GOP lawmaker presses Treasury on donation cashflow between pro-Palestinian charities and Hamas
FIRST ON FOX: A GOP lawmaker is calling for a federal investigation into whether Americans donating money to pro-Palestinian charities are unwittingly sending cash to Hamas.
“These terrorist organizations are getting millions of dollars from American citizens who think they’re giving out of the goodness of their heart to help people, and what they’re actually doing is funding [these groups],” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.
Murphy wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking what, if any, plan she has to ensure Americans’ charitable dollars are not going to Hamas and other similar organizations.
“I write this letter with grave concern regarding the use of fraudulent charitable organizations to fund Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups,” Murphy wrote.
“In the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack on the Israeli people, it is essential that the Treasury Department is taking the necessary action to clamp down on funding that bankrolls Hamas and its affiliates.”
Murphy also warned that social media could be used to help amplify alleged charity groups that funnel funds to Hamas.
“With the rise of social media, we have seen countless charitable organizations use these platforms to raise millions of dollars in donations intended to help Palestinian civilians,” Murphy said.
“By using social media, these charitable organizations have been able to crowdsource funds more easily from ordinary American citizens, who are likely not aware of Hamas’ use of fraudulent charitable organizations to fund its war against Israel.”
He told Fox News Digital he believes TikTok, for example, “absolutely” helps amplify pro-Palestinian messages over pro-Israel content. Murphy pointed out that TikTok is partially under China’s influence via its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
“I have firm belief to think that Russia, China, Iran collude on so many different things. They want to spread out American resources as much as they can,” Murphy said.
At least one organization, American Muslims for Palestine, is under investigation for where its funds are going. The Virginia attorney general is probing the organization “for potential violations of Virginia’s charitable solicitation laws,” according to a press release on AG Jason Miyares’ website.
Miyares’ office said he would “investigate allegations the organization may have used funds raised for impermissible purposes under state law, including benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”
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It comes just over a month after Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel Oct. 7 and slaughtered roughly 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
The attack prompted a swift and intense response from Israel. More than 10,000 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
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GOP lawmaker sounds alarm on ‘dangerous’ threat to US coming from porous border, and it’s not from Mexico
A Republican House lawmaker who is co-chair of the Northern Border Security Caucus is warning that the U.S.-Canada border is “virtually unwatched” and being overlooked in Washington D.C., in part due to the ongoing crisis at the southern border.
Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., spoke to Fox News Digital days after he testified to the House Judiciary Committee about the threats and challenges posed by the northern border, which is relatively unpatrolled when compared to the southern border.
“I wanted them to understand that we have a 5,500–mile border, the longest contiguous border in the world, to our north, and it is virtually unwatched right now,” he said.
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The numbers seen at the U.S.-Canada border are eclipsed by the enormous numbers seen at the besieged southern border, where there were over 2.4 million migrant encounters in FY23.
In the north, there were just 189,402 in FY 23, but that’s a sharp increase from the just 27,000 seen in FY 21 and 109,535 in FY22. Border officials have been sounding the alarm over the sharp increase, with the head of the Swanton Sector calling for additional help this year.
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In that sector, agents have seen encounters from 76 different countries, and numbers have surpassed the last 10 years combined. Now, with a hemisphere-wide movement of migrants, more people are trying to get in through the U.S.-Canada border, first by flying up to Canada from South America and then moving into the U.S.
“You don’t have to worry about coming through a jungle, you just walk across,” he said. “There’s not a river that you have to get across, there’s really nothing there to keep people from coming over.”
Kelly has pointed to stats that show that 55% of all illegal drug seizures by weight have come in through the northern border and that while numbers of border encounters and drug smuggling have increased, staffing has remained consistent since 2009.
Meanwhile, Kelly has noted the vast majority of the 564 terror watch list encounters in FY23 which occurred at ports of entry last year were at the northern border. He said that there was one 500-mile area where there was only one Border Patrol official keeping an eye on it.
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Republicans have stressed the dangers of deadly drugs like fentanyl and, more recently due to the Hamas terror attack against Israel, the risk of terrorists and criminals coming to the U.S. through the southern border. Kelly says that risk is present in the north too.
“We’re under this open border situation, and it’s getting worse and worse, and I think the drawbacks of it is some of the worst criminals in the world are coming into our country, people who are dealing in narcotics are coming in, they’re coming in from all over. And this is destroying a lot of our own culture, our own people,” he said. “And I just can’t imagine why there’s no concern about it.”
“Nobody talks about the northern border. They just don’t,” he said.
Kelly founded the Northern Border Security Caucus in February with Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., and he has introduced a resolution that would call on DHS to develop a formal plan to secure the northern border.
The Biden administration has also acknowledged the northern border in its security plans. It announced a new border deal with Canada in this spring, meaning that migrants who attempt to cross illegally between ports of entry into either country will be returned. Officials hoped it would deter illegal migration at the U.S.-Canada border, but Kelly dismissed it as “optics.”
Kelly said that there needs to be a focus both on the threats faced at the border, and there needs to be more support for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff, as well as improved policies.
“The staffing issue to begin with. But then an immigration policy that would make more sense we’ve been struggling with this for years,” he says. “We can’t seem to get anything done that is politically acceptable, which is, I think, a dangerous path to go down.”
He said that he believed eventually people will register the threats at the northern border, but he wants that to happen now.
“At some point, people are going to start talking about the number of deaths from fentanyl and other drugs that are streaming into the country up in the northeast. And they’re going to say ‘why wasn’t somebody doing something about it?’ And the answer is, well, we were trying to, but we couldn’t get any traction on it.”
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New ‘Orwellian’ HHS pronoun mandate forces employees to ‘deny reality,’ violate law: legal expert
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rolled out a new gender pronoun policy that one Heritage Foundation expert and former HHS official says violates employee rights and will result in firings for “misgendering.”
“HHS and the federal government is requiring its employees to speak falsehoods,” Roger Severino, the Heritage Foundation’s vice president for domestic policy and the former head of civil rights at HHS during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.
Severino first broke the story on X, formerly Twitter, last week. He wrote that HHS “imposed a transgender pronoun mandate on its employees who will now be forced to deny biological realities with their own words or face firing” and he included a screenshot of an email sent to employees at the department.
Severino told Fox News Digital that the First Amendment protects federal employees from being required to speak falsehoods, being compelled to adopt a state-approved ideology, and requiring people to deny their own faith.
“These policies would require all of those things,” said Severino, a Harvard Law School graduate.
“All employees should be addressed [by] the names and pronouns they use to describe themselves,” the email to HHS employees stated as part of its push for “Gender Identity and Non-Discrimination Guidance” that it says protects “employee rights and protections related to gender identity.”
Severino says the push began with two White House executive orders, one in January 2021 and one in June 2022, that were framed as ways to combat “gender discrimination” on the base of “gender identity.”
“All applicants and employees should be addressed by the names and pronouns they use to describe themselves. Using correct names and pronouns helps foster workplaces free of discrimination and harassment,” the U.S. Office of Personnel Management guidance states.
“This practice also creates an inclusive work environment where all applicants and employees are treated with dignity. The isolated and inadvertent use of an incorrect name or pronoun will generally not constitute unlawful harassment, but, as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has explained, continued intentional use of an incorrect name or pronoun (or both) could, in certain circumstances, contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment.”
In an unlisted YouTube video linked in the email to HHS employees last week that features Assistant HHS Secretary Rachel Levine, who identifies as transgender, says “who you know yourself to be is valid.”
Severino explained to Fox News Digital that the “Orwellian” policy means that “misgendering” someone would qualify as violating anti-discrimination law which “gets you fired.”
The video also states that employees “can wear clothing” and “use restrooms” based on what gender they identify as.
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“Men who identify as female have the right to get naked in front of female colleagues in the locker room,” Severino said about how this rule relates to HHS locker rooms and bathrooms.
“It used to be that if you allowed a man to get naked in front of a woman in the workplace that is instantly a violation of civil rights law,” Severino said. “That’s the quintessential hostile work environment, subjecting women to that. Now, the policy says to the women who may be uncomfortable with that situation, they’re the ones who have to leave.”
Severino, who said it was “breathtaking” the Biden administration would unveil this policy, said that there are “strong arguments” that employees have legal recourse against policies like this and can “exercise their rights.”
“Governments cannot compel speech and certainly cannot compel false speech,” Severino said, citing West Virginia vs. Barnette in which even though children being told to say the pledge of allegiance during World War II was a good thing, the Supreme Court ruled that parents and students have a right to dissent from that view.
“We protect the right of political dissent and here it’s a pledge of allegiance to the Rainbow flag that’s been essentially required,” Severino said.
Severino also said that employees have a “right to their faith” and “your boss cannot force you to deny your faith as a condition of working there.”
He told Fox News Digital that policies that force employees to deny gender reality or go against their beliefs absolutely have a negative effect on morale and production and that current government employees have told him as much.
“They are faced with a horrible dilemma,” Severino said. “Do they hope that they can fly under the radar and try to avoid the issue and keep a low profile and perhaps hide their faith so they can keep their job, or do they stand up and say this policy is wrong and fight for their rights? And then see a gigantic target on their back after that.”
Fox News Digital reached out to HHS and the White House for comment but did not receive a response.
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Ivanka Trump testifies she was not involved in discussions about her father’s financial statements
Ivanka Trump testified Wednesday that she was not involved in the creation of or discussions regarding her father’s statements of financial condition, which have fallen at the center of the non-jury civil trial against her family and the Trump Organization.
Ivanka Trump, who was an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, took the stand in the case stemming from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit.
TRUMP DEMANDS JURY, SAYS NEW YORK AG HAS ‘NO CASE’ IN HEATED TESTIMONY
The former president’s daughter testified about discussions regarding the Trump Organization’s vision on certain projects, like The Plaza Hotel and its plan to renovate a historic post office into a Washington, D.C., hotel. But said she did not remember discussing former President Trump’s financial statements.
“I don’t recall, with specificity, any discussion over financial statements,” Ivanka Trump said Wednesday.
She also testified that she had no role in general accounting deficiencies.
As for the statements, Ivanka Trump testified that those “were not things that I was privy to.”
Ivanka Trump left her role as EVP at the Trump Organization in 2017. She testified that move was due to her father’s election as president of the United States. Ivanka Trump served as a senior advisor to the president.
During her time at the White House, Ivanka Trump focused on the education and economic empowerment of women and their families as well as job creation and economic growth through workforce development, skills training and entrepreneurship.
The former president’s daughter was originally listed as a defendant in James’ lawsuit, in which she alleged Trump defrauded banks and inflated the value of his assets with the help of his children.
A New York Appeals Court, over the summer, dismissed Ivanka Trump as a defendant. That ruling also limited the statute of limitations.
Her court appearance came after her attorneys filed a notice of appeal last week to reverse to the decision to require her to testify. Their request was denied.
Her brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, both executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization, also testified during the trial that they had no involvement in the creation of financial statements, and said the Trump family did nothing wrong.
Former President Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said his assets were actually undervalued. Trump has repeatedly said his financial statements had disclaimers, requesting that the numbers be evaluated by the banks.
New York State attorneys rested their case at the conclusion of Ivanka Trump’s testimony Wednesday afternoon.
“Ivanka Trump was cordial. She was disciplined, she was controlled. And she was very courteous,” James said in a press conference Wednesday, but claimed that “based on the evidence, the documentary evidence, she clearly was involved in negotiating and securing loans, favorable loans for the benefit of the Trump Organization.”
Both the state and the defense are expected to present motions on Thursday. The defense will begin presenting their case on Monday.
Ivanka Trump’s testimony came after her father, former President Trump took questions on the stand for hours on Monday — an unprecedented proceeding.
The former president demanded a jury Monday and called the civil trial against him and his businesses a “disgrace,” while maintaining that James has “no case.”
Trump described his forced testimony as “election interference” while maintaining that his net worth is “far greater” than financial statements during testimony Monday.
“I think this case is a disgrace,” he said, adding that people are being “murdered” in New York as James is “watching this case.”
“It’s a disgrace. It is election interference because you want to keep me in court all day long,” Trump said while on the stand after testifying for more than five hours. “And Judge… I want a jury,” Trump told Judge Arthur Engoron.
James, a Democrat, sued Trump, his children, and the Trump Organization last year, alleging that he and his company misled banks and others about the value of his assets. James said the former president’s children — Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric — and his associates and businesses committed “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” on their financial statements.
James filed the lawsuit against Trump “under a consumer protection statute that denies the right to a jury,” a Trump spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“There was never an option to choose a jury trial,” the spokesperson said. “It is unfortunate that a jury won’t be able to hear how absurd the merits of this case are and conclude no wrongdoing ever happened.”
One of Trump’s attorneys, at the end of the former president’s testimony, said that in “33 years,” they have “never had a witness testify better.”
“An absolutely brilliant performance by President Trump. He’s not backing down. He’s told everyone the facts,” the Trump attorney said. “Now that the American people know what’s going on, maybe something will change.”
Engoron in September ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization committed fraud while building his real estate empire by deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.
Trump defense attorneys say they will likely move for a mistrial.
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GOP Debate: Haley takes incoming fire as presidential candidates battle for second place behind Trump
Nikki Haley gave as good as she got at the third Republican presidential primary debate – on a slimmed down stage during a showdown full of insults intertwined with serious policy discussions.
In a sign of the former United Nations ambassador and former South Carolina governor’s ascendancy in the 2024 GOP nomination race, Haley was repeatedly in the spotlight during the two-hour debate held in Miami, Florida, just a few miles from where former President Donald Trump – the commanding Republican front-runner – was simultaneously holding a rally.
Three of her rivals teed off on Haley, but it was biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy who fired the most shots.
It appeared to get real ugly and quite personal between the two candidates as Ramaswamy took aim at Haley’s pledge to ban the short-form video hosting service TikTok – which is a subsidiary of a Chinese owned company – over national security concerns.
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“She made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,” Ramaswamy argued. “So you might want to take care of your family first before preaching to anyone else.”
Haley quickly snapped back.
“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” she told Ramaswamy.
As some in the audience booed Ramaswamy – who’s tussled with Haley repeatedly in recent months – she charged “you’re just scum.”
Haley entered Wednesday’s debate on a roll – thanks to well-received performances at the first two showdowns that helped to propel her into battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the race to become Trump’s main rival.
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The debate started with Trump in the cross-hairs, as the former president skipped his third straight showdown with his rivals.
“He should explain why he didn’t have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much debt. He should explain why he didn’t drain the swamp,” DeSantis emphasized as he jabbed at Trump.
And Haley spotlighted that the former president “put us $8 trillion in debt, and our kids are never gonna forgive us for that.”
And when it comes to dealing with Russia’s war against Ukraine, she argued that her former boss is getting “weak in the knees.”
But Haley and DeSantis soon took aim at each other, fueling their burgeoning rivalry, with each accusing the other of being too friendly to China during their tenures as governors.
And Haley once again accused DeSantis of banning fracking in Florida, which he once again denied.
On the policy front, Haley reiterated her support for entitlement reforms. And on the combustible issue of abortion – on the day after abortion fueled Republican defeats in key ballot box contests across the country in the 2023 off-year elections – Haley noted “as much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice. And I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life.”
Haley and Sen. Tim Scott – a fellow South Carolinian – argued over the feasibility of passing a 15-week federal abortion ban.
“No Republican president is going to ban abortions,” she reiterated, as she spotlighted that the GOP doesn’t have the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass such a bill.
Later, in the post-debate spin room, Scott said in a Fox News Digital interview that “you should be willing to fight for what you believe in. Our party should be the party of life. A 15-week limit is plenty of time for people to make a decision about what they want to do.”
DeSantis made news during the debate by clearly saying the nearly two-year old conflict between Russia and Ukraine needs to come to an end.
“We need to bring this war to an end,” DeSantis. said. “The U.S. needs to focus more on other priorities, including the southern border…We need the Europeans to step up and do their fair share, and we need to get serious about this threat this country faces, which is the Chinese Communist Party.”
Ramaswamy spent much of the debate throwing bombs, mostly at Haley.
He described Haley, the only woman on the stage, as “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.”
She fired back saying her heels are actually five inches and are “for ammunition.”
In his opening answer, Ramaswamy also attacked the debate moderators. And pointing to Tuesday’s dismal performance by the GOP at the ballot box, he charged that “we’ve become a party of losers. He then demanded the resignation of Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel.
Asked by Fox News about the jab from Ramaswamy, McDaniel said after the debate that “everybody’s gotta get headlines. Right. I’m going to focus on beating Joe Biden. I am very proud of the RNC and our staff and the work that we’ve done to win back the House.”
The fifth contender on the debate stage, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, mostly kept his spotlight on policy, from the wars in Europe and the Middle East to economic matters and abortion.
But Christie, a vocal GOP critic of Trump, also took aim at the former president, who embroiled in four trials, including two for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
“Anybody who is going to be spending the next year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail and courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country,” Christie charged.
Trump, at his rally 10 miles away, once again tried to steal the spotlight.
“Nobody’s talking about it,” the former president told his supporters as he dismissed the debate. “Everybody’s watching us.”
Nicole Schlinger, a longtime Iowa based conservative strategist, told Fox News that Haley “came in with a reputation of being the strongest debater on the stage. Nothing tonight changed that.”
She offered that “DeSantis seemed to have more swagger tonight, and I think that’s directly correlated to [Iowa] Governor Kim Reynolds endorsement this week.”
But DeSantis didn’t reference the endorsement during the debate.
Pointing to Ramaswamy, Schlinger said that “Vivek was provocative as always.” But she added that “ultimately I don’t think going after Nikki Haley’s daughter will do him any favors.”
And she called the debate a draw, arguing that “I doubt anyone’s mind was changed.”
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White House rejects use of phrase ‘from the river to the sea’
The White House rejected the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea” just one day after the House voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for her comments on the Israel-Hamas war, including the use of the phrase.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment directly on the move against Tlaib, but she said the administration has been clear in denouncing similar language.
“We’ve been, you know, we’ve been clear,” she said. “You’ve heard from members of [the National Security Council] … that when it comes to the phrase that was used, ‘From [the] river to the sea,’ it is divisive. It is hurtful to many — many find it hurtful and also many find it antisemitic. And so obviously, we categorically reject applying the term to this conflict.”
Tlaib posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, over the weekend saying President Biden “supported the genocide of the Palestinian people” and included clips of protesters chanting “from the river to the sea,” which the Anti-Defamation League characterizes as antisemitic.
She later doubled down on her use of the phrase but said it was “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”
The pro-Palestinian slogan refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel. It is seen by many as advocating for the removal of Israel to make way for a free Palestinian state.
White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer pushed back Sunday on the remarks made by Tlaib.
“Look, we strongly disagree with some of that messaging and with some of the terms used to describe this conflict,” Finer told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
The House voted to censure Tlaib on Tuesday night for her criticism of Israel in the days and weeks following Hamas’s deadly attack on the country. The censure resolution, introduced by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), accused Tlaib of “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
Rep. Bradley Schneider (D-Ill.), one of the 22 Democrats who voted to censure Tlaib, also circulated a statement Tuesday condemning Tlaib’s recent use of the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
“We reject the use of the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ — a phrase used by many, including Hamas, as a rallying cry for the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of the Jewish people,” Schneider and a group of lawmakers wrote in a statement.
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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders makes major endorsement in 2024 Republican presidential race
Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders made a major endorsement Wednesday in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
“Our country has never needed Donald Trump more than we do right now,” Sanders told a crowd gathered at a Hialeah, Florida rally in support of former President Donald Trump.
“We’ve got out of control inflation, violent crime, an open border, a rising China. Biden and the left have failed over and over again, and they know it, and you know it, and it is time for a change. That is why tonight I am so proud to endorse my former boss, my friend, and everybody’s favorite president, Donald J. Trump,” she added.
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The rally is seen as a counter programming move by Trump, as the event is being held simultaneously as the third GOP presidential primary debate just a few miles away in Miami.
Trump – the commanding front-runner for the nomination as he makes his third straight White House run – is once again skipping out on participating in the debates with his Republican rivals.
Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, served as White House press secretary for two of Trump’s four years in office. And she’s been a strong Trump ally since he left the White House.
She was convincingly elected Arkansas governor last November, had stayed neutral until now in the GOP presidential primary race. Her holding off on making an endorsement irritated the former president, according to sources in Trump’s political orbit.
DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, are currently battling for second place in the polls in Iowa and the other crucial early voting states.
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Trump to U.S.-Hating, Jihadist-Celebrating Alien Residents: ‘We Will Find You, and We Will Deport You’
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders Endorses Trump at Rally: ‘Our Country Has Never Needed Donald Trump More’
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