FIRST ON FOX: Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is sending a memo to GOP colleagues ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s closed-door meeting on Ukraine, warning lawmakers about the latest Department of Defense (DOD) report that he said detailed the ‘shortcomings in monitoring U.S. aid to Ukraine.’

The January 2024 report, the most recent in a series of government watchdog publications highlighting deficiencies in overseeing U.S. aid to Ukraine, outlines the inadequacies of both the Biden administration and the Ukrainian Armed Forces in effectively monitoring U.S.-supplied weapons. 

The report from the Inspector General specifically delves into enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM), a classification reserved for weapons that ‘incorporate sensitive technology,’ are ‘particularly susceptible to diversion or misuse,’ or could have ‘serious consequences’ if diverted or misused.

According to the report, a substantial 59%, or $1.005 billion out of the total $1.699 billion value of EEUM-designated weapons sent to Ukraine, were classified as ‘delinquent.’ This means that they were not monitored in accordance with DOD standards.

‘Claims of radical transparency and tracking of U.S. weapons in Ukraine are simply not accurate,’ Vance wrote in the memo. ‘Assertions that ‘there is no evidence of illicit transfer of EEUM defense articles provided to Ukraine’ sidestep the reality that an accurate, up-to-date inventory of U.S.- supplied weapons in Ukraine – which the DOD IG report demonstrates that the U.S. does not have – is necessary to determine whether weapons have fallen into the wrong hands.’

The report also noted the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) and U.S. personnel didn’t properly monitor important defense items, making it difficult to know if they were misused or stolen. The report revealed that the UAF failed to provide expenditure reports by serial number to U.S. personnel.

Vance wrote, ‘U.S. personnel on the ground could not keep up with the volume of weapons streaming into Ukraine and failed to keep an accurate, timely record of them’ and that, ‘There was no live, comprehensive database of equipment sent to Ukraine, and systemic failures inhibited the proper validation of reports of lost or expended equipment.’

Lastly, Vance wrote in the memo that ‘EEUM procedures were not designed for use in war zones like Ukraine, and were thus less effective in ensuring oversight of U.S.-supplied weapons.’ 

‘There were no official procedures for conducting EEUM in a hostile environment like Ukraine’s until December 2022 – more than nine months after this latest iteration of the Ukraine-Russia conflict began,’ he said. 

Vance, a vocal critic of more aid to Ukraine without proper oversight alongside a handful of other Republicans, previously said the U.S. needs to accept that Ukraine must ‘cede some territory’ to Russia and that American leadership must ensure the U.S. is ‘not writing more blank checks’ to fund Kyiv’s forces.

Lawmakers have a private Senate GOP conference meeting to discuss additional aid to Ukraine on Wednesday afternoon as the White House has already depleted the amount of funds it can send without congressional approval. Border security is the key to more Ukraine assistance. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have remained in lockstep when it comes to pairing Ukraine aid and border security together, despite several dissenting voices in the GOP arguing they should be voted on separately. 

Negotiations to secure a deal on the border are ongoing, and it’s unclear when an agreement will be finalized. But it will likely face an uphill battle when it does get a vote in the upper chamber and makes it to the GOP-controlled House. 

Former President Donald Trump and President Biden don’t agree on much — but both say their election rematch is set after convincing wins in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Trump, who faces one remaining primary challenger in former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, claimed an 11-point victory in the Granite State on Tuesday night. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said he was ‘very honored by the result’ and is ‘looking forward to going against the worst president in the history of our country.’ 

Biden said Tuesday the ‘stakes could not be higher’ after winning the New Hampshire primary as a write-in candidate, trouncing Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who launched a long-shot bid against the incumbent president by arguing Biden is too old and unpopular to win in November. 

‘It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee,’ Biden declared in a statement. ‘And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher. Our Democracy. Our personal freedoms — from the right to choose to the right to vote. Our economy — which has seen the strongest recovery in the world since COVID. All are at stake.’

Though Trump and Biden may think the race is over, Haley has vowed to stay in and battle Trump in her home state of South Carolina, and perhaps beyond.

‘You’ve all heard the chatter among the political class. They’re falling all over themselves saying this race is over. Well, I have news for all of them: New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not last in the nation. This race is far from over,’ Nikki Haley told supporters Tuesday at her election night watch party in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, is not going down without a fight. She will travel to Charleston on Wednesday for the first in a series of campaign stops in the Palmetto State ahead of the Feb. 24 primary. The campaign announced a new $4 million ad blitz in the state this week, showing every intention of fighting Trump for each delegate.

Speaking to Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Trump argued it was time for Haley to suspend her campaign so he could begin targeting Biden with an eye towards the general election in November.

‘She should because, otherwise, we have to keep wasting money instead of spending on Biden,’ the former president emphasized. ‘If she doesn’t drop out, we have to waste money instead of spending it on Biden, which is our focus.’ 

Trump’s victory in New Hampshire came eight days after he captured a majority of the vote and crushed the competition in Iowa’s low-turnout Republican presidential caucuses. And it came two days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign, making the race a two-candidate contest between Trump and Haley.

New Hampshire — where independent voters who make up roughly 40% of the electorate can vote in either major party’s contest and have long played an influential role in the state’s storied presidential primary — was widely seen as Haley’s best chance to stop Trump. 

But Haley came up short, a fact Trump hammered over and over in his victory speech.

He said Haley ‘ran up to the stage all dressed up nicely’ and delivered ‘a speech like she won. She didn’t. She lost.’ 

‘Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night. She had a very bad night,’ Trump said.

When asked for a response, a Haley campaign spokesperson referred to her remarks Tuesday night and recent public polling, which suggested Trump would win by as much as 22 points. 

‘The political elites never learn. The same naysayers who said Nikki Haley couldn’t defeat a 30-year incumbent state legislator or win the governor’s race in South Carolina are the same people declaring the presidential race over after only two states have voted,’ said Haley communications director Nachama Soloveichik. ‘Nikki Haley has never taken her cues from the establishment, and she’s not going to start now. Keep underestimating us — that will be fun.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the influential and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, admitted that GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has a ‘steeper road ahead’ facing former President Trump in South Carolina. 

Reacting after Trump clinched his second straight victory in the New Hampshire primaries Tuesday, Americans for Prosperity Action Senior Advisor Emily Seidel said the results in New Hampshire ‘show that Nikki Haley is closing the gap and that she is the clear alternative for voters who are ready to close the book on the toxic Biden-Trump political era.’

‘This is still an uphill battle. Now all eyes turn to South Carolina, where she has a steeper road ahead,’ Seidel said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘For the past several months, we’ve been engaged in races for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and presidential levels to prevent a scenario where one party progressive rule comes to Washington, D.C. at a time when our country can least afford it. If Republicans nominate Donald Trump, we risk a repeat of the past three elections and the very real threat of full progressive control increases dramatically.’

Seidal went on to say of Trump, ‘This is why Joe Biden and the Democrats want him to be the nominee. The stakes for our country simply couldn’t be higher.’

‘Our teams will continue talking to South Carolina voters in support of Nikki Haley. We are laser focused on electing the candidates who can be the firewall preventing one party progressive rule of the federal government. We have three ways to win the Senate, the House, and the presidential primary. Through our multi-pronged effort we are prepared to get this done. I’m proud of our activists’ ongoing efforts. Despite challenging conditions, their support shows that AFP Action consistently takes principled and tough action when our country needs it most.’ 

A conservative group with powerful grassroots outreach, Americans for Prosperity Action endorsed Haley in November and pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to help push the GOP past Trump. 

After knocking out most of the field with a commanding win in Iowa, Trump achieved another victory in New Hampshire, but Haley still vows to stay in the race. She is set to campaign in the U.S. Virgin Islands and in South Carolina on Wednesday as the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination moves beyond the first two voting states.

Trump flew back to Florida on Tuesday night after a strong performance in New Hampshire. It was his third straight New Hampshire primary victory, tying a record previously held by Richard Nixon, who won the event in 1960, 1968 and 1972. Trump is the first presidential candidate to win three consecutive New Hampshire primaries.

The next primary is scheduled for Feb. 3 in South Carolina on the Democratic side, while the South Carolina Republican primary is Feb. 24. 

Despite Haley previously serving as South Carolina’s governor, the current governor, a slew of statewide officials and four out of the six Republican U.S. House members from the Palmetto State are backing Trump, as well as both the state’s U.S. senators, Sen. Lindsey Graham and former GOP presidential rival Sen. Tim Scott. 

President Biden, who also won his respective primary in New Hampshire, said it was ‘now clear’ Trump would be the Republican nominee and that the ‘stakes could not be higher.’ 

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Deb Fischer endorsed former President Trump on Tuesday night following Trump’s win in the New Hampshire primary in his bid to be crowned the Republican presidential nominee. 

‘It’s time for Republicans to unite around President Donald Trump and make Joe Biden a one-term president,’ Fischer said in a statement. ‘These last three years have yielded a crippling border crisis, an inflationary economy that prices the American Dream out of reach for families, and a world in constant turmoil with our enemies on the march. I endorse Donald Trump for president so we can secure our border, get our economy moving again, and keep America safe.’

Cornyn said in a statement posted to X, ‘To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice.’

‘Four more years of failed domestic policies like the Biden Border Crisis and record-high inflation, and failed foreign policies that have emboldened our adversaries and made the world a more dangerous place, must be stopped,’ he said. 

Cornyn and Fischer join more than 15 GOP senators in endorsing Trump, including Sens. JD Vance of Ohio, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Rick Scott of Florida, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Marco Rubio of Florida and others.

The endorsements come as there is increasing pressure on former South Carolina governor Nikki Hailey to suspend her campaign and endorse Trump. A growing number of lawmakers have been calling on the GOP to unite behind Trump, who is expected to be the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election. 

Trump won the first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday night, defeating Hailey, and declared the GOP was ‘very united’ behind his candidacy. Trump also won the Iowa caucuses last week.

New Hampshire — where independent voters who make up roughly 40% of the electorate can vote in either major party’s contest and have long played an influential role in the state’s storied presidential primary — was considered fertile ground for Haley. She spent plenty of time and resources in the state, securing the influential endorsement of popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

However, Trump dominated for a second week in a row, cruising to victory in both critical early voting states.

When asked if he felt Haley would suspend her campaign, he said, ‘I don’t know. She should.’ 

Haley asserted she would continue on in the race following the primary. 

The Israeli government and Hamas leadership are at a stalemate as both claim to want a cease-fire to facilitate a prisoner swap but cannot agree to conditions.

Both Israeli and Hamas leaders have expressed a desire to pause ongoing violence to allow an exchange, but the finer points of an agreement are proving difficult to resolve.

Hamas has turned down Israeli offers for a long-term cease-fire, rejecting the Jewish state’s condition that top Hamas commanders leave the Gaza Strip for foreign exile.

U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have sought to negotiate terms for a month-long cease-fire with a staggered exchange, beginning with civilians and eventually leading to the release of soldiers.

Hamas has largely refused to agree to any conditions that do not include plans for a permanent end to violence in the region.

‘We are engaging in serious discussions with both sides,’ said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari during a press conference this week. ‘We have presented ideas to both sides. We are getting a constant stream of replies from both sides and that, in its own right, is a cause for optimism.’

An attack on Israel’s forces in the Gaza Strip on Monday left 21 soldiers dead, its military said Tuesday. The attack was the deadliest for Israeli troops since the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7 that triggered the war.

According to the Israeli military, reservists were preparing explosives to demolish two buildings in central Gaza when a militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank nearby. 

The blast from the rocket outside the buildings triggered the explosives inside them, causing both two-story buildings to collapse on the soldiers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned the loss of the soldiers, saying Monday was ‘one of the hardest days’ since the war began.

Fox News Digital’s Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.

A Texas mother who went to court to obtain an illegal abortion will attend the State of the Union address in March as a guest of first lady Jill Biden.

President Biden and the first lady spoke to Kate Cox on the phone Sunday as Biden seeks to make abortion rights a signature issue of his re-election effort. Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two, made national headlines after she asked the Texas Supreme Court for permission to obtain an abortion when her unborn child was diagnosed with a fatal condition. She was denied and later left the state to abort her baby elsewhere. 

The Bidens ‘thanked [Cox] for her courage in sharing her story and speaking out about the impact of the extreme abortion ban in Texas,’ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday.

‘The first lady invited Kate to join her as a guest at the State of the Union and Kate accepted,’ she said.

The Biden campaign put abortion in the spotlight this week with a ‘Reproductive Freedom’ rally in Virginia to commemorate what would have been the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. The court overturned Roe in 2022, ending federal protections for abortion and permitting states to regulate the procedure as lawmakers see fit. 

Since then, 14 states, including Texas, have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions, and two others have banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around six weeks of gestation.

Cox’s baby had a condition known as trisomy 18, which is when a baby has an extra copy of chromosome 18. The diagnosis has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth, and a low survival rate. 

Cox’s lawsuit against Texas, which cited doctors, argued that continuing the pregnancy jeopardized both her health and her ability to have more children. 

Trisomy 18 occurs in approximately 1 in 2,500 diagnosed pregnancies, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. There is no live birth in about 70% of pregnancies involving the diagnosis that proceeds past 12 weeks gestational age, according to a legal filing that the two groups submitted to the court.

Texas’ abortion ban makes narrow exceptions when the life of the mother is in danger, but not for fetal anomalies. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox had not shown that any of the complications in her pregnancy rose to the level of threatening her life.

The court battle and Cox’s defeat have become a rallying cry for Democrats nationally, who say Republican-backed abortion restrictions deny women health care and take away their rights. 

At his rally in Manassas, Virginia, on Tuesday, President Biden said former President Trump is ‘most responsible’ for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and blamed his predecessor (and likely general election opponent) for ‘stripping away’ abortion rights.

The president said women are ‘being turned away from our emergency rooms, forced to travel hundreds of miles to get basic health care, forced to go to court to plead to help to protect themselves, and the ability to often have children in the future.’

‘The cruelty is astounding and it’s a direct affront to a woman’s dignity to be told by extreme politicians and judges to wait to get sicker and sicker before anything can happen, even to the point where, as you heard your life had been determined to be in danger, or the idea that a woman should have to carry a fetus after she’d been raped or the victim of incest,’ Biden said. ‘It’s outrageous.’

‘Or the idea a woman receives competent medical advice that the fetus she’s carrying won’t live and will impact on her ability to have children in the future and she still can’t get medical care,’ he continued in apparent reference to Cox’s story. ‘I think it’s unconscionable that anyone thinks that this is where America is going in 2024.’

‘Let there be no mistake: the person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump,’ he said. ‘Trump says he’s proud that he overturned Roe v. Wade.’

The White House said Biden will continue to share the stories of women who have been impacted by abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade was undone. 

‘The Biden-Harris administration is standing with a majority of Americans on this. With a majority of Americans. And Republican elected officials are just not,’ she added.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Bradford Betz and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

President Biden’s nominee for second-highest civilian position in the U.S. Air Force was grilled by Congress on Tuesday regarding the Department of Defense’s selling off of border wall parts, as well as the handling of the Chinese spy balloon, among other issues impacting national security. 

Melissa Dalton, who has served as the Pentagon’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs since 2022, appeared before the Senate Committee on Armed Services on Tuesday as she’s being considered for a second time for the role of Under Secretary of the Air Force. Biden nominated her for the Air Force’s No. 2 civilian role in September, but because the Senate didn’t act before the end of the year, the White House renominated Dalton this month. 

In his opening statement, Ranking Member Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., raised concern that Dalton ‘has virtually no experience with the Air Force.’ 

‘Ms. Dalton, the Air Force and Space Force both possess insufficient capacity and capability to meet their growing mission sets. This is the case even as we march toward a state of maximum vulnerability in the Pacific. The last confirmed appointee to the post that Ms. Dalton has been appointed for was not focused on this challenge. She created division in our military instead of prioritizing readiness and modernization,’ he said. ‘If Ms. Dalton is confirmed, I hope that she will not do the same. Regrettably, her performance in her current position gives me pause.’

While Dalton has been at her post, Wicker charged, the ‘Department of Defense was caught flat-footed as a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the continental United States and flew over military sites,’ and ‘when Congress sought more information, she, along with others at the Department, evaded Constitutionally-authorized oversight.’ 

Wicker also raised concern over Dalton’s handling of the Pentagon’s responsibilities at the southwestern border. 

‘At one point, the Department of Defense was spending $130,000 every single day to store, instead of use, border wall construction materials,’ he said. ‘They were already manufactured, they were ready, and yet we were spending $130,000 to store them. Meanwhile, illegal migration broke records. Later, we found out that the Department of Defense had initiated a process in which these panels would be auctioned for pennies on the dollar — a clear effort to circumvent emerging Congressional intent as the FINISH IT Act was being added to the NDAA. That act was added to the NDAA; it is now the law of the land.’

Specifically, Wicker took issue with Dalton failing to deliver the Homeland Defense Planning Guidance until the end of 2023 — over a year after the release of the National Defense Strategy. 

‘This track record casts a shadow on this nomination,’ he said. 

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was also among the Republicans to challenge Dalton about the border, as well as the Chinese spy balloon, which entered U.S. airspace over Alaska, crossed through Canada and then over the continental United States, reportedly gathering key intelligence about U.S. military sites, before it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

‘This was under your watch. Were you in the direct chain of command in regards to the decision not to shoot the balloon down until after it had left American airspace?’ Rounds demanded. 

Dalton admitted she was one of the officials advising Austin, adding that ‘the best military advice to not shoot down over U.S. territory came from our U.S. senior military officials.’ 

Noting that at the time Dalton’s nomination to hold her current role passed the same committee in 2022, she was ‘not controversial,’ Rounds said that since then, ‘two items have happened that now call into question that confidence.’ 

Regarding the spy balloon, Rounds warned, ‘This is an area you will be challenged on this particular one because it’s a question of judgment and recommendations being made. I think that between now and the time that a vote is held on your nomination, I think you’ve got some work to do to regain the confidence of a lot of the members on this committee.’ 

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., also pressed Dalton on when she first was made aware of the spy balloon. 

Dalton testified she first heard of the balloon on Jan. 27, 2023, the same day as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. 

‘My initial advice was that we absolutely needed to understand what capabilities were on the PRC high altitude balloon. NORAD NORTHCOM was tracking it and characterizing it, but we needed to get to the bottom of what it was doing, what its intentions were,’ she said. 

Cramer pressed Dalton on why it was not ‘instinctive’ for her to ever initiate an internal review of all the policies and processes, including the siloing of various intelligence agencies, in the aftermath of the incident, adding that it took the Senate Armed Service Committee to do so. 

‘Did it ever occur to you, ‘Gee, this is something we should maybe dig into a little bit and see where our failings are’?’ Cramer posed. 

After insisting the department had incorporated the ‘lessons learned’ in the development of the homeland defense policy guidance over the last year that was signed by Austin in December, Dalton was again grilled on what she would have done differently in the event of the crisis itself. 

‘We as a community could have had better national level integration at the local level — what I saw in the early days of the PRC HAB was that we were very well wired for responding to hurricanes, to wildfires, and that is the day-to-day existence for defense supported civil authorities, but it hadn’t been since World War II that we had an incursion over U.S. territory from a foreign adversary, and so getting that national to federal to state and local integration happened, but I think in real time we could have been more expeditious about it, and we will do so going forward,’ she said. 

‘It’s OK to have been wrong,’ Cramer told Dalton. ‘A correction is what we’re looking for.’ 

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE – Former President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump on Tuesday said she believes skeptical GOP voters will coalesce around the former president in November and said former Ambassador Nikki Haley’s path to the nomination is essentially ‘impossible.’

‘I think so I don’t see any world in which someone who loves this country, who wants to see this country succeed again, who wants to see people basically return to a time when they could achieve their American dream, I don’t see any of those people ever voting for Joe Biden,’ Trump told Fox News Digital in New Hampshire Tuesday when asked if she thinks Republicans who didn’t support Trump in the primary will support him in November.

‘We know, of any candidate who has been running in this election for president of the United States, there is only one who has done it successfully, It’s Donald Trump and maybe you don’t like every tweet, maybe you don’t like his personality at times, but he kept us safe,’ Trump continued. ‘He kept us strong. He made people prosperous. He really reinvigorated the American spirit and, man, do we need that now more than ever. I don’t see anyone who really considers himself someone who loves this country ever voting for Joe Biden.’

Lara Trump spoke to Fox News Digital hours before Trump’s record third New Hampshire primary victory and talked about Haley’s chances of winning in South Carolina next month.

‘Polling for Nikki Haley does not indicate that she would likely win her home state,’ Trump said. ‘I think you look at New Hampshire, you have Nevada coming up as well, she’s not even registered right now for the caucuses there. That’s the only way you actually earn delegates from the votes there.’ 

‘So I think the path to victory seems small, if not negligible and impossible for her at this point. Politically, I don’t know that it would be the greatest move for her to stay in this election.’

Trump added, ‘The reality is we have to target our enemy. The enemy is Joe Biden. We have to take back the White House. We want to take back the Senate. We want more folks in the House from the Republican side of the aisle because we really do have a country to save at this point. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that if Joe Biden wins this election in 2024, I don’t believe we will have the same country after another term of Joe Biden as president that we started with when Donald Trump left office.’

If disgruntled Republicans do unite behind former President Trump in November, Lara Trump told Fox News Digital that Biden is handing a victory to Republicans by doing a ‘masterful’ job campaigning for them with his unpopular policies. 

‘That’s not to say that we don’t have our work cut out for us,’ Trump said. ‘We know that we deal majorly with a hostile mainstream media who does not like Donald Trump, certainly, and is always in the pocket of the liberals, who are basically the marketing arm for the Democrat Party at this point. 

‘We’re up against a lot and we take nothing for granted so I do think we’re going to have to work. But man, when it comes to Joe Biden, he certainly has served it up to us on a silver platter.’