ETF Summary

FIRST ON FOX: The National Rifle Association slammed Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for ‘ignoring’ the Constitution and temporarily suspending open and concealed carry across Albuquerque and the surrounding Bernalillo County under an emergency public health order.

‘In a shocking move, Governor Lujan Grisham is suspending Second Amendment rights by administrative fiat, ignoring the U.S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution,’ NRA-ILA Executive Director Randy Kozuch told Fox News Digital. 

The NRA leader said the Democratic governor should instead cut down crime by eliminating ‘soft-on-criminal policies.’ Police data show there have been 76 homicide victims in Albuquerque so far this year, down from the 93 victims recorded during the same time period last year.

‘Instead of undermining the fundamental rights of law-abiding New Mexicans, she should address the soft-on-criminal policies which truly endanger its citizens,’ Kozuch said.

Lujan Grisham temporarily suspended open and concealed carry laws in Bernalillo County for at least 30 days, in an executive order announced Friday. The announcement was spurred by the fatal shootings of a 13-year-old girl in July, a five-year-old girl in August and an 11-year-old boy this month. 

‘As I said yesterday, the time for standard measures has passed,’ the governor said, according to her office’s press release on the order. ‘And when New Mexicans are afraid to be in crowds, to take their kids to school, to leave a baseball game – when their very right to exist is threatened by the prospect of violence at every turn – something is very wrong.’

The governor held a press conference Friday where she made controversial remarks that no constitutional right is ‘absolute.’

‘No constitutional right, in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute,’ Lujan Grisham told a reporter who asked whether it’s ‘unconstitutional’ to order Americans not to exercise their right to bear arms.

‘There are restrictions on free speech. There are restrictions on my freedoms. In this emergency, this 11-year-old, and all these parents who have lost all these children, they deserve my attention to have the debate about whether or not, in an emergency, we can create a safer environment. Because what about their constitutional rights?’ she said.

The reporter went on to ask the Democratic governor whether she believed criminals would follow her orders on the 30-day suspension. 

‘Uh, no,’ she responded, adding that the rule sends a ‘pretty resounding message’ to the community to report crimes and aide law enforcement.

The governor’s press secretary Caroline Sweeney told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the ‘order does not suspend the Constitution but instead state laws over which the governor has jurisdiction.’

Sweeney added that the governor ‘was elected to serve the people of New Mexico, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t hear from a constituent asking for more to be done to curb this horrific violence.’

Grisham has already been hit with a lawsuit filed by the gun rights group The National Association for Gun Rights and a resident for allegedly violating their Second Amendment rights.

‘Gov. Luhan Grisham is throwing up a middle finger to the Constitution and the Supreme Court,’ said Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights.

The U.S. Concealed Carry Association for Saving Lives Action Fund, the USCCA’s newly-annouced 501(c)(4) organization, also condemned the order ‘in the strongest possible terms.’

‘Not only does Governor Grisham lack the constitutional authority to implement such an unprecedented assault on the Second Amendment rights of New Mexico citizens, but it strikes at the very heart of what responsible gun owners have been saying for years – criminals do not follow the law, and this order only serves to punish law-abiding gun owners who protect their community,’ said Katie Pointer Baney, chairman of the board and executive director of the USCCA-FSL Action Fund.

The NRA highlighted on Twitter that the New Mexico Bill of Rights ensures the right to keep and bear arms for ‘security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes.’

In 2021, the governor signed a law allowing residents to sue for $2 million if their rights are violated under the state’s bill of rights. 

‘Under the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, signed into law by @GovMLG, a person whose rights under the Bill of Rights are violated may sue to recover for damages and obtain injunctive relief. Damages may be awarded up to $2 million per person whose rights were violated,’ the NRA tweeted. 

‘The NRA remains committed to defending the rights of every American and sounding the alarm on such dangerous and unconstitutional proposals that prevent the law-abiding from defending themselves and their families from violent criminals who have overtaken this state under her watch,’ Kozuch added in his exclusive comment to Fox News Digital. 

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President Joe Biden ended a Vietnam press conference on Sunday by frankly telling reporters he had to go to bed after wrapping up the 2023 Group of 20 summit.

Biden was speaking in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi after two days at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India. He was answering a question about China’s relationship with the United States before announcing that he was sleepy.

‘But I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed,’ Biden said to a group of reporters.

After his declaration, a reporter shouted a question about Biden’s meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Biden met Li during the G20 summit this weekend.

‘What did you talk about with Mr. Li? You said you spoke with the number two from China in India today,’ the reporter asked.

‘Yeah, we talked…we talked about…we talked about it at the conference. Overall, we talked about stability,’ Biden said while appearing tired. ‘We talked about making sure that the Third World, the Third World….the Southern Hemisphere had access to change. It had access.’

‘It wasn’t confrontational at all,’ Biden added.

‘Thank you, everybody. This ends the press conference,’ a staffer abruptly said. ‘Thanks, everyone.’

During his visit to Vietnam, Biden entered a comprehensive strategic partnership with the country to renew ‘the strength and dynamism of the U.S.‐Vietnam relationship as both countries work together to achieve our shared goals of peace, prosperity, and sustainable development.’

Biden clarified that the newly-elevated partnership with Vietnam was not intended to isolate China.

‘It’s not about isolating China. It’s about making sure the rules of the road – everything from airspace and space in the ocean and the international rules of the road – are abided by,’ Biden explained.

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.

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Individuals at a law firm registered as foreign agents to lobby on behalf of Gotion, a Chinese electric vehicle battery company developing a controversial project in Michigan, and wired campaign contributions to several top Democrats.

According to state and federal filings, Monique Field-Foster, an attorney at the Lansing office of the Warner Norcross + Judd law firm who is acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Gotion, donated to the campaigns of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Whitmer’s sister Liz Gereghty and Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Elissa Slotkin. 

A second attorney at the firm, Madelaine Lane, who works out of the firm’s Grand Rapids office and prepared its foreign filings, also contributed to Gov. Whitmer’s campaign.

An April Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing with the Department of Justice shows the firm was hired to represent Gotion, a California company whose parent is based in Hefei, China. The firm said it would perform real estate acquisitions, file applications for land rezoning and attend public rezoning hearings on behalf of Gotion.

Whitmer announced in October 2022 that Gotion agreed to invest $2.4 billion in two 550,000-square-foot production plants and other supporting facilities spanning 260 acres in Mecosta County, Michigan. Months later, a top Michigan Senate panel controlled by Democrats voted 10-9 to award $175 million in taxpayer funding for the project.

‘Gotion’s $2.36 billion investment creating 2,350 good-paying jobs in Big Rapids is the biggest ever economic development project in Northern Michigan and will shore up our status as the global hub of mobility and electrification,’ Whitmer, who has been among the loudest proponents of the project, said Oct. 5.

However, the Mecosta County project has faced significant pushback from locals, former State Department officials and Republicans who say Gotion’s parent company, Gotion High-Tech, poses a national security risk. 

Gotion High-Tech’s corporate bylaws say the company is required to ‘carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.’ Further, the company’s 2022 ESG report states Gotion High-Tech ‘carried out thematic education activities such as the study of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, red theme education, and love for students.’ 

Following Warner Norcross + Judd’s FARA filing in April, Monique Field-Foster, who is listed as an executive partner at the firm, which describes her as an ‘experienced lobbyist,’ pushed contributions to Rep. Slotkin’s campaign and the campaign for Liz Gereghty, Whitmer’s sister running for a House seat in New York.

Field-Foster contributed $250 to Gereghty May 10 before sending another $250 to Slotkin June 29, Federal Election Commission filings show. 

Field-Foster is one of five lawyers at Warner Norcross + Judd registered to represent Gotion, according to the firm’s April FARA filing. Her services for Gotion were listed as ‘communications with Office of the Governor, State legislature and State departments to educate and advocate to state officials and decision makers on proposed battery project in Mecosta county.’

Meanwhile, in January 2022, Slotkin, who is widely favored to win the Democratic nomination for the open Senate seat in Michigan next year, signed a five-year non-disclosure agreement with the state Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) barring her from sharing certain details about ongoing development projects in Michigan. 

Shortly after the Gotion project was announced in October 2022, Slotkin’s hush agreement was updated to include ‘any potential Development Project identified as confidential.’ Gotion entered into a confidentiality agreement with the MEDC in December 2021.

‘As we have told Fox News for months, Congresswoman Slotkin has never had any involvement with the Gotion project — period. She has never signed an NDA relating to any Gotion project,’ a spokesperson for Slotkin told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘She learned of their pending project in Michigan when it appeared in the press.

‘She doesn’t take corporate PAC money, and therefore has never received a donation from Gotion. This continued story line is simply a dishonest political attack.’

The spokesperson declined to comment on whether Slotkin would return the campaign contribution from Field-Foster. Slotkin has largely been silent on the Gotion project.

Additionally, in 2022, Field-Foster made three donations totaling $1,600 to Whitmer’s gubernatorial campaign. Whitmer received another $1,100 in May 2022 from Lane, a senior attorney at Warner Norcross + Judd who executed the firm’s FARA filing earlier this year.

‘We have attorneys who support candidates and politicians on both sides of the aisle,’ a spokesperson for Warner Norcross + Judd told Fox News Digital. ‘That support has nothing to do with our representation of clients.’

Warner Norcross + Judd’s PAC has also contributed to Gov. Whitmer’s campaigns. The PAC sent at least $4,000 in donations during the most recent election cycle in 2022.

The firm’s PAC contributed another $2,400 to state campaigns for Curtis Hertel, who served in the Michigan state Senate from 2015 until January and announced in July that he would run for the House seat left vacant by Slotkin. While a state senator, Hertel and a top staffer signed hush agreements with MEDC in 2021 to talk about the Gotion deal.

According to Warner Norcross + Judd’s FARA filing, Hertel, who also served as Whitmer’s director of legislative affairs before stepping down in late June, had multiple conversations with the firm about Gotion’s proposed project to gather ‘background concerns raised during [a] Senate Appropriations hearing’ in April.

Then, in June, before Hertel announced he would run for Congress, the firm’s PAC donated $250 to his campaign committee.

‘Michigan Republicans want to kill good-paying American jobs that Governor Whitmer has worked hard to bring to Michigan,’ Tommy Kubitschek, a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party, told Fox News Digital. ‘The truth is Democrats are fighting to build industry in America with American workers while Republicans want to keep outsourcing jobs to China.

‘Remember, this is the same Republican Party that wanted to let the auto industry go bankrupt during the recession,’ he added. ‘If Republicans want to keep jobs in China, they should get out of American policymaking.’

Warner Norcross + Judd’s PAC, however, has given thousands to committees on both sides of the political aisle. For example, the PAC cut a $5,000 check to the Michigan Senate Republican Campaign Committee in 2022 and has routinely given to that committee over the years. 

No Republican lawmakers have advocated for the Gotion project. 

As of this month, Warner Norcross + Judd remains the sole law firm in Michigan hired to lobby on behalf of Gotion. Prior to the FARA registration in April, Gotion paid Warner Norcross + Judd nearly $52,000 for its services.

Whitmer’s office, and the campaigns for Hertel and Gereghty did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed on Sunday that he is prepared to appoint an ‘interim’ replacement for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., if she leaves office early.

Newsom made the statement during an appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday. The ailing Feinstein has confirmed that she will not run for re-election in 2024, but speculation about her health has raised questions about whether she will remain in office until her current term ends.

Newsom says he will not pick any of the current candidates running to replace her as the interim appointee, however, much to the chagrin of Rep. Barbara Lee, who had been widely considered Newsom’s top pick for the role.

‘Yes. Interim appointment. I don’t want to get involved in the primary,’ Newsom told host Chuck Todd. ‘It would be completely unfair to the Democrats that have worked their tail off. That primary is just a matter of months away. I don’t want to tip the balance of that.’

Several prominent Democrats have already announced their candidacy to replace Feinstein in the 2024 elections. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is among the most well-funded candidates, while Lee has been trailing in polls.

Newsom pledged earlier in his tenure that his next interim appointment to the Senate would be a black woman. Lee fits the bill, but she has now been disqualified thanks to the governor’s pledge not to pick a current candidate for Feinstein’s seat.

Lee lashed out at Newsom on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday night.

‘I am troubled by the Governor’s remarks,’ she wrote. ‘The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election.’

Newsom said he hopes he does not need to appoint a replacement for Feinstein, however. Her term officially ends in January 2025. Newsom already handpicked California’s other senator, Alex Padilla, as an interim replacement for Vice President Harris.

‘I don’t want to make another appointment, and I don’t think the people of California want me to make another appointment,’ Newsom said Sunday.

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is coming under fire from members of her own party after temporarily suspending open and concealed carry across Albuquerque under an emergency health order.

‘I support gun safety laws. However, this order from the Governor of New Mexico violates the U.S. Constitution. No state in the union can suspend the federal Constitution. There is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution,’ California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu tweeted. 

Lujan Grisham temporarily suspended open and concealed carry laws in Bernalillo County for at least 30 days, starting Sept. 8. The announcement was spurred by the fatal shootings of young children, including a 13-year-old girl in July, a 5-year-old girl in August and an 11-year-old boy this month.

‘As I said yesterday, the time for standard measures has passed,’ the governor said, according to her office’s press release on the order. ‘And when New Mexicans are afraid to be in crowds, to take their kids to school, to leave a baseball game – when their very right to exist is threatened by the prospect of violence at every turn – something is very wrong.’

Liberal gun control activist David Hogg responded to Lieu saying that he ‘agreed’ that the order violates the Constitution, and followed up that Lujan Grisham’s reasoning for the temporary ban does not hold water.

‘I support gun safety but there is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution,’ Hogg posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Hogg appeared to follow up in another post saying ‘one of the things I appreciate most about the Democratic Party is we are not in a cult,’ and members hold different views on issues such as gun control. 

‘It’s a good rule of thumb to make sure you never agree with someone 100% because no one is ever all ways [sic] right especially me. I will tell you this though, I will say and do what I feel is right no matter how unpopular it’s might be. If Dems don’t do enough on gun violence I have and will tell you. If I feel they approach it in a way I don’t agree with I will also tell you,’ he posted.

Lujan Grisham’s press secretary Caroline Sweeney told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the order ‘does not suspend the Constitution but instead state laws over which the governor has jurisdiction,’ when asked about Lieu’s and Hogg’s posts. 

‘The governor is looking for proactive partners who will bring solutions to the table – not naysayers who have no real answers to the gun violence epidemic we are faced with,’ Sweeney continued. ‘She was elected to serve the people of New Mexico, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t hear from a constituent asking for more to be done to curb this horrific violence. If Ted Lieu is so interested in addressing this issue, we invite him to join our next police academy class in January.’

The governor on Sunday also responded to Lieu’s tweet, inviting him to a police academy class to help ‘curb gun violence.’

‘Hey Ted, conceal and open carry are state laws that I have jurisdiction over. If you’re really interested in helping curb gun violence, I’d welcome you to join our next police academy class,’ Grisham tweeted. 

Conservatives and social media commenters were quick to mock the New Mexico governor for losing support from two liberals who champion gun control, while others, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, expressed shock over agreeing with a Democrat on a gun issue. 

Two Republican legislators in New Mexico, Reps. Stefani Lord and John Block, have meanwhile called for Lujan Grisham’s impeachment over the order for an ‘abhorrent attempt at imposing a radical’ agenda on residents.

‘I am calling on counsel to begin the impeachment process against Governor Grisham,’ Lord said.

‘This is an abhorrent attempt at imposing a radical, progressive agenda on an unwilling populous. Rather than addressing crime at its core, Governor Grisham is restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Even Grisham believes this emergency order won’t prohibit criminals from carrying or using weapons; a basic admission that this will only put New Mexicans in danger as they won’t be able to defend themselves from violent crime,’ Lord continued. 

The New Mexico governor has also been hit with a few lawsuits from Second Amendment groups, including The National Association for Gun Rights, whose president said Lujan Grisham ‘is throwing up a middle finger to the Constitution.’

The NRA also slammed the order as ‘shocking’ in exclusive comment to Fox News Digital, and called on the governor to address ‘soft-on-criminal policies’ to remedy crime trends instead of banning guns. 

‘In a shocking move, Governor Lujan Grisham is suspending Second Amendment rights by administrative fiat, ignoring the US Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution. Instead of undermining the fundamental rights of law-abiding New Mexicans, she should address the soft-on-criminal policies which truly endanger its citizens,’ NRA-ILA Executive Director Randy Kozuch told Fox. 

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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has pardoned the Loudoun County father who protested against the sexual assault of his daughter and her public school’s attempt to cover up the incident, his office announced Sunday.

Youngkin made the announcement on ‘Fox News Sunday’ with host Shannon Bream, saying he had signed the pardon on Friday. The pardon is for Scott Smith, who was convicted of disorderly conduct in August 2021 after he erupted at school board members over their handling of an investigation into his daughter’s attack.

‘I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday,’ Youngkin said. ‘We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here. This was a dad standing up for his daughter.’

‘His daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school, and no one was doing anything about it,’ he continued adding that the school superintendent has ‘covered it up.’

Smith’s daughter was sexually assaulted in a restroom at Stone Bridge High School by a biological male said to have been wearing a skirt.

‘Mr. Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do, which is stand up for their child,’ Youngkin said. ‘This was gross miscarriage of justice.’

The governor went on to emphasize the importance of ensuring that parents have the final say over their children’s education. Youngkin’s administration is currently cracking down on Virginia public schools that refusing to adequately enforce requirements that parents be informed if their child expresses any gender confusion at school.

Youngkin also addressed simmering rumors that he may still join the Republican presidential primary, though he made no commitments.