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Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, endorsed former President Donald Trump to be the Republican presidential nominee on Wednesday, becoming the final member of the Senate GOP leadership conference to do so. 

‘We must beat Joe Biden and get this country back on track,’ Ernst wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday. ‘Donald Trump has my support.’

Ernst’s endorsement comes a day after Trump swept nearly 1,000 Super Tuesday delegations, inching closer to securing his spot as the GOP presidential front runner in November. Trump’s only primary opponent, Nikki Haley, suspended her presidential campaign on Wednesday morning.

Last month, Ernst criticized Trump’s use of the word ‘hostages’ to describe his supporters who were arrested for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’

Host Kristen Welker asked Ernst if she was bothered by Trump’s description of the Jan. 6 prisoners.

‘It does in this context because we do have American hostages that are being held against their will all around the globe, and especially if you look at the innocents that were attacked and kidnapped on Oct. 7,’ Ernst responded. ‘We are approaching nearly 100 days. These are people that have been taken. They’re held in tunnels with terrorists, they are being tortured, they have been raped, they have been denied medication. So, equating the two, there is no comparison.’

Ernst later said in the interview she would not be opposed to pardoning those who were involved on Jan. 6 and that it would be at the president’s discretion. 

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has refused to comment over the last few months on whether he would endorse the former president, also endorsed Trump on Wednesday. 

‘It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States. It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support,’ McConnell said in a statement. 

He continued: ‘During his Presidency, we worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary, most importantly, the Supreme Court.’

More GOP lawmakers in both chambers are rallying behind former President Donald Trump. Over 100 House Republicans and over two dozen Senate Republicans have endorsed the former president. 

Fox News’ Lawrence Richard contributed to this report. 

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The $460 billion government funding bill the House of Representatives is set to vote on Wednesday had included $1 million marked for an LGBTQ community center that once held a drag event with children.

It comes as Democrats celebrate the lack of ‘poison pills’ in the bill while GOP hardliners lament what they call a lost opportunity to force passage of conservative policies.

The earmark for the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia was advocated for by Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., and Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman, both Pennsylvania Democrats.Fetterman and Casey later sent a letter asking that the funding be stripped, but Fetterman told reporters on Wednesday that it was his staff who sent the letter, while he supported the money.

A 2016 article published in the Philadelphia Gay News titled, ‘Youth celebrate the art of drag at William Way,’ described an 11-year-old boy named Esai and an 8-year-old named Max participating in a youth drag event at the center.

‘When Esai slides down from his chair, his blonde hair is in tight curls, his lips are purple and his eyes are lidded with pink and silver eye shadow against his rosy face. He teeters by in heeled boots far too big for him and changes out of his purple ‘We Are Made of Stars’ T–shirt. He could be any little girl playing dress-up, save for the expert cosmetic application,’ the article reads.

It described his makeup as being applied by ‘a bearded man in studded leather platform boots.’

‘Max dances to ‘No’ by Meghan Trainor, periodically dropping into the splits in his long, red dress. None of this is choreographed – it really is just kids dancing around, playing dress–up, having fun,’ it said of the 8-year-old.

The allocation was highlighted in a memo by Advancing American Freedom (AAF),a policy and advocacy group started by former Vice President Mike Pence.

It’s one of more than 6,000 allocations in the bill, which total $12.7 billion in spending – something conservative lawmakers are furious about.

‘Earmarks are basically, it’s congressional crack,’ Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital. ‘Congressional opium – and opium is O-P-M, other people’s money. Congress is hooked on it.’

‘You get people to vote for it, you increase spending, increased borrowing, you send our nation further down the track of fiscal irresponsibility,’ he said.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, argued that lawmakers will not have enough time to properly scour the bill’s contents with all of the additional details.

‘There is no way any mortal could actually vet all of the earmarks in the 48-hour time period they’ve given us so far. These highlights are just the tip of the iceberg. Heads must roll,’ he wrote.

Meanwhile, AAF’s memo pointed out that policies that GOP hardliners fought to include in the bill – like limitations on transgender medical care, pride flag displays, and critical race theory – were not included in the final bill.

It’s something Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrated on Tuesday, declaring the bills were free of ‘devastating cuts or poison pill riders pushed by the MAGA.’

UPDATE: Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked for the funding to be stripped out of the package via unanimous consent after the Pennsylvania lawmakers raised objections.

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By a strange process of transformation, Joe Biden has become Jimmy Carter.

Everything he touches turns into a crisis.

Like Carter, Biden has presided over an inflationary economy, spiking interest rates, shortages of essential goods, and danger and disaster abroad.

Carter offered the world Christian meekness and no ‘inordinate fear of communism.’

The world responded with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the agonizing hostage crisis in Iran.

Biden’s self-inflicted rout from Afghanistan was followed by the release of $6 billion to the religious mafia that rules Iran.

In return, the Iranian regime has encouraged its proxies to kill American soldiers and attack American warships.

The most important way in which Biden resembles Carter is this: Voters have made up their minds about him.

They think he’s a loser, and they want him gone.

That’s true even of Democrats, a majority of whom think he’s too old and dotty to stick around for a second term.

Biden is a loser.

If 2024 were a normal presidential election, Donald Trump would beat him like a drum.

Nikki Haley would beat him.

Spongebob Squarepants would beat him.

Yet these are not normal times, and there’s a high degree of probability that Biden will be re-elected.

Unlike Carter, who really was the Democratic front man, Biden is a sock puppet for an institutional conglomerate that exercises enormous influence over our national politics, our government, and our culture.

The elites who inhabit these institutions like to speak of the arrangement as ‘Our Democracy,’ which roughly translates into ‘given our obvious moral and intellectual superiority, we must be allowed to govern in perpetuity.’

They have the tools to make it happen, too — wearing the appropriate masks and disguises, they often impersonate the popular will.

I’m not talking about Trump’s complaint that he was robbed at the polls in 2020, a sterile controversy best passed over in silence.

The options available to Our Democracy are, in reality, far more tentacular and oppressive than crude ballot-stuffing.

It can, for example, take a lie and make it echo and thunder for years, like the half-million news articles published about Trump’s supposed criminal collusion with Russia.

Or it can take the truth and bury it so deep that it has suffocated to death by the time some determined soul unearths it — think Hunter Biden.

How is this done?

Well, here is a partial roster of the institutions Our Democracy controls at the moment: the White House, half of Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the scientific establishment and expert class in general, the old prestige media, the new digital media (minus Twitter/X), the universities, the arts and entertainment world, and famous corporations from Coca-Cola to Nike.

When these gigantic entities synchronize their voices, the chorus is so deafening little else can be heard within the information sphere.

And when they withdraw their attention — as they have from Americans left behind in Afghanistan or taken hostage by Hamas — it’s as if it never happened.

What does Our Democracy want?

Its representatives spout magnificent nonsense about justice, diversity, and inclusion.

They comprise the college of cardinals of the church of identity and ecology, and are therefore authorized to smite you, as an infidel, with their righteous condemnations.

But the soul of Our Democracy is will to power.

The point of control is control.

The measure of success is the number of Americans placed in a position of dependence to the elite class.

More immediately, the objective is the permanent dominance of the Democratic Party, political home and bastion of that class.

Thus when Hunter Biden, son of the Democratic presidential candidate, abandoned a laptop crammed with all sorts of scandalous material, Our Democracy conscripted 51 intelligence executives, who surely knew better, to dismiss it all as a Russian ‘hack.’

And behold, there was no laptop.

And when Trump, a Republican president, speculated about COVID-19 having started with a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China, Our Democracy dragooned five scientists, several of whom had speculated along the same lines as Trump, to author a ‘study’ contradicting him and themselves.

Suddenly, blaming China betrayed a racist predisposition.

Opposition to Our Democracy can never be legitimate.

Consequently, Trump, the likely Republican candidate, must always be a moral impossibility — a ‘dictator,’ an ‘authoritarian,’ a Mussolini from the fascist heartland of Queens.

Listen to The New York Times, Atlantic, Politico: Trump isn’t merely a bad candidate — he’s beyond the pale.

The harsher the attacks, however, the higher Trump seems to climb: to the horror of the elites, he’s presently trouncing Biden in most opinion polls.

So he must be disposed of somehow.

He must be prosecuted in heavily Democratic venues and indicted, not once or twice but 91 times.

And just in case, his name must be removed from the ballot: the ideal election under Our Democracy is a choice of one.

Fear and loathing of Trump is a defining feature of elite sensibility, but any politician who threatens Biden’s re-election will get the same treatment. Robert Kennedy, Jr., who is making a third-party bid, has been called ‘vile’ and ‘racist.’

The No Labels group, which is considering fielding a candidate, has been accused of ‘brain-breaking logic’ that promotes ‘less democracy.’

Nikki Haley has so far been spared because she is thought to weaken Trump.

The moment she endangers Biden, we can be sure that The New York Times will reveal her participation in a sex trafficking ring or possibly ritual cannibalism.

Nobody is so insignificant as to avoid the tentacles of the conglomerate.

Only in this sense is Our Democracy truly democratic: all of us, high and low, are given our marching orders, which we defy at our peril.

Parents of schoolchildren who dissented from the identity creed have been treated like domestic terrorists.

Participants at the pro-Trump Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building were prosecuted as subversives and punished with long prison sentences.

Other critics have been subjected to harassment from federal agencies like the IRS and the FBI.

A convoluted censorship apparatus was erected at the start of the pandemic, eventually giving the White House control over what was allowed to be said on all the major digital platforms.

The FBI, faithful servant of the system, stood guard over forbidden speech: unorthodox opinions about the virus at first, but soon, inevitably, the ban spread to topics that favored Trump and the Republicans, identity heresy, Ukraine war criticism, mockery of the Biden administration — pretty much everything the First Amendment was enacted to protect.

Censorship bureaucrats devised a bizarre jargon of control: ‘misinformation’ meant error, ‘disinformation’ meant deliberate falsehood, and ‘malinformation’ was truth Our Democracy found unacceptable.

Without warrant or warning, millions of posts by ordinary Americans were taken down.

Some of those posters were permanently silenced.

Trumpist websites were arbitrarily ‘deplatformed.’

Nothing like it had been seen in our country since John Adams rubbed his hands with glee over the Alien and Sedition Acts.

One might have expected members of the entity formerly known as ‘the press’ to investigate the abuses and raise the alarm.

That idea is too retro for words, literally.

Today, the great organs of the news media are happy to serve as attack dogs of the elite class and obedient apologists of institutional power.

Our Democracy aims to dominate the information sphere — as things now stand, it can speak loudly to everyone, while its opponents, shoved into an informational ghetto, speak mostly to themselves.

This is the array of forces standing behind the doddering, stupefied figure of Joe Biden, eager to foist him on American voters.

Our Democracy is the true candidate and ultimate question to be settled by the 2024 election.

It is battling mightily, with every weapon available, to destroy Trump and other obstacles to its continued rule.

Sooner or later, I imagine, it will succeed.

The wisdom of Ecclesiastes tells us that the fight does not go to the strong — but a political analyst would be crazy to bet any other way.

Is it possible to identify a glimmer of optimism somewhere in this bleak landscape?

I can think of two strategic vulnerabilities that should trouble Our Democracy.

One is the massive unpopularity of its policy positions.

Large majorities of Americans of all races and political leanings question the sanity of open borders, for example, and believe that merit rather than grievance should determine outcomes.

If the 2024 election is fought on the merits of the case, the Democrats lose big.

The second vulnerability is Biden’s obvious and extraordinary unfitness to stay on as president.

The report by Special Counsel Robert Hur, which characterized the president as ‘an elderly man with poor memory,’ was official confirmation of what we can plainly see with our own eyes.

Old age is terminal: there’s no fixing Biden, and there’s no clear way out of this mess for the Democrats.

If he clings to power, he will continue to decline physically and politically, opening the door to a Republican victory in 2024 — in the person, it may be, of the dreaded Trump.

If Biden turns down a second term at this late hour, his vice president, Kamala Harris, would be the natural heir to the party leadership, but she’s even more unpopular than he is.

With Harris as candidate, defeat would be virtually certain.

If a free-for-all erupts over the top spot, either because Biden has offered to abdicate or because the paladins of Our Democracy wish to shove him aside, the internal trauma to the Democratic Party would probably prove fatal, regardless of who the winner might be.

The Democratic establishment is solid but brittle.

Once it crumbles, the agents of chaos will be in command, as they have been for some time in the Republican Party.

To my mind, these are low-probability events, as the elites realize how much they stand to lose and will huddle in a conformist herd for protection.

Fortunately, however, history is not a mathematical proposition — and one can always hope.

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Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed former President Trump’s re-election campaign on Wednesday after Trump collected nearly 1,000 delegates from a thunderous performance on Super Tuesday.

‘It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States. It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support,’ McConnell said in a statement. 

He continued: ‘During his Presidency, we worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary — most importantly, the Supreme Court.’

‘I look forward to the opportunity of switching from playing defense against the terrible policies the Biden administration has pursued to a sustained offense geared towards making a real difference in improving the lives of the American people,’ McConnell added.

The endorsement comes after Trump’s only primary opponent, Nikki Haley, suspended her presidential campaign on Wednesday morning.

McConnell, who turned 82 last month, was the most senior member of Congress that had yet to endorse Trump.

His endorsement comes after he vehemently criticized Trump and called him ‘morally responsible’ for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

McConnell blamed Trump for inciting the riot and said he was responsible for the ‘entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe’ and ‘wild myths’ about the election. The Senate leader ultimately did not vote to convict Trump on impeachment charges.

McConnell’s endorsement comes as he announced last week that he would step down as Republican leader to pursue ‘life’s next chapter.’

‘One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,’ he said on the Senate floor. ‘So I stand before you today… to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.’

‘I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics, and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed,’ McConnell added.

He will serve the remainder of his term, which formally ends in January 2027.

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The House of Representatives is expected to take one step closer to ending a brutal, months-long fight over government funding on Wednesday with a vote on a nearly $460 billion spending package.

The 1,050-page bipartisan legislation is a package of six bills dealing with departments and agencies whose funding expires on Friday – Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the Justice and Commerce Departments; Energy and Water Development; the Department of Interior; and Transportation and Housing.

Funding tied to Congress’ six remaining bills, which include the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon, expires on March 22.

If passed, the House will have made major strides toward ending a divisive chapter fueled by disagreements over how federal funds are spent. 

Much of the division has been led by GOP hardliners who have wielded outsize influence as a result of House Republicans’ razor-thin majority. House Freedom Caucus members and their allies have called for their leaders to leverage a government shutdown to force significant spending cuts and conservative policy measures. But many have dismissed these as dead on arrival by Democrats who control the Senate and White House.

It’s led to friction within the House GOP, with those hardliners lodging protest votes on procedural measures that have temporarily paralyzed the House floor. A small group of right-wing lawmakers joined all House Democrats last October to boot House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R– Calif., from power, the first time in history a speaker was ousted, The move was precipitated by him working across the aisle to avoid a shutdown.

Those disagreements are the same reason House GOP leaders are bypassing traditional mechanisms to rush the bill to the floor under suspension of the rules – meaning the threshold for passage rises from a simple majority to two-thirds.

Because Republicans are operating under their slimmest House majority in modern history – just two seats – the decision guarantees that Democratic support will be necessary for passage.

Traditionally, any bill being considered for a House-wide vote would have to first go through the House Rules Committee, which sets parameters for amendments and debate. The full House then votes on the rules for debate – usually along partisan lines – before the final vote.

Before 2023, a rule vote had not failed in two decades. But GOP hardliners’ weaponization of them has led to House leaders skirting them altogether on must-pass bills. 

It’s left members of every faction of the House GOP frustrated, though they disagree about the blame.

‘The House Freedom Caucus is actively undermining the work of Congress. By [forcing] a bipartisan minibus package to be passed under suspension of the rules instead of a simple majority, these people have demonstrated that they have no real solutions… they just crave the spotlight,’ a senior House GOP aide told Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said the lack of an amendment process that comes with suspending rules tells voters ‘their concerns don’t matter.’

‘Funding a runaway border and endangering our country is the ‘bipartisanship’ claim by those who continue voting to bankrupt our nation,’ Perry told Fox News Digital.

In comments made to reporters last week, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., suggested GOP leaders were working against their own interests by passing bills under suspension. He called the move ‘a terrible decision.’

‘There’s really no ability to block bills that are passed under suspension that the Democrats want passed,’ Good said. ‘I actually had a Democrat member tell me this morning, ‘We like it when you’re in charge because nothing changes, but you guys get all the blame.’’

If passed, the bill will have to go through the Senate and get President Biden’s signature to avoid a partial shutdown by the end of this week.

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Former President Donald Trump and President Biden continued marching toward their respective parties’ presidential nominations largely unhindered this Super Tuesday as both swept nearly every contest on the largest primary night of 2024.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, hoped to find some light at the end of the tunnel after staking her candidacy on the 15 states casting ballots, while Biden’s top challengers looked for any glimmer of success after making their case against the president’s age and ability to take on Trump in a general election rematch.

From Haley securing her first statewide victory to Biden suffering a shocking defeat to an obscure businessman, here are the top moments from what many thought would be an uneventful Super Tuesday:

1. Trump triumphs, though Haley wins first statewide contest in Northeast nail-biter

Trump won nearly every Super Tuesday state as he got closer to clinching the GOP nomination for president. Still, after winning her first contest in the race for the Republican nomination in the Washington, D.C. primary over the weekend, Haley secured her first statewide victory by narrowly edging Trump in Vermont.

The Fox News Decision Desk called the race after both candidates alternated taking the lead as the votes were counted over a period of a few hours following polls closing.

Haley was widely expected to do well in Vermont, one of the few states that held an open primary on Tuesday night where both Republicans and Democrats could vote.

Leading up to the primary, Haley held an event in the state featuring Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott, a vocal critic of Trump, who had previously endorsed her White House bid.

Vermont will award 17 delegates in the primary. If Haley hits 50%, she will be awarded all the state’s delegates. If not, the delegates will be divided up between her and Trump.

Vermont was a staunch red state up until the election of Democrat President Bill Clinton in 1992. Former President George H.W. Bush defeated former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in the state four years prior. Democrats have easily won the state every election since.

2. Biden suffers first 2024 loss to little known challenger

Biden lost his first contest in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination to a largely unknown candidate in the U.S. territory of American Samoa, while his better-known challengers, author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, failed to gain much traction with voters.

The Fox News Decision Desk projected that Jason Palmer, a self-described entrepreneur and investor, would win American Samoa’s caucuses, taking four delegates to Biden’s two.

On his campaign website, Palmer describes himself as a 52-year-old resident of Baltimore, Maryland, with leadership and executive experience working for companies like Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.

According to Palmer, he also has 25 years of small business experience in addition to his executive-level experience.

A Mar. 1 press release from Palmer’s campaign says the businessman will appear on the ballot in 16 states and territories, and touts him as being the youngest Democrat candidate for president.

Palmer reacted to his victory in American Samoa in a post on X, saying, ‘Honored to announce my victory in the American Samoa presidential primary. Thank you to the incredible community for your support. This win is a testament to the power of our voices. Together, we can rebuild the American Dream and shape a brighter future for all.’

The Biden campaign downplayed the loss by pointing to what it said was the likelihood that less than 500 total votes were cast in the contest.

As a territory, American Samoa does not get a vote in the general presidential election, and is only permitted to send delegates to the convention during the primary season. 

3. Haley remains vague on her campaign’s future

Haley did not make any public address on Tuesday after most of the races had been called for Trump except for her lone victory in Vermont’s primary. It’s unclear if she intends to remain in the race, but a statement released by her campaign after most of the races had been called claimed a ‘large block’ of Republican voters still had ‘deep concerns’ about Trump.

‘We’re honored to have received the support of millions of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests,’ campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said. 

‘Unity is not achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re united.’ Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better,’ she added.

After losses in Iowa and New Hampshire earlier in the year, Haley invested heavily in her home state of South Carolina, only to lose to Trump by a massive 20-point margin.

She then vowed to stay in the race and appeared to be staking her campaign on the results of Super Tuesday.

4. Concern grows over Trump’s ability to win over Haley supporters

Although Haley came out on top in just one contest on Tuesday, recent polls suggest large portions of voters supporting her say they were motivated by their opposition to Trump, and that they might not shift their support to him as the Republican nominee in November.

That doesn’t mean those would automatically show up to support Biden, but, as Fox News contributor and Republican strategist Karl Rove said amid Tuesday’s results being tallied, ‘Team Trump ought to be concerned about unifying the Republican Party.’

Rove, who made the comments while appearing on Fox News’ Super Tuesday coverage, pointed to Haley winning a significant share of the vote in Vermont, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maine, and North Carolina.

‘There’s still some work to be done to unify the Republican Party, and that’s going to depend a lot on [Trump’s] tone tonight, and whether or not he stops doing things like calling [Haley] ‘birdbrain,’ and threatening that if you give money to her campaign you’re going to be permanently banned,’ he said.

Trump spoke for around 20 minutes not long after Rove’s comments, but didn’t once mention Haley. He has consistently condemned Republicans not considered part of the ‘MAGA’ wing of the party.

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

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Speaking in Brazil recently, Secretary of State Antony Blinken unceremoniously announced that the Biden administration considered Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria as illegal under international law. 

After more than three years of appeasing and enriching the Islamic Republic of Iran, alienating vital allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel, and allowing American tax dollars to flow once more to Palestinian terrorists, Team Biden has taken yet another counterproductive step by embracing the same failed anti-Israeli Washington orthodoxies that plagued the Obama administration and have delivered decades of disappointment. 

During my time as secretary of state, under the leadership of President Trump, we decided to approach the Middle East differently. We deterred Iran instead of making deals with it, and we built a coalition of nations to help maintain that deterrence. 

We established the Abraham Accords, which saw many Muslim nations finally recognize Israel’s right to exist. We supported our friend and ally Israel by stopping the flow of American taxpayer dollars that propped up Palestinian terror, as well as by recognizing Israel’s sovereignty in places like the Golan Heights. 

Crucially, we also took direct aim at the underlying lie that Israel was an illegitimate ‘occupier’ in the regions of Judea and Samaria – which encompass much of the West Bank – by enacting a strictly factual and legal policy that has since become known as ‘The Pompeo Doctrine.’ 

This policy made clear that Israel exists within its present territory with legal title and sovereign legitimacy as a matter of international law. We did so only after careful study of history and precedent both in the international community and within the State Department’s own record; our decision was consistent with policies going back to President Reagan, and even to Undersecretary of State Eugene Rostow, who negotiated the 1967 U.N. resolution that set out peace terms between Israel and her Arab neighbors following the Six-Day War. 

More importantly, our decision was also based on historical and biblical truth: Judea and Samaria are rightful parts of Israel’s historical homeland. These regions are full of historic sites that reflect their immense religious and cultural importance to the Jewish people, including Hebron – the burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Shiloh, the resting place of the tabernacle; and Shechem, the site of Joseph’s tomb. 

Having personally traveled through Judea and Samaria, I have seen many of these incredible places along Route 60 – the ‘Biblical Highway.’ Their existence confirms the truth: The Jewish people have a right to live there, and the Jewish nation state has a right to build communities there. It is Israel’s land.

President Biden has now decided to ignore this truth, obtusely viewing it as an obstacle to peace and making the same mistake favored by his predecessor in the Obama administration. 

Undermining Israel’s right to exist in the Jewish people’s homeland deepens and prolongs the conflict.  It is not Israeli settlements that are an obstacle to peace – it is the unwillingness of the Palestinians to come to the table honestly and acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, the gross atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, and Hamas’ continued existence. Those are the true obstacles to peace. 

Disturbingly, Team Biden’s reversal of the ‘Pompeo Doctrine’ has just as much to do with satisfying its far-left progressive base as it does with implementing a flawed vision for peace. 

At an event in Dearborn, Michigan a few weeks ago, Jon Finer, one of President Biden’s deputy national security advisers, told an irate crowd that his administration’s lukewarm statements of support for Israel were ‘missteps’ that he regretted had left a ‘very damaging impression,’ while Biden himself recently characterized Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas as ‘over the top.’

And with an election cycle fast approaching, the president has directed his administration to develop an Israel-Palestinian ‘peace plan’ that includes ‘the establishment of a Palestinian state,’ and reports have surfaced that the administration has been conducting investigations into possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.  

Amid a war and only a handful of months after it suffered the worst antisemitic attacks seen since the Holocaust, Biden is now pressuring Israel to surrender its safety and security – all to win an election later this year. 

Biden is trading true peace for votes; counter to what is in Israel’s best interest. It is gross and indecent. 

In an effort to appease the apparently pro-Hamas left in this country, Biden has bought into the same Washington lie that will only lead to more conflict and reward the wicked acts of terror perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7. America, Israel and the world deserve better. 

Lasting peace will only come when Iran’s influence is diminished and deterred and terrorist groups in the region are rendered impotent. In November, I hope the American people reject these failed policies and elect leaders who will clean up Biden’s mess. 

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Former President Donald Trump and President Biden are a giant step closer on Wednesday morning to a 2024 general election rematch, after the Republican and Democratic Party frontrunners ran the table on Super Tuesday as 16 states from coast to coast held presidential nominating contests.

‘They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one,’ Trump said in a primary night victory speech in front of a large group of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. ‘This has been a day that we’ve been waiting for.’

And looking ahead to his all-but-certain general election battle with Biden, Trump highlighted that ‘November 5th is going to go down as the single most important day in the history of our country.’

Biden, in a statement on the Super Tuesday results, said ‘today, millions of voters across the country made their voices heard—showing that they are ready to fight back against Donald Trump’s extreme plan to take us backwards.’

‘Every generation of Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy. This is our fight,’ he emphasized.

Longtime Republican strategist David Kochel, a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns, told Fox News as the Super Tuesday votes were being tabulated that ‘it’s pretty clear both parties are ready to get to the general election.’

While Trump didn’t clinch the 2024 Republican nomination on Tuesday, the former president was on course to capture the vast majority of the 854 Republican delegates up for grabs, moving him significantly closer to locking up the nomination over his last remaining rival – former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

And while the former president didn’t mention Haley in his speech, pointing to his primary victories over his rival, he touted that ‘there’s never been anything so conclusive.’

Trump’s convincing victories in 14 of the 15 states holding GOP nominating contests – Haley narrowly edged the former president in Vermont – are also turning up the volume on calls by fellow Republicans for Haley to end her White House bid.

‘I do think it is time for her to step aside and let the party rally fully around Donald Trump so that he can take Joe Biden on and beat him in November,’ Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders – a former Trump White House press secretary who has endorsed the former president – said in an interview on Fox News ‘America Reports’ Tuesday afternoon.

Haley didn’t sound like she was dropping out during a ‘Fox and Friends.’ interview on Tuesday morning.

‘As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I’m not ready to get out yet. I’m still sitting there fighting for the people that want a voice,’ Haley spotlighted.

Her campaign said that Haley watched primary night returns with staff as they huddled in her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. The candidate didn’t deliver any speech or release a statement.

Haley, who had said she would remain in the race at least through Super Tuesday, has remained mum on any plans going forward.

But in a statement Tuesday night, the Haley campaign said ‘we’re honored to have received the support of millions of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests.’

And pointing a bunch of Super Tuesday states where Haley captured anywhere from a quarter to a third of the vote in the GOP contests, the campaign argued that ‘today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.’

Kochel, who remains neutral in the nomination battle, called the Super Tuesday results ‘a pretty dominant night for Trump.’

He said ‘this thing is getting pretty close to being wrapped up’ and that ‘it’s decision time’ for Haley.

With more large states like Georgia, Florida, Illinois and Ohio among the eight holding primaries on March 12 and 19, Trump is expected to reach the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the nomination by the middle of this month.

Trump’s campaign predicted in a memo last month that even under the most favorable modeling for Haley, the former president would clinch the nomination by March 19.

Fox News contributor Karl Rove, the veteran GOP strategist and political mastermind behind former President George W. Bush’s two presidential election victories, emphasized that it was ‘a strong night for Donald Trump.’

But pointing to the support Haley was able to garner, Rove said ‘the high command at Team Trump should be concerned about unifying the Republican Party… there’s still some work to be done.’

And Kochel noted that the Trump and Biden campaigns ‘are going to be fighting over these Nikki Haley voters.’

Biden, who faces nominal challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and best-selling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, easily romped in the Democrat contests.

The president was on course to win nearly all the 1,420 Democratic delegates up for grabs on Tuesday and move much closer to the 1,968 needed to lock up renomination.

But Biden did suffer a setback, as the Fox News Decision Desk projected he would lose the Democratic caucus in American Samoa to extreme long-shot candidate and entrepreneur Jason Palmer. 

Palmer was expected to win 4 delegates, to the president’s two on the Pacific Ocean island territory. It was Biden’s first defeat in the 2024 Democratic nominating calendar.

More troubling for Biden was the continued discontent at the ballot box over his support for Israel in its war with Hamas.

A week after 13% of Democratic primary voters in Michigan cast ballots for ‘uncommitted’ in protest of the president’s backing of Israel, nearly 20% voted ‘uncommitted’ in Minnesota’s primary.

Fox News’ Remy Numa contributed to this report.

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JERUSALEM — President Biden was noncommittal Tuesday when asked about his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it’s ‘like it’s always been.’ Yet many, including former President Trump, claim Biden is deserting Israel.

Asked earlier in the day by ‘Fox and Friends’ anchor Brian Kilmeade if he believes Biden is ‘in the process of abandoning Israel,’ Trump said, I ‘do believe that.’ 

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have seemingly ramped up pressure on Israel over the last few weeks to accept an immediate six-week cease-fire with Hamas in exchange for the release of the over 130 hostages held in Gaza. 

‘Biden has been advancing a policy that prevents Israel from winning — and so guarantees Israel is defeated — almost since the outset of the war,’ Caroline Glick, an Israeli-American expert on the Middle East told Fox News Digital.

The, ‘Two steps he took at the very early stages placed enormous obstacles before Israel. First, he blocked Israel from taking the most effective action, laying siege to Gaza. Had Israel blocked all food, water, fuel and medicines from entering Gaza, the people of Gaza would have turned on Hamas within a few short weeks.’

Hamas terrorists invaded Israel Oct. 7 and slaughtered 1,200 people, including over 30 Americans. The jihadi terrorist movement kidnapped more than 240 people and transported them to the Gaza Strip.

Many Israeli military experts see a six-week cease-fire as dangerous because it could be part of a slippery slope toward a permanent stoppage of Israel’s war campaign and leave Hamas in power. Netanyahu has told the Israeli public his aim is ‘total victory’ over Hamas.

‘The hostage deal is in the hands of Hamas right now because there’s been an offer, a rational offer,’ Biden said Tuesday of a cease-fire. ‘The Israelis have agreed to it.’ He added that the Israelis are cooperating, and he is pushing to ‘get more aid in Gaza.’ Biden’s goal is reportedly to secure a cease-fire before Ramadan begins next week.

When asked about Harris’ strongly worded speech Sunday calling for an immediate cease-fire, Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Fox News Digital, ‘The vice president’s comments were only marginally different than what the president himself has been saying about the urgency of reaching a hostage-for-prisoners ‘temporary cease-fire.’ 

‘More importantly, I don’t see the administration turning anti-Israel, even as the chorus of concern about the close U.S. support for Israeli war operations continues to get louder in American politics.’

Satloff noted that the campaign in Michigan to win over Muslim Arabs to vote undecided in the primary was hyped beyond the reality of the numbers who voted ‘uncommitted’ to send Biden a message about his support for Israel. 

‘A dispassionate look at Michigan shows that the ‘uncommitted’ campaign was not nearly as successful as its advocates wanted and that was for an easy primary vote, not a November election vote that will have real significance for the future of the country.’

‘Could the administration adopt a tougher approach on Israel, especially as regards the prospect of a Rafah campaign, as spring comes and summer approaches? It’s certainly possible, but my view is that the five months of stalwart support — far longer than Ronald Reagan gave Menachem Begin in 1982 or George W. Bush gave Ehud Olmert in 2006 — earns him the benefit of the doubt,’ Satloff said.

The reported clash between Biden and Netanyahu over Israel’s desire to defeat Hamas is heating up but it is unclear if there will be a similar showdown between Biden and Netanyahu along the lines of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who chastised the then U.S. senator for threatening to stop aid to Israel in 1982. 

The quote attributed to Begin states, in part, ‘Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history.’

Glick continued her criticism of the Biden administration, noting that it refused to ‘oppose Egypt’s policy of preventing Gazans from fleeing Gaza through the border with Egypt. Had the Gazans been allowed to flee, there would have been no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the war would have ended months ago with a total Israeli victory.’

Egypt said Tuesday the cease-fire talks have largely collapsed. Hamas has refused to provide a list of the hostages and rejected the proposed cease-fire package.

‘Biden has been advancing these policies, which are effectively pro-Hamas and hostile to Israel, primarily because his administration’s policies are crafted by officials who hate Israel and have a history of support for Hamas,’ Glick claimed.

Adding to the friction between Biden and Netanyahu, Israel’s main opposition leader and war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, met with Secretary of State Blinken on Tuesday in Washington, where according to a State Department readout, the two discussed the hostages, humanitarian aid and the implementation of a humanitarian plan by Israel before any IDF operation into Rafah should occur. Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had not approved Gantz’s trip to Washington and was said to be infuriated by it. 

During Tuesday’s State Department briefing, spokesman Matthew Miller reiterated the administration’s support for ‘Israel’s objective of defeating Hamas militarily.’ He also underlined the Biden administration’s support for a two-state solution, noting that, ‘We believe the ultimate way to resolve the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with real security guarantees for Israel, and that’s what we’re working to try to achieve.’

David Wurmser, a former senior adviser for nonproliferation and Middle East strategy for former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Fox News Digital that ‘deep down, Biden still has some residual liberal views of Israel that are generally favorable.’

Wurmser, a keen observer of the personnel factor within the Biden administration’s Mideast policy, said, ‘Biden is swayed by people around him’ and that he is a ‘pliable’ person.  

‘The real issue is everybody else,’ he warned. ‘Staffers who are not pro-Israel and would sell out Israel.’ 

Wurmser noted that progressive control of the Democratic Party’s structure ‘is convincing the political leadership of the Democratic Party to abandon Israel or at least distance itself from Israel. The administration is moving toward throwing Israel under the bus.’

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital questions by publication time.

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The polls are now closed in all 16 states across America that held presidential nominating contests on Super Tuesday.

In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the Fox News Decision projected that former President Donald Trump would win the North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, Maine, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, and California primaries. 

‘They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one,’ Trump said in a primary night victory speech in front of a large group of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. ‘There’s never been anything so conclusive.’

And in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Brooke Singman minutes earlier, Trump called it a ‘great evening.’ 

While Trump won’t clinch the 2024 Republican nomination on Tuesday, the former president was on course to capture the vast majority of the 854 Republican delegates up for grabs, moving him significantly closer to locking up his party’s presidential nomination over his last remaining rival – former U.N. ambassador and former two-term South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Haley did come away with one victory on Super Tuesday, as she was projected the winner in Vermont, where she narrowly edged Trump. 

Trump made no mention of Haley in his 20-minute-long speech Tuesday night.

Haley, who had said she would remain in the race at least through Super Tuesday, has remained mum on any plans going forward.

Her campaign said that Haley watched primary night returns with staff as they huddled in Charleston, South Carolina. She didn’t deliver any speech or release a statement.

But her campaign, in a statement, said ‘we’re honored to have received the support of millions of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests.’

And pointing a bunch of Super Tuesday states where Haley captured anywhere from a quarter to a third of the vote in the GOP contests, the campaign argued that ‘today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.’

Heading into Super Tuesday, Trump had swept all but one of the first ten contests on the GOP nominating calendar.

And the strong showing by the former president in Tuesday’s slew of primaries and caucuses boosted him in his mission to completely pivot from a primary battle with Haley to a general election rematch with President Biden, who defeated Trump four years ago to win the White House.

Biden was running the table in the Super Tuesday Democratic nominating contests, although he did suffer his first defeat – with a loss in American Samoa.

‘If every single conservative, Republican and Trump supporter in these states shows up on Super Tuesday, we will be very close to finished with this primary contest,’ Trump said in a video to supporters this past weekend. ‘Republicans will then be able to focus all of our energy, time and resources on defeating crooked Joe Biden.’

Some of the states – including California with 169 delegates at stake – have winner-take-all rules to varying degrees, which should boost Trump’s delegate haul.

With more large states like Georgia, Florida, Illinois and Ohio among the eight holding primaries on March 12 and 19, Trump is expected to reach the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the nomination by the middle of this month.

Trump’s campaign predicted in a memo last month that even under the most favorable modeling for Haley, the former president would clinch the nomination by March 19.

Trump for nearly a year has dominated the GOP nomination race, which last summer peaked with more than a dozen challengers taking on the former president. Helping to boost Trump among the Republican base were his history-making indictments last year in four different criminal cases – including charges in two cases that he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. 

The former president kicked off the nominating calendar with double-digit wins in the Iowa caucuses and in the New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Michigan primaries. He also grabbed landslide victories in the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Islands GOP caucuses.

Trump rolled into Super Tuesday with plenty of momentum after securing the 39 delegates up for grabs Saturday at the Michigan GOP’s party convention.

A few hours later, the former president was victorious in the Missouri caucuses, and he closed out Saturday evening by scoring a win in the Idaho caucuses.

‘We’ve been launching like a rocket to the Republican nomination,’ Trump touted Saturday night at a rally in Richmond, Virginia, as he pointed to his ballot box victories in Michigan, Missouri and Idaho.

Heading into Super Tuesday, Trump was 230 delegates ahead of Haley, following his North Dakota victory on Monday night.

‘Republican voters have delivered resounding wins for President Trump in every single primary contest and this race is over,’ Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a recent statement. ‘Our focus is now on Joe Biden and the general election.’

The former president also won a major court victory on Monday as the Supreme Court unanimously sided with Trump in his legal challenge to the state of Colorado’s attempt to kick him off its 2024 primary ballot. 

But Haley, who remains in the GOP nomination race at least through Super Tuesday despite the extremely long odds she faces, on Sunday enjoyed victory for the first time in the 2024 race.

Haley topped Trump by roughly 30 points in Washington, D.C.’s, Republican primary. She captured 19 delegates and made history as the first woman to win a GOP presidential primary or caucus.

‘Republicans closest to Washington’s dysfunction know that Donald Trump has brought nothing but chaos and division for the past 8 years. It’s time to start winning again and move our nation forward!’ Haley wrote on social media Sunday night.

In the past few days, Haley landed the endorsements of two GOP senators from Super Tuesday states: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Haley, who has garnered strong support in the GOP primaries from independents and whose fundraising has remained formidable, has stayed in the race as an option for voters dissatisfied with a likely Biden-Trump rematch. 

‘As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I’m not ready to get out yet. I’m still sitting there fighting for the people that want a voice,’ Haley said Tuesday morning in an interview on ‘Fox and Friends.’

Haley reiterated in an interview on Saturday with Fox News’ Bill Melugin that ‘we’re going to go as long as we’re competitive,’ but she did not specifically define what competitive means.

Except for Alaska, all the states that were holding GOP primaries or caucuses on Tuesday also conducted Democrat ones as well. The Iowa Democrats announced the results of a vote-by-mail caucus they’ve been holding since mid-January.

One U.S. territory – American Samoa – also hold a Democratic nominating contests on Tuesday.

The president, who faces nominal challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and best-selling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, easily romped in the Democrat contests.

The Fox News Decision Desk projected Biden the winner of the Vermont, Virginia, and North Carolina primaries soon after the poll closings in those three states. The following hour the president was projected the winner in Alabama, Tennessee, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

In the 9pm ET, the Fox News Decision Desk projected Biden to be victorious in Texas and Minnesota. 

Biden was on course to win nearly all the 1,420 Democratic delegates up for grabs on Tuesday and move much closer to the 1,968 needed to lock up renomination.

But Biden did suffer a setback, as the Fox News Decision Desk projected he would lose the Democratic caucus in American Samoa to longshot candidate and entrepreneur Jason Palmer. 

Palmer was expected to win 4 delegates, to the president’s two on the Pacific Ocean island territory. It was Biden’s first defeat in the 2024 Democratic nominating calendar.

The president, in a statement on Super Tuesday’s results, said that ‘oday, millions of voters across the country made their voices heard — showing that they are ready to fight back against Donald Trump’s extreme plan to take us backwards.’ 

‘My message to the country is this: Every generation of Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights. To every Democrat, Republican, and independent who believes in a free and fair America: This is our moment. This is our fight. Together, we will win,’ Biden emphasized.

Fox News’ Remy Numa contributed to this report.

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