Most American voters have little confidence that President Biden possesses the physical and mental fitness required to serve another term in the White House, while a similar majority is concerned that former President Trump would not act ethically if elected, according to a new poll.

The Pew Research Center survey released on Wednesday shows that most American voters do not appear happy with a Biden-Trump rematch just six months ahead of the presidential election. 

The survey shows that roughly 15% of voters are extremely or very confident that Biden has the physical fitness needed to do the job of president, with 20% being somewhat confident and approximately 65% of respondents saying they have little or no confidence.

Just 21% are extremely or very confident in Biden’s mental fitness to act as president, according to the survey, with 16% somewhat confident, and 62% having little or no confidence.

Trump garnered more confidence from respondents regarding both physical and mental fitness, with roughly 36% saying they are extremely or very confident he is physically fit for office, 24% somewhat confident, and 40% with little or no confidence. As far as being mentally fit, 38% were extremely or very confident in the former president, 14% were somewhat confident, and 48% had little or no confidence.

Biden continued a streak of public gaffes on Wednesday, when he appeared to read a script instruction off a teleprompter during remarks at a trade union conference in Washington, D.C.

‘Imagine what we could do next. Four more years, pause,’ he said before laughing as the audience began chanting, ‘Four more years.’

Just one day earlier, Biden was mocked for inadvertently claiming that he could not be trusted over former President Trump.

‘I don’t know why we’re surprised by Trump. How many times does he have to prove we can’t be trusted?’ Biden said.

More voters favored Biden when it came to his ability to act ethically in office, with 34% being extremely confident compared to 26% for Trump. About 59% said they have little or no confidence that the former president can act ethically if elected.

Despite this broad criticism of both Biden and Trump, the survey found that the presidential race remains a virtual tie, with 49% of registered voters favoring or leaning toward voting for Trump, while 48% support or lean toward Biden.

Trump is currently standing trial in New York City for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

Trump also faces separate state and federal charges of alleged election interference, and federal charges for allegedly retaining classified documents.  

Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.

He looked like a man with a weight of responsibility off his shoulders – but the burden remains.

Fox News spoke exclusively with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the day that Congress and President Biden signed off on a massive U.S. foreign aid package, with $61 billion of that going to Ukraine’s military in its battle with Russia – after being on hold for six months.

‘We have waited for six months,’ he said in the English-language interview. ‘$61 billion ‘hopes.’ I’m thankful for the people of America.’

The hitch now is getting the weaponry to the troops in Ukraine who have been outgunned and have lost ground to the Russians. Pentagon officials said Ukraine’s military could receive some weapons soon from nearby Germany.

‘God bless we will get it as quick as possible,’ Zelenskyy pleaded, ‘otherwise they (the Russians) will push us back.’

Zelenskyy is fighting not only against Russia, but also for attention. He watched as the U.S. and other allies pitched in to defend Israel fending off attacks from Iran.

I asked him if he was jealous.

‘We saw it,’ he said, ‘and that’s why if the western countries want to be real allies… they have to show the same on our territory.’ 

Zelenskyy is also monitoring American politics. Not just the 112 Republicans who voted against aid in the House… but also that former President Trump might regain the White House and take a harder line on Ukraine. 

We asked him if he could work with Trump. He replied, ‘Of course, of course, we will work with the U.S. in any way because it’s our strategic partner.’

This as the casualties mount in Ukraine, not just on the military, but also on the civilian side. 

We asked him how he kept morale up in the country during these difficult days. 

‘That is the most difficult question for me,’ Zelenskyy replied. ‘It’s a question without a real answer.’

Finally, I asked him perhaps the toughest question: whether Ukraine will win against Russia. 

‘We have to. We have no alternative,’ he said. ‘I don’t know the kind of victory. I’m not sure that everybody will be happy. But, we don’t have any alternative. We have to win and we will.’

At that, President Zelenskyy stood up, shook my hand and thanked me for coming. I thanked him for the exclusive look at his challenges. The look on the man’s face was tired, emotional… but determined.  

Top Democrats are pouncing on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after he gave an impassioned speech condemning the anti-Israel protests on Columbia University’s campus.

‘Why would I ever listen to a man that thinks he should have more say over my body than I do? NEXT,’ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on X under a photo of Johnson at Columbia.

She responded to a report about students heckling Johnson, ‘Good, he’s trying to take all their reproductive rights away.’

Johnson and several New York House Republicans – Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Anthony D’Esposito, and Mike Lawler – visited with Jewish students on the Manhattan Ivy League campus on Thursday after days of demonstrations left them fearing for their own safety.

The speaker denounced the ‘mob’ of pro-ceasefire activists who set up an encampment on the Columbia campus as well as the faculty and staff aiding them. Those protesters loudly booed Johnson’s remarks on Thursday, to which at one point he shot back, ‘Enjoy your free speech.’

New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul accused Johnson of politicizing the demonstrations in comments to reporters in Albany, according to Politico.

‘A speaker worth the title should really be trying to heal people and not divide them, so I don’t think it adds to anything,’ Hochul said. ‘It seems to me there’s a lot more responsibilities and crises to be dealt with in Washington…I’d encourage the speaker to go back and perhaps take up the migrant bill, the bill to deal with closing the borders, so we can deal with the real crisis that New York has.’

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., whose daughter was arrested at the Columbia encampment earlier this week, went a step further and said Johnson was putting people’s lives in danger.

‘It is not surprising that he would go out to Columbia University and stir up really more anger and hate and endanger the lives of young people who are at the encampment at Columbia University,’ she told MSNBC.

The speaker’s office told Fox News Digital in response to the attacks, ‘Speaker Johnson spoke to students at Columbia University because Governor Hochul and other officials in New York have completely failed in their duty to protect Jewish students and combat the rise of antisemitism in their party. We wish it hadn’t been necessary.’

His appearance at Columbia came as officials on both sides of the aisle condemned the demonstrations, which have forced the university to partially move classes online. Similar protests have cropped up at colleges across the country, including at Yale University, where a Jewish student said they were hit in the eye with a flag pole during an anti-Israel event.

‘The college campus used to be the place for respectful debate, for the differences of opinion and the free marketplace of ideas to be discussed. That is not what is happening here,’ Johnson told the activists on Thursday.

‘You’re intimidating and shouting down people you disagree with. You cannot censor and silence viewpoints you disagree with. That is not American. You do not understand what it means to respect the First Amendment.’

A Jewish Democrat in the House called out Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., after he claimed it was a ‘dark day’ following the passage of a foreign aid package that included billions of dollars for U.S. ally Israel, which is embroiled in a war with terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. 

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., took to X this week to scrutinize Sanders for his statement on his amendments to restore United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) funding and to end ‘unfettered’ aid to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which were both blocked from consideration prior to a vote on the package. 

‘It is a dark day for democracy when the Senate will not even allow a vote on whether U.S. taxpayer dollars should fund Netanyahu’s war against the Palestinian people,’ Sanders wrote on X. 

Moskowitz responded in his own post, writing, ‘Bernie, now do AntiSemitism. Why so quiet?’

Both Moskowitz and Sanders are Jewish and each are members of the Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate, despite Sanders’ status as an Independent. 

Sanders did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication. 

After Moskowitz’s criticism, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., came to the senator’s defense: ‘Sen. Sanders’ family was killed in the Holocaust. He dedicates his every moment to realizing tikkun olam. His commitment to protecting innocents in Gaza stems FROM his Jewish values,’ she wrote to her fellow Democratic representative. ‘He and many other Jewish leaders deserve better than to be treated this way. This is shameful.’

The Florida Democrat hit back at Ocasio-Cortez, writing, ‘My family was also killed in the Holocaust. In Germany and in Poland. My grandmother was in the kinder-transport.’

‘They also instilled values in me. It’s why I voted for aid to Israel and for aid to Gaza,’ he said.  

He also slammed the New York congresswoman for responding to him over the internet, adding, ‘We see each other at work, we are both better than doing this here.’

Moskowitz’s question to Sanders on antisemitism comes as anti-Israel demonstrations spread across U.S. college campuses, several involving alleged incidents of threats and intimidation of Jewish students. 

Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), refused to say whether he would consider holding hearings over antisemitism on college campuses when prompted several times by Fox News Digital. 

He was urged to do so by his counterpart, HELP committee ranking member Bill Cassidy, R-La., in the wake of the encampments persisting on campuses nationwide. 

Moskowitz’s office did not provide additional comment on Sanders’ refusal to say whether he would consider hearings in his capacity as HELP chairman. 

A group of Pennsylvania state legislators have taken their fight for the right to sue President Biden over his election executive order (EO) to the Supreme Court. 

A group of 27 state lawmakers are asking the high court to give them standing in a case challenging Biden’s March 2021 Executive Order 14019 on ‘promoting access to voting,’ after a lower court ruled that they lacked standing, according to a petition for writ of certiorari that was filed on Tuesday and shared with Fox News Digital.

The group of Republicans filed the lawsuit challenging the EO, arguing that it is essentially an executive get-out-the-vote effort targeting key demographics to benefit the president’s political party and own re-election, which they argue is unconstitutional with Congress having never enacted a law that grants such an action from the Oval Office.

In their petition filed Tuesday, they asked the court to weigh in, saying that, for the 2024 election, they cannot ‘do their part’ in suing to stop ‘federal and state executive usurpations of Pennsylvania state law, pursuant to the Elections Clause and Electors Clause, unless the Court does its part and declares individual state legislator standing in this case.’

The Elections Clause states that the ‘times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.’ 

The Electors Clause says that ‘each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.’

‘As the Court has stated, when cases involve federal elections, it ‘heightens the need for review’ as [e]lections are ‘of the most fundamental significance under our constitutional structure,’ the petition states.

Biden’s Executive Order 14019 directed ‘executive departments and agencies’ to ‘partner with State, local, Tribal, and territorial election officials to protect and promote the exercise of the right to vote, eliminate discrimination and other barriers to voting, and expand access to voter registration and accurate election information.’

Erick Kaardal, attorney for the Key Stone State lawmakers, argued in legal filings that the executive order — among other things — directed the Department of Health and Human Services to facilitate voter registrations; the Department of Housing and Urban Development to instruct more than 3,000 public housing authorities to facilitate registration drives in those units; the Department of Education to push state schools to register students; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue letters to state agencies that administer SNAP and WIC programs, instructing them to carry out voter-registration activities with federal funds.

‘Each individual legislator has a right to protect ‘their constitutional duty to craft the rules governing federal elections,’’ the petition states. ‘Members of the executive branch should not be permitted to strip state legislators of their Constitutional rights — representative rights of the people.’

That stripping of constitutional rights refers to the legislator’s claim that Biden’s executive order denies them their ‘right to oversee and participate in making legislative decisions regulating federal elections,’ which they say is granted to them in the Constitution. 

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), who filed an amicus brief in the case in lower court, said that ‘this is the most consequential legal issue in the country.’

‘The outcome of this case could determine who holds the White House,’ Stewart Whitson, senior director of federal affairs at FGA, told Fox News Digital.

The Supreme Court receives roughly 8,000 petitions a year and grants roughly 80 of those. 

The Justice Department and White House did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

The latest polling from Bloomberg on the rematch race between former President Trump and President Joe Biden is stunning. 

Trump is being prosecuted in a show trial-circus in Manhattan that serious observers know is both complete nonsense and an utter disgrace. On top of that, Trump is subject to a gag order. He is also obliged to be in court four out of five days a week and thus not campaigning in swing states. 

Despite all of this, Trump is surging in the swing states according to the new Bloomberg numbers, with Trump’s lead increasing to 7 and 8 points in Arizona and Nevada, respectively and to an astonishing 10 point lead in North Carolina! 

Trump is up in Georgia by six points and in Wisconsin by four. Biden ‘leads’ in Michigan by two points but that’s margin-of-error land. When Trump names any solid running mate —former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senators Tom Cotton or Joni Ernst, former National Security Advisor Ambassador Robert O’Brien or either of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin or North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum— Trump’s momentum will increase. 

Vice presidents rarely matter when a voter chooses a president, but the obvious physical infirmity of President Biden changes that in 2024. People will be thinking a lot about ‘President Kamala Harris,’ and shuddering when they do. When Trump chooses a mainstream running mate who is good on the stump, the gap is going to widen in Trump’s favor. 

The issues cake is baked too. My device for recalling them all is ‘A-B-C-D-E-I-E-I-I’: appeasement, the border, crime, ‘DEI,’ education, inflation and Israel. Swing state voters know Biden is on the wrong side of every single one of these issues. And not just on the wrong side by a little. Biden-Harris has gone so far left on all of these issues that detailed arguments don’t even need to be made. Trump and his running mate just have to repeat the mantra. Voters already know the score.

It’s a remarkable comeback for Trump, and he’s got the crazy prosecutors in Manhattan to thank in part. What Bragg is doing in Manhattan is appalling, and it will get worse before it gets better in terms of interference with the campaign in a trial that should never have been begun much less continued into the stretch run of the campaign. Voters are smart. Voters know when the permanent government is putting its thumb on the scale, or in this case, its entire fist. 

And voters don’t like it, any more than they like the cumulative inflation of 20% since Biden was sworn in or Biden’s wide-open border. Not a bit. It’s banana republic politics and it isn’t helping Biden at all and the numbers show that. But when the Democrats committed to a frail and failing nominee, they had to commit to this approach. Biden is incapable of giving a good speech, indeed, he can barely make it around a stage. So Democrats are banking everything on a conviction in New York which, when it comes, will energize the hosts on MSNBC and almost nobody else. It’s priced in already. It’s a show trial and everyone knows how they end. I expect a spectacular backlash from this abuse of the criminal law. Most Americans have due process in their bones and Trump isn’t getting it. Again, voters are smart. They know.

Pray the rebuke Democrats receive in November is enough to reset the party back somewhere close to where the old-school liberals lived. We don’t need a two party system where one party has lost its commitment to the rule of law and to our ally Israel. Democrats have abandoned both. The reckoning is coming.

Hugh Hewitt is host of ‘The Hugh Hewitt show,’ heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Brett Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/TV show today.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case. 

The high court agreed it would review whether Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has immunity from prosecution.

Arguments at the Supreme Court are expected to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, but the former president will not be present for the proceedings. 

Instead, Trump will be in New York City for the seventh day of his criminal trial stemming from charges out of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. 

Trump, a criminal defendant, is required to be present for each day of his trial. He requested, though, to attend Supreme Court arguments on presidential immunity, but Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial, rejected that request. 

‘Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in New York Supreme Court… is also a big deal,’ Merchan said last week, requiring the former president to be in his Manhattan courtroom. 

A ruling from the Supreme Court on the issue of presidential immunity is expected by late June. 

Trump’s criminal trial stemming from Smith’s investigation has been put on hold pending a resolution on the matter. 

The former president and his legal team, in requesting the Supreme Court review the issue of presidential immunity, said that ‘if the prosecution of a President is upheld, such prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination.’ 

‘Criminal prosecution, with its greater stigma and more severe penalties, imposes a far greater ‘personal vulnerability’ on the President than any civil penalty,’ Trump’s lawyers wrote. ‘The threat of future criminal prosecution by a politically opposed Administration will overshadow every future President’s official acts – especially the most politically controversial decisions.’ 

Trump’s request states that the president’s ‘political opponents will seek to influence and control his or her decisions via effective extortion or blackmail with the threat, explicit or implicit, of indictment by a future, hostile Administration, for acts that do not warrant any such prosecution.’

Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Those charges stemmed from Smith’s investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in August.

‘Without presidential immunity, it would be impossible for a president to properly function, putting the United States of America in great and everlasting danger!’ Trump posted on his Truth Social last week, in all capital letters. ‘If they take away my presidential immunity, they take away crooked Joe Biden’s presidential immunity.’ 

In another post, Trump argued that if a president does not have immunity, ‘the Opposing Party, during his/her term in Office, can extort and blackmail the President by saying that, ‘if you don’t give us everything we want, we will Indict you for things you did while in Office,’ even if everything done was totally Legal and Appropriate.’ 

‘That would be the end of the Presidency, and our Country, as we know it, and is just one of the many Traps there would be for a President without Presidential Immunity,’ Trump posted. 

Pointing to his presidential predecessors, and 2020 and 2024 opponent Biden, Trump said: ‘Obama, Bush, and soon, Crooked Joe Biden, would all be in BIG TROUBLE.’ 

‘If a President doesn’t have IMMUNITY, he/she will be nothing more than a ‘Ceremonial’ President, rarely having the courage to do what has to be done for our Country,’ Trump continued, calling for the protection of presidential immunity. ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ 

Trump added that if immunity is not granted to a president, ‘every president that leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party.’ 

‘Without complete immunity, a president of the United States would not be able to properly function,’ he said again.

This will be the second time this term the Supreme Court will hear a case involving the presumed Republican presidential nominee. 

Last month, the Supreme Court sided unanimously with Trump in his challenge to Colorado’s attempt to kick him off the 2024 primary ballot. 

The high court ruled in favor of Trump’s arguments in the case, which will impact the status of efforts in several other states to remove the likely GOP nominee from their respective ballots. 

The court considered for the first time the meaning and reach of Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars former officeholders who ‘engaged in insurrection’ from holding public office again. Challenges have been filed to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot in over 30 states.

Trump, during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital after that ruling, shifted back to the issue of presidential immunity. 

‘Equally important for our country will be the decision that they will soon make on immunity for a president – without which, the presidency would be relegated to nothing more than a ceremonial position, which is far from what the founders intended,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘No president would be able to properly and effectively function without complete and total immunity.’ 

He added, ‘Our country would be put at great risk.’ 

A U.S. Secret Service agent with Vice President Kamala Harris’ detail was removed from their assignment after engaging in a physical fight with other agents while on duty Monday, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The fight was first reported by The New York Post and confirmed to Fox News Digital by a source.

The incident happened at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland while Harris was at the Naval Observatory, but didn’t delay her departure from the base, the Secret Service told Fox News Digital.  

Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, called the incident a ‘medical matter,’ adding that the agency wouldn’t be commenting further. 

‘At approximately 9 a.m. April 22, a U.S. Secret Service special agent supporting the Vice President’s departure from Joint Base Andrews began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing,’ Guglielmi said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.

He added, ‘The agent was removed from their assignment while medical personnel were summoned. The Vice President was at the Naval Observatory when this incident occurred and there was no impact on her departure from Joint Base Andrews.

‘The U.S. Secret Service takes the safety and health of our employees very seriously. As this was a medical matter, we will not disclose any further details.’ 

The agent, who had been acting ‘erratically,’ began punching the special agent in charge after getting on top of him, Real Clear Politics reported. 

The agent, who was handcuffed after the incident and treated by medical staff, had previously been a subject of concern by staff, the outlet reported.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows President Biden’s slight lead over former President Trump vanishing despite Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York City.

Trump’s trial, related to the 34 counts of falsifying business records he’s charged with, began last week with jury selection and moved into opening arguments this week. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

The poll also found the presidential race to be in a dead heat with Biden and Trump tied at 46% support. 

The two remain tied at 37% with the inclusion of independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (16%) and Dr. Cornel West (3%) and the Green Party’s Jill Stein (3%).

Those numbers mark a significant closing of the gap for Trump, who trailed Biden 48%-45% in Quinnipiac’s March poll. However, with the inclusion of Kennedy, West and Stein, Trump held a one-point lead over Biden 39%-38%. 

Biden’s job approval remained dismally low at 35% support, down from 37% in March, while 61% said they disapprove of his job performance, up from 59%.

Regarding the charges Trump faces in his ongoing New York trial, a plurality of 46% said they believe the former president did something illegal, while 45% said he didn’t. However, 27% believe he did something unethical but not illegal, and 18% believe he did nothing wrong.

If Trump were to be convicted on the charges, 21% said they would be less likely to vote for him, 62% said it would not affect their vote and 15% said they would be more likely to vote for him.

Trump has argued the trial is pure politics, a ‘political persecution,’ and he maintains his innocence. The former president, the first ever to be a defendant in a criminal trial, vowed to ‘tell the truth’ if he takes the stand.

He has also argued the trial is unfairly keeping him from the campaign trail, giving Biden an advantage. 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.