Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser held a meeting with neighborhood leaders Saturday to discuss government plans to combat the rapidly rising crime rate.

Appearing alongside Bowser was Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee, who spoke about the influence and dangers of modern youth culture.

‘It’s showing up in schools. Ask the principals. They’ll tell you,’ Contee said. ‘They’re scared. Parents are scared. Everybody in this room is feeling this.’

Contee went on to decry the alarming rise of robbery and other violent charges as first offenses among youth.

‘Their first offense, their first introduction to the criminal justice system — 100 young people for robbery,’ the chief of police lamented. ‘I looked at a video about two days ago at a charter school, where three young people took another person’s shoes off them — while they’re in school — and put the shoes in a trash can while somebody else recorded it.’

Contee could not place a concrete, overarching influence driving young people toward crime at such alarming rate, but he warned that something sinister is creeping into youth culture.

‘Something going on in within the culture of our young people,’ he added. ‘When you look at the juvenile gunshot wound victims. . . . That number every year — 2019, 2020, 2022, that number continues to go up.’

Border Patrol agents stopped 17 people on the FBI’s terror watch list at the southern border in December, bringing the total of individuals arrested at the southern border to 38 already for the current fiscal year.

Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) latest numbers for December, released on Friday, revealed Border Patrol has arrested 17 people at the southern border whose names match on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) — which contains information about the identities of those who are known or ‘reasonably suspected’ of being involved in terrorist activities. 

December’s numbers bring the total number of terror watch list arrests between the ports of entry since FY 2023 began on Oct 1. to 38.

There were 98 terror watch list arrests in FY22, 15 in FY21 and just three in FY 20 at the southern border caught between ports of entry.

At the ports of entry at the northern and southern borders, meanwhile, CBP’s Office of Field Operations has encountered 125 people on the TSDB so far this fiscal year. In FY 2022 there were 380 apprehensions, 157 in FY21 and 196 in FY20.

While the numbers encountered by Border Patrol are a slim fraction of the more than 251,000 migrants encountered at the southern border in December, it has raised concerns from Republicans not only about some of the people trying to get into the U.S. — but also how many may be slipping past overwhelmed Border Patrol agents.

CBP sources told Fox News this week that there were more than 70,000 gotaways in the month of December, similar to the number detected in November. There were nearly 600,000 in FY 2022.

Republicans have pointed to the enormous numbers at the border, including gotaways, to dispute the claim by the Biden administration that the border is ‘secure.’ The Biden administration, meanwhile, said this week that it is dealing with a mass migration that has ‘gripped our hemisphere.’

‘The threats and the challenges we face are evolving, increasingly diverse, and dynamic. Yet we can meet this moment if and only if we work together,’ Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

He also said DHS was ‘executing a comprehensive strategy to secure our borders and build a safe, orderly and humane immigration system working within a broken system in desperate need of legislative reform.’

However, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee have promised to increase scrutiny on the administration’s policies in the wake of the new numbers, and taking aim at ‘this refusal to enforce law and order at the border.’ 

‘We look forward to having Secretary Mayorkas before the Committee soon to provide answers and accountability for the significant threat these border security policies have had on our homeland security posture,’ Chairman Mark Green said in a statement on Friday.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had priests come to her San Francisco home to preform an ‘exorcism’ after her husband was severely attacked in November, according to her daughter.

Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, told the New York Times that her mother called priests to perform an exorcism of the house over Thanksgiving, just weeks after David DePape allegedly attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer. 

Nancy Pelosi, her daughter said, felt ‘guilty’ that her husband was injured by a man who was looking for her.

‘I think that weighed really heavy on her soul. I think she felt really guilty. I think that really broke her. Over Thanksgiving, she had priests coming, trying to have an exorcism of the house and having prayer services,’ Alexandra Pelosi told the New York Times.

‘He’s a strong person, athletic. This has been tough. It’s going to be about three or four more months before he’s really back to normal,’ she added.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said that DePape entered the Pelosi’s San Francisco house during the early morning hours of Oct. 28 through a rear glass door and went into a bedroom where Paul Pelosi was sleeping. Paul Pelosi attempted to use a phone in the in-home elevator, but Jenkins said that DePape blocked him from doing so.

Paul Pelosi eventually escaped to a bathroom and dialed 911, Jenkins said.

Once police arrived at the residence, officers observed Paul Pelosi and DePape struggling over a hammer. When officers told the men to drop the hammer, DePape began attacking Paul Pelosi, according to San Francisco police.

DePape is being charged with attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse, among others. He has pleaded not guilty. He’s also facing several federal charges, which combined with the state-level charges, could land him in jail for decades if found guilty.

According to a federal affidavit, DePape told police he initially intended to hold former Speaker Pelosi hostage and interrogate her. 

‘If Nancy were to tell DePape the ‘truth,’ he would let her go, and if she ‘lied,’ he was going to break ‘her kneecaps,’’ the affidavit stated.

A surprising new poll shows Mississippi Democrats within striking distance of capturing the governor’s mansion in the 2023 gubernatorial election.

Democratic candidate Brandon Presley trails incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves by only four points, 39%-43%, in a Mississippi Today/Siena College poll released Thursday. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points, making the two declared candidates statistically tied 10 months out from the November election. 

‘Mississippians want someone new in the Governor’s office,’ said Presley, a four-term Public Service Commissioner, former mayor of Nettleton, and distant cousin of rock icon Elvis Presley. ‘It’s clear, the people of Mississippi are ready to fire Tate Reeves.’ 

The poll also showed that 57% of voters would prefer ‘someone else’ over Reeves in the November election, compared to 33% who support the governor. Reeves announced his candidacy for reelection last week, telling Fox News in an interview that he intend to eliminate the state income tax if he wins a second term later this year.  

A significant number of Republican respondents, 33%, said they would prefer someone other than Reeves, as did a majority of Independents (67%). Mississippi has an open primary system, meaning voters to not have to register as Republicans to vote in the Party’s primary election, and independents will often vote in Republican primaries. Reeves has support from just 24% of independent respondents in the poll. Also, 29% of Democrats who responded said they planned to vote in the Republican primary on Aug. 8, and 77% of Democratic voters surveyed say they want someone else other than Reeves. 

A Reeves campaign spokesman downplayed the poll’s findings. 

‘Every four years, Mississippi’s most liberal reporter, Bobby Harrison, tells his readers Tate Reeves is going to lose based on some over-cooked media poll and every four years, Bobby Harrison is wrong. It’s just click-bait for his left-wing readers,’ the spokesman said. 

‘Governor Reeves will win re-election because Mississippians approve of his record of cutting the income tax, attracting record investment in new jobs, increasing teacher pay, and driving historic academic achievement gains in Mississippi schools,’ the spokesman added. 

There is good news for the governor in the poll. In addition to his narrow lead over Presley, Reeves holds a strong advantage over potential Republican primary challenger Bill Waller Jr., a former Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice. Waller had challenged Reeves in the 2019 gubernatorial primary, forcing Reeves into a runoff, but a 61% majority of registered voters said they did not know enough about him to give an opinion for the 2023 election.  

Head-to-head in a hypothetical primary, Reeves beats Waller 52% to 29% among poll respondents.

Reeves previously told Fox News that he’s confident he’ll win the primary as the most conservative candidate in the race. 

‘Well, I would tell you that Republican primary voters are going to vote for a conservative,’ Reeves said. ‘I have a record of returning money back to the taxpayers, of creating jobs, of having the strongest economy in our state’s history, of having the lowest unemployment rate in our state’s history, of having more people working in our state than any time in our state’s history.

‘Our educational attainment levels are improving, our fourth grade reading and fourth grade math results are up, our high school graduation rates are up,’ he added. ‘We are fighting for our conservative values. We led the charge to overturn Roe. We are fighting to protect the young girls in our state by saying that we’re going to let boys play boy sports and … we’re going to let girls play girl sports. We’re fighting the radical transgender agenda, particularly amongst those under the age of 18. And we will continue to do so.’

In the general election, Reeves has significantly higher name ID than his Democratic challenger Presley, who is relatively unknown despite his distant relation to the ‘King of Rock and Roll.’ Only 21% of Mississippi voters said they had a favorable view of Brandon Presley, 15% had an unfavorable opinion of him, and the majority of voters, 61%, said they did not know enough about him to have an opinion. 

The last Democrat elected governor of Mississippi was Ronnie Musgrove, who won election in 1999 and served for one term. 

The Mississippi Today/Siena College Research Institute poll surveyed 821 registered voters from Jan. 8-12. 

Former President Donald Trump was forced to pay close to $1 million Thursday after a district court kiboshed his lawsuit against key political rivals.

The failed lawsuit was filed against former FBI Director James Comey, California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and many more.

Trump and attorney Alina Habba will be forced to pay approximately $938,000 — split between the dozens of individuals named in the lawsuit.

In the legal action, Trump accused the high-profile figures of conspiring to tank his successful 2016 presidential campaign.

‘Here we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose,’ wrote Judge Donald Middlebrooks.

Middlebrooks was elevated to his current office in 1997 by former President Bill Clinton.

The judge continued, ‘Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer.’ 

After being hit with the fines, Trump withdrew a similar lawsuit filed against New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

Trump sued James in retaliation after James alleged the former president and his business partners fudged the value of company assets.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee took aim at the Biden administration’s ‘after dark’ drop of December border numbers, accusing the administration of a lack of transparency — while promising the ‘tides are changing’ now the Republicans have control of the committees.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released its border numbers for December late Friday evening, confirming that there were more than 250,000 migrant encounters that month — a new high for the Biden-era crisis that is now moving into its third year.

Rep. Mark Green, the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, criticized what he saw as a Friday night dump of bad news for the administration. His office noted that the 251,487 encounters is greater than the population of Scottsdale, Arizona.

‘Another month and another effort from DHS to hinder transparency with the American people. It’s no surprise we get our most important information from DHS on a Friday after dark,’ he said. ‘The Southwest border is an unmitigated disaster and these monthly encounter numbers from DHS prove just that.’

The numbers are a new record, and eclipse the highest month of the Biden-era crisis so far, which came in May when numbers hit 241,136, during what are typically busier summer months.

‘The Biden administration continues to break its own records every month. Never before in DHS history has there been a month with encounters this high,’ Green said. ‘It’s no coincidence that all of these dangerous records are happening on Biden’s watch.’

Green pledged to crack down on what he sees as foot-dragging from the administration now that Republicans have control of the House – and its investigative committees.

‘However, the tides are changing,’ he said. ‘This Committee will no longer tolerate receiving these critical updates 20 days into the month and we will no longer tolerate this refusal to enforce law and order at the border. We look forward to having Secretary Mayorkas before the Committee soon to provide answers and accountability for the significant threat these border security policies have had on our homeland security posture.’

Green’s statement shows how the escalating border numbers are continuing to fuel Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis at the border. Republicans have pointed to the rolling back of Trump-era border protections, including wall construction and asylum limits, as well as a narrowing of interior enforcement.

The Biden administration has pushed back, saying it is working to open legal asylum pathways that were closed during the Trump administration as it deals with a Hemisphere-wide crisis, while also blaming Republicans in Congress for not passing a sweeping immigration bill proposed on day one of Biden’s administration.

On Friday, the administration hit Republicans for having claimed the border would be open once the Title 42 public health order – which was scheduled to expire on Dec. 21, but was blocked by the Supreme Court – saying that rhetoric contributed to the December surge.

‘Of course the numbers will be higher when Republican elected officials, like smugglers, falsely proclaim the border is open because of a court order to lift Title 42,’ an administration official told Fox News Digital on Friday.

The administration pointed to numbers that show a sharp drop of more than 80% in encounters of Venezuelans since the administration implemented a new parole system combined with broader Title 42 expulsions for migrants from that nation.

‘Despite their misinformation, our border enforcement measures continue to hold strong with the number of Venezuelan nationals arriving at the border unlawfully continuing to drop dramatically,’ the official said.

Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller, meanwhile, suggested that the expansion of that program was likely to show progress in the January numbers.

‘Early data suggests the expanded measures for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans are having a similar impact, and we look forward to sharing the additional data in the next update,’ he said. 

President Biden on Friday criticized Republicans for allegedly trying to score ‘political points’ on immigration, and for refusing to sign on to his Day One immigration proposal – just as the number of migrant encounters in December was shown to have hit a record high.

Biden spoke at the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting, where he addressed the ongoing crisis at the border – which has affected not just the border communities, but also cities across the country where tens of thousands of migrants have been bussed.

Biden conceded that ‘immigration is another major issue affecting many of your communities, particularly border communities and near communities.’

Republicans have pinned the blame on the Biden administration’s policies, which have unraveled Trump-era border security policies and included the narrowing of interior enforcement. Biden’s administration has highlighted its efforts in increasing anti-smuggling campaigns, Western Hemisphere cooperation and expanding legal pathways as part of a broader approach that includes tackling ‘root causes’ in Central America. 

Most recently, Biden himself visited the border in El Paso, and before he did he unveiled a number of new border measures that his administration says is already having an effect. They include an expanded parole program that now includes Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Haitians combined with Title 42 expulsions for those nationalities.

Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rule that would bar migrants from claiming asylum if they’d passed through a country without claiming asylum first, a move that led to criticism from left-wing groups.

Biden, however, has said that those moves are not sufficient by themselves to solve the crisis – which he said can only be solved by Congress passing a broad immigration reform bill that was unveiled on his first day in office. Republicans have refused to support the bill, primarily because of its inclusion of a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.

‘I’ll continue to call on Congress to act to pass comprehensive immigration reform to fix the system,’ he said to the mayors, before putting Republican opposition to the bill down to political expediency.

‘The first bill I introduced was a comprehensive reform legislation on immigration. But because of some in the Congress, they refused to consider it.  They found it a better issue to campaign on than an issue to solve,’ he said.

The president again tried to put the ball into Republicans’ court on the issue.

‘So, we have a choice: They can keep using immigration to try to score political points, or we can help solve the problem.  Immigration reform used to be a bipartisan issue.  And we can make it that again, in my view,’ he said.

Republicans, however, have shown no indication of any significant support for amnesty for illegal immigrants. Instead, Republicans in the House have eyed greater scrutiny of the administration’s handling of the crisis – as well as a potential impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Hours after the president spoke, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that there were more than 251,000 migrant encounters at the southern border in December, surpassing the 179,253 encountered in Dec. 2021, and the 73,994 encountered in Dec. 2020. That new record is likely to fuel ongoing Republican criticism of the administration’s policies. 

For the second weekend in a row, former Vice President Mike Pence’s cross-country book tour for his memoir ‘So Help Me God’ is taking him to a prominent mega church with an extremely influential pastor who was a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Pence travels to the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday, where he’ll sit down with pastor John Hagee. A week earlier, the former vice president and longtime champion of the social conservative movement was in Dallas for a similar visit with Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at the First Baptist Church.

And on Friday, ahead of his return to Texas, Pence was in the nation’s capital to attend a breakfast and hold a reception with evangelical leaders and activists, who were attending the annual March on Life on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

The gathering was the first since last year’s move by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the nearly half decade old landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. The blockbuster opinion erased the established constitutional right to an abortion and threw the combustible issue back to the states.

‘As we move forward, we must have the courage of our convictions. Let us renew our commitment to proudly championing the cause of life in our statehouses, courthouses, in the halls of Congress, and in our communities,’ Pence said on Friday.

With Pence as his running mate, Trump won the White House in 2016, thanks in part to strong support from White evangelical voters. Social conservatives, who make up a key portion of the GOP’s base, once again backed the Trump-Pence ticket in 2020 by large margins. 

During his four years in the White House, Trump provided the social conservative movement with plenty of victories. The biggest was his filling of the federal courts with scores of conservative-minded judges, including three justices on the Supreme Court who contributed to last year’s abortion ruling.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News in a statement, touted that the former president’s ‘unmatched record speaks for itself,’ and that ‘there has been no bigger advocate for the movement than President Trump.’

But as he runs for the White House a third time, it’s no sure bet that evangelical voters will once again flock to Trump, as they’ll likely have other choices – such as Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and others friendly to the social conservative movement who are also mulling presidential bids.

Trump’s 2024 campaign launch was panned by plenty of political pundits, and he’s been criticized by Democrats and some Republicans for controversial actions and comments he’s made the past two months. He was also blamed – in the wake of a lackluster performance by the GOP in the midterm elections – for elevating polarizing Republican nominees who ended up losing in November.

Earlier this month, Trump pushed back, blaming the GOP losses on Republicans’ handling of the abortion issue, ‘especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.’

‘Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again,’ Trump also charged in a social media posting.

And in a radio interview the day after Jeffress met with Pence, Trump accused the pastor and other social conservative leaders who are staying neutral in the early days of the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race of ‘disloyalty.’ And he doubled down on his blame of the anti-abortion movement for the disappointing results at the ballot box in November.

Jeffress, in a Fox News interview ahead of his sit down with Pence, said that if the former vice president runs,’ he’ll certainly be a strong contender.’

Trump’s the only major candidate so far to launch a campaign, but Pence and plenty of other likely or potential White House contenders are already courting social conservatives.

‘It really boils down to arithmetic, not moral theorizing,’ Ralph Reed, a longtime social conservative political leader and the founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition. 

‘There is no path to the Republican nomination for president in 2024 without, in my opinion, not only appealing centrally, as a core part of one’s message to those voters, but I think winning a plurality of those voters in a crowded field.’

Pompeo has long showcased his faith during his years as a congressman from Kansas, and as CIA director and later America’s top diplomat in the Trump administration.

‘People of faith — especially evangelicals — matter enormously in our elections,’ Pompeo told Fox News. ‘These are Americans who understand that the American idea is deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian values, especially basic respect for life and the fundamental dignity of every person. It is of the utmost importance that conservatives provide policies and leadership that deliver good outcomes for these faithful Americans.’

Another friend to social conservatives is DeSantis, who cruised to a 19-point gubernatorial re-election victory in Florida last November.

The governor, a former congressman, saw his popularity soar among conservatives across the country the past three years, courtesy of his forceful pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions and his aggressive actions as a conservative culture warrior going after media and corporations. The governor, who has rivaled and even eclipsed Trump in some 2024 polling, has already pushed legislation in the opening days of his second term that is popular with conservatives.

Among his past actions that many evangelicals have applauded – DeSantis signed into law a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, he urged his state’s medical boards to ban puberty blockers and transgender surgery for minors and has targeted LGBTQ instruction in schools.

Some prominent evangelical leaders in Florida, including Tom Ascol of the Grace Baptist Church, have praised DeSantis.

While he’s likely to have serious competition for the social conservative vote, no one is counting Trump out. 

‘I think that, eventually, if not immediately, evangelicals will end up coalescing around former President Trump again,’ Jeffress, one of Trump’s earliest supporters in the 2016 campaign, said.

And Reed said that Trump ‘will be a formidable candidate, and he will have strong support. And he will get a very fair hearing from voters of faith, I assure you.’

But he pointedly added ‘I think there’ll be a diversity of views as to who the best candidate will be.’