Former President Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner got into ‘knock-down, drag-out screaming matches’ with Trump over the 2020 presidential election and Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, a new book claims. 

In, ‘The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House,’ New York Times bestselling author Chris Whipple recounts how Kushner fought with Trump in the aftermath of the election. He did not believe his father-in-law’s claims about a stolen election, and he had left Washington, D.C., for the Middle East to work on the Abraham Accords, a historic peace agreement negotiated by the Trump administration. 

‘With all due respect, I’m not going to like what you’re doing, and you’re going to be screaming at me,’ Kushner had told the president, according to Whipple. 

Whipple’s book reports that Kushner and his wife, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, believed the former president would eventually accept the election results. He thought the lawyers advising Trump to contest the election, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, were ‘clowns,’ and referred to them as ‘the Crazy Show.’ 

‘Look, when you’re out of here, a lot of people will scatter,’ Kushner reportedly yelled at Trump during one of their heated arguments. ‘I’m with you until you hit the dirt – so you may want to listen to what I’m saying!’

He told Trump that Giuliani and Powell were taking him on a ‘funky ride.’ 

‘The Fight of His Life’ released on Tuesday. With access to key players in the Biden administration, including Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and CIA Director William Burns, Whipple offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the Biden White House operates, often with surprising revelations.

The book details Biden’s squabbling with Vice President Kamala Harris, who he reportedly called a ‘work in progress,’ as well as his distrust of some Secret Service agents, many of whom he believes to be ‘white ex-cops from the South who tend to be deeply conservative,’ according to Whipple. 

It also paints a complex picture of Trump, who reportedly wrote a ‘shockingly gracious’ letter to Biden before leaving the White House. Kushner told Whipple Trump had spent three days composing it, all the while publicly claiming the election was stolen. 

‘It just shows he’s got many different layers,’ Kushner said. 

South Dakota lawmakers are considering a pair of infrastructure funding bills that would allocate over $220 million to housing and water supply projects.

A proposal to allocate $200 million for workforce housing projects is set for a final vote in the House this week, while the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday recommended the Legislature’s budget appropriations committee consider a proposal to allocate $22 million to water supply projects.

The funding would come alongside a $600 million package the Legislature passed last year to send federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to water supply projects.

South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems executive director Kurt Pfeifle said the infrastructure bill passed in 2022 was essential to hundreds of water projects, such as a drinking water pipeline system that services 28 communities in central South Dakota. The $22 million funding package discussed Thursday would add two new projects.

‘It was an easy shot in the arm,’ Pfeifle said. ‘The water infrastructure in South Dakota has been lagging for quite a few years and a lot of things have been sitting on the shelves waiting to be built. There haven’t been resources to build until American Rescue Plan Act.’

Michigan progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib attacked the Supreme Court as ‘extremist’ as it considers a union striking case and called to ‘expand the court.’

Tlaib, a controversial member of the progressive ‘Squad,’ went after the Supreme Court on Friday, claiming that a union’s ‘right to strike’ is being targeted by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is weighing whether a union can be held liable for damages caused by a strike after workers walked off their jobs at a concrete company, leaving wet concrete to dry in the company trucks.

‘The right to strike is the single most powerful tool workers have to fight corporate greed and injustice in their workplace and it’s currently on trial at the extremist Supreme Court,’ Tlaib wrote on Friday.

‘Expand the Court,’ she added.

Tlaib’s tweet comes as the Supreme Court seemed to lean toward the Seattle concrete company, Glacier Northwest Inc., in their suit against an International Brotherhood of Teamsters affiliate over the alleged intentional destruction of property by wasting concrete. Oral arguments in the case were heard last week.

The congresswoman’s tweet also comes as the March for Life heads to Washington, D.C., for its 50th anniversary – and the first march since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The first March for Life took place in Washington, D.C., in 1973 after the Supreme Court handed down Roe to protect abortion access nationwide up until fetal viability. The Supreme Court overturned Roe last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which allowed states to regulate abortion.

Pro-life activists have since called on states to ban abortion across the country. Complete bans on abortion have been enacted in 13 states. One state enacted a six-week ban and four states enacted bans around 15 to 18 weeks. 

Celebrity speakers at the 50th March for Life include Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy and ‘The Chosen’ lead actor Jonathan Roumie. Politicians set to speak include House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Mississippi Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch; Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Democratic Connecticut state Rep. Trenee McGee. Religious leaders set to speak include Catholic Diocese of Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge and evangelical Rev. Franklin Graham.

Fox News Digital’s Patrick Hauf contributed reporting.

A federal judge has moved to dismiss former Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren’s case against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who suspended Warren from office in 2022 over neglect of duty and incompetence.

Last August, DeSantis suspended Warren via executive order for ‘neglect of duty,’ after the prosecutor declared he would not prosecute anyone who violates state abortion restrictions, nor would he prosecute those who violate prohibitions against certain types of gender-transition treatment for minors.

U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle’s ruling Friday found that DeSantis’ decision to suspend Warren violated the U.S. Constitution and the Florida state Constitution, but the judge still upheld the suspension.

‘The suspension also violated the Florida Constitution, and that violation did affect the outcome. But the 11th Amendment prohibits a federal court from awarding declaratory or injunctive relief of the kind at issue against a state official based only on a violation of state law,’ the judge’s filing stated. 

‘The plaintiff Andrew H. Warren’s claims against the defendant Ron DeSantis arising under state law are dismissed without prejudice based on the 11th Amendment. Mr. Warren’s claims against Mr. DeSantis arising under federal law are dismissed on the merits with prejudice. The clerk must close the file,’ the filing continued.

After the ruling was announced, DeSantis communications director Taryn Fenske issued a statement, saying, ‘Today the court upheld the governor’s decision to suspend Andrew Warren from office for neglect of duty and incompetence.’

Following DeSantis’ suspension of Warren last year, the governor told Fox News at the time: ‘I do think that some of these prosecutors that have very militant agenda in terms of ideology have been able to get away with a lot in other states.… We’ve had prosecutors around this country that think they can pick and choose which laws to enforce.’

Warren sued DeSantis after he was suspended last year, claiming that the suspension was retaliation for opposing the governor’s policies and positions.

‘Of course, DeSantis is free to express his views and his disagreements with Warren as often as he likes. Indeed, the Federal Constitution ensures that he is,’ the complaint said at the time, adding that ‘DeSantis went too far.’

Warren had signed a declaration last June stating that ‘[b]ills that criminalize safe and crucial medical treatments or the mere public existence of trans people do not promote public safety, community trust, or fiscal responsibility,’ and as such the signers pledged ‘to use our settled discretion and limited resources on enforcement of laws that will not erode the safety and well-being of our community.’

The governor’s executive order said that ‘the Florida legislature has not enacted such criminal laws,’ but that ‘these statements prove that Warren thinks he has authority to defy the Florida Legislature and nullify in his jurisdiction criminal laws with which he disagrees[.]’

DeSantis stated that while a prosecutor is free to exercise discretion on a case-by-case basis, a ‘blanket refusal’ to enforce the law is different. 

‘[A] state attorney who contends that prosecutorial discretion may be used to disregard entire criminal laws demonstrates incompetence and gross ignorance of a state attorney’s official duty to exercise discretion only on a ‘case-by-case’ and ‘individualized’ basis,’ the order said.

DeSantis, as part of his suspension order, appointed Hillsborough County Court Judge Susan Lopez to replace Warren.

Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer and Matt Leach, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this article.

The state of Maine is banning TikTok from devices that connect to the government network, joining states banning the social media app owned by a Chinese company from state phones and other devices.

Maine Information Technology notified executive branch workers on Thursday that the popular app could pose a serious threat to the state’s network infrastructure.

The directive, first reported by WGME-TV, asks for the app to be removed from state-owned devices and personal devices that connect to the network by Feb. 1.

More than 20 states and the federal government have banned TikTok, which owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok user data could be shared by ByteDance Ltd. with China’s authoritarian government.

Fears were stoked by news reports last year that a China-based team improperly accessed data of U.S. TikTok users as part of a covert surveillance program to identify the source of leaks to the press.

The move by the administration of Gov. Janet Mills does not affect personal devices that do not connect to the network. Lawmakers are expected to weigh in, as well.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra visited Minnesota on Thursday on a Midwest trip to affirm the Biden administration’s commitment to abortion rights despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Becerra went to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in St. Paul, then appeared with Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic legislative leaders at a news conference a few hours before the Minnesota House passed a fast-tracked bill to codify abortion rights into state statues by a vote of 69-65.

‘You’re going to make history at a time when it seems like regression seems to be more on the table than anything else,’ Becerra said. ‘It is a good day to be in Minnesota.’

Becerra’s visit came three days ahead of Sunday’s 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which established a national right to abortion that the Supreme Court rolled back in June. The Biden administration is using the anniversary to show that Democrats aren’t giving up on the issue, even as the fight shifts to state legislatures from the divided Congress.

‘It is time to follow Minnesota and do what’s right for all Americans,’ Becerra said.

The secretary planned to travel Friday to neighboring Wisconsin to visit a family planning clinic in the Milwaukee suburb of Cudahy that lost the right to provide abortions when a statewide ban kicked back into law, and for a roundtable in Milwaukee on reproductive health with Democratic U.S. Sen Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin.

Abortion rights in Minnesota are already broadly protected under a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling that declared they’re protected under the state constitution. But Democratic legislative leaders, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal last summer, are rushing to pass statutory protections to ensure that future Minnesota courts can’t undo them on the state level.

Both Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, and Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, of Minneapolis, said they had the votes to pass the bill. The Senate version passed its final committee test Wednesday and could get approved on the floor as early as next week, though Dziedzic declined to be specific about when.

‘It is not just an abortion bill,’ Democratic Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, of Eden Prairie, said at the start of a debate expected to last into the evening. ‘It does guarantee the fundamental right for every Minnesotan to make personal and private decisions about their reproductive health. What it does not do is change the current landscape of reproductive freedom in Minnesota. This is a secondary level of protection to the constitutional freedoms we currently enjoy.’

But Republican Rep. Jim Nash, of Waconia, called it ‘the most extreme abortion bill in the entire U.S. It has zero guardrails — zero guardrails.’

Minnesota’s Catholic bishops urged lawmakers to vote no on the bill, as well as separate legislation that’s still moving through the committee process that would delete a list of abortion restrictions from state statutes that a judge declared unconstitutional in July. Together, the bills would leave Minnesota with hardly any limits on abortion.

‘We are disappointed to see the quick pace at which these destructive bills are moving, and we hope to give legislators pause,’ the bishops wrote. ‘When contemplating policy on any issue, we must consider all those who will be affected. In this case, that includes the mother, father, and most especially, the unborn child whose life is being taken.’

Legislative leaders hope to put the bill on Walz’s desk by the end of the month for his promised signature. Democratic leaders credit the potency of the abortion rights issue with their takeover of the Minnesota Senate in the November elections.

Walz pledged that women coming to Minnesota for abortions from states where they’re prohibited will be welcomed and protected.

‘This piece of legislation will make Minnesota a shining beacon, an island in the upper Midwest,’ Walz said.

Richard ‘Bigo’ Barnett, the man who propped his feet on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk during the January 6th Capitol riot, admitted in court that he regrets his actions that he now considers ‘crass.’ 

Barnett, a former firefighter haling from Arkansas, took the stand on Thursday to testify in his own defense on criminal, riot-related charges.

Barnett faces eight crimes for breaching the U.S. Capitol building along with thousands of other protestors participating in the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on January 6, 2021. U.S. lawmakers in the building at the time were meeting to certify the 2020 presidential election results electing President Biden. 

Nearly 500 of the 900 rioters facing federal charges for their actions in the Capitol riots have pled guilty.

‘Two years of lost life. Misery for my family,’ Barnett testified to the court on Thursday. 

During his testimony, Barnett shared that he had no intention of breaching the Capitol and believed the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally to be taking place outside the building, though prosecutors have argued otherwise. 

Defense attorneys for Barnett have argued that the former firefighter didn’t break barriers or assault police as he was swept along into the building with the rest of the crowd. He wandered into Pelosi’s office suite looking for a bathroom, his lawyers said.

Upon entering the then-Speaker’s office, Barnett was photographed taking a seat at Pelosi’s desk and propping his feet atop the table – perhaps one of the most recognizable images from January 6th.

In a video interview moments after exiting the Capitol, Barnett told a New York Times reporter that he had left a note on Pelosi’s desk that read, ‘Nancy, Bigo was here, you b—-.’

He also reportedly said he regrets calling Pelosi the name, a move he now calls ‘crass.’

In court, Barnett expressed his regrets for his harsh words directed towards the former House Speaker and wishes to apologize to Pelosi, if given the chance. Cross-examination of Barnett is set to resume Friday. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A Texas sheriff is requesting material assistance securing the border in his county from sheriffs in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and elsewhere affected by illegal immigration.

Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe issued the letter Friday, in which he urges sheriffs across the country to pool resources and aid each other in combating illegal border crossings.

‘I write this letter to inform Texans of the current crisis we are facing on our border and ask that we come together in forming a solution,’ Coe wrote, in a letter shared by reporter Ali Bradley. ‘The border crisis that Texans faced last year rages on and has now impacted many of your homes and has rendered every Texas county a border county.’

Coe thanked sheriffs in Texas who have already lent support — but warned it would not be enough, writing, ‘Both Galveston County and Goliad County have graciously aided our efforts in the field, however, resources and manpower are stretched to the breaking point to successfully maintain operations.’

In July 2022, Kinney County and officials from nearby municipalities declared an ‘invasion’ related to the record numbers of migrants coming into their communities.  

‘We want America to know that this is real,’ Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan told reporters in Bracketville at the time. ‘The Biden administration won’t do a thing about it. They could stop this thing this hour. They could stop it now. They don’t have the guts.’ 

‘By sending this letter,’ Coe wrote Friday, ‘I am requesting any aide that your county may be able to provide in this border crisis, whether it be manpower, equipment, or operators. This crisis has made all counties a border county. It is imperative that we stand ready here at the border in order to protect and serve the people of our great state.’

Fox News’ Louis Casiano and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

A top House Republican is dismissing China’s effort to troll him into supporting TikTok, and said the fact that China is making noise about his support for banning the platform means he’s doing the right thing.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, had tweeted in support of Texas A&M and the University of Texas for banning TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, from their campus Wi-Fi.

‘TikTok is the Chinese Communist Party’s backdoor into American phones. @TAMU and @UTAustin made the right decision in blocking it on campus Wi-Fi,’ McCaul tweeted Thursday.

Chen Weihua, a bureau chief and columnist for China Daily, a China state-affiliated media company, goaded the congressman in a reply.

‘If freedom and democracy is so powerful, why are you afraid of TikTok? Sad that Texas schools are turning McCarthyist,’ Weihua said. ‘TikTok is not much different than Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Just more popular. No loser saboteur mindset, please.’

McCaul, who also chairs the House’s China Task Force, told Fox News Digital he welcomes China’s reaction.

‘When you begin being trolled by Chinese state propagandists, you know you’re doing something right,’ he said.

‘It’s no secret that TikTok is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and I will not be silenced in calling out the app for its malign practices,’ McCaul said.

A federal court jury convicted a Kansas man who insisted that a death threat he made against U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner was a message from God, amid what authorities have said is a sharp rise in threats against members of Congress and their families.

Jurors found Chase Neill, 32, of Lawrence, guilty of a single count of threatening a U.S. government official. The presiding judge instructed jurors that to find Neill guilty, they had to conclude that a reasonable person would find that he had made a true threat and intended to either intimidate LaTurner or interfere with his work as a Republican congressman representing eastern Kansas.

Neill acted as his own attorney and cross-examined LaTurner on the witness stand Wednesday. Neill testified Thursday that he was a messenger from God and he passed along a message from God threatening LaTurner for ignoring concerns about sorcery, wizards, extraterrestrials and a war for people’s souls.

Federal prosecutors said Neill fixated on LaTurner before leaving an after-hours voicemail June 5 with the congressman’s Topeka office that included, ‘I will kill you.’ LaTurner testified that he worried about his family’s and staff’s safety and beefed up security at his home and Topeka office.

‘You cannot cloak yourself in religious belief and justify such a threat,’ federal prosecutor Stephen Hunting said in his closing remarks. ‘There is a line you cannot cross.’

Neill sat calmly as U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter read the jury’s verdict, which came after about two hours of deliberation. He politely declined to have the jury polled and, when asked whether he had more about the case to discuss, he said calmly, ‘No, your honor.’

As a marshal handcuffed him, his mother, Pamela Neill, who had watched the three-day trial, told him, ‘I love you.’

Teeter scheduled Neill’s sentencing for April 11. He could face 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The judge had Neill give his testimony Thursday as a narrative from the witness stand because he was representing himself. Neill interrupted his comments to make sure documents were projected onto four big screens on a wall behind him and to confer with the judge and prosecutors about what evidence would be allowed. Prosecutors did not cross-examine him.

Neill admitted in court that he left the June 5 voicemail and others with more death threats the next day. But he said he was conveying a message from God that LaTurner and other officials faced death by an act of God, such as a tornado or hurricane, for attacking God’s creation.

‘This is not me saying, ‘I’m going to chase you down with a knife,’ or something like that,’ Neill said in his closing argument.

His mother, fighting back tears, told reporters upon leaving the courtroom, ‘He never raised a hand on anybody.’

Threats against members of Congress have increased since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In October, an intruder severely beat former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in their San Francisco home.

Local school board members and election workers across the nation also have endured harassment and threats. Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this week arrested a failed Republican legislative candidate over a series of shootings targeting elected Democratic officials’ homes or offices.

Hunting told jurors that it was reasonable for LaTurner and his staff to take Neill’s words seriously as threats.

LaTurner said in a statement after the verdict: ‘Violence and threats of violence have no place in our society.’

Neill said his concerns about a war for souls were sparked by a May 13 story on the Kansas Reflector news site about a legislative debate in which a western Kansas lawmaker urged colleagues to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a measure that would have restricted public health officials’ power in epidemics following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Republican state Rep. Tatum Lee was quoted as saying, ‘The war is real you all. We are fighting for the soul of our nation.’

Neill told jurors he values his soul and was required by God to act when he ‘heard the sound of the trumpet.’

He also showed jurors a LinkedIn page for himself, saying he dealt with ‘matters concerning over 400 million lives lost with high sorcery.’

Neill testified that in 2018, ‘God came to me very directly,’ without elaborating. A U.S. magistrate judge said in an August order refusing to release Neill from custody that Neill had suffered a head injury four or five years ago ‘characterized as a head fracture.’

But the trial judge concluded last month that Neill was capable of following what goes on in court and assisting his lawyers, making him mentally competent to stand trial. She granted his request to act as his own attorney, starting Wednesday.

‘I’m really trying to explain how I interact with God, and it’s a difficult explanation,’ Neill told jurors during his testimony Thursday. ‘I apologize.’