Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, denounced Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘national divorce’ proposal as ‘evil.’

The far-right congresswoman suggested a split in the union based on party lines on Monday as the nation celebrated Presidents Day.

Cox, a moderate Republican, blasted Taylor Greene’s proposal on Twitter the same day the congresswoman made her post.

‘This rhetoric is destructive and wrong and—honestly—evil,’ Cox wrote. ‘We don’t need a divorce, we need marriage counseling.’

‘And we need elected leaders that don’t profit by tearing us apart,’ Cox continued. ‘We can disagree without hate.’

‘Healthy conflict was critical to our nation’s founding and survival,’ the governor added.

Cox’s comments came in response to Tayor Greene’s tweet calling for ‘a national divorce’ between Republican and Democrat states.

‘We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,’ Greene tweeted, going on to claim that everyone she talks to ‘says this.’

‘From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done,’ Greene wrote.

The Georgia firebrand’s comments were par for the course for Greene, whose previous statements have landed her in hot water among Democrats and even GOP leadership.

President Biden is showing ‘outright hostility’ to the U.S. oil industry by turning to foreign countries — including adversaries — to supply America’s energy needs rather than domestic producers, according to experts and industry insiders.

The U.S. is on track to receive nearly 3 million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela this month, Reuters reported. That’s because oil producer Chevron is shipping more than 100,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude to the U.S. under a license from the Treasury Department.

Last year, the Biden administration authorized Chevron to expand production in Venezuela and to resume exports of Venezuelan oil. Venezuela, an OPEC member, has been under U.S. sanctions, with its oil frozen for the past several years, due to international outcry over the conduct of Venezuela’s socialist government.

Experts were quick to note that the U.S. turned outward to Venezuela, a country hostile to the U.S., rather than inward to domestic energy producers.

‘It’s really sad to see the way President Biden treats our domestic oil industry, while asking countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to produce more oil,’ Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer with decades of experience in the energy industry, told Fox News Digital.

‘I have never understood this outright hostility to an industry that is critically important for U.S. manufacturing, transportation, and national security,’ he continued. ‘Instead of working with the oil industry, President Biden approaches them with outright hostility, making demands upon them and criticizing them for making profits.’

The surge in Venezuela oil to the U.S. appears to be part of a White House strategy months in the making.

Early last year, American officials went to Venezuela, a Russian ally and longtime U.S. foe, to open a dialogue with President Nicolas Maduro about easing sanctions so the country can sell its oil on the international market to combat rising prices amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Over the course of the year, the Biden administration offered Venezuela sanctions relief and ended up easing certain sanctions related to oil, giving Chevron a greenlight to import Venezuelan crude.

According to experts, the administration’s efforts to increase Venezuela’s oil experts really kicked into high gear over the summer, when Saudi Arabia rebuffed Biden’s efforts to get the country to increase the oil supply. 

‘Unfortunately, when the Saudis stiff-armed the administration on production increases last summer, it left them with very few options for the type of crude many US refineries need — particularly with the rapid draws from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,’ Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, told Fox News Digital. ‘So last fall, they turned to the Marxist regime for an assist.’

In October, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-member allies, a coalition known as OPEC+ led by Russia and Saudi Arabia, announced they were going to slash oil production by 2 million barrels a day, a move that observers feared would push up already high global energy prices.

The White House, which had been desperately lobbying OPEC+ members to vote against the proposed production cut, decried the decision.

Experts have argued OPEC+ has increased sway in part because Biden’s policies have limited U.S. domestic energy production. According to an analysis last year by economists Stephen Moore and Casey Mulligan for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the Biden administration’s policies have caused the U.S. to produce significantly less oil and gas during Biden’s presidency than it would have during a second term for former President Trump.

‘The U.S. would be producing between 2 and 3 million more barrels of oil a day and between 20 and 25 more billion cubic feet of natural gas under the Trump policies,’ the report states. ‘This translates into an economic loss — or tax on the American economy — of roughly $100 billion a year.’

By turning to Venezuela for oil, Biden may also be undermining his own climate and environmental agenda.

‘Venezuela has the dirtiest oil production in the world,’ said Stewart.

Last summer, the World Bank published data showing the U.S. has made great strides in reducing flaring, which is the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction. Biden has said he wants to end the practice by 2030.

The U.S. has seen a 46% reduction in flaring intensity, the volume of gas flared per barrel of oil produced, over the past decade and last year was better than almost every country at limiting it, according to the World Bank data.

Venezuela, meanwhile, is ‘among the worst performers, with a flaring intensity 18 times higher than that of the U.S.,’ the Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report found.

Frequent oil spills in Venezuela, which often aren’t cleaned up, are also causing serious environmental damage. Experts have highlighted Venezuela’s ‘unsafe and careless production practices’ of contaminated oil, which damages not only the environment but also the health of local communities.

Venezuela is allied with Russia, which has been a chief backer of Maduro’s regime and supported the Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA. Russia has a controlling stake in 40% of Venezuela’s operations in five different projects.

Venezuela also maintains close military ties with Iran and economic ties with China.

‘Every barrel of Venezuelan crude the administration imports into the U.S. just further props up the Maduro regime and indirectly funds Russia’s war in Ukraine,’ said Stewart. ‘Now that Venezuela is hosting the Iranian navy and has laid out a welcome mat for the [ruling Chinese Communist Party], the Biden administration is funding the four major U.S. foreign adversaries with one single and very bad energy policy decision. It is efficient but very wrong.’

‘The sad thing is,’ continued Stewart, ‘this administration treats its own oil and gas industry and our workers as greater enemies than Venezuela, Russia, Iran, or China.’

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

President Biden’s surprise Monday trip to Ukraine was actually an operation that began under the cover of darkness early Sunday morning, and included a plane ride on an Air Force C-32 jet, a motorcade on an empty Polish highway and a long overnight train ride into the war-torn country.

The small two-person print press pool accompanying Biden on the trip found out it was happening just days before, and had to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in the wee hours of the morning before being forced to hand over their phones before boarding the C-32, a much smaller plane than the usual Air Force One Boeing VC-25.

The plane was parked in the dark next to a hangar away from the tarmac with the shades drawn, waiting for Biden’s arrival. He arrived around 4:00 a.m. ET and the plane departed at 4:15 a.m. ET.

The plane stopped to refuel at Ramstein Air Base in Germany at 5:13 p.m. local time on Sunday after an approximately seven-hour flight, before continuing on to Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in Poland. During its roughly one hour and 15 minutes on the ground, the plane’s shades remained drawn.

It landed in Rzeszów, Poland at 7:57 p.m. local time. The airport was clear at the time of Biden’s arrival, and the press pool was quickly ushered to a designated SUV as part of a motorcade estimated to contain approximately 20 cars.

The motorcade began rolling at 8:12 p.m. local time and began a roughly one-hour long journey on a family empty highway to Przemyśl Główny train station. No sirens were used during the drive to avoid drawing attention.

It arrived at the near empty Przemyśl Główny train station at approximately 9:15 p.m. local time, where Biden was dropped directly in front of his train car at the already waiting train. It contained approximately eight cars, according to a security officer on the train, and had a heavy security presence.

The train departed the station at 9:37 p.m. local time. According to an agent on the train, it crossed into Ukraine at roughly 10:00 p.m. local time. Much of the journey took place in the dark and lasted roughly 10 hours, while stopping a handful of times for unclear reasons except to pick up additional security on at least one occasion.

The sun had risen by the time the train approached Kyiv and came to a stop at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky station at roughly 8:00 a.m. local time. The area around the platform had been cleared and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink awaited Biden and his staff at the station.

Biden reportedly said ‘it’s good to be back in Kyiv’ when he stepped off the train.

Biden departed the train at 8:07 a.m. local time and entered another motorcade that departed the station at 8:18 a.m. local time en route to Mariinsky Palace where Biden was greeted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Fox News’ Erin McEwan contributed to this report.

Teachers in Indiana public schools could be required to tell parents if a student changes their gender identity or preferred name under a bill House committee members approved Monday.

A vociferous crowd lingered outside the House chamber through hours of testimony, cheering opponents of the measure and booing Republican lawmakers who back it.

Opponents of the bill — which lawmakers voted 9-4 to send to the full House for consideration — said it would alienate LGBTQ students, particularly transgender youth, and possibly force kids to come out to their parents. Supporters argued the legislation would empower parents to choose how their children are raised.

If a student questions their gender identity to a teacher, ‘the best answer is, you can talk to your parents,’ said Micah Clark, executive director of the Indiana Family Association.

The parental notification proposal was among several amendments to a bill that started out more closely resembling Florida legislation enacted in March 2022. The so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill drew intense national scrutiny from those who argue it marginalizes LGBTQ people. Proponents say the measure is reasonable because parents, not teachers, should handle such subjects with their children.

The original Indiana bill would have prohibited teachers from teaching kindergarteners to third graders about topics related to gender identity and sexuality. It was amended limit the banned topics solely to sexual education — something already uncommon in early grades.

Missouri lawmakers also rejected a more restrictive version of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. A Senate committee in that state voted to advance a measure that would require public school teachers to tell parents if a child ‘express discomfort or confusion’ about their gender identity or if they request to use different pronouns.

Haras Shirley, a transgender man who testified Monday, said the House legislation is ‘a direct conflict of interest to what I’m sworn to do’ for students as a school resource officer at an Indianapolis high school.

‘I will continue to be a beacon for my students, no matter the cost,’ Shirley said.

Indiana’s House bill, authored by Republican Rep. Michelle Davis, would only apply to public schools and would prohibit them from disciplining teachers or staff who use ‘a name, pronoun, title, or other word to identify a student that is consistent with the student’s legal name.’

‘This is some common sense legislation to support transparency and parents’ fundamental rights, which shouldn’t get dropped at the classroom door,’ Davis said Monday.

But Chris McGrath, a teacher from Lafayette, Indiana, disagreed.

‘How do I not have the right to compel (a school) to call my child a name that I told them that I want my child to be called?’ McGrath asked. ‘I could be insisting that they use the name that she’s got right now, and that they use she/her pronouns. How can I not compel the institution to do that?’

Top Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees said President Joe Biden’s surprise ‘photo op’ in Ukraine on Monday is not a sufficient response and said the U.S. needs to send more lethal aid to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia.

‘It’s good President Biden visited Ukraine, but a photo op isn’t enough,’ said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who chairs the House committee. ‘He needs to get Ukraine the weapons they need to win now, especially ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System), instead of slow-rolling them.’

The top Republican on the Senate committee, Jim Risch of Idaho, agreed that more lethal force is needed and called on Biden to send fighter aircraft.

‘I hope POTUS’ visit to #Kyiv will be followed with action – including quickly sending F-16s to Ukrainian forces. We must demonstrate that the U.S. remains committed to helping #Ukraine defend itself against #Russia’s violent aggression,’ Risch stated in a tweet Monday.

ATACMS is a 190-mile range missile that would far outperform the artillery currently in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s arsenal, which have a range of about 50 miles.

But last week, the Biden administration announced it would not be sending ATACMS to the front lines in Ukraine because doing so would reduce the U.S. military stockpile to a level that would affect military readiness. But some military experts say that excuse from the White House is ‘weak.’

‘ATACMS is fired by rocket artillery systems that have already been transferred to Ukraine,’ the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote in an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner on Saturday. ‘Modern variants of the missile have a 500-pound warhead and 300-kilometer range, well beyond the 85-kilometer range of Ukraine’s current Western-supplied rockets,’ the group said.

‘The bottom line is that there are still thousands left in U.S. and allied stockpiles,’ the group said.

The Biden administration’s refusal to send Ukraine F-16s and ATACMS comes even after bipartisan calls to do so.

On Thursday, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, including Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., sent a letter to the White House to ask Biden to ‘provide Ukraine with increased air superiority capability, including the F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft requested by [Kyiv], or similar fourth-generation aircraft, as soon as possible.’

‘We believe providing Ukraine with fourth generation fighter aircraft represents a sound strategic investment in bolstering [Kyiv’s] military capability and bringing this conflict to a just conclusion,’ they said.

This month, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in support of sending ATACMS and fourth-generation aircraft to Ukraine.

House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The comments from the top GOP lawmakers are out of step with other Republicans who on Monday rebuked Biden for his trip to the war-torn region instead of visiting East Palestine, Ohio, where a recent train derailment led to a major leak of toxic chemicals.

Three months into the 2024 White House race, former President Donald Trump remains the front-runner in the hunt for the GOP presidential nomination, according to an average of the latest public opinion surveys.

And as President Biden moves closer to the likely launch of a 2024 re-election campaign, his standing with Americans remains in negative territory after slipping underwater a year and a half ago, according to a key polling metric.

Biden stands at 44% approval and 52% disapproval according to an average of the latest national surveys that asked respondents about the job the president’s doing. The average, compiled by Real Clear Politics, includes both probability and non-probability based polls.

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. But the president’s numbers started sagging in August 2021 in the wake of his much criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and following a surge in COVID-19 cases that summer among mainly unvaccinated people.

The plunge in the president’s approval was also fueled by soaring inflation, which started spiking in the summer of 2021, and to a lesser degree the surge of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the southern border with Mexico. The president’s numbers slightly rebounded last summer and autumn, but remain well in the red.

Biden stands far below where his three most recent two-term predecessors — former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – stood at this point in their presidencies, as they successfully ran for re-election. 

The only recent president whose approval ratings were lower than Biden’s current numbers was Trump — his most recent predecessor. Then-President Trump stood at 44%-53% in mid-February 2019, according to the Real Clear Politics average. Trump was defeated by Biden in his bid for a second term in the White House.

Trump is running a third straight time for the White House. He announced in mid-November, just days after midterms, which traditionally mark the unofficial start of a presidential election cycle. 

According to an average of the latest GOP nomination horse race polls, Trump remains the front-runner in a field of actual and potential rivals. The former president registers at 46% support, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 30%. 

‘The early horse race comes down to just two names,’ Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy highlighted as he pointed to Trump and DeSantis, who remains on the sidelines of the 2024 race as of now.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who’s likely to launch a White House campaign later this year, stood at 6% support in an average of the polls, a point ahead of former South Carolina governor and former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who last week joined Trump as the only major Republicans to date to have launched campaigns. Everyone else tested stood at 3% or less in the polling average.

In hypothetical 2024 general election matchups, the surveys suggest a margin of error race between Biden and Trump and the president and the Florida governor.

But it’s early in the cycle. The start of the GOP primary and caucus calendar is still eleven and a half months away, and the 2024 general election is 21 months from now, and it’s advisable to take the readings of these surveys with plenty of skepticism.