President-elect Trump announced on Thursday his intent to nominate former Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., to serve as secretary of Veterans Affairs.

‘Doug is a Veteran himself, who currently serves our Nation as a Chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command, and fought for our Country in the Iraq War,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need. Thank you, Doug, for your willingness to serve our country in this very important role.’

Shortly after Trump made the announcement, Collins posted to X that he was ‘honored’ to accept the nomination.

‘Our heroes deserve the best care and support,’ Collins wrote. ‘We’ll fight tirelessly to streamline and cut regulations in the VA, root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they’ve earned. 

‘Together, we’ll make the VA work for those who fought for us,’ he added. ‘Time to deliver for our veterans and give them the world-class care they deserve.’

The Biden administration is facing backlash after it was revealed on social media that a top official would be participating in a two-day forum hosted by a group with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns will be a keynote speaker at the 5th US-China Hong Kong Forum starting Friday, which is being hosted by the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), according to the group’s website.

Burns’ decision to speak there has sparked criticism from China experts, including one expert who told Fox News Digital that Burns is ‘legitimizing Beijing’s malign influence.’

‘Both Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping have called the united front a ‘magic weapon.’ It’s highly deceptive because it allows the Chinese Communist Party to advance its interests in America with American voices,’ said Michael Sobolik, author of ‘Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance.’

‘If you want to understand Beijing’s long game, look no further. They cultivate relationships with strategically placed Americans to parrot CCP propaganda under the guise of free speech,’ Sobolik, a Senior Fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, added. 

‘By attending this conference, Amb. Burns is legitimizing Beijing’s malign influence. He should be calling it out and blunting it.’

‘Especially bad decision on the eve of the Hong Kong 47 pro democracy activists scheduled for sentencing,’ U.S. Director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Jonathan Stivers posted on X. ‘State Dept. should be sanctioning HK officials not joining their conference.’

Fox News Digital has previously reported on CUSEF’s ties to the CCP and its president, James Chau, who ‘joined CUSEF in 2018’ and was ‘working with its founder The Hon. Tung Chee-hwa’ before he became the group’s president in 2023, according to his CUSEF bio.

Fox News Digital has extensively reported on Tung Chee-hwa, who served as a vice chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a key part of the CCP’s united front system, which operates to advance the CCP’s interests at home and abroad.

One report details how Julia Wilson, a Black public relations consultant, was paid over $1 million by Chee-hwa’s CUSEF to help the Chinese government learn about Black Americans and gain influence with historically black colleges and universities and Black leaders. 

‘In 2009, the former chief executive of Hong Kong [Tung Chee-hwa] visited me in my office with his staff from the China-United States Exchange Foundation, and they wanted to know how we got a Black president,’ Wilson, whose office is across the street from the White House, told college students during a 2017 presentation. ‘They were saying, ‘We don’t know anything about Black people. So can you write us a white paper and share it with us? How did Black people get enough power to vote a Black man into office?’ So they really needed an overview of our history. Who are we? Who are African Americans?’

CUSEF’s most recent annual report, which was published in July, reveals how the ‘independent, non-profit and non-governmental foundation’ is heavily influenced by the CCP, ranging from advisers and partners to donors. 

One of the top partners of CUSEF is the People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which was previously labeled as a ‘Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments’ and seeking to ‘directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda,’ according to a 2022 report from the Biden administration’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

Another partner on CUSEF’s annual report is the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an instrumental part of the CCP’s apparatus that regularly coordinates with top CCP branches and leaders, according to its website. Other partners include top Chinese and American universities like Princeton, Georgetown, Harvard and Columbia. Sidwell Friends School, the elite private school where former President Obama’s daughters and President Biden’s grandchildren attended, was also on the list.

In addition to Burns, several other former U.S. officials are scheduled to participate in the forum, including former President Obama’s ambassador to China, Max Baucus, and Rick Waters, who served as the top China policy official in Biden’s State Department.

Baucus, a longtime friend and former Senate colleague of Biden, has extensive ties to China through his institute, which Fox News Digital previously reported was funded by a Chinese company whose founder has deep ties to the CCP and was recognized as the party’s ‘National Outstanding Communist Party Member’ in 2021. His institute’s China study-abroad program is also almost fully funded by CUSEF, according to its website.

Baucus also met with Hunter Biden, who boasted that he had a ‘very good relationship’ with Baucus, and his Chinese business associates on multiple occasions, according to emails previously reported by Fox News Digital.  

Several of CUSEF’s donors, who include Chinese billionaires, also have CCP ties. Wang Jianlin, the billionaire chair of the Wanda Group, is a CCP member and served in the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He is also a longtime member of the CPPCC. Bernard Chan, another donor listed in CUSEF’s annual report, appears to be the same Bernard Chan who served as the Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, the highest organ of state power in the CCP, for 15 years.

Multiple members of CUSEF’s governing board also have CCP ties, including Peter Woo, who is currently a member of the Standing Committee of the 11th CPPCC. Liu Changle, the founder of the Chinese state-owned Phoenix Satellite Television, also has several CCP ties, according to CUSEF’s website.

The White House, State Department and CUSEF did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar contributed reporting.

A woman reportedly told the House Ethics Committee that she had sexual relations with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., when she was 17 years old.

ABC News reported on Thursday that the woman testified to the committee in its investigation into Gaetz, which has now ceased after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced that Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday.

Gaetz told Fox News Digital in response to the new report, ‘These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.’

The resignation announcement came hours after President-elect Donald Trump tapped Gaetz to be his attorney general.

The chief counsel for the House Ethics Committee declined to comment when asked by Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Gaetz’s congressional office for comment.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had previously spoken to the woman, now in her twenties, according to ABC, as part of its years-long investigation into Gaetz related to accusations of sex trafficking and obstruction of justice.

The DOJ ultimately did not press charges, and Gaetz has consistently denied all wrongdoing.

The woman was subpoenaed by the House Ethics Committee over the summer, the report said.

The panel was expected to meet soon and potentially release a report on its investigation into Gaetz, but now that he resigned, the committee has lost jurisdiction over the matter.

The report could still be released, though it would break committee precedent.

But it could come out if Gaetz goes through the Senate confirmation process to lead the department that once investigated him.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested he’d want to see the report.

‘I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including, whatever the House ethics committee has generated,’ he told reporters.

Senate Democrats are rushing to confirm as many of President Biden’s judicial picks as possible ahead of a Trump presidency, according to reports. Several of the nominees have previously come under fire by Republicans.

Democrats so far have confirmed 215 of Biden’s judicial picks, and the Senate most recently confirmed Jonathan E. Hawley as a U.S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois Wednesday. 

He was confirmed in a 50-46 vote. 

However, Biden’s confirmation numbers continue to trail President-elect Trump’s 234 confirmations during his first term, including three to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have been vocal in recent days about prioritizing judicial confirmations during the lame-duck session, tweeting Wednesday, ‘We’re going to confirm every possible federal judge in the lame-duck session.’

Along with Hawley’s confirmation this week, the Senate also confirmed April M. Perry to be a U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, while Democrats also moved Embry Kidd’s nomination process forward to serve as a circuit court judge for the 11th Circuit. 

Several of Biden’s nominees, however, have come under Republican fire during hearings. 

Kidd, a district judge in the Middle District of Florida, made headlines this summer after he failed to disclose on his questionnaire at least two child sex-related cases he ruled on and later had his rulings reversed, according to a report by the Washington Examiner.

Anthony J. Brindisi, a former Democratic representative who serves on the New York State Court of Claims in Utica, New York, and was tapped by Biden in July, was the target of various lines of questioning in which he attempted to frame himself as a jurist versus a politician. 

‘On the bench, are you a politician or a judge?’ Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn asked him during the hearing. 

‘I’m a judge, senator,’ Brindisi responded. 

Despite Democrats’ efforts to kick judicial confirmations into high gear, Senate Democrats have expressed concern over Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin’s ability to block Trump’s judicial agenda once he takes over the Oval Office in January, according to a recent report by Axios. 

The report said multiple Democrats cited Durbin’s age as a major factor. Durbin is 79 years old. 

‘Sen. Durbin has successfully led the Judiciary Committee for the past four years as chair — leading to 215, and counting, lifetime judges confirmed during the Biden administration,’ Durbin’s office told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘And as a senior Democratic member of the committee during the first Trump administration, Sen. Durbin served as a crucial voice pushing back against the unqualified Trump judicial nominees. Simply put, he’s been an outstanding chair and stands ready to continue to lead his colleagues as ranking member in the 119th Congress.’

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., who will be the new Republican Senate leader after he won in a secret ballot Wednesday, will serve a crucial role in advancing Trump’s judicial agenda in the Senate. Thune wrote in an op-ed earlier this week that Senate Republicans will work with the president-elect to confirm his nominees and pass ‘our shared agenda.’ 

‘As Congress returns to Washington, we must prepare the Senate to advance that agenda legislatively and ensure that the president-elect can hit the ground running with his appointees confirmed as soon as possible,’ Thune wrote. 

Trump took to social media Sunday to voice his opinion on the matter, writing, ‘Additionally, no Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. THANK YOU!’

‘In his first term, President Trump appointed constitutionalist judges who interpret the law as written. He will do so again,’ Brian Hughes, Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

President-elect Trump selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

‘I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,’ Trump said in his annoucment Thursday. 

‘The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.’ 

The announcement comes just over a week after Trump won back the presidency.

RFK Jr. joined the 2024 campaign cycle as a candidate for the Oval Office. Kennedy, who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, dropped out of the presidential election in August after initially running as a Democrat, before he switched to an independent run. 

Kennedy endorsed Trump shortly after suspending his campaign, and has since hit the campaign trail while touting his plans to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ under a potential Trump presidency. 

Kennedy has joined a bevy of Trump campaign events in the lead up to Nov. 5, including speaking at Trump’s historic Madison Square Garden rally last month, where he unleashed on the current state of the Democratic Party. 

‘The Democratic Party is the party of war. It’s the party of the CIA. You had Kamala Harris giving a speech at the Democratic convention that was written by neocons. It was belligerent, pugnacious. It talked about domination of the world by the United States through our weapons of war. It’s the party today that wants to divide Americans. It’s a party that is dismantling women’s sports by letting men play women’s sports,’ he said. 

‘It’s the party of Wall Street. It’s the party of Bill Gates, who just gave $50 million to Harris. It’s the party, and the Harris campaign is very proud that it received the endorsement of 50 former CIA agents and officers and of John Bolton and of Dick Cheney.’ 

Kennedy, who has been a key figure in the Trump campaign since endorsing him, was asked about his potential role in the next White House and whether he would begin ‘clearing out the top level federal service workers that are currently at the FDA and the CDC.’

He continued, ‘In some categories, their entire departments, like the nutrition department in the FDA, they have to go. They’re not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Froot Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients, and you go to Canada, and it’s got two or three?’ 

‘Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!’ Trump added.