; Snyder County, home to Susquehanna University; and Juniata County all saw Democrats gain a fraction of a point over 2020.

Trump gained in Harrisburg’s otherwise-rural Dauphin County itself, but Harris won it by six.