The White House News

Republicans hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives, though the size of that narrow margin will not be known until the final five undecided races are called.

The five House races that remain uncalled as of Monday morning are in Alaska, California, Iowa and Ohio. The balance of power currently sits at 218 seats for Republicans, and 212 for the Democrats.

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 nearly 3-point lead at 48.7% of the vote compared to Peltola’s 46.1%. The vote count sits at 155,120 to 146,782 with roughly 98% of the vote counted.

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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 morning.

Roughly 86% of the vote has been counted, and Duarte holds a 50.6% to 49.4% lead. The pair is separated by just over 2,000 votes.

Democratic challenger Derek Tran has taken the lead over Republican incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel in the 45th District. Steel had been in the lead by a few hundred votes late last week, but Tran now has a razor-thin 36-vote lead.

Roughly 94% of the vote has been counted for the 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.

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Bohannan has requested a recount in her bid to unseat Miller-Meeks. The Associated Press has not yet called the race because the margin was close enough that it could prompt a recount. Miller-Meeks has declared victory and said she was confident in her lead.

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 morning.

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Races with a margin of 0.5% or less trigger an automatic recount in Ohio.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Chris Pandolfo and Jasmine Baehr and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., an ardent supporter of Israel, said that he looks forward to voting to confirm Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

In a post on X, the senator accused the international body of persistently peddling “rank, pervasive antisemitism.”

A UN special committee report claimed that “the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”

Fetterman spurned the report.

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“What’s actually consistent is UN’s rank, pervasive antisemitism. I reject this report in its entirety. I look forward to voting for @RepStefanik to continue a strong and unapologetic pro-Israel position,” he tweeted.

President-elect Trump announced Stefanik as his pick for the role last week.

“She will be an incredible Ambassador to the United Nations, delivering Peace through Strength and America First National Security policies!” Trump said in a statement.

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Fetterman also called Trump’s selection of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for Secretary of State “a strong choice,” noting that he looks forward to voting to confirm Rubio – another strong supporter of Israel – to serve in the role.

Fetterman has been vocal about his staunch support for Israel in the wake of the heinous Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack against the U.S. ally.

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“My vote and my voice for Israel will not waver,” he declared in a post on X earlier this year.

FIRST ON FOX: The Boston Public School (BPS) system is facing a federal civil rights complaint after internal lesson plan documents were leaked showing the district was organizing racially segregated Whites-only programming for teachers and parents instructing them on how to be less racist. 

The parental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed a complaint last week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Boston-area office after uncovering several internal district lesson plans and other documents showing BPS was operating racially-segregated “affinity groups” for teachers and parents. PDE argued in their complaint, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, that the White-only group instructing them to be less racist violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

“BPS appears to have affinity groups for staff that excludes certain races. There is at least one affinity group that is for ‘White Staff and Parents Challenging Racism,'” PDE’s complaint stated. 

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Attached to the complaint were internal lesson plans and other curriculum materials geared toward White “affinity group” members, including a pilot curriculum for the “Mendell Affinity Group for White People Challenging Racism,” and a more general guide for the district’s “White School Leader Affinity Group[s]” that includes a mission statement, a list of norms and objectives, and several templates for activities that White-affinity group members can do to help them become less racist.

“We aim to educate, support, and respectfully challenge one another as white people to face the historical and current realities of racism,” the mission statement reads.

“If a district’s racially-segregated teacher support programs would earn a stamp of approval from the KKK, something has gone terribly wrong – and the fact that no administrators in the district seem to have opposed this programming raises additional red flags,” Nicole Neily, the president and founder of PDE, told Fox News Digital. “It’s not rocket science: including or excluding public school staff from opportunities on the basis of skin color is wrong.”

In 2023, PDE first published its findings on BPS’ racially-segregated affinity groups. Meanwhile, the year prior, PDE successfully challenged race-based school programming in another top Massachusetts school district, a move that resulted in the cessation of affinity groups that segregated students by race.

Federal guidance released by the Biden administration in 2023 stated that while schools could have candid discussions with students and faculty about race and racism, they likely could not create groups that exclude people on the basis of their race or ethnicity.    

EDUCATION DEPT. TO INVESTIGATE RACIAL AFFINITY GROUPS AT NEW YORK CITY MIDDLE SCHOOL

“Title VI generally requires schools to ensure that all their students, regardless of race, have an equal opportunity to participate in any educational programs and activities, including meetings, focus groups, and listening sessions,” the guidance states. “Restricting students’ participation based on their race would raise significant concerns and trigger strict scrutiny under [the Civil Rights Act].”

Despite the federal guidance and empirical evidence that racially-segregated “affinity groups” can lead to legal action, BPS website continues to devote an entire page to district-wide “anti-racism resources,” including a section with a “Guidelines and Best Practices” document explaining why the district “needs” affinity groups “based on racial/ethnic identity.” 

Michele Exner, a senior adviser at PDE, told Fox News Digital that in addition to Massachusetts, she has seen these “affinity groups” pop up in other states across the country, including California, New York and North Carolina.

“I think these sorts of programs start out well-intentioned, but the minute that you exclude a certain student or teacher solely based on race, that is absolutely wrong. It should not be happening,” Exner said.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said early Monday morning that the agency’s focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) will end next year.

Brendan Carr, who currently serves as the senior Republican member of the FCC, posted a snippet of the agency’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2025 on X, which stated that its second-highest strategic goal is promoting DEI.

“The FCC’s most recent budget request said that promoting DEI was the agency’s second highest [sic] strategic goal. Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI,” Carr wrote.

The only strategic goal listed before promoting DEI was pursuing a 100% broadband policy.

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The agency said in part that it wanted to “gain a deeper understanding of how [its] rules, policies, and programs may promote or inhibit advances in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.”

The goal would be reached by pursuing “focused action and investments” to eliminate any barriers that “perpetuate disadvantaged or underserved individuals and communities,” the FCC’s FY2025 budget said.

“In addition, the FCC recognizes that it is more effective when its workforce reflects the experience, judgment, and input of individuals from many different backgrounds,” the section concluded. “Advancing equity is core to the agency’s management and policymaking processes and will benefit all Americans.”

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The four goals listed after promoting DEI were, empower consumers, enhance public safety and national security, advance America’s global competitiveness and foster operational excellence.

Carr followed up his initial post with a GIF captioned: “When it comes to the FCC’s promotion of DEI, I have just one thing to say: Afuera (get out)!” 

Trump announced Carr as his choice for FCC chairman on Sunday, describing him as a “warrior for free speech” and someone who will “ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”

Carr, who was initially appointed to the commission in 2017 under Trump’s first term and continued working for the agency under President Biden, has been confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times.

The Pentagon is bracing for sweeping policy changes under the incoming Trump administration, and some high-level officers could find their careers on the chopping block. 

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to lead the Defense Department – an iconoclast whose pick roiled the defense industrial base.

With Hegseth, the Trump administration is expected to undo diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) accommodations and training within the military. 

“If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force or the United States Marines. Sorry,” Trump said at an Aug. 21 rally in Asheboro, North Carolina. 

“The military brass that led these absurd and insulting initiatives will likewise be removed, and they will no longer be in command. They’re going to be gone, gone so fast.”

TRUMP NOMINATES PETE HEGSETH TO SERVE AS DEFENSE SECRETARY

Longtime generals and high-level officers at the Pentagon could find their jobs under threat – even those who don’t typically qualify as political appointees.

“Well, first of all, you got to fire, you know, you got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast last week. 

“Any general that was involved – general, admiral, whatever – that was involved in any of the DEI woke s**t, it’s got to go,” he added. 

Hegseth also wrote in his recent book, “The War on Warriors”: “Our generals are not ready for this moment in history. Not even close. The next President of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired.”

“At the Pentagon, you can fire generals. Unlike, say, the CIA or the Department of Justice, where it’s hard to fire senior officials, because they’re protected,” said former Rep. Chris Stewart, who has been consulting the transition team on Department of Defense matters. 

The transition team is considering a draft executive order that establishes a “warrior board” of retired senior military personnel who would have the power to review three- and four-star officers and recommend removal of any who are unfit for leadership, the Wall Street Journal first reported. 

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Trump may quickly score favor with social conservatives and defense hawks by rolling back an executive order President Joe Biden signed that lifted a ban on transgender people from serving in the military. 

Transgender people were allowed to begin openly serving in the military in 2016 under an executive order of the Obama administration. But in 2017, Trump announced he would reimpose that ban. 

“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” Trump said in a social media post at the time. 

Trump’s ban ordered the discharge of anyone diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and prompted a flurry of lawsuits. 

The Trump Pentagon is also expected to roll back a Biden-era policy allowing troops to obtain leave and reimbursement if they need to leave the state where they are stationed to seek an abortion. 

The policy is rarely ever taken advantage of – the Department of Defense found that only 12 people used it over the course of six months from August to December 2023. 

Conservatives have pushed to block the policy since Biden adopted it after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

The Pentagon requested funding to the tune of $114 million for DEI initiatives in 2024. That money was to be used for “programs and initiatives aimed at furthering DEIA, and incorporating DEIA values, objectives, and considerations in how we do business and execute our missions.” Expect a major undoing of diversity initiatives. 

“DEI amplifies differences, creates grievances, and excludes anyone who won’t bow down to the cultural Marxist revolution ripping through the Pentagon. Forget DEI — the acronym should be DIE or IED. It will kill our military worse than any IED ever could,” Hegseth wrote in Chapter 8.

“The Left isn’t just interested in purging Trump supporters. Their ideology is based on marginalizing whatever’s normal, because they think ‘normal’ is always oppressive. By their logic, the military runs on the most normal and most oppressive thing of all: strong men. Just being a guy who hits the gym means you’re oppressing everyone around you,” he wrote. 

“A big reason for fewer training accidents is – less training. More time than ever is being spent on social justice PowerPoint moralizing – and meeting those metrics in today’s military is the most important standard to meet,” he wrote. “Every unit knows that social justice, trans, gender, woke training is the top priority. Not doing this training, or not doing it properly, will get a commander or junior leader fired. Not doing real field training becomes secondary.”

Republicans are already making big plans for the 119th Congress, many of which center on using a legislative maneuver called reconciliation. 

GOP leaders have suggested they are planning a mammoth-sized bill to implement President-elect Trump’s tax policies, lower the federal deficit and enact conservative policies early next year.

Reconciliation is a way to fast-track legislation on issues like taxes, the debt limit and federal spending by bypassing the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for passage, instead lowering it to a simple 51-vote majority.

Republicans also accuse Democrats of pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable in a reconciliation bill, and have signaled they may take a similar path in pushing for stricter border security measures while loosening restrictions on American energy production.

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“Though there are Senate rules limiting what we can fit in budget reconciliation, I want us to be bold and creative so we can include as many reforms in this package as possible,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., wrote to House Republicans earlier this month.

“Democrats expanded what is traditionally allowed in reconciliation, and we intend to do the same. Now is the time to go big to advance conservative policies that will make our country prosperous and secure again.”

Generally, reconciliation is only used once per year, and lawmakers usually reserve it for instances where they hold both houses of Congress. 

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In recent history, most reconciliation bills have been started in the House of Representatives, where the Constitution dictates tax policy must originate. 

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, whose committee will be at the forefront of crafting the reconciliation bill, told Fox News Digital he is already working with House GOP leaders and his Senate counterparts on the legislation.

“We’re going to push the outer limits to include as much pro-growth strategy as we can. One of those would be regulatory reform,” Arrington said. “Another one will be border security and immigration reform.”

The third goal Arrington raised was “to unravel the chokehold on domestic energy production.”

“We have H.R. 2, and then we have H.R. 1, the two big legislative priorities for our conference – secure the border and unleash American energy,” he said.

“I think the things in there that can be included in reconciliation and pass the Byrd rule. We’re going to be aggressively advancing those policies.”

The “Byrd rule” refers to the Senate parliamentarian weighing a reconciliation bill for what measures are relevant to budgetary and tax policy, and what must be removed.

Democrats wanted to use reconciliation in 2021 to pass progressive immigration policies that would have included granting citizenship to millions of people, including those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

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They also attempted to include a federal $15 minimum wage in a reconciliation bill – a charge led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

But the parliamentarian ruled against both of those proposals.

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It remains to be seen what Republicans will be able to include in their bill next year.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of restoration to do on the fiscal side,” Arrington said. “It’s part pro-growth strategies, and the other is part bending the curve on spending, and especially focused on mandatory spending. And I think there are a lot of straightforward ways to do it, common sense things that the American people from both sides of the political aisle will say are long overdue.”

President-elect Trump wants to abolish the Department of Education (DOE), but experts suggest the incoming commander in chief would need congressional approval before doing so.

“One thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work it needs back to the states,” Trump said on the campaign trail.

As Trump solidifies his agenda for a second term, attorneys explained the legal process he would have to go through before proceeding with plans to dissolve the federal department.

Andrew Stoltmann, an attorney and law professor, told Fox News Digital Trump would need approval from a supermajority in Congress to do away with the DOE.

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“President Trump does not have the ability to eliminate a federal department. Eliminating it would require congressional action, including a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate,” Stoltmann said. “So, even if Trump can follow through with what he says, he has to pull in some Democrats in the Senate, and that will likely be impossible.”

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Stoltmann suggested the most realistic scenario is if Trump appoints someone aligned with his agenda to head the department.

“He would need 60 votes in the Senate, and the realistic chances of that are virtually zero,” he told Fox. “Trump‘s best bet is to appoint somebody who will effectively be a figurehead at the Department of Education. This doesn’t eliminate the department, but it effectively neuters it during his term.”

Jamie E. Wright, a political pundit and founder of the Wright Law Firm, told Fox that to dissolve the department, Congress would need to pass new legislation that addresses the laws establishing and sanctioning the department.

“To pass such a bill successfully into law would require backing from members of Congress for the president’s agenda to advance smoothly through the legislative process — an endeavor that may present obstacles should opposition arise from legislators who consider the Department of Education crucial in ensuring consistent national educational guidelines and federal funding allocation for education initiatives,” Wright told Fox. 

“Removing an agency could pose a challenge due to the need for widespread political backing, unity in Congress and broad public approval.” 

Republicans have called to dismantle the agency for decades since former President Carter established the department in 1979.

Former President Reagan championed abolishing the education department and that decisions regarding schools be determined at the local level.

Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., introduced legislation in 2023 to “abolish the Department of Education and to provide funding directly to states for elementary and secondary education,” but the bill did not pass.

If the department remains intact, there are several candidates rumored to be potential candidates to head the education unit under Trump, including his former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.