The White House News

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., recently stepped away from his farm to raise money in Hollywood with a high-profile Democrat donor linked to lending discrimination allegations, which comes on the heels of the vulnerable politician also receiving fundraising help from an individual tied to corruption allegations this past summer.

Tester was pictured at a Los Angeles fundraiser on November 4th after the Montana lawmaker had already raked in astronomical amounts of campaign money from the Golden State. 

A similar fundraiser for Tester, with many of the same hosts, took place on June 27th – the same day the Montana Democrat was challenged by heavily supported Republican candidate and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy. During the second and third quarters of this year, he raised nearly $1 million from donors in California.

“Jon Tester knows where his supporters are at—and it’s certainly not Montana,” Montana Republican Party chairman Don “K” Kaltschmidt told Fox News Digital. “Tester votes like California’s Third Senator and elites on the liberal coasts know he’s in lockstep with their far-Left agenda that’s crushing Montanans with sky-high inflation, rising gas prices and higher taxes. Montanans are ready to retire liberal career politician Jon Tester and send a strong conservative to the US Senate in 2024,” 

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America’s Got Talent host Howie Mandel was listed as a guest at both fundraisers, which had a $500 minimum guest fee and host cost of up to $6,600, according to flyers from the events.

Some of Tester’s fundraiser attendees have also been tied to corruption and discrimination allegations.

Russel Goldsmith, a former top executive at City National Bank which reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to pay $31 million in restitution for “redlining” in Los Angeles County in January 2023, was at both the June and November fundraisers.

When Goldsmith was serving as CEO and chairman between 2017 and 2020, City National Bank reportedly “engaged in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination by ‘redlining’ in Los Angeles County” and “avoided providing mortgage lending services to majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Los Angeles County and discouraged residents in these neighborhoods from obtaining mortgage loans,” according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

“In addition, City National only opened one branch in a majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhood in the past twenty years, despite having opened or acquired 11 branches during that time period,” the DOJ press release continued.

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Goldsmith also hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Thomas Safran, a property developer who was also listed on the flyer for Tester’s June event, where the Montana lawmaker was not in attendance, is currently involved in a real estate corruption scandal after giving tens of thousands of dollars to the wife of L.A. City Councilman Curren Price’s consulting firm before Price was scheduled to vote on Safran-related projects. Price was criminally charged for not disclosing the payments that were made to his wife before the vote.

Both the June and November events were hosted by Nancy Stephens and Rick Rosenthal, two of Hollywood’s major Democrat donors.

During the 2014 midterm elections, Stephens blamed the Democrats’ losses on voters “binge-watching Orange is the New Black as though elections don’t have consequences!”

“Where is the disconnect? Is it voter ignorance, or lack of bragging in the things that were accomplished by this president, or is everyone just on Facebook or binge-watching Orange is the New Black as though elections don’t have consequences!” Stephens told the Daily Beast after the election.

William Mutterperl, former member of the Board of Directors of ESG-linked BlackRock, was another listed guest. According to the November flyer, the event was paid for by the Tester Victory Fund.

Tester’s campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Tester announced in February he would be seeking re-election in the Montana Senate as Democrats defend 23 of the 34 Senate seats up for grabs next cycle.

The mother of an American imprisoned in China for over 10 years and facing execution is calling on President Biden to take action during his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi to secure her son’s release for a crime she and many others say he did not commit. 

“President Biden, you need to please say Mark’s name and tell him [Xi] what do you want to let him go,” Katherine Swidan, the 73-year-old mother of Mark Swidan told Fox News Digital on Monday, the 11-year anniversary of the day her son was wrongfully arrested by Chinese authorities. 

“We have the people, We have the military. We have the money. What’s the problem?“

Mark Swidan was 38-years old when he went to China on business looking for flooring for construction work in November 2012. He was arrested after his driver and translator were allegedly found with drugs.

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A United Nations report determined that Swidan, who has no history of drugs, was not in possession of drugs on his person or in his hotel room, and records show he was not even in China at the time of the alleged offense.

The U.N. report said that the 11 other people arrested with Swidan as part of the alleged trafficking ring were unable to identify him and that the conviction was based on his visiting a factory that had once been used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Swidan’s mother told Fox News Digital she has “no confidence” that Biden and the State Department will be able to secure her son’s release during Wednesday’s visit and bases that lack of confidence on communications she has received from government officials who are “sympathetic” but unable to give her any concrete answers on where things stand with her son.

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The State Department, in a press release earlier this year in response to China upholding Swidan’s death sentence, referred to his situation as “wrongfully detained” and said the Biden administration is “personally focused” on securing his release.

Swidan’s mother told Fox News Digital that he has not had a medical exam in 9 years and has 4 abscessed molars, several fractures, a dislocated knee, hands that have been broken 5-7 times due to torture and that he has lost over 100 lbs in confinement. She added that the last time a U.S. official visited Swidan, last August, the official was “horrified” at Swidan’s physical condition. 

Swidan said that the Biden administration has consistently told her they have a “plan” to secure Mark’s release but that they have been tight-lipped about what that plan entails. 

“I don’t think you ever had a plan,” Swidan said. “I don’t think you’ve talked to them about Mark. Everything I see in the news on every single station, everything I see points to you having a speech, having a good old time, praising China and saying congratulations on your historic whatever and that does not sit right with me. China only understands strength.”

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Swidan’s mother says she was told by a U.S. official on Friday that her son had been moved to a new facility, Dongguan Prison, the previous week which she says she should have been told earlier.

“I said how come nobody told me?” Swidan recounted to Fox News Digital. “You can send me an email. It takes 2 minutes and I’m up all night anyway, because it’s daytime in China and I don’t want to miss a phone call.”

GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, who represents Swidan’s home state of Texas, told Fox News Digital that “China’s imprisonment of Mark Swidan is unjust and an outrage.”

“The Biden administration has everything they need to make his release a priority in their talks with the Chinese Communist Party,” Cruz said. “Congress has spoken out repeatedly and unanimously to urge them to use the full range of American diplomacy to bring him home. Enough is enough. It must be a top priority.”

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn, in a resolution earlier this year along with Cruz, wrote that the “human rights abuses Mark has suffered at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party are horrific and I will continue to push the Biden administration to expedite his case and secure his release.”

“Mark Swidan, a Texan, has been in a Chinese detention facility for over a decade for a crime he couldn’t have committed—he wasn’t even in the country,” Texas GOP Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, posted on X last week. “When Chairman Xi flies to the US this month, the White House must demand Mark is on that plane with him.”

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A State Department spokesperson directed a request for comment on any conversation Biden may have with Xi to the White House but said that the department “continually” raises Swidan’s captivity during meetings with Chinese officials and that there is “no greater priority” than Americans detained overseas.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Swidan’s mother expressed frustration that Blinken seems to “running from country to country handing out money like its water” while her son sits in prison sleeping on a concrete floor for over a decade.

“Throw them [China] a billion and let him out, you know, because with hostage situations that’s what they want,” Swidan said, adding that the Biden administration has had the “gall” to tell her in the past that they don’t know what China wants in exchange for her son.

Swidan says she worries every day that her son’s deteriorating condition and inhumane living conditions will lead him to take his own life in prison before his release can be secured. 

“I’m not going to give up hope and even if something happens to him, God forbid, I’m still going after these people,” Swidan told Fox News Digital. “Everybody that dragged their feet and made excuses whether they’re in China or in America. They are going to see the biggest global lawsuit they’ve ever seen and I don’t even want one penny out of it. I just want them to know what they did to this man.“

Biden is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday in San Francisco, California and the White House says the two leaders are expected to discuss the relationship between the United States and China, including the importance of maintaining “open lines of communication.”

It’s a slimmer field, but it’s the same story, as former President Donald Trump remains the commanding front-runner for the Republican nomination with nine weeks to go until the first votes are cast.

Sen. Tim Scott’s suspension of his White House campaign on Sunday came two weeks after former Vice President Mike Pence departed the 2024 GOP race. And four lesser known candidates who failed to make the debate stage have also dropped out, as a Republican field that once included over a dozen contenders keeps shrinking.

With the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses – which lead off the Republican presidential nomination calendar – fast approaching, Trump retains dominating double-digit leads over his nomination rivals in the latest surveys in the early voting states, and holds even larger massive advantages in national polls.

The over-arching question going forward is if the smaller field of candidates will allow one of the remaining contenders to make it a competitive race against Trump as the primary calendar progresses.

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“Nothing’s changed. Trump’s still ahead. And right now he’s on the trajectory to win,” longtime Republican consultant Dave Carney, a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns, told Fox News.

Pointing to the single digit support Scott held in the polls as he suspended his campaign, Carney said “It’s not like Scott getting out of the race is going to reshuffle the deck completely. His support isn’t going to change the dynamics that much.”

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But Carney also emphasized that “there’s no way to spin this other than its good news for Nikki Haley. We’ll see if she can take advantage of that.”

Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, is battling two-term Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second place in the GOP nomination race, far behind Trump.

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Longtime Republican strategist David Kochel, pointing to DeSantis and Haley, told Fox News that the winnowing of the Republican field “is a good thing for the two people who still have a shot at becoming the Trump alternative.”

“Trump’s already in the finals,” said Kochel, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns in Iowa.

And he highlighted that DeSantis and Haley are “trying to construct some plausible path to get a one-on-one shot with Trump that everybody agrees is essential to any notion that he can be derailed from getting the nomination.”

While DeSantis has the stronger name ID from coast to coast and leads Haley in the national polls, she’s tied DeSantis in the latest surveys in Iowa and leads him in New Hampshire – which votes second – and her home state, which holds the first southern contest.

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Haley’s enjoyed a rise in the polls thanks in part to well-regarded performances in the three Republican presidential primary debates. Haley’s campaign announced on Monday that they are reserving $10 million to run TV, radio and digital ads in Iowa and New Hampshire starting next month.

“We have plenty of money that we’re going to be on TV with,” Haley touted this past weekend in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re going to be strong in New Hampshire. We’re going to be strong in South Carolina, because we spent our money well. We’ve got great ground games in every one of those states. And we’re going to keep surging.”

But Iowa comes first, and DeSantis last week landed the endorsement of GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds, who’s very popular with Hawkeye State Republicans. Reynolds backing was a much-needed boost for DeSantis to alter a negative narrative.

DeSantis is also aiming to land the endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, who leads the Family Leader, a top social conservative organization in Iowa, a state where evangelical voters play an out-sized role in Republican presidential politics.

“Tim Scott and Mike Pence were surging resources in Iowa, looking to attract evangelical supporters, and unlike Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis is making headway with those voters,” DeSantis campaign communications director Andrew Romeo argued in a statement to Fox News.

Kochel said “I think Iowa’s going to be more determinative than ever as to who’s going to have momentum going into New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

“Trump already has a ticket. There’s maybe two more and maybe one more” coming out of Iowa, he forecast.

And Kochel predicted “a pretty fierce contest” in the weeks ahead between DeSantis and Haley. 

The 2024 GOP field also includes former two-term New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – who’s concentrating most of his firepower on New Hampshire – and multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – a 38-year-old first-time candidate who appears to draw much of his support from Trump’s MAGA wing of the party. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum – who didn’t make the stage at the third debate – and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison – who failed to qualify for the past two showdowns – are running long-shot campaigns.

Seasoned Iowa-based Republican strategist and communicator Jimmy Centers cautioned that “everyone needs to be clear-eyed that former President Trump will win the Iowa caucus on Jan. 15.”

“The question is whether Gov. DeSantis or Amb. Haley come in a strong enough second place finish where they put a sizable gap between themselves and whomever comes in third to be able to say to Republicans in New Hampshire and beyond that this is a two-person race,” he spotlighted.

Centers said Haley “has clearly performed very well” since the start of the debates “and voters are responding to that in Iowa.”

But he added that DeSantis enjoys some “momentum right now after Gov. Reynolds endorsement last week.”

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

A local Georgia Democrat recently found herself in hot water after she passed out in the street outside a sports bar and hurled insults at first responders as she was taken to the hospital in a state of distress.

Now-former Clayton County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Felicia Franklin claimed she ended up in that state after being given a date rape drug, but police have disputed that, saying there was no evidence of such a substance in her toxicology report.

Frankling was attending an event in Morrow, Georgia, on the night of Sept. 29 before she found by police lying on the street outside 404 Sports Bar and Grill. 

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According to police bodycam footage of the encounter, Franklin became increasingly agitated after officers helped her into an ambulance and emergency staff began transporting her to the hospital. 

“I don’t know what they gave me,” Franklin says at one point in the video before growing more unruly.

Franklin was eventually restrained and shouted “get the f*** out of my face” numerous times toward the staff before calling for her mother, which continued upon arrival at the hospital.

In a statement posted on social media a few days later, Franklin described the incident as “a deeply personal and troubling experience,” and claimed medical professionals believed she “was drugged with a GHB pill, more commonly known as the ‘date rape pill.’”

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“This incident has shaken me to my core. I was safe and did not leave the facility until Morrow EMT medical professionals arrived and rendered emergency support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” she wrote. 

“While I am still processing the details, I am committed to shedding light on this issue. I believe it’s crucial to use this moment as a catalyst for change. I will be working closely with authorities to ensure that justice is served, and I will also be advocating for improved safety measures at events like these,” she said, adding that no one else should have to experience what she claims she did.

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Contrary to Franklin’s claim, video of her interview with police after the incident shows officers informing her that there was no evidence of the date rape drug in her system, but there was evidence that she drank five alcoholic drinks and tested positive for cannabis.

Surveillance video from 404 Sports Bar showed Franklin consuming drinks and dancing, according to local ABC affiliate WSB-TV.

Franklin was removed from her position as Vice Chair of the Clayton County Commission on Oct. 23 after the bodycam video of the altercation was released. However, she remains an elected county official.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Franklin for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: A trio of former professional athletes are throwing their support behind independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take the White House.

NBA legend and 1992 “Dream Team” Olympian John Stockton, Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame member Ken Ruettegers and three-time North American Enduro mountain biking champion Kyle Warner are all endorsing Kennedy for president.

The athletes said they like the cut of Kennedy’s jib — all three pointed to what they say are the independent candidate’s genuineness, honesty and openness to conversations about policies as reasons they support him.

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Stockton said he believes Kennedy “has been put on this planet for just this moment in time” and that there’s “a real need for him and his leadership.”

“There’s a need for very smart people in these positions that have integrity that [is] off the charts, that have the stamina and strength to be able to speak and be a leader 24/7, not just on occasion or on blips,” Stockton said.

“And, maybe more than anything, a person that can un-divide this country,” the NBA legend continued. “I don’t think we’ve ever been this divided.”

“You look around, and you see all the different things that are pulling us apart,” he said. “Finally, we have, I think, the right man there available again. What an opportunity to bring us back together.”

Ruettgers said he has met Kennedy “a couple times” and that the independent presidential candidate’s “level of commitment to honesty” that he will “bring to our federal government, to the Oval Office, to the leadership position” is part of why he’s supporting Kennedy for president.

“I love the fact that he loves the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” the Packers Hall of Fame member said. “Man, that seems to have been eroded in our culture over the last couple decades.”

“And I love other things. He’s … for free-market capitalism, but he’s not for crony capitalism,” he continued. “He’s also for the average American, the middle class, the people who are down and out and cannot provide for themselves.”

Warner — who won the 2014, 2015 and 2016 North American Enduro Championships — said that he believes there’s “a level of elitism” currently in American politics, including with President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

“Whereas I think that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. … does a great job of being a populist and … understanding the plight of the common man,” Warner said. “I have had friends that have been in these big meetings at Facebook, at these censorship meetings with Robert, and they’re just normal people, everyday normal people, and he cares about them. He wants them to succeed.”

Warner, who is one of the independent candidate’s surrogates, said Kennedy “being down-to-earth and relatable is huge and there isn’t that level of elitism.”

The mountain biking champion also said he is a lifelong Democrat who grew up with a mother who “was on welfare.”

“We grew up on food stamps and the only reason we weren’t homeless was because of the government,” Warner said. “With that in mind, I was always a Democrat at my core.”

Warner blasted the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) choice to not host a primary debate as “undemocratic” and that he was happy to see Kennedy run as an independent, despite the “tough road” that comes with it.

“But right now when you see him polling in the 20th percentile already, and I don’t think there’s even been that massive debate that’s happened,” Warner said. “If he can get onstage with Biden [and] Trump … I think it will really do a lot for him, and I really do think he has a chance of winning this thing.”

Stockton said he hasn’t “necessarily been a part of a party, one way or another” and has carefully scrutinized candidates and their level of belief in their platforms.

“That’s a hard journey because it’s hard to get the truth,” he said. “And … one thing I can count on with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the truth.”

“He’ll look you right in the eye. He’ll tell you what he thinks. If you guys disagree, he’s willing to discuss it. His mind isn’t set,” Stockton said. “He’s not dialed into one political way of thinking, and if you can present a decent argument, he wants to hear it and perhaps his mind changes.”

Stockton, who has met the independent presidential candidate, said he thinks Kennedy’s openness is a “good thing” over a candidate who falls behind their party’s platform.

Ruettgers said he is a lifelong Republican who cast his first vote for President Ronald Reagan and that America is in “deeper trouble” if the country can’t get out of the two-party mindset.

“It’s time to make that move and that jump,” Ruettgers said. “So, if not now, when? And if not … Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then who?”

In addition to Ruettgers, Stockton and Warner, Kennedy has secured the endorsements of several other athletes, including New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and surfing legend Kelly Slater.

Kennedy has been gaining ground as he mounts his independent challenge to Biden, with a recent poll showing him outperforming both the current and former presidents among young Americans in swing states.