House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is gearing up to announce that he’s raised a whopping $12 million in the first three months of 2024 as the GOP braces for the battle to keep the House majority.

It’s part of $36 million the No. 2 House Republican has raised so far during the 2024 election cycle, which began January 2023, according to figures viewed by Fox News Digital. Of the cycle total, $16.1 million was raised solely online.

‘Team Scalise isn’t slowing down,’ he told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘Our digital program has been phenomenal – this [2024 election cycle] we’ve raised over $16 million online … more than any other member of Congress, Republican or Democrat.’

Scalise is funneling a significant portion of that amount into races across the country, including $12 million directly to the House GOP campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, he said.

It’s a strong showing for the Louisiana Republican, a historically prolific fundraiser who spent a significant portion of the current Congress undergoing treatment for cancer that he was diagnosed with in August 2023.

It comes as Republicans fight through their second year with a razor-thin House majority, which will be whittled down to just one vote after the April 19 departure of Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.

Scalise said House Republicans can keep and even expand that margin. He named Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Ohio and even California as places with seats that could flip from blue to red.

‘There’s about 20-plus seats right now that are held by Democrats today that have a very real chance of flipping for Republican candidates,’ he said. 

Scalise named border security and energy prices – and how President Biden has handled both – as two top issues Republicans can lead on to win across the country in November.

‘The top issue you hear about everywhere you go is border security. People are furious that we had over 8 million people come across the border illegally and Joe Biden won’t do anything to stop it,’ Scalise said. ‘And then there’s just the high cost of everything – energy, of course, being at the top of the list, but also groceries – you know, just people talking about sharing their stories about how expensive things are because of the inflation caused by all of the spending in D.C. and all of the policies coming out of Washington.’

A recent Fox News poll showed that 73% of Americans rate the economy negatively – a drop from 83% in May but still a significant number roughly nine months before a presidential election.

The late-March survey also saw Biden get just 30% approval on his handling of immigration, which is a new low.

Scalise said dissatisfaction with life under the Democrat president could also be key to the GOP’s victory in November.

‘Joe Biden is a huge drag on the Democrats’ ticket right now. That’s going to be a big problem for them,’ he said.

Senate Democrats expressed concerns over the status of the war between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza Tuesday as President Biden looks to strike a balance between supporting the U.S. ally and addressing concerns of progressives and Arab and Muslim voters who have made their displeasure known amid the conflict. 

‘I don’t support a cease-fire. I’ve been very clear about that,’ Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital Tuesday. 

In a call last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following an airstrike from the country that killed seven workers delivering food and aid in Gaza, Biden called for an immediate cease-fire to address the need to get aid to the war zone.

Biden’s move to endorse a cease-fire comes as pro-Palestinian protests have plagued his campaign events in recent months. 

‘There’s been far too much civilian death right now,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said of the situation in Gaza. However, he credited Biden with increasing pressure on Israel with ‘an uptick in humanitarian deliveries in the last few days.’

Criticism over Biden’s backing of ally Israel has ramped up in recent days, as reports emerged of his anger and frustration over the country’s killing of several aid workers in Gaza. Last month, the U.S. allowed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire to pass, breaking from a streak of vetoing similar measures.

Netanyahu slammed the move, claiming at the time the ‘United States has abandoned its policy in the U.N. today. Just a few days ago, it supported a Security Council resolution that linked a call for a cease-fire to the release of hostages.’

The prime minister attributed his cancellation of an Israeli delegation’s trip to Washington, D.C., to the resolution’s passage. 

Just two weeks after Biden’s administration allowed the U.N. resolution to pass, Vice President Kamala Harris met with families of American hostages held in Gaza Tuesday. According to a readout from Harris’ office on the meeting, she updated the families on U.S. efforts to bring home all hostages and reaching an agreement for an immediate cease-fire.

A White House official shared that efforts are ongoing to secure the release of more hostages and noted that the passed U.N. resolution additionally called for the release of hostages. However, the resolution did not include condemnation of Hamas, which prompted criticism against the Biden administration.

At a Senate Republican lunch Tuesday, GOP conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., circulated a document to his colleagues, listing ’27 times Biden & Democrats abandoned Israel’ since the initial Oct. 7 Hamas attack. 

The document, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, listed events, including the Biden administration urging Israel to end a ground campaign in Gaza last year and Senate Democrats in November voting against a stand-alone Israel aid bill that did not tie the assistance to aid for Ukraine. 

‘President Biden is demanding a highly damaging, unconditional cease-fire. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are equating Prime Minister Netanyahu to Hamas. These unprecedented actions undermine Israel’s mission to free the hostages and eliminate Hamas,’ Barrasso told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. 

Asked how Biden was handling support for Israel at the same time as addressing concerns for Palestinian civilians, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said, ‘It’s a challenging situation.’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., avoided criticizing Biden for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, instead telling Fox News Digital, ‘I lay blame with the Netanyahu government that has created a humanitarian disaster and doing everything possible every single day to make it worse.’

While Fetterman noted his disagreement with Biden on a cease-fire, he said, ‘Overall, I think the president has remained to stand with Israel.

‘But we need to allow Israel to finish off and go after Hamas.’ 

While Democrats were hesitant to address Biden’s policy toward Israel directly, Senate Republicans were more than willing to slam the president for making decisions on the war based on ‘political calculus,’ as Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, claimed.

‘I think it’s really about trying to appease the increasingly vocal, frankly, pro-Hamas wing, I guess, of their party,’ said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. ‘I mean, they must think that they have a lot of votes they need to open for them.’

According to Vance, Biden’s posture on the war is ‘completely inconsistent’ today with what it was ‘two months ago.’

‘And they’re doing it because they’re worried about losing certain populations in Michigan,’ Vance claimed, likely referencing the significant Arab and Muslim populations in the state. 

Since the onset of the war in Gaza, Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign has faced obstacles among Muslim supporters, who have claimed they are willing to turn their backs on him. 

His campaign has also seen efforts rebuffed by Muslim leaders who have on multiple occasions refused to meet with the president’s team in campaign or official capacities. 

The Biden campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., blasted Biden’s response to Israel’s strike that killed seven aid workers, claiming it was held to a ‘different standard.’ 

‘Why don’t they tell us who got held accountable for the 13 people, warriors killed at the Kabul airport?’ he asked, referencing the deaths of several service men and women during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, overseen by Biden. 

Making a similar point, Fetterman explained, ‘I mean, terrible, terrible things often happen in a war situation, and we really cannot forget that this is all because of Hamas.’ The senator referenced a U.S. drone strike in 2021 that mistakenly killed a number of Afghani civilians in a car. 

I grew up thinking of journalism as a dogged, flawed, yet unmistakable search for the truth.

That may have been wrong, but at least people could (mostly) agree that the media provided a common set of core facts.

Well, that’s all vanished. The rise of social media, while generally a healthy thing, means anyone can post anything, true or false.

The increasingly bitter and outrageous polarization in our politics and society brings unrelenting meanness to the discourse, each side demonizing the other as evil. 

The growing embrace of conspiracy theories, no matter how ludicrous, poisons the dialogue.

People on all sides have sorted themselves into silos, seeking out only media outlets and commentators who reinforce what they already believe.
It’s an ugly picture, no question about it.

And then there’s Donald Trump.

He didn’t create the politics of division, but is a master practitioner. Trump told me he sometimes uses incendiary language to drive media coverage of his issues. So he creates some of his own bad press.

But look at what’s happened to my business. In 2015 and 2016, the press opposed Trump but didn’t think he could win. During his presidency, journalists increasingly denounced most of what he did.

And on Jan. 6, they blamed him for the Capitol riot – understandably, because he summoned his supporters to Washington after months of insisting the election had been stolen, which the press came to call the Big Lie.

But they figured he was washed up in politics. Except now he’s got the nomination and is leading Joe Biden in most swing-state polls, although the president has gained some ground in recent weeks.

Trump was indicted in four criminal cases, the first of which starts Monday. The pundits who said that would sink him now acknowledge the charges wound up helping him by deepening the certainty of his supporters that he is being unfairly persecuted.

Can anyone look at the major newspapers and networks now and deny that, with few exceptions, they are doing everything they can to defeat Trump as a danger to democracy?

Uri Berliner, senior business editor at NPR, says his radio network has gone off the rails in opposing Trump. He has the cojones to do that, while still working there, in an essay for the Free Press and interview with founder Bari Weiss, who left the New York Times as an opinion editor after being harassed by colleagues for being insufficiently liberal.

‘It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent,’ Berliner says, ‘but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding. 

‘In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population. 

‘If you are conservative, you will read this and say, duh, it’s always been this way.

‘But it hasn’t.

‘For decades, since its founding in 1970, a wide swath of America tuned in to NPR for reliable journalism and gorgeous audio pieces with birds singing in the Amazon…No image generated more pride within NPR than the farmer listening to Morning Edition from his or her tractor at sunrise… 

‘By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal. We weren’t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals.’

I am quoting this at length because Berliner makes such a strong case.

‘An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America.’ 

That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model. 

‘Like many unfortunate things, the rise of advocacy took off with Donald Trump. As in many newsrooms, his election in 2016 was greeted at NPR with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. (Just to note, I eagerly voted against Trump twice but felt we were obliged to cover him fairly.) But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency. 

‘Persistent rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the election became the catnip that drove reporting. At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff. 

‘Schiff, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse. By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion. The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports.

‘But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming.’

While making a huge mistake is bad enough, ‘what’s worse is to pretend it never happened, to move on with no mea culpas, no self-reflection. Especially when you expect high standards of transparency from public figures and institutions, but don’t practice those standards yourself. That’s what shatters trust and engenders cynicism about the media… 

‘In October 2020, the New York Post published the explosive report  about the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer shop containing emails about his sordid business dealings. With the election only weeks away, NPR turned a blind eye. Here’s how NPR’s managing editor for news at the time explained the thinking: ‘We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.’

I vividly remember that quote from Terence Samuel, jumped all over it and have never forgotten it. He was later promoted to vice president and executive editor, and is now editor-in-chief of USA Today.

Berliner says the laptop, later confirmed by major news outlets, ‘was newsworthy. But the timeless journalistic instinct of following a hot story lead was being squelched. During a meeting with colleagues, I listened as one of NPR’s best and most fair-minded journalists said it was good we weren’t following the laptop story because it could help Trump.’

NPR carries ‘one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line.’ 

When NPR boasted that it had a higher trustworthy score than CNN or the New York Times, that was the judgment of only 3 in 10 familiar with the network, responding to a poll.

Late yesterday, NPR Editor-in-Chief Edith Chapin told her staff in a memo that she strongly disagrees with the criticism. 

But, she added, ‘With all this said, none of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole, fostering a culture of conversation that breaks down the silos that we sometimes end up retreating to. 

In Berliner’s view,NPR has two choices: ‘We can keep doing what we’re doing, hoping it will all work out. Or we could start over, with the basic building blocks of journalism. We could face up to where we’ve gone wrong. News organizations don’t go in for that kind of reckoning. But there’s a good reason for NPR to be the first: we’re the ones with the word public in our name.’ 

And yet NPR is hardly alone in this respect. 

The New York Times fired Editorial Page Editor James Bennet for daring to run an online column by GOP Senator Tom Cotton after a revolt by the woke newsroom.

Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson said in a book that the paper’s news pages had become ‘unmistakably anti-Trump.’

An on-air revolt by MSNBC’s liberal hosts, denouncing their NBC bosses, forced them to fire Ronna McDaniel four days after giving her a $600,000 contributor contract. While the ousted RNC chief may have been a poor choice because of her efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the larger reason is Rachel Maddow and the MSNBC rebels didn’t want to hear her pro-Trump views on what Nicolle Wallace called their ‘sacred airwaves.’

MSNBC boasts that it refuses to carry many Trump speeches, even on primary victory night, because, well, he’s only going to lie anyway.

This is the most disturbing trend in journalism – and it’s only getting worse.

Congress is now one step closer to extending the life of a key federal government surveillance tool known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

A bill to reauthorize FISA’s Section 702 passed through the House Rules Committee on Tuesday night, the final hurdle for a piece of legislation before it’s considered House-wide. It passed in a 9 to 2 vote.

Section 702 is a provision that allows the federal government to conduct warrantless surveillance of a foreign national outside the U.S. if they’re suspected of ties to terrorism — even if the person on the other end of the communications is an American citizen.

National security hawks and members of the intelligence community have called it a critical tool for preventing another 9/11-style attack. But critics, which include both conservatives and progressives, have been seeking to limit its scope after reported instances of abuse to collect data on Americans.

The fight over Section 702’s renewal has been among the most bitter that House Republicans have had to contend with, while Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also grapples with a razor-thin majority. The current process is House GOP leaders’ third attempt at the tool’s renewal before the April 19 deadline.

The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, a compromise bill between the House Judiciary Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is aimed at curbing instances of abuse by instituting safeguards on accessing Section 702-collected data, particularly if it involves a U.S. citizen.

Under terms agreed upon in the Rules Committee, the House will vote on an amendment backed by the Judiciary Committee to ban warrantless searches of U.S. citizens before voting on the final bill.

A GOP lawmaker opposed to the amendment told Fox News Digital on Tuesday evening, ‘That would effectively kill 702, if that passed.’

Not included in the final bill was an amendment sought by privacy hawks, led by Rep. Warran Davidson, R-Ohio, which would have forced the federal government to seek a warrant before buying U.S. citizens’ data from third-party brokers. 

Opponents of that provision, mostly from the House Intelligence Committee, complained that it was not relevant to Section 702 and would have bogged down its chances of passing in the Senate. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital earlier on Tuesday that Davidson’s amendment would be voted on as a standalone bill later.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Section 702 renewal bill on Thursday, Fox News Digital is told. On Wednesday, administration officials will descend on Capitol Hill for an all-member House briefing on FISA.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report

President Biden harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the way he is prosecuting the war between Israel and Hamas during an interview with Spanish language broadcaster Univision. 

‘I think what he’s doing is a mistake,’ Biden said in an hour-long interview set to air Tuesday night about whether the Israeli leader cares more about his political survival than the national interest of his people. ‘I don’t agree with his approach.’

The interview between Biden and Enrique Acevedo was taped last Wednesday, according to media reports. 

Israel has received an increasing amount of criticism for its military offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by the terror group. 

The scorn has mounted following the deaths of several World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes. Israel said the strike was a mistake and that the WCK vehicles were not targeted. 

Democrats have also called for Biden to withhold arms to Israel unless it does everything possible to limit civilian casualties on the battlefield. Last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. called for Israel to hold new elections. 

In the interview, Biden called for Israel to work toward a ceasefire. 

‘So I what I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country,’ he said. 

‘I’ve spoken with everyone from the Saudis to the Jordanians to the Egyptians. They’re prepared to move in,’ Biden added. ‘They’re prepared to move this food in. And I think there’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now.’

Biden’s criticism comes as progressives are calling for voters to cast so-called ‘protest ballots’ rather than support Biden. Many of the those progressives have accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there was no evidence that Israel was engaged in genocide. 

‘We don’t have any evidence of genocide being created. We don’t have any evidence of that to my knowledge,’ Austin told Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. 

Anti-Israel demonstrators with painted red hands has a deeper meaning that is meant to signify the ’emasculation of Jews’ and represent a ‘bloody defeat.’

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, explained the meaning of the red hands to Fox News Digital after anti-Israel protesters marched through the U.S. Capitol complex on Tuesday.

Bayefsky said that the red hands are a symbol of ‘brutality and human depravity.’

‘Palestinian hands drenched in Israeli blood are indeed a symbol – a symbol of brutality and human depravity,’ she said.

‘No Israeli Jew, or anyone who follows the decades-long attempts to annihilate the Jewish state and everyone in it, can forget the image or the horror of what exactly those blood-stained hands meant.’

Bayefsky said that the red hands became a symbol of the Ramallah Lynching of 2000, during the 2nd Intifada of the violent uprising, and premiered before celebrities wore red hand pins at the Oscars this year.

In October 2000, two IDF reservists, Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz, were lynched by a massive mob in Ramallah, West Bank, after they made a wrong turn in the Palestinian Authority-controlled region. 

After rumors spread about their whereabouts at a police station, around 1,000 Palestinians gathered around the station. 

One of the soldier’s wives listened by cell phone after a Palestinian butcher answered the victim’s phone, and told her, ‘We are now slaughtering your husband.’

One particular image from the carnage became infamous when one of the killers, Aziz Salha, waved his bloodied hands to the crowd from the police station’s window after dozens broke in. 

Salha later explained that the Palestinians present were ‘in a craze to see blood.’ As he waved his hands, the Palestinian mob cheered: ‘Allahu Akbar,’ which means ‘God is great’ in Arabic. 

Salha had said, ‘We were in a craze to see blood. I entered the room… I saw an Israeli soldier sprawled on the floor in front of the door,’ according to court documents, obtained by the Times of Israel. 

‘I came closer to him and saw a knife lodged in his back, near his right shoulder. I removed the knife and stabbed him in the back two or three times… while others in the room continued to kick him. I put my hand over his mouth and the other on his shoulder, in order to strangle him.’

‘I saw that my hands were drenched with blood, and so was my shirt,’ Salha continued. ‘So I went over to the window and I waved my hands at the people who were in the courtyard.’

The mob then threw the bodies out of the station and desecrated them.

Bayefsky said that there is a ‘direct line’ between the Ramallah Lynching of 2000 and the Oct. 7 attacks.

‘A direct line runs between then and October 7 – and those who continue to excuse, ignore, celebrate or enable the murder, rape and torture of Jews still going on in the hellholes of Hamas-run Gaza,’ she said.

She said that the painted red hands represent ‘violent antisemitism’ and reinforces that Israel is in an ‘existential war.’

Those hands represent the terrible reality of violent antisemitism gripping America and the world today.

— Anne Bayefsky, Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust

‘Those hands represent the terrible reality of violent antisemitism gripping America and the world today,’ Bayefsky said. ‘Such a symbol reinforces one fact: Israel is engaged in an existential war against the destroyers of civilization and every civilized society – starting with the United States – should understand the stakes if Israel is denied the right to defend itself against such nihilism.’

On Tuesday, individuals from the far-left anti-war group, Code Pink, gathered to protest the Israeli war inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Capitol Police confirmed to Fox News that more than 50 people were arrested during the protest.

The protesters chanted, ‘Senate can’t eat until Gaza eats!’

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.

The White House on Tuesday downplayed remarks President Biden made earlier in the day in which he seemed to suggest that House Republicans were essentially ‘killing millions of Americans’ by slashing the Affordable Care Act. 

The president spoke at an event at the nation’s capital earlier on Tuesday, touting government spending on childcare and other investments. 

During his speech, the president took a shot at House Republicans over their budget proposals which ‘cut care giving programs by a third.’ 

‘It would mean 260,000 fewer kids in childcare,’ Biden said before accusing former President Trump and his ‘MAGA friends’ of wanting to ‘terminate the Affordable Care Act.’ 

‘Terminate it – well, guess what? – killing millions of Americans, take them off of healthcare insurance. It’s stripping others of services like homecare folks,’ Biden said. 

Later, Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on whether the president meant ‘to essentially accuse Republicans of murder.’ 

Jean-Pierre shot back that Heinrich was taking the most ‘extreme evaluation of what the president said.’ When Heinrich noted the president’s language was ‘stronger than usual,’ Jean-Pierre again said she was ‘taking what [Biden] said to the most extreme part of your definition.’ 

The White House press secretary slammed Republicans for voting to repeal affordable healthcare ‘when it is saving people’s lives.’

‘Why do they do that? Do they not want Americans to have… affordable health care to protect themselves, to save their lives? That’s the question to be asked. The president’s trying to do the right thing. He’s trying to be where majority of Americans are and protect our health care, protect their Medicare,’ Jean-Pierre said. 

Last month, the Biden-Harris campaign accused former President Trump of threatening ‘political violence’ after Trump, while speaking about the auto industry at a rally in Ohio, suggested there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he doesn’t win in the upcoming election in November. 

Trump had been talking about China and how ‘they think that they are going to sell’ cars manufactured in Mexico to the U.S. ‘with no tax at the border.’ 

After getting flak for the comment, Trump doubled down, using the word ‘bloodbath’ again several weeks later at a campaign event to criticize Biden’s border policies.  

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.

More than 50 people were arrested Tuesday after the Senate cafeteria was shut down by anti-Israel protesters chanting ‘Senate can’t eat until Gaza eats!’

The U.S. Capitol Police confirmed to Fox News that those arrested inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., were charged with Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding.

‘It is illegal to demonstrate inside any of the Congressional Buildings,’ Capitol Police said in a statement. 

A video obtained by Fox News shows demonstrators walking through the hallways of the building, raising their hands and saying, ‘Children are starving in Gaza’ and ‘People are dying in Gaza.’

One woman was wearing a shirt that read, ‘Biden’s legacy = Genocide.’

President Biden has come under pressure over the growing civilian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7 last year when the Gaza-based terrorist group launched a surprise attack on Israel.

A source told Fox News that Capitol Police at one point shouted, ‘Everybody out or be placed under arrest,’ to which a protester replied, ‘This is the house of the people!’

Some of the demonstrators appeared to be the same individuals who interrupted testimony by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this morning.

In March, more than a dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested at the Russell Senate Office Building.

The pro-Palestinian demonstrators were heard repeatedly chanting, ‘We call for a permanent cease-fire,’ in the rotunda of the government building, which is connected to the U.S. Capitol.

In February, the U.S. Capitol Police arrested numerous pro-Palestinian demonstrators who staged a die-in alongside a banner with the message ‘cease-fire now’ inside the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Kelly Phares, Aishah Hasnie and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.

The American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library nonprofit in the world, claimed that the ‘censorship’ of sexually explicit books in children’s libraries is discriminatory to the LGBTQ+ community.

‘In looking at the titles of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQIA+ people and people of color,’ ALA President Emily Drabinski said in a statement Monday. ‘At ALA, we are fighting for the freedom to choose what you want to read. Shining a light on the harmful workings of these pressure groups is one of the actions we must take to protect our right to read.’

The group, which sponsors National Library Week in the second week of April every year, identified the top 10 most ‘banned’ books from children’s libraries — all of which were removed for purportedly some sort of sexually explicit content. The association also pioneered the Unite Against Book Bans’ Book Résumé. 

According to ALA, the number of books ‘targeted for censorship’ rose 65% in 2023 compared to the year before, making it the highest recorded number of bans, the group claims.

‘Gender Queer,’ by Maia Kobabe, ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ by George M. Johnson, ‘This Book is Gay,’ by Juno Dawson and ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ by Stephen Chbosky were among the list of most-banned books in public libraries last year for having LGBTQIA+ and sexually explicit content.

‘These are books that contain the ideas, the opinions, and the voices that censors want to silence – stories by and about LGBTQ+ persons and people of color,’ ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said. ‘Each challenge, each demand to censor these books is an attack on our freedom to read, our right to live the life we choose, and an attack on libraries as community institutions that reflect the rich diversity of our nation.’

Last year, during a Senate Judiciary Hearing on book bans last year, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., read an excerpt from Johnson’s ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ which has been banned in more than two dozen school districts. 

‘I put some lube on and got him on his knees, and I began to slide into him from behind,’ Kennedy read from the book, which is a memoir of Johnson’s life. ‘I pulled out of him and kissed him while he masturbated.’

At the time, a college activist defended the book, arguing that if students cannot read books like ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ then ‘they cannot learn about abuse.’

‘Gender Queer’ has also been banned in school districts in a few states, including Florida and Texas. The author previously told the Washington Post in an interview that she ‘originally wrote it for my parents, and then for older teens who were already asking these questions about themselves.’

‘I don’t recommend this book for kids!’ Kobabe told the outlet.

In July 2021, ALA adopted a new code of ethics built upon ‘racial and social justice’ ‘to foster cultural understanding by providing library professionals with a professional framework that supports equity, diversity, and inclusion.’ The association also has an advocacy arm that lobbies in Congress to advance ‘key policies’ and represents ‘the voice for libraries in Washington, D.C.’

Last year, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill making it the first state in the nation to outlaw book bans.

A sticking point in Congress’ fight over renewing a controversial surveillance tool appears to have been resolved days before the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the issue, but not everyone is happy with the decision. 

‘Freedom surrendered is rarely reclaimed. It looks like the plan has shifted to further infringe the right to privacy – under the guise of [FISA] reform. Shameful,’ Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, wrote on X.

Discussions over renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on April 19, abruptly blew up in February when Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee walked away from a compromise bill they spent months putting together with the House Judiciary Committee.

Multiple sources close to the Intelligence panel told Fox News Digital at the time that the legislative text had been changed to potentially allow for the inclusion of an amendment led by Davidson that would have required the federal government to obtain a warrant before purchasing U.S. citizens’ data from big tech firms. Those sources argued that it was unrelated to Section 702’s intelligence gathering practices and could have sunk the bill.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that Davidson’s measure, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, would instead be getting a separate vote on the House floor.

‘This time it’s going to be its own bill, separately to FISA,’ Scalise said. ‘So that one’s gonna go separately.’

‘We wanted to get this before the membership, before the expiration of FISA and get it over to the Senate,’ he added.

It is not immediately clear when that measure would get a vote, but its decoupling from the FISA renewal bill is likely to boost the latter legislation’s odds of passing in the Senate. At the same time, it is a blow to privacy hawks who were hoping to use the renewal process to put more distance between the federal government and Americans’ data.

In his X post Monday, Davidson suggested House GOP leadership was infringing on Americans’ civil liberties with the move. Fox News Digital reached out to his office for further comment.

James Czerniawski, a tech policy expert for the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, argued of the decision, ‘Taking the databroker loophole and separating it from the FISA all but ensures it dies in the Senate.’

The bill to renew FISA Section 702 is expected to get a vote on Thursday, according to an early schedule viewed by Fox News Digital.

FISA Section 702 allows the federal government to surveil foreign nationals overseas who are suspected of terrorism ties without a warrant, even if the person on the other end is an American. 

Multiple audits and prior reports have shown that the FBI has misused Section 702 in the past to search for data on Americans involved in Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, among other incidents.

However, defenders of the surveillance tool, including the intelligence community and its allies, said it is critical to prevent another 9/11-style terror attack.

Disagreements over warrant requirements have continued to drive a wedge between national security hawks and an unusual coalition of hardliners on the left and right who argue the federal government has abused its access to private citizens’ data.

Davidson’s bill is also backed by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, as well as House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.