There’s roughly a week until the U.S. government could become short of money because it can’t borrow to fulfill all of its obligations, and the partisan disagreement over whom would be to blame for any possible economic fallout reflects the broad divide between Republicans and Democrats over raising the debt limit. 

Asked whom the American public would hold responsible if a deal isn’t reached in time, GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the blame would certainly lie at President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ feet. Most pointed to House Republicans’ recently-passed Limit, Save, Grow Act as evidence that the GOP did its part to avert any debt crisis.

Democrats, meanwhile, accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his conference of holding the debt limit ‘hostage’ and pointed out that it was Congress’ constitutional obligation to act on the debt ceiling, rather than Biden’s. 

‘President Biden waited 97 days to speak with Kevin McCarthy about this debt ceiling stuff, so if anything untoward happens, this is 100% the Biden-Schumer shutdown,’ said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Asked if he believes Americans would feel the same way, he added, ‘I think if more media outlets report it honestly like you’re doing, they would, if they’re told the truth.’

Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., maintained that McCarthy and Biden would reach a deal before the government runs out of cash, declaring, ‘First and foremost, we’re going to pay our debts. We always have, we always will, so I think that’s the headline.

Hern said ‘I do’ when asked if he feels Americans would blame the left for any repercussions of letting negotiations get down to the line in terms of timing, and knocked Biden for his recent trip to the G7 summit in Japan as talks went on. ‘When you look at the leadership that we have done in the House, doing our responsibility of passing a bill, the Senate hasn’t done their job, and the president was off gallivanting around the world when he could’ve been working to get this done,’ Hern explained.

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., in charge of the RSC’s budget taskforce, shared a similar sentiment regarding the other side of the aisle. ‘Absolutely – they’re the ones who have been delaying the whole time, they’re the ones who want to keep spending, and continue to keep punting on responsibility for this enormous debt that this country’s incurred,’ Cline said.

‘Joe Biden’ was Rep. Byron Donalds’, R-Fla., point-blank answer when asked whom Americans will direct their anger at. ‘Because the one thing Joe Biden has been successful at is creating crises he cannot solve. He’s done it every single time,’ Donalds said. 

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., simply told Fox News Digital when asked who would be to blame, ‘It’s Congress’ job, only Congress can raise the debt limit.’

‘It’s pretty obvious who to blame here – the extremist Republicans who control Kevin McCarthy. I mean, they’re the ones who made him go through 17 votes to get elected Speaker. They’re holding the country hostage,’ said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. ‘We didn’t like Donald Trump, we didn’t like his tax cuts. It’s created much of this deficit. And yet we raised the debt limit three times under Trump because it’s the right thing to do for the country.’

Asked if Americans would feel the same, Moulton said, ‘Look I hope they do, because that’s the truth.’

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said public blame would fall on ‘anyone who is standing in the way of actually moving this forward and doing so quickly.’

‘We’re already way too close, we shouldn’t have been this close to a default,’ Crow said. ‘The Republicans and Speaker McCarthy in particular need to come to the table in good faith and get this done, because we can’t be playing games with the American economy and American workers.’

‘We have a Republican-controlled House, and it’s a Republican-controlled House that’s brought us to the brink,’ Crow added.

A mother whose 20-year-old daughter was murdered, allegedly by a suspected MS-13 gang member who had been released into the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, gave an emotional plea to lawmakers on Tuesday to secure the southern border — warning that the crisis ‘is a safety issue for everyone living in the United States.’

‘For me, this is not a political issue. This is a safety issue for everyone living in the United States,’ Tammy Nobles, whose daughter Kayla Hamilton was killed last year, told lawmakers on a Judiciary Committee immigration subcommittee. ‘This could have been anyone’s daughter. Kayla wasn’t doing anything wrong, and she didn’t deserve to be murdered. I don’t want any other parents to live the nightmare I am living.’ 

‘I am her voice now, and I am going to fight with everything I have to get her story told and bring awareness of the issue at the border,’ she said.

Hamilton, who was autistic, was raped and killed in her mobile home last year. Earlier this year, police arrested an El Salvadoran 17-year-old who authorities said is linked to the MS-13 street gang and who was released into the U.S. into the custody of his aunt after being encountered at the border.

An interim staff Judiciary committee report released Tuesday faulted the Biden administration for a failure to vet the suspect, calling it a ‘tragic example of the failure to enforce U.S. immigration law.’

‘Tragically, Secretary Mayorkas and his department missed key warning signs about the alien’s propensity for violence, which law enforcement officials investigating the murder later uncovered,’ the report says.

A DHS official told Fox News Digital that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reviews both biometric and biographic information for those encountered at the border against several federal agencies’ databases.

‘If we determine that the individuals pose a threat to national security or public safety, we deny admission, detain, remove, or turn them over to another agency for prosecution, as appropriate. We work closely with our interagency and international partners to detect and prevent people who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the United States,’ the official said.

At the hearing, Nobles paid tribute to her daughter.

‘She always kept her friends close and never forgot anyone. She was kind, caring, thoughtful and funny. She loved life and God. She showed the world that being yourself was okay, and you didn’t have to follow everyone else,’ she said.

She described in harrowing terms the night that Kayla was killed, describing how he allegedly used an iPod charger to strangle her before sexually assaulting her. He allegedly robbed her of her phone and $6.

She then spoke about how the U.S. needs to secure its southern border.

‘The United States government has to secure our border. We need to properly vet all border crossers. The government could have placed a phone call to authorities in El Salvador and found out that he was a gang member. But they didn’t,’ she said. 

‘If we had stricter border policies, my daughter would still be nothing will bring my daughter back, nor the pain, nor fix. I’m not having her here and I want to prevent this from happening to someone else’s child. This is about protecting everyone here in the United States.’

The testimony came during the third in a series of hearings held by Republicans on the committee on ‘Biden’s Border Crisis.’ Republicans have blamed the policies of the administration for the ongoing crisis at the border — including a greater use of ‘catch-and-release’ and reduced interior enforcement

Democrats and the administration have accused Republicans of failing to provide additional resources to secure ports of entry, and of refusing to work with Democrats on a ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform bill to fix what they say is a ‘broken’ immigration system.

Fox News’ Mitch Picasso contributed to this report.
 

The Trump campaign is mocking Ron DeSantis ahead of the launch of his presidential campaign, swiping at the Florida governor for his plans to announce on Twitter.

Sources told Fox News Digital that DeSantis will formally announce his 2024 presidential bid Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET during a conversation with Elon Musk on Twitter.

‘Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis,’ a Trump adviser told Fox News Digital. ‘This way he doesn’t have to interact with people, and the media can’t ask him any questions.’

And Karoline Leavitt, the spokesperson for Make America Great Again Inc., slammed DeSantis’ plans to announce his campaign on Twitter as ‘one of the most out-of-touch campaign launches in modern history.’

‘The only thing less relatable than a niche campaign launch on Twitter, is DeSantis’ after party at the uber elite Four Seasons resort in Miami,’ Leavitt said in a statement. ‘Every day more and more Americans are realizing just how out of step Ron DeSantis is with their values and how unelectable he really is.’

‘From his votes to cut Social Security and Medicare, to his support of a national sales tax that would raise taxes on 90% of families and support of Obama’s TPP which sent jobs to China, to his vote against funding for President Trump’s wall – Ron DeSantis just isn’t ready to be President,’ she continued. ‘President Trump is ready on day one to turn our country around, reverse Biden’s disastrous policies and make America great again.’

Trump has previously taken aim at DeSantis as the Florida governor mulled a potential White House bid, nicknaming him ‘Ron DeSanctimonious.’ And early this year, the former president charged that the governor was a ‘RINO GLOBALIST’ and began referring to him as ‘DeSanctus.’

Pointing to his support for DeSantis in 2018, Trump argued that if the governor joined him in the 2024 Republican nomination race, ‘I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in. He had no chance. His political life was over.’

DeSantis, despite being on the sidelines, has been considered a top 2024 contender, but former President Donald Trump remains the GOP favorite, polling far ahead of any other Republican candidate for the White House

Meanwhile, along with his expected announcement, DeSantis is expected to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, which officially launches his GOP presidential campaign. His first national TV interview following the announcement will be with Fox News’ Trey Gowdy on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ‘Fox News Tonight.’

As for Twitter, Trump uses his own social media platform, Truth Social. It is unclear if he will use Twitter during the 2024 campaign cycle.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Andrew Murray contributed to this report.

The House passed legislation Tuesday to reject a Biden administration environmental regulation that targets heavy-duty vehicle tailpipe emissions.

In a 221-203 vote, the House approved the resolution with 217 Republicans and four Democrats voting in favor. In April, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, a member of the Transportation Committee’s Highways and Transit subcommittee, introduced the resolution as a companion bill to one that Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., unveiled in the Senate two months earlier.

‘Folks, I want to be crystal clear today,’ Nehls remarked on the House floor ahead of the vote. ‘Woke bureaucrats in Washington are on a climate justice crusade using the heavy hand of government to go after the trucking industry that keeps America moving. And in the last three decades, we’ve made significant, significant strides in the right direction to decrease emissions and increase efficiency.’

‘The EPA unilaterally imposed this detrimental rule which could lead to a litany of further supply chain disruptions across the country, hit the smaller mom-and-pop trucking companies the hardest and pass along increased costs to the American consumer,’ he said. ‘This is exactly why it is imperative that the House passes this joint resolution to nullify this burdensome regulation.’

In December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the rules that it said at the time were the ‘strongest-ever national clean air standards to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions from heavy-duty trucks.’ The new standards went into effect on March 27 but will be implemented for new trucks sold after 2027.

The EPA projected that the regulations, which are more than 80% tougher than current standards, would prevent up to 2,900 premature deaths and ensure 3.1 million fewer cases of asthma.

But Republicans argued that the regulation – estimated to cost an estimated $39 billion, according to American Action Forum – was ‘onerous’ and would hurt small trucking businesses by forcing them to adopt costly technology. Led by Fischer, who said the ‘last thing this country needs is more expensive freight costs and fewer truckers,’ more than 30 senators introduced the Senate resolution to reject the rule in February.

The Senate passed the measure in a 50-49 vote on April 26, paving the way for the House vote Tuesday.

President Joe Biden, though, has vowed to veto the resolution, and the close vote in both chambers indicates there aren’t enough votes to override a veto. Democrats continue to argue that the regulations are necessary to boost public health.

‘The trucking industry is a leading source of this dangerous air pollution,’ House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Tuesday. ‘And it is especially dangerous for the 72 million Americans who live near truck freight routes across the United States. The EPA rule will cut NOx pollution from these vehicles by nearly half in 2045.’

‘The Republican CRA that we are debating this afternoon would abandon all of the public health, economic, and environmental justice benefits that come with the EPA rule,’ Pallone said.

EXCLUSIVE – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was not optimistic a deal would be reached regarding the debt limit as he headed out of the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.

Fox News asked the speaker if he thought a deal would be reached on Tuesday.

‘I don’t think we’ll get one today,’ McCarthy said as he walked past the reporter.

It’s unclear where McCarthy was heading after he left the Capitol.

McCarthy met with President Biden on Monday, and although he hailed the discussions as ‘productive,’ he told his conference later that night that the White House was still ‘dug in’ on raising taxes and increasing spending.

Monday’s meeting was the third such meeting with the president to find common ground on moving forward with a debt ceiling agreement.

Now, with only nine days left until the U.S. government is expected to run out of cash to pay its current obligations, a deal has yet to be reached.

Democrats have insisted on raising the debt limit without preconditions. But Republicans are lining up behind the House-passed Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would increase the federal borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion while also slashing spending by roughly $150 billion from this year to the next.

Both sides have agreed that action is needed to reduce the deficit, but each has different ideas about how to do it – Republicans are looking to cut spending from today’s levels, while Democrats have called to increase tax revenue from the ultra-wealthy and large corporations.

Rep. James Comer R-Ky., has requested to meet with FBI Director Christopher Wray about subpoenaed documents allegedly related to the Biden family’s business dealings.

Comer, the House Oversight Commitee chairman, said he would review with Wray the various scenarios the committee could take if the FBI does not turn over the documents, Fox News Digital confirmed. 

One of the options is holding Wray in contempt of congress.

Comer’s request comes after the FBI didn’t turn over the document subpoenaed – an unclassified FD-1023 document which details allegations of crimes of a pay-to-play scheme in relation to the Biden family’s business dealings, a whistleblower at the federal agency told Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. 

Grassley and Comer both requested a meeting with Wray on May 16, which hasn’t been scheduled after multiple follow-up attempts.

‘I’m going to tell Director Wray: I want to have a conversation. I’ve asked to have a conversation, because I’m gonna tell him what option B is, and let him think about it. And then he can decide,’ Comer told CNN.

‘They don’t respect anyone in Congress,’ Comer said Monday on Fox News. ‘They’ve been able to get away with this for a long time. The media continues to turn a blind eye. The Senate Republicans continue to fund the FBI. Why would you change your business model when you’re getting everything you want?’

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., meanwhile said he had a conversation with Wray on Friday and remains confident that the agency will provide the document.

‘I explained to the director that we will do everything in our power, and we have the jurisdiction over the FBI, and we have the right to see this document,’ McCarthy said Sunday on Fox News. ‘I believe after this call, we will get this document.’

Fox News’ Jon Street contributed to this report.