Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., a member of the far-left Squad, launched on a wild rant this week, defending ‘wokeness’ and accusing Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, of wanting to go back to the ‘old America’ that ‘enslaves Africans.’

In a video posted to his Twitter account on Thursday, Bowman appears to be standing in his Washington, D.C. office mocking Roy, who can be seen speaking during a live stream of the House floor behind Bowman.

‘Check it out y’all. This is my man Chip Roy. He’s a hard-right MAGA Republican. He stays going in on wokeness, like everything he’s all about is anti-woke. He’s worried about woke indoctrination in our schools, woke communities, woke society,’ Bowman said in the video. 

‘What’s crazy is they’ve never really defined woke, and the opposite of being woke, or awake, is to be asleep. So do they want society to just go back to sleep and be under the control of the White patriarchal, hegemonic, imperialistic, colonial matrix? Is that what they want? Of course it’s what they want. That’s why they attack so-called wokeness,’ he said. 

‘It’s a dog whistle to MAGA, nativist White supremacists. It’s crazy. But that’s Chip Roy, y’all. That’s what he’s all about. That’s how he gets down. He talks about America, but he wants the old America. You know what I’m saying? Like when they came here and wiped out the natives, and enslaved the Africans, and told women to stay your ass home and don’t go nowhere or do nothing. That’s the America Chip Roy wants,’ he added.

Bowman then said, ‘Peace,’ and walked into another room away from the camera as his staff can be heard laughing in the background.

Roy’s communications director Nate Madden dismissed the video in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘That’s a very woke defense of being woke,’ he said.

Bowman is no stranger to controversy, having been widely criticized for supporting the ‘Defund the Police’ movement despite skyrocketing crime in his district, as well as being caught maskless while meeting with masked students amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Nevada’s new Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed executive orders Thursday indefinitely freezing implementation of new state regulations or occupational licensing requirements, with some exceptions in areas such as public health and safety.

Lombardo also ordered all executive branch agencies, departments and others to review all existing regulations to recommend which should be eliminated, as well as explaining why new regulations qualify for exceptions.

He demanded occupational and professional licensing boards examine requirements that are not mandated in a majority of other states and find ways to facilitate reciprocity in other states with similar requirements, which is intended to help address worker shortages in core sectors of Nevada’s economy.

The orders reaffirm Lombardo’s ‘commitment to streamlining regulations and licensing processes in Nevada,’ the governor’s office said in a statement late Thursday.

Lombardo, the former Clark County sheriff in Las Vegas, unseated Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in the November election. Democrats continue to control both houses of the Nevada Legislature.

‘Nevada’s current regulatory structure is too often unfocussed and inefficient, contains regulations that are obsolete and includes regulations that are unnecessarily onerous, thereby limiting the economic potential of the state,’ according to one order Lombardo signed.

The orders require each department, agency, board and commission to conduct comprehensive reviews of regulations they enforce and provide reports to the governor by May 21. The reports should detail how regulations can be ‘streamlined, clarified, reduced or otherwise improved’ to ensure they provide for the state’s general welfare ‘without unnecessarily inhibiting economic growth.’

Each entity also is required to recommend 10 regulations to be eliminated.

They must hold public hearings to gather input about any recommended changes and identify other regulatory changes industry stakeholders feel are worthy of consideration before submitting the mandated reports.

Regulations exempt from the freeze include public health, safety and security rules as well as those affecting pending judicial deadlines or are necessary to pursue federal funds or comply with federal law, the orders said.

The governor ordered all state occupational and professional licensing boards to suspend issuing new regulations and show cause for all occupational licensing requirements.

Those boards must similarly report to the governor by April 1 about regulations restricting entry into occupations or professions regulated by the board.

That order noted Nevada currently has 1.7 job openings for every unemployed person actively seeking work.

‘There are acute shortages of employees in core sectors of the economy, including, without limitation, education, health care and technology,’ it said.

To the extent an occupation or profession is licensed in Nevada but not in the majority of other states, ‘licensure shall be presumed to be unnecessary and that board shall provide a recommendation for phasing out such a licensing requirement by July 1,’ the order said.

Likewise, if a majority of other states require similar licensing, the board shall provide recommendations for implementing a program recognizing any license obtained in those states, it said.

The Biden administration announced this week that Elizabeth Klein, an official with a history of climate activism, as the new director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

In its announcement, the Department of the Interior (DOI), which oversees BOEM, lauded Klein — who joined the administration as a senior counselor to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2021 after the Senate failed to confirm her as the agency’s second in command — for her experience as an attorney specializing in clean energy, climate change and environmental law and policy. 

‘Liz has been an invaluable asset at the Department since Day One, and we are thrilled she is taking on this new role,’ DOI Chief of Staff Rachael Taylor said in a statement. ‘The Interior Department is leading the effort to foster a clean energy future, and Liz will be critical to our efforts.’

The White House, though, withdrew Klein’s nomination for DOI deputy secretary after facing pushback regarding her potential conflicts of interest and concerns from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Politico reported in March 2021. The action marked the second time one of President Biden’s nominations fell through after Neera Tanden’s nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget was withdrawn.

Klein previously worked at the National Park Foundation, law firm Latham & Watkins and the DOI in several positions during the Obama administration. But her most recent role as the deputy director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC) based at the NYU School of Law, where she worked for more than three years, sparked ethics concerns among Republican lawmakers.

The SEEIC — founded in 2017 with the help of a multimillion-dollar grant from billionaire former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg — supports attorneys general nationwide by providing fellows to serve as special assistants for clean ener­gy, cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal mat­ters. As deputy director of the center, Klein helped place fellows in high-ranking state-level positions where they helped steer climate litigation.

While the center has characterized its work as nonpartisan, it has placed its fellows in the offices of solely Democratic state attorneys general. The fellows, which are paid exclusively by the center, have worked on climate issues for attorneys general in Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Washington D.C. and at least six other states. Several of the attorneys general involved in the scheme have filed high-profile legal challenges against Big Oil companies for allegedly pushing a climate disinformation campaign.

A fellowship agreement between the SEEIC and the Minnesota attorney general’s office reviewed by Fox News Digital states that a legal fellow placed at the office would be employed by the center, not the state. The agreement, which was obtained by Climate Litigation Watch in 2020, listed Klein as the program’s point of contact.

Overall, SEEIC legal fellows were involved in at least 130 legal challenges related to federal climate policies between 2017 and 2018, according to a review by Real Clear Investigations. Since then, the center has taken credit for dozens more challenges from attorneys general pushing back on both Trump and Biden administration policies including those related to oil and gas drilling.

In 2021, Republicans expressed concern that Klein would be involved with various issues at the DOI which SEEIC fellows had been involved in via various court cases. Reps. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., the current chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., warned that Klein’s past position represented a potential conflict of interest.

The Biden administration ethics pledge includes a ‘revolving door ban’ which prohibits officials from participating ‘in any particular matter’ involving parties directly and substantially related to their former employer.

‘As Senior Counselor to the Secretary, Ms. Klein is subject to President Biden’s ethics standards,’ Westerman and the other lawmakers wrote to Klein and the top DOI ethics officer on June 3. ‘Under these standards, Ms. Klein’s participation in the decision-making process for any issue related to the specific regulatory or legal challenges advocated by SEEIC fellows she placed in state attorneys general offices is questionable at best.’

After the DOI provided some of the requested documents, the GOP lawmakers sent a follow-up letter later that month again requesting Klein’s recusal list and ethics guidance that the agency failed to provide.

A spokesperson for Westerman told Fox News Digital on Thursday that, in his role as chair of the committee, the congressman would likely to seek more information from the administration regarding Klein’s role and potential conflicts of interest.

‘The White House pulled your potential nomination to be the the deputy secretary because your conflicts of interest were so severe that you faced bipartisan opposition,’ Boebert said to Klein during a House hearing in 2021.

‘I take my ethics obligations at the Department of Interior seriously,’ Klein responded after Boebert asked about her work with SEEIC. ‘I work closely with our ethics officials to make sure I abide by my recusal responsibilities.’

In response to her comments, Boebert said Klein was a ‘extremist partisan hack.’

When asked about Klein’s work with the SEEIC and the concerns lawmakers have expressed about her, a DOI spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the agency maintained its ‘full throated support’ for Klein. The spokesperson also noted that the DOI responded to Westerman’s inquiry in 2021.

Klein’s appointment to lead BOEM puts her in one of the top energy policymaking positions in the federal government. In the role, she will lead the agency’s work developing and approving offshore energy projects including both wind projects and fossil fuel drilling. 

Klein, who is set to take over for current BOEM Director Amanda Lefton on Jan. 19, will immediately be thrust into a major decision-making process regarding a plan for future offshore oil and gas drilling. BOEM is currently developing a five-year leasing plan which could include as many as 11 lease sales or as few as zero through 2028.

‘We find it very interesting that Ms. Klein, who was unable to attain Senate confirmation to Deputy Secretary two years ago, was named to head one of the Department’s top energy posts, one which does not require Senate confirmation,’ government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust said in a statement. ‘Her history as a fervent opponent of oil and gas drilling hardly qualifies her as a neutral arbiter to develop our nation’s offshore resources.’ 

‘Protect the Public’s Trust and others still have a raft of unanswered questions regarding her ethics documents and her participation in matters involving her former clients while she was at the controversial Bloomberg-funded State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, which placed ‘fellows’ at state Attorneys General offices around the country to lead lawsuits against Interior and other government agencies,’ the group added. 

‘While the Biden Administration continually touts itself as the most ethical in history, this represents yet another example in which ethics takes a backseat to policy and politics,’ PPT continued in its statement.

The White House and SEEIC didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Congressional Republicans on Thursday put forward legislation that would block a Washington, D.C., law that extends the franchise to noncitizens and illegal immigrants.

The D.C. City Council voted 12-1 in November to advance a bill that would allow non-citizens to vote in local elections. The bill says that if noncitizens are otherwise qualified to vote, they can do so in local elections as long as they have resided in D.C. for at least 30 days. Were the bill to become law, tens of thousands of noncitizen residents in the district would gain the right to vote.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-K.Y., introduced a resolution to disprove of the legislation. If it passes the House and Senate and is signed by President Biden, it would prevent the D.C. bill from becoming law. 

‘Voting is a pillar of American democracy and a constitutional right that undeniably needs to be protected and preserved for citizens of this country,’ Comer said in a statement. 

‘The D.C. Council’s reckless decision to allow non-U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants the right to vote in local elections is an attack on the foundation of this republic,’ he added. ‘This move by the Council is irresponsible and will only exacerbate the ongoing border crisis, subvert the voices of American citizens, and open the door for foreign adversaries to peddle influence in our nation’s capital. It should go without saying: only Americans should have the power to influence local policy and guide their hard-earned taxpayer dollars to important initiatives.’

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton will introduce the same joint resolution in the Senate. 

‘Allowing illegal immigrants to vote is an insult to every voter in America. Every single Democrat should be on the record about whether they support this insane policy,’ Cotton said in a statement. 

Previously, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would prohibit D.C. from using any federal funds to carry out the decision to let non-citizens vote. 

‘Voting is a distinct right and privilege that American citizens enjoy in the United States. It is a responsibility, not to be treated lightly, and it must be protected,’ Cruz told Fox News Digital in November.

‘Voters decide not only who will lead our country, our cities and communities, but also how our tax dollars should be spent and what policies we should adopt,’ Cruz continued. ‘Even the Washington Post agrees that non-citizen voting is a terrible idea. Allowing non-citizens and illegal immigrants to vote in our elections opens our country up to foreign influence, and allows those who are openly violating U.S. law or even working for hostile foreign governments to take advantage and direct our resources against our will.’

Under the D.C. Home Rule Act, members of Congress are able to block bills passed by the legislature and cleared by the mayor. Once the bill is submitted, it can be voted down if the House and Senate pass Comer’s resolution of disapproval within 30 days, or else the law will take effect.

Fox News’ Kelly Laco contributed to this report.

More than a dozen House Democrats are calling for the creation of a memorial within the U.S. Capitol to remember the January 6 riot, which Democrats say was a ‘defining moment’ for American Democracy that should be enshrined forever.

‘Two years after January 6th, we see one of the darkest chapters of our nation’s history as democracy’s defining moment – not its last,’ said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the sponsor of legislation creating a memorial. ‘As leaders responsible for these attacks spread extremism here and beyond our borders, we must be very clear. The best of America was there and will always rise to uphold our democracy.’

The ‘Capitol Remembrance Act,’ would require the Architect of the Capitol to create an educational exhibit that includes property damaged during the riot, along with photographs, records and artwork related to the event.

It would also honor the people who ‘held the fabric of our nation together in the face of a violent insurrection as we continue defending democracy.’ That includes honoring U.S. Capitol Police Officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, both of whom died in the days following the attack.

A medical examiner found Sicknick died after suffering two strokes and that there was no evidence his death was caused by chemical irritants he was exposed to during the riot. Liebengood died by suicide just days after the riot, and his family said his death was caused by ‘the trauma he experienced on the job.’

The memorial would also honor Metropolitan Police Department Officers Jeffrey Smith, Gunther Hashida and Kyle DeFreytag. All three died by suicide after the riot.

The bill makes no mention of Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was shot by a Capitol Police officer during the riot, or three others who died during the event.

House Democrats created a House select committee to investigate the riot and found that former President Trump inspired it. Nearly 1,000 people have been charged with crimes related to their participation in the riot.

Another sponsor of the bill, Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., said the bill honors those who protected American democracy, ‘some of whom with their lives, and to ensure future generations never forget that our democracy is only as strong as our commitment to it.’

‘For more than two centuries the United States exhibited one of the most crucial requirements of democracy — a peaceful transition of power,’ she said. ‘The insurrection of January 6th brought an end to that unbroken transition and must be remembered as a warning to Americans as to what happens when violent, anti-democratic rhetoric is given a platform.’

Crow and Wild introduced the same bill in the last Congress, when Democrats controlled it. However, Democratic leaders did not act on the bill after it was introduced – it received no hearings and no votes.

President Biden on Friday ignored reporters’ questions about his handling of classified documents.

Biden passed the press pool with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan on their way into the White House for a bilateral conversation.

‘Mr. President, why didn’t you tell us about the second batch of documents?’ a reporter could be heard shouting to Biden. 

Journalists also asked about the health of first lady Jill Biden, who recently underwent surgery to have two cancerous lesions removed.

Later, Biden did not respond to more questions after he and Kishida made brief remarks in the Oval Office. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents dating back to the Obama administration.

A second stash of classified documents was found inside the garage of Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home. The first documents were found inside the Washington offices of the Penn Biden Center think tank.

Biden went back and forth with Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Thursday.

‘Classified documents next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?’ Doocy asked. 

‘I’m going to get the chance to speak on all of this, God-willing it’ll be soon, but I said earlier this week — and by the way my Corvette is in a locked garage. It’s not like it’s sitting out in the street,’ Biden responded.

‘So the documents were in a locked garage,’ Doocy prompted.

‘Yes, as well as my Corvette. But as I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously,’ Biden said. ‘I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review.’

The White House Counsel’s Office searched Biden’s two residences in Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington, Delaware, this week after news of the first documents broke. White House lawyers say they immediately contacted the DOJ when they discovered the documents inside the Wilmington garage. 

Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, said Thursday the documents were ‘inadvertently misplaced.’

Fox News’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

The Republican leader of the Wisconsin Senate proposed implementing a flat 3.25% income tax rate on Friday, a plan that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has vowed to block saying it benefits the wealthy over the middle class.

The conflict comes as both sides say they want to tap a nearly $7 billion state budget surplus to lower taxes. Evers has also listed other costly priorities that will compete with cutting taxes, including increasing funding for K-12 public schools and giving local governments more money.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu’s proposal, which he circulated for co-sponsors on Friday, would phase in a flat income tax rate of 3.25% by 2026. Each of the brackets would gradually decrease over that time before becoming one. Income tax rates are currently split into four brackets, ranging from 3.54% for those earning up to $12,760 to 7.65% for those earning more than $280,950.

Over the four-year implementation phase, the state would collect $4.4 billion in less tax revenue. After it is fully implemented, the state would take in $1.8 billion less per year, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau included in LeMahieu’s proposal.

LeMahieu argues the move will make Wisconsin more competitive. He contends in the memo sent to lawmakers Friday that a flat tax will help Wisconsin businesses that are structured in such a way that they pay personal income taxes.

LeMahieu also argues that Wisconsin’s top rate is out of whack nationally, with 31 states having a top rate that is lower than Wisconsin’s third tier rate of 5.3%. By moving to a flat 3.25% rate, only 11 states will have a lower top individual rate, LeMahieu said.

Other Republicans, in arguing for the move, have also pointed to neighboring Illinois, a state run by Democrats, which has a flat personal income tax rate. Illinois voters in 2020 also rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed for lawmakers to change that and institute a progressive income tax system like Wisconsin’s.

Evers and Democrats in the Legislature are against the flat tax, saying it will primarily benefit wealthy people.

‘When we deliver tax relief, it should be targeted to the middle class to give working families a little breathing room — not to give big breaks to millionaires and billionaires who don’t need the extra help to afford rising costs,’ Evers tweeted Friday. ‘That’s just common sense.’

Under LeMahieu’s plan, for example, those already in the lowest tax bracket would see only about a quarter percentage point tax cut, while the wealthiest would have their tax rate cut in half.

Democrats don’t have the votes to stop the measure from passing, but Evers can block it with his veto.

‘I don’t see that as something that I could support,’ Evers said of the flat tax last month. ‘I believe that targeting the middle class is where we should be. We should continue to have a progressive tax system.’

Evers is pushing a plan that would cut income taxes 10% for individuals earning less than $100,000 and families earning less than $150,000.

Evers’ $600 million proposal would also cap copays for insulin at $35, repeal the state’s minimum markup law in an attempt to lower gas prices, cut taxes for seniors on fixed incomes, expand property tax relief for veterans with disabilities, and attempt to lower the cost of caregiving and child care.

The debate over what taxes to cut and by how much will be a large focus of the Legislature’s work this year. Wisconsin’s budget is projected to have a nearly $7 billion surplus, fueling support from both Republicans and Democrats to cut taxes. The last state budget, passed by the Republican Legislature and signed by Evers, cut income taxes by more than $1 billion.

Wisconsin’s total tax burden, which is total taxes measured as a share of personal income, fell to its lowest point in more than 50 years in 2022, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. However, the state’s average income tax rates are more favorable to high- and middle-income residents and worse for those with lower income, the Wisconsin Policy Forum reported last year.

AUSTIN, Texas – Lone Star state residents weighed in on whether they believed encouraging illegal immigration should be a felony or if it’s a matter of free speech.  

‘It’s a First Amendment right,’ Bronte, an Austin resident, told Fox News. ‘You could be saying it in the most mundane way, like, ‘Oh, you can stay here longer,’ and that could technically be a felony.’ 

WATCH: TEXAS RESIDENTS CONSIDER WHETHER IT SHOULD BE A FELONY TO ENCOURAGE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

But Nick disagreed.

‘I do think that it should be a crime to encourage people to stay in the country illegally,’ he told Fox News. ‘You’re encouraging someone to break the law and that responsibility should fall on your part.’

The Supreme Court will hear arguments this spring on the constitutionality of a law forbidding people from encouraging immigrants to enter or stay in the U.S. illegally. A lower court previously struck down the federal statute as a violation of free speech. 

Encouraging illegal immigration is ‘just free speech and that’s not actually committing a crime,’ Halton, of Austin, told Fox News.

The Supreme Court previously heard oral arguments on the law’s constitutionality in February 2020 but decided not to rule on the case. Tim said he did not believe that the 1986 statute violated free speech rights.

‘You shouldn’t encourage anybody to do anything illegally,’ the Austin resident told Fox News. ‘Obviously they put that into law with the thinking that that was the right idea.’ 

‘I think it still makes sense today,’ he added. 

WATCH: THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS OCCUPY EL PASO

Nav, who recently moved to Austin from Toronto, Canada, disagreed.

‘I think it shouldn’t be a felony for people to … have that free speech and encourage people if they want to,’ he told Fox News.

To watch more people consider whether encouraging illegal immigration should be legal, click here. 

FIRST ON FOX: A Republican congressman is introducing legislation that would require the Biden administration to resume construction of the wall at the southern border, as the migrant crisis continues to rage — and just days after Biden received praise from the Mexican president for not building any more wall.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., this week is introducing the Finish The Wall Act, which would require the administration to resume border wall system construction within 24 hours of its enactment and prevent the cancelation of further contracts. The bill currently has 30 co-sponsors.

Over 450 miles of wall were constructed during the Trump administration, before construction was abruptly halted by the Biden administration. Since then the administration has moved to close some gaps — including in Arizona — but large-scale construction has so far been shelved.

Biden toured parts of the pre-Trump border barriers in his visit to El Paso, Texas on Sunday days after revealing new border security measures that included an expanded humanitarian parole program and the use of Title 42 to expel some Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans. But he did not announce any plans to expand the border wall.

He then received praise on Tuesday from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for not building any more wall, despite the construction in Arizona.

‘You are the first president of the United States in a very long time that has not built even one meter of wall,’ Lopez Obrador told Biden at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City. ‘And we thank you for that, sir, although some might not like it, although the conservatives don’t like it.’

Lopez Obrador’s claim that conservatives are unhappy with the lack of border wall construction is accurate, with Higgins — a member of the House Homeland Security Committee — railing against the administration for its border policies.

‘Since Biden was inaugurated, we’ve absolutely lost operational control of our southern border. We’ve lost our sovereignty, and our law enforcement professionals have been forced to become welcoming processors of human beings crossing in massive waves. In 2 years, we’ve had 4 million illegal crossings seeking asylum and over a million criminal runners. The runners are mostly young men who are very aggressive and they’re carrying backpacks loaded with drugs or herding sex-traffic victims,’ he said in a statement.

He accused the administration of running a ‘scripted show’ for Biden’s border trip, and said that restoring the wall construction was only one part of what needed to be done to secure the border — the latest sign that Republicans, now in the majority in the House, intend to make the border crisis a central issue in the new Congress.

‘America demands and deserves effective border security. Completing the wall system is critical to our nation’s safety but the wall system is just one aspect of what we need to do to restore our sovereignty at the southern border,’ he said, claiming that the U.S. has suffered ‘generational harm’ under the administration.

Higgins’ bill would also require DHS to spend funding appropriated to the border wall, and to submit an implementation plan to Congress. It would also require all Customs and Border Protection stations to be up to date with fingerprinting requirements laid out in a 2005 law.

Higgin’s bill marks the latest in a slew of legislation related to border security and immigration being introduced and that Republicans have pledged to pass in the chamber. 

This week, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas introduced legislation to block the entry of illegal immigrants until the border is secure, while other Republicans introduced legislation that would divert funding from the U.N. to funding the border wall.

Embattled Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., responded to allegations of running a toxic workplace amid her tumultuous Senate run kickoff as she tries to soften her image.

Porter’s Senate campaign began on Tuesday as the California Democrat faces down accusations from former staffers of making racist remarks and fomenting a toxic work environment.

In just her first week in the fray, the California congresswoman responded to the allegations of a toxic work environment during an interview Thursday, where she said she is ‘willing to expect people to work hard.’

‘But let’s be clear, of course I want their best effort. Of course, I want my best effort,’ Porter said on the ‘Pod Save America’ podcast. ‘The American people deserve no less.’

‘I regret if this employee feels disgruntled. She finished her term in her fellowship. It was a two-year fellowship. I enjoyed working with her,’ the congresswoman continued, referencing the allegations first posted by the Dear White Staffers Instagram account. ‘And I’m excited to continue to get to work with my staff on this campaign and on the official side.’

‘I’m willing to expect people to work hard. I work hard, and I think that’s what the American people should expect,’ she added.

Late last month, Sasha Georgiades, a Navy veteran and former Wounded Warrior fellow for Porter, alleged that she heard the progressive congresswoman using racial slurs when talking to staff. Porter is currently facing scrutiny after leaked text messages showed her berating Georgiades for catching the coronavirus.

The ex-staffer also alleged the congresswoman made rude and racist comments to staff and ‘ridiculed people for reporting sexual harassment.’

Georgiades also said that Porter ‘made fun of individuals whose parents passed away from COVID.’

The former Porter staffer noted that she left the office shortly ‘after the sexual harassment conversation’ with the congresswoman.

A social media account called Dear White Staffers posted screenshots of conversations with anonymous ex-Porter staffers who alleged they heard the congresswoman saying ‘rude/racist things’ while trying to ‘mask it as edgy humor’ and badmouthing Democrat leadership.

The anonymous account also accused Porter of being ‘completely disinterested’ in representing her district in Congress, adding that the only staffers who appear to ‘survive are superfans that participate in or overlook the abuse.’

‘Give it time and it will rank among the legendary toxic offices,’ the post read.

Porter also praised her staff in the interview to soften her image, saying she ‘could not do the work’ she does without their ‘talents’ and work.

Porter also made headlines in October when text messages between her and Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan were published that showed the Democrat Senate hopeful berated the city mayor and insulted the city police department.

The texts followed a fight that broke out at the congresswoman’s July 2021 town hall that saw the man Porter lives with arrested.

In the texts, Porter criticized Khan, saying she would not call the mayor after Julian Willis was arrested after he allegedly punched a pro-Trump protester, giving the protester a bloody nose.

‘You can lecture me on professionalism. And see what happens,’ Porter wrote, despite famously wearing a Batgirl Halloween costume to the House of Representatives on the same day Democrats voted for a resolution on ground rules for the impeachment inquiry surrounding then-President Trump.

Porter also trashed the Irvine police department after the arrest, calling the force a ‘disgrace’ and that she ‘will never trust them again.’