President Biden spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus Saturday night in Washington, D.C., where he attributed Congress’ failure to reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown thus far and political violence to a group of ‘extreme Republicans.’

The president and Vice President Harris both delivered remarks at the annual awards dinner for the CBC Foundation 52nd Annual Legislative Conference National Town Hall. 

Harris said during her remarks that the CBC is helping to ‘lead the fight for reproductive freedom. Just as you continue to lead the fight for civil rights. And I do believe the right to be safe is also a civil right. Today, however, gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in America. But instead of protecting our children, extremists obstruct.’ 

The vice president also blasted Florida officials for ‘intend[ing] to tell our children that enslaved people benefited from slavery.’ She was referring to a controversial line in Florida’s new instruction on African American history, which addresses ‘how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.’

In taking the stage after Harris introduced him, Biden thanked his vice president for her partnership and ‘always fighting for freedom.’ He said Harris is ‘doing an incredible job, and she really is. I told you I was gonna have a smart vice president and an African American woman, and we got one.’ 

He also thanked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who received a Co-Chair’s Award during the event, saying ‘No wonder I’m doing okay.’

Biden said some members of Congress are ‘sowing so much division’ and willing to shut down the government, referring to a few congressional Republicans who have signaled that they would not support the deal he brokered with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to avoid a government shutdown on October 1.

‘Just a few months ago, after long negotiations between myself and the new speaker, we agreed to spending levels to government fund essential domestic and national security priorities, while still cutting the deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade,’ Biden said. ‘Now, a small group of extreme Republicans don’t want to live up to the deal. So now everyone in America could be forced to pay the price.’

‘Let’s be clear. If the government shuts down, that means members of Congress and members of the U.S. military are going to have to continue to work and not get paid,’ he continued. ‘A government shutdown could impact everything from food safety to cancer research to Head Start programs for children. Funding the government is among the most basic responsibilities of Congress. And it’s time for Republicans to start doing the job America elected them to do.’

The president also spoke on the 2024 election, reiterating his previous comments claiming ‘democracy is at risk’ and that there is a ‘battle for the soul of America.’ Biden said Saturday that Americans no longer doubt that U.S. democracy is at stake now and was at stake in 2020.

‘And thank God, because of all of you, we won,’ he said of the 2020 presidential election. ‘I might add, we won convincingly and clearly by a margin of seven million votes, 81 million votes cast. The most in history. And that victory withstood not one, but 60 legal court challenges and an insurrection on January 6. So I’m running again.’

Biden, 80, noted that there are conversations surrounding whether he fit for office given his advanced age, but said he ‘knew what to do’ to support the U.S. and its allies when he took office in 2021.

‘When I came to office, this nation was flat on its back,’ Biden said. ‘I knew what to do. I vaccinated the nation and rebuilt the economy. When Russia invaded Ukraine. I knew what to do. I rebuilt NATO. And brought our alliance to rally the world. And above all, when democracy was taken I knew what to do.’

He later joked that he entered the U.S. Senate ‘200 years ago’ in the early 1970s.

Addressing political division and violence, the president blamed former President Trump and his MAGA Republican base.

The president said hate groups all across American have been emboldened and that the intelligence community has said the greatest terroristic threat to the U.S. is domestic.

‘That’s the greatest terrorist: domestic. Because far too often, it’s still the case, you can get killed or attacked walking on the streets of America just because you’re black or because you’re wearing a symbol of your faith … I want the entire nation to join me in sending the strongest, clearest, most powerful message possible that political violence in America is never, never, never acceptable in our democracy. Never. Because democracy is at stake,’ he said.

Biden added, ‘Let there be no question Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to spread anger, hate, and division. They seek power at all costs, they’re determined to destroy this democracy. I can not watch that happen, nor can you. And I’ll always defend, protect and fight for our democracy.’

The president also claimed he ‘started off as a kid in the civil rights movement in Wilmington, Delaware when I was in high school.’

‘When I ran the first time for the Senate at 29 years old, and Nixon won by 64% in my state, I won because virtually 90% of the African-American community — we have a large community — voted for me,’ Biden said. ‘I owe you.’

Biden also explained that the 2017 Charlottesville shooting and Trump saying at the time that there are ‘very fine people on both sides’ led him to seek the presidency in 2020.

‘The president at the time was asked what happened. He said, quote, ‘There are very fine people on both sides. Very fine people on both sides.’ When I heard that, I knew I could no longer sit on the sidelines because the President of the United States said yes, drawing a moral equivalence equivalency between those who stood for hate, those stood against it,’ Biden said.

Biden also appeared to have some gaffes during his speech Saturday night, mispronouncing rapper LL Cool J’s name and initially referring to the artist as ‘boy’ before quickly correcting himself. He was attempting to acknowledge LL Cool J and MC Lyte for their musical talents as the two artists received the Phoenix Award for their musical contributions at the annual awards dinner.

‘Two of the great artists of our time representing the groundbreaking legacy of hip hop in America, LL Jay Cool J, uhhh…’ Biden said as the crowd laughed. ‘By the way that boy — that man’s got biceps bigger than my thighs.’

Biden, notably, has a history of referring to African Americans as ‘boy,’ a term considered a racial epithet when used to describe black men, including earlier this year when referring to Maryland’s Democrat Gov. Wes Moore, the state’s first black governor.

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Moderate lawmaker Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said Saturday that threats from hardliners to unseat House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., were all bark and no bite.

Bacon told Fox News Digital that McCarthy is supported by some 200 Republicans in the House GOP conference and that a handful of insurgents, the loudest being Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., would only play into the Democrats’ hands with an attempt to unseat the speaker.

‘[Gaetz] represents two or three percent of the conference, frankly. And I do think a lot of the folks, partisan Democrats, want to see Matt force the issue because it creates problems for us,’ said Bacon, who represents Omaha and surrounding counties to the west. 

‘The bottom line is the 95% should not cower to or be bullied by five people. We’ve got to do the right thing. Let’s just work in a bipartisan manner to begin with and move these five people to the side and start governing for the country,’ he added. 

The immediate problem for House Republicans is the looming deadline to fund the government by Sept. 30. Divisions in the GOP conference derailed the annual defense spending bill last week, one of the 12 appropriations bills considered must-pass to prevent a government shutdown. 

Most of the disagreement is centered around whether to pass a stopgap funding bill extending the current year’s spending agreements, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to fund the government for 30 days while lawmakers hash out a deal on 12 appropriations bills. 

GOP proposals for a CR have included deep spending cuts for those 30 days. But there are still several conservatives who said they would not vote for a CR no matter what, arguing it would extend the previous Democratic Congress’s priorities.

Gaetz is one of them. He went to the House floor on Sept. 12 and threatened to bring up a motion to vacate the chair — which would remove McCarthy’s gavel — ‘every day’ so long last the GOP leader did not comply with his demands.

‘No continuing resolutions — individual spending bills or bust. Votes on balanced budgets and term limits. Subpoenas for Hunter Biden and the members of the Biden family who’ve been grifting off of this country. And the impeachment for Joe Biden that he so richly deserves,’ Gaetz listed. ‘Do these things or face a motion to vacate the chair.’

McCarthy accommodated hardliner demands to begin an impeachment inquiry against Biden but so far has not been able to come up with a deal on spending that Republicans can pass with their narrow majority. It only takes four dissenting GOP votes to block a bill from passing if Democrats unite in opposition. 

However, Bacon says Gaetz’s threat is empty. ‘It only takes four Republicans to potentially put [McCarthy] at risk and lose the speakership, but the fact is they have no alternative,’ he said Friday in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press NOW. 

‘They have nobody else that they can offer to put up there that the 200 of us would ever vote for,’ Bacon added. 

He said McCarthy’s position is ‘secure’ and suggested that were the speaker to ignore the five to 10 hardliners making demands and make a bipartisan spending deal, ‘you’d have some Democrats vote ‘present’ and not vote to vacate.’ 

‘We have 5 people who want it their way or the highway,’ Bacon said. ‘The problem is the other 210 don’t.’ 

Reached for comment, Gaetz said his efforts have forced conservative concessions from McCarthy. 

‘In the last two weeks, Kevin McCarthy has relented on a number of fronts, most notably moving single subject spending bills (finally!). He didn’t do this because I just asked nicely,’ he told Fox News Digital. 

‘Moreover, the premise of Mr. Bacon’s argument is that Democrats would save McCarthy. That would mean he works for them. I doubt that would sit well with Republicans in Pensacola or Omaha,’ Gaetz added. 

In response, Bacon said it was Gaetz and the other insurgents who were helping Democrats by voting against Republican appropriations bills and making demands that ‘keep growing.’ 

He said that a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Problem Solvers Caucus would soon roll out the ‘Keep America Open Act’ to fund the government with a continuing resolution, including money for disaster relief, border security, aid to Ukraine, and funds for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and community health centers.

‘The majority of Republicans have tried to push conservative bills, knowing it’s going to the Senate,’ where Democrats have the majority, Bacon said. ‘But since we can’t get five to 10 people on the team we need to get the best deal ew can get right now.’ 

‘The rest of the conference can’t put up with this crap, we’ve got to move forward.’ 

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Elizabeth Elkind and Houston Keene contributed to this report.

A Democrat mega-donor who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Biden’s 2020 campaign and previously claimed ‘nobody cares about’ the ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China is slated to host a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

According to an invitation for the ‘intimate dinner and discussion,’ Golden State Warriors part-owner Chamath Palihapitiya and his wife Nathalie, along with a number of other individuals, will host Ramaswamy at their home in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sep. 29. The event invitation was first reported by Puck News.

The cost to attend the event is a minimum $50,000 donation to Ramaswamy’s American Exceptionalism PAC.

Palihapitiya, a billionaire venture capitalist, made headlines last year when he claimed that ‘nobody cares’ about the Chinese Communist Party-sponsored (CCP) genocide that has been recognized as such by several national governments.

‘Let’s be honest: nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, OK?’ Palihapitiya said on a Jan. 2022 episode of his podcast. ‘You bring it up because you care, and I think that it’s nice that you care.’

‘The rest of us don’t care,’ Palihapitiya said about the ongoing genocide that has reportedly included forced sterilization, beatings and ‘mental torture and physical torture.’ He said it was a ‘very hard, ugly truth.’

‘Of all the things I care about, yes, it is below my line,’ he continued, repeating that the communist state-sponsored Uyghur genocide was ‘below’ his caring ‘line.’

A campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Ramaswamy vehemently disagrees with Palihapitiya on the Uyghur genocide, but will still attend the super PAC fundraiser.

‘He thinks what’s happening to the Uyghurs in China is an atrocity,’ Ramaswamy campaign communications director Tricia McLaughlin said.

During a speech in Columbus, Ohio, Thursday where Ramaswamy laid out his plan to declare economic independence from China, he called the enslavement, imprisonment and forced sterilization of Uyghurs ‘one of the worst human rights atrocities committed by a major nation since the Third Reich of Germany.’

Noting that he is by far the biggest contributor to his own campaign, a McLaughlin added that Ramaswamy believes super PACs and dark money should not be part of the political system in America.

‘Vivek thinks money corrupts politics. He’s felt very strongly on that since day one, and if he is the GOP nominee he would like to strike a deal with the Democratic nominee to make sure there’s no super PAC money in the race. But right now, super PACs are a part of the 2024 primary game, and we’ve got to play to win,’ McLaughlin said.

According to FEC data, Palihapitiya has donated to the campaigns of several prominent Democrats, including Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and the Senate Majority PAC (SMP).

He gave $250,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in support of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign in July of that year and another $5,600 directly to his campaign. He also donated $66,200 to the DNC.

That same year, Palihapitiya donated a total of $750,000 to the SMP, a political action committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. He also donated $5,800 directly to Schumer’s campaign in September 2021.

EXCLUSIVE — Republican senators are calling on President Biden to honor Respect Life Month in October with a display at the White House to match the one shown for LGBTQ+ Pride Month last June.

In a letter sent to the White House on Friday, Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., challenged Biden to show ‘inclusivity’ to pro-life Americans by displaying the Pro-Life Flag prominently at the White House and federal agency buildings during the month of October.

‘Earlier this year, your administration displayed the Pride Flag at the White House for Pride Month,’ the senators wrote. ‘We are asking you to also honor Respect Life Month and fly the Pro-Life Flag to send a powerful statement that our country celebrates Americans of all beliefs and is committed to protecting innocent and vulnerable life.’

‘We know that the commitment to protecting and loving both unborn children and mothers is shared by Americans in every state and territory across our great nation,’ the letter continues. ‘Flying the Pro-Life Flag during Respect Life Month would show the federal government stands alongside its citizens in upholding the unalienable truth that all people, including the unborn, have a right to life.’

In October, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month and the first Sunday of October is designated Respect Life Sunday. The time is meant as a period of reflection on why every human life is valuable and how to ‘build a culture that protects life from conception to natural death,’ according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

READ THE LETTER BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

Earlier this year, the Biden administration received backlash over its Pride Month display at the White House for appearing to violate U.S. Flag Code.

Biden celebrated the LGBT community in a social media post, that revealed a set of flags hanging from the White House that faced the South Lawn. The display includes a rainbow-colored Pride flag flanked by two American flags.

Social media users argued the display violated a section of the U.S. Flag Code that mandates the American flag be in the center of any display featuring multiple national flags or pennants.

The Pro-Life Flag Republicans want Biden to display next month was created by the Pro-Life Flag Project as a unifying symbol for those who oppose abortion. 

‘We believe that creating, promoting, and proudly flying a unified, freely-reproducible, international pro-life flag will wildly help the movement in its already-unified aim: ending abortion,’ said spokesman James Chapman. 

‘Just as the rainbow flag has raised awareness for and significantly contributed to the success of the LGBTQ movement or as the Thin Blue Line flag has come to represent support for law enforcement, flying or displaying the pro-life flag will be a means by which everyday pro-life supporters can stand in solidarity with the larger pro-life movement,’ he continued. 

‘People around the world, regardless of their stance on abortion, will see the flag, know its meaning, and be compelled to think about the reality of abortion. Through positive symbolism within the design, the flag will also serve to positively brand the movement that has, in many mainstream currents, been so vilified and misrepresented.’ 

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Maren Morris announced she’s leaving country music, and in case you haven’t heard it’s all Donald Trump’s fault. Country music fans everywhere should send the former president a thank you note. 

She claims the same fans responsible for her success, you know the ones who have deep roots in God, family and country — are suddenly misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic and phobophobic. OK, I made that last one up. 

But apparently the talking points arrived from her recording studio in LA, and she dutifully checked off all the wokeified buzz words to secure her seat at the politically correct pop music table when she begins her second act. 

Not that she needed to prove her woke bona fides. She already had an impressive record. Ever since she landed in Nashville she’s been insufferable. 

Earlier this year Morris bragged about introducing her 2-year-old to drag queens at a pro-LGBTQ event, and dared the state of Tennessee to arrest her. This was weeks after the state banned drag shows near schools. Why are these people so angry they can’t sexualize kids?

She’s crowned herself the authority on all things toxic, and as far as Morris is concerned what qualifies as ‘really toxic’ — not just the regular kind of toxic — is Jason Aldean’s ‘Try that in a Small Town.’ You know, the song that condemns violent crime in our country.

According to the book of Morris, what’s definitely not toxic is her flame throwing at Aldean’s wife Brittany, who seems to live rent free in her head.

Last year Brittany posted a video on Instagram applying makeup and thanking her parents for not changing her gender during her tomboy phase because she loves her ‘girly life.’

That enraged Karen, I mean Maren, who’s a proponent of child sex change surgeries and obsessed with allowing drag queens to shake their stuff in front of kids. What’s next an LA strip club selfie with her toddler? 

Still, Morris took the classy not trashy road — just kidding.

COUNTRY MUSIC STAR SHARES WHY HE’S LEAVING THE INDUSTRY AND HEADING INTO MINISTRY: ‘WHAT I’M CALLED TO DO’ 

She went straight to name calling — starting with ‘scumbag human.’Followed up later by, ‘You know, I’m glad she didn’t become a boy either because we really don’t need another a**hole dude in the world…’

And putting an exclamation on it all, ‘F** all the way off to Insurrection Barbie and the fellow IB’s trolling this comment section with their hypocritical, hateful a**es.’ 

In other words, not just Brittany but anyone who disagrees with Morris. If you’re counting, most of the country music demographic thinks cutting off kids’ genitals is a really bad idea.

Chaser: Still ‘Karening’ Morris has said of all of country music, ‘I hate feeling like I need to be the hall monitor of treating people like human beings in country music,’ and it ‘got worse — irreparable, almost’ after Trump got elected. 

It must be exhausting being so morally superior.

Morris was still so triggered by Brittany that she ‘didn’t feel comfortable going’ to the CMAs last year, except to show up halfway through the event, just in time for the presentation of the award she was nominated for, Album of the Year.

She lost, and she left.

Grossly overestimating her importance, Morris said of country music, ‘I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it’s burning itself down without my help.’ 

Not exactly. In August history was made when country music took the top three spots for the first time ever on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. No fires to put out there. 

Playing the role of the angry, narcissistic victim, she may have failed at burning country music to the ground, but she’s certainly burned the bridge to an industry run by woke brass who were more than happy to hand her multiple CMA and ACM awards and throw their support behind an extreme leftist female artist.

As far as country fans are concerned, pop music can come get their person. We’re done with her.

It would appear as though the rise of Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony’s music may have sent her over the edge. Aldean’s song, ‘Try that in a Small Town’ went straight to number one on the iTunes chart right before it scored him his first number one spot on Billboard Hot 100.

Almost overnight Anthony went from playing his guitar on his Virginia farm to becoming a household name. ‘Rich Men North of Richmond,’ a song about the discrepancy between the working class and the elites that run the show in Washington, shot to number one on Billboard Hot 100, making him the first artist with no prior chart history to ever debut at number one.

In addition to Billboard, he claimed the number one spot on the ITunes chart for his debut song and then landed in the number two and three spots with two more songs.

Relatable is the only explanation for the massive skyrocketing success of Anthony, as well as Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’.

People relate to what’s real. You can’t fake authentic. 

While Maren Morris is busy ‘hall monitoring’ the unenlightened among us for saying it’s a really bad idea to cut off kids’ private parts, artists like Aldean and Anthony are writing songs that connect with average Americans. 

And when given the choice Morris would rather sell out her audience than connect with them. She’ll pick opportunistic over authentic ever single time.

Her new EP, ‘The Bridge,’ is supposed to symbolically connect her past in country music to her future. I think we’ve established that she’s already burned the country music bridge.

Ironically, it was released last week just as her temper tantrum declaring her country music exit was kicking into high gear. Shocking, I know.

She calls the two songs on the EP ‘incredibly key to my next step.’ In the video for ‘The Tree,’ she’s shown lighting a match and watching a tree burn. Somebody please check on her. She’s obsessed with burning stuff down.

The tree is supposed to symbolize country music, which has been so ‘draining’ and unhealthy for her — or something. We’re just supposed to know that she’s the victim. 

The second song is self-explanatory — ‘Get the Hell Out of Here.’ 

I’m fairly confident I speak for most country music fans when I say we couldn’t agree more.

The Ron DeSantis presidential campaign fired back at the hosts of ‘The View’ on Friday after the panel compared the Florida governor to a comic book villain and mocked a clip of him explaining a controversial education reform in his state.

‘Booo,’ co-host Joy Behar said after a clip of DeSantis was played on Thursday’s show.  

‘He’s lying,’ co-host Sonny Hostin added before co-host Whoopi Goldberg compared him to a Batman villain.

‘You know what he’s like? Do you remember The Penguin on Batman?’ Goldberg said before mocking the governor’s voice. The panel then continued to slam the DeSantis campaign and argue that he’s not a threat to win the GOP nomination.

The DeSantis campaign responded on Friday telling Fox News Digital the clip shows the panel is ‘out of touch.’

‘Like Team Trump, the liberal, out-of-touch women of the View claim Ron DeSantis is not a threat, and then spend a lot of time attacking him, which means we are right over the target,’ DeSantis spokesperson Carly Atchison said. 

‘Unfortunately for these very rational and thoughtful women, when Ron DeSantis is president, the American people will not be paying for their ninth COVID booster.’

The DeSantis campaign also posted a clip of the program on its ‘war room’ account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

‘The highly thoughtful and intellectual women of the View lose their minds over Ron DeSantis, Part CXXVIII,’ the caption read. 

A representative for The View did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Critics are pushing back against a ProPublica report criticizing Justice Clarence Thomas for two unreported speaking engagements with a Koch philanthropy group, saying claims of illegality or unethical behavior are ‘false’ that don’t ‘hold water.’

On Friday, ProPublica — which purports to be an independent, non-partisan outlet but has received donations from left-leaning entities — published the latest in a series criticizing Justice Thomas for allegedly violating Supreme Court ethics, which Thomas has denied. 

The Friday report claimed he ‘secretly’ spoke at donor events for a political organization founded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch ‘at least twice over the years.’ But the group, called Stand Together, says the report ‘doesn’t hold water.’ 

‘Journalistic inquiry into the private dealings of public officials is essential for our democracy. But honest inquiry applies the same standard to all people rather than single out those with whom one disagrees,’ Gretchen Reiter, senior vice president of communications at Stand Together, told Fox News Digital.

‘There is a long tradition of public officials, including Supreme Court Justices, sharing their experiences, ideas and judicial philosophy with members of the public at dinners and other event,’ said Reiter. 

‘All of the sitting Justices and many who came before them have contributed to the national dialogue in speeches book tours, and social gatherings. Our events are no different. To claim otherwise is false.’ 

The event in which Justice Thomas attended occurred in January 2018 in Palm Springs, California. ProPublica notes that a Stand Together spokesperson said, ‘Thomas wasn’t present for fundraising conversations.’

‘Stand Together’s January 2018 summit was attended by several hundred people, including members of the media who covered the event,’ Reiter said. 

‘In fact, Stand Together has hosted dozens of summits over decades. The idea that attending a couple events to promote a book or give dinner remarks, as all the justices do, could somehow be undue influence just doesn’t hold water,’ she said. 

Reiter added that Stand Together is a ‘philanthropic community that works with thousands of people to remove the barriers holding people back.’ 

‘Our summits provide a forum for people to learn about how they can partner with one another to solve big problems in our country,’ she said.

ProPublica reported that Leonard Leo, chairman of the conservative legal network the Federalist Society, helped to arrange Justice Thomas’ appearances at the summit. 

But Leo says that ‘all necessary due diligence’ was taken to make sure the justices’ attendance was compliant with ethics rules.

‘Justice Thomas attends events all over the country, as do all the Justices, and I was privileged to join him. Justice Thomas has been a dear friend, and I would never pass up an opportunity to help him share, in his own words, his lifetime of accomplishment and judicial philosophy with new audiences,’ Leo said. 

‘All the necessary due diligence was performed to ensure the Justice’s attendance at the events was compliant with all ethics requirements,’ he added. 

Mark Paoletta, a close friend of Justice Thomas and a lawyer based in Washington, D.C., said that Thomas ‘acted ethically and appropriately,’ contrary to ProPublica’s ‘misleading portrait.’

‘Contrary to the false and misleading portrait by the leftwing, billionaire-funded group ProPublica, Justice Thomas acted ethically and appropriately, and consistent with how many Justices have conducted themselves, as even ProPublica admits,’ Paoletta said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘Justice Thomas has given speeches at various events and gatherings across the country. Every Justice does that. This is a good thing, as the Justices should not be cloistered,’ he said. 

Paoletta noted that the ‘Judicial Canons,’ which are part of the code of conduct for federal judges, state that ‘a judge should not become isolated from the society in which the judge lives,’ and encourages justices to speak at organizations dedicated to the law ‘and also engage in a wide range of non-law-related activities.’

In addition, Paoletta notes that justices are not required to disclose every speech or gathering they attend.  

‘Recently, Justice Thomas met at the Court with 60 students from a school in the Bronx. I can’t wait for ProPublica’s expose about Justice Thomas not disclosing this meeting on his form next year,’ he said.

Carrie Severino, president of JCN and former clerk for Justice Thomas, called the article a ‘hit piece.’ 

‘Another day and another hit piece on Justice Thomas from Pro Publica, which is nothing more than a front group for left-wing billionaires and their political agendas,’ she said.

ProPublica notes that Thomas could be a key voice in an upcoming Supreme Court case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which questions a decades-old legal doctrine — the Chevron doctrine — that courts have leaned on to grant authority to executive administrative agencies when a federal regulation is disputed.

Stand Together has financially supported the Cause of Action Institute, the legal organization representing the plaintiffs in the case.

The plaintiffs, a group of New Jersey fishermen, sued the government in 2020, saying that a federal agency requiring them to pay $700 per day for a contractor who monitors their boats to ensure regulatory compliance, is out-of-bounds for a federal agency, and that such a burdensome requirement should be imposed by Congress only.

The fisherman appealed their case to the Supreme Court in 2022. In May, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

‘Loper Bright is a case seeking to restore one of the core tenets of our democracy: that Congress, not the administrative agency, makes the laws. Cause of Action Institute – which filed the lawsuit in 2020 – is representing family-run fishing companies that the federal government is forcing to pay a tax that Congress never authorized, and that violates our Constitution’s separation of powers,’ said Reiter.

This is an area of law that legal experts from different perspectives have long considered in need of clarification,’ she added.

‘The Supreme Court has an opportunity to correct one of the most consequential judicial errors in a generation. Chevron deference has proven corrosive to the American system of checks and balances and directly contributed to an unaccountable executive branch, overbearing bureaucracy, and runaway regulation,’ Cause of Action Institute counsel Ryan Mulvey said in a statement after the high court agreed to take up the case.

The Hungarian foreign minister says his country is hoping for a return of former President Donald Trump to the White House, as he says the relationship between the U.S. and Hungary has deteriorated due to the ‘lecturing’ and interference in policy by the Biden administration.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Fox News Digital that his country, which is led by a conservative government, had strong relations with the U.S. during the Trump administration, but that it has soured with the new Biden administration.

‘We had the best ever political relationship with the United States during the term of President Trump, the best ever political relationship. And I think the reason for that was that President Trump has based this bilateral relationship on mutual respect, and he did not have the intention to judge, to lecture or educate us,’ he said. ‘He concentrated on America to develop — America First — and he concentrated on the relationship of ours to develop as well, which can bring mutual benefit for both sides.’

He says that now, the Biden administration has sought to interfere with domestic issues, and highlighted a move in 2022 to end a bilateral tax agreement that prevented double taxation after Hungary reduced its corporate income tax. Last month, the U.S. also restricted visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders, citing security concerns, and has also repeatedly criticized the government for its human rights record.

‘The Democrat administration is making continuous attempts to interfere in domestic issues in Hungary, they are judging us, they are lecturing us. The fact that they have terminated and broken the bilateral tax agreement between the two countries is a clear signal that they tried to put political pressure or economic pressure on us to change policies,’ he said. ‘And this is unacceptable.’

He said there is no longer ‘mutual respect’ that was there during the Trump era, and suggested that political factors are at play. 

‘We understand that the U.S. establishment is very unhappy with the fact that a conservative, right-wing, patriotic Christian Democrat government has been in office in Hungary for such a long time, and it is not enough that we have been in office for a long time, but we have proven to be successful, and I think this is very uncomfortable for many liberal forces around the world. So we do hope that our relationship will come back to the level where it used to be under President Trump.’

As for specific disagreements, he highlighted the war in Ukraine. He estimates that there are 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine, some of whom have been conscripted into the army and deployed. 

‘So we Hungarians are losing our nation mates, let’s put it this way, and we do not want to lose any more Hungarians in this war. We don’t want to see any more casualties in this war — not only Hungarians, none of them,’ he said.

The U.S. has sought to end the conflict by backing Ukraine with funding and weapons to retake territory seized by the Russians, but Hungary sees delivering weapons as prolonging the conflict. President Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday that the U.S. is ‘staying with you’ as he pushes Congress to provide additional funding for the war effort.

Szijjarto said that his country wants to see the U.S. bringing ‘peace into the neighborhood, and not weapons.’ He said he believed that would be more likely under former President Donald Trump, who is running to retake the White House in 2024 and has said that he would launch peace talks to bring the conflict to an end if re-elected. 

‘We understand the position of President Trump, who would like to bring peace into our region. And we wish that an American administration brings peace into the region, because we have to be realistic that, without the United States, there will be no peace in the region,’ Szijjarto said. ‘And as far as we listen to President Trump, this is really encouraging, and we cross fingers for him, for our own interests, because we have a track record already with him. We know how the relationship was under his term, and the fact that he would like to make peace . . . that serves our national interests as well.’

Szijjarto stressed that ‘we are not Americans, so it doesn’t matter what we think about domestic politics, and we would never interfere in domestic politics either.’

‘But of course, we have an experience, and we have a hope. We have an experience about how we work together, and we have a hope for the president of the United States to make peace in our neighborhood. And President Trump is the one.’

Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.