The House Ethics Committee announced on Tuesday that it needs to further review allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., involving sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and accepting improper gifts.

The committee also accused Gaetz of being uncooperative with its probe and said it had ‘difficulty in obtaining relevant information’ from him.

Gaetz has been under a years-long House investigation, spurred by the Department of Justice (DOJ), looking into reports in early 2021 that he had a relationship with an underage girl. The DOJ declined to charge Gaetz in 2023.

The bipartisan committee, led by Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., rarely releases such lengthy public statements.

But its investigation into Gaetz, which kicked off in April 2021, has attracted widespread media attention – which the panel noted.

‘There has been a significant and unusual amount of public reporting on the Committee’s activities this Congress. Much of that reporting has been inaccurate,’ the committee said, without elaborating on whether it was talking about the Gaetz matter specifically.

The committee also noted that Gaetz denies all allegations. 

‘Based on its review to date, the Committee has determined that certain of the allegations merit continued review. During the course of its investigation, the Committee has also identified additional allegations that merit review,’ the committee said.

House investigators are delving further into accusations Gaetz ‘engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.’

It said it’s no longer reviewing accusations ‘that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.’

When reached for further comment, Gaetz’s office pointed Fox News Digital to a Monday night X post criticizing the investigation.

He lashed out against the House Ethics Committee in the social media post, calling on the panel to instead work with him on cracking down on lawmakers who profit off the stock market.

‘The House Ethics Committee has closed four probes into me, which emerged from lies intended solely to smear me. Instead of working with me to ban Congressional stock trading, the Ethics Committee is now opening new frivolous investigations,’ Gaetz said. ‘They are doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.’

He then took aim at former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose ouster Gaetz triggered late last year.

‘This is Soviet. Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to find the crime. I work for Northwest Floridians who won’t be swayed by this nonsense and McCarthy and his goons know it,’ Gaetz said.

A spokesperson for McCarthy declined to comment on Gaetz’s post when reached by Fox News Digital.

A group of House Republicans is demanding to know the Biden administration’s strategy for keeping its recent $404 million Gaza aid package out of Hamas’ hands. 

Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, a member of both the House Armed Services and Oversight committees, led a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday asking him to withhold the funds until his department can produce a ‘detailed account’ of how the flow of dollars will be safeguarded.

‘While we understand the intent of this package is to provide food, drinking water, education, shelter, and more for civilians in a war zone, we have major concerns that a significant portion of the funds will inevitably end up in the hands of the State Department designated terrorist organization, Hamas,’ Fallon led seven other Republicans in writing.

They pointed to accounts of Hamas seizing and diverting aid meant for civilians in Gaza who are struggling to survive amid Israel’s war on the militant group. The lawmakers said that aid was being used ‘for terrorist activities aimed at killing innocent civilians and advancing their stated goal of the destruction of the State of Israel.’

‘The American people and the international community need assurances that funding for humanitarian aid does not end up funding terrorism,’ the lawmakers wrote. ‘It is the Biden Administration’s policy to support Israel, and indirect funding for Hamas would prove counterproductive to this mission by prolonging the war and increasing the death toll.’

Blinken unveiled the new aid package during a conference on Gaza humanitarian assistance in Jordan last week.

‘Today, I’m announcing an additional $404 million in new aid to Palestinians in addition to the more than $1.8 billion in development, economic, and humanitarian aid that the United States has provided since 2021,’ Blinken said. ‘Let’s work together to ensure that more aid gets into Gaza, and once it’s in Gaza, reaches the people who need it the most – by land, by air, by sea.’

He also called on Israel to ‘do more’ to allow more aid into Gaza.

It brings the total amount of humanitarian aid sent by the U.S. into Gaza to more than $674 million since the conflict with Israel began, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

Hamas militants invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, slaughtering more than 1,000 people. 

‘The Administration’s goal of providing aid to civilians impacted by the ongoing conflict is noble, but we cannot allow American tax dollars to end up in the hands of terrorists,’ the Republican lawmakers wrote to Blinken. ‘We will expect a detailed account of your strategy to maintain the integrity of this funding no later than 30 days from the sending of this notice. We also expect the funding to be halted until such a plan is approved and in place.’

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the department does not comment on congressional correspondence as a matter of policy but added, ‘However, we remain committed to providing humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable populations and working with partners to get assistance to them while taking every possible measure to prevent it from landing with those it is not intended to reach.’

Political allies, family members, at least one foreign leader and even the Easter Bunny have all stepped in to assist President Biden offstage or direct him during public events, as shown by videos published by news outlets and circulating on social media. 

The self-admitted ‘gaffe machine’ is in the midst of controversy this week after video showed him standing on the stage of a ritzy campaign donor event in Los Angeles with former President Obama and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, before Obama guided Biden off the stage as he smiled to the crowd. 

As the trio stood onstage smiling toward the crowd, Obama was seen reaching over and taking Biden’s wrist before putting his hand on the current president’s back and walking toward the stage’s exit. The scene sparked a renewed wave of criticism online that Biden is ‘confused’ and ‘senile’ and also jokes that the scene was reminiscent of a senior care home ad.

The Biden campaign pulled in a whopping $30 million from the star-studded fundraiser, which included support from Hollywood stars such as George Clooney and Julia Roberts. 

‘Former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden offer final waves to Peacock Theater crowd as Obama then grabs Biden’s hand to lead him offstage following 40-minute conversation with Jimmy Kimmel,’ Chris Gardner, senior staff writer for The Hollywood Reporter, posted early Sunday morning, accompanied by footage of the scene.

The clip is just one of many in recent months showing an ally, aide or family member stepping in to seemingly direct or guide Biden off a stage or during an event.

The L.A. event comes on the heels of Biden’s visit to Italy, where he met with Pope Francis and attended the G-7 summit to discuss additional funding to Ukraine as the nation continues its yearslong war against Russia.

‘They are cheap fakes. … They are done in bad faith.’

— White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

During the trip, scrutiny surrounding Biden’s age and cognitive state was put on the world stage after video circulated of the 46th president standing with Group of Seven world leaders outside. The video shows parachutists landing around Biden, ​​and leaders such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Biden took a few steps away from the group, seemingly taking in the scene as a parachutist gathered himself after landing. Meloni then walked over to the president, touched his right arm and redirected him back to the group of world leaders.

The White House denied anything odd about the video, instead arguing that the video used ‘an artificially narrow frame to hide from viewers that he just saw a skydiving demonstration’ and that Biden was ‘saying congratulations to one of the divers and giving a thumbs-up.’

The pair of high-profile incidents within the space of a week underscore growing concerns about the 81-year-old president’s cognitive state.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday addressed the recent videos of Biden ‘freezing’ at public events as ‘disinformation’ promoted by ‘right-wing critics.’

‘They are cheap fakes. … They are done in bad faith. And some of your news organizations have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing … critics of the president have a credibility problem because the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation,’ she said.

Biden’s mental fitness has become a focal point this election season, with former President Trump routinely slamming the president for his garbled language in public remarks and repeated instances of Biden appearing confused while trying to find an exit off of a stage after public events.

‘It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.’

— Special prosecutor Robert Hur, explaining his decision to not pursue charges against President Biden

Earlier this year, Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report investigating the president’s handling of classified documents after his departure as vice president under the Obama administration further compounded concern over the president’s mental acuity. 

Hur announced in February that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

‘Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,’ Hur wrote in his report. 

The findings sparked widespread outrage that Biden was effectively deemed too cognitively impaired to be charged with a crime yet could still serve as president.

When asked about the series of videos showing people guiding and directing Biden during public events, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital in a statement that they depict ‘routine moments for any president.’

‘These have two things in common: 1, they’re cheapfakes presented by discredited rightwing groups who can’t contend with the President’s record and agenda; and 2, their depictions of routine moments for any president have often been fact-checked by mainstream, nonpartisan reporters,’ he said Monday.

Biden’s history of being guided and directed offstage or during an event includes video footage from March showing the first lady striding up to Biden during the White House’s Women’s History Month reception. 

Jill Biden places her hand on Biden’s back as the president is seen speaking with an attendee, before Jill Biden points to an area off camera and Biden begins walking behind two members of the military.

In January, social media users again criticized the president when Jill Biden took her husband’s hand as he wrapped up remarks on the anniversary of Jan. 6. Jill Biden was seen holding the president’s hand as they walked toward the stage’s exit, appearing to drop his hand when she made it behind a stage partition. 

In another attention-grabbing scene this month, video footage of the White House’s Juneteenth celebration last Monday showed Biden standing with his arms still as a crowd of people around him danced and clapped to music. Biden smiled and began moving around when Philonise Floyd — the brother of George Floyd – took notice and placed his arm around Biden. The two then shared a fist bump.

Jean-Pierre also addressed the Juneteenth video during Monday’s press conference, saying that Biden standing relatively still while listening to music was ‘not a health issue’ and that others around the president were also standing still during the festivities.

‘That is a weird thing to actually flag, when if you look … at the people who are around him, if you look at the expanded video of the people who are around him, they were not, there were some folks who were not dancing either. And that has been fact-checked. I mean, just because you’re standing up listening to music and not dancing, that is not a health issue. That is just not a health issue,’ she said. 

Last month, footage showed a member of the military directing Biden after wrapping up remarks at the White House, which was lambasted by X account RNC Research. 

In 2022, the Easter Bunny even stepped in to apparently direct Biden away from speaking to members of the media. A person dressed in an Easter Bunny costume was seen approaching the president as he answered a reporter’s questions on Afghanistan and Pakistan. The costumed person placed their hand on the president, before waving and directing him to walk away from the gaggle of reporters.

In 2022, a young girl was seen on camera leading Biden off a stage during a Christmas season Toys for Tots event with the United States Marine Corps Reserve in Arlington, Virginia.

‘Which way do we go?’ Biden asked a young girl as she took his hand and walked him in the right direction.

‘When I was that age, I could hardly say my name in public,’ Biden added. ‘Actually, I used to stutter when I was a little boy, until I was in high school. It was the only thing everybody – anyway – you’re very impressive.’

Among the president’s instances of others apparently directing him during public events, Biden has also missed cues, including reading a teleprompter’s ‘pause’ instructions in April, abruptly walking off a stage in Arizona last year after spotting a baby in the crowd, asking the whereabouts of a deceased Indiana lawmaker during a press conference in 2022, and a handful of incidents where Biden told members of the media he would take questions from a predetermined list of media outlets.

‘Now, I’ve been given a list of 10 people that I’m supposed to call on, and you’re all supposed to ask me one question, but I’m sure you’ll ask me more. So, let me start off with the list I’ve been given,’ Biden, for example, told reporters during a 2022 press conference. 

Jean-Pierre last year also abruptly ended a press conference while Biden was still answering questions, with music soon filling the room as Biden thanked reporters. 

The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report this month detailing interviews with roughly 45 lawmakers and administration officials on Biden’s mental state, which caused alarm that the oldest sitting president in U.S. history is showing his age in meetings.

‘The president moved so slowly around the Cabinet Room to greet the nearly two dozen congressional leaders that it took about 10 minutes for the meeting to begin, some people who attended recalled,’ WSJ reported. 

The White House hit back that the story and anecdotes were examples of partisan politics working to deride the ‘savvy and effective’ president.

‘Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders and nonpartisan national security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment,’ Bates said at the time. ‘Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues.’

Just hours ahead of Obama leading Biden off the stage in Los Angeles, Jill Biden defended her husband’s age in public remarks.

​​’Joe and the other guy are essentially the same age, so let’s not be fooled,’ she said during a campaign event on Saturday, referring to 78-year-old Trump, the New York Post reported. ‘Let’s not be fooled. But what this election is about, it’s about the character of the person leading our country.’

‘Joe Biden is a healthy, wise 81-year-old, ready and willing to work for you every day to make our future better,’ Jill Biden added. ‘Joe isn’t one of the most effective presidents of our lives in spite of his age but because of it.’

Europeans are rebelling. They are dumping their long-ruling liberal parties, sick of suffocating climate diktats that have driven costs higher, unchecked immigration that has driven wages lower and a loss of sovereignty to the EU. 

Can Americans be far behind? Will U.S. voters fire Joe Biden – fire his absurd EV mandates, his dangerous open border, his inflationary spending and his love of globalist institutions like the U.N. — and instead choose a return to Donald Trump and common sense? 

The polls suggest it could happen; it wouldn’t be the first time that Europe has shown us the way. 

In 1979, the British people upended England’s dominant Labour Party, which had ruled for 11 of the prior 15 years, and chose Maggie Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, to be the country’s first female prime minister. Her party promised to promote growth, reduce the role of government, bolster the UK’s defense and uphold the rule of law. 

Eighteen months later, conservative Republican Ronald Reagan trounced incumbent Democrat President Jimmy Carter, winning 489 Electoral College votes to Carter’s 49, running on a similar platform.   

In both cases, voters spurned the Establishment; in both cases, voters were proven right. Both Thatcher and Reagan were credited – by voters if not the liberal press — with turning around their countries’ economies by embracing free markets, less regulation, lower taxes and growth. Thatcher won landslide reelections in 1983 and 1987 and was the longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century. 

In 1984, President Reagan was also reelected in a landslide, carrying 49 of 50 states.  

In June 2016, British voters again stunned the western world, in that year by voting to exit the European Union, again defying establishment voices on both sides of the Atlantic, including prominent think tanks, the liberal media, business leaders and even President Obama. Brits rebelled against mass immigration and also the micromanaging of their country by EU bureaucrats in Brussels who regulated every aspect of everyday life, including dictating food packaging, energy efficiency, how to care for ferret imports, cross border health care, safety at sea, labeling of fish for sale and so much more. 

Six months later, Americans similarly ignored establishment voices and elected Donald Trump president. The New York Times confidently predicted 21 days out that Democrat Hillary Clinton had a 91% chance of winning; indeed, she was the pick of business leaders, Hollywood, academia and liberal elites everywhere. 

Where Hillary fell short was with average working-class Americans, who came to believe that the Democratic Party no longer represented their interests – the same folks who voted for Brexit. 

The recent elections in Europe carry a similar message. Voters in Germany, France and elsewhere see their countries threatened by harmful green energy policies and unchecked immigration. They think their elitist leaders, like France’s Emmanuel Macron whose approval rating is now 24%, are out of touch with their needs and issues. 

Europe has been held captive by climate alarmists for over a decade, which has caused the shutting down of fossil fuel plants, hasty and ill-planned conversion to unreliable renewable energy sources and strictures on appliance use. They also caused significant damage to their powerful auto industries.  

The upshot of this climate frenzy is that wholesale prices for electricity in Germany, for instance, soared from 37.8 euros per megawatt hour in May 2019 to 67.3 last month – an increase of nearly 80% over the past five years. The energy diktats from the government – banning fracking, shutting down nuclear plants and so on, also left Germany (and other European countries) vulnerable to the shut-down of Russian gas flowing into Europe because of the Ukraine War, an event that pushed German electricity prices to an all-time high of 699.4 euros in 2022. 

As in the U.S., Germans have seen their real incomes clobbered by rising prices, of which energy costs are a major but not the only component. Inflation nearly touched 9% in 2022 and again in early 2023. Real wage growth has been negative in 9 of the past 15 quarters since the pandemic in 2020.  Worse, real wages have grown at only 0.23 percent from 1992 until 2023.  

France is in the same boat. Protests against environmental regulations that drove up the cost of fuel inspired the anti-government working-class Yellow Vest movement beginning in 2018; this year it is farmers.

The French and farmers across the continent have balked at climate initiatives aimed, in some cases, at driving them out of business. In the Netherlands, the government announced plans in 2022 to close down as many as 3,000 farms in order to meet controversial EU emission reduction goals; voters there responded by electing a far-right anti-immigrant leader in 2023. In the recent EU elections, they doubled down. 

The Green parties of Europe recently lost about one-third of their seats in the European Parliament as voters came to see Europe’s extreme climate agenda as elitist and costly. 

The same trend may emerge in the U.S. Joe Biden’s White House has allocated hundreds of billions of dollars authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act to reducing emissions and subsidizing electric vehicles. Voters recently discovered, courtesy of a CBS ‘Face the Nation’ interview with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, that even with a $7.5 billion budget, the government had only managed to build eight charging stations for EVs in three years. That does not inspire confidence. 

U.S. voters, like Europeans, are also furious about uncontrolled immigration; with Biden’s open border, millions of people have entered the U.S. illegally.  The collapse is a national security risk and has driven down low-end wages. Voters rate this one of their top concerns, and blame Joe Biden.

In November, Americans will have a chance to change the direction of our country, as the Europeans recently voted to do. Polling suggests that right-leaning politicians will soon lead France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Hungary, Greece, and Bulgaria. Polls also suggest that Donald Trump will join them, again following their lead.

The North Korean military has breached the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the communist nation from South Korea multiple times this month.

North Korean soldiers were spotted inside the DMZ on Tuesday morning, apparently laboring on a project in the forbidden area.

South Korean military officials published photos of the incursion by North Korean troops around 8:30 a.m., who the Joint Chiefs of Staff say were carrying work tools. 

South Korean soldiers fired warning shots to spook the North Koreans, who scattered and re-entered their own borders.

Approximately 20 to 30 North Koreans are believed to have entered the DMZ during the incident.

A similar incursion into the DMZ was reported earlier this month, when a large group of North Korean soldiers crossed into the forbidden area on June 9.

The June 9 incident caused a similar outcry from South Korean guards, who broadcast warning messages and fired warning shots until the interlopers fled the area.

These interactions have heightened tensions between the two Koreas just as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to host Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.

Putin is set to visit Pyongyang for two days beginning on Tuesday as he conducts his first official state visit to the communist nation in 24 years.

Russia has kept the much smaller and economically fragile North Korea as an ally as Western powers unleashed burdensome sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea has, in the past few years, served as a valuable middleman for Russia and China by conducting business and manufacturing operations outside the view of international law.

The presidential campaign is as frozen as the Arctic Circle.

Virtually nothing seems to melt the ice caps that have encased the race. 

The former president convicted of 34 felonies? Feels like it happened months ago, without exactly dooming the Trump candidacy.

The current president’s son, also convicted of felonies? Now that’s deemed a mere distraction by those who used an impeachment inquiry to try to sink the Biden campaign.

Each attack, each smear, each controversy dominates the news and then quickly yields to the next real or perceived outrage, leaving little lasting impression on the shape of the race.

All this is bad news for Joe Biden, who has an anemic 38 percent approval rating and is on track to lose, despite the apparent closeness of the contest.

While Trump’s lead in such core battleground states as Michigan and Pennsylvania is often just 2 to 3 points, it’s been remarkably consistent (with the president having a slight edge in Wisconsin). If Scranton Joe can’t win Pennsylvania despite endless trips there, the election is over.

That’s why Biden abruptly challenged Trump to two debates, with the first one, on CNN, in less than 10 days. It’s really his last chance to bring some heat and shake up the race.

Now I could make the argument that the Trump team has lowered expectations for Biden to the point that if he avoids major gaffes and doesn’t fall off the stage, he wins. The CNN rules – two-minute answers, no notes, muting the opponent’s mike – will also favor the president.

But debates can be overrated. Mitt Romney clobbered Barack Obama in their first debate and it didn’t matter. Hillary Clinton arguably won two or even three of her debates against Trump and it didn’t matter. 

The pressure is on Biden, who’s drilling with former top aide Ron Klain, to show that he’s aggressive and feisty as well as knowledgeable. Trump, who is doing only informal prep, will be hailed by his base no matter what he says or does.

In short, it will take something highly unusual to change many minds. Most Americans already know what they think of these guys.

The same goes for the Trump veepstakes. As Donald Trump told me, it doesn’t matter much because people vote for the top of the ticket. I think Doug Burgum has a somewhat better chance than when I first interviewed him three weeks ago, on this shorter short list that seems to include Tim Scott, Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance. 

But I can’t see that changing the race’s trajectory. What’s striking is that the anchors are now handling these as ‘vetting’ interviews about each candidate’s record, because they believe one of them may well be moving into the vice president’s mansion.

Trump’s GOP unity day on the Hill got muddied when he criticized Milwaukee, the host city for next month’s convention. Even though Trump said he was talking mainly about crime in the city – which is actually down substantially this year – I’m not sure why he needed to go there.

The 78-year-old Trump is so anxious to depict the 81-year-old Biden as mentally unfit for the job that minor incidents are being exaggerated and distorted. There’s no question, as I said on the air, that Biden often comes across as frail and confused. 

But after a $30-million L.A. fundraiser over the weekend, Obama grabbed his arm and then kept touching his back as they exited the stage. This went viral as the former president was depicted as ‘leading’ his onetime VP away.

Earlier, the New York Post, taking its lead from the RNC, misleadingly cropped a photo as if Biden was talking to no one at the G-7 in Italy. A wider angle showed Biden was saying a few words and giving a thumbs up to a skydiver who had landed next to the world leaders before the Italian prime minister led him back to the group. 

Despite a couple of flashy media headlines, I did not criticize Fox’s coverage, though sometimes that comes with the job. I made a point of saying that the coverage by ‘Fox & Friends’ was perfectly straightforward. We played a clip of Sean Hannity criticizing Biden, but there was no suggestion that he didn’t show the proper footage; he was paired with Joe Scarborough hitting Biden’s critics, as we often do to convey the range of commentary.

In my view, there’s little doubt that most of the media believe Trump will win the election, and here’s the proof.

The New York Times just ran a deep dive on how the Trump resistance is already laying the groundwork to battle and stymie him in a second term.

These groups ‘are drafting potential lawsuits in case he is elected in November and carries out mass deportations, as he has vowed. One group has hired a new auditor to withstand any attempt by a second Trump administration to unleash the Internal Revenue Service against them. Democratic-run state governments are even stockpiling abortion medication.

‘A sprawling network of Democratic officials, progressive activists, watchdog groups and ex-Republicans has been taking extraordinary steps to prepare for a potential second Trump presidency, drawn together by the fear that Mr. Trump’s return to power would pose a grave threat not just to their agenda but to American democracy itself.’ 

A newspaper simply doesn’t devote the enormous resources the Times did to this investigative piece without believing a Trump victory is at the least very likely.

Some groups are described as ‘wary’ of discussing their plans for fear of signaling a lack of confidence in the Biden campaign, which is exactly what it signals.

And that brings us back to the CNN debate.

Biden is really running out of time to change the narrative of the race. The debate will probably be a wash, but it’s his only shot. Otherwise, the frozen campaign will wind up freezing him out.

Vice President Harris’ former communications director recently said there is one Republican who would be the ‘greatest threat’ to her vice presidency if chosen as former President Trump’s 2024 running mate.

Ashley Etienne, who served as Harris’ communications director in 2021, told CNN on Friday that she believes Ohio Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is an ‘incredible debater’ and could present a challenge to Harris in the upcoming election.

‘I think JD Vance would pose the greatest threat [to] Kamala Harris, in some respects. I mean he’s an incredible debater,’ Etienne told CNN. ‘I think he has this quality that makes him seem palpable to that one to two percent that actually might vote or that is undecided, that will actually pay attention to the debates because most people don’t pay attention to the debates.’

Etienne, who also served as deputy assistant to President Biden after his 2020 victory, said Vance is ‘super smart,’ ‘quick-witted’ and could pose a threat to Harris on the debate stage.

‘I think he’s just got a quality about him where he’s super smart and sharp and quick-witted. I just think it’s going to be a challenge to see the two of them face-to-face. I mean, maybe it’s just me, but I think he’s going to be the greatest threat,’ she said.

The comment comes as Harris’ disapproval rating remains high with 55% of registered voters having an unfavorable opinion of the vice president, according to a Fox News national survey from May.

Vance is on Trump’s short list for vice president along with several other top Republican contenders. However, it was recently revealed that the first-term senator was one of only three from the candidate pool who had vetting documents requested from Trump’s campaign team.

Vance has shown staunch support for Trump throughout his campaign and legal woes, recently joining the former president at a Manhattan courtroom where he was eventually found guilty on 34 charges related to falsifying business records.

Fox News Digital previously reported on Vance’s Silicon Valley donor network, which could help boost Trump’s ticket if he is chosen as Trump’s VP nominee.

Vance, after serving as a Marine in the Iraq War, moved for a handful of years to San Francisco to work as a venture capitalist in the tech industry.

And Vance – the author of the bestselling memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ which was made into a Netflix film – two years ago won his own crowded and combustible GOP Senate primary thanks in part to Trump’s late-in-the-game endorsement. 

‘JD has a Rolodex of Silicon Valley contacts that very few Republican figures can get to. And he put some of those to use on behalf of [Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Ohio Bernie] Moreno,’ a source in Vance’s political orbit previously told Fox News.

Trump recently told Fox News that he has ‘a pretty good idea’ of who his vice presidential pick will be, an announcement that he confirmed could be made at the Republican National Convention in July.

Fox News Digital reached out to Harris for comment.