EXCLUSIVE: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., recently toured the home of Frederick Muhlenberg, the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and reflected on the historical importance of his position.

During the tour in Trappe, Pennsylvania, located about 30 miles north of Philadelphia, leaders of a local historical society took McCarthy around Muhlenberg’s property — dubbed ‘The Speaker’s House’ — and the Henry Muhlenberg House which was owned by Frederick Muhlenberg’s father, a well-known 18th century Lutheran minister.

‘I wanted to come to the house of the very first speaker of the House of Representatives, Frederick Muhlenberg. You learn from history,’ McCarthy told Fox News Digital in an exlusive interview following the tour. ‘Think about if you became the very first speaker of Congress — setting up a new nation, how did you create the tradition, the history?’

‘And when you study his time of being speaker, there’s something that stands out: I might have a little in common with him. He didn’t win on the first ballot. It took him a couple ballots to win there,’ he continued. ‘So, he had some fortitude, some grit, which you needed back in the time. How did he make sure the Constitution was upheld? How did he make sure committees did the work, that the speaker didn’t suck in all the power?’

McCarthy added that he was especially interested in learning about how Muhlenberg was able to work with the first U.S. President George Washington in the late 1700s as they established the foundations of the federal government for years to come. 

‘Being a speaker of the House is not an easy job — you know that going in,’ he said. ‘But how do you wrangle and help people come together, uphold the Constitution, but pass the type of legislation through committees that puts America onto a better track, that tomorrow will be better than today?’

In January, after multiple unsuccessful votes over the course of four days, McCarthy was elected the 55th ever Speaker of the House on the 15th ballot. The tight vote came after a group of Republicans demanded a series of concessions — such as ensuring certain committee assignments, creating a new ‘weaponization’ subcommittee, and giving lower-ranked members power to alter bills — and for McCarthy to prioritize various conservative priorities.

And McCarthy’s speakership hit another snag last month when House Freedom Caucus Republicans delayed votes on protecting gas stoves, a major GOP priority, in response to the way McCarthy and other leaders pushed the debt ceiling bill. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said he and others were fighting back against the ‘era of the imperial speakership.’

McCarthy broadly reflected on the first six months of his speakership following the tour in Trappe, saying he understood the job isn’t easy, but that he is willing to make the right decisions even if they aren’t immediately popular.

‘Muhlenberg, a lot of people may not know him, but he literally made a decision following George Washington on a Jay Treaty that cost him his political career — literally was attacked by a family member over it,’ McCarthy told Fox News Digital. ‘It was the right decision going forward. But emotionally, where the country was at, they wanted another decision.’ 

‘He took the leadership upon himself to make that tie-breaking vote where George Washington believed our nation was too young to go to war with Britain again,’ he continued. ‘You can learn so many times in history that people putting the country first, made the right decision. It might not make you popular at the moment, but history will be very kind when they look back upon you.’

The current Speaker said reflecting on history reminds him democracy isn’t going to be ‘smooth,’ but will ultimately yield the best results.

‘Democracy, as Abraham Lincoln put it, of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from Earth. There’s a reason why: because our power doesn’t rest with government, it’s with the people,’ McCarthy added. ‘I actually embrace the struggle when it comes because I know it’s working. You might not get everything that you want, but you know the struggle, that the people still have the power and you work through it.’

According to Lisa Minardi, the executive director of Historic Trappe which manages an array of historical sites in the area, The Speaker’s House was scheduled 20 years ago to be demolished and replaced by a CVS Pharmacy as part of strip mall expansion plan, but was rescued after a group of citizens who wanted to preserve the site banded together.

Today, the home is being renovated as part of a multi-year renovation funded, in large part, by individual donors. The largest project has been executing the restoration of the home’s roof which was successfully completed in 2017. The organization is now focused on replacing windows and refurbishing the entire exterior, and plans to soon shift its focus on the interior.

‘There’s only one first speaker of the House,’ Minardi told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘Frederick Muhlenberg is just incredibly important historically. He’s important at the local level, the county level, the state and the national level.’

‘Not just here in our community of Trappe, but throughout all of those levels,’ she continued. ‘So, we think we’ve got a great story to tell. We want to, you know, get him on the radar.’

Fox News Digital Production Assistant Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

A suspicious substance found at the White House has reportedly been determined to be cocaine.

The substance, which was found inside the White House’s West Wing on Sunday, sparked an evacuation and emergency response.

‘On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service Uniformed Division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area,’ the U.S. Secret Service said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘The DC Fire Department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous. The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,’ the statement added.

An unnamed official reportedly familiar with the investigation reported the positive test for cocaine in the suspicious item, according to The Washington Post.

A hazmat team was called to the area of 18th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue following the package’s discovery. 

Secret Service units blocked off roads around the White House following the incident. 

The Secret Service confirmed to Fox News Digital that the substance has been sent for additional testing.

President Biden was not on White House premises when the substance was discovered.

It’s a July 4th tradition every four years in Iowa and New Hampshire – White House hopefuls marching in Independence Day parades in the year before the presidential caucuses and primaries.

Iowa and New Hampshire have led off both major parties’ presidential nominating calendars for half a century, and while the Democrats are upending their schedule, the two states will once again kick off the GOP lineup in 2024.

And on Tuesday, five Republican presidential candidates are marching in parades in New Hampshire, with three more in Iowa.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, ex-CIA spy and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson are marching in parades in Amherst, Wolfeboro and Merrimack, New Hampshire. DeSantis was seen marching the entire route of the parade and was met with a lot of cheers – but some jeers as well.

‘The fourth is not only celebrating independence but celebrating liberty and freedom that are synonyms for independence. I love the fourth of July because it reminds me of the men and the women who are willing to sacrifice everything for the cause of freedom,’ Scott said in a Fox News Digital interview in Merrimack, New Hampshire.  ‘I can’t think of a better day to celebrate are men in uniform, whether it’s backing the blue or whether it’s our military men and women. This is a great day to celebrate who we are.’

Scott emphasized that ‘there’s not a better place to call home than America and I can’t think of a better place to celebrate it than this state – the Granite State – Live free or Die. It’s really synonymous with who we are as Americans.’ 

Former Vice President Mike Pence marched in the Urbandale, Iowa, Independence Day parade, with former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former nationally syndicated radio host and 2021 California gubernatorial recall election candidate Larry Elder marching in Clear Lake, Iowa. Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, Florida, is also in Iowa, taking part in July 4th festivities in Cedar Rapids.

Here are some sights from today as the presidential campaign trail and the parade routes intersected.

Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma’s senior senator, is making religious liberty a pillar of his political agenda and claims the White House is failing to enforce basic protections on the issue.

The senator made the remarks in an interview with the Daily Mail published Tuesday.

‘My passion for religious liberty really draws from my personal faith, that I have the ability to be able to live my faith, practice my faith and speak about my faith,’ Lankford told the outlet.

Lankford, a Republican, served as a Christian minister for 22 years prior to taking office. He says religious liberty is much broader than simple freedom to worship.

‘Faith is not the freedom of worship. You have the freedom to be able to worship as you choose,’ said Lankford. ‘It’s the freedom of religion. It’s the freedom to have a faith and live that faith. And so that that’s been dear to me.’

The senator went on to assert that President Biden’s administration has abandoned even basic legal protections for religious belief. 

‘This particular administration is not going to protect the religious liberty of conscience protections that are already in law,’ Lankford said.

He drew particular attention to a legal case in which the University of Vermont Medical Center scheduled a nurse to assist with an elective abortion despite knowing her objections to the procedure. The Biden administration declined to act in the case.

‘They literally just trampled on her conscience rights,’ Lankford told the Daily Mail.

Lankford additionally asserted his belief that abortion is going to be one of the most prominent issues in the 2024 presidential election.

‘It’s not just an election issue. It is an issue about our culture. Do we value … every child?’ the senator asked. ‘Do we think some children are valuable and some children are disposable? Or do we think all children are valuable?’

A U.S. District Court judge is temporarily preventing White House officials from meeting with tech companies about social media censorship, arguing that such actions in the past were likely First Amendment violations.

The Tuesday injunction by Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty was in response to recent lawsuits from Louisiana and Missouri attorneys general. The suits allege that the White House coerced or ‘significantly encourage[d]’ tech companies to suppress free speech during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Doughty is barring several federal officials and agencies – including some of Biden’s Cabinet members and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre – from contacting social media companies in efforts to suppress speech.

Google, Meta and Twitter were all named in the lawsuits.

The injunction, which was obtained by Fox News, states that the government’s actions ‘likely violate the Free Speech Clause’ and that the court ‘is not persuaded by Defendants’ arguments,’ dealing a significant blow to the White House. 

‘During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth,’’ Doughty wrote.

‘If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,’ the injunction adds. ‘In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the Federal Government, and particularly the Defendants named here, are alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech.’

The injunction also claims that ‘the censorship alleged in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech,’ but that issues the case raises are ‘beyond party lines.’

‘Viewpoint discrimination is an especially egregious form of content discrimination,’ Doughty argued. ‘The government must abstain from regulating speech when the specific motivating ideology or the perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction.’

The cases could mean that interactions between tech companies and government officials may be significantly limited in the future. Exceptions might include national security threats or criminal matters on social media.

The injunction received favorable responses from the Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general on Tuesday.

‘Happy birthday America. You get your First Amendment back!!!’ Missouri AG Andrew Bailey wrote in a tweet.

‘Today’s historic ruling is a big step in the continued fight to prohibit our government from unconstitutional censorship,’ Louisiana AG Jeff Landry said in a statement. ‘We look forward to continuing to litigate the case and will vigorously defend the injunction on appeal.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House, Google, Meta and Twitter for statements, but has not heard back. The Department of Justice declined to comment.

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FIRST ON FOX — Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey is launching his bid for Congress in Illinois’ 12th District against five-term Republican incumbent Mike Bost, R-Ill.

‘It’s time for a change,’ Bailey told Fox News Digital. ‘We need more people to stand up and stop the compromise that’s destroying our values.’

Bailey says he can beat Bost through a ‘grassroots movement’ he built during his 2022 gubernatorial bid, which he lost to Democrat JB Pritzker.  The southern Illinois farmer also calls Bost ‘a career politician’ who caves to ‘the left-wing agenda.’

‘This is not a career,’ said Bailey. ‘I’ve been out there working and fighting against the adversity and the failures of career politicians, and I’m tired of it.’

Bailey and Bost have both been endorsed by former President Donald Trump in their previous political campaigns. However, Bailey says he will be working hard to get Trump’s endorsement in the primary. 

‘I’m in communication [with Trump]. I’ve had conversations with him in the last several months, and my goal is to prove that I am the fighter,’ said Bailey.

Bailey also said Trump asked him if Mike Bost was ‘a good guy’ a year ago. 

‘I said, here’s the deal. He was a congressman the entire time that you were president. And the fact that you don’t know if he’s the good guy or not, that should say a lot,’ said Bailey.

However, the former president did say Bost was a ‘proud ally’ and ‘terrific representative’ in his 2022 endorsement. Bost won the seat by 50 points.

‘[Bost] knows there’s a threat, and he’s certainly become more conservative in the last year than he has ever been,’ said Bailey. 

Trump won Illinois’ 12th District in 2020 with 56% of the vote. 

The southern Illinois farmer also says he is no stranger to being outspent by his opponents after facing off against JB Pritzker’s $152 million re-election bid.

‘I do not anticipate that I’m going to match, by any means, dollar for dollar, but no one outworked me,’ said Bailey. ‘I spent all my life being a farmer, getting up early, putting the work in. And I will do that.’

The primary election for Illinois’s 12th Congressional District is March 19, 2024.

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A new Gallup poll released one day ahead of Independence Day shows confidence in the U.S. government to be the lowest across all countries in the G7.

According to the poll, just 31% of American adults ‘have confidence’ in the U.S. government, down from 56%, the highest in the G7, in 2006. A whopping 69% of Americans said they did not have confidence in the government.

The U.S. was followed closely by the U.K., with just 33% of British adults having confidence in its government.

Among the other G7 countries, Germany ranked the highest with 61% of its citizens having confidence in its government, followed by Canada at 51%, France at 46%, Japan at 43%, and Italy at 41%.

According to Gallup, Americans’ confidence in their government has declined sharply over the years, but saw a drop from 46% to 40% after President Biden took office in 2021, and again to 31% in 2022, on par with the lowest levels of confidence reached in 2013, 2016 and 2018.

The poll comes as Biden continues to be plagued by low approval ratings, hovering between 42% and 46% for the past year, according to a recent Fox News poll.

A separate Gallup poll released last week found that just 39% of U.S. adults expressed ‘extreme pride’ in the country, just one percent higher than 2022’s record-low number.