A group of House GOP lawmakers is urging the Trump administration not to give New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a federal security clearance.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., is leading seven fellow House Freedom Caucus members in writing a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, accusing Mamdani of supporting ‘violent movements’ and having ‘radical’ ties that they claim make him unfit for classified federal settings.

‘DHS must deny Zohran Mamdani a security clearance. The federal government has a constitutional duty to defend the nation against threats both foreign and domestic,’ the letter said.

‘Mamdani’s record of radical ties, anti-American rhetoric, and support for violent movements makes him unfit. Granting him access to classified information would be reckless and would endanger NYPD officers and federal agents.’

The letter noted that Mamdani co-founded a chapter of Students for Justice In Palestine at Bowdoin College when he was a student there, and it accused the group of praising Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel.

‘He has blamed the FBI for radicalizing al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, undermining counterterrorism efforts. He has appeared alongside clerics who prayed for the annihilation of Israel’s supporters and praised Hamas fighters,’ the letter said.

The GOP lawmakers said granting Mamdani a security clearance could ’empower agitators, escalate threats, and put more of these brave agents’ lives in danger.’

‘His hostility toward immigration enforcement would make federal coordination unsafe and undermine national security,’ they said.

The mayor of New York City, while not a federal official, does traditionally get a security clearance in order to get briefed on possible terror threats and other national security matters affecting the largest city in the U.S.

The letter comes on the same day that Mamdani is in Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump, a fellow New Yorker, as an introduction after he won his election earlier this month.

The New York City mayor-elect has sought to moderate his views, at least publicly, since the waning weeks of his campaign.

He has pledged to be a mayor for all residents despite critics raising concerns about his hostile rhetoric toward Israel and lackluster pushback on questions of whether he supports Hamas.

Fox News Digital reached out to both Mamdani’s transition team and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment.

The FBI came to the conclusion that Butler, Pennsylvania, would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks acted alone — after a massive team doggedly pursued interviews with thousands of foreign and domestic individuals as part of an unprecedented global investigation into the 2024 shooting of President Donald Trump, the bureau told Fox News Digital as part of a lengthy, behind-the-curtain rundown of the probe.

FBI Director Kash Patel, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and a senior official with direct involvement in the Butler, Pennsylvania, investigation sat down for an unprecedented interview with Fox News Digital for more than an hour Thursday afternoon at FBI headquarters.

Patel told Fox News Digital that the investigation was a ‘Day One priority’ for the bureau.

‘Dan and I have been on this since we got here eight months ago. We not only had to maintain the chain of command to President Trump, but we had to remind the world that President Trump was the victim — one of the four victims — on that day,’ Patel said. ‘There are victims’ rights rules that apply to him, and they don’t get erased because he is the president.’

‘We fully briefed the president, as a victim of this case, at the White House, providing him with all of the details of our investigation, and the president was satisfied with the results and where we left it,’ he said.

Patel, Bongino and the senior official, who has requested anonymity due to his sensitive work, shared new details of the monthslong investigation in an effort to provide maximum transparency to the American people amid recent reports that have suggested several theories, which Patel, Bongino and the official debunked.

‘We have reviewed this case over and over — looked into every nugget. We have spoken to the families, the president — there is no cover-up here,’ Bongino told Fox News Digital. ‘There is no motive for it, there is no reason for it.’

Patel referenced former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony to Congress in 2024 as a potential reason for unfounded theories to surface.

‘My predecessor went to Congress and said he didn’t know if it was a bullet that hit President Trump in the head. The whole world knew it was a bullet,’ Patel told Fox News Digital. ‘For the number one law enforcement officer to say that — it causes a massive disbelief in the institution that Dan and I are now running.’

‘But that is the difference between then and now,’ he said.

The case currently sits in a ‘pending, inactive’ status, but the official called the investigation ‘one of the largest mobilizations of FBI resources in history that, frankly, continued to this day.’

‘If we get a credible lead, we’ll continue to investigate,’ the official said. ‘The director has been very clear about leaving no stone left unturned, and that is what we are committed to.’

On July 13, 2024, Crooks, age 20, opened fire at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The president was shot, with the bullet piercing the upper part of his right ear. 

The president ducked to the ground and was surrounded by Secret Service agents who evacuated him from the scene. 

Three spectators were hit by gunfire, and one person, a firefighter and father, Corey Comperatore was killed.

The FBI took over the investigation hours after the shooting, and began investigating it as an assassination attempt.

‘Four hundred and eighty-five FBI employees have been involved in some way, shape or form in this investigation,’ the official told Fox News Digital.

‘The FBI around the world has conducted more than 1,000 interviews connected to this case,’ the official continued. ‘We’ve reviewed 2,000 tips that were submitted. We’ve served and executed more than 10 search warrants and 100 subpoenas. In that, we specifically analyzed 13 electronic devices that were associated with Crooks and his family members from his home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.’ 

The official said the FBI examined ’35 accounts linked to Crooks, including social media, bank and other online accounts.’

‘The FBI has been able to access all of the accounts,’ the official said. ‘There has been reporting to inappropriately and incorrectly state that there was encryption that the FBI was not able to get into — that is not true. We have been able to get into every single account.’

The official said that Crooks maintained foreign-based email accounts from Germany and Belgium.

‘The FBI was able to fully access those accounts within days of the attack,’ the official said. ‘Additionally, the FBI engaged with foreign partners who also provided all of the content of those email accounts.’

‘We can say with confidence that there is no communication, there are no emails that Crooks had that we have not been able to access,’ the official said.

‘The home was completely swept. Every device in the home was collected and accessed fully,’ Patel said. ‘Reports say that we didn’t get into certain devices? That’s false. We got into all of the devices.’

The FBI conducted a manual review of more than 500,000 individual electronic files and ‘engaged with a number of nations around the world to ensure that all leads were covered.’

‘When there was a lead about an overseas connection — the two instances where we became aware of the foreign accounts — the FBI reached out to foreign governments,’ the official explained.

‘Very quickly, they provided the full contents of the accounts,’ the official said, adding that the FBI had deployed ‘such an extraordinary overseas effort that even people not in Crooks’ age range were interviewed and done completely and thoroughly.’

‘There is no foreign connection in this case,’ the official stressed. ‘There is no individual that is outside U.S. borders or inside U.S. borders that had any role in directing him, inspiring him or assisting him in any way — and that includes foreign governments.’

The official added: ‘There is no information, no evidence anywhere in this investigation, that shows there was any foreign individual or foreign government or foreign organization tied to Thomas Crooks.’

‘We would have cracked the biggest investigation in human history — a foreign-directed plot,’ Bongino said. ‘Why would we withhold that? But we can only follow the facts, and they are just not there.’

Reports have surfaced questioning Crooks’ alleged relationship with Antifa-linked individual William Tepes. 

The FBI told Fox News Digital that there was never any direct communication between Crooks and Tepes.

‘Crooks posted on YouTube. Tepes is a Norwegian, nordic resistance member. He simply responded to content Crooks posted,’ Patel said, pointing to a comment Tepes made on a 2020-era video posted on the video-sharing platform by Crooks.

As for his online presence, Bongino said previous FBI leadership initially downplayed his digital footprint.

‘The degree of his digital footprint was not messaged correctly at all by prior leadership,’ Bongino said.

The official told Fox News Digital that Crooks’ online activity largely took place in 2019 and 2020, when Crooks was just 16 years-old — nearly five years before the attack.

‘He called our Republicans and Democrats. He went as far as saying, ‘In my opinion, the only way to fight the government is with terrorism-style attacks.’ I won’t try to get into his brain,’ the official said. ‘But there is a limited record of him making political statements and advocating for political violence in 2019 and 2020.’

The official detailed some of Crooks’ online behavior leading up to the attack, including on July 6, 2024, when he used his email account to register to attend the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on the Trump campaign website. Crooks also searched ‘how far was Oswald from Kennedy?’

The official also said Crooks searched for what the weather would be in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the day of the attack and where the podium would be, and he looked up directions from his home to the Butler Farm Show grounds and directions from the grounds to the closest hospital.

‘But Crooks left no manifesto. He had no seepage of any kind. He didn’t give any indication anywhere that he was going to do this or why he did this,’ the official said. ‘There are many instances in notable assassinations that they do want folks to know why they did it, but we don’t know that here, because Thomas did not leave any of those artifacts.’

‘The rage, the anger, I totally get it. I’m with you. [Trump] is a friend of ours, he was shot in the head on live television — we want an explanation, too,’ Bongino said. ‘Where is the manifesto? The answer is — it doesn’t exist.’

Reports have suggested Crooks had some interest in the ‘furry’ anthropomorphic community online.

But Patel told Fox News Digital that evidence obtained through the FBI’s investigation revealed ‘no evidence’ of involvement in that community.

‘He went on a website, called Deviant.com, and that website contains pornographic material — animated pornographic material related to the furry community — a whole host of things Americans would never look at,’ Patel said, noting FBI evidence that Crooks displayed an interest in ‘animated female muscle-building erotica.’ 

‘Crooks was on that website and looked at images related to women who work out … a lot. That was his interest, and so we are sharing this with you to show that just because he was on a website that has a voluminous amount of terrible information on it, there is no investigative fact to back up a connection between Thomas Crooks and a portion of the website that had the ‘furry’ on it.’

Patel said questions are also being raised as to why the FBI did not stop the assassination attempt before it happened. 

‘The FBI can only investigate based on a lawful predicate to open,’ Patel said. ‘Does the American public really want the FBI scouring social media and content everywhere without a lawful predicate and trampling over First Amendment rights?’

Patel said that if someone had called in a lead, ‘immediately there would be action.’

‘But no one did that,’ Patel said. ‘No one.’

‘People are asking why we didn’t act on his posts on certain sites. No one in law enforcement knew who he was. No one referred him to law enforcement, and we do not monitor every single American’s use of YouTube and Google and Twitter and Facebook,’ Patel said. ‘Because then people come back and say to us: ‘Why are you on our First Amendment rights?’’

As for the weapon used to shoot the president, Crooks used a 223 rifle. Crooks’ father controlled access to the gun vault and the gun.

The weapon was used to fire eight rounds in the vicinity of the president and the stage. The official told Fox News Digital that there were 22 additional unfired rounds in the weapon and a number of unused magazines that were located in his vehicle on a ballistic vest.

The officials all shot down any theories of a potential second shooter, noting that the individual near the water tower around the site was a Pennsylvania State Police officer.

‘There were no phantom rounds. Every single round was accounted for,’ the official said.

Bongino stressed that ‘it is the FBI’s conclusion that Crooks acted alone.’

‘It is our conclusion, and it is likely, given politically motivated assassination attempts in history,’ Bongino said. ‘These are historical incidents that have already happened — Arthur Bremer; (Squeaky) Fromme; Sara Jane Moore; John Hinkley — those names should all ring a bell.’

He added, ‘We’re not saying Crooks didn’t deal with anyone ever — we are just saying that the people he dealt with had no role in inspiring, motivating or directing this attack.’

Meanwhile, the FBI discovered an undetonated explosive device inside Crooks’ vehicle.

‘The device had a receiver on it which would receive a message from a transmitter in order to detonate,’ the official explained. ‘The receiver was positioned in the off position. Had it been positioned in the on position, and if it activated from the triggering device on the person, our assessment is that it would have activated. But the position was in the off position.’

Patel told Fox News Digital that he ‘recreated what it would have looked like if the explosive device was in the on position.’

‘We walked members of Congress through a visual of what would have happened,’ Patel said. 

‘Because it seems so unlikely you would build a device and forget to turn it on — but he did,’ Bongino said. ‘That’s how it was found. Was it just stupidity?’

As for the crime scene in general, Patel, Bongino and the official explained that the FBI controlled the crime scene from July 14, 2024, at midnight until July 18, 2024. 

‘We do not hold the crime scene forever. We have to give it back — that is standard operating procedure,’ Bongino said.

Crooks’ body was removed from the roof by the Pennsylvania state coroner. In coordination with State Police, the FBI then ‘cleaned the roof with water, as we were going to release the scene.’

‘We had onlookers and souvenir hunters — the FBI is not going to turn over a blood-stained roof. AGR was a functioning business,’ the official said. ‘Our standard operating procedure is to acquire services to clean the roof. The decision was made to do that, but only after all evidence on the roof was collected, including the firearm, shell casings, biological samples left behind, photos, blood.’

The official said an autopsy of Crooks was conducted the next day, and an FBI and Pennsylvania State Trooper sat in on the autopsy.

‘Before the body was released to the family, which is protocol in every crime incident ever, the FBI collected DNA — fingernails, hair samples, and blood from Crooks, that remains in FBI evidence to this day,’ the official said. ‘After those collections were made, our examination of the body was done and completed. At that point, it was turned over to the family for burial and for plans they had.’ 

The official added: ‘They chose to cremate.’

‘The FBI did not make the decision to cremate the body,’ Bongino said. ‘The family did. It was their son. The FBI had nothing to do with this decision at all.’

Meanwhile, Patel addressed criticisms from members of Congress who claim he has not turned over documents pertaining to the probe.

‘Congress is accusing us of not turning over all of this stuff — but all of this stuff doesn’t exist. It is an empty narrative they’re firing into a vacuum,’ Patel said. ‘The very limited information we have not turned over is respective to victims’ rights. There isn’t some trove of documents that we haven’t sent over there.’ 

Patel said the FBI has ‘fully debriefed the lawmakers.’ 

‘We’ve even had members of Congress come to Quantico in our lab facility there and walk them through the exact investigative steps, the video and audio recordings, the repercussions of the explosion that did not occur that day and how that would have impacted the people that were attending the rally, and so they have been given a full inside view of what we did on those days,’ Patel said. ‘We gave them all of the material we are legally able to give them.’ 

He added: ‘They have seen video recordings. We’ve literally shown them and delivered them the audio and video recordings — the totality of what we possess. They have that. They have our investigative information. There is nothing more for us to turn over. We don’t have anything else in our holdings.’

The FBI told Fox News Digital that the bureau has turned in more than 1,375 pages to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Permanent Select Committee on investigations. Those documents include FBI interviews — or 302s — with U.S. Secret Service and state and local police, state and local lab reports, including ballistics, crime scene photos, videos and more.

The total pages produced to the Senate numbered more than 2,750. 

‘Come put out 3,000 documents to Congress during his tenure. Wray, in his seven or eight years put out 13,000,’ Patel said. ‘We, in eight months, have put out over 40,000 documents to Congress — to include this, Crossfire Hurricane, Arctic Frost and more.’

‘But there are investigations ongoing surrounding that, so we are working with Congress, not only for constitutional oversight and reform in legislation, but we’re working on the accountability piece, and to do that, we have to run our investigations. And we’re not done.’

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Friday statement to Fox News Digital, ‘Under Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino’s leadership, the FBI is doing tremendous work to investigate the horrific attempted assassination of President Trump that resulted in the heartbreaking murder of Corey Comperatore. We will help prevent what happened in Butler from ever happening again.’

The sit-down interview with Fox News Digital lasted for more than an hour, as Patel, Bongino and the senior official sought to provide as much information as possible on the probe and to debunk the recent public criticism they have faced. 

‘We don’t blame people for asking questions,’ Bongino said. ‘The president, the candidate at the time, was shot in the head on live TV. Our position is — please — ask away.’

Bongino added: ‘We are very confident in the outcomes of this investigation. We have pulled on every threat. We are absolutely confident, and if information surfaces, please, immediately get it over to us for instant action.’

‘I would ask the public: What motivation would Kash Patel and Dan Bongino possibly have to hide from their personal friend — not just their boss — the president — information about a crime where he was the victim?’ Bongino asked. ‘I don’t understand what the motivation would be.’

But Bongino quoted a line from the movie ‘A Few Good Men.’

‘No one is interested in guilt or innocence, they’re interested in someone to blame,’ Bongino quoted. ‘The public is pissed off. We get it. We sympathize with you. It couldn’t have just been this guy — it couldn’t have just been this guy — it is. There is no reason I would tell you otherwise.’

‘As to why people keep coming back to this on social media, the reality is, many people make a lot of money on social media pushing conspiracy theories for clicks,’ Patel said. ‘That is a fact.’

As for Trump, he told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade Friday that he has ‘confidence in Kash, a lot of confidence, and the DOJ, and they are giving me reports, and their reports are seeming to balance out, so I have confidence in these people.’ 

‘I wasn’t confident with Christopher Wray, but this group, it is a different group,’ Trump said. ‘It’s Kash, as opposed to Christopher Wray, and I have confidence in Kash.’ 

Congress is once again on the edge of considering a bone-crushing sanctions package against Russia, but procedural disagreements threaten to derail the process.

Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have been working on a sanctions package that would hit Russia and its energy trade partners where it hurts in a bid to cripple the Kremlin’s war machine.

Movement on their legislation, which has over 80 co-sponsors in the upper chamber, has lurched and stalled over the last several months as President Donald Trump and his administration work to hammer out a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine to see an end to the war.

Now, the president seems ready to get the package through Congress.

Graham said that, over a round of golf last weekend, Trump told Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., ‘Move the bill.’

‘I think it’s very important we not screw this up,’ Graham said. ‘If you want [Russian President Vladimir] Putin at the table, there will be no successful 28-point plan or 12-point plan unless Putin believes that we’re going to continue to support Ukraine militarily and that we’re going to come after people who buy cheap Russian oil.

‘It’s important that the Congress pass this bill to give leverage to the president as he tries to negotiate with Putin.’

While the changes to the bill still remain under wraps, a White House official told Fox News Digital that both Congress and the White House are working together to ensure the legislation advances, ‘The President’s foreign policy objectives and authorities.’ 

‘The Constitution vests the president with the authority to conduct diplomacy with foreign nations,’ the official said. The current bipartisan sanctions legislation provides new sanctions authorities for the president to conduct foreign diplomacy.’

And Despite Graham and Blumenthal having worked on the bill together in the Senate for months, Thune believed it may be better if a sanctions package comes from the House.

He said that what is more likely to happen is that the House originates the legislation because it’s a revenue measure, which typically starts in the lower chamber.

‘We had one available to us in the Senate. We could do it here,’ Thune said. ‘But I think, too, if you want to expedite movement in terms of getting it on the president’s desk, it’s probably quicker if it comes out of the House, comes over to us, to take it up and process it on the floor.’

But there may be an issue with the House starting the process.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital that, based on conversations with Thune, he understood that the legislation would originate in the Senate and then be shipped to the House. It was ‘news’ to him when Thune made the case that the House should be at the start of the legislative process.

He warned that, in the House, it would be ‘a much more laborious, lengthy process,’ and that he was of the notion that the Senate would send its bipartisan package to them, which would make it easier to pass.

‘The reason is because it’s a faster track to get it done,’ Johnson said. ‘If it originates in the House, then it goes to seven different committees of jurisdiction, which, as you know, takes a long time to process. And even if I can convince some of the chairmen to waive jurisdiction, not all of them will.’

But there are procedural hurdles that could bog down the process in the Senate, too.

So far, the original version of the bill has sat in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs since April. It would have to be considered in committee, then discharged and then put on the floor — and at any point could be blocked along the way.

Still, there is hope that movement on the bill will come to fruition. And both Graham and Blumenthal have been tweaking the legislation in the background to best meet the White House’s desires.

Blumenthal told Fox News Digital after a recent meeting with Graham that the bill was largely the same but wouldn’t get into specifics on what the changes were.

He noted that Trump’s move to sanction two major Russian oil companies, which took effect Friday, was a good start.

‘I think we’re waiting to finalize the bill and see what the president thinks about it,’ Blumenthal said. ‘And, obviously, he’s imposed sanctions already on India, on two major Russian oil companies, so he’s in the right frame of mind.’

Lawyers for John Bolton and the Trump administration appeared in federal court in Maryland Friday to discuss next steps in the criminal case for Trump’s former national security adviser, who was indicted last month on charges of mishandling classified and sensitive materials.

Bolton was indicted last month on 18 criminal charges stemming from his alleged retention and transmission of classified and sensitive materials during Trump’s first term, including national defense information.

Authorities have accused him of sending more than 1,000 ‘diary-like’ updates to his wife and daughter between 2018 and 2019 via emails and texts, including classified information from intelligence briefings and meetings with foreign officials. 

The pre-trial hearing in Bolton’s case on Friday was largely a procedural one, centered on next steps for both parties to review the breadth of discovery materials Bolton is accused of illegally retaining and transmitting.

If nothing else, it underscored the fact that Bolton’s trial is unlikely to take place for quite some time. The deadlines that both parties agreed to will put discovery in the case well into 2026, with a status conference in the case scheduled for October of next year. A trial date has not yet been set.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang seemed reluctant to accept the government’s lengthy proposed timeline for the document review process to take place, noting the government’s obligations under the Speedy Trials Act, which sets time limits for federal criminal trials. 

Seven months ‘is a very long time,’ Chuang told Thomas Sullivan, the lead prosecutor for the Justice Department, referring to the proposed May 22, 2026, date to produce discovery.

‘How many documents are in play here? Frankly, most of this should have been done before the indictment,’ Chuang noted. ‘Even assuming that couldn’t be completed, I still can’t understand why it would take seven months.’

In response, prosecutors noted that they still need to sort through some 1,000 pages of single-space documents obtained from Bolton’s home, and reiterated they have set ‘aggressive deadlines’ for the intelligence community to review the documents.

Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in response that there are as many as three electronic devices that they haven’t ‘even started the process’ of reviewing, and which all must be reviewed by the filter team. 

Chuang ultimately agreed to grant a modified review schedule for the documents in question. Parties were ordered to submit by January 12 the first tranche of 10 documents prosecutors have described as being at the ‘heart’ of Bolton’s indictment.

They will also submit a joint status report detailing for the court where they are in the discovery process, and proposing the next interim deadline and the scope of materials that will be reviewed before then. 

The hearing comes as Bolton has attempted to cast his criminal case as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to go after his perceived political foes, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Still, the case against Bolton differs significantly. 

Unlike those cases, Bolton’s investigation into his handling of classified materials moved forward in part during the Biden administration, and career prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office signed off on the charges — a contrast to the cases against Comey and James, which were brought by Trump’s former attorney, Lindsey Halligan.

Bolton, who pleaded not guilty to all charges last month, was ordered released by a magistrate judge on the condition that he remain in the continental United States and surrender his passport.

In a statement released after his indictment, Bolton said, ‘I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.’

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is signaling openness to making it harder for House lawmakers to punish each other via a censure resolution.

The congressional leader sat down for an interview with Fox News Digital on Friday, the first week the House returned since the beginning of the 43-day government shutdown began on Oct. 1.

But the five-day legislative week was marked by volatile politics, with three separate lawmakers forcing votes on rebuking one of their colleagues — out of five total threats to do so.

‘There is a large groundswell of bottom up consternation about that. The members are so frustrated by what this has become — and I mean across the Republican conference, and I think on the Democrat side as well,’ Johnson said. ‘I’ve told everybody I’m open to those discussions, because I’m more frustrated than anyone about how this is devolved. I think we’ve got to protect the institution.’

Johnson said those talks have focused specifically on raising the threshold it takes to push a censure. 

Currently, any one lawmaker can introduce a censure resolution against another. Both Republicans and Democrats have also wielded a mechanism this week known as a ‘privileged resolution’ to force an immediate vote on rebuking a colleague.

Johnson said there’s ‘a lot of ideas’ being floated on changing the system.

‘I’ve had members from across the conference bringing me their thoughts and ideas on that, and we’ll be going through that in a deliberative fashion to figure out what makes the most sense,’ he said.

The speaker did not directly commit to a House-wide vote on legislation to change the rule on censure, but he said, ‘I think most of the discussion thus far, again this is coming from members, is that we should raise the threshold so that it can’t just be a one-off individual quest by someone. You’ve got to have some agreement by some small group of members to do it.’

‘That would probably make it a more meaningful and useful tool, and not one that’s abused,’ Johnson said. ‘We don’t have consensus around any particular idea, but it is something that the vast majority of the members of the body are talking about right now.’

He also pushed back on media reports that suggested he wanted to change rules around discharge petitions, another mechanism rank-and-file lawmakers can use to force their will on House leaders.

Johnson said it was not something he was even considering at the moment.

A discharge petition allows lawmakers to initiate a vote on a measure despite leadership’s objections, provided that petition has support from a majority of the House.

It was most recently used successfully by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on a bill forcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Johnson ended up voting for the bill along with all but one House lawmaker, despite airing concerns about its language possibly not doing enough to protect the privacy of Epstein’s victims and other innocent people whose names may be caught up in the process.

He told Fox News Digital, however, that he is not looking at making changes to that process.

‘Somebody quoted me as saying, ‘I’m going to raise the threshold for discharges’, but that hasn’t even been part of the discussion and not something that I’ve anticipated,’ Johnson said. ‘This discussion has been solely focused on the censure, because it’s so commonly used now.’

Censures are traditionally a rare rebuke reserved for the most egregious instances of violating House decorum. They’ve been used more and more frequently, however, in today’s increasingly tense political environment.

The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah is rebuilding its military arsenal on Israel’s northern border, as experts warn that another war between the two sides could be on the horizon. The latest developments come a year after the U.S. helped broker a ceasefire between the parties.

On Wednesday, IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah had engaged ‘in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.’ Shoshani also released a video showing the rearming, claiming the terror group was ‘operating to reestablish its assets in the village of Beit Lif.’ 

Critics argue that the U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, is not fulfilling its mandate to disarm the terror group and the Lebanese Armed Forces are moving too slowly, which has led to continued Israeli actions against the terrorists. The IDF has been launching near-daily strikes against the group’s infrastructure and operatives inside Lebanon. 

Sarit Zehavi, a leading Israeli security expert on Hezbollah from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital that Hezbollah does not currently ‘have the capability to carry out an October invasion. They had it prior to Oct. 7, 2023. They can send in a few terrorists. I want to believe it will take a few years to get those capabilities back.’

Fox News Digital exclusively reported last year on Hezbollah’s war plan to invade northern Israel and carry out a scorched-earth campaign against the Jewish state.

A day after the Iran-backed Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and massacred over 1,200 people, Hezbollah launched missile attacks against Israel.

Zehavi said, ‘Both the IDF and Hezbollah are very active. The IDF is very active to stop the rehabilitation of Hezbollah and Hezbollah is very active in rebuilding. Hezbollah learned lessons. It has been more problematic to smuggle weapons to Lebanon from Syria. It is happening. But the Syrians intercepted weapons.’

She noted that the ‘Syrian regime is willing to fight Hezbollah to fight weapons smuggling. Hezbollah is relying more on manufacturing rockets.’

Zehavi, who lives in northern Israel, said that ‘almost half of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah are south of the Litani river. We see a lot of investment from Hezbollah in drones, short-range rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles.’

On Tuesday in Germany, prosecutors started a trial against an alleged Hezbollah member running ‘an extensive drone program for some time.’

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said the suspected Hezbollah operative Fadel Z joined Hezbollah more than 10 years ago and worked as a ‘foreign operator’ for the group’s drone program in 2022 in Spain and Germany.

Zehavi said it suffered a defeat of its leadership via the Mossad pager attack on its commanders. However, she added, ‘Iran immediately provided oxygen to Hezbollah for treatment to help revive Hezbollah.’

She outlined Israel’s main defense strategy against Hezbollah. First, the IDF has positions in Syria and Lebanon. ‘We cannot have civilians on the front line. The IDF is on top of hills in Israel and Lebanon and can see everything and can respond quickly to terrorist activities. This means when an Israeli woman opens her window and used to see a Hezbollah flag, she now sees an Israeli flag. This gives her a sense of security. This was not present before Oct. 7.

She estimates Hezbollah has 50,000 terrorists and 50,000 reservists. ‘We killed a few thousand terrorists.’

The IDF made dramatic advances in eradicating Hezbollah’s missile arsenal. ‘We degraded 80%’ of the rockets, Zehavi said, noting the elimination of sizable numbers of Hezbollah’s long-range and highly accurate missiles.

Edy Cohen, a Lebanese-born Israeli scholar of Hezbollah, said, ‘There is no lack of arms for Hezbollah in Beirut and Lebanon. Lately, we saw many reports that Hezbollah received arms from Syria and Iran is trying to send arms by civilian Iranian airplanes.’

He said there is enormous pressure on Hezbollah and every week Israel is killing Hezbollah operative. The Shiite community in Lebanon wants Hezbollah to retaliate against Israel, said Cohen, adding, ‘For the Shiite community Hezbollah is the state.’

Cohen said the IDF is gathering intelligence information about Hezbollah’s arsenal and attacking almost every day its leaders and operatives.

He warned that because ‘Hezbollah said it will not disarm its militia … the big war will come.’

Fox News Digital reported in early November that Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, who also serves as envoy to Syria, said that Lebanon is a ‘failed state,’ because of its ‘paralyzed government.’

He also noted that Hezbollah retains 40,000 fighters and between 15,000 and 20,000 rockets and missiles, noting the terror group pays its militia $2,200 per month, whereas the Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers earn $275 a month and have inferior equipment as well.

The chair of the House Republican campaign arm says the Democrats’ sweeping victories in this month’s 2025 elections are a ‘wake-up call’ for GOP voters.

And Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who’s chairing the National Republican Congressional Committee for a second straight election cycle, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital that he wants President Donald Trump ‘out there on the trail’ in next year’s midterm elections, when the party defends its razor-thin House majority.

Democrats won the only two races for governor this year, in New Jersey and Virginia, by double digits, and also scored big wins in ballot box showdowns in battlegrounds Georgia and Pennsylvania and left-tilting New York City and California.

Plenty of Republicans have discounted the Democrats’ high-profile victories, since they mostly occurred in blue-leaning states, since they mostly occurred in blue-leaning states.

Hudson noted the top elections took place in ‘Democrat states,’ but added, ‘I think our big takeaway as Republicans is the Democrats were energized. They turned out at record levels. Republicans turned out in normal levels.’

‘I think there’s a wake-up call there to conservatives and Republicans who are happy with the direction of the country. They’re glad President Trump’s back in the White House. But if they want to keep this momentum going, they’ve got to show up and vote,’ he emphasized.

Many of Trump’s MAGA supporters are considered low-propensity voters, who head to the polls only when Trump is on the ballot. But Trump won’t be on the ballot in the 2026 midterms.

Hudson, who noted that ‘House Republicans are very closely aligned with President Trump, and we’re supporting his agenda,’ said that ‘we want him out there on the trail, campaigning with our candidates. I think he brings a lot of energy.’

Pointing to ‘a lot of folks who don’t vote when he’s not on the ballot,’ Hudson said, ‘I don’t need all of them to show up, but I need some of them. And so having President Trump out there will be a big benefit for us.’

Those requests for the MAGA motivator are already coming in to the president’s political team.

Matt Van Epps, the Republican nominee in next month’s special congressional election for a vacant GOP-held House seat in Tennessee, has asked for Trump to campaign in person with him ahead of the Dec. 2 election.

Democrats were laser-focused on affordability on the 2025 campaign trail.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said his party’s candidates met ‘voters at the kitchen table. . . . From New Jersey and Virginia and New York, to Georgia and beyond, Democrats ran campaigns relentlessly focused on costs and affordability.’

And Martin emphasized the 2025 elections were a preview of things to come in next year’s midterms.

‘In ‘26, we’ll do it again. We’ll run a National Coordinated Campaign to win races up and down the ballot to provide a check on the out-of-control Trump administration and its Republican rubber stamps,’ he argued.

Hudson, pointing to former President Joe Biden, said ‘there are challenges out there with the economy, because Biden broke it, and House Republicans, working with President Trump, are going to fix it, and we’re working very hard to do that. ‘

‘Certainly, we could always improve the way we communicate with our voters about it,’ he added. ‘But we are laser focused on the issues that matter to them. You know, it’s the cost of things, it’s the security in their neighborhood, it’s a secure border. We are very focused on that, and we’ve delivered a lot of things that are going to make their lives better.’

And looking ahead to next year, he added, ‘come tax season, a lot of families are going to be really happy to see they’ve got a lot more take-home pay, and that’s because of Donald Trump and House Republicans.’

Hudson, in step with fellow Republicans, aimed to link Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a socialist who pushed a far-left platform on the campaign trail this year, to House Democrats who may face challenging re-elections next year.

‘The entire Democrat Party has shifted to the left. This is Mamdani’s party now,’ Hudson charged. ‘And every single House Democrat needs to answer for his policies, and they need to let their constituents know, do they stand with Mamdani or not?’

The power in power, which nowadays is clearly the Republicans, traditionally faces political headwinds in the midterm elections.

And Hudson was interviewed as two new national polls indicated Democrats with the upper hand in the 2026 battle for the House majority.

But Hudson said: ‘The only number I’m concerned about is three. We have three Republicans in seats Kamala Harris carried.’

And he highlighted that Democrats have ‘thirteen sitting in seats Donald Trump won. They’ve got 21 more sitting in seats that Donald Trump barely lost. So there, there are only a few seats up for grabs this time, most of them are Democrat seats.’