Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS is putting out the word that the discovery of classified documents in President Biden’s home and former office space means a weaker Biden presidency — one that may have trouble securing more money to arm Ukraine in its war with Russia.

One policy expert interviewed by TASS said that Biden’s standing in the eyes of the U.S. public would likely slip even as major U.S. media outlets work to defend him.

‘If there are any consequences for the president, they will be not so much legal as political. In other words, his reputation will suffer,’ said Andrey Kortunov, general director of the Russian International Affairs Council. ‘However, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN tend to support Biden. Most likely they will throw their weight behind the Democratic Party in its attempts to play down this scandal.’

But Kortunov predicted Republicans would use the scandal to ‘tip the political scales in their favor against the Democrats,’ while another analyst seemed to welcome the idea of the GOP using the scandal as a basis to stop sending military aid to Ukraine.

Documents discovered in Biden’s former office and current home reportedly deal with intelligence matters related to Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom. Dmitry Suslov, deputy head of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, seemed hopeful that the GOP would use that fact against Biden the next time he seeks billions in new aide to Ukraine.

‘It was none other than Biden who oversaw the Ukrainian track in the Obama administration,’ Suslov said. ‘The way I see it, the Republicans will not miss the chance to capitalize on this factor to the maximum extent to complicate the process of allocating more money for Ukraine.’

House Republicans have opposed the broad funding proposals put forward by the Biden administration and congressional Democrats. However, many have said they would continue to support Ukraine funding, although that funding might be in small chunks that are focused only on Ukraine’s direct military needs.

Another Russian expert, Andrey Koshkin, head of the political science department at the G.V. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, said the scandal would likely weigh heavily on a president who is not popular among Americans.

‘Society is very unhappy with such a president,’ Koshkin said. ‘The loss of economic, social and domestic well-being is another factor on the debit side of his balance sheet.’

Rebekah Koffler — president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting, a former DIA intelligence officer and the author of ‘Putin’s Playbook’ — said the point of the TASS story is likely to dishearten Ukraine and create new worries that the U.S. will be a less enthusiastic contributor to its defense effort.

‘That’s the primary target, but not the only target,’ Koffler said of Ukraine. ‘The second target is the U.S. audience, to influence our opinion. The Russians have very nuanced understanding of our politics. They want to weaken President Biden and undermine Americans’ support for his policies, especially on Ukraine.’

Koffler said 47% of Americans are wary of continued high levels of spending for Ukraine, and she said Russia is trying to take advantage of that split but running the English-only news story. 

‘They’re trying to sow more division and discourage the US from providing more help,’ she said.

Koffler said a third target is the international audience, which she said is part of a broader effort to show how divisive democracies can be.

The discovery of classified documents inside President Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home means it might be time to consider changes to the rules related to visiting a president’s home, a Republican lawmaker told Fox News Digital on Monday.

The White House Counsel’s Office said Monday that no visitor logs exist related to Biden’s home in Delaware, saying that like other presidents, Biden’s ‘personal residence is personal.’

But Republicans say the existence of classified documents in Delaware means it’s important to know who had access to Biden’s home and when. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told Fox News Digital that Congress may need to look at strengthening the rules surrounding these visits, especially with so many examples of classified documents turning up in the homes of high-level officials.

‘If this is so pervasive that these documents are being found in so many locations, then it does become a question of who has access not just to the documents but to the residences of presidents and former presidents,’ Cline said. ‘These are becoming more than just rare exceptions, and we have to start looking at making sure that national security is protected.’

Cline said strengthening the rules about logging in visitors might be a start.

‘I think that that’s a reasonable demand given the fact that this is stretching beyond the exception,’ he said. ‘It’s becoming a more commonplace occurrence to see these documents popping up. We have to put protections in place to make sure our national security is protected, and those visitor logs may be the first step in what needs to be done.’

Last summer, former President Donald Trump’s Florida home was raided to recover documents, and many Democrats said Biden’s more recent scandal is less serious because he has been working with authorities. But Republicans say the story of how they were uncovered is still not clear, and they also note that Trump as president was authorized to declassify documents while Biden as vice president was not.

For that same reason, Cline dismissed the argument that either the Biden documents or Hillary Clinton’s classified emails are similar to Trump’s situation.

‘There are different rules affecting different officials,’ he said. ‘The president has a greater latitude when it comes to those secure documents.’

Cline said that it appears based on press reports that President Biden’s son, Hunter, had access to the Biden home, and he said Republicans have several outstanding questions about who else might have had access to them. He said there are questions about how the documents got there.

‘To get to that location, they had to have been moved several times,’ Cline said. ‘The president, when he was vice president, was not allowed to move top-secret documents from … the secure location where they were stored.’

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey was sworn in Monday for her second full term as governor.

Ivey, 78, took the oath of office on the Alabama Capitol steps before a crowd of several hundred, She will give her inaguration speech later this morning.

Ivey is the state’s second female governor and the first Republican woman elected to the post. Her Monday inauguration falls on the anniversary of the state’s first female governor, Gov. Lurleen Wallace, being sworn in as governor on Jan. 16, 1967. Ivey has called Wallace one of her heroes.

Ivey had been lieutenant governor but automatically became governor in 2017 when then-Gov. Robert Bentley abruptly resigned amid an impeachment probe. Ivey won the office in her own right in 2018 and again in 2022.

In her last term, Ivey championed a number of GOP priorities. She signed into law a 2019 abortion ban, outlawing abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for pregnancies arising from rape and incest. The abortion ban took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion to state control.

She also signed legislation that abolished the requirement to get a state permit to carry a concealed handgun. She highlighted the legislation in a campaign ad in which she pulled a Smith & Wesson .38 out of her purse while sitting at the governor’s desk.

But Ivey did not face an easy path to the GOP nomination last year as Republican primary challengers criticized her push for a gas tax increase as well as her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, with state business closures and mask orders.

However, the governor defeated her opponents — including former Trump ambassador Lindy Blanchard and Tim James, the son of a former Alabama governor — without being forced into the runoff. Ivey easily won the general election in November, defeating Democrat Yolanda Flowers and Libertarian James Blake.

Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, Attorney General Steve Marshall, Secretary of State Wes Allen and other state-wide elected officials were also sworn in during the inauguration ceremonies.

EXCLUSIVE: House Republican lawmakers are asking the Drug and Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to do more to get xylazine, sometimes called the ‘zombie drug,’ off streets where drug dealers are abusing the substance by combining the animal tranquilizer with fentanyl for a deadly combination, exacerbating the fentanyl crisis.

Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Kat Cammack, R-Fla., and August Plfuger, R-Texas, wrote to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram and Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller Monday in a letter reviewed exclusively by Fox News Digital, asking the agencies to schedule xylazine, the animal tranquilizer drug, to properly recognize the drug as ‘the threat that it is.’ 

The lawmakers called government’s response so far to the damage the drug is causing is ‘wholly inadequate.’ Banks says if the White House fails to address the problem, House Republicans will introduce legislation. 

‘For once, I hope the Biden administration moves quickly to fight the deadly drug crisis in this country. If they don’t, House Republicans will introduce legislation to schedule Xylazine,’ Banks told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘The fentanyl crisis has already inflicted significant damage on our treatment clinics and programs, public health agencies, and our entire medical system,’ the lawmakers wrote. ‘The addition of yet another highly toxic and addictive substance to the illicit drug supply will only further escalate this crisis. It is of the utmost importance that all relevant agencies mount an active and energetic response to this emerging threat.’

‘As you may know, xylazine, also known by street names ‘tranq’ and ‘zombie drug,’ has emerged as an increasingly popular drug to combine with fentanyl to intensify drug effects and lower costs,’ the lawmakers wrote. 

‘The effects of xylazine are devastating and include severe necrotic skin ulcerations that often lead to amputation, and severe withdrawal symptoms that leave users trapped in a vicious cycle of addiction,’ they said.

According to the lawmakers, the drug is not detected by current toxicology screens, and, in cases of overdose, naloxone is not known to be effective.

The lawmakers say that significant amounts of xylazine have already been found in drug samples in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Hospitals from across the country are reporting an increase in the prevalence of the drug.

In New York City, xylazine has been found in 25% of drug samples, though health officials say the actual number is likely much higher, the lawmakers claim. One estimate, the say, done in Philadelphia in 2021 found xylazine present in over 90% of fentanyl and heroin samples.

The lawmakers are asking the DEA to start the process of scheduling xylazine, according to the Controlled Substance Act if that process has not already been started, and for further details related to what the DEA is planning to stop xylazine’s illicit use. 

According to the DEA, ‘substances are placed in their respective schedules based on whether they have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their relative abuse potential, and likelihood of causing dependence when abused.’

The House Republicans are also asking to what extent CBP is scrutinizing shipments from China.

The agencies have until Jan. 20 to respond. 

Gov. Tony Evers plans to appoint a former Democratic legislator to lead Wisconsin’s parole commission.

The governor’s office said Friday that he plans to pick former state Sen. Jon Erpenbach to serve as chairman of the commission. Erpenbach will replace Christopher Blythe. Evers’ spokesperson, Britt Cudaback, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking details about why Blythe is leaving the position and when Erpenbach would take over.

Erpenbach will inherit a commission that was rocked by Republican criticism last year over then-chairman Jon Tate’s decision to parole a convicted murderer who had served less than half his sentence.

Douglas Balsewicz was convicted in 1997 of stabbing his 23-year-old wife to death and had served less than 25 years of his 80-year sentence when Tate decided to release him.

Evers, who was in the middle of a reelection campaign, asked Tate to rescind Balsewicz’s parole. Tate complied just days before Balsewicz was set to be released. Tate resigned in June at Evers’ request and the governor picked Blythe to replace him.

Erpenbach was first elected to the state Senate in 1999 and represented the Middleton area for 23 years. He decided not to seek reelection last year and retired from the body on Jan. 3.

Erpenbach said in a statement released by the governor’s office that the commission’s success depends on balancing the law, public safety and keeping dangerous people off the streets while supporting victims, survivors and their families.

Democratic leadership in the House and Senate left colleague Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., hanging Monday as they remained silent on whether they supported his call for an intelligence assessment concerning the classified documents that were mishandled by President Joe Biden.

‘I don’t think we can exclude the possibility without knowing more of the facts,’ Schiff told ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday. ‘We have asked for an assessment in the intelligence community of the Mar-a-Lago documents. I think we ought to get that same assessment of the documents found in the [Penn Biden Center] as well as the home of President Biden.’

‘I’d like to know what these documents were. I’d like to know what the [special counsel’s] assessment is, whether there was any risk of exposure and what the harm would be and whether any mitigation needs to be done,’ Schiff added. ‘I think that would be appropriate and consistent with what we requested in the case of Mar-a-Lago.’

Fox News Digital reached out to each member of the Democratic leadership team in both houses of Congress for reaction to Schiff’s comments but only received a response from Sen. Mark Warner’s, D-Va., staff, pointing to his previous statements calling for a Senate briefing on both the Biden documents and those found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last summer.

The list of Democrats to whom Fox reached out included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass.

Democrats have jumped to defend Biden over his mishandling of the documents, with many arguing there are differences between the situation surrounding his documents and that of Trump’s.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to investigate the three sets of classified documents discovered in Biden’s home and former office space.

It’s ‘profoundly un-American’ for colleges and universities to use racial preferences in their admissions processes, Peter Boghossian told Fox News.

‘We’re looking for quick answers to difficult problems, and that is an injustice to everybody,’ the University of Austin founding faculty member said. ‘It’s also profoundly un-American.’ 

WATCH: BOGHOSSIAN DISCUSSES RACIAL PREFERENCES IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

The Supreme Court could issue a ruling this spring that would bar affirmative action in college admissions. The high court heard arguments in the fall that two schools, Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, use a race-based process that discriminates against White and Asian applicants. The universities argued that diversity is a critical component to learning. 

‘Every time that you try to jury-rig an outcome, you’re only hurting people and making them resentful,’ Boghossian told Fox News. He said affirmative action was an example of trying to fix an outcome when the focus should instead center on a problem’s root.

‘I would love to hear an argument for why a citizen of this country who lives in Boondocks, Arkansas, or in a rural district isn’t entitled to an education as good as literally anybody else in this country,’ Boghossian told Fox News. ‘But instead of trying to address that concern, we’re trying to fix the outcome.’

‘That’s what equity is,’ the University of Austin founding faculty member continued. ‘Equity is fundamentally discriminatory. And on the worst, most prejudicial characteristics.’ 

WATCH: BOGHOSSIAN DISCUSS THE UNIVERSITY OF AUSTIN’S FUTURE

Boghossian resigned from his position as an assistant philosophy professor at Portland State University in September 2021. He told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson the college created conditions that hampered his teaching.

To hear more of Boghossian’s thoughts on racial preferences in college admissions, click here.

EXCLUSIVE: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is vowing to keep pressing the Biden administration for answers on classified documents found in unsecured locations after the White House confirmed there are no visitor logs for President Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.

‘President Biden promised to have the most transparent administration in history but he refuses to be transparent when it matters most,’ Comer told Fox News Digital exclusively Monday following a statement from the White House Counsel’s office that there are no visitor logs for the home in Wilmington, Delaware.

‘The White House, National Archives, and the Justice Department withheld information from Congress and the American people about classified records found in unsecure locations from Joe Biden’s time as vice president,’ continued Comer. ‘The American people deserve transparency, not secrecy. We will continue to press the Biden Administration for answers about who had access to these classified documents and why Biden aides were permitted to rummage through the Wilmington residence after the appointment of a special counsel.’   

Comer, R-Ky., demanded the visitor logs this weekend following revelations that Biden’s lawyers had discovered a stash of classified documents inside the home’s garage. While it is common practice to keep comprehensive visitor logs at the White House, Biden’s lawyers say no such record exists for his home in Delaware.

‘Like every President in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,’ the White House Counsel’s office told Fox News Monday. 

‘But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them,’ the White House continued.

The Secret Service also stated Sunday that while a detail is assigned to the home, they do not record visitors.

‘We don’t independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence,’ spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told reporters.

Fox News’ Peter Doocy and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump is speaking out Monday after the White House Counsel’s Office announced there are no visitor logs for President Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, calling the garage where Biden’s lawyers discovered a stash of classified documents ‘flimsy, unlocked, and unsecured.’ 

The remark comes as Biden is currently facing a special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents after at least two stashes were found at his Wilmington home and a pro-Biden think tank in Washington, D.C. 

‘The White House just announced that there are no LOGS or information of any kind on visitors to the Wilmington house and flimsy, unlocked, and unsecured, but now very famous, garage. Maybe they are smarter than we think!’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. 

‘This is one of seemingly many places where HIGHLY CLASSIFIED documents are stored (in a big pile on the damp floor),’ he added. 

NO VISITOR LOGS EXIST FOR BIDEN’S WILMINGTON HOME, SITE OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS DISCOVERY, WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL’S OFFICE SAYS 

Trump’s comments come about five months after the FBI executed a search and seizure at Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago and retrieved approximately 300 documents with classified markings – some ‘top secret’ – that the former president had not turned over to the National Archives as required by law.  

PROMINENT SENATE DEMOCRAT SAYS BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS SCANDAL ‘EMBARRASSING’ AFTER PAST TRUMP CONDEMNATION 

At the time, Biden had said Trump had been ‘irresponsible. 

‘Mar-a-Lago is a highly secured facility, with Security Cameras all over the place, and watched over by staff & our great Secret Service. I have INFO on everyone!’ Trump claimed Monday. 

Republicans on Capitol Hill demanded the visitor logs this weekend following revelations that Biden’s lawyers had discovered a stash of classified documents inside the home’s garage. While it is common practice to keep comprehensive visitor logs at the White House, Biden’s lawyers say no such record exists for his home in Delaware. 

‘Like every President in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,’ the White House Counsel’s Office told Fox News Digital on Monday. ‘But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.’ 

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Peter Doocy and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: Matt Dolan, the Senate candidate who was the biggest surprise as he surged during the closing weeks of Ohio’s crowded and combustible Republican nomination race last year, on Tuesday will formally announce a second straight run for the Senate when Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is up for re-election in 2024.

‘There are so many challenges that our country faces, and I have the skill set necessary to solve the problems,’ Dolan, a former state representative and state senator who also served as a county chief assistant prosecutor and Ohio assistant attorney general, told Fox News Digital in a national exclusive interview on the eve of his official campaign launch.

And Dolan highlighted that ‘I have a history and a record as prosecutor, as an assistant attorney general, as a lawyer, and as a public servant, of solving problems.’

Brown, who’s the only Democrat to win statewide in Ohio in the past decade, announced shortly after the 2022 midterm elections that he intends to seek re-election to a fourth six-year term in the Senate. He’ll be heavily targeted by Republicans in a state that was once a premiere battleground but has shifted red over the past six years.

Taking aim at the Democratic incumbent, Dolan charged in a statement shared with Fox News Digital that ‘a lot can change in 30 years, but in that time Sherrod Brown’s commitment to his party has remained the same. And if blind loyalty to his party’s agenda 98% of the time wasn’t extreme enough, his willingness to pack the Supreme Court with left-wing judges and gut the filibuster prove just how radical his politics have become. Together with Joe Biden, Sherrod Brown has kicked America’s problems down the road for a generation. Their time is up.’

And during the interview, Dolan argued that ‘what scares me the most is we have a current U.S. senator in Sherrod Brown who won’t even acknowledge the problems. When I heard that Sherrod Brown was saying that in Ohio he doesn’t hear about the border and that this border crisis is just a far-right issue, that motivated me to say ‘I need to get into the race,’ because we can’t solve the problems if we have Sherrod Brown not even willing to address the problems.’

‘I have sat with the sheriffs, with the law enforcement officers, with the families that have been directly affected by the fentanyl crisis, which is coming directly from our southern border at record rates,’ Dolan touted. ‘I have a record in the Ohio legislature. I have a record in the private sector. I have a record as a prosecutor. All doing the same things – solving problems to make Ohioans lives better.’

While much of the crowded and combustible field of Republican Senate candidates in Ohio last cycle showcased their loyalty to former President Donald Trump (who won Ohio by eight points in his 2016 presidential election victory and 2020 re-election defeat) and took aim at each other, Dolan kept his distance from both the crossfire and from Trump while showcasing his conservative credentials and agenda.

Dolan – whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians – also shelled out millions of dollars of his own money to run ads for his Senate bid. He surged near the end of the primary race, winning 23.3% of the vote, just behind former state Treasurer Josh Mandel at 23.9%. Former hedge fund executive and best-selling author JD Vance won the early May primary with 32.2% of the vote, thanks in part to a last-minute endorsement from Trump. 

Vance topped longtime Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in November’s general election to win the Senate seat. Ryan, who ran for the Senate as a populist outsider in the mold of Brown, and who was credited with running a smart campaign, still ended up losing to Vance by six points. While Vance won his contest, many other Trump-backed GOP nominees for senator or governor in highly competitive races didn’t fare as well, and the former president has been criticized for the Republican Party’s lackluster performance in the midterms.

‘The ’22 midterms confirmed what Republican voters want. If you put up candidates that are obsessing on the past and not looking to the future, Republicans are going to lose. I am unique in this race that I have been constantly focused on the future, but more importantly I have a record to run on that has produced success,’ Dolan emphasized.

And he argued that ‘Sherrod Brown has never faced a candidate like me. I’m going to bring the fight to him on his record, because he can’t match what I’ve done for Ohioans and what he hasn’t accomplished in 30 years.’

Asked if he plans once again to invest millions of his own money into his campaign, Dolan pledged, ‘I will have the necessary resources… I will be funded to win this race.’ And it appears likely that he’ll enjoy the support of two outside PACs, Ohio Matters PAC and Buckeye Leadership Fund.

Dolan also said the ‘very practical thing’ he learned from last year’s Senate campaign was ‘you need more time in a statewide race for a state the size of Ohio. I got in late. This time I’m getting in early.’

In the days following Tuesday’s formal announcement, Dolan plans to speak with media in Ohio’s largest cities.

While Dolan’s the first major Republican candidate to jump into the race, he likely won’t be the last.

Among others mulling bids or being mentioned as possible Republican candidates are Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, venture capitalist Mark Kvamme, businessman and 2022 GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, and Rep. Warren Davidson.

Democrats flipped a GOP Senate seat in Pennsylvania in November’s midterm elections, and they currently hold a 51-49 majority in the chamber – which includes three independent senators who caucus with the Democratic conference.

But Republicans are looking at a very favorable Senate map in 2024, with Democrats defending 23 of the 33 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states Trump carried over Biden in 2020: Ohio, West Virginia (where Trump won by nearly 39 points) and Montana (which Trump won by 16 points). Five other Democratic seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by Biden in the 2020 presidential election: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.