Former President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to extend the delay in the trial stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference case, arguing that he has presidential immunity to protect him from prosecution.

Trump attorneys on Monday afternoon filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court just days after a D.C. appeals court ruled the former president and 2024 GOP front-runner is not immune from prosecution in Smith’s case.

The request is for temporary relief, to stay or block the appeals court mandate from taking effect, which would give the Trump legal team more time to file an appeal to the Supreme Court on the merits of whether a former president deserves immunity from criminal prosecution for actions while in office.

The trial stemming from Smith’s case against Trump is on hold pending resolution of the immunity question.

The Justice Department may ask for expedited consideration of this initial emergency appeal.

‘If the prosecution of a President is upheld, such prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination,’ the request states. ‘Criminal prosecution, with its greater stigma and more severe penalties, imposes a far greater ‘personal vulnerability’ on the President than any civil penalty.’

The request adds, ‘The threat of future criminal prosecution by a politically opposed Administration will overshadow every future President’s official acts — especially the most politically controversial decisions.’

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

‘This threat will hang like a millstone around every future President’s neck, distorting Presidential decision-making, undermining the President’s independence, and clouding the President’s ability ‘to deal fearlessly and impartially with’ the duties of his office.” 

Trump’s lawyers added, ‘Without immunity from criminal prosecution, the Presidency as we know it will cease to exist.’ 

A Trump spokesperson described the filing as a ‘powerhouse filing.’

‘As President Trump’s powerhouse Supreme Court filing explains, if immunity is not granted to a President, every future President who leaves office will face the prospect of being wrongfully indicted by the opposing party,’ the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘Without complete immunity, the President of the United States will not be able to function properly. Even while the President is still in office, his political opponents will use the threat of future prosecution as a weapon, effectively blackmailing and extorting him to influence his most sensitive and important decisions.’

The spokesperson added, ‘The Supreme Court should grant the requested stay and put an end to Deranged Jack Smith’s repeated attempts to corruptly short-circuit the ordinary and correct functioning of our justice system.’

The filing comes after Washington, D.C., federal Judge Tanya Chutkan earlier this month officially delayed the trial, which was set to begin on March 4– a day before the critical Super Tuesday primary contests, when Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont vote to select a GOP nominee.

Chutkan said in December that she does not have jurisdiction over the matter while it is pending before the Supreme Court, and she put a pause on the case against the Republican 2024 front-runner until the high court determines its involvement.

Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Those charges stemmed from Smith’s investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in August 2023.

There was not a lot of dialogue with the Israeli Defense Forces contacts before this embed happened. After four months of this war, they have the drill down to a system and the IDF had something they wanted to show the outside world.  

We loaded up onto Humvees. A soldier stood in the front seat, one hand on the roll bar, the other on an automatic weapon mounted to the hood. At my left elbow was an Israeli version of a shoulder-mounted rocket as well as a spare rifle. 

For the first 10 minutes of the trip, we were still in Israel. We traveled on the pavement. The closer we got to the Gaza Strip, the road got rougher where the sides had been broken up by heavy armored vehicles. Camps began to appear where soldiers waited outside the fence for their orders to return to combat.

Once we passed the fence into Gaza, the landscape showed only destruction. I didn’t see a building or structure that wasn’t damaged. Most were flattened.

The drivers went breakneck over the twisted and potholed sand roads until we arrived at the camp for the 401st armored division in the Gaza Strip. Soldiers waited on plastic chairs between their vehicles. A few had wandered to the beach to take pictures. Some did maintenance on the big Merkava tanks.

We did not stay long. We transferred into an Israeli Namer, armored personnel carrier, for the trip to the Shati refugee camp, just north of the population center of Gaza City. Reports of Hamas fighters regrouping in Gaza City created a reasonable risk of an ambush, despite Israel’s firm control of the area.

When we climbed out of the armored vehicle at Shati, I could see 360 degrees of destruction. Piles of dirt and broken concrete. All roads and sidewalks were broken. Everywhere we traveled was a matter of hiking up and over piles of sand, either leftover from an explosion or churned up by tanks. Some of the large apartment buildings were still standing, but black smoke stains streaked upward out of most windows. Occasionally, we would hear the large crack of new airstrikes in the area or machine-gun fire.

The first place reporters were taken to was a kindergarten, made obvious with paintings of SpongeBob and other cartoons on the walls. Lt. Col Idor of the 401st armored brigade showed the reporters maps of where the tunnels stretched beneath us. Then we loaded back in the armor and drove to the UNRWA headquarters, where soldiers had dug a well straight down to one of the rooms that served as a hub for electricity in the tunnel. The lieutenant colonel pulled the Velcro press identifier off my body armor and dropped it down the hole. ‘You’ll get this later,’ he said.

We were shown two rooms in the UNRWA headquarters where wiring for computers, communications equipment and electricity went straight underground. Then, ultimately, taken back to the area of the kindergarten to the safest tunnel entrance.

We had to get on hands and knees and crawl for a bit at the start of the tunnel. Once inside, we could stand and walk. Sometimes, when the ceiling wasn’t high enough, we crouched. Sometimes, when it was bad enough, we crawled again. At a few points, we hiked through water that was probably filthy.

The tunnels are dramatically different than the ones I crawled in under the border with Egypt more than a decade ago. The modern ones are reinforced with concrete. There is concrete underfoot. At some locations Hamas spent the effort to tile the tunnels and the rooms built off to the side. They had working plumbing and modern toilets. The tile work was good. In one location, it looked like Hamas had built a coffee shop, where they could take a break, because the decorative tile was all about coffee. 

We hiked probably less than a half mile, arriving underneath the UNRWA headquarters, where I recovered my press identifier. Lt. Col Idor showed us a room 25 feet deep filled with computer servers, another room with communications equipment and still another that was an electrical junction for the tunnels. All of it connected to the headquarters building above with extensive wiring.

The soldiers made the point, there was no way Hamas could have installed all of that, made the construction noise, and moved truckload after truckload of dirt out of the tunnels without UNRWA employees being aware.

‘Our problem is the Hamas,’ said Lt. Col Idor. ‘Hamas working in the UNRWA and under the UNRWA.’

UNRWA released a statement saying they are a humanitarian organization without the capability or expertise to conduct ‘military inspections’ of what might be under its premises. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called out the Biden-Harris campaign for joining TikTok on Super Bowl Sunday, after the administration signed legislation banning the app from most federal devices in 2022.

‘Hey by the way, we just joined TikTok,’ the campaign’s post on X read on Sunday, with the campaign’s first TikTok video of the president answering quizzes about the Super Bowl. 

‘Biden campaign bragging about using a Chinese spy app even though Biden signed a law banning it on all federal devices,’ Hawley wrote on X in response to the campaign’s post.

The Biden administration set a 30-day deadline in late February 2023 for government agencies to purge the app, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, from federal devices. 

Several Republicans have urged Congress to ban the app in the U.S. entirely because of reports the app steals Americans’ data and poses a national security threat. In 2017, China began enforcing a law mandating companies to provide the government with any personal data pertinent to the regime’s national security.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has also called for a nationwide ban on TikTok, saying last month that the CEO is ‘lying’ about the app being safe for users. 

‘We should ban it,’ Hawley previously told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. ‘It tracks everything you do on your phone. It tracks everywhere you go, every text message you send, every email you write, and it’s — all that information — all of it’s available to the Chinese Communist Party.’

Cotton appeared to weigh in Monday on the Biden campaign joining TikTok, writing, ‘Just like TikTok, Temu or any Chinese tech company must allow the Communist Party unfettered access to its data. This should be a non-starter for doing business in the United States.’

The app is vastly popular among young voters, and Biden’s campaign team will be running the president’s account. The campaign also has a presence on other social media platforms, including X, Instagram, Meta’s Threads and former President Trump’s Truth Social. 

The FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have both reportedly cautioned that ByteDance may potentially share user data — including browsing history, location information, and biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, facial features, iris patterns, voice prints — with the Chinese Communist Party. 

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a government agency that reviews national security implications of foreign investments in the U.S. has been investigating TikTok since 2019. 

The Biden-Harris campaign said they will be posting content regularly on all platforms, including TikTok. 

‘We are taking advanced safety precautions around our devices and incorporating a sophisticated security protocol to ensure security. The campaign’s presence is independent and apart from the ongoing CFIUS review,’ a campaign adviser said in an email. ‘The campaign will continue meeting voters where they are, innovating to create content that will resonate with critical audiences and the core constituencies that make up the president’s diverse and broad coalition of voters.’

Former President Trump is reportedly expected to appear in person Monday for a hearing in the classified documents case against him to be held in a specially equipped secure room in Florida. 

Trump is to be present for the hearing presided over by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that will be under seal and held in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility or SCIF, designed for viewing classified documents, in Fort Pierce, Florida, ABC News reported, citing court documents. However, Trump’s co-defendants, aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, are not expected to be in attendance because they do not have the necessary clearance to access classified information. 

A court filing detailing the schedule said that Cannon, of the Southern District of Florida, will hear arguments Monday from attorneys for Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira on ‘defense theories of the case’ and how ‘any classified information might be relevant or helpful to the defense,’ according to the outlet. Special Counsel Jack Smith will then present arguments to Cannon when Trump’s attorneys are no longer present. Cannon requested that both parties set aside Tuesday for further proceedings ‘as necessary.’

Trump and Smith’s legal teams have frequently disagreed during pretrial hearings over how much discovery should be redacted or entirely shielded from public view in court filings. Last week, Smith filed a motion urging Cannon to reconsider her prior ruling requiring that his team file a cache of documents on the public docket. 

Smith said in the motion last week that federal authorities were looking into a series of threats made online to a potential witness connected to the classified documents investigation and asked the judge to allow his team to file an exhibit under seal. 

‘The exhibit describes in some detail threats that have been made over social media to a prospective Government witness and the surrounding circumstances, and the fact that those threats are the subject of an ongoing federal investigation being handled by a United States Attorney’s Office,’ the filing said. ‘Disclosure of the details and circumstances of the threats risks disrupting the investigation.’ 

Trump told Fox News Digital last week that Smith needs to ‘immediately’ drop all charges against him in his classified records case following the decision not to bring charges against President Biden for his retention of sensitive national security documents.

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report was made public last week. Hur did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents and stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.

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

The Hur report also sparked further concern over Biden’s age and mental faculties, as the special counsel noted serious discrepancies in the 81-year-old president’s memory.

Trump, on the other hand, was charged out of Smith’s investigation related to his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith’s probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, was then charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of Smith’s investigation — an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty.

That trial is set to begin on May 20.

Israeli forces successfully rescued two Israeli hostages held in the Gaza city of Rafah, officials announced early Monday.

In a joint operation conducted overnight, the Israel Defense Forces, Israeli Securities Authority and Israeli police rescued Fernando Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, and evacuated them in a helicopter to the Sheba Tel Hashomer hospital inside Israel. Footage released by the IDF later showed Merman and Har hugging and embracing their families.

‘The hostages … were held captive in harsh conditions. They were intentionally held in the middle of a civilian neighborhood inside a civilian building to try to prevent us from rescuing them. But we did,’ IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a video message this morning. ‘Fernando Marmon and Luis Har are now home in Israel. They have undergone medical examination and have been reunited with their families.  

‘This rescue mission underscores the importance of our ground operation in Gaza, including Rafah, when conditions allow. One hundred and thirty-four men, women, children and elderly are still being held hostage in Gaza,’ Hagari added. ‘We have a moral obligation to bring all our hostages home, and that is an obligation that we will continue doing everything – everything in our power – to fulfill.’ 

Merman and Har were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz on Oct. 7, the day Hamas launched its attack against Israel.

Forces from the IDF Navy SEALs, the Shin Bet special operations unit and the Israeli police counterterrorism unit arrived at a building in Rafah to carry out the rescue operation, according to the IDF. The operation took place at around 1 a.m. local time.

‘Fernando and Louis, welcome home,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. ‘I salute our brave fighters for the daring action that led to their release. Only continued military pressure, until total victory, will bring the release of all our hostages. We will not miss any opportunity to bring them home.’

An IDF spokesperson told reporters in a briefing that the forces managed to covertly reach the building and enter the second floor before blowing up the door of the apartment with an explosive and killing the three terrorists holding the two hostages.

The IDF and Shin Bet had been working on the operation for several weeks based on intelligence, an IDF official told Axios. The Israeli Air Force conducted heavy strikes in Rafah as a diversion to allow the rescue.

The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed in the bombardment, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli officials notified the Biden administration of the operation following its completion, according to Axios.

As of Monday, 134 of the more than 240 hostages abducted on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza. More than 100 were freed as part of a temporary cease-fire deal in November. This includes Har’s wife, who is also Marman’s sister, and Marman’s other sister and niece.

Qatar and Egypt have been attempting to mediate a new hostage deal, but Israel and Hamas have yet to reach an agreement.

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was transferred to the critical care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Sunday night after being transported to the hospital earlier in the day.

Austin was transported to the hospital by his security detail on Sunday for symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue, according to a statement released by the Department of Defense from his doctors.

Following a series of tests and evaluations, Austin was admitted into the critical care unit Sunday night for supportive care and close monitoring, the statement added.

‘At this time, it is not clear how long Secretary Austin will remain hospitalized,’ the statement said. ‘The current bladder issue is not expected to change his anticipated full recovery. His cancer prognosis remains excellent. Updates on the Secretary’s condition will be provided as soon as possible.’

Austin’s powers have been temporarily transferred to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks as of Sunday afternoon.

The defense secretary was expected to leave Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday morning to travel to Brussels for the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Wednesday and the NATO Defense Ministerial on Thursday.

In December, Austin was admitted to Walter Reed and underwent prostate cancer surgery. He developed an infection a week later and was readmitted to the hospital.

Hicks filled in at the time while she was on a previously scheduled leave.

President Biden, other senior administration officials and the American public were not told for days about his hospitalization or his cancer. Austin was admitted to Walter Reed on Jan.1, but the Pentagon failed to inform the public, press and Congress until Jan. 5.

Officials also acknowledged that the White House had not been informed about Austin’s hospitalization until Jan. 4.

Austin said earlier this month that he apologized directly to Biden for not giving advance notice about his hospitalization for prostate cancer treatment.

‘I want to be crystal clear. We did not handle this right and I did not handle this right,’ Austin said during a press briefing on Feb. 1, regarding his hospitalization for prostate cancer treatment. ‘I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility. I apologize to my teammates and to the American people.’

Fox News’ Liz Friden and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

The Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), a conservative judicial advocacy organization based in the nation’s capital, is rolling out a digital ad campaign against one of President Biden’s controversial nominees who has alleged ties to 9/11 hijacker sympathizers.

The advertising campaign from JCN – slated to run in Pennsylvania, Montana and Washington, D.C. – consists of an initial buy of $50,000 and specifically targets Adeel Abdullah Mangi, who was recently nominated by Biden to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The ads appearing in Pennsylvania and Montana urge Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., to vote ‘no’ on Mangi’s nomination to a lifetime appointment on the federal court and accuse the judicial nominee of being an ‘antisemite’ who is far too ‘extreme.’

‘President Biden wants to remake the courts with the most extreme judges he can find,’ the narrator states in the ad. ‘But antisemite Adeel Mangi might be the worst of all.’

The ad goes on to highlight Mangi’s tenure as a member of the board of advisers for the Center for Security, Race, and Rights at Rutgers Law School from 2019 to 2023.

JCN said the ‘extremist organization’ Mangi was affiliated with ‘teaches students to hate Israel, to hate America, and to support global terrorism.’

‘Mangi’s organization blamed America for the Sept. 11 terror attacks and has hosted speakers with terrorist connections, including a convicted terrorist,’ the narrator continued. ‘Mangi’s organization even blamed Israel for the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7. When Mangi was given opportunities to condemn these hateful views, he refused to do so.’

JCN president Carrie Severino blasted Mangi’s ties to the ‘radical, antisemitic group’ in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘It is bad enough that President Biden has appointed activist judges who can’t identify major constitutional provisions and are hostile to law enforcement. But now Biden wants to give a life-tenure judicial position to a lawyer with ties to a radical, antisemitic group that blames the United States for 9/11 and teaches students to hate Israel and America,’ she said.

‘In a time when antisemitism is on the rise, how can alleged moderates like Sens. Jon Tester and Bob Casey rubber stamp this kind of nominee for life tenure? There is no place on the Third Circuit for this disdain of our nation’s principles and the rule of law,’ Severino added. ‘Senate Democrats should be ashamed of their support for Adeel Mangi and President Biden should promptly withdraw his nomination.’

Since being nominated, Mangi has garnered significant criticism from GOP lawmakers for his personal and financial affiliation with the university research center that has been accused of giving a platform to ‘terrorist sympathizers.’

Last week, Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans announced they are investigating the funding of the center and insisted its ‘platforming of radical ideologues’ was ‘troublesome.’

‘The work of the Center, its promotion of terrorist sympathizers, and its platforming of radical ideologues is troubling to us as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,’ Republicans on the committee said in a joint statement.

The center, according to members of the committee, co-sponsored an event titled ‘Whose Narrative? 20 Years since September 11, 2001’ on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Additionally, members of the committee noted that the center hosted an event titled ‘Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine’ three days after the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas militants. Center faculty affiliate Dr. Lara Sheehi opened the talk by saying, ‘Zionist settler colonialism is a structure that is the provocation,’ according to the committee.

The center also held a December 2023 event titled ‘The West, Israel and Settler Colonization of Palestine’ with Professor Joseph Massad, who lauded the Oct. 7 massacre in ‘jubilant’ terms in an article that was published one day after Hamas invaded Israel.

Massad wrote at the time, ‘No less awesome were the scenes witnessed by millions of jubilant Arabs who spent the day watching the news, of Palestinian fighters from Gaza breaking through Israel’s prison fence or gliding over it by air.… No less striking was the capture of some of Israel’s colonial soldiers and officers in their underwear while sleeping.’

Mangi’s nomination and affiliation with the center has also raised concerns from 10 House Republicans who represent districts over which the Third Circuit Court of Appeals presides.

Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., and nine of his colleagues from Pennsylvania and New Jersey raised ‘grave concerns’ over Mangi’s nomination in a letter to Biden last month.

The center has a ‘deep history of amplifying antisemitic speech, terrorist propaganda, and anti-American rhetoric,’ the lawmakers said in the letter.

‘During his tenure as a board member, the Center supported efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel by pushing for the boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) movement and calling for resistance in Palestine,’ they wrote. ‘In 2021, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey stated that one of the Center’s events sought to ‘delegitimize Israel and to push their antisemitic agenda into a mainstream discourse.’ The Jewish News Center, among other organizations, labeled a 2021 center event as ‘pro-Hamas’ and a ‘terrorist-whitewashing webinar.’’

Like their Senate colleagues, the GOP House lawmakers also said the center has a record of sympathizing with radical terrorist organizations and pointed to the 9/11 anniversary event it hosted

The Republicans informed the president that Sami Al-Arian, a convicted felon who provided support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), was a featured speaker. At the event, Al-Arian blamed the 9/11 attack on the U.S. and its support for Israel.

‘As your Administration is aware, PIJ is a foreign terrorist organization and was involved in the atrocities committed against Israel on October 7, 2023,’ they wrote.

The lawmakers went on to argue that ‘while Mr. Mangi’s affiliation and financial support for the Center is cause for alarm, we also find it deeply troubling that he has failed to denounce the Center and its radical ideology.’

‘On numerous occasions in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mangi was given ample opportunity to denounce examples of antisemitic rhetoric espoused by the Center,’ they said. ‘He failed to do so in his written responses and oral testimony to the committee every single time.’

Mangi advanced out of the committee on an 11-10 party-line vote. His nomination now awaits a vote by the full Senate.

Last month, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital that ‘President Biden is deeply proud’ to have nominated Mangi, calling him ‘an indisputably qualified and experienced attorney who has lived the American dream and is devoted to our Constitution and the rule of law.’

He called the Republicans’ criticisms ‘vile, unconscionable smears,’ noting that they have ‘been discredited by the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, among many others.’

Bates also accused the GOP lawmakers of applying a ‘religious litmus test,’ targeting Mangi for his Muslim faith – which, he noted, the Constitution ‘forbids.’

Mangi, a New Jersey resident and partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, has been praised by Democrats for possibly being the nation’s first Muslim American federal appellate judge.

‘Mangi is a standout figure in New Jersey’s legal landscape. It speaks volumes that his exceptional legal abilities are only exceeded by his character and unwavering commitment to fairness in the administration of justice,’ Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said in a statement last month.

The Coalition for Jewish Values, the Zionist Organization of America, Americans Against Antisemitism and others have opposed Mangi’s nomination.

Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

A super PAC aligned with independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. dropped a surprise commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday, eliciting mixed reactions from viewers. 

American Values 2024 ran the 30-second ad for $7 million. The clip is a throwback to an ad used by his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, in the 1960 presidential campaign. 

The ad, replacing JFK’s face with that of RFK Jr., implores viewers to ‘Vote Independent.’ 

‘The panicked DC power brokers are working overtime to keep Kennedy off the ballot because they know he can and will end their culture of greed and corruption,’ American Values 2024 co-founder Tony Lyons said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.  

‘They offer us soaring inflation, forever wars, and chronic disease. RFK Jr. offers us real change along with freedom, trust and hope. Like his uncle and his father, Kennedy is a corruption fighter, and it’s no wonder the DNC is trying every old trick and inventing new tricks to stop him.  The public sees through it all and won’t stand for it.’ 

Google Trends showed searches for RFK Jr. skyrocketing after the ad aired. 

The ad elicited mixed reactions. One X user implored ‘Robert’ not to ‘give us this during the halftime.’ To which someone responded: ‘This commercial is better than the halftime performance.’ 

Another X user wrote they were ‘struggling to process how this makes me feel in awe of who we used to be as a country and as a people, while also feeling sick at who we have become and how far we’ve strayed.’ 

The ad comes after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Friday accused RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign of illegally coordinating with American Values 2024. 

The DNC filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), alleging that Kennedy’s campaign received $15 million worth of unlawful in-kind contributions from the super PAC to help him secure ballot access as an independent candidate in several states.

‘Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is flouting campaign finance law by outsourcing a critical campaign function —  the collection of signatures required to appear on the ballot – to an outside Super PAC that is funded by Donald Trump’s top donor this cycle. This scheme between American Values 2024 and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign requires significant — and plainly illegal — coordination, to the tune of a $15 million in-kind contribution’ DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement. 

A Kennedy campaign spokesperson told Fox the allegations were a ‘nonissue being raised by a partisan political entity that seems to be increasingly concerned with its own candidate and viability.’ 

Kennedy initially sought to challenge President Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, but the DNC said it would not hold primary debates and stood behind the incumbent president.

He declared himself as an independent candidate in October and has seen support in polls from a sizable number of Democrats — and even some Republicans.

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.