Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday said the Inflation Reduction Act is primarily a climate change bill during the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit. 

Speaking on a panel, Gore, who has made fighting climate change one of his main priorities, listed the passage of the inflation bill as one of the best accomplishments by the United States. 

‘In my country, we passed the ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ which is primarily a climate act, $369 billion, which will actually be much larger than that, because the heavy lifting is done by tax credits that are very long-term, some of them actually open-ended, and the early investments that have already been triggered by it give a great deal of reason, many reasons, for believing it’s going to be much larger than $369 billion,’ Gore said at the Davos, Switzerland forum. ‘So I’m very encouraged by that.’

The $739 billion package was passed last year to combat soaring costs that have hamstrung many Americans. Included in the legislation is an estimated $369 billion going toward investments in ‘Energy Security and Climate Change.’

The bill offers tax credits to households to make cost-saving energy efficiency improvements to their homes and other incentives to manufacturers. 

The Environmental Defense Fund called it the ‘biggest package of climate investments in U.S. history.’

Despite the intent to fight inflation, multiple analyses concluded the package doesn’t. The Congressional Budget Office said the bill will have ‘a negligible effect’ and its impact in 2023 would range between reducing inflation by 0.1% and increasing it by 0.1%.

FIRST ON FOX: President Biden has a ‘shrewd insurance policy’ against impeachment and her name is Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.

Boebert told Fox News Digital she believes that Republicans’ intensely negative view of Harris is making them more hesitant to push for Biden’s impeachment than they otherwise would be. 

‘Kamala Harris is Biden’s shrewd insurance policy,’ said Boebert.

‘Joe Biden has failed the American people, and he’s keeping some members from calling for impeachment by having a historically unpopular vice president,’ the congresswoman continued.

‘Both have failed to faithfully uphold and execute the law, and both should be held fully accountable,’ she added.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Boebert’s remarks.

Boebert’s comments come as Biden weathers the growing scandal surrounding his retention of three batches of classified documents from when he served as vice president in the Obama administration.

So far, classified documents have been found at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington, D.C., as well as at the president’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware.

Several of the documents found at Biden’s Delaware home were located in his working garage next to his Corvette.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say Tuesday whether Biden’s lawyers are continuing to search for more classified documents the president may have misplaced.

The trove of mishandled documents led Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the matter last week, tapping former U.S. attorney Robert Hur.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, is criticizing a proposal from a San Francisco committee on reparations after it proposed that the city pay $5 million to each longtime Black resident.

The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee released a draft report in December with recommendations for how the city can address reparations, as it advises the city government.

While California wasn’t technically a slave state, the draft proposal contends that reparations would ‘address the public policies explicitly created to subjugate Black people in San Francisco by upholding and expanding the intent and legacy of chattel slavery.’

One of the committee’s recommendations includes a $5 million one-time payment to eligible residents in San Francisco.

‘A lump sum payment would compensate the affected population for the decades of harms that they have experienced, and will redress the economic and opportunity losses that Black San Franciscans have endured, collectively, as the result of both intentional decisions and unintended harms perpetuated by City policy,’ the draft proposal states.

Owens said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the proposal is conveys a ‘racist narrative.’

‘The conversation of reparations is condescending, counterproductive, illogical, logistically impossible, and deflects from Democrats’ overwhelming success in propagating misery. It also conveys a racist narrative that Black Americans are a hopeless, hapless, and oppressed race who need pity and handouts to succeed,’ Owens said.

‘The best way to defeat this narrative of failure is to teach America’s history of freedom fighters seeking to become a more perfect Union through God’s Grace. This makes innovation and reform in our education system imperative, which is why it’s the top priority of the Republican’s Education and Workforce Committee. Educational freedom for every child – regardless of race, creed, color or zip code – is on its way,’ he added.

Included in the proposal is also a plan to ‘finance a comprehensive debt forgiveness program that clears all educational, personal, credit card, payday loans.’

In order to be eligible for the reparations program, applicants should be 18-years-old and have identified as Black or African American on public documents, as well as proving two out of eight criteria items, including ‘Born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996 and has proof of residency in San Francisco for at least 13 years,’ and/or, ‘Personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs.’

Additionally, the draft proposal calls on San Francisco to ‘Supplement African-American income of lower income households to reflect the Area Median Income annually for at least 250 years,’ which would be $97,000.

Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.

A photo has resurfaced of then-Vice President Joe Biden holding a classified document in 2013.

The photo shows Biden holding a folder marked ‘CODEWORD — CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT — VICE PRESIDENT’ inside the Oval Office.

The picture was taken on Sept. 30, 2013, as Biden prepared for a meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hard copies of sensitive documents are typically only allowed in sensitive compartmented information facilities (SCIF) — secured rooms free from cameras and other devices.

The photo resurfaced as officials launch an investigation into Biden’s handling of sensitive documents dating back to his tenure as vice president.

Biden again ignored reporters’ questions on Tuesday as they tried to get him to address the classified documents from his time as vice president that were recently found at his Delaware home and at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

‘Will you commit to speak to the special counsel?’ one reporter could be heard asking in reference to Robert Hur, who has been appointed special counsel to investigate the documents and how they were kept.

Biden did not acknowledge the questions as he smiled while White House staff urgently rushed the media out of the room.

Republicans who are looking ahead to 2024 say Democrats shouldn’t hang their hopes on California Gov. Gavin Newsom if President Biden decides not to run again, predicting the GOP would ‘mop the floor’ with him because of his failed record in the Golden State.

Newsom, who was first elected to serve as governor in 2018 and survived a recall election in 2021, was re-elected to a second term as California’s governor in the state’s 2022 midterm election. But while Newsom survived in his own state, GOP insiders and strategists say none of that will matter if he mounts a nationwide campaign.

Mark Larson, a political analyst and conservative radio host based in California, told Fox News Digital he believes ‘Democrats will push Newsom to run,’ but said Newsom wouldn’t stand a chance.

‘The problem is we in California know him all too well. That said, he just got re-elected, and he bucked the recall. But I think any of the leading Republicans, especially Ron DeSantis … would mop the floor with his nicely manicured hair,’ Larson said.

Conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder, who easily topped the field of replacement candidates in a losing recall campaign against Newsom, told Fox Newsom is ‘more radical than Bernie Sanders’ and said Republicans would welcome running against him.

‘Go ahead Democrats, make Republicans’ day! [Nominate] this San Francisco loon,’ Elder said.

Newsom’s record includes a ‘series of tax hikes’ in California and ‘expanded taxpayer health care for illegal aliens.’ Elder, who hosts a daily TV show for Epoch Times, said those problems would be too big to overcome.

‘Under Newsom, California is losing population for the first time in the state’s 170-year history,’ Elder said. ‘And the state faces a $24 billion projected deficit.’

Civil rights attorney and Fox News contributor Leo Terrell offered a similar assessment, saying he believes Republicans would ‘love’ to run against Newsom in 2024 because he would be a ‘horrible candidate’ and has been a ‘horrific governor.’

‘We’ve got crime, we have homelessness, we have high inflation, we have high gas prices and now we have a deficit in our budget,’ said Terrell, who is based in Los Angeles. ‘From a historical note, no Democrat from California has ever become president. I think the Republicans would love to run against Gavin Newsom and simply point to California as a failed state.’

Amy Tarkanian, a Republican strategist who formerly served as the Nevada state GOP chairwoman, said Republicans would have little trouble putting up a better candidate.

‘I believe the Republicans have a much deeper bench to choose from, which would hopefully be more of a threat to the Democrats than vice versa,’ she said. ‘Many of those who have lived in California for generations have fled due to his mismanagement of the state.’

In a November interview with Politico, Newsom downplayed rumors that he would enter the 2024 presidential race and pose a challenge to President Biden, who has yet to announce whether he’s running.

‘I’ve told everyone in the White House, from the chief of staff to the first lady,’ Newsom said, adding his message is ‘I’m all in, count me in’ on Biden’s re-election bid.

Democratic strategists who are keeping an eye on the 2024 race believe Biden will seek re-election and that Newsom will abide by his commitment. But some Democrats think Newsom would seek the White House if Biden stepped aside and believe he would be popular with Democrats.

‘If Biden were not to run, Gavin Newsom is definitely somebody that Democrats like,’ said Leslie Marshall, a Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor. She said some voters might see Newsom as ‘too far left,’ but she also said Republicans might be ‘more concerned than they’re letting on’ about his possible run.

Carly Cooperman, CEO and partner of Schoen Cooperman Research and adviser to several Democratic candidates, said Newsom’s national profile would help, not hurt.

‘Newsom began his first term as governor with sharp attacks on the Trump administration and pivoted to denouncing ‘red-state politicians’ now that a Democrat is president, continuing to contrast their leadership with his and making the argument that California is the nation’s model for a functioning democracy,’ Cooperman said.

EXCLUSIVE: Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday told Fox News Digital that Facebook ‘needs us more than we need them,’ but confirmed that his campaign is working to set up a meeting to discuss his reinstatement to the platform with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

Trump, who announced his 2024 presidential campaign in November, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Facebook has ‘lost $700 billion since I was de-platformed.’

‘It has been considered a major business mistake for them, Twitter, and others,’ he said.

‘If they took us back, it would help them greatly, and that’s okay with me,’ Trump continued. ‘But they need us more than we need them.’

He added: ‘We are talking to them, and we’ll see how it all works out.’

Trump was banned from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The former president has since created his own social media company, Truth Social, which serves as a platform for his statements and announcements.

‘Truth Social is through the roof,’ Trump told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

As for Facebook, however, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital it is a platform that campaign officials view as critical — specifically for the campaign’s data operation, including advertising, fundraising and more — as the team works to energize its voters.

‘Free speech is an essential part of democracy and President Trump must be allowed to speak directly to the American people so they can be informed about his vision as they cast their ballots,’ said Cheung. ‘We have seen how Big Tech has tried to silence President Trump and other conservatives, and continuing this abhorrent practice is un-American and undemocratic.’

Cheung said that in 2016, Facebook was ‘a large part of the campaign’s data operation and bypassed traditional media outlets in order to galvanize President Trump’s voters.’

He told Fox News that Facebook served as a major campaign outreach tool in 2016 and was also used for fundraising specifically with regard to small dollar donations. Cheung said Facebook serves as a critical ‘operational tool.’

Cheung pointed to the 2016 campaign, citing the nearly 6 million different versions of ads Trump ran. He said Trump spent $44 million between June and November 2016 on Facebook efforts.

‘Being back on the platform will be an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters through advertising, grassroots mobilization and fundraising, like all other candidates are able to do,’ Cheung said.

The Trump campaign’s general counsel formally requested a meeting with Meta executives to discuss the potential for his ‘prompt reinstatement to the platform.’ Fox News obtained the letter Trump campaign general counsel Scott Gast sent to Zuckerberg, Meta President for Global Affairs Nick Clegg and Meta Vice President of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan. NBC first reported on the letter.

Gast said Meta’s decision to ban Trump after the Capitol riot ‘immediately drew widespread criticism from across the political spectrum at home and abroad.’

‘Facebook’s own Oversight Board raised concern about how the ban was implemented, advising the company to develop ‘clear, necessary, and proportionate policies that promote public safety and respect freedom of expression,” he wrote.

Gast was referring to Facebook’s Oversight Board decision in May 2021, which decided to uphold Trump’s ban, but said it was ‘not appropriate’ for Facebook to impose the ‘indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension.’

At the time, Facebook said it would reassess the matter in two years. Gast noted that two-year period lapsed on Jan. 7.

Clegg recently spoke at the Council of Foreign Relations, where he said that Meta believes that ‘any private company — and this is really regardless of one’s personal views about Donald Trump — should tread with great thoughtfulness when seeking to basically silence political voices.’

‘We agree,’ Gast wrote in the letter, citing Clegg.

Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign in November, and Gast stressed that ‘the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse.’

‘We also believe that a continued ban would basically constitute, in the words of Mr. Clegg, a deliberate effort by a private company to silence Mr. Trump’s political voice,’ Gast wrote. ‘Moreover, every day that President Trump’s political voice remains silenced furthers an inappropriate interference in the American political and election process.’

Gast stressed that Meta ‘should be encouraging a full and robust dialogue, not silencing presidential candidates.’

‘We therefore write to request a meeting to discuss President Trump’s prompt reinstatement to the platform,’ Gast wrote.

The Trump campaign cc’ed Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla.; House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.

House Republicans have vowed to investigate Big Tech decisions, specifically those that suppress conservative viewpoints.

A spokesperson for Facebook did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

The Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it would not entertain an injunction from New York gun store owners who were challenging the state’s new restrictions on the concealed carrying of firearms.

In a one-sentence order, the court said it would not put enforcement of the law on hold, following its ruling last week that the restrictions can remain in place while litigation over the law moves forward.

‘The application for writ of injunction presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied,’ the court said in its order. None of the justices dissented.

New York’s law, the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, makes it a felony to possess a gun in ‘sensitive areas’ like stadiums, houses of worship, museums, parks and public transit. It also requires people to undergo certain training in order to have a license.

The prohibition against possessing a concealed firearm in a park is part of criticism leveled by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., against N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul.

‘Kathy Hochul’s gun grabbing agenda that classifies lawful gun owners in the Adirondack Park as felons is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. I am committed to bringing this all the way to the Supreme Court on behalf of the #2A rights of New Yorkers,’ Stefanik tweeted Wednesday.

Stefanik and fellow New York Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy reintroduced a House resolution along with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., calling New York’s current law unconstitutional. 

‘All States should pass legislation supporting Second Amendment rights instead of trying to restrict or undermine Americans’ constitutional rights,’ the resolution says.

During oral arguments over the state’s previous law in November 2021, the justices appeared to accept the state’s argument for continued individualized discretion to enforce ‘sensitive place’ weapon restrictions. Such a concept, however, was not an issue in that case. When the court ruled last week that it would not temporarily block the new law, conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito noted in a statement that the current case involves issues that have not been explored before.

‘The New York law at issue in this application presents novel and serious questions under both the First and the Second Amendments,’ the statement said.

Fox News’s Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.

Madame President? 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘the president’ during a Wednesday afternoon press conference. 

The slip-up came in the first few minutes of the press conference, as Jean-Pierre announced Harris’ planned speaking engagement this Sunday, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in Florida this Sunday. 

Jean-Pierre pivoted abortion opponents against its supporters, accusing ‘ultra Maga Republicans’ of trying to roll back women’s rights while ‘the president and the vice president remain committed to fighting these extreme attacks on women and expanding access to reproductive care.’ 

‘This Sunday, the president will speak about the fight to secure women’s fundamental right to reproductive healthcare in the face of these attacks,’ Jean-Pierre said, without realizing or correcting her mistake. ‘She will talk about what’s at stake for millions of women across the country and most importantly, the need for Congress to codify the protections of Roe into law.’ 

Harris’s talk this Sunday comes months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion at the federal level. 

Administration officials said she’ll speak in Florida, where Democrats have been on guard for new efforts to restrict abortion from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate. The speech is a continuation of Harris’ focus on reproductive rights in recent months, which has included meetings with activists, healthcare providers and state lawmakers from around the country.

It’s also intended to signal that the administration isn’t giving up on abortion now that the midterm election is over. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: Republicans on Wednesday ripped Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear after the state’s attorney general determined that Beshear improperly rejected a request for records concerning school closures during the COVID pandemic, and said that decision shows why Beshear should be voted out of office this year.

On Tuesday, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, found that Beshear had no reason not to comply with the records request from state Republicans, and several of Beshear’s possible opponents took notice.

‘During COVID, Kentucky needed leadership, and instead we got lockdowns. We need a governor who has the courage to lead from the front and not follow the crowd,’ former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft’s campaign said in a statement to Fox New Digital.

‘Andy Beshear has proven time and again that he’s not up to the task of leading our commonwealth,’ the statement said, echoing criticism Craft has dealt Beshear over his handling of the drug crisis plaguing Kentucky.

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, who holds a doctorate in higher education and is also running for governor, blamed Beshear’s school lockdowns across the state for the negative impacts he said had affected their learning.

‘As a former educator myself, I know that our children suffered due to excessive COVID lockdowns that we now know caused lower test scores around the Commonwealth. To be clear, the lockdowns have caused irreparable harm to students which will be felt for decades to come,’ he told Fox.

‘As governor, I’ll focus on keeping our schools open and correcting the generational loss because of Andy Beshear’s exaggerated lockdown,’ he added.

Cameron, who is also a Republican candidate for governor, didn’t immediately respond to Fox’s request for comment.

The denied records request was made by Kentucky GOP spokesman Sean Southard on Dec. 2, 2022. The named officials in the request include Beshear, as well as current and former members of his administration, Kentucky Democratic Party Executive Director Sebastian Kitchen, state lawmakers and Kentucky Education Association President Eddie Campbell.

Beshear’s attorneys argued that complying with the records request ‘would require the retrieval and review of every other electronic or physical correspondence to or from the identified individuals over the span of more than three years to determine whether the correspondence contained one of the eight identified terms.’

Cameron’s finding, however, ruled that the Kentucky GOP’s request didn’t include ‘any and all records,’ but rather correspondence with a particular subject matter in a particular time frame.

Southard told Fox that the next step for the GOP is to go back to the governor and see if he will respect the ruling and release the request records. Beshear could invite a lawsuit by failing to comply.

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

The National Archives says it requires Justice Department approval before it can share information with Congress about the classified documents found in President Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Penn Biden Center think tank.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have demanded details on the contents of the three stashes of classified documents found in Biden’s Wilmington garage and the Penn Biden Center’s offices in Washington. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has been aggressive in seeking details about the documents and Biden’s handling of them. Nevertheless, the National Archives sent a letter to Comer Tuesday evening saying it cannot yet comply.

‘DOJ has advised it will need to consult with the newly appointed Office of Special Counsel (SCO) in DOJ to assess whether information can be released without interfering with the SCO’s investigation,’ acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote in the letter, first obtained by CNN.

The letter went on to contest Republican criticism of the National Archives Records Administration’s (NARA) handling of the Biden scandal, stating the organization was not aware of Biden’s possession of classified documents until November.

‘NARA receives only the Presidential and Vice Presidential records that the departing administration provides us; we are never able to know whether we have ‘all’ such records,’ Wall wrote.

Nevertheless, NARA dismissed reports of mishandled documents from the Obama-Biden administration just weeks before the first batch was found in the Penn Biden Center offices, arguing such claims were ‘false and misleading.’

‘Reports that indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former Presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading,’ NARA wrote in an Oct. 11 statement.

NARA asserted that all documents from the Obama administration had been ‘securely moved’ to locations that met ‘strict archival and security standards.’

NARA did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday regarding whether Biden’s garage in Wilmington, Delaware, met its ‘strict archival and security standards.’

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter last week, tapping former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur.

Comer is also requesting that the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Biden Center’s parent, provide a detailed list of anyone who had access to the think tank’s Washington, D.C., offices. In addition to personnel logs, the letter seeks information about foreign influence on the Penn Biden Center, particularly donations from China.

‘The Committee has learned UPenn received tens of millions of dollars from anonymous Chinese sources, with a marked uptick in donations when then-former Vice President Biden was announced as leading the Penn Biden Center initiative,’ Comer wrote in the letter.

‘Not only were these donations made while President Biden explored a potential run for president and launched his campaign, but also as his family and associates pursued lucrative financial projects with partners in China,’ the letter continued. 

‘The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden Administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center.’