EXCLUSIVE: The No. 3 House Republican, GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, is calling on the Biden administration to fire a federal health official who previously oversaw New York’s deadly COVID-19 nursing home policy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Deputy Director for Global Health Howard Zucker joined the administration in January 2021. He got the job about a year and a half after he was forced to resign as New York State health commissioner amid accusations that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration hid how many people really died in nursing homes during the pandemic.

‘Disgraced, corrupt Cuomo’s health director Howard Zucker is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of New York seniors,’ Stefanik, R-N.Y. told Fox News Digital.

She called Zucker a ‘Cuomo henchman’ and accused him of leading ‘the criminal corruption scandal and coverup of the deaths’ of New Yorkers living in nursing homes at the time.

NEW YORK ‘AT THE DESPERATION STAGE’ DUE TO MIGRANT CRISIS AS SHELTERS HIT CAPACITY: REPORT 

‘I call on Biden’s CDC to immediately fire Howard Zucker. I will continue fighting to deliver accountability to the New York families who tragically lost loved ones because of Cuomo and Zucker,’ Stefanik said.

Other New York Republicans also joined her calls for Zucker’s removal.

MIGRANTS OVERWHELM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN SIDEWALKS: ‘ABSOLUTELY OUT OF CONTROL’ 

‘Howard Zucker’s reckless, cruel, and inhumane decision-making during the pandemic caused the death of thousands of New Yorkers in nursing homes. Zucker should be in a courtroom answering for his actions, not employed by the CDC where he can cause more harm,’ Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital.

‘President Biden should give an ounce of justice to New York families and protect all Americans and fire him immediately,’ he said.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., accused Zucker of having ‘recklessly lied’ to New Yorkers during the pandemic and hit out at Cuomo as well for profiting off of the pandemic through his memoir.

‘He partook in one of the most shameful coverups in American history, willfully misleading Congress and the state legislature about the true number of deaths that resulted from that disastrous policy — all in an effort to protect disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo and his blood money book deal,’ Lawler told Fox News Digital.

‘Joe Biden must immediately fire Howard Zucker and explain how he was even hired in the first place,’ Lawler said.

In 2020, as the pandemic ravaged New York, the state Health Department under Zucker implemented a policy that resulted in nursing home patients being returned to their residences after being hospitalized with COVID-19. Critics of the Democratic administration claimed it fueled the surge in the state’s virus cases, something Cuomo officials denied.

A subsequent report by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that his administration undercounted the number of COVID-related nursing home deaths by thousands.

Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC for comment but did not immediately hear back.

North Dakota regulators denied a siting permit Friday for a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would cross five states.

The decision complicates an already complex process for Summit Carbon Solutions, which is seeking similar authorization in the other states and is facing opposition from landowners and environmental groups. It wasn’t immediately clear how the permit denial would affect Summit’s carbon dioxide storage plans in North Dakota.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission denied the permit for Summit’s Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, which planned a 320-mile route through North Dakota. Summit proposed the $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile pipeline network to capture carbon dioxide from more than 30 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, and to store it deep underground in North Dakota.

In a statement, Summit said it ‘respects the decision by the North Dakota Public Service Commission, and we will revisit our proposal and reapply for our permit. We’re committed to understanding and incorporating the considerations outlined in the decision. We are confident that our project supports state policies designed to boost key economic sectors: agriculture, ethanol, and energy.’

The project raised landowner concerns of eminent domain, or the taking of private land for the pipeline, and potential dangers of a pipeline break.

The company has ‘legal options’ it can take, commission spokesperson Stacy Eberl said. The regulators do not have jurisdiction over injection sites, she said. Summit proposed an underground injection site for storage of the carbon dioxide in central North Dakota.

The Public Service Commission held public hearings throughout North Dakota earlier this year, during which landowners expressed many concerns, including about eminent domain, safety and requests for reroutes on their property.

‘The Commission felt that Summit has not taken steps to address outstanding legitimate impacts and concerns expressed by landowners or demonstrated why a reroute is not feasible,’ the regulators said in a statement. ‘The Commission also requested additional information on a number of issues that came up during the hearings. Summit either did not adequately address these requests or did not tender a witness to answer the questions.’

The commission’s statement also noted other information Summit hasn’t submitted, including how the company would address 14 areas of potential geological instability noted by the U.S. Geological Survey within the pipeline’s path. Summit also did not submit a revised report to the state’s historical preservation office regarding impacts to cultural resources. The office said Summit’s report didn’t meet its standards.

The regulators’ vote to deny the permit was unanimous.

Commission Chair Randy Christmann told The Associated Press that his vote wasn’t ‘necessarily emblematic of my opinions of carbon sequestration or even of the importation of CO2. This is about this project in this place under these circumstances.’

Among their findings filed Friday, the panel concluded that Summit ‘failed to meet its burden of proof to show the location, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Project will produce minimal adverse effects on the environment and upon the welfare of the citizens of North Dakota.’

The denial of the permit is ‘a win for private property rights in North Dakota, plain and simple,’ said former Bismarck mayor Steve Bakken, who opposed the pipeline.

The proposed Bismarck-area route would have constrained future growth of the city, Bakken said. He also cited safety concerns for not knowing how the company would plan to respond to a pipeline break.

Republican state Sen. Jeff Magrum welcomed the news for his legislative district, which is in the proposed path, as ‘victory in round one,’ but said he expects ‘some type of appeal’ from Summit.

‘We’ll stand guard for what’s coming,’ he told the AP.

Magrum, who opposes the pipeline due to safety and private property concerns, introduced a raft of unsuccessful legislation earlier this year that sought to bolster private property rights and restrict aspects of eminent domain and carbon dioxide pipelines.

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum supports the pipeline. Spokesman Mike Nowatzki told the AP, ‘This is a matter between the PSC and the company, and we’ll continue to monitor it as the process plays out.’

The pipeline has generated similar landowner concerns about eminent domain in other states, including South Dakota, where a group of lawmakers last month began a petition drive for a special legislative session to protect private property rights against Summit.

The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club are pushing Summit to release financial agreements with ethanol companies in the project, the Des Moines Register reported.

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The full transcript of the House Oversight Committee’s interview with Devon Archer – Hunter Biden’s former best friend and business partner – shows how a key Democrat on that committee, New York Rep. Daniel Goldman, managed to spin out a positive headline from an interview that was otherwise damaging to President Biden. 

After Archer’s closed-door committee interview on Tuesday, Democrats emphasized to media outlets that Archer had described what Hunter Biden was peddling as ‘the illusion of access’ to his father. 

But the transcript shows that the phrase ‘illusion of access’ was first introduced by Goldman. The transcript also shows that Archer first agreed, but then equivocated, on whether the ‘illusion of access’ description was fair. 

‘It’s not about selling access to his father. It’s about selling the illusion of access to his father. Is that fair?’ Goldman questioned. 

‘Is that fair? I mean, yeah, that is – I think that’s – that’s almost fair,’ Archer responded. 

‘Almost fair. Why almost fair?’ Goldman probed.

‘Because there – there is – there are touch points and contact points that I can’t deny that happened, but nothing of material was discussed. But I can’t go on record saying that there was – there was communications,’ Archer replied.

Archer went on to describe that phone calls between Hunter Biden and his father were a sort of ‘signal’ to his business partners about potential influence and access provided by Joe Biden.

‘People send signals and those signals are basically used as currency. And that’s kind of how a lot of D.C. operators and foreign tycoons and businessmen work,’ Archer described in questioning.

Archer said he never witnessed details about business dealings being discussed with Joe Biden on the phone, but that the calls along were ‘signal enough to be powerful.’ 

‘I think that the calls were – that’s what it was. They were calls to talk about the weather, and that was signal enough to be powerful,’ Archer said. 

Archer told investigators that Hunter Biden used his ‘very powerful name’ to ‘add value’ in pitching and securing foreign business ventures.

Archer said Hunter Biden ‘would not be so overt,’ or ‘overtly’ say ‘we’re going to use my dad for this,’ but instead, Archer said that he would use the name to ‘get leverage.’

‘Defensive leverage that the value is there in his work,’ Archer said.

‘The value that Hunter Biden brought to it was having — you know, there was — the theoretical was corporate governance, but obviously, given the brand, that was a large part of the value,’ he continued. ‘I don’t think it was the sole value, but I do think that was a key component of the value.’

Archer told investigators that Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand.’

‘You aren’t talking about Dr. Jill or anybody else. You’re talking about Joe Biden. Is that fair to say?’ Archer was asked.

Archer replied: ‘Yeah, that’s fair to say… Obviously, that brought the most value to the brand… It was Hunter Biden and him,’ Archer said. ‘We would discuss having, you know, an understanding of D.C. and that was a differentiating component of us being able to raise capital.’

The transcripts also show that Archer witnessed Hunter Biden putting his father on speakerphone during meetings with business associates. 

Archer also contradicted a key claim from Biden’s orbit about a dinner the now-president attended with a Burisma executive.

Goldman’s office referred back to the transcript when asked by Fox News Digital about its contents. 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appears to have picked up a new side gig: consulting George Soros’ political efforts.

The Democracy PAC, which Soros solely funds and has used to inject vast amounts into the political arena, wired $30,000 to Sage Works LLC in May for strategic consulting services, according to his committee’s mid-year report. 

Sage Works is an Atlanta-based company owned by Abrams. The former Democratic candidate reported on her financial disclosure form that she also acts as its chief executive officer. Georgia business records show she incorporated the company in September 2002 and has remained its registered agent.

It’s unclear precisely what work she has performed for Soros or his committee. His spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. 

While this is the first reported payment from a Soros committee to Abrams’ firm on the federal level, the financier paid her company years ago from a Georgia committee that he bankrolled as part of his district attorney efforts. 

The Georgia Safety & Justice PAC, which was fully funded by $147,000 from Soros, paid Sage Works $15,000 for strategic consulting services in October 2016, Fox News Digital previously reported. Soros used the PAC to help drive Henry County District Attorney Darius Pattillo into office, and the consulting payments went towards that endeavor.

The past payment occurred in the infancy of Soros’ nationwide targeting of district attorney races. Soros views prosecutors, who decide which crimes to charge and which to let slide, as a considerable component of overhauling the criminal justice system. 

STACEY ABRAMS GETS A NEW JOB AFTER ELECTION LOSS, JOINS ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP TRYING TO ELIMINATE GAS STOVES 

Abrams, meanwhile, has since joined the environmental advocacy group Rewiring America as general counsel following her second defeat last November.

Rewiring America pushes for eliminating gas stoves and tasked Abrams with launching and scaling a ‘national awareness campaign and a network of large and small communities working to help Americans go electric,’ the group previously said. 

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott, in a visit to the southern border on Friday, said that his administration would finish construction of the Trump-era border wall, calling it an ‘absolute necessity.’ 

Sen. Scott, R-S.C., visited the border in Yuma, Arizona, and held a roundtable with law enforcement and community leaders and outlined a number of policies to tackle both the ongoing migrant surge and the flood of fentanyl into the U.S.

‘I think finishing the wall is an absolute necessity,’ the South Carolina senator said at the roundtable.

The Trump administration built hundreds of miles of wall at the southern border, but the project was abruptly stopped after President Biden — who campaigned against wall construction — came into office.

It was one of a number of moves by the Biden administration to reverse Trump-era border policies, and which were followed by a historic spike in migration. There were approximately 1.7 million encounters in FY 2021 and approximately 2.4 million in FY 2022.

The Biden administration has said it is dealing with a hemisphere-wide crisis and is expanding legal asylum pathways it says were gutted by the Trump administration. It has also called on Congress to approve more funding and pass immigration reform to fix what it says is a ‘broken’ system. It has also pointed a drop in numbers recently to show that its recent policies are working.

But Republicans have pinned the blame on the Biden administration’s policies. They have also warned that the border surge has brought an influx of fentanyl, which is produced in Mexico and then moved across the border by cartels.

‘The importance of building a wall, finishing the wall, using the available technology to surveil our border, to stop the flow of fentanyl across our border, is really important,’ Scott said.

It’s one of a number of national security risks Scott highlighted. He also pointed to the countries from which many of the migrants are coming.

‘The number of folks that are coming from countries that have an adversarial relationship with us is spiking. And it’s because there’s a sign somewhere out there that says the American southern border is open, and it’s one of the more frustrating things that so many Americans are having to deal with, grapple with on a daily basis,’ he said.

Scott is also calling for additional Border Patrol agents, which he said would be provided for by eliminating the extra 87,000 IRS staff funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. 

He also called on legislation that he has introduced in the Senate to freeze the assets of Mexican cartels, and also for funding additional immigration judges for quicker removal of those in the country illegally.

The visit by Scott to the border is the latest move by Republican presidential candidates in regard to the migrant crisis. Both former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have visited the border in recent months, and have also rolled out immigration policy proposals.

Meanwhile, there are indications that migrant numbers are increasing at the border, after they dropped during May and June in the wake of the expiration of the Title 42 public health order.

The Biden administration won a reprieve on Thursday when a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel granted a stay on an order which would have blocked its cornerstone asylum rule.

A Wisconsin judge on Friday ordered the state elections commission to release all records it has related to one of its Republican members and his role as one of 10 people who posed as fake electors in 2020 for former President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit, filed by a union leader represented by the liberal firm Law Forward, sought commission records related to Robert Spindell and comments he made about his role as a fake elector. Spindell is one of three Republican state elections commission members.

Fake electors met in Wisconsin and six other battleground states where Trump was defeated in 2020, attempting to cast ballots for the former president even though he lost. Republicans who participated in Wisconsin said they were trying to preserve Trump’s legal standing in case courts overturned his defeat.

The role of those fake electors, particularly in Wisconsin, was central to the federal indictment against Trump released this week. Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss.

Law Forward filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission in 2021 saying the fake electors broke the law. The commission voted unanimously in a closed meeting to reject that complaint, saying the fake electors did not violate any election laws. Spindell did not recuse himself from considering the complaint, even though he voted as one of the fake GOP electors.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice agreed with Trump allies and the fake electors and concluded that Republicans were legitimately trying to preserve his legal standing as courts were deciding if he or Biden won the election.

In May, another state judge ordered the elections commission to reconsider its vote rejecting the complaint. Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington ruled that Spindell should not have taken part in the initial discussion and vote because he was targeted in the complaint.

The commission has not yet issued a new decision.

Law Forward alleged in its lawsuit that the commission failed to turn over records requested multiple times under Wisconsin’s open records law. The firm sought documents related to a comment Spindell made during the public portion of a November 2021 commission meeting where he openly discussed his decision not to recuse himself. The commission had been considering the request in closed session only, which made Spindell’s comments unusual.

Specifically, Law Forward asked for communications surrounding material that Spindell appeared to be reading from during the meeting. According to the lawsuit, the elections commission provided a single document that resembled what Spindell read from and said Spindell had no other related records.

The commission argued that the records are in Spindell’s possession, not the commission’s.

‘This argument is nonsensical,’ Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost ruled on Friday. ‘Records held by WEC commissioners are in the custody of WEC and must be provided in response to a records request.’

He gave the commission until Sept. 8 to ‘perform a complete review and produce all records in its possession, whether held by staff or commissioners’ that aren’t otherwise exempt from the open records law.

Commission spokesperson Riley Vetterkind had no comment on the ruling.

Law Forward attorney Scott Thompson praised it.

‘Most of us believe in open and transparent government,’ Thompson said. ‘This is doubly true as we seek to gather more information about those who sought to undermine the will of the people.’

Law Forward brought the case on behalf of Paul Sickel, executive director of the Service Employees International Union’s Wisconsin State Council.

The firm has also filed another lawsuit against the 10 electors and Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis seeking $2.4 million in damages. That case, which is pending, alleges Trump and his allies conspired to overturn his loss in the battleground state.

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The Biden administration proposed a plan to lock up nearly 1.6 million acres of public lands from oil and gas development across western Colorado in response to multiple legal challenges filed by environmental groups.

In a draft supplemental environmental impact statement announced Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued so-called resource management plans for its Grand Junction Field Office and Colorado River Valley field offices which oversee mineral leasing in the area. The proposal would restrict the two offices to leasing just 239,000 acres and 143,000 acres, respectively, for fossil fuel production, a total reduction of about 80%.

‘Public participation is key to the development of Resource Management Plans,’ BLM Upper Colorado River District Manager Greg Larson said in a statement. ‘This new analysis will ensure the BLM’s management of these areas will best serve our multiple use mission for the future.’

BLM’s proposal comes after years of legal challenges spearheaded by several environmental groups that argued the federal government failed to take climate change and greenhouse gas emissions into consideration when formulating its resource management plans, which are issued by field offices to outline how they will manage designated lands for the next 20 years. 

In 2015, the Obama administration finalized the resource management plans for the Grand Junction Field Office and Colorado River Valley field offices, opening up the vast majority of lands to fossil fuel leasing, exploration and production. However, eco groups led by the Colorado-based Wilderness Workshop challenged those resource management plans.

In the case involving the Colorado River Valley plan, a federal court ordered the BLM to reconsider its oil and gas leasing strategy, handing a victory the environmental plaintiffs in 2018. And in 2021, shortly after President Biden took office, a federal judge approved BLM’s voluntary request to rescind its Grand Junction plan over climate concerns.

Both the 2018 court ruling and 2021 voluntary remand forced BLM to start over and file a new draft supplemental environmental impact statement issuing new resource management plans Thursday.

‘I’m very encouraged to see BLM listening closely to local communities who have been asking for more than a decade for the agency to protect wildlands, wildlife, water and our climate,’ Will Roush, the executive director of Wilderness Workshop, said in a statement. 

‘The draft plan considers common sense closures to new oil and gas leasing of additional public lands with documented community and conservation values,’ he continued. ‘This planning area contains some of our state’s most important wildlife habitat, treasured recreation areas, wildlands that should be protected for future generations, critical water resources, famed Colorado scenery and Indigenous cultural sites.’

However, BLM’s proposal was criticized by the Western Energy Alliance, a leading fossil fuel industry trade group, and several Republican lawmakers who argued it represented the administration’s latest attack on domestic energy production.

‘The political leadership at Interior knows this but wants to designate areas as low potential and ineligible for leasing because that’s a way to stop exploration and development on more federal lands,’ Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma told Fox News Digital.

‘Closing areas designated as ‘low potential’ is a way to stop development of the very promising Mancos shale, further suppressing economic growth and job creation on the West Slope,’ Sgamma said.

As part of its justification for the proposal, BLM stated in its draft statement that much of the land blocked off isn’t oil-rich and could be eligible for other uses. 

Under the proposal, the agency would further create new areas of critical environmental concern on more than 100,000 acres of public lands.

‘Today’s proposal from the BLM to remove leasing for oil and gas development in Colorado amidst record high energy prices will continue to exacerbate the economic burden this Administration has placed on hard-working families,’ said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., who chairs the Congressional Western Caucus. 

‘Time and again, the Biden Administration acts at the will of radical environmental groups who are determined to end resource development on public lands,’ he continued. ‘The Western Caucus strongly opposes this proposal that will only push energy prices to new record highs.’

‘The Biden Administration’s latest plan to bar new oil and gas leasing across roughly 1.6 million acres of Colorado land is an attack on America’s energy security,’ added Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck. ‘Under this proposal nearly 600 oil wells will be slashed over the next 20 years, forcing us to rely on foreign adversaries for our energy supply.’

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday set a special election to fill the few remaining months in the term of a southwest Virginia lawmaker who recently resigned to become a judge.

Voters will choose former Republican Del. Jeff Campbell’s successor in the 6th House District on Aug. 29, according to the writ of election signed by Youngkin.

Campbell resigned July 14 effective immediately after being appointed the same day to fill a judicial vacancy. He had represented the 6th District, made up of Carroll and Wythe counties and part of Smyth county, since 2014.

The new delegate chosen by voters will serve out the remainder of Campbell’s term, which ends in January. They may not see much action this year as the Legislature isn’t currently meeting, though lawmakers could be called back to Richmond if a deal to end the long-running budget stalemate is reached.

Every seat in the General Assembly is on the general election ballot in November, and candidates will be running under new maps overhauled during the redistricting process.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Jed Arnold, the GOP nominee running unopposed for the newly created 46th District, which includes some of the localities in the existing 6th District, would also run in the special election. His campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Arnold practiced law with Campbell and was his legislative aide.

The last day for candidates to file is Wednesday at 5 p.m., according to Youngkin’s office.

The new maps generated by the redistricting process have triggered a flurry of legislator retirement announcements. While there are other current legislative vacancies that are expected to go unfilled until the November general election, a new law that took effect July 1 set a deadline by which Youngkin was required to set the special election for Campbell’s seat.

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