Capitol Hill is abuzz with the Senate’s progress on the anticipated passage of a standalone $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific without border security measures. 

After overcoming the first procedural hurdle Thursday, the current landscape is fluid, as the upper chamber now gears up for what promises to be a protracted debate with potential weekend sessions and overnight votes looming. 

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s move to file additional cloture votes sets the stage for a potentially drawn-out process, with the Senate bound by procedural rules dictating the timing of the vote, which could happen anytime between Friday evening and Tuesday, Senate aides told Fox News Digital.

‘Now that we are on the bill, we hope to reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues on amendments,’ Schumer said after the vote. ‘For the information of senators, we are going to keep working on this bill until the job is done.’

The $95 billion package advanced in a 67-32 cloture vote Wednesday, also known as a motion to limit debate on a bill, and moved to a final vote. It required a three-fifths majority.

The package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and nearly $5 billion for the Indo-Pacific. Democrats brought the package up for a vote after Republicans had blocked the $118 billion package that also included numerous border and immigration provisions Wednesday. 

Republicans had previously said they would not approve funding for Ukraine unless the overwhelmed southern border was secured first.

Now, senators await an additional cloture vote before they can enter a period of debate and the opportunity to add amendments over the next few days, and Republicans are sure to bring forth border security-related proposals. 

Sen. Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz., one of the key negotiators for the failed border bill that took months to craft, sparred with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on the floor Thursday afternoon, Graham dubbing the border bill a ‘half a–ed effort’ he couldn’t cast a vote for. 

‘We have not really tried hard to secure the border. We took a well-meaning product. People worked really hard,’ Graham, a staunch Ukraine funding supporter, said on the floor. ‘I applaud you and others for coming out with a product that I thought had a lot of good things in it, but not enough for me.’

Sinema said she looks ‘forward to debating and possibly even supporting one or more of his amendments.’ But amendments and debate are halted until the next procedural vote, which would open the door for considering additional amendments.

‘However, it could be more difficult to consider some of those border-related amendments since the package now does not include any of the border language that we carefully negotiated over the last 4½ months,’ Sinema said. 

Graham and GOP senators Pete Ricketts, Tommy Tuberville, Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Katie Britt, John Barrasso, Josh Hawley, Rand Paul, Roger Marshall and Jim Risch were among the dissenting votes of the standalone bill. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who negotiated the border provisions that failed to pass the Senate on Wednesday, also voted no. 

Seventeen Republicans, including Minority Whip John Thune and senators Chuck Grassley, Roger Wicker, John Kennedy, Mitt Romney and Mike Rounds, voted to advance the bill. 

Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell backed funding for Ukraine and voted to advance the bill but drew criticism from party members who urged lawmakers not to pass foreign aid without securing the border first. 

However, the road to a final vote appears winding, with expectations rife for prolonged discussions and procedural intricacies delaying a definitive decision. 

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, a rabid Kansas City Chiefs fan, even joked on X that he’s prepared for votes to drag out until Super Bowl Sunday. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., appeared determined to make that happen.

‘It’s not going to be easy,’ Paul told reporters. ‘I plan on making them stay here through the weekend, and they’ll get their votes. And they’ll finish up when hell freezes over as far as I’m concerned.

‘By the time the weekend’s over, I hope every American in the country will know that the people who voted for this voted to secure the Ukrainian border before we secure the southern border.’ 

He added he may also ask that the clerk read the Ukraine-Israel bill aloud. 

Rand contended that even if Schumer selects a handful of amendments to bring to the floor, ‘none’ will pass. 

‘The Democrats will vote in block against every amendment,’ he said. 

Against this backdrop, the Senate braces for a marathon of debates, the possibility of amendment votes and the looming specter of prolonged deliberations that could spill into late next week.

On Tuesday, Republicans in the lower chamber instead attempted to pass a standalone bill providing aid only to Israel. It failed after 14 Republicans and 166 Democrats voted against it.

Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney is calling for the Cabinet to ‘explore’ the use of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove President Biden from office, following Special Counsel Robert Hur’s ‘alarming’ report.

Hur did not recommend criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated ‘sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’ 

Hur, though, described Biden as a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ Hur, throughout the more than 300-page report, said ‘it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him’ of a serious felony ‘that requires a mental state of willfulness,’ and said he would be ‘well into his eighties.’

Fox News Digital obtained a letter Tenney, R-N.Y., sent to Attorney General Garland Thursday night, sharing her ‘grave concerns’ following the report.

‘After concluding that President Biden knowingly and willfully removed, mishandled, and disclosed classified documents repeatedly over a period of decades, Mr. Hur nevertheless recommended that charges not be brought against him,’ Tenney wrote. ‘Special Counsel’s reasoning was alarming.’

Tenney added: ‘He recited numerous instances in which President Biden exhibited dramatically compromised mental faculties and concluded that a jury would be likely to perceive President Biden as a sympathetic and forgetful old man.’

Tenney said she ‘need not tell you that selective prosecution is morally, ethically, and legally prohibited.’

‘We don’t prosecute or decline to prosecute people based on their personalities, or on the public’s anticipated perception of them,’ Tenney wrote. ‘If Special Counsel finds that the evidence forms a reasonable basis to bring charges, he must do so.’

Tenney said the DOJ ‘cannot ethically bring charges against former President Trump because he has mental acuity and a forceful personality, and decline to bring charges against President Biden because of his cognitive decline.’

Tenney said Biden ‘needs to be charged, unless he is not mentally competent to stand trial.’

‘Candidly, Special Counsel’s report makes a reasonable case that he is not,’ Tenney said. 

‘Being unable to remember what position he held, and when, is exceptionally concerning. Being unable to remember when one’s child died – even within a time frame of several years – is perhaps more a more damning reflection of his mental impairment.’

Tenney went on to say that Biden ‘most seemingly lacks the ability to execute his presidential responsibilities.’

‘So it is incumbent upon you to explore proceedings to remove the President pursuant to the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution,’ Tenney wrote. ‘President Biden needs to be charged, or he needs to be removed.’

She added: ‘There is no middle ground.’

The 25th Amendment can be invoked by the Cabinet if the president becomes disabled to such a degree that he cannot fulfill his responsibilities.

Biden, on Thursday night, though, addressed the nation saying his memory is ‘fine’ and defended his re-election campaign, saying he is the ‘most qualified person in this country to be president.’

‘I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing,’ Biden said. ‘I’ve been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.’

Biden added: ‘My memory is fine.’

During his address, Biden also fired back at Special Counsel Robert Hur for suggesting he did not remember when his son Beau died.

‘How dare he raise that?’ Biden said. ‘Frankly, when I was asked a question, I thought to myself, what’s that any of your damn business?’

‘Let me tell you something…I swear, since the day he died, every single day…I wear the rosary he got from Our Lady—’ Biden stopped, seemingly forgetting where the rosary was from.

Biden became visibly emotional, and declared: ‘I don’t need anyone—I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away or passed away.’ 

Moments later, though, Biden transitioned to discuss the conflict in the Middle East. Biden referred to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of Egypt, as ‘the president of Mexico.’

But the president took a barrage of questions from the White House press corps, with some shouting and pressing him on whether he is fit to run for re-election. 

‘I’m the most qualified person in this country to be President of the United States,’ Biden said, adding that he has to ‘finish the job I started.’ 

Meanwhile, Hur, in the report, said Biden, during his interview with the special counsel’s team, could not remember key details, such as when he was vice president. 

‘In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,’ the report states. ‘He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).’

‘He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,’ the report continued. ‘And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.’

‘In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall,’ the report said.

As for Biden’s memory, prior to the release of the report, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday defended Biden when asked about a gaffe in which the president said he spoke in 2021 with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl — who actually died four years earlier — arguing that misspeaking ‘happens to all of us, and it is common.’ 

That gaffe was similar to the one Biden made on Sunday when he claimed he spoke with François Mitterrand, a French president who died in 1996, at the same G7 meeting.

President Biden addressed the nation Thursday night, saying his memory is ‘fine’ and defended his re-election campaign, saying he is the ‘most qualified person in this country to be president.’

Biden’s address to the nation from the White House Thursday night comes just hours after Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report, which did not recommend criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated ‘sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’ 

Hur, though, described Biden as a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ Hur, throughout the more than 300-page report, said ‘it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him’ of a serious felony ‘that requires a mental state of willfulness,’ and said he would be ‘well into his eighties.’ 

Biden, on Thursday night, said he agreed.

‘I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing,’ Biden said. ‘I’ve been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.’

Biden added: ‘My memory is fine.’

During his address, Biden also fired back at Special Counsel Robert Hur for suggesting he did not remember when his son Beau died.

‘How dare he raise that?’ Biden said. ‘Frankly, when I was asked a question, I thought to myself, what’s that any of your damn business?’

‘Let me tell you something…I swear, since the day he died, every single day…I wear the rosary he got from Our Lady—’ Biden stopped, seemingly forgetting where the rosary was from.

Biden became visibly emotional, and declared: ‘I don’t need anyone—I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away or passed away.’ 

Moments later, though, Biden transitioned to discuss the conflict in the Middle East. Biden referred to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of Egypt, as ‘the president of Mexico.’

But the president took a barrage of questions from the White House press corps, with some shouting and pressing him on whether he is fit to run for re-election. 

‘I’m the most qualified person in this country to be president of the United States,’ Biden said, adding that he has to ‘finish the job I started.’ 

Meanwhile, Hur, in the report, said Biden, during his interview with the special counsel’s team, could not remember key details, such as when he was vice president. 

‘In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,’ the report states. ‘He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).’

‘He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,’ the report continued. ‘And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.’

‘In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall,’ the report said.

As for Biden’s memory, prior to the release of the report, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday defended Biden when asked about a gaffe in which the president said he spoke in 2021 with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl — who actually died four years earlier — arguing that misspeaking ‘happens to all of us, and it is common.’ 

That gaffe was similar to the one Biden made on Sunday when he claimed he spoke with François Mitterrand, a French president who died in 1996, at the same G7 meeting.

But Hur also said his investigation ‘uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.’

The materials included ‘marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’ 

Hur said FBI agents recovered the materials from ‘the garages, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home.’

But Biden fired back, citing sections in the report that stated he did not willfully retain the documents. Biden also said he was ‘especially pleased to see special counsel make clear the stark distinction in difference between this case and Mr. Trump’s case,’ saying he cooperated and sat for a five hour-long interview. 

Trump, on the other hand, was charged out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation related to his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith’s probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, was then charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of Smith’s investigation — an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty.

That trial is set to begin on May 20. 

‘They should immediately drop the case against me,’ Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday. ‘I am covered by the Presidential Records Act — he wasn’t. He had many, many times more documents — totally unguarded. Mine were always surrounded by Secret Service and in locked rooms.’ 

‘Deranged Jack Smith should drop the case immediately against us.’ 

Trump added: ‘It is election interference…. I did absolutely nothing wrong.’ 

President Biden retained documents marked ‘secret’ and ‘confidential’ related to Ukraine and China, according to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report.

Hur, who released his report to the public on Thursday after months of investigating, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he wouldn’t bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated ‘sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’ 

But Biden also kept classified documents related to Ukraine and China.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who is currently co-leading the impeachment inquiry against Biden, had asked Hur last year if any of the classified records Biden held were related to the countries that his family conducted business with.

Comer is now demanding ‘unfettered access to these documents to determine if President Biden’s retention of sensitive materials were used to help the Bidens’ influence peddling.’

Hunter Biden, joined the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings in June 2014. Hunter Biden also had joint business ventures with Chinese energy firms.

With regard to the Ukraine documents, according to the special counsel report, Biden kept a September 2014 memo with the subject line ‘U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine.’ That memo was marked as confidential.

Biden, at the time, did run U.S.-Ukraine policy.

The report also states that the FBI located a green file folder Biden kept, labeled ‘Ukraine 2/19/15.’ That folder was inside an ‘unlabeled green hanging folder.’ Also, inside that folder was a red file folder labeled ‘VP Personal.’

In the ‘VP Personal’ file folder was a telephone call sheet from Dec. 12, 2015, and talking points for a call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. There is a handwritten note attached addressed to Biden’s executive assistant that states: ‘Get copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records please.’ The note is signed ‘Joe.’ That document was marked as ‘Secret.’

Attached to that document was another, dated Dec. 11, 2015. The report describes that document as ‘a transcript documenting the substance of a Dec. 11, 2015 call between Mr. Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk.’ The document is marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and ‘EYES ONLY DO NOT COPY.’

The special counsel’s report analyzes the documents, saying there ‘is reasonable doubt that Mr. Biden willfully retained’ the documents.

‘Mr. Biden’s handwritten note does not request that executive assistant save the classified call sheet containing talking points for the call (A9) in his records; rather, he only requested the transcript of the phone call itself,’ the report states. ‘And no jury could reasonably find that the substance of the call between Mr. Biden and the Ukrainian Prime Minister was national defense information.’

The report states that Biden and the Ukrainian prime minister ‘exchanged pleasantries and the Prime Minister heaped praise upon Mr. Biden for his December 9, 2015 speech to Ukraine’s parliament.’

‘They did not engage in a substantive policy discussion. There may be technical or nuanced reasons to maintain the classification of the call, but no reasonable jury could conclude the call or its contents were national defense information after the end of Obama administration, or that by asking for a transcript of the call Biden intended to retain national defense information,’ the report states.

Biden, on Dec. 9, 2015, gave a speech in which he discussed corruption in Ukraine.

‘And it’s not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption,’ Biden said in the speech. ‘The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform.’

In that speech, Biden also said Ukraine’s ‘energy sector needs to be competitive, ruled by market principles — not sweetheart deals.’

‘It’s not enough to push through laws to increase transparency with regard to official sources of income,’ he said. ‘Senior elected officials have to remove all conflicts between their business interest and their government responsibilities.  Every other democracy in the world — that system pertains.’

At the time, Burisma Holdings was under investigation by Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Several months later, in March 2016, Biden successfully pressured Ukraine to remove Shokin. At the time Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board receiving tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Biden, at the time, threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

‘I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in,’ I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’’ Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

‘Well, son of a b—-, he got fired,’ Biden said during the event. ‘And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.’

Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin’s firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption, and say that his firing, at the time, was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.

But Comer blasted the discovery of this information as ‘concerning’ and questioned the timeline.

‘It’s no secret Hunter Biden made millions by sitting on the board of Burisma when Joe Biden was Vice President and that Burisma benefited from the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin,’ Comer told Fox News Digital, saying it is ‘concerning Joe Biden retained classified materials related to Ukraine around the same timeframe he called for the firing of Viktor Shokin.’

‘The Justice Department must provide Congress with unfettered access to these documents to determine if President Biden’s retention of sensitive materials were used to help the Bidens’ influencing peddling schemes,’ Comer said.

Meanwhile, with regard to China, Biden retained a memo with the subject, ‘Engagement with China in the Second Term.’ That document ‘suggests activities Vice President Biden could do in his second term to ‘build on my work last year by engaging with China’s leaders in the second term.’  The document was marked as confidential.

Comer’s investigation and the House impeachment inquiry is probing Hunter Biden and James Biden’s Chinese business dealings, and whether Joe Biden was involved or had knowledge of the ventures.

Former President Donald Trump can chalk up another victory in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

The Virgin Islands Republican Party on Thursday announced that Trump has won the GOP caucus in the island territory.

Four delegates to the summer’s GOP presidential nominating convention were up for grabs in the Virgin Islands contest, which was open only to Republican voters. 

‘Word just came that we overwhelmingly won the Virgin Islands Caucus, ALL Delegates, with almost 75% of the Vote. I have just called to thank those involved,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the U.S. Virgin Islands GOP announced the results.

Trump and his last remaining major rival for the nomination – former U.N. ambassador and former two-term South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – were on the ballot, as well as four other candidates who have dropped out of the 2024 race.

The caucus utilized ranked-choice voting. People casting a ballot ranked their choices, and if no candidate achieved a majority of the vote, the ranked choice process would have gone into effect.

Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips reacted to the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report related to President Biden’s handling of classified documents by saying that it ‘affirms’ his belief that Biden is not fit to be president.

‘It’s another sad day for America and particularly for President Biden and his family,’ Phillips told Fox News Digital. ‘While President Biden ‘willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,’ the Special Counsel elected not to prosecute him because a jury would likely not convict a ‘well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Phillips continued, ‘The Report simply affirms what most Americans already know, that the President cannot continue to serve as our Commander-in-Chief beyond his term ending January 20, 2025. Already facing the lowest approval numbers in modern history and losing in each of the key battleground states, this Report has all but handed the 2024 election to Donald Trump if Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee — and I invite fellow Democrats to face the truth.’

Hur on Thursday announced he will not recommend criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling classified documents, according to his report, after a months-long investigation into the president’s alleged improper retention of classified records. 

Although the report stated that the special counsel ‘uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,’ the report said it would be ‘difficult’ to secure a conviction based on Biden’s mental state. 

‘We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,’ Hur wrote in the report. ‘Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.’

The report also outlined instances where Biden had a difficult time remembering key details and events, including when he served as vice president and the exact date his son, Beau, died. 

Several Republican lawmakers agreed with Phillips and concluded that the report is an example of Biden not having the mental fortitude to be president at 81 years of age.

‘New Biden defense for otherwise criminal conduct: he’s an old man incapable of remembering who he is, where he is, or what he’s done,’ Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., posted on X.

‘Biden doesn’t remember his time as VP?,’ Hawley wrote in another post. ‘But somehow he’s qualified to be President for another 4 years?’

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

‘Bottom line is, a special counsel in my case decided against moving forward any charges, and this matter is now closed,’ Biden said Thursday after the report was released. ‘I’ll continue to do what I’ve always done — stay focused on my job like you do, of my job of being president.’

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.