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Watch Blinken react to Biden calling Xi a ‘dictator’

President Biden this week again called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator,” despite touting “positive steps” between the two nations after key talks with his Beijing counterpart in San Francisco. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was caught on camera reacting to Biden’s remarks. 

“After today, would you still refer to President Xi as a dictator?” one reporter asked the president at a press conference in California on Wednesday, referring to similar remarks Biden made earlier this year. 

“Look, he is,” Biden said. “He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different than ours.” 

Video of Blinken’s visible reaction to Biden’s soundbite is making the rounds on social media amid concerns about heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing. 

Earlier this year, Blinken appeared to back Biden’s use of the term to describe the Chinese leader. Asked about the remark in June, Blinken said that Biden “speaks for all of us.”

Biden also said in June that he didn’t think the comment had “had any real consequence.”

On Wednesday, Biden touted cooperation between the two countries.

“I welcome the positive steps we’ve taken today,” Biden said.

“We’re talking to our competitors and just talking, just being blunt with one another, so there’s no misunderstanding, as a key element to maintaining global stability and delivering for the American people.” 

A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, though, told reporters Thursday that “this statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation,” according to a Reuters report. The spokesperson reportedly did not mention Biden by name.

Biden met with Xi on the sidelines of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco, their first face-to-face meeting in nearly a year. The meeting comes amid heightened tensions throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter enters hospice care

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has entered hospice care at her home in Georgia, according to a statement from the Carter Center on behalf of her grandson, Jason Carter.

Rosalynn, 96, and former President Jimmy Carter, 99, are now spending time with each other and their family while in hospice.

ROSALYNN CARTER CELEBRATES 96TH BIRTHDAY WITH HUSBAND JIMMY CARTER, PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM AND BUTTERFLIES

The Carter family asks the public for privacy and is grateful for the outpouring of love and support.

President Carter entered hospice care at his home in February rather than seeking additional medical attention after a series of short hospital stays, according to a statement from the Carter Center.

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North Dakota legislative map illegally disenfranchises Native voters, judge says

North Dakota’s 2021 legislative redistricting plan violates the rights of two Native American tribes because it dilutes their voting strength, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Chief Judge Peter Welte said the redrawn legislative districts violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The ruling came months after a trial held in June in Fargo.

In his ruling, Welte said the plan approved by the state Legislature to redraw voting districts in accordance with the latest census data “prevents Native American voters from having an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice” – a violation of the landmark civil rights law.

JUDGES DISMISS NORTH DAKOTA GOP LAWSUIT OVER NATIVE-FOCUSED STATE HOUSE SUBDISTRICTS

Welte gave the Republican-controlled Legislature and the secretary of state until Dec. 22 “to adopt a plan to remedy the violation.”

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe alleged the 2021 redistricting map “simultaneously packs Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians members into one house district, and cracks Spirit Lake Tribe members out of any majority Native house district.”

The two tribes sought a joint district and unsuccessfully proposed to the Legislature a single legislative district encompassing the two reservations, which are roughly 60 miles apart.

The tribes submitted a plan in federal court for a joint district that “doesn’t move very many lines statewide,” attorney Tim Purdon told The Associated Press.

“I’m hopeful that the Legislature will take a look at this, adopt the plan proposed by the tribes and stop the litigation, stop the spend of dollars on this litigation,” Purdon said.

The Legislature will “perhaps” have to convene, Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue told the AP. He said he expects to know more early next week.

North Dakota’s Legislature, which meets every two years, just wrapped up a three-day special session in October to fix a budget mess from a major state government funding bill that the state Supreme Court voided in September. The next regular session isn’t until January 2025.

Turtle Mountain Tribal Chairman Jamie Azure did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment on the ruling. Spirit Lake Tribal Chairwoman Lonna Jackson-Street did not immediately respond to an email for comment. The AP was not able to leave her a phone message at her office; its mailbox was full.

North Dakota Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe, who is named in the lawsuit, did not immediately comment on the ruling. He said he was still processing documents sent to his office and planned to meet with attorneys on Friday afternoon.

JUDGE REJECTS INITIAL ATTEMPT TO TEMPORARILY BLOCK NORTH DAKOTA BAN ON GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENT FOR MINORS

North Dakota has 47 legislative districts, each with one senator and two representatives. Republicans control the House of Representatives 82-12, and the Senate 43-4. At least two lawmakers, both House Democrats, are members of tribes sharing geography with North Dakota.

A three-judge panel earlier this month dismissed another federal lawsuit that targeted the redistricting, brought by two local Republican Party officials who challenged new House subdistricts comprising tribal nations as unconstitutional “racial gerrymandering.”

The Legislature created four subdistricts in the state House of Representatives, including one each for the Fort Berthold and Turtle Mountain Indian reservations.

Lawmakers who were involved in the 2021 redistricting process have previously cited 2020 census numbers meeting population requirements of the Voting Rights Act for creating those subdistricts.

Go to Source: Latest Political News on Fox News

House committee launches investigation into FDIC workplace allegations

The House Financial Services Committee plans to open an investigation into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in response to recent reports that the banking regulator fostered a toxic work environment plagued by sexual harassment and misogyny.

The investigation will focus on the allegations of “widespread and entrenched misconduct and toxic work environment,” as well as the potential impact on “the safety and soundness of the banking system,” the top Republican members on the panel announced on Friday.

In a letter to FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, Financial Services Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Subcommittee Chairmen Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) and Andy Barr (R-Ky.) expressed concerns about the agency’s ability to tackle the reported workplace problems.

“Because ‘the agency’s problems stretch back more than a decade and have persisted through changes in leadership, administrations and internal investigations,’ we are concerned the FDIC, under your leadership, lacks the ability to address the problems,” the lawmakers said.

“Our concern is underscored by your nearly 20-year tenure in all aspects of leadership and management at the FDIC, including serving twice as Chairman,” they added. “It has failed to instill the confidence the public needs to know their banking system is and will be safe and secure in the future.”

A pair of reports from the Wall Street Journal this week detailed employee complaints about a sexualized, boys club culture that drove women to leave the agency and raised concerns about Gruenberg’s management.

The FDIC chair appeared before both the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee this week for unrelated oversight hearings. However, he faced a grilling from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over the recent revelations.

After initially saying at Wednesday’s House hearing that he had never been investigated for inappropriate conduct during his time at the FDIC, Gruenberg corrected his testimony to note that he had previously been investigated in 2008.

“Chairman Gruenberg, the viability of your leadership is in question,” McHenry, Huizenga and Barr said in Friday’s letter. “Notwithstanding the toxic environment over which you presided in some leadership capacity over the last 18 years, your conflicting testimony in this week’s hearing before the Committee was alarming.”

The FDIC was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year after a series of high-profile bank failures prompted questions about the agency’s oversight capabilities. In an April report on the failure of Signature Bank, the FDIC noted that staffing challenges had impacted the quality and timeliness of its supervision of the bank.

The trio of Republican lawmakers highlighted the report on Friday, noting that it “did not consider how the longstanding toxic FDIC culture inhibits employee retention.”

“By ignoring or choosing to remain silent about workplace misconduct at the FDIC, your leadership may have contributed to the financial instability and threats to financial security of Americans that were observed in March,” the lawmakers added.

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

Harris shares advice for newlyweds after stepson’s wedding

Vice President Harris recently shared the advice she gave to her stepson and his new wife after their wedding.

“There were a couple of pieces,” she told People magazine. “One of them was, ‘Pay attention to your marriage. Pay attention to it and be purposeful and intentional about nurturing it.'”

“I gave them a piece of advice, which is that at the end of every day, find some way to check in, no matter how tired you are or how many miles apart you may be, even if it’s just at the end of the day, and say ‘I love you,’” Harris added.

Harris was an officiant at stepson Cole Emhoff’s Oct. 14 wedding to Greenley Littlejohn, according to People. Cole’s father is Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, whom she met on a blind date in 2014. Cole is one of two children Emhoff has from his previous marriage. 

“It was so wonderful that the kids asked me to do it,” Harris told People. “For us, we think of marriage as being not just between these two people, but the coming together of families. So it was very much with that spirit that we all participated.”

Her stepchildren refer to Harris, the first woman vice president, as “Momala.” She even has the moniker in the biography portion of her official account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

White House taps Vanderbilt oncologist to lead National Cancer Institute

The White House on Friday said it plans to appoint W. Kimryn Rathmell as the next director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research. 

Rathmell is an oncologist and kidney cancer expert who leads the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. As leader of the NCI, Rathmell will be instrumental in helping the White House achieve the goals of President Biden’s “cancer moonshot.” 

Biden last year pitched the moonshot initiative as a bipartisan pursuit with the goals of cutting cancer deaths in half in the next 25 years and improving the experience of those living with and surviving cancer.  

“The National Cancer Institute is central to the success of the Cancer Moonshot and Dr. Rathmell will lead the agency towards new ways to prevent, detect, and treat cancer and to ensure we reach more Americans with the tools we have to save and extend lives,” Biden said in a statement. 

Biden said Rathmell “embodies the promise of the Biden Cancer Moonshot and has spent her career driving toward the goals Jill and I set for the initiative, to improve outcomes and boost support for those facing a cancer diagnosis.” 

Rathmell succeeds Monica Bertagnolli, who was confirmed last week as director of the National Institutes of Health. The NCI position does not require Senate confirmation. 

Danielle Carnival, the White House’s cancer moonshot coordinator, said in a statement the National Cancer Institute is “central to the President’s priority to end cancer as we know it.” 

Rathmell “will lead the agency with urgency to drive new ways to prevent, detect, and treat cancer and make sure we reach more Americans with the tools we have to save and extend lives,” Carnival said. 

Cancer research advocates also applauded the move, noting the importance of developing new treatments while also improving access to them. 

Rathmell “is a voice of wisdom on how to align scientific priorities to solve for the most pressing challenges in cancer prevention, detection, and cure,” said Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society and American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

“Dr. Rathmell has lived experiences as a highly impactful translational scientist and cancer center leader, which will serve as a strong foundation for the NCI and the whole of government approach toward ending cancer as we know it.” 

Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill

Thousands of Chinese nationals, gotaways at the southern border since Oct 1: sources

Thousands of Chinese nationals have hit the southern border since the beginning of the fiscal year, along with hundreds of Afghans and other nationalities, while there have been thousands of “gotaways” who have evaded Border Patrol – as the U.S. tackles a migrant crisis that is global in scope and has renewed national security concerns.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told Fox News that since Oct. 1 there were over 6,500 Chinese nationals encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border, along with over 700 Afghans.

There were over 140 encounters from Syria, over 80 from Iran and over 1,500 from Uzbekistan, the sources said.

FOX NEWS FOOTAGE SHOWS RELEASE OF CHINESE NATIONALS INTO US AMID MASSIVE SPIKE IN ENCOUNTERS

Meanwhile, for the month of October, there were on average just over 1,000 “gotaways” a day – meaning migrants who evaded Border Patrol apprehension but who were caught on alternative forms of detection.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told lawmakers earlier this month that there had been approximately 600,000 gotaways in FY 23. 

There were more than 249,000 migrants encounters in October, and the arrival of migrants not only from countries in the Western Hemisphere but also from China — a top geopolitical foe of the U.S. – as well as “special interest” countries in the Middle East and elsewhere have raised concerns about the potential national security threat that could be arriving in the wake of the terror attack on Israel.

DHS said that it “is and always will work tirelessly to screen, vet, and prevent anyone who poses a threat from entering the country” and says that those screening efforts include biographic and biometric screening.

“Our multilayered border security efforts include various screening and vetting processes that work to detect and prevent individuals who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the United States,” an official said.

FBI DIRECTOR WRAY SAYS BORDER GOTAWAYS A SOURCE OF ‘GREAT CONCERN’ FOR AGENCY

On getaways, officials have stressed that apprehension rates have remained roughly the same to the average from the prior administration, and there is greater situational awareness of the border now due to increased technology. At the same time, officials have acknowledged a security risk at the border.

FBI Director Christopher Wray was quizzed on the numbers of gotaways at a House hearing this week and said it was a source of “great concern” to the agency.

“Well, certainly the group of people that you’re talking about are source of great concern for us. That’s why we’re aggressively using all 56 of our joint terrorism task forces,” Wray said.

FBI DIRECTOR WRAY WARNS TERROR THREAT TO AMERICANS AT ‘WHOLE OTHER LEVEL’ AMID HAMAS-ISRAEL CONFLICT

He later said that “any time you have a group of people in the United States that we don’t know nearly enough about, that is a source of concern for us from a perspective in our lane of protecting Americans.”

He later said “the threats that come from the other side of the border are very much consuming all 56 of our field offices, not just in the border states.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s FY 24 threat assessment warned that agents have encountered a growing number on the watch list and warned that “terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States.”

“Individuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States,” the assessment also said.

 

Go to Source: Latest Political News on Fox News

Haley rises but Trump remains dominant in early GOP presidential primary state: poll

With less than two months until the first votes in the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, two new polls in the first primary state show sustained momentum for former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

However, the surveys in New Hampshire, which holds the second overall contest in the GOP nominating calendar following the Iowa caucuses, reaffirm that former President Trump remains the dominant front-runner.

The polls also suggest that Trump’s supporters are more enthusiastic and committed about voting for their candidate compared to those backing the former president’s rivals for the nomination.

Trump stands at 46% support among likely Republican presidential primary voters in New Hampshire in a Monmouth University/Washington Post poll released on Friday.

Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the first two years of the Trump administration, is second in the survey at 18%.

Trump enjoys the backing of 42% of likely Republican presidential primary voters in a poll released Thursday by the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Survey Center and CNN. His support was relatively unchanged from the previous UNH/CNN survey in New Hampshire, which was conducted in September.

Haley stands at 20% support in the UNH/CNN survey, up eight points from the September poll. 

“While Trump continues to lead as the GOP field narrows, Nikki Haley seems to be consolidating her position as the alternative to Trump among New Hampshire Republicans,” UNH Survey Center director Andrew Smith told Fox News. “Importantly, Haley does not have the negative drag on her campaign compared with other Republican candidates.”

WHERE TRUMP STANDS IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL IN THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is concentrating most of his time and resources in New Hampshire as he runs a second time for the White House, stands in third place in both polls. He is at 14% support in the UNH/CNN survey and 11% in Monmouth University/Washington Post poll.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stands at 9% and 8% in the polls, with biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 8% in each survey. 

During his third straight White House run, Trump saw his lead in the GOP nomination race expand over the spring and summer as he made history as the first former or current president in American history to be indicted for a crime. Trump’s four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss — have only fueled his support among Republican voters.

Trump enjoys a massive lead in national polling — including 62% support in a Fox News survey released on Wednesday. However, his margins — while extremely formidable — are smaller in the crucial early voting states.

Haley, thanks to well regarded performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates this summer and autumn, has seen her support among primary voters rise. Haley has tied DeSantis for second place in some of the latest polls in Iowa — whose caucuses kick off the Republican nominating calendar on Jan. 15. 

WITH 9 WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE FIRST VOTES, TRUMP REMAINS COMMANDING FRONT-RUNNER AS GOP FIELD KEEPS SHRINKING

The UNH/CNN and Monmouth/Washington Post polls are the latest to indicate Haley in second place in New Hampshire, which will hold its presidential primary Jan. 23. She has also moved ahead of DeSantis for second place in her home state, which votes Feb. 24 and holds the first southern contest.

The new UNH/CNN survey indicates that Trump enjoys the backing of 55% of registered Republicans in New Hampshire. Support among independents who say they will cast a ballot in the GOP primary is evenly split among Trump, Haley and Christie.

Independents, known in New Hampshire as undeclared voters, make up slightly more than 40% of the state’s electorate.

Both polls also indicate that self-described Trump voters are more likely than those backing the former president’s rivals to say their choice for the GOP nomination is definite. 

The survey was conducted Nov. 10-14, entirely after the third Republican debate, which was held Nov. 8 in Miami. 

“Few likely Republican primary voters paid close attention to the November Republican debate and only about half are interested in further debates taking place,” the release from the UNH Survey Center spotlighted.

Additionally, UNH also noted that when it comes to the issues, the survey indicates that “foreign policy has become far more important since September, while support for a 15-week abortion ban has declined.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Go to Source: Latest Political News on Fox News