Fox News Media has invited the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign to participate in a vice presidential debate before the 2024 election. 

In a letter to the campaigns, Fox News Media said it requested the opportunity to host a vice presidential debate, and said it would be available to do so on July 23, August 13, or dates ‘following both nomination conventions.’

The proposed vice presidential debate would be hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, who Fox News Media President Jay Wallace said ‘are obvious choices as the faces of our political coverage.’ 

‘In addition, FOX News Media has reached out to Virginia State University as a possible location, since it was selected by the CPD as the first historically Black College or University to host a Presidential debate,’ the letter said. 

‘Despite not having a Democratic debate in 2016/2020, FOX News was able to secure town halls with Democratic candidates such as: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand.
In recognition of FOX News Media’s capabilities and reputation, we cordially extend an invitation to all concerned parties to discuss our proposal,’ the letter states. 

Former President Trump accepted the invitation Friday afternoon.

‘On behalf of the future Vice President of the United States, who I have not yet chosen, we hereby accept the Fox Vice Presidential Debate, hopefully at Virginia State University, the first Historically Black College or University to host a Debate – Date to be determined,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social. ‘I urge Vice President Kamala Harris to agree to this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ 

The Biden campaign already accepted CBS News’ vice presidential debate invitation for this summer, setting the stage for a showdown between Vice President Kamala Harris and whoever is selected as the Republican VP nominee. 

The campaign notified CBS News that they accepted the invitation to participate in studio on either of the proposed dates — July 23 or August 13. 

On Wednesday, the Biden campaign wrote a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, abandoning the decades-old tradition of three fall events organized by the debate commission. 

Former President Trump, shortly after, exclusively told Fox News Digital that he would accept the timeline proposed by Biden — scheduling the first presidential debate for June 27 on CNN and the second for September 10 on ABC News. 

The Biden-Harris campaign asked that the debates occur inside a TV studio, with microphones that automatically cut off when a speaker’s time limit elapses. The letter also asked that the debates involve just the two candidates and the moderator — without ‘an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors.’ 

They also want the debates without the participation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or other independent or third-party candidates. 

‘We look forward to the Trump campaign accepting one of these dates so that the full debate calendar for this campaign can be set,’ the Biden campaign said about the vice presidential debate schedule on Thursday. 

The fast scheduling began Wednesday morning after Biden posted a video to social media. 

‘Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal,’ Biden said in a video message shared Wednesday morning. ‘I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.’ 

Trump, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital shortly after, said: 

‘Crooked Joe Biden is the worst debater I have ever faced – he can’t put two sentences together,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘Crooked is also the worst president in the history of the United States, by far.’ 

Trump told Fox News Digital that ‘it is time for a debate to take place – even if it has to be held through the offices of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which are totally controlled by Democrats and who, as people remember, got caught cheating with me with debate sound levels.’

‘I’m ready to go,’ Trump said. ‘The dates that they proposed are fine. Anywhere. Anytime. Any place. Let’s see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium.’

‘The proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘I will provide my own transportation.’

And just moments later, Biden posted on his social media that he ‘received and accepted an invitation’ from CNN for a debate on June 27. 

‘Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, any time, any place,’ Biden wrote. 

When asked for comment, Trump told Fox News Digital that he will accept and ‘will be there.’ The Republican added that he is ‘looking forward to being in beautiful Atlanta.’

Later Wednesday, Trump took to his Truth Social, echoing his comments to Fox News Digital. 

‘It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to ‘Catch on Fire.’ I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September,’ Trump posted. ‘I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds – That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll be there. ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!’’ 

Trump on Saturday appeared before a crowd of tens of thousands on the Jersey Shore in the deep-blue state. The campaign event was held in between Trump’s appearances in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from any cases related to the 2020 election on Friday following a revelation that an upside-down flag was flown at his home a week after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. 

‘Flying an upside-down American flag — a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement — clearly creates the appearance of bias,’ said Durbin in a statement.

‘Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President’s immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering,’ he added. 

The outcome of former President Trump’s federal election interference case notably hinges on what the Supreme Court determines about his claim of immunity. 

Durbin claimed, ‘The Court is in an ethical crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the Court should be doing everything in their power to regain public trust.’

The Illinois senator called the revelation ‘further proof’ that Congress should institute a code of conduct for the Supreme Court. He urged his colleagues to support the passage of the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act. 

‘Supreme Court justices should be held to the highest ethical standards, not the lowest,’ he said. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Supreme Court for comment from Alito but did not immediately receive a response. 

In the days following the Capitol riot in 2021, in which supporters of Trump sought to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election, the home of Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, was seen flying an upside down American flag, The New York Times reported. The positioning of a flag in such a way is understood to symbolize a nation in crisis, and it was adopted by some following the events of Jan. 6 to express resistance to the results of the 2020 election. 

Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., did not provide comment to Fox News Digital. 

Alito recounted the situation to Fox News’ Shannon Bream, telling her that a neighborhood argument began in January 2021 after one resident put up a ‘F— Trump’ sign in close proximity to a school bus stop. 

When his wife spoke to the neighbor about the profane sign, the conversation was not productive, he explained. 

According to the justice, the same neighbor then took the disagreement further, placing a sign that attributed blame for the events of Jan. 6 personally to Martha-Ann. 

Later, during a walk, a resident of the home with the signage started an argument with his wife and called her names, ‘including the C-word,’ Alito claimed. 

He explained that her decision to hang the upside down flag on the property was a response to the evolving feud and that it only flew ‘for a short time.’ 

Alito said he didn’t believe it was his place to order his wife against doing this and characterized his neighbors as ‘very political.’ 

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was in New York for various events when he reached out to former President Trump to inform him he would be at the Manhattan courthouse, where Trump’s criminal trial was taking place the very next morning.

Johnson made the decision himself and contacted Trump directly, a source close to the speaker told Fox News Digital. Multiple people said he rode with Trump in his motorcade on Tuesday morning.

‘I came here… today on my own to support President Trump because I am one of hundreds of millions of people and one citizen who is deeply concerned about this, so I’m glad to be here,’ he told reporters afterward.

Johnson was the highest-ranking federal lawmaker to show up at Trump’s criminal proceedings so far – a public symbol of the staunch alliance the two have built since Johnson became speaker after a tumultuous series of events in October.

Multiple people close to Trump and Johnson told Fox News Digital that they speak frequently, with one GOP lawmaker estimating they talk ‘at least weekly’ but added ‘it depends on the issue.’

The source close to Johnson told Fox News Digital that the speaker keeps Trump in the loop on the major moves being made in the House of Representatives.

Those same allies stressed that the relationship, a close one for an elected congressional leader and their party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is positive for both the House and the GOP as a whole.

‘It helps both sides. It helps the House, but it also helps the party, because you’re coming in from two different directions at the same general goal,’ Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who previously served in Trump’s Cabinet, told Fox News Digital.

Zinke said Trump and Johnson have a very good working relationship, arguing their ‘uniquely different’ personalities make for a good match.

‘I think they both understand that unity of effort is required, and it has to be a cordial relationship… I think there’s a realization that if we hold the House, that would be an imperative for the America First agenda,’ Zinke said. ‘You have a 100% New Yorker with high elbows and a lot of bravado. And then you have a Louisiana son of a firefighter that is kind and low-key. So maybe it’s a good match.’

Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump, behind the scenes and in public, speaks well of [Johnson]. I think, like a lot of people, he trusts him.’

Meuser added, ‘[Trump] thinks he could probably improve in certain areas. As I’ve said, some of those bills, I just think we should have fought harder for. But I think they really have a special relationship.’

Indeed, Trump has exercised his powerful influence to help Johnson out of legislative jams before – like expressing public support against GOP rebels’ threats to oust the speaker from leadership, and showing tacit support for Johnson’s plan on foreign aid.

Johnson, for his part, has vehemently defended Trump amid his criminal trials and even recently floated defunding Special Counsel Jack Smith. 

That support extends behind closed doors as well – Johnson touted Trump’s poll numbers in critical swing states during a members-only House GOP Conference meeting on Wednesday morning, multiple people said.

And while he was not the first House GOP leader to endorse Trump’s re-election, his decision to do so was swift and, like much of Johnson’s political calculus surrounding the ex-president, appears to have been a unilateral decision.

Ahead of his November CNBC interview when Johnson made news by endorsing Trump, the source close to him recalled it was suggested that the speaker wait until his political team could put together a formal rollout. 

But Johnson argued that it made no sense to wait because he already supported the ex-president’s re-election, the source said, and then caught staff off guard when he told ‘Squawk Box,’ ‘I’m all in for President Trump.’

Multiple lawmakers categorized Trump and Johnson’s relationship as a productive but working one – the GOP lawmaker who spoke with Fox News Digital said they started out at ‘nearly zero’ – but the source pushed back, citing a recent interview in The Atlantic where Johnson said Trump called him the day after Johnson had to abruptly leave a meeting because his sons had almost drowned.

‘President Trump heard about it somehow – miraculously, this never made the news,’ Johnson had said. ‘He was just so moved by the idea that we almost lost them… and we talked about the faith aspect of that, because he knows that I believe that, you know – that God spared the lives of my sons. That’s how I understand those events, and we talked about that.’

Trump also had a good relationship with Johnson when the latter was part of Trump’s impeachment defense team in 2020, the source said.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, another staunch Trump ally, told Fox News Digital, ‘I think it’s a healthy relationship. I think they both respect each other. And they don’t always agree, but who does? But you know, I think that they’ve got a relationship where they can get together in person or get on the phone and talk about stuff and come up with a common plan, a common strategy.’

Rep. Andy Barr, of Kentucky, another Republican close to both, said their relationship was ‘very beneficial’ to both sides.

‘A lot of credit [goes] to both gentlemen for recognizing that they need each other. We need to collaborate and not just politically, but we want to have an effective first 100 days. We want to grow our majority, take back the White House and flip the Senate, and we want to be ready day one,’ Barr said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to debate former President Donald Trump’s eventual pick for his running mate. 

Harris accepted an invitation to debate Trump’s eventual vice-presidential pick during the summer, offering July 23 and August 13 as options.

Trump is expected to announce his vice-presidential pick during the GOP convention, which begins on July 15. 

‘I don’t say anything is 100%, but you’re getting pretty close,’ Trump said of selecting his running mate. ‘I’ll be doing it in Milwaukee. We’re going to have a great time.’

An official with the Biden campaign told Politico they ‘look forward to the Trump campaign accepting one of these dates so that the full debate calendar for this campaign can be set.’

The debate will be broadcast by CBS News and hosted inside the network’s studios.

In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Biden-Harris campaign proposed that the first debate be in late June, after Trump’s New York criminal trial is likely to be over and after Biden returns from meeting with world leaders at the G-7 Summit. 

A second presidential debate would occur in September prior to the beginning of early voting.

The Biden-Harris campaign asked that the debates occur inside a TV studio, with microphones that automatically cut off when a speaker’s time limit elapses. 

The letter also asked that the debates involve just the two candidates and the moderator — without ‘an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors’ that Trump feeds on. 

They also want the debates without the participation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or other independent or third-party candidates. 

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

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene had a heated exchange Thursday evening during what was supposed to be a contempt hearing for Attorney General Merrick Garland. 

The House Oversight Committee had originally been convened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena to hand over an audio recording of President Biden’s interview with a special counsel. 

The hearing quickly spiraled out of control, with lawmakers bickering with one another. Less than an hour after the hearing was underway, Greene took shots at her Democratic colleague, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas. 

‘Do you know what we’re here for?’ Crockett asked Greene, who shot back: ‘I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.’

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer pleaded for order amid audible groans in the chamber. 

Ocasio-Cortez weighed in saying: ‘I do have a point of order, and I would like to move to take down Ms. Green’s words. That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person… move her words down.’ 

‘Are your feelings hurt?’ Greene asked. 

‘Oh girl, baby girl!’ Ocasio-Cortez shot back. ‘Don’t even play!’ 

Ocasio-Cortez pushed to have Greene’s words ‘taken down,’ which is a procedure to give a speaker the chance to withdraw their words or amend them if they are deemed out of order. 

Comer suspended the hearing while lawmakers weighed striking Greene’s words. Ocasio-Cortez could be heard during discussion: ‘No way is that being allowed’ and ‘not today.’ 

‘We’re not going to do a smarmy apology. She has to actually apologize. And that needs to be up to Ms. Crockett as well,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘It needs to be sincere.’  

Greene later agreed to strike her words but refused to apologize and insulted Ocasio-Cortez’s intelligence, prompting the Democratic Congresswoman to move to strike those words as well. 

Later, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who pushed for the court clerk to report the words, asked Greene again if she would apologize, to which she responded: ‘You will never get an apology out of me.’ 

Crockett later reacted to the brouhaha on X.

‘So MTG wanted to talk about my appearance in COMMITTEE?!’ Crockett wrote on X. ‘This is what happens when mentally deficient people who can’t read and follow rules or just don’t give a damn… somehow end up in CONGRESS!’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The White House on Thursday revealed that President Biden asserted executive privilege over audio and video recordings of his interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur at the request of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

During a media briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was Garland’s suggestion that ‘law enforcement files like these need to be protected.’ 

‘And so the president made his determination at the request of the attorney general,’ Jean-Pierre told reporters. She referred further questions to the White House counsel’s office.

The Department of Justice on Thursday informed House Republicans investigating Biden that the executive branch would not turn over subpoenaed materials from Hur’s investigation. 

‘It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the President’s claim of executive privilege cannot be prosecuted for criminal contempt of Congress,’ Associate Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote to Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and James Comer, R-Ky., chairmen of the Committee on the Judiciary and Committee on Oversight and Accountability, respectively.

Hur led the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents following his departure as vice president under the Obama administration. Hur announced in February that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, citing that Biden is ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

Hur wrote in the report that ‘it would be difficult’ to convince a jury to convict Biden of any willful crime, citing his advanced age. 

The findings sparked widespread outrage that Biden was effectively deemed too cognitively impaired to be charged with a crime but could serve as president. Trump has meanwhile slammed the disparity in charges as a reflection of a ‘sick and corrupt, two-tiered system of justice in our country.’ 

Biden met with Hur for about five hours last year, when he was grilled about his handling of the classified documents. 

After Republicans received news that Biden had invoked executive privilege to protect that testimony, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accused the president of being ‘afraid’ to release the tapes. 

‘President Biden is apparently afraid for the citizens of this country and everyone to hear those tapes,’ Johnson said at a news conference. ‘They obviously confirm what the Special Counsel has found, and would likely cause I suppose, in his estimation, such alarm with the American people that the president is using all of his power to suppress their release.’

Asked to respond to the speaker, Jean-Pierre insisted the president had nothing to hide since transcripts of his interview with Hur have been made publicly available for months.

‘The transcripts are already out there. They’ve been out there, they have been released to the public,’ she told reporters. ‘The public has an opportunity to hear directly from the president and what, or to read what exactly the president said. The attorney general made it clear that law enforcement files like these need to be protected. And that’s the determination that was made.’ 

Jean-Pierre deferred to the attorney general and the president when asked why the audio and video must be protected when the transcript has already been released. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton, David Spunt and Brooke Singman contributed to this update.

Several House Democrats defied the White House to support a bill rebuking President Biden for withholding offensive aid from Israel on Thursday.

The Israel Security Assistance Support Act would condemn the president’s posture on Israel’s Gaza invasion while compelling the Biden administration to expeditiously send any weapons shipments already approved by Congress.

It passed in a 224 to 187 vote, with 16 Democrats joining 208 Republicans in advancing the bill. Democrats who supported it include Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.; Darren Soto, D-Fla.; Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, among others.

Three Republicans also voted against the bill — Reps. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; and Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

‘President Biden’s decision to withhold weapons approved by myself, the chairman and the ranking member and appropriated by Congress, defied congressional intent and is tantamount to an arms embargo,’ House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said during debate for the bill. 

‘Red lines are meant for our enemies. Red lines are not meant for our allies and our friends. But that’s precisely what this administration is doing to Israel.’

The bill would also withhold funding from the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State and the National Security Council if there was any delay in weapons aid.

‘House Democrats have made it clear they’d rather stand in solidarity with terrorists than support our strongest ally in the Middle East,’ House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the No. 3 House Republican leader, told Fox News Digital.

But opponents of the bill argued that it could set a dangerous precedent for restricting a president’s ability to conduct foreign policy.

It comes after President Biden faced bipartisan backlash from pro-Israel lawmakers for pausing a bomb shipment from Israel over fears it could be used in Rafah, as well as for warning Israel that the U.S. would not send offensive weapons if they were used on population centers in the southern Gaza Strip. However, Thursday’s vote happened days after Biden announced he was moving forward with a $1 billion weapons shipment to Israel, according to reports.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has already said he does not plan to take up the bill, citing the White House’s threat to veto the measure if it hit Biden’s desk.

‘The bill is a misguided reaction to a deliberate distortion of the Administration’s approach to Israel. The President has been clear: we will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,’ the White House said earlier this week. 

‘Furthermore, this bill, if enacted, could lead to spiraling unintended consequences, prohibiting the United States from adjusting our security assistance posture with respect to Israel in any way, including to address unanticipated emergent needs, even if Israel and the United States agree that military needs have changed and supplies should change accordingly.’

House Democratic leaders were also actively encouraging their caucus to vote against the bill.

Israel has proven to be a politically fraught topic for the Democratic Party, with a growing number of lawmakers voicing concern about Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.

It has revealed fractures between more moderate and traditional Democrats’ views on the U.S.-Israel relationship and progressives who are increasingly critical of those close ties.

The Biden campaign is taking aim at former President Trump following the administration’s move to ease federal marijuana restrictions.

President Biden announced the ‘monumental’ shift in marijuana policy on Thursday in a video posted on social media, kicking off a process to reclassify the drug from a Schedule I restricted substance to a Schedule III.

‘It’s simple, Joe Biden smokes sleepy Don on delivering for the American people. After four years of all talk, all failure from Donald Trump, Joe Biden is keeping his promise on marijuana policy, moving America forward, and making America safer,’ Biden campaign spokesman James Singer told Fox News Digital following the announcement.

‘Donald Trump was wrong on marijuana policy and made America less safe, hurting young people and communities of color. Voters can’t afford the broken promises and dangerous failures of a second Trump term,’ he added.

Trump’s position on marijuana remained somewhat ambiguous during his presidency. He previously expressed the view that marijuana policy should be determined at the state level, but has also spoken out against related ballot initiatives, citing worries it could boost Democrats.

He did, however, sign the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp. The substance had been prohibited for decades, and his administration allocated resources specifically to enact the reforms in the bill.

The proposed rescheduling will now appear in the Federal Register, where the public can participate in a 60-day comment period. Following this period, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will take the proposal to an administrative law judge, who will consider related evidence and make a recommendation, and then the DOJ will make a final decision on the reclassification.

Schedule I drugs include substances like heroin and ecstasy, while Schedule III drugs include ketamine and anabolic steroids, as well as have ‘a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,’ according to the DEA.

The change, although it wouldn’t legalize the recreational use of marijuana outright, could be popular with young voters as recent polls suggest Biden is struggling with that demographic less than six months from the November general election.

Other polling shows a split among Americans when it comes to easing marijuana restrictions, something Pew found in research published earlier this year, as ‘34% of conservative Republicans say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, compared with a 57% majority of moderate and liberal Republicans,’ the report said.

It added that ‘62% of conservative and moderate Democrats say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use,’ with 84% of liberal Democrats believing the same.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

The House Judiciary Committee advanced a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the subpoenaed audio recording of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. 

The House Judiciary Committee considered a resolution to hold the attorney general in contempt during a markup session Thursday. The vote advances the measure for a full floor vote. 

The move comes after the White House asserted executive privilege over the audio and video recordings related to Hur’s interviews with the president as part of his classified records investigation. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that ‘the attorney general made it clear that law enforcement files like these need to be protected.’ 

‘And so the president made his determination at the request of the attorney general,’ she said. ‘So just want to make that second point that I made really clear.’ 

Hur, who released his report to the public in February after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents, and he stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated ‘sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’

Hur, in his report, described President Biden as a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory’ — a description that has raised significant concerns for Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign.