Vice President Kamala Harris was captured on camera clapping to a Puerto Rican protest song during her visit to San Juan on Friday, stopping short once an aide translated what singers added to the lyrics. 

After making remarks in Puerto Rico’s capital, Harris visited the Goyoco community center in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan where she took a tour and heard from center staff and community leaders. 

The motorcade was greeted by a mix of several dozen, loud demonstrators and onlookers on the sidewalk. One held a sign that said ‘Kamala Harris war criminal,’ another called the USA and Israel ‘genocidal.’

The vice president stopped in a courtyard within the community center where a six-person group of musicians played. Pool cameras captured Harris clapping her hands and nodding along as she watched and listened. A singer then performed accompanied by a piano. According to RNC Research, Harris was clapping until an aide next to her translated what the band was saying. 

The woman standing next to Harris is Mariana Reyes, executive director at La Goyco, while the man is Frankie Miranda, Hispanic Federation president, according to The Associated Press. 

‘We want to know, Kamala, what did you come here for?… Long live Free Palestine and Haiti too!’ the band said, according to the account managed by the Republican National Committee. 

Harris then stopped clapping and instead folded her hands and slightly nodded as the song continued. 

Before visiting the community center, Harris had visited a residential home outside San Juan that was damaged during Hurricane Maria but has since been outfitted with solar panels and water tanks, through a federal program. She was joined by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Adrianne Todman, and Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.  

‘What we all need to do then is just supply the community and the talent here with the capacity and the resources. And so President Joe Biden and I have been very intentional about what we are doing for the leaders and the people and the families of Puerto Rico. So far, our administration has invested over $140 billion in Puerto Rico,’ Harris said, championing new innovations in making technology hurricane resistant.

Fox News’ Sarah Tobianski contributed to this report. 

Vice President Kamala Harris has rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged attempt to place blame on Ukraine for the attack at a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people. 

During an interview with ABC’s Rachel Scott, Harris reiterated that ISIS was responsible for the shooting attack that sparked an inferno at the Crocus City concert hall in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow. Russia observed a day of national mourning on Sunday and the death toll is expected to climb. 

‘Vladimir Putin is already trying to link this to Ukraine and say that Ukraine is responsible. Does the U.S. have any evidence to back that up?’ Scott said during the interview that aired on ABC’s ‘This Week’ Sunday. 

‘No. And first, let me start by saying what has happened is an act of terrorism and the number of people who’ve been killed is obviously a tragedy, and we should all send our condolences to those families,’ Harris responded. ‘No, there is no whatsoever any evidence. And in fact, what we know to be the case is that ISIS is actually, by all accounts, responsible for what happened.’ 

In a nighttime address, Putin called the attack ‘a bloody, barbaric terrorist act’ and said Russian authorities captured four suspects on Saturday as they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a ‘window’ prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border.

Russian media broadcast videos that apparently showed the detention and interrogation of the suspects, including one who told the cameras he was approached by an unidentified assistant to an Islamic preacher via a messaging app and paid to take part in the raid.

Kyiv strongly denied any involvement, and the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility.

Putin didn’t mention ISIS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for Russia’s fight in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year. U.S. intelligence officials said they had confirmed the ISIS affiliate’s claim.

‘ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,’ National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

Two weeks before Friday’s attack on the Russian concert hall, the U.S. embassy issued a warning to Americans to ‘avoid large gatherings,’ including concerts, because of ‘imminent plans’ for an attack by ‘extremists.’

‘The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,’ stated the March 7 alert. 

Fox News’ Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., doubled down Sunday on claiming Israel is carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza and implementing a ‘forced famine’ by blocking humanitarian aid to Palestinians. 

Appearing on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Ocasio-Cortez defended her speech on the House floor on Friday in which the progressive ‘Squad’ member called on President Biden to stop U.S. military aid to Israel. 

‘If you want to see what an unfolding genocide looks like, open your eyes. It looks like the forced famine of 1.1 million innocents,’ she told the House floor. ‘We must write our story in this moment of what it means and who we are as Americans. And our story must be not that we were good men who did nothing.’ 

CNN’s Jake Tapper challenged that ‘genocide’ is a word that has ‘serious and specific connotations and allegations,’ that is defined by ‘the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, race or religious group.’ He asked the congresswoman coined AOC whether she believed that the Israeli government or the Israeli military ‘are actively trying, or actively intend to destroy the Palestinian people – and not that what’s happening if horrible, but it’s happening because Israel’s going after the terrorists of Hamas who attacked them on October 7, and Hamas imbeds within the civilian population.’ 

‘This word is extremely serious, that’s taken with extraordinary gravity. And to me, the threshold of intent is a high one, it is a serious one, and is not one that is made lightly,’ Ocasio-Cortez responded.

‘However, when we look at the precipice of what is happening with a forced famine of 1.1 million Gazans, where multiple governments, NGOs and even officials within the United States State Department have stated themselves plainly that the Israeli government and leaders within the Israeli government are intentionally denying, blocking and slow-walking this aid – and are precipitating a mass famine – I believe we have crossed the threshold of intent. It is horrific,’ she said. 

The congresswoman added that there is a ‘difference between a people and their governments,’ including Israelis from Israeli government and Palestinians from Hamas. ‘But what we’re seeing here with a forced famine is, I believe, beyond our ability to deny or explain away. There is no targeting of Hamas in precipitating a mass famine of one million people, half of whom are children,’ she said.

Tapper noted how Israeli officials say they are allowing hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza per day, which they need to inspect to ensure that the shipments do not include weapons, and claim the war could stop ‘tomorrow’ if Hamas were to release the hostages and put down their weapons. Tapper asked whether AOC disagreed. 

‘I do disagree, because when we are talking about famine, the actions of Hamas should not be tied to whether a three-year-old can eat. The actions of Hamas do not justify forcing thousands, hundreds of thousands of people to eat grass as their bodies consume themselves,’ she said. ‘And the Israeli government has a right to go after Hamas, but we are talking about a population of millions of innocent Palestinians. We are talking about collective punishment, which is unjustifiable, and the excuses that the Israeli government is giving about what they are and are not allowing simply do not square with what the U.K. government has stated, with what international aid organizations are stating and even what our own State Department officials are stating, which is that they are not allowing aid to go through.’ 

‘To operate as allies,’ AOC said that the U.S. ‘must operate in good faith to uphold the principles of democracy, which includes respect for human rights and also proving the value of our democracy, which is that we are different than authoritarian, and we are different from other types of regimes with no regard for innocent people.’  

Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said he’d be ‘amazed’ if a fellow justice leaked the court’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, which effectively ended the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion. 

‘Do you have a sense of what the motive of the leaker was?’ NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Breyer in an interview aired Sunday on ‘Meet the Press.’ 

Breyer shied away from answering directly, saying he does have theories, but that he was not willing to discuss them at length. Breyer, who retired in 2022, did say who he thought did not leak the draft opinion. 

‘I’d be amazed if it was a judge,’ he said. 

Breyer’s comments came amid an interview on his new book, ‘Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism,’ which is critical of conservative justices for their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022 to uphold a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The decision came just weeks after an unprecedented draft leak published by Politico showed Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion outlining the decision to effectively end the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion. 

Following the leak, churches and pro-life groups saw violent and destructive attacks, including a pro-life center in New York getting ‘firebombed’ by protesters, menacing graffiti on church properties across the nation, and a letter from a radical abortion group called ‘Jane’s Revenge’ declaring ‘open season’ on pro-lifers. Conservative justices also saw repeated protests outside their homes in response to the leak and ultimate decision. 

In previously aired portions of the interview, Breyer had described the leak as ‘unfortunate.’ 

‘It’s unfortunate,’ he said, with Welker following up and asking, ‘Were you angry?’

‘You try to avoid getting angry or that – you try in the job – you try to remain as calm, reasonable and serious as possible,’ he said.

‘I think it was unfortunate,’ he repeated. Supreme Court justices, as Breyer noted in his interview, are extremely careful about publicly speaking on issues that could land before them in court. Breyer appeared to continue with this tradition in his retirement, choosing his words carefully as Welker peppered him with questions on the leak and landmark decision. 

Breyer joined Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in writing the dissent to the decision, and said in the interview he did not believe Roe should have been overturned. 

Welker continued asking if Breyer was hopeful the justices could reach a compromise regarding allowing abortion at 15 weeks ahead of the decision. 

‘Did you think that a compromise was possible before the leak around 15 weeks?’ Welker asked. 

‘I usually hope for compromise,’ Breyer responded. 

‘So you were hopeful there could be a compromise?’ she continued. 

‘You want to put words in my mouth,’ Breyer responded lightheartedly. ‘I’m careful what I say on this. Because I say our interests are different. I don’t want to make news. I’ve written what I thought. If you think there’s news in here or in the dissent, go right ahead. But, I don’t want to say something in addition.’

Breyer added that he ‘always’ thinks compromise is possible. 

The retired justice also shied away from answering whether he was ‘surprised’ an internal investigation into the leak did not identify a person as responsible. 

‘You want to ask that question to somebody who knows something about it. Ask the people who do internal investigations like that. They’re the people to ask and that they occur all over the government,’ he responded, adding that he was simply ‘disappointed, I was sorry about the leak.’

When asked if he foresees the Dobbs case one day being overturned, Breyer said, ‘It’s possible.’

‘Don’t know… It’s possible,’ he said. ‘But who knows?’

Breyer was nominated to the nation’s highest court by President Bill Clinton to fill former Justice Harry Blackmun’s seat in 1994. Blackmun wrote the court’s opinion on Roe v. Wade in 1973. 

Breyer resigned in 2022, with President Biden nominating Ketanji Brown Jackson as the successor. She was confirmed the same year. 

Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays contributed to this report. 

Spending hawks in Congress are growing antsy about starting discussions on how to fund the government in fiscal year 2025.

Congress only recently completed the appropriations process for fiscal year 2024, roughly six months after it began Sept. 30. And, in that time, disagreements over federal funding prompted conservative lawmakers to tank their own party’s bills in protest of leadership’s decisions. 

Spending disagreements also led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker and led to a motion to vacate being filed against Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Friday.

A significant share of Republicans also broke from their own party to oppose nearly every bipartisan spending agreement crafted between the House GOP majority and Senate Democrats, demonstrating the party’s deep fiscal fractures.

‘Am I confident? No,’ one GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital when asked if the appropriations process will improve for fiscal year 2025. ‘I hope it does. But, I mean, there’s been no indication for the last 30 years, 25 years, that it’s going to [improve].’

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a former House Freedom Caucus chairman who opposed each of the bipartisan spending deals, suggested he’s concerned his faction of the House GOP will be disappointed again in the next round.

‘Yes, of course we’re behind,’ Perry said. ‘We’re halfway into the year.’

On the Senate side, Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., led a letter to GOP Conference Chair Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., requesting an urgent meeting on the spending process.

‘As we rush to finalize the 2024 FY budget — months after the fiscal year has started — we are already behind on the 2025 budget deadlines set in statute. Reform is needed, and it is vital that we as a Conference debate how to get our budget process on track,’ Marshall wrote.

Both House Republicans and the White House initiated their sides of the process by submitting budget proposals, each predictably panning the other’s plans. 

Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., whose large House GOP group unveiled its own budget proposal, called for a House vote on each of the plans, though he did not say if he was concerned about the current pace.

‘Go ahead and get it done. Get the vote done and see where it lies and where the outcome is. And then let’s get the budget done and get the appropriators working on the FY25 budget,’ Hern said.

However, another GOP lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed optimism colleagues learned from prior mistakes.

‘We’re a little bit behind from a schedule, like a calendar perspective, from where we want to be,’ the GOP lawmaker said. ‘We have a real clarity of mind right now of what went wrong, and so, you know, in some respects, the best way to stay on task. We just got done with appropriations, so now we know exactly what we need to do the next time.’