FIRST ON FOX: It was an Iowa invitation that nearly all the GOP presidential candidates found hard to turn down.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds invited the entire field of more than a dozen Republican White House hopefuls to join her for ‘Fair Side Chats’ next month at the Iowa State Fair.

Nearly everyone accepted the invitation to take part in the one-on-one interviews in the state that leads off the Republican presidential nominating calendar.

In an announcement shared first with Fox News on Tuesday, Reynolds unveiled her schedule for the ‘Fair Side Chats,’ which includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence.

However, not on the list of attendees is former President Trump, who is the commanding front-runner in the latest GOP presidential nominations polls in Iowa, other early voting states and in national surveys, as he makes his third straight White House run.

Reynolds said the interviews will provide fairgoers ‘a unique opportunity to learn more about the candidates themselves as well as their policy priorities.’

‘I am so proud that I get to have the opportunity to introduce these candidates to Iowans at an event so near and dear to my heart,’ Reynolds added in a statement. ‘The Iowa State Fair showcases the best of Iowa – from our people to our culture and wonderful agriculture industry – and it’s the perfect venue for a conversation with the candidates.’

The Iowa State Fair – held annually in August at the state fairgrounds in Des Moines – has been a must-stop for decades for presidential contenders of both major political parties in the year ahead of the nominating contests.

Reynolds’ interviews will take place at JR’s South Pork Ranch at the fairgrounds.

Former nationally syndicated radio host and 2021 California recall election gubernatorial candidate Larry Edler is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CT on Thursday, Aug. 10, the first day of the state fair.

The next day – Friday, Aug. 11 – North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (8:30 a.m. CT), Pence (9:30 a.m. CT), and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (10:30 a.m. CT) will join Reynolds.

Entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy (8:30 a.m. CT), Haley (9:30 a.m. CT), and DeSantis (10:30 a.m. CT) are scheduled to team up with Reynolds on Saturday, Aug. 12.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (8:30 a.m. CT), Texas based businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley (9:30 a.m. CT) and Scott (10:30 a.m. CT) are scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 15.

Michigan businessman and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson (9:30 a.m. CT) and one-time CIA spy and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd (10:30 a.m. CT) will join the governor on Friday, Aug. 18.

Two weeks ago, Trump criticized Reynolds – a popular two-term governor – for staying neutral in the race for the GOP presidential nomination race.

‘I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won. Now, she wants to remain ‘NEUTRAL.’ I don’t invite her to events! DeSanctus down 45 points!’ the former president wrote on Truth Social.

In 2017, Trump nominated longtime Republican Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds – who was lieutenant governor at the time – succeeded Branstad as governor. Trump endorsed Reynolds ahead of her narrow election in 2018 to a full term in office. Reynolds was easily re-elected by 19 points last year.

Reynolds’ pledge to stay neutral in the presidential nomination race is in line with previous Iowa governors. Iowa’s all-Republican congressional delegation is also staying neutral as the large field of 2024 presidential contenders descends on their state.

The governor joined Trump in March in Davenport, as the former president made his first stop in Iowa as a 2024 candidate. Reynolds did not join Trump when he returned to the state in early June and again earlier this month.

Trump took plenty of incoming fire for his criticism of Reynolds, and a Republican state senator who had endorsed the former president switched his support to DeSantis due to the incident.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is making his second bid for the GOP nomination, is also not joining Reynolds.

Christie is concentrating his campaign on New Hampshire, which holds the first primary in the GOP calendar and the second contest overall following Iowa, and South Carolina, which votes third.

‘New Hampshire and South Carolina will be our main focus. And that’s what we’ve intended right from the beginning. You’ll see that’s what our travel reflects,’ Christie told Fox News on Monday. ‘I’m sure we’ll go to Iowa at some point, probably for a debate. But I’m going to spend my time here in New Hampshire and down in South Carolina.’

Lawmakers should take action to address a judge’s ruling that Pennsylvania’s system of funding public schools violates the constitutional rights of students in poorer school districts now that the decision won’t be appealed, lawyers for the districts and groups that sued said Monday.

The deadline to appeal the February decision came and went over the weekend, the lawyers said.

The lawsuit, filed in 2014, argued that Pennsylvania’s system of paying for public schools is failing the poorest districts and lawyers for the plaintiffs contend that billions more dollars are necessary to meet the state’s constitutional obligation.

While the judge agreed, she also did not direct the Legislature on how much state aid to distribute, or how. Lawyers for the plaintiffs — including six school districts, the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools — want lawmakers to comply with the judge’s ruling.

‘The decision is now final and there is no excuse for state lawmakers to delay action any further,’ the plaintiffs’ lawyers — from the Public Interest Law Center, the Education Law Center and the law firm of O’Melveny — said in a statement.

Leaders of the House and Senate Republicans in Pennsylvania had opposed the lawsuit. They hadn’t previously said whether they would appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court and did not immediately comment Monday.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, had supported the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs are seeking more money for poor districts. They presented evidence during last year’s trial that schools are underfunded by $4.6 billion, an estimate that they said doesn’t account for gaps in spending on special education, school buildings and other facilities.

Litigation in the case may not necessarily end.

Neither Shapiro nor lawmakers have assembled a plan to address the court’s findings and the experience in other states suggests there’s no guarantee of swift, significant or longstanding change for the poorer school districts that sued.

The judge wrote that students in areas with low property values and incomes ‘are deprived of the same opportunities and resources’ as those in more affluent areas.

That disparity is unjustified, violating both the state’s obligations to educate students and the equal protection rights of students, the judge wrote.

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Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams offered a bizarre response after a woman appeared to curse him out over his treatment of homeless people on Monday.

After a woman, who appeared to be protesting, screamed obscenities at Adams, the New York City mayor responded that ‘one should be happy’ if another person wants to ‘make love to them.’ The eyebrow-raising exchange came during a press conference Adams hosted to unveil his efforts to remove scaffolding from city streets and kickstart a recovery of the city’s business district.

‘F— you, a–hole!’ the protester appeared to say during the press conference Monday.

‘She said I’m messing with homeless people,’ Adams responded, chuckling. ‘One should be happy if someone wants to make love to them. You know?’

Adams didn’t explain what he meant, instead taking a question from a reporter on an unrelated topic. His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York City continues to experience rising homelessness that is at its highest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. As of December 2022, there were 68,884 homeless people, including 21,805 children, housed in New York City’s main shelter system.

The press conference Monday comes less than a month after Adams was criticized over his similarly-bizarre response to a woman concerned about high rent prices. That woman interrupted Adams during a town hall event in June to accuse the mayor of raising New York City rent and supporting increases

‘If you are going to ask a question, don’t point at me and don’t be disrespectful to me,’ Adams told the woman. ‘I’m the mayor of the city. Treat me with the respect I deserve to be treated. I’m speaking to you as an adult. Don’t stand in front like you treating someone that’s on the plantation that you own. Give me the respect I deserve and engage in the conversation up here in Washington Heights.’ 

‘Treat me with the same level of respect I treat you,’ Adams continued. ‘So, don’t be pointing at me, don’t be disrespectful to me. Speak with me as an adult because I’m a grown man. I walked into this room as a grown man, and I’ll walk out of this room as a grown man. I answered your question.’

On June 21, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board announced recommendations paving the way for landlords to increase rents by 3% this year. Adams endorsed the board’s decision, saying it found the ‘right balance.’

It was later revealed the woman Adams compared to a plantation owner was housing activist Jeanie Dubnau whose family fled to New York City from Nazi Germany in the mid-1900s.

Do you believe the government is hiding something?

What about if we asked if you think the government is hiding something about UFOs?

‘I believe there is something else out there,’ said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., at a recent press conference. ‘Dadgumit, whatever the truth may be, we’re done with the cover-up.’

Burchett leads the House’s second big hearing on UFOs in 15 months Wednesday.

Burchett certainly falls into the category of believing the government is hiding something. He says his constituents do, too.

‘I’m stopped every weekend back in Knoxville,’ said Burchett. ‘People will stop me and tell me about their experiences (with UFOs). Decorated veterans. Why would they risk their reputations and careers over something that they’re lying about?’

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is an Air Force veteran who aligns with Burchett when it comes to UFOs.

‘If we continue to get stonewalled, if we smell that they’re giving us a bunch of BS, we are going to do the field hearings directly at those locations,’ said Luna of the military. ‘Full transparency really is what we need in this situation.’

Toss Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., into the camp of those who are skeptical about what the government is saying about UFOs – or UAPs as they’re sometimes called. That’s short for unidentified aerial phenomena.

‘It is really about getting to greater government transparency,’ said Moskowitz. ‘If the answers are, ‘No, there are no unidentified aerial phenomena,’ then say that. But that’s not what the answers are. The answer are, ‘We can’t tell you.’ And so that leads to speculation.’

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., characterized himself as a UFO skeptic. But he joined with Burchett, Luna and Moskowitz about getting to the truth on UAPs – and shutting off noise and conjecture.

‘I don’t give into conspiracies,’ said Burlison. ‘But too often the federal government works outside of the public eye and in conspiracies. Rumors tend to flourish in places where the federal government is silent or not transparent.’

The House Intelligence Committee held the first open hearing in five decades on UFOs last spring. It took some cajoling, but Burchett managed to schedule a House Oversight subcommittee to conduct its hearing on UFOs Wednesday.

Among the witnesses:

Ryan Graves, executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace. Graves was a Navy pilot who flew F/A-18F Super Hornets. He reported multiple sightings during training flights. Graves grew concerned that UAPs posed safety risks to American pilots.

Cmdr. David Fravor is a former Navy aviator. He spotted a UAP during a 2004 training mission. He shot what is known in UFO circles as the ‘Tic Tac’ video. The UAP looked like a flying Tic Tac hard candy.

Then, there is a whistleblower.

David Grusch is a former intelligence officer who saw action in Afghanistan. He led the UAP task force for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Grusch told lawmakers the government may have in its possession pieces of a non-human spacecraft and potentially, the remains of an extra-terrestrial pilot.

‘We’re going to have witnesses who can speak frankly to the public about their experiences. We’ve had a heck of a lot of pushback about this hearing. We’ve had members of Congress who fought us. We’ve had members of the intelligence community and also the Pentagon. Even NASA backed out on us,’ said Burchett. ‘There are a lot of people who don’t want this to come to light.’

This comes back to the old Latin maxim, ‘falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.’

Lie once, perhaps you’re lying all the time.

If the government is covering up UFOs, what else might it hide?

‘If they can do it here, what else are they doing?’ asked Moskowitz. ‘That’s a scary thought that they don’t trust us.’

Bipartisan lawmakers accused the Pentagon of blocking attempts to talk to pilots and see UAP photos when they traveled to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

‘We actually got into an argument with the general of that base,’ said Luna. 

Burchett doubts the purported technology belongs to American adversaries like China or Russia.

‘If Russia owned it, they wouldn’t be battling in Ukraine. It’d be over,’ said Burchett.

Many military personnel and civilians have described various UFOs as maneuvering and gyrating in ways that don’t comport with contemporary science. They also accelerate and dash away at insane speeds – believed in one instance to be as fast as 13,000 mph.

‘When you see the Tic Tac videos and listen to the pilots, it defies all of our laws of physics,’ said Burchett. ‘The human body would not be able to withstand the pressure from this thing.’

After last year’s hearing, Congress tucked a provision into the annual defense policy bill to require the military document and review claims of UAPs. Lawmakers say the Pentagon sometimes ignored reports of UAPs – and viewed those who say they saw the unexplained as kooks.

Many lawmakers are pleased with the new reporting and documentation system. But Burchett is far from satisfied. Senior administration officials are coy when pressed about UAPs and the new reporting regime.

‘We’re not saying what they are,’ said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby when asked about UAPs. ‘We’re saying it has had an effect on some of our training operations.’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to add a provision to this year’s defense bill to create a special agency dedicated to studying UFOs and de-classifying certain information.

LAWMAKERS CLAIM UFO ‘COVER-UPS’ FROM PENTAGON, MILITARY AS WITNESSES HEAD TO CONGRESS

‘It’ll be very helpful for the American people to see exactly what’s there,’ said Schumer. ‘Otherwise, there are all sorts of rumors flying around.’

To say nothing of UAPs.

However, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is unconvinced about the existence of UFOs.

‘If we had found a UFO, I think the Department of Defense would tell us because they probably want to request more money,’ said McCarthy.

And if the spacecraft are evidence of aliens from another galaxy, cruising through the Milky Way, could humans accept the premise that we are not alone?

Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. He convened last year’s hearing on UAPs.

‘We saw what happened with the (Orson Welles radio broadcast) ‘War Of the Worlds.’ We saw what happened in 1947 (in Roswell, New Mexico). We saw what happened with radio programs in the ‘30s and folks were jumping out of buildings,’ said Carson.

Perhaps the best quotation about these circumstances doesn’t come from movies like ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ or ‘E.T. the Extraterrestrial.’ It may emanate from ‘A Few Good Men.’

Can the public ‘handle the truth?’

‘Are we OK with the federal government keeping information from the American people because they’re trying to prevent us from having anxiety on all sorts of issues?’ asked Moskowitz. ‘What else are we going to give them authority to not tell the American people because they’re interested in controlling and keeping us in a bubble?’

Yours truly asked Carson if he could deal with learning that the alleged aircraft are otherworldly.

Carson chuckled. 

‘I’m a Muslim. I’m a Black man. I’m from Indiana,’ said Carson. ‘I can deal with a lot.’ 

But is everyone else ready for this? 

Burchett gently chided the press corps.

‘Every time you play this (news conference), you play the theme from the X-Files. I get it,’ said Burchett. ‘You better be careful about a government that doesn’t trust its people because there’s no telling what they’ll pull on you.’

The Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate met in a special session Monday and overrode GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt’s vetoes of two bills to extend existing agreements with Native American tribes for another year.

The overrides were the latest development in an ongoing dispute between Stitt and several Oklahoma-based tribes. Stitt, himself a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, wants to renegotiate tribal compacts on the sale of tobacco products and the issuance of motor vehicle tags by tribes.

Several of the state’s most powerful tribal leaders were in the gallery during Monday’s debate and praised the Senate for overriding the governor’s vetoes.

Stitt has raised concerns that the existing compact language needs to be rewritten in light of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2020 that led to the reservation boundaries of several Oklahoma-based tribes being upheld.

‘I am trying to protect eastern Oklahoma from turning into a reservation, and I’ve been working to ensure these compacts are the best deal for all four million Oklahomans,’ Stitt said in a statement.

The two bills he vetoed would extend those compacts for another year. Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat said he wants to give the governor more time to renegotiate the terms of the deal and has been openly critical of Stitt’s disputes with the tribes. Treat also said he would consider changing state law to give the Legislature a greater role in compact negotiations if the governor doesn’t negotiate in good faith.

The bill to extend the compact over the sale of tobacco still must be overridden by the House, which is expected to meet July 31.

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A paddleboarder who drowned near former President Barack Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard estate has been identified as Tafari Campbell, the Obamas’ personal chef. 

Campbell, 45, of Dumfries, Virginia, was recovered Monday morning a day after disappearing in the waters of Edgartown Great Pond on Martha’s Vineyard. 

Massachusetts State Police said Campbell was employed by the former president and was visiting Martha’s Vineyard at the time of his passing. Barack and Michelle Obama were not present at the home at the time of the accident, MSP said. 

‘Tafari was a beloved part of our family. When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House – creative and passionate about food, and its ability to bring people together. In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter,’ the Obamas said in a joint statement. 

‘That’s why, when we were getting ready to leave the White House, we asked Tafari to stay with us, and he generously agreed. He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone. Today we join everyone who knew and loved Tafari – especially his wife Sherise and their twin boys, Xavier and Savin – in grieving the loss of a truly wonderful man.’

Campabell’s body was found just before 10 a.m. Monday at a depth of about eight feet and 100 feet from the shore of Edgartown Great Pond. MSP divers recovered the body after Massachusetts Environmental Police officers used side-scan sonar from a boat to locate it, the agency said.

Authorities initially responded at 7:46 p.m. Sunday after receiving a call about a male paddleboarder who had struggled to stay above the water and then went under near Turkeyland Cove. Officials said the man did not resurface.

Another paddleboarder was on the pond with him at the time and witnessed him go under the water, according to authorities.

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.