Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has time and again pushed to rein in President Donald Trump’s war authorities, but he has rarely gone to the same lengths for his own party’s presidents.

Kaine’s argument has stayed fairly consistent over the years that Congress should reassert its constitutional authority and decision-making in the run-up to a military conflict. And he has either led or joined several pushes over Trump’s non-consecutive terms in office to corral his war powers.

But he never pulled the same kind of move under former Presidents Barack Obama or Joe Biden, causing Republicans to question whether his desires are politically motivated or genuine.

There was not a single war powers resolution filed in the Senate during Obama’s time in office, but Kaine did push back on his expansive use of drones in the Middle East.

‘I have been as consistent as I can be, because I really got in the way of President Obama when he wanted to use military action in Syria without congressional authorization,’ Kaine said. ‘And I told him, you know, ‘You’re like my friend. But this is, you know, a basic principle for me.’’

His latest push to curb future military action in Venezuela without congressional approval nearly succeeded in the Senate but ultimately was killed through a rare procedural move coupled with an intense pressure campaign from Trump, his administration and Senate Republican leaders.

Before the first vote, which saw five Republicans peel from their colleagues to advance the resolution, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., contended that Kaine’s latest push ‘does not reassert Congress’ powers.’

‘There are Democrats in this chamber who are using the arrest of Nicolás Maduro not to advance American interests, but to attack President Trump,’ Barrasso said.

And building off Barrasso’s sentiment was a broader argument from several Republicans, and top officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who charged that Kaine’s push was moot given that there were no boots on the ground in Venezuela and that the administration has no future plans for military action.

Republicans who may have been on the verge of supporting Kaine’s push argued that without a plan to beat an almost guaranteed veto from Trump, it was nothing more than a messaging tactic.

‘It’s a messaging exercise, and I think that you’d have more credibility if, at least, you had some elements, like boots on the ground to justify it,’ Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.

‘I mean, if somebody’s serious about getting something done, if you sit down with me and say, ‘I can get the 67 votes, so I have a veto-proof majority, and this is how I’m going to do it,’ that impresses me,’ he continued.

Dating back to Trump’s first term in office, Kaine has either introduced or supported seven war powers resolutions. Each of those pushes — four of which he led — were all directed toward reining in Trump’s military authority and reasserting Congress’ oversight role.

However, he rejected two of three Republican-led war powers pushes during Biden’s presidency, and notably, voted for the same procedural move used to kill his own Venezuela resolution to nix another from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2024.

Cruz’s war powers resolution sought to curb Biden’s war authority as he pushed for the creation of a temporary pier on the coast of Gaza to deliver aid to the country.

Kaine argued there was a stark difference between humanitarian missions and military action in explaining his vote against Cruz’s resolution.

‘That was because building a humanitarian pier is not hostilities, right? If that’s hostilities, the U.S. going to do tsunami relief is hostilities,’ Kaine said.

‘But you know what we’re doing in Venezuela is hostilities,’ he continued. ‘It’s not building a pier for humanitarian aid. So, that was why I said the definition of hostility should not apply to humanitarian acts, OK? And I firmly believe that, and I’d vote for that under presidents of either party.’

Still, Republicans countered that Kaine’s own war powers resolution was similarly void because there were no active or planned hostilities in the region.

‘It’s pretty clear, war powers only applies if you’ve got boots on the ground,’ Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital. ‘We don’t have boots on the ground in those locations that he’s talking about. And so I’m not sure what the reasoning is, but it appears to me to be unnecessary, and it certainly does not deserve to be privileged.’

Kaine has no intention of relenting on his war powers pursuit while Trump is in office and noted last week that he would file resolution after resolution to take a hammer to the cracks forming in the GOP’s mostly unified resistance against questioning the president’s war authorities.

That decision has not surprised many Republicans.

‘I mean, he’s a Democrat, so he’s going to try and do messaging,’ Tillis said. ‘I understand that — we do the same stuff.’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lashed out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, calling him ‘economically illiterate’ and accusing him of prioritizing elite global gatherings over the state’s mounting fiscal, housing, and homelessness crises.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bessent used the high-profile meeting to deliver a blistering critique of Newsom’s economic record and leadership.

‘I was told he was asked to give a speech on his signature policies, but he’s not speaking because what have his economic policies brought? Outward migration from California, a gigantic budget deficit, the largest homeless population in America, and the poor folks in the Palisades who had their homes burned down,’ the Treasury secretary said.

‘He is here hobnobbing with the global elite while his California citizens are still homeless. Shame on him. He’s too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.’

Bessent also responded to Newsom’s characterization of him as a ‘smug man,’ saying the governor ‘strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken,’ referring to the fictional serial killer from ‘American Psycho’ and the flamboyant doll character from ‘Barbie.’

‘[He] may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris. He’s here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros, and Davos is the perfect place for a man who, when everyone else was on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having $1,000 a night meals at the French Laundry,’ he added. ‘And I’m sure the California people won’t forget that.’

The Cabinet official said the administration would also move to address what he called ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ in the state.

Newsom, who is in Switzerland attending the Davos summit, struck back at the White House on Tuesday by directing his criticism at President Donald Trump and his remarks about acquiring Greenland.

‘America’s allies and business leaders need to understand this: There’s no diplomacy with Donald Trump. Get off your knees and grow a spine,’ he wrote on X.

He told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting later that Trump is a ‘T. rex.’ ‘You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other,’ Newsom said.

‘It’s time to stand tall and firm. Have a backbone. I can’t take this complicity — people rolling over,’ he added. ‘From an American perspective, it’s embarrassing.’

President Donald Trump blasted European nations for not being ‘recognizable’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday. 

‘I don’t want to insult anybody and say I don’t recognize it,’ Trump said during his special address Wednesday. ‘And that’s not in a positive way. That’s in a very negative way. And I love Europe and I want to see Europe do good, but it’s not heading in the right direction.’

‘In recent decades, it became conventional wisdom in Washington and European capitals that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through ever-increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration, and endless foreign imports,’ Trump said. 

Trump then said that issues like energy, trade, immigration and economic growth must be ‘central concerns to anyone who wants to see a strong and united West.’ 

Trump’s comments come as tensions between the U.S. and European allies have escalated, after Trump has renewed his ambitions to acquire Greenland and has threatened to impose tariffs on European allies who don’t back those efforts.

In response to a group of NATO members dispatching troops to Greenland after Trump resurrected his plans to take over the island, the president announced Saturday that those countries would be subjected to a 10% tariff on all goods starting Feb. 1. 

Those tariffs would increase to 25% in June, until a deal is reached for Trump to secure Greenland, according to Trump. 

Trump’s comments in Davos echo previous statements Vice President JD Vance made at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025. There, Vance cautioned that Russia and China don’t pose as great a threat to European nations as the ‘threat from within,’ citing censorship and illegal immigration. 

Additionally, Vance said that European voters didn’t endorse opening the ‘floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.’

European leaders bucked at Vance’s comments, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said shortly after Vance delivered the statement that he perceived the statements as a comparison to ‘conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes.’

Trump previously attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, twice during his first term, according to the State Department’s records. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Lisa Cook’s ascension to the Federal Reserve was historic from the start. 

Appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2022, she became the first Black woman to serve as a Fed board governor, the seven-member panel that sets national interest rates and oversees the banking system.

Now, she stands at the center of another historic moment, as President Donald Trump attempts to fire her — a move the Federal Reserve has never faced in its 112-year history.

Cook’s legal fight traces back to late August, when Trump said he was firing her from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. 

He alleged she misrepresented information tied to a trio of mortgages she obtained before joining the central bank. Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.

She sued Trump in federal court in Washington, D.C., to block her removal. On Sept. 9, a district court judge barred Trump from firing her while the case proceeds, a decision later upheld by a federal appeals court.

Before joining the Fed board, the Oxford alumna and UC Berkeley–trained economist built a career in academia, including faculty roles at Harvard University and Michigan State University.

A graduate of Spelman College, Cook has been described by American economist Barry Eichengreen as ‘part economist and historian,’ with command of several languages, including French, Russian, Spanish and Wolof — a widely spoken language in Senegal.

Cook has also held senior roles in government, serving as a senior economist on then-President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2012. 

Before that, she served as a senior adviser on finance and development in the Treasury Department’s Office of International Affairs. 

She joined the Fed board in May 2022 and was reappointed in September 2023 for a term that runs through January 2038, a tenure now under scrutiny as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments Wednesday. 

The court is expected to issue a ruling by this summer.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to publicly testify on the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela in the Senate next week.

Returning to his old stomping grounds in the Senate has become fairly routine for Rubio over the last few months, particularly as lawmakers have demanded more transparency over the administration’s actions in Venezuela and the Caribbean.

And once again, Rubio will appear on the Hill when the Senate returns from recess next week, sources confirmed to Fox News Digital. He is scheduled to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 28 at 10 a.m.

The hearing before the panel comes after Rubio acted as a key figure to convince a pair of holdouts — Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo. — to flip their votes and kill an attempt by Senate Democrats to rein in President Donald Trump’s war authorities last week.

Their primary concerns were that the administration would put boots on the ground in the region, and that Congress should have a say if that were the case.

Through assurances, guarantees and an agreement to publicly testify on the matter, Rubio appeared to win them over.

Young said at the time that he had to ‘accept that this was a communications exercise,’ but noted that it was a moment used to ‘shine a bright light on Congress’ shortcomings as it relates to war powers in recent history.’

Rubio also wrote to Senate Foreign Relations Chair James Risch, R-Idaho, ahead of the vote last week to spell out that the administration would clue in Congress should any future military action take place in the region.

He then re-upped that same message to Young, where he said that should Trump ‘determine that he intends to introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities in major military operations in Venezuela, he would seek congressional authorization in advance (circumstances permitting).’

Still, despite these guarantees to Republicans, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who sits on the committee, plans to continue his quest to corral Trump’s war authorities.

Kaine said before lawmakers left Washington that he planned to ‘file every one I can to challenge emergencies, to challenge unlawful wars, to seek human rights reports, arms transfers if they’re wrong.’

As President Donald Trump escalates his efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark, the latest national polls reveal that most Americans oppose taking over the massive and crucially strategic island that lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.

Trump is holding crucial talks Wednesday on Greenland with NATO allies during a quick stop in Davos, Switzerland.

On the eve of his trip, the president said there is ‘no going back’ on his efforts to take over Greenland. Asked at a White House news conference how far he’d go to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish territory, Trump said: ‘You’ll find out.’ The president has also threatened tariffs against NATO members.

In his speech at Davos, the president said: ‘I’m seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States.’ But Trump added, ‘I don’t want to use force.’

But Trump’s moves are facing opposition from Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill, and the most recent surveys suggest there’s little appetite among Americans to take over the island.

Eighty-six percent of voters nationwide questioned in a Quinnipiac University poll released last week said they would oppose military action to take over Greenland.

That includes 95% of Democrats, 94% of Independents and even more than two-thirds (68%) of Republicans surveyed by Quinnipiac Jan. 8-12.

Three-quarters of Americans questioned in a CNN poll conducted at the same time said they opposed a U.S. takeover of Greenland. Ninety-four percent of Democrats and eight in 10 Independents said they would oppose such a move, with Republicans split 50%-50%.

Separately, only 14% surveyed in a CBS News poll conducted Jan. 14–16 said they would approve the use of military force to take the island.

Meanwhile, by a 55%-37% margin, voters questioned in the Quinnipiac survey said they opposed any U.S. effort to try and buy Greenland.

But there’s a stark political divide on this question, with the vast majority of Democrats and nearly six in 10 Independents opposed to buying Greenland, and more than two-thirds of Republicans supporting such efforts.

Trump has said in social media posts that ‘The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of national security,’ and that ‘anything less’ than U.S. control of the island is ‘unacceptable.’

But the president’s push for the U.S. to acquire Greenland is causing massive tensions with Denmark and other NATO nations.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — a Republican who left office earlier this year after a falling out with President Donald Trump last year — poured cold water on the president’s ambitions to add Greenland to the U.S.

‘We are approaching $40 Trillion in debt and Social Security is going to be insolvent by 2033. Is anyone even talking about how much it’s going to cost the American people to take over Greenland?’ Greene asked in a Tuesday post on X.

‘Saying it’s ‘for your safety’ is not sufficient. We’ve heard that one before and it didn’t turn out so well,’ she added.

The U.S. national debt is more than $38.46 trillion, according to fiscaldata.treasury.gov.

Trump has said the U.S. needs to acquire Greenland as a matter of national security.

‘The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building,’ he asserted in part of a Truth Social post last week.

‘China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it,’ he declared in part of another Truth Social post last week. 

‘Nobody will touch this sacred piece of Land, especially since the National Security of the United States, and the World at large, is at stake,’ he asserted. ‘Now, because of The Golden Dome, and Modern Day Weapons Systems, both Offensive and Defensive, the need to ACQUIRE is especially important.’

House Democrats are largely mum about whether they’ll help Republicans advance a pair of contempt resolutions against former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.

The House Oversight Committee is meeting at 10 a.m. to weigh a pair of reports on holding the Clintons in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas in the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein probe. What’s likely to be hours of debate will be followed by votes on whether to tee up those reports as House-wide votes on resolutions referring the former first couple to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution.

The resolutions are likely to advance, at least along party lines. But two Democrats on the committee who spoke with Fox News Digital on Tuesday were careful to avoid making concrete decisions before the pivotal votes.

‘Right now, we should all be focused on releasing the Epstein files,’ Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Fox News Digital. ‘After the files are released, call in the Clintons, and they should testify, as should anyone. But it’s premature to be calling in people to testify when the files haven’t been released.’

Khanna, along with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., led a successful effort to force a vote on mandating that the DOJ release nearly all of its Epstein files. 

The DOJ has yet to produce more than a fraction of the documents, however, more than a month after the deadline set by Congress.

When asked directly how he would vote regarding the Clintons on Wednesday, Khanna said, ‘I would say that they need to come in after the files are released.’

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., a first-term member of the committee, told Fox News Digital when asked how he’ll vote, ‘We’ll see how they’re treating all of the other people who have not complied completely with the committee, because I think what they’ve started doing is making this partisan.’

The Clintons were two of 10 people subpoenaed to appear before the committee after a unanimous committee vote to launch the investigation.

To date, however, just one of those original 10 people — former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr — has appeared in person. Former Trump Labor Secretary Alex Azar was also deposed pursuant to a separate subpoena.

But the Clintons are the only two so far who Republicans have pursued contempt charges against, arguing they have repeatedly refused to work with the committee in good faith on scheduling their depositions. The Clintons’ lawyers said the subpoenas are not legally valid.

‘It should be an interesting hearing, because if they’re going to hold the Clintons in contempt, I’m interested to hear if they’ll hold anyone else in contempt, including Republicans in this administration,’ Subramanyam said.

Multiple requests for comment to the remaining 19 Democrats on the committee went unanswered on Tuesday.

That includes Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, who did not attend either of the panel’s scheduled depositions with the Clintons in January.

Rep. Emily Randall, D-Wash., another member of the panel, even waved Fox News Digital off during an attempt to ask about her thoughts on the Clinton contempt effort. She claimed she was engaged in an ‘intense’ conversation with a congressional aide.

Garcia had previously accused House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., of hypocrisy in trying to hold the Clintons accountable while not pushing harder to enforce the subpoena aimed at forcing the DOJ to release all of its Epstein files, which it has not yet done.

‘I think it’s incredibly hypocritical for James Comer to go out and try to hold in contempt his political enemies while [Attorney General Pam Bondi] is actively breaking the law, and he refuses to hold her in contempt,’ Garcia told MS NOW last week.

But in his opening remarks ahead of the committee meeting, Comer is expected to argue that it would be Democrats who are acting hypocritical if they do not vote to hold House-wide contempt votes.

‘We’ve offered flexibility on scheduling. The response we received was not cooperation, but defiance, marked by repeated delays, excuses, and obstruction,’ Comer will say, according to remarks obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘Today, the Clintons must be held accountable for their actions. And Democrats must support these measures, or they will be exposed as hypocrites.’

Neither of the Clintons have been implicated in any wrongdoing related to Epstein.

President Donald Trump has Europe on edge as he prepares to meet with foreign leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday and Thursday at the World Economic Forum.

The World Economic Forum is a Switzerland-based organization that convenes global political leaders, business executives, academics and activists each year in Davos to discuss major economic, political and social issues, with the U.S. and Trump expected to take center stage this year. Leaders from Germany to France to Norway and beyond are expected to attend. 

Calls for the U.S. to acquire Greenland and tariff threats loom over the event as Trump puts European allies on notice to reach a deal on the island by Feb. 1 or face the consequences. Goods from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom will face a 10% tariff if no deal is reached by February, with the taxes increasing to 25% by June 1 if there is no deal. 

Top European leaders have balked over Trump’s demands to make a deal on Greenland, citing that NATO allies can work together to ensure the Arctic is secure. Greenland is a self-governing Danish territory nestled between North America and Europe in the Arctic Circle. 

Trump wants to acquire the island — the largest island in the world –—from a national security standpoint, noting Russia’s and China’s growing presence in the Arctic. Greenland as a pivotal outpost during the Cold War because it was along the shortest routes between North America and the Soviet Union, allowing for speedy missile detection. 

The World Economic Forum kicked off Monday, with some European leaders questioning their relationship with the U.S. as tariff threats loom. The threats follow the U.S. and EU reaching a comprehensive trade framework in 2025 that fixed a 15% tariff level on most EU exports. 

‘The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July,’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said from Davos on Monday, according to The Associated Press. ‘And in politics as in business — a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.’

‘We consider the people of the United States not just our allies, but our friends. And plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape,’ she added.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said from a press conference in Nuuk ahead of the forum that there needs to be respect for ‘territorial integrity.’ 

‘International law, it’s not a game,’ he said. ‘We have been a close and loyal ally to the United States, to NATO, through many, many, many years. We can do lots more in that framework. We are willing to cooperate much more, but of course in mutual respect, and if we cannot see that, it will be very difficult to have a good and reliable partnership.’

Trump is set to hold a signing ceremony for the Gaza Board of Peace in Davos, Fox News confirmed Tuesday, which is styled as a new oversight body tied to the next phase of the Gaza peace plan. ‘Dozens’ of countries have been invited to join the board, Fox News confirmed. 

Some invited countries, however, have raised concerns about the terms of the proposed Gaza peace board, as participation would come with a substantial financial commitment, adding to the heightened tensions at the forum, Bloomberg reported. 

French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, has increasingly become a target for Trump’s criticisms and denied membership on the board. 

Macron’s office said the Board of Peace proposal ‘goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be called into question,’ according to Politico. 

Trump threatened additional tariffs on France when asked about Macron’s refusal to join the board. 

‘I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and Champagnes and he’ll join. But he doesn’t have to join,’ Trump told reporters on Monday. 

Trump is expected to kick off his first day in Davos at about 8 a.m. EST for a day of events and meetings, before returning to the U.S. Thursday. 

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report. 

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — a Republican who left office earlier this year after a falling out with President Donald Trump last year — poured cold water on the president’s ambitions to add Greenland to the U.S.

‘We are approaching $40 Trillion in debt and Social Security is going to be insolvent by 2033. Is anyone even talking about how much it’s going to cost the American people to take over Greenland?’ Greene asked in a Tuesday post on X.

‘Saying it’s ‘for your safety’ is not sufficient. We’ve heard that one before and it didn’t turn out so well,’ she added.

The U.S. national debt is more than $38.46 trillion, according to fiscaldata.treasury.gov.

Trump has said the U.S. needs to acquire Greenland as a matter of national security.

‘The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building,’ he asserted in part of a Truth Social post last week.

‘China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it,’ he declared in part of another Truth Social post last week. 

‘Nobody will touch this sacred piece of Land, especially since the National Security of the United States, and the World at large, is at stake,’ he asserted. ‘Now, because of The Golden Dome, and Modern Day Weapons Systems, both Offensive and Defensive, the need to ACQUIRE is especially important.’