: A bipartisan group of senators is proposing multiple actions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the body’s decision to request warrants for Israeli officials. 

A resolution led by Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that was exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital would recommend that President Biden and Congress ‘impose financial sanctions and visa bans on officials of the International Criminal Court for an abuse of power that threatens United States interests and weakens United States allies.’

The resolution would express officially that the Senate ‘stands with Israel and fully rejects the action by the International Criminal Court against senior Israeli officials.’

It would additionally encourage allies and partners, which the senators note are responsible in large part for funding the ICC, ‘to use their leverage to halt the politicized proceedings.’ 

‘It is unconscionable that the ICC prosecutor would seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders for defending against Hamas terrorists,’ Rounds said in a statement. ‘Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization while Israel is a democracy and ally of the United States that works hard to uphold international law. This action by the ICC prosecutor draws an equivalency that is devoid of reality. I am proud to lead my colleagues in this resolution that tells the world that we stand with Israel.’

The measure is co-sponsored by Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., John Thune, R-S.D., Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Steve Daines, R-Mont., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., John Boozman, R-Ark., Mike Braun, R-Ind., John Fetterman, D-Penn., Bob Casey, D-Penn., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., John Hoeven, R-N.D., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., John Kennedy, R-La., and Rick Scott, R-Fla.

In his own statement, Manchin remarked, ‘The International Criminal Court’s decision to charge Israeli leadership with war crimes is shocking and disgraceful. Israel is facing an existential threat in Hamas’s brutal terrorist agenda, and I have continued to support the country’s right to defend itself in a manner expected of a nation that abides by the law of armed conflict.

‘I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan resolution with Senator Rounds to condemn the ICC’s outrageous choice that equates Israel’s efforts to secure its homeland with the barbarism of Hamas, and I encourage all of my colleagues to join us,’ he continued. 

Earlier this week, the ICC officially filed applications for arrest warrants against both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in addition to those against terrorist group Hamas’ leaders for committing ‘war crimes.’

Numerous U.S. lawmakers and President Biden reacted negatively to the ICC’s move, particularly taking issue with any equating of Israel, a democracy, to Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. 

Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office did not provide comment to Fox News Digital when prompted on if he would bring the resolution to the floor. 

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

The proposed Senate resolution comes as members in the House across both parties similarly are in discussions about how to address the ICC’s decision. ‘There are ongoing discussions, as I understand it, between Chairman McCaul and ranking member Gregory Meeks, and the objective is trying to reach bipartisan consensus with respect to the International Criminal Court,’ Jeffries told Fox News Digital on Thursday, explaining that the top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee were speaking about the issue. 

However, Jeffries said he hadn’t been in conversation with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., about it. 

After the court revealed the warrant requests, Biden denounced them, calling the move ‘outrageous.’

‘And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.  We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,’ Biden said in a statement. 

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan claimed in the request that there were ‘reasonable grounds’ to suggest that both Netanyahu and Gallant had committed war crimes, including using ‘starvation of civilians as a method of warfare’ and ‘intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.’ 

‘This is a rogue prosecutor who’s gone amok,’ Netanyahu claimed in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. He’s out to demonize the one and only Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East, and it’s both false and dangerous.’

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. appears to be the one White House hopeful suddenly most open to discussing his past medical issues, a willingness some experts are describing as ‘bizarre.’

Revelations earlier this month that Kennedy once had a parasite infecting his brain led the candidate to openly talk about the incident in a number of interviews, which included him bringing up other medical problems he frequently talked about years before running for president, including mercury poisoning.

‘Having brain worms, bragging about getting mercury poisoning and generally being weird doesn’t instill confidence in voters, and it’s definitely bizarre,’ Democratic strategist Eric Koch told Fox News Digital. 

‘Robert F. Kennedy Jr can’t expect people to take him seriously as a candidate if he’s openly telling them he might not be fit to lead.

‘Revelations like this are why his poll numbers are tanking. The more people learn about RFK Jr., the clearer it is that his vanity project campaign isn’t worth wasting a vote over,’ he added, referencing what some polls suggest is a slow-down in support for Kennedy. Other polls suggest he holds a steady double-digit level of support nationally.

Republican strategist and Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe called Kennedy’s sudden openness about his medical problems ‘a weird flex’ considering Biden ‘is essentially a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ candidate.’

‘You would think that you would want to project strength in this race as opposed to weakness, so it’s a little bit of an odd strategy. The irony is that Donald Trump, at 77, is the one with the stamina in this race. He’s outworking and outhustling everyone else while they’re trying to throw him in jail and bankrupt him at the same time,’ she added.

Kennedy’s experience with the brain-eating worm was unearthed in a New York Times article published earlier this month, which cited a deposition from 2012 stating the candidate was called by a doctor at New York-Presbyterian Hospital after physicians had noticed a dark spot on his brain scans and that he had complained of memory loss and a mental fogginess. 

Kennedy recalled the doctor telling him the spot ‘was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.’ He had, however, told the Times in an interview months prior that he recovered from the previously disclosed memory loss.

He said in the same interview he had suffered from atrial fibrillation for decades, including being hospitalized four times, but that he had not had an incident related to the condition for more than 10 years.

Kennedy told both the Times and Ben Shapiro’s ‘Pushing the Limits’ podcast the day following the worm revelations that he experienced mercury poisoning around the same time he was infected with the parasite and underwent treatment to rid his system of the metal.

‘At the same time, I was having my mercury tested, and I was getting all kinds of tests. And my mercury test came back sky-high … ten times what the EPA levels were for blood mercury, I think it was,’ Kennedy told the program. ‘They were over ten times what anybody considered safe, and I had that chelated out, and all of that brain fog went away.’

Kennedy, however, frequently talked about battling mercury poisoning in interviews going back to at least 2004, years before dealing with the parasite.

‘I have so much mercury in my body … that if I were a woman of childbearing years, I would have children with cognitive impairment … probably a permanent IQ loss of five to seven points,’ Kennedy said during an appearance on C-SPAN in September 2004.

He said in multiple subsequent interviews in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 he had ‘recently’ been found to have high levels of mercury in his blood, leading to memory loss.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Kennedy’s campaign for comment.

Fox News’ Howard Kurtz contributed to this report.

A senior House Democrat previously advocated for noncitizen participation in the U.S. election system, arguing that the framers of the U.S. Constitution did not ‘intend’ for a citizenship requirement to vote, Fox News Digital has learned.

It comes as the House gears up to vote on a bill that would repeal a local law in Washington, D.C., granting noncitizen residents of the city the right to vote in local elections. 

The bill advanced through the House Oversight Committee in a 23-19 vote last summer and is expected for a House floor vote Thursday afternoon.

Among the Democrats who opposed it was Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the Oversight Committee’s ranking member, who authored a 1993 paper for the American University Washington College of Law, ‘Legal Aliens, Local Citizens: The Historical Constitutional and Theoretical Meanings of Alien Suffrage.’

‘In this Article, I will argue that the current blanket exclusion of noncitizens from the ballot is neither constitutionally required nor historically normal. Moreover, the disenfranchisement of aliens at the local level is vulnerable to deep theoretical objections since resident aliens — who are governed, taxed, and often drafted just like citizens — have a strong democratic claim to being considered members, indeed citizens, of their local communities,’ Raskin wrote in the paper.

In another section of the paper, Raskin noted that the Founding Fathers considered citizenship terms for officeholders in the White House and Congress but did not include the same for voters.

‘It can be safely concluded from the juxtaposition of the Framers’ specific and varying constitutional conditions for federal office-holding and their complete silence as to a citizenship qualification for federal voting that they did not intend to create a U.S. citizenship suffrage qualification,’ he wrote.

On the specific amendments that attach the word ‘citizen’ when describing voting rights, Raskin wrote, ‘If such language is not designed to exclude aliens from voting, perhaps it discloses a general understanding that voting is for citizens only. But this reading is badly strained: the language specifies only that states may not exclude any citizen from the franchise on the basis of race, not that the states may not include non-citizens in the franchise.’

He also argued that giving noncitizens the right to vote would have no bearing on their own naturalization process.

‘The simple right to vote in local elections, or even state and federal elections, neither confers U.S. citizenship for federal purposes nor immunizes aliens against the operation of any provision of immigration or naturalization law,’ Raskin wrote.

Raskin told Fox News Digital that he still stands by his belief in noncitizens voting in local elections but pointed out that it’s illegal on the federal level.

‘I stand by my academic conclusion that the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that there’s nothing in the Constitution that prohibits non-citizens from voting in local elections. As a matter of public policy, localities have every reason to decide for themselves. Most states have allowed noncitizen voting at some point in their history and any attempt to demonize local noncitizen voting today is strange for Republicans given that they strongly supported this practice in the 19th century. Non-citizen voting in federal elections is against the law and not at issue in tomorrow’s vote,’ Raskin said.

The city of Takoma Park, which Raskin represents, shared a press release in October celebrating ’30 years of non-citizen voting’ in local elections.

The House’s D.C. noncitizens voting bill was introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas. Under a provision known as home rule, Congress is afforded the ability to block laws passed by the D.C. council.

Even if passed, however, it’s highly unlikely that the Democrat-controlled Senate takes it up.

House Republicans are urging a top college accreditation board to reevaluate its standards for Columbia University as a top academic institution in the wake of anti-Israel campus protests there and around the country.

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., led a letter to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education accusing the New York City Ivy League school of violating established standards on ‘ethics and integrity,’ as well as delivery and support of the ‘student learning experience.’

‘Accreditation entities play a crucial role in ensuring the quality and integrity of higher education institutions by assuring quality assurance, public accountability, and continuous improvement. The U.S. Department of Education has come to rely on accrediting agencies to help ensure that the higher education institutions that receive federal funds meet quality standards in curriculum, faculty qualifications, student services, facilities, and educational outcomes,’ the letter said.

McCormick accused Columbia of becoming a hotbed for antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel.

‘Jewish students have been made to feel unsafe and have been subject to harassment and even physical violence by pro-Hamas student protesters and faculty,’ he said.

The letter went on to cite comments by professors in support of Palestine, including one professor who wrote a paper calling the sight of ‘Palestinian resistance fighters storming Israeli checkpoints’ on Oct. 7 ‘astounding.’

They also knocked the university’s president for initially moving classes online when the protests began.

The letter is signed by nine other Republican lawmakers, including the No. 4 House GOP leader, Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

House Republicans have been coming down hard on colleges that have seen anti-Israel encampments pop up on campus, with several university presidents being summoned to Capitol Hill to testify about how they are handling antisemitism at their schools.

‘Columbia University no longer upholds the accreditation standards outlined by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. We urge you to reevaluate Columbia Universities’ accreditation based on their incompliance with Standard II: Ethics and Integrity, Standard III: Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience, and Standard IV: Support of the Student Experience,’ the letter said.

‘Quality standards are a defining hallmark of effective higher education institutions, and we must ensure American tax dollars are not being sent to institutions incapable of upholding them.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Columbia University for comment.

When the International Criminal Court needed a top adviser to justify an appalling arrest warrant for Bibi Netanyahu, its members turned to Amal Clooney.

The ultra-liberal British human rights lawyer – and the wife of George Clooney – was happy to comply. In a statement referring to ‘Palestine,’ she said both Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar are guilty of war crimes. 

Think about that for a moment.

Hamas murders civilians deliberately, as we saw with the Oct. 7 massacre that started this war, the largest one-day death toll since the Holocaust. Israel at least tries to minimize civilian casualties with warnings and leaflets.

Now critics can argue that Israel has used excessive force, that it’s created a humanitarian crisis and famine in Gaza, but to compare it to a terrorist organization is a ‘travesty of justice’ and ‘disgrace,’ as Bibi Netanyahu says. ‘This is like creating a moral equivalence after September 11th between President Bush and Osama bin Laden, or during World War II between FDR and Hitler.’ 

It’s truly shocking that Amal Clooney would advise the ICC that Hamas and Israel are on the same moral ground.

Ironically, George Clooney is a prime celebrity face of President Biden’s campaign. He’ll co-host a Biden-Obama fundraiser next month and appear in digital ads for the campaign. Yet his wife says in effect that Biden is supporting a war criminal.

The absurd ruling by the ICC has given Biden a chance to mend fences with Israel. He immediately called the move ‘outrageous’ and said there is no genocide by Israel. And he did it on camera. After that, the only televised comment from Biden was a response to a shouted question so terse that reporters couldn’t agree on what he said.

Still, the president’s stance might ease some of the tension created by his decision to withhold 2,000-pound bombs from Israel out of concern they’d be used in an invasion of heavily populated Rafah. That didn’t stop Biden from approving $1 billion in military funding for the Israelis.

The far left, including in Biden’s party, despises Israel. That animus also fueled the often violent campus protests, which Biden took far too long to address. 

Those calling themselves pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who occupied buildings and harassed Jewish students, are essentially supporting Hamas, which wants to wipe Israel off the map. Israel voluntarily withdraw from Gaza nearly two decades ago and basically wants to defend itself, though Netanyahu has strongly resisted a two-state solution.

All this has put Biden in a box. The hard-left liberals are disgusted by his support of Israel, and he’s often greeted by protesters waving ‘Genocide Joe’ signs. But any expression of sympathy for the massive death toll in Gaza and need for humanitarian aid draws flak for being insufficiently pro-Israel.

Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, are pushing for sanctions against the ICC.

This absurd ruling – lumping the head of the Hamas dictatorship, which kidnaps the youngest and oldest civilians and uses its own people as human shields, with the elected leader of the world’s only Jewish state – is why the court’s reputation may now be damaged beyond repair.

Meanwhile, Israel sparked a backlash by raiding an AP bureau in Gaza and hauling away its camera equipment. A top official at the wire service said, ‘The Associated Press decries in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government to shut down our longstanding live feed showing a view into Gaza and seize AP equipment.’

The reason was that one of the feeds being distributed belongs to al-Jazeera, which the Israelis recently banned as a front for Hamas. The government later returned the AP’s equipment, saying it needs to study the matter further.

And in an orchestrated move, Norway, Spain and Ireland agreed to recognize a Palestinian state, which for now remains a fiction. That would seem to reward Hamas for its barbaric attack, but is also a sign of Israel’s dwindling international support.

And that, more than any crazy move by the ICC, is a threat to Israel and its American partner.

Former President Obama cheered President Biden Wednesday after the Senate confirmed his 200th pick for a federal judgeship amid fears from the left over what the November election could mean for the highest court in the land.

Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior Obama adviser, warned that the U.S. Supreme Court could be left with a ‘MAGA majority’ should former President Trump win re-election in November.

Pfeiffer predicted that if Trump wins re-election, he would ‘most certainly’ be able to appoint two Supreme Court justices since Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito are nearing retirement. 

‘By the end of Trump’s second term — were he to win — Thomas will be 82, Alito will be 78,’ Pfeiffer said on a recent episode of ‘Pod Save America.’

In his first term, Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.

The former Obama aide noted that if Trump got two additional Supreme Court appointees, there would be a ‘MAGA court majority that will rule for decades.’

‘If he gets two appointments, that means he will have appointed five Supreme Court Justices, all of whom will be around or below the age of 60 when he leaves office,’ he said. ‘That is a MAGA court majority that will rule for decades.’

Pfieffer said that even if Democrats manage to win subsequent presidential elections, Trump’s ‘fingerprint’ will be ‘all over’ the U.S.’ highest court. 

‘We can win the next however many presidential elections and absent something short of extraordinary happening, Trump’s fingerprint will be all over the Supreme Court,’ Pfeiffer said.

Pfieffer’s comments came after Obama took to X on Wednesday to rally around Biden’s judicial impact, praising the president for confirming women and minorities. 

‘@POTUS just confirmed his 200th judge – not an easy accomplishment with a narrow majority in the Senate. And more than half are women and people of color,’ Obama wrote.  

‘Judges have the power to roll back progress or keep us moving forward; to protect our basic liberties or take them away. It’s another reminder of what’s at stake in this election, and why it’s so important to vote,’ he added.

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are preparing to host Kenya, the first African nation in nearly 14 years, for a state dinner Thursday at the White House, with a menu that includes lavish items like butter-poached lobster and a white chocolate basket with banana ganache, raspberries, peaches and candied lime zest.

The U.S. considers a state dinner as one of the most glamorous events organized by the White House for a visiting head of government or reigning monarch and has been used in the past to show diplomatic unity.

Biden invited Kenyan President William Ruto to the White House for a three-day state visit to recognize the East African nation as a major non-NATO ally.

Kenya is sending 1,000 police officers to Haiti as part of a U.N.-led effort to address the security crisis in the country. Kenya is also the first African nation since 2008 to be honored by the U.S. with a state visit.

During the visit, Ruto and his wife, Rachel Ruto, will be the guests of honor during a formal black-tie event at the White House.

‘[Thursday] night, we mark the 60th anniversary of the United States’ partnership with Kenya with an elegant dinner under the stars, in a pavilion made almost entirely of glass, looking up at our one sky,’ Jill Biden said. ‘While outside, night surrounds us, inside, guests will be brought together over the glow of candles, in a space saturated with warm pinks and reds.’

The White House, under the direction of the first lady, organized the event and planned the dinner menu.

To start out, diners will be served chilled heirloom tomato soup with sourdough crisps and arbequina olive oil.

They will then move on to fruitwood-smoked beef short ribs and butter-poached lobster with citrus butter, baby kale and sweet corn purée.

Dessert will include a white chocolate basket with banana ganache, raspberries, peaches and candied lime zest.

Three wines will be served during dinner, including a Hartford Court Chardonnay from the Four Hearts Vineyard, a pinot noir from St. Innocent Winery, and an Iron Horse Classic Vintage Brut sparkling wine.

Entertainment will include the Howard Gospel Choir and Brad Paisley, in honor of President and First Lady Ruto’s love of gospel and country music.

‘As guests leave, their path illuminated by our one moon, I hope they will be filled with that same warmth I felt on my visits to Kenya — that of a friendship that will endure, helping create a shining and prosperous tomorrow,’ Jill Biden said. ‘Every detail of this state dinner has been thoughtfully planned by so many people from across our government — Joe and I could not have asked for a better team.’