The Senate votes late Thursday morning to break a filibuster on the nomination of Kash Patel to run the FBI. 

Senators will vote to confirm him around 1:45 p.m. ET, with the final result due after 2 p.m ET. He will be confirmed along party lines. 

Then the Senate returns to the budget framework to advance parts of President Donald Trump’s policy agenda.

The Senate began its 50-hour debate on the the budget Tuesday night.

The budget process is lengthy and arduous. It culminates in a marathon vote series – known as a vote-a-rama Thursday night through Friday – if not the wee hours of Saturday morning.

The last such vote-a-rama consumed 41 consecutive votes and took more than a day in real time to complete. 

This onerous exercise is all to get to that final product that enables Republicans to bypass the Senate filibuster later. However, the proposal must be fiscal in nature and not add to the deficit over a 10-year period.

Here’s something important to know:

The mechanics just spelled out create nothing more than a shell. This is a legislative ‘chassis.’ BOTH the House and Senate must have this in place to eventually debate substantive and ‘binding’ provisions of legislation down the road – be it border security or massive tax cuts. No ‘chassis,’ then no final bill.

So this is an important phase in moving the president’s agenda, but not the end result. 

House Republicans will try to advance their own plan next week. It focuses more on tax cuts and has the blessing of the president. But the House and Senate must still get on the same page. And so far, they are working at cross purposes. 

An influential conservative group is throwing its weight behind Elbridge Colby’s nomination to serve in a top position at the Defense Department. 

The Heritage Foundation said, in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital, that Colby is ‘without question the most influential defense policy thinker in over twenty years.’

‘For far too long, the United States has employed the Department of Defense – and the men and women of the U.S. military – to engage in activities that were not central to American interests,’ the letter read. 

‘From peacekeeping operations in far-flung theaters, to nation-building among cultures riddled with ethno-sectarian and religious strife, to democracy building in areas with no history of the rule of law, the Department of Defense has spent much of the post-Cold War era expending resources and American lives in conducting operations that are tangential to U.S. interests.’

MAGA loyalists have muscled Republicans who are hesitant of Colby’s nomination to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy, mostly over his realist worldview. 

Colby has suggested that the U.S. living with a nuclear Iran is more plausible than countering the country’s nuclear assets, a position that has reportedly prompted concern for Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a member of the Armed Services Committee, which will vote on Colby’s nomination first. 

Colby is ‘the single best person to implement President Trump’s and Secretary Hegseth’s policies within the Department of Defense and ensure that American lives and resources are used judiciously against prioritized threats,’ according to Heritage.

The current acting undersecretary of defense for policy, Alex Velez-Green, was plucked for the administration while working as a policy advisor for the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense.

Vice President JD Vance expressed support for the Trump nominee, writing, ‘Bridge has consistently been correct about the big foreign policy debates of the last 20 years.’

‘He was critical of the Iraq War, which made him unemployable in the 2000s era conservative movement. He built a relationship with [the Center for a New American Security] when it was one of the few institutions that would even hire a foreign policy realist,’ Vance said. 

Colby, who worked at the Pentagon during Trump’s first term, has long asserted the U.S. should limit its resources in the Middle East and refocus on China as the bigger threat. 

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told Roll Call that Colby’s nomination posts ‘a concern to a number of senators.’ 

Colby served in the first Trump administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development and was the primary author of the 2018 U.S. National Security Strategy. 

Donald Trump Jr. wrote of Colby in an op-ed for Human Events on Tuesday: ‘He starts off in exactly the right place – with the concrete interests of the American people, not abstractions like ‘the rules based international order’ or spreading democracy in the Middle East.’ 

Meanwhile, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk accused Cotton over the weekend of ‘working behind the scenes’ to kill Colby’s nomination. 

‘Colby is one of the most important pieces to stop the Bush/Cheney cabal at DOD,’ Kirk wrote in a post on X. ‘Why is Tom Cotton doing this?’

Elon Musk echoed Kirk’s post: ‘Why the opposition to Bridge? What does he think Bridge will do?’

Cotton will meet with Colby in the coming days before making up his mind on how to vote, sources told Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Julia Johnson and Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

DOGE administrator Elon Musk may soon be taking a page out of the book of legendary TV newsman Geraldo Rivera by hosting a livestream opening up Fort Knox to see if America’s gold is really still there.

Quite well, do those of us of a certain age remember that night in 1986 when Rivera cracked open a long-forgotten vault at a Chicago hotel where notorious gangster Al Capone had lived, only to find, with no small degree of embarrassment, that it was all but empty.

In those days, without Netflix or 62,000 cable channels, 20 million Americans tuned in live, there were medical examiners present in case bodies were found, IRS agents on hand to seize any ill-gotten treasure. But in the end, all they found was the biggest sad trombone moment in the history of television.

Fast-forward to Fort Knox, where a reported $425 billion worth of government gold is reportedly stored.

In 1936, the federal government decided to send about half of the physical gold that our nation owns to a fortified facility in Kentucky for safe-keeping. Almost instantly it became a metaphor for two things, one, wealth, as in, ‘all the gold in Fort Knox,’ and the other, security, as in, ‘harder to get into than Fort Knox.’

Nobody really doubts the security of the compound. It almost certainly remains as impregnable as ever, even to Musk. But are the guards there to protect the gold, or to hide an embarrassing secret?

Now let’s be clear, there is no reason, beyond conspiracy theories, to believe that the gold isn’t there, or that Treasury employees are busy painting red bricks yellow in anticipation of the DOGE visit. 

Newly minted (so to speak) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has assured Americans that ‘All the gold is present and accounted for.’ But some Republicans, like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul want more, as he told Fox News, ‘the more sunlight the better, the more transparency the better.’

President Donald Trump concurs. At a gaggle on Air Force One on Wednesday, he told reporters, ‘We hope everything is fine with Fort Knox, but we’re going to go into Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there.’

The fabled Fort Knox indeed. Get your popcorn. Lights, camera, action.

It would be pure historical poetry if Geraldo Rivera was once again tapped to host the live coverage of the unearthing of the Fort Knox vault, and with such an amusing twist, for this time, it’s not a full vault that would be the big story, but an empty one.

It’s actually difficult to comprehend what would happen if sometime in the next few days cameras show us that the gold is gone, not just for the financial system, but for our general faith in the government. It’s the kind of lie that you can’t really come back from.

Hundreds if not thousands of people would have to be complicit in this canard, including powerful figures such as Bessent. If there’s no gold at Fort Knox then Katy bar the door, because everything the government told us after would be deeply suspect, as if it isn’t already.

Even if the outcome of this special live event is banal and expected, even if we are simply treated to the vision of shimmering stacks of glorious gold that are supposed to be there, Sen. Paul is right that such transparency would put a lot of conspiracy theories to bed.

In and of itself, Trump’s dedication to radical transparency is a great move forward for a country that has lost faith that its leaders are telling them the truth, that will no longer simply take for granted that things really are the way they are supposed to be.

It can be argued that this distrust of the government, so pervasive on all political sides, is actually the greatest threat we as Americans face. Not the border, not China, not inflation, but a total lack of confidence that our will is being done in the halls of power.

So bring on the telestream, live from Fort Knox, build up the fanfare and line up the pundits, let us all see together if the good word of The Treasury Department should be given our full faith and credit, or if the biggest scam of the past century has somehow occurred.

And I’m serious, who better to guide us through it than the original himself? It’s time for Geraldo to get another bite at the apple and see if this time he actually finds the treasure. 

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

South Carolina House Rep. Brandon Guffey gave powerful testimony in Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Children’s Safety in the Digital Era. Guffey knows the dangers facing children online all too well. Nearly three years ago, Guffey lost his teenage son, Gavin, to suicide in an apparent sextortion scheme.

‘Protecting youth from online dangers and holding big tech companies responsible is now my life’s mission,’ Guffey told the committee. He also issued a stark warning, saying ‘big tech is the big tobacco of this generation.’

In his testimony, a visibly emotional Guffey recounted the night his son took his own life and the fallout.

A scammer posing as a girl convinced Gavin to turn on ‘vanish mode’ and send explicit photos in an Instagram chat. ‘Vanish mode’ allows messages to disappear once they are received. The scammer then threatened to release the photos unless he received money from Gavin, who sent the online predator $25, saying it was all he had in his account. This wasn’t enough for the scammer, who continued to demand more money. Tragically, Gavin took his own life as a result.

The predator, however, was not done with the Guffey family. The state lawmaker told the committee that the scammer proceeded to harass himself, his son and his teen cousin. Guffey says this is because Meta took down the account that tormented his son Gavin and left the rest of the scammer’s accounts up.

Hassanbunhussein Abolore Lawal, who was indicted by a Grand Jury in October 2023, was extradited to the United States from Lagos, Nigeria. He faces the possibility of life in prison.

Within a few months of taking office, Guffey was able to pass a law bearing his son’s name. Gavin’s Law makes sextortion, the act of blackmailing someone using explicit images or videos, a felony in South Carolina. The offense can be upgraded to an aggravated felony if the victim is a minor or if there are other mitigating circumstances, which are outlined in the law. Additionally, Gavin’s Law requires South Carolina schools to teach students about the dangers of sextortion.

‘Sextortion is now taught throughout the State and every kid at least has some awareness so they don’t feel alone like my son did that night,’ Guffey told the Senate committee on Wednesday.

Guffey does not have faith in Big Tech’s ability to reform itself. He recalled attending a January 2024 hearing in which Mark Zuckerberg offered what he called ‘a forced, pathetic apology.’

Guffey is demanding lawmakers take action on Section 230, which he believes will ‘go down as one of the greatest disasters.’

Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act distinguishes Big Tech platforms from those that would be treated as a ‘publisher.’ This absolves online platforms of legal liability for what users post.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle discussed the need for legislation to create new industry standards for Big Tech aimed at protecting America’s children.

While Guffey is advocating for federal legislation, he is also calling for a cultural shift.

‘I believe that in this country we’ve lost grace, and we have too often kicked people for the mistakes that they make, and we tell our kids that ‘everything you do online will stay with you forever.’ Well, imagine if you just took your darkest moment and posted it online,’ Guffey said to the committee.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) says it received more than 26,710 reports of financial sextortion in 2023. NCMEC says it has seen ‘an overwhelming increase in reports of sextortion from children and teens.’ The center advises parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of sextortion, but also to let them know that they need to get help and not immediately pay or comply with the blackmailer. 

Former Rep. Liz Cheney lambasted President Donald Trump in a tweet on Wednesday, asserting that he is the ‘antithesis’ of all that Ronald Reagan, America’s 40th president, ‘stood for.’

She claimed that Trump ‘is aligning’ the U.S. with the opponents of liberty.

‘Trump – with his devotion to Putin, abandonment of Ukraine, and lies about history- is the antithesis of everything Ronald Reagan stood for. He is aligning America with the enemies of the very freedom that generations have fought and died to defend,’ Cheney declared in the post on X. 

‘History will not be kind to those who are helping him, especially those who call themselves Reagan Republicans while they pretend not to see what’s happening,’ she added.

The former congresswoman, who was one of the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, has been a vociferous Trump critic over the years.

Her post on Wednesday came after Trump excoriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Truth Social post, referring to the foreign figure as ‘A Dictator without Elections,’ who ‘has done a terrible job.’ 

The U.S. has doled out billions worth of aid to assist Ukraine as the Eastern European nation has warred against Russia in response to a 2022 Russian invasion.

‘You shoulda never started it. You could’ve made a deal,’ Trump said on Tuesday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who served alongside Trump during the president’s first term in office, pushed back in a post on Wednesday. 

‘Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth,’ Pence tweeted.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains higher than at any point during his first term in office, according to a new poll from CNN.

The Thursday poll shows Trump at 47% approval rating with 52% disapproval. The poll found that a plurality of Americans, 28%, say Trump’s ‘single most significant’ action has been securing the border, followed by his slashing of government with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency at 12%.

Meanwhile, many Americans say they want Trump to do more to address everyday prices. According to the poll, 62% of Americans say he hasn’t gone far enough on the issue, including 47% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 73% of Democrats.

CNN conducted its poll from Feb. 13-17, surveying 1,206 U.S. adults in both English and Spanish. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.1%.

CNN’s poll comes on the heels of three other polls that were released Wednesday.

Forty-five percent of voters questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey said they approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, with 49% disapproving.

That’s down from a 46%-43% approval/disapproval in a Quinnipiac poll conducted in late January, during the president’s first week back in office following his inauguration.

Another national poll from Gallup indicated the president at 45% approval and 51% disapproval, down from 47%-48% approval/disapproval late last month.

And according to a Reuters/Ipsos national survey also released on Wednesday, the president stood at 44% approval and 51% disapproval. Trump registered at 45%-46% approval/disapproval in the previous poll by Reuters/Ipsos, which was conducted late last month during the first week of the president’s second administration.

The latest Quinnipiac poll was conducted Feb. 13-17, with Gallup in the field Feb. 3-16, and Reuters/Ipsos conducting their survey Feb. 13-18.

New surveys this week from other polling organizations indicate Trump’s approval ratings remain above water.

Trump has kept up a frenetic pace during his opening weeks back in the White House, with an avalanche of executive orders and actions. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign trail promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly put his stamp on the federal government, make major cuts to the federal workforce, and also settle some longstanding grievances.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.