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House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing growing pressure from both sides of the aisle to deliver some kind of plan for Ukraine as the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches on Feb. 24.

The topic has become a lightning rod within the GOP, with a growing contingent of populist Republican lawmakers voicing skepticism about the U.S.’s involvement in the conflict. Some have gone as far as threatening Johnson’s leadership role if he held a vote on Ukraine aid.

But mainstream Republicans and Democrats still argue that it’s in the country’s best interest to help Kyiv remain independent of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that helping defeat the authoritarian leader is critical to avoiding a wider, more intense conflict.

That pressure took on a new significance over the weekend when Russia announced it had captured the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka after Ukrainian forces, low on ammo and personnel, retreated. It was the first significant gain by Russia in months.

RUSSIA WARNS UK THAT TROOP DEPLOYMENT IN UKRAINE WOULD BE ‘DECLARATION OF WAR’

And on Friday, the Russian government announced the death of top Putin critic Alexey Navalny in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle.

“Ukrainians are literally running out of ammo and fleeing cities while Putin kills off his main rival in the gulag. Now is not a good time to give the Russians a hand,” a Senate GOP aide told Fox News Digital.

On the Democrat side, White House communications director Ben LaBolt criticized the House GOP for being in recess during the situation, declaring in a statement on Tuesday, “House Republicans are on Day 5 of an early, undeserved vacation while their inaction does escalating damage to our national security.”

ZELENSKYY EXTENDS TRUMP AN OFFER TO VISIT UKRAINE’S FRONT LINES: ‘IF MR TRUMP WILL COME, I AM READY’

On Friday, a small group of bipartisan House members introduced a supplemental security package giving roughly $66 billion in military-only aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, while also taking steps to mitigate the U.S. border crisis, like reinstating the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for a year.

House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, warned the same day that Johnson likely will have little choice on whether to hold a vote on some kind of foreign aid.

“He’s either going to have to do it — put it on the floor himself — or it’s going to be by virtue of a discharge petition, which is a complete evisceration of his power because it basically says we’re going to do this without the speaker being in charge,” McCaul said at a Christian Science Monitor panel event.

Meanwhile, Johnson has rejected two efforts by the Senate to pass its own supplemental security proposals, which both included about $60 billion for Ukraine. He said this month that passing Ukraine aid remains a focus of his, but he has not shared public plans to do so.

“There is significant pressure on Johnson to act. That is part of the reason why Republicans that oppose Ukraine aid were so keen to see the Senate fail to pass [their plans],” Doug Klain, policy analyst at Razom for Ukraine, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “They know the urgency, and members of Congress, including Johnson, they’ve been getting classified briefings telling them just how critical U.S. aid is to the war effort and what the stakes are for Ukraine.”

ZELENSKYY TO FACE ‘RECKONING’ WHEN WAR WITH RUSSIA ENDS, EXPERT SAYS

Fox News Digital reached out to a Johnson spokesperson to ask if the speaker would put the House bill up for a vote but did not hear back.

Meanwhile, a senior House GOP aide warned Fox News Digital that plan may already be “dead in the water.” That aide noted that Republican hard-liners are pushing for nothing less than H.R.2, the House GOP border bill that Democrats panned as a “nonstarter.”

“They really want this to be a Republican bill, and getting a … really stripped-down version of H.R.2 for Ukraine funding is not necessarily what they want,” the House aide said.

GOP lawmakers opposed to Ukraine aid have raised questions about corruption within Kyiv’s government and have argued that the U.S. has too many issues of its own to be involved in a conflict with Russia.

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Indeed, moving a Ukraine aid bill would come at a personal risk to Johnson. Conservatives in his conference, like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, have publicly floated threats to boot him from the speakership if it came to the floor. 

But at least one GOP lawmaker suggested to Fox News Digital that those threats could hold less weight than they appear.

“Some conservatives caught hell back home for not [voting to vacate ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy], so now they are trying to curb all that heat by getting tough on [Johnson] before their primary,” that lawmaker said.

A growing number of left-leaning pundits are hopping off the Biden train and they’re trying to come up with a plan to enable the president to jump off as well.

The attacks from the right are one thing, but these are Joe Biden’s people, who say he’s been a good president, who say he’s accomplished a great deal, but who say his age renders him either too likely or too certain to lose to Donald Trump. It’s the one problem he can’t fix.

At the same time, a new report says the Resistance is growing frustrated and burned out.

Nate Silver, the data guru and hardly a right-winger, says: “Personally, I crossed the rubicon in November, concluding that Biden should stand down if he wasn’t going to be able to run a normal re-election campaign — meaning, things like conduct a Super Bowl interview. Yes, it’s a huge risk and, yes, Biden can still win. But he’s losing now and there’s no plan to fix the problems.”

MEDIA DEEM TRUMP THE NOMINEE, DESPITE HALEY TYING HIM TO PUTIN

After noting that an improving economy hasn’t helped him, Silver says “it’s become even clearer that Biden’s age is an enormous problem for him. As many as 86% of Americans say he’s too old in one poll, though numbers in the 70-to-75% range are more common — still an overwhelming majority in a bitterly-divided country.” 

And that wasn’t helped by the special counsel’s report calling him an elderly man with a poor memory.

“But even the most optimistic Democrats, if you read between the lines, are really arguing that Democrats could win despite Biden and not because of him. Biden is probably a below-replacement-level candidate at this point because Americans have a lot of extremely rational concerns about the prospect of a Commander-in-Chief who would be 86 years old by the end of his second term. It is entirely reasonable to see this as disqualifying.”

Wait, there’s more. 

FANI WILLIS IS IN A ‘DANGEROUS SPOT’: JACQUI HEINRICH

“I can now point you to moments when he is faltering in his campaign for the presidency because his age is slowing him. This distinction between the job of the presidency and the job of running for the presidency keeps getting muddied, including by Biden himself. And what I think we’re seeing is that he is not up for this. He is not the campaigner he was, even five years ago…The way he moves, the energy in his voice.”

Ezra Klein, the uber-liberal New York Times podcaster, also wants the president out. 

“Step one, unfortunately, is convincing Biden that he should not run again. That he does not want to risk being Ruth Bader Ginsburg — a heroic, brilliant public servant who caused the outcome she feared most because she didn’t retire early enough.”

Despite what he called the “Kamala Harris problem,” Klein says to assume that Biden steps aside. “Then what? Well, then Democrats do something that used to be common in politics but hasn’t been in decades. They pick their nominee at the convention.” 

Silver agrees with this scenario as well.

I’m here to tell you, barring a major health scare, that’s not happening. Biden has been running for president since 1987 (I did a long interview with him during that campaign). He finally got the job. He likes being in charge. He’s not going to walk away.

And in fairness, Biden has made adjustments in the last two weeks. He now takes on-camera questions from reporters almost every day, sometimes longer than others. Just yesterday, he walked over to say, in the wake of Alexei Navalny’s murder, he’d be announcing a package of sanctions against Russia on Friday. And he’s given two televised speeches.

Still, liberal Times columnist Michelle Goldberg has been arguing since 2022 that Biden should step aside, and without a major change in strategy, “he should find some medical pretext to step aside in time for a replacement to be chosen at the Democratic convention.”

Moderate conservative Ross Douthat says flatly in his Times column that Biden should not be running for re-election.

As if the Times might be in danger of under-covering this issue, the paper also says that “anti-Trump voters are grappling with another powerful sentiment: exhaustion.”

“Some folks are burned out on outrage,” Rebecca Lee Funk, founder of the liberal activist group Outrage, told the paper. 

A Pittsburgh security guard said  “It’s crisis fatigue, for sure.”

DEMOCRATS WIN SEAT, REPUBLICANS WIN IMPEACHMENT, TWO PRESIDENTS CLASH OVER NATO

How about the right? National Review’s Noah Rothman, who thinks Biden will narrowly win, explains the grand voting shift that has the Democrats in trouble:

“Despite his self-set reputation as a lunch-pail-toting nine-to-fiver with familial roots set deep in the carbon-rich soil of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden has presided over the hemorrhaging of his party’s support among non-college-educated voters. The Democratic Party is increasingly dominated by degree-holders…The party is pinning all its electoral hopes on driving up turnout among this relatively affluent, highly educated slice of the electorate. The big problem with that plan is that there just aren’t enough of those voters…

“In 1999, according to Gallup’s historical surveys, working-class Americans identified more as Democrats than as Republicans by 14 points. Today, that has flipped, with the GOP enjoying a 14-point advantage over Democrats among those voters. Democrats have suffered similarly with young voters: Today, only 8% more voters between the ages of 18 and 29 associate themselves with the Democratic Party than with the GOP.” 

This is eye-popping for those of us who grew up with the Republicans holding the monopoly on wealthier college graduates and favoring aggressive military intervention abroad.

Rothman concludes: “Even with Trump at the top of the ticket, Democrats appear committed to a strategy that will produce, at best, the narrowest of re-election victories.”

On the other side, meanwhile, Nikki Haley gave a South Carolina speech to declare she’s not going anywhere. Plenty of Republicans have “surrendered” to pressure because “they didn’t want to be left out of the club. Of course, many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party…I feel no need to kiss the ring. I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him, my own political future is of zero concern.”

But the most important part of her appearance was when she choked up while discussing her husband (who Trump has taken vague shots at). He is a National Guardsman now serving a year-long deployment in Africa after an earlier one in Afghanistan.

“Michael is at the forefront of my mind,” Haley said, her voice breaking. “I wish Michael was here today, and I wish our children and I could see him tonight, but we can’t. He’s serving on the other side of the world.”

It was a striking moment because Haley is usually so scripted and disciplined. A burst of emotion in 2008 helped Hillary Clinton win the New Hampshire primary. The problem is that the press will write off Haley if Trump clobbers her in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, no matter how long she keeps campaigning.

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A reporter asked Biden yesterday whether he’d rather run against Trump or Haley. He responded, “I don’t care,” while walking away.

But given that Haley is 52, I believe he and his advisers very much care. At 77, while projecting a much more vigorous persona, Trump is the one opponent who might help Biden neutralize the issue that most threatens his re-election campaign.

Embattled Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis spoke at a church service Saturday insinuating she finds solace in Biblical scripture following her contentious testimony during a court hearing last week regarding allegations she had an ‘improper’ affair with a colleague. 

Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County who brought a slew of charges against former president Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants related to alleged 2020 election interference, received a “Black History Achievement Award” from Berean Ethiopian Seventh-day Adventist Church in Atlanta on Saturday. 

Willis said in her remarks that supporters have sent her an Old Testament reference that reads “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.”

“They did not say the weapons will not form, and that’s the part I didn’t hear until recently,” Willis said. “Just because they won’t prosper, it doesn’t mean that they won’t form.” 

JUDGE WARNS FANI WILLIS OVER OUTBURSTS IN HEATED TESTIMONY

“Even if you feel like everything you are doing in your life is the right thing, and you’re making mistakes all along the way, but you’re trying. You should not think that those weapons will not form,” Willis said. 

On Thursday, just prior to her church appearance, Willis took the witness stand in Fulton County Superior Court to respond to allegations that she financially benefitted from hiring special prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship while he was married, and should be disqualified from prosecuting the case against Trump. 

BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS AFTER WILD 2-DAY HEARING ON FANI WILLIS AFFAIR: ‘WHAT’S DONE IS DONE’

Willis was largely combative in her testimony and verbally sparred with lawyers for hours. At one point the judge threatened to strike her testimony. She also raised eyebrows for appearing to be wearing her dress backwards. 

Willis called the allegations against her “dishonest” and “extremely offensive.” At one point, Willis held up a printed copy of the allegations against her in both hands and turned to the judge yelling, “this is a lie!”

FANI WILLIS’ TESTIMONY WAS ‘BELLIGERENT’ AND COULD DAMAGE HER CREDIBILITY, FORMER PROSECUTOR SAYS

Willis’ testimony and that of her ex-lover Wade, contradict testimony of a former “good friend” and colleague who told the judge in court that she had “no doubt” Willis and Wade’s relationship started prior to Wade’s hiring. 

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On Saturday, Willis was also gifted a book series called “Conflict of the Ages,” written by the church’s founder., which “chronicles the struggle between Satan and Jesus Christ.” 

“This is a really hard job I’m trying to do, and I am an imperfect human being, but I can literally feel the peoples’ who loves me prayers,” Willis said Saturday. 

Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

What’s Happening? 

-Biden age sparking concern among Democrats and Hollywood

-Speaker Johnson cozies up to Trump as caucus fractures

-Mexican President mocks Texas Governor over military bases

Electoral ‘ass kicking’

Donald Trump’s campaign predicts that the former president will lock up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination by the middle of next month. 

Pointing to the former president’s very large double-digit lead over Nikki Haley in the latest polls in Saturday’s South Carolina GOP primary, Trump’s campaign argued Tuesday in a memo that Haley’s White House bid will end “fittingly, in her home state.”

Going further, the Trump campaign memo forecasts an “ass-kicking in the making in South Carolina” for Haley, and that “the end is near” for her presidential run due to “a very serious math problem” she has in the race to lock up enough delegates to win the GOP nomination.

But Haley, despite the expected loss in South Carolina, insists she will stay in the race through Super Tuesday on March 5.

“I promise you this, I am in this fight. I will take the bruises. I will take the cuts,” she told supporters at a large rally in this city in upstate South Carolina on Monday night.

White House

NOT AGING WELL: Biden’s age sparks concern among Dems, media, comedians …Read more

‘COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW’: Ashley Biden gets up to date on delinquent taxes, latest filing shows …Read more

Capitol Hill

AI TASK FORCE: Speaker Johnson launches new House artificial intelligence task force …Read more

COZYING UP: Johnson cozies up to Trump at Mar-a-Lago as Haley vows to stay in GOP primary …Read more

Tales from the Campaign Trail

OUTRAISED: Embattled Rep Cori Bush faces campaign cash crunch 6 months from Dem primary …Read more

‘SEE WHAT HAPPENS’: Manchin not yet endorsing Biden …Read more

‘OUT OF TOUCH’: Longtime Dem senator in swing state faces challenger who says math is in his favor …Read more

‘STRONG CONSERVATIVE’: Scalise endorses former NASCAR driver’s bid to unseat Maine Democrat …Read more

SPECIAL ELECTION: Special election to fill Georgia House seat will see 3 Republicans, 1 independent face off in April …Read more

PENNSYLVANIA LATE: Pennsylvania mail-in ballots with wrong date may still count if US appeals court decides …Read more

Across America

TAUNTING TEXAS: Mexican president mocks Gov. Abbott’s plan for military base camp along border …Read more

EMERGENCY MOTION: Idaho asks Supreme Court to step in and allow state to enforce ban on transgender drugs, surgeries for minors …Read more

CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Footage shows stream of migrants trekking beyond border down remote California mountainside …Read more

WHO IS ARTHUR ENGORON?: Here is a look at the NY judge who ordered Trump to pay millions …Read more

NO CEASE-FIRE: US vetoes UN resolution calling for immediate halt to Israel-Hamas war without hostage release …Read more

MIGRANT CRISIS: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem deploys National Guard to ‘warzone’ at the southern border …Read more

‘INDEFENSIBLE’: Justice Alito writes fiery dissent after Supreme Court denies high school admissions case …Read more

‘ISLAMIC PRACTICING TRANSWOMAN’: Transgender inmate who murdered stepdaughter sues prison chaplain for allegedly not permitting hijab …Read more

‘BECOMING A FAD’: California teacher slams secretive gender policy pitting students against parents …Read more

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EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump is expected to raise more than $6 million at a fundraiser in South Carolina Tuesday night ahead of Saturday’s GOP primary.

The campaign told Fox News Digital that projections show that the GOP primary “is over.”

TRUMP HOLDS LARGE LEAD OVER HALEY 4 DAYS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY

Fox News Digital has learned that the former president and GOP frontrunner will attend a fundraiser in Greenville, S.C. Tuesday night.

A source familiar told Fox News Digital that Trump is expected to bring in more than $6 million at this single event. 

“President Trump continues to show his dominance in the polls and in fundraising across the country because he is the best candidate to beat Crooked Joe Biden and retake the White House,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital.

“This primary is over and anyone who thinks otherwise is either delusional or doing Biden’s bidding,” he added.

But former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley insists she is staying in the race. 

SPEAKER JOHNSON TALKS 2024 WITH TRUMP AT MAR-A-LAGO AS HALEY VOWS TO STAY IN GOP PRIMARY

“I refuse to quit,” Haley said in a speech Tuesday. “South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere.”

In her remarks, Haley outlined her belief that the calls for her to drop out are coming from “the political elite” and “party bosses” and that only three states have voted so far with many more to come in recent weeks.

HALEY TOUTS JANUARY FUNDRAISING HAUL AHEAD OF FIRST RALLY IN SUPER TUESDAY STATE

“I’m campaigning every day until the last person votes because I believe in a better America and a brighter future for our kids,” Haley said. “Nothing good in life comes easy. I’m willing to take the cuts, the bruises and the name calling because the only way you get to the blessing is by going through the pain.”

“The presidential primaries have barely begun. Just three states have voted. That’s right. Three. That’s it. After this weekend, we’ll be four. That’s not a lot,” Haley explained. “In the ten days after South Carolina, another 21 states and territories will vote, and they deserve a real choice, not a Soviet-style election when there’s only one candidate, and he gets 99% of the vote. We don’t anoint kings in this country. We have elections. And Donald Trump, of all people, should know. We don’t rig elections.”

But with nearly 800 delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday as 15 states hold Republican presidential contests on March 5, with over 150 at stake over the following two weeks, the Trump campaign predicted in a memo released Tuesday that the former president would secure the Republican nomination by March 19, even under a “most-generous model” for Haley.

The Trump memo predicted an “a– kicking in the making” in South Carolina and said the “true ‘State’ of Nikki Haley’s campaign” is “broken down, out of ideas, out of gas, and completely outperformed by every measure, by Donald Trump.”

BIDEN CAMPAIGN BRINGS IN $42 MILLION IN JANUARY, TOUTS ‘HISTORIC’ CASH-ON-HAND

The Real Clear Politics average of polls heading into Saturday’s primary election in South Carolina shows Trump leading Haley by 25 points.

As for fundraising, Haley’s team says they hauled in $16.5 million in fundraising last month across all of their campaign committees, including $11.7 million from small-dollar grassroots supporters.

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Meanwhile, the Biden campaign released its January numbers on Tuesday morning, saying President Biden’s re-election effort brought in $42 million in January. 

The Trump campaign has not yet released its January fundraising figures. 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley took a swipe at President Biden during a speech on Tuesday and boasted that she has “no fear” of retribution from her Republican primary rival.

Haley noted the growing debate over Biden’s mental acuity, saying the Democratic Party has made a strategic mistake by sticking with the 81-year-old president for another election.

“Every time he opens his mouth, he sounds like his mind is closing up shop. The Democrats are getting weaker by holding a coronation for Biden. Republicans will get stronger through a vigorous competition,” said Haley.

TRUMP HOLDS LARGE LEAD OVER HALEY 4 DAYS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY

She also criticized her own Republican Party for its widespread enthusiasm for former President Trump’s attempt at an Oval Office comeback.

Citing both candidates’ less-than-ideal performance in public opinion polling, Haley is trying to position herself as a sensible third option.

“Do we really want to spend every day from now until November watching America’s two most disliked politicians duke it out?” Haley said.

LAST RIVAL STANDING: HALEY FACES STEEP UPHILL CLIMB AGAINST TRUMP WITH 1 WEEK UNTIL SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY

She continued, “I feel no need to kiss the ring, and I have no fear of Trump’s retribution.”

Despite poor performances across the board until now — and little hope of clinching victory in her home state on Saturday — Haley says she has no plans to drop out anytime soon.

“I’ll keep fighting until the American people close the door,” Haley said. “The presidential primaries have barely begun. Just three states have voted, three.”

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Haley took a short break from her South Carolina stumping to raise cash and campaign Thursday and Friday in Texas, one of the 15 states holding Republican nominating contests on Super Tuesday in early March. She hauled in more than $1 million during her first day in Texas.

And Haley raked in $1.7 million in fundraising, as Fox News first reported, during a two-day campaign swing a week and a half ago in California, another large Super Tuesday state. The stops in Texas and California appear in part to be a marker for Haley as she pushes back against calls by some Republicans to drop out of the race and allow Trump to focus his efforts on Biden ahead of the November general election.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Former President Donald Trump says he’s ready to face off with President Biden on the debate stage.

Trump, the commanding frontrunner for the 2024 Republican race, on Tuesday reiterated his call for Biden to debate him this year as the two move closer to a rematch of their 2020 presidential election face-off.

Asked by host Laura Ingraham during a Fox News town hall held in Greenville, South Carolina if he’ll challenge the president to a debate, Trump quickly answered “I’ll do it right now on your show. I’ll challenge him right now.”

TRUMP CAMPAIGN PREDICTS ‘A**-KICKING’ FOR HALEY IN KEY PRIMARY

And Trump, in his “Ingraham Angle” appearance in front of a live audience of several hundred people, added “I’ll take anybody,” as he referred to a debate moderator.

“I think you have an obligation in this case, you really have an obligation to debate, Trump emphasized. “As many as necessary. I could do it starting now.”

And Trump, pointing to Biden, argued “I don’t think he’s going to debate. I really don’t think so.”

HALEY VOWS ‘I REFUSE TO QUIT’ IN CHALLENGE AGAINST TRUMP FOR GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION

After Trump, who is moving closer to locking up the GOP presidential nomination as he runs a third straight time for the White House, earlier this month challenged Biden to debate, the president said “well, if I were him, I’d want to debate me, too.”

Speaking with reporters during a campaign stop in Las Vegas, Biden argued that Trump has “got nothing else to do.”

But the president, who tangled with Trump at two general election debates in the autumn of 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, has yet to say if he’ll take part in debates as he runs for re-election.

The former president, who skipped the five GOP primary debates, reiterated that “when you debate, you want to be smart. You don’t have to waste your time.” 

Trump’s Fox News town hall comes four days before South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary, where the latest public opinion polls indicate he maintains a very large double-digit lead over former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his last major rival for the GOP nomination.

TRUMP HOLDS LARGE DOUBLE-DIGIT LEAD OVER HALEY AHEAD OF CRUCIAL SHOWDOWN

And Trump sat down for his town hall hours after his campaign, in a memo, argued that Haley’s White House bid would end “fittingly, in her home state” and that the former president would clinch the nomination by the middle of next month. 

But Haley, in a speech in Greenville, South Carolina a couple of hours before Trump landed in the city, said that “some of you – perhaps a few of you in the media – came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not. Far from it.”

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“I refuse to quit. South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,” Haley emphasized.

And she added that “I have no fear of Trump’s retribution.”

Asked about Haley’s comments, Trump said during the Fox News town hall that “you’re not supposed to lose your home state. It shouldn’t happen anyway and she’s losing it bigly.”

“I don’t think she knows how to get out,” Trump surmised. “She just can’t get herself to get out.”

And Trump reiterated that he’s ruled out Haley as his running mate.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

A former FBI informant charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme between a Ukrainian energy company and the Bidens had contacts with Russian intelligence officials, prosecutors said Tuesday. 

In court filings, prosecutors said Alexander Smirnov admitted during an interview before his arrest last week that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about the president’s son, Hunter Biden. They said Smirnov’s contacts with Russian officials were recent and extensive, and said Smirnov had planned to meet with one official during an upcoming overseas trip.

They said Smirnov has had numerous contacts with a person he described as the “son of a former high-ranking government official” and “someone with ties to a particular Russian intelligence service.” They said there is a serious risk that Smirnov could flee overseas to avoid facing trial.

Prosecutors revealed the alleged contact as they urged a judge to keep Smirnov behind bars while he awaits trial. 

HUNTER BIDEN WAS PAID $100K A MONTH THROUGH CHINESE FIRM VENTURE, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIED

Smirnov, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, is charged with falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016. 

Smirnov had only routine business dealings with the company starting in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate, prosecutors said. Special Counsel David Weiss said Smirnov’s lies were aimed at affecting the 2024 presidential election. 

Smirnov is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where he lived for 16 years before relocating to Las Vegas two years ago.

Smirnov was due in court later Tuesday in Las Vegas. He has been in custody at a facility in rural Pahrump, about an hour drive west of Las Vegas, since his arrest last week at the airport while returning from overseas.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts allowed Smirnov to be released from custody on electronic GPS monitoring while he awaits trial. He must stay in Clark County, Nevada, and is prohibited from applying for a new passport.

Before his arrest, Smirnov had been scheduled to leave the U.S. for a months-long, multi-country trip that – by his own admission – involved meetings with officials of foreign intelligence agencies and governments, prosecutors said. 

Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Defense attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld had argued for Smirnov’s release while he awaits trial “so he can effectively fight the power of the government.”

Smirnov’s claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. Democrats called for an end to the probe after the indictment came down last week, while Republicans distanced the inquiry from Smirnov’s claims and said they would continue to “follow the facts.”

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Hunter Biden is expected to give a deposition next week.

The Burisma allegations became a flashpoint in Congress as Republicans pursuing investigations of President Biden and his family demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations. They acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if the allegations were true.

Fox News’ David Spunt and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Former President Donald Trump openly condemned the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny for the first time on Tuesday after facing sharp backlash from Republican rival Nikki Haley.

Trump addressed the suspicious death while participating in a Greenville, South Carolina town hall hosted by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham just days ahead of the state’s Republican presidential primary.

“Navalny — a very sad situation. He was very brave because he went back [to Russia] when he could have stayed away,” Trump said when asked about the outrage from world leaders surrounding Navalny’s death, as well as claims by his opponents that he doesn’t care about human rights and freedom.

ALEXEI NAVALNY’S WIFE SAYS ‘PUTIN KILLED THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN,’ VOWS TO CONTINUE HIS ANTI-CORRUPTION WORK

“It’s a horrible thing, but it’s happening in our country too. We are turning into a communist country in many ways,” he added, going on to talk about the various prosecutions he faces in New York, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.

Trump was initially slow to condemn Navalny’s death, and received criticism after posting on social media that it had made him “more and more aware of what’s happening in our country. It is a slow, steady progression with crooked radical left politicians and prosecutors and judges.”

Haley told Fox News Digital earlier in the day that she was dismayed by his response after the circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death spurred speculation it was an assassination directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. She argued Trump’s comments were intentionally and obviously self-serving.

STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS ‘MAJOR SANCTIONS PACKAGE’ COMING TO HOLD RUSSIA ‘ACCOUNTABLE FOR NAVALNY’S DEATH’

“This is on the heels of Trump saying that he would encourage Putin to invade any NATO countries that didn’t pull their weight – And now the only comment he’s going to make about Navalny is not hitting Putin for murdering him, not praising Navalny for fighting the corruption that was happening in Russia. But instead he’s going to compare himself to Navalny and the victim that he is in his court cases?” she said.

According to prison officials, Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died on Friday. He had been serving a roughly 30-year sentence at the penal colony in northern Russia. 

Navalny’s body was reportedly found with “signs of bruising” last week despite Russian officials telling his mother he died of “sudden death syndrome.”

ALEXEI NAVALNY’S MOTHER DEMANDS PUTIN HAND OVER SON’S BODY ‘SO THAT I CAN BURY HIM HUMANELY’

Sudden death syndrome is a broad medical term that is not a formal condition or diagnosis. It rather refers to a wide range of scenarios that lead to sudden and unforeseen death.

Navalny had previously organized anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate for reforms against what he called corruption in Russia. He was the victim of an alleged assassination attempt in 2020 when he suffered poisoning from a suspected Novichok nerve agent.

World leaders and Navalny’s own spokesperson have declared that he was, in fact, murdered by Putin’s regime.

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Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday that “we don’t know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Fox News’ Charles Creitz, Anders Hagstrom and Reuters contributed to this report.

Almost every winner of the South Carolina primary has gone on to become the presidential nominee.

“South Carolina has a really strong history of picking the Republican nominee,” said Jessica Taylor, the Cook Political Report Senate and governors editor. “Only in 2012, when they voted for Newt Gingrich, did they not do that.”

Smaller, less populous states like Iowa and New Hampshire give lesser-known candidates the opportunity to compete against those with high name recognition, whereas South Carolina has often ended an unlikely candidate’s momentum and instead boosted establishment politicians.

“A lot of folks who work in politics down here know that South Carolina is sort of the graveyard of presidential campaigns,” South Carolina Republican Party Chair Drew McKissick said. “South Carolina tends to be very representative of the Republican coalition at large around the country.”

TRUMP HOLDS LARGE LEAD OVER HALEY 4 DAYS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY

In 2016, it was Donald Trump who was thought of as the establishment outsider. He was able to break through the South Carolina firewall and secure the republican nomination.

“Whether you consider somebody establishment or not establishment, I think you can certainly look at President Trump as definitely being not an establishment [pick] in 2016 and more of the establishment pick now,” McKissick said.

Fox News spoke with Competition Cars owner Bill Garofalo first in 2016. He was planning to back Trump.

“With Trump, here comes a guy that is speaking the things that we want to hear,” Garofalo said before the 2016 primary.

Eight years later, he still thinks the former president is the best choice.

MEDIA DEEM TRUMP THE NOMINEE, DESPITE HALEY TYING HIM TO PUTIN

“It’s a lot of the same commonsense ideas,” Garofalo said. “All of his policies, he just needs to go back and do what he did before. And I think we could be back on track in a very short time.”

While his political preference hasn’t changed, his business has.

“When COVID kicked in, we had the supply chain issue going on. New cars were difficult to get. So, the new car dealers were scooping up all the used cars,” Garofalo said. 

He shifted his business away from selling late-model used cars and now sells classic cars.

“Part of me changing and adapting was because of the 40% increase, the supply chain issue that Biden never fixed,” Garofalo said. 

THESE GOP LAWMAKERS ENDORSE TRUMP IN HIS 2024 RUN FOR POTUS

He believes Trump would have handled the supply chain issues differently.

“Trump wouldn’t have put up with that. He would have had solutions,” Garofalo said. “It takes common sense and reason to deal with a lot of the problems that we had with COVID and what the Democrats did, and the way they’re running things right now, it’s just ridiculous.”

Criticism of President Biden and his party isn’t reserved solely for Republicans.

“I don’t want to vote for Biden. I don’t think he has all his capabilities. I think he’s honestly getting senile. And I’m really disgusted with the Democratic Party for not coming up with a better candidate,” South Carolina voter Elizabeth Ballard said.

Ballard has voted Democrat for decades and most recently backed Biden in 2020. This election cycle, she has changed her tune.

HALEY SPOTLIGHTS TRUMP ‘CHAOS’ AS JUDGE SETS FORMER PRESIDENT’S HUSH-MONEY TRIAL START FOR MARCH

Elizabeth and her husband, Steve, have been married for three years. They have voted for different candidates in past elections. This time, the couple hopes former Gov. Nikki Haley is the nominee.

“I’m saving my vote for Nikki Haley,” Ballard said. “It’s been coming the past couple of years. My husband’s a Republican and is actually more informed than I am. And so I’ve been listening to what he has to say.”

“I like what I hear from Nikki so far. I’m here to learn more,” Ballard said at a recent Haley rally.

If Haley is not the nominee, she said she won’t vote for Biden or Trump.

“I’ll probably look for an independent candidate,” Ballard said. “They may not get in, but I can’t in good conscience vote for either of them.”

HALEY MAKING FINAL STAND AGAINST TRUMP 1 YEAR AFTER LAUNCHING GOP PRESIDENTIAL BID

Trump has had major influence in the state. Some of his top campaign issues are resonating with voters.

“The key issues that you’re hearing about at the national level, immigration being at the top and the economy, certainly those are all things that are definitely resonating here,” McKissick said.

With two candidates left in the Republican race, some voters are still undecided after their first choices dropped out of the race early on. They’re hoping to hear more from Trump and Haley on their top issues.

“I feel that if you’re going to come into the country, do it legally,” South Carolina voter Paul Hunter said. “The country and our politicians need to get together and figure out a nice, comprehensive immigration plan.”

Paul and his wife, Teresa, had planned to vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before he suspended his campaign last month.

PUTIN CLAIMS HE PREFERS ‘MORE PREDICTABLE’ BIDEN OVER TRUMP

“Now we have to decide whether Haley’s going to give us some answers to what we want to hear,” Teresa said.

The couple attended Haley’s event in Newberry, South Carolina, hoping to hear more about her immigration and economic plans.

“We have our daughter living in our house with us. So, we know with the adult children coming back home and that multifamily living situation, it affects us personally,” Teresa said. “I have to know that there is somebody out there who’s going to have plans for that.”

While they hold the same top issues, the couple is leaning toward different candidates.

“I want to say that I would go for Nikki Haley and pray that I’m not throwing away my vote,” Teresa said.

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Paul is leaning toward Trump but wants the rhetoric to change.

“The guy is brilliant. He’s got all the right ideas, but sometimes he has to fight around his own foot in his mouth,” Paul said.

Some county election boards in Ohio are remaining open late Tuesday, the final day to register for the March 19 primary. Early voting begins Wednesday.

Ohioans are choosing party nominees for president, U.S. Senate, state Legislature, Ohio Supreme Court and other seats.

GOP SENATE CANDIDATE IN BATTLEGROUND STATE RAILS AGAINST VULNERABLE DEM INCUMBENT: ‘OUT OF TOUCH’

The high-stakes three-way Republican Senate primary features Trump-endorsed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan.

Through campaign stops, an expensive ad war and televised debates, they are fighting for the chance to take on third-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, considered among the nation’s most vulnerable Democrats.

Across the state, voters will also be deciding 41 partisan contests for Ohio House and six for Ohio Senate.

In pivotal elections for control of the Ohio Supreme Court — which holds immense sway over the future of Ohio abortion law — Democrats are defending two sitting justices after first deciding a primary for a third court seat that is open. 10th District Court of Appeals Judge Terri Jamison faces 8th District Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Forbes in that faceoff. The winner takes on Republican Dan Hawkins, a judge on the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, this fall.

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Meanwhile, five Republican presidential contenders will be listed on Ohio ballots, though only two — former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — remained in the race as of Tuesday.

Former President Obama disagreed with then-Vice President Biden that Russia should “pay in blood and money” after it invaded Crimea in 2014, according to a new book.

An excerpt from “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore Foreign Policy After Trump” by Politico’s Alexander Ward revealed a disagreement that took place behind closed doors between Obama and Biden when Russian forces invaded Crimea and later annexed the peninsula, making it a part of Russia.

“The Obama administration did little in response except to provide Ukraine with defensive weapons, sanction the Kremlin, and kick Russia out of the Group of Eight, turning the G8 into the G7,” writes Ward. “The United States might have done more had Barack Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, been in charge. Russia should ‘pay in blood and money’ for its actions, Biden told his boss as the 2014 invasion began. Obama disagreed, but he made Biden his effective ambassador to Ukraine during the crisis.”

BIDEN PRIVATELY DEFIANT THAT HE DIDN’T BOTCH AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: BOOK

Later, Obama told Biden not to “overpromise anything” to Ukraine, the book states. But the chasm between the two continued to widen as Biden continued to foster his alliance by further pledging his support for the Eastern European nation.

As vice president, he traveled to Ukraine six times, with five visits occurring after the 2014 Maidan protests, the book notes. In Kyiv, alongside then-President Petro Poroshenko, Biden backed Ukraine’s quest for independence from Russia just three days before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.

“Ukraine, like every country in Europe, has a right to determine its own path. Yet Russia seeks to deny that choice. And the international community must continue to stand as one against Russian aggression and coercion,” Biden said. “It’s no secret that Russia does not want you to succeed. It’s not just about Ukraine. It’s about the future we have long sought of a Europe whole, free, and at peace — whole, free, and at peace — something that is in the vital national interest of both the United States and all Europeans.”

BIDEN PRIVATELY DEFIANT THAT HE DIDN’T BOTCH AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: BOOK

In a 2014 interview with The Atlantic, Obama said he saw no benefit in the U.S. getting involved in the unfolding events in Europe related to Russia and Ukraine.

“The fact is that Ukraine, which is a non-NATO country, is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what we do,” Obama said. “This is an example of where we have to be very clear about what our core interests are and what we are willing to go to war for.”

Between 2014 and Dec. 27, 2023, the U.S. sent more than $47 billion in security aid to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression and improve NATO ties. The Biden administration has contributed about $44.2 billion since February 2022, according to a recent congressional report.  

RUSSIA ARRESTS DUAL US-RUSSIAN CITIZEN FOR ALLEGEDLY TRYING TO RAISE FUNDS FOR UKRAINE’S MILITARY: REPORT

Biden has been urging Congress to pass a supplemental funding package to continue assisting Ukraine since last October.

Last week, the Senate passed a $95 billion national security supplemental package to assist Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific after a tedious procedural process. The package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and nearly $5 billion for the Indo-Pacific.

CANADA SENDING MORE THAN 800 DRONES TO UKRAINE TO SUPPORT ITS FIGHT AGAINST RUSSIA 

“I applaud the bipartisan coalition of Senators who came together to advance this agreement, and I urge the House to move on this with urgency. We cannot afford to wait any longer,” Biden said in a statement about the bill. “The costs of inaction are rising every day, especially in Ukraine. Already, we are seeing reports of Ukrainian troops running out of ammunition on the front lines as Russian forces continue to attack and Putin continues to dream of subjugating the Ukrainian people.”

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“There are those who say American leadership and our alliances and partnerships with countries around the world do not matter. They do. If we do not stand against tyrants who seek to conquer or carve up their neighbors’ territory, the consequences for America’s national security will be significant.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson marked President’s Day by meeting with former President Trump about the 2024 election cycle at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, Fox News Digital has learned.

It comes as Trump’s last major primary opponent, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, announced Tuesday that she was staying in the race despite losing every contest to Trump so far.

“Speaker Johnson met with President Trump in Florida on Monday to discuss growing the majority and securing Republican victories up and down the ballot in November,” Johnson campaign spokesman Greg Steele told Fox News Digital.

TRUMP BLASTS ‘CLUBHOUSE POLITICIAN’ JUDGE AFTER BEING FINED $350M, DEFENDS THE ‘GREAT COMPANY’ HE BUILT

Attending the meeting with Johnson was Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the House GOP’s campaign arm. They were in Florida for the House GOP leadership’s annual retreat.

The NRCC did not respond to a request for the group’s own readout of the meeting. A Trump spokesperson also did not respond to a request for comment.

House Republican leaders have made an unprecedented show of unity around Trump as he seeks the GOP nomination for president. Johnson released a video earlier this month calling on fellow Republicans to coalesce around Trump.

TRUMP HOLDS LARGE DOUBLE-DIGIT LEAD OVER HALEY AHEAD OF CRUCIAL SHOWDOWN

“Following victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, the US Virgin Islands, and Nevada, it is time for Republicans to unite behind President Trump, so we can focus on ending the disastrous Biden presidency and growing our majority in Congress,” he said in the short clip.

“I am convinced he’s going to be the next president of the United States, and I am very much looking forward to that happening.”

Johnson endorsed Trump for president in November last year, days after he won the speaker’s gavel. Hudson endorsed him in November 2022.

In addition to being a call for unity, the speaker’s video also appears to be a veiled shot at Haley for staying in the race.

LAST RIVAL STANDING: HALEY FACES BIG CHALLENGE IN HER HOME STATE AGAINST TRUMP

The former South Carolina governor and Trump administration official was defiant during a speech in Greenville, South Carolina, on Tuesday, days before her home state’s primary election.

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“Some of you, perhaps a few of you here in the media, came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not – far from it,” Haley said. “I’m running for president because we have a country to save.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Haley’s campaign for comment on Trump’s meeting with Johnson and Hudson but did not immediately hear back.

A federal appeals court must decide if Pennsylvania voters need to put accurate handwritten dates on the outside envelopes of their mail-in ballots for the votes to count, a dispute with implications for this year’s presidential contest.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held oral arguments in Philadelphia Tuesday over a district judge’s ruling in November that even without the proper dates, mail-in ballots should be counted if they are received in time.

Ari Savitzky, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union representing several voter groups, told the court that more than 10,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were disqualified in 2022 based on what he called “a meaningless paperwork error.” He argued that the “materiality provision” of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was designed to prevent that.

PENNSYLVANIA JUDGE CHARGED WITH SHOOTING SLEEPING EX-BOYFRIEND AND ASKING ‘WHAT DID YOU DO?’

“An immaterial mistake on a piece of paperwork doesn’t go to the deficiency or validity of the ballot itself,” he argued before the three-judge panel.

U.S. Circuit Judge Cindy K. Chung, who was appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden, asked where judges should draw the line between meaningless and material errors that can render the ballots invalid.

“Is there a difference between non-compliance — where you totally leave off the date — and imperfect compliance, where you have the date but you got the year wrong?” she asked.

Lawyer John M. Gore, representing state and national Republican groups challenging a district court ruling last year, said “the right to vote is not denied” when the state qualifies someone to vote, sends them a ballot and then rejects the ballot “because they failed to follow Pennsylvania law.”

In Pennsylvania, Democrats have been far more likely to vote by mail than Republicans under an expansion of mail-in ballots enacted in 2019. Republican lawmakers agreed to the change in exchange for an end to “straight-party voting” that they saw as a longtime Democratic advantage. In 2022, about 1.2 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the consequences of the expanded mail-in ballot rules became more pronounced, and the partisan vote-by-mail gap was widened by President Donald Trump’s opposition to mail-in ballots during his failed 2020 reelection campaign.

U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, a Trump appointee, ruled last year that county boards of election may no longer reject mail ballots that lack accurate, handwritten dates on their return envelopes. She said the date — mandated by state law — is irrelevant in helping elections officials decide whether the ballot was received in time or whether the voter is qualified to cast a ballot.

The Pennsylvania groups challenging the date mandate argue it allows the state to disenfranchise voter over meaningless mistakes, violating provisions of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit was filed by state chapters of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, the Black Political Empowerment Project and other groups.

Baxter said elections officials do not use the date on the outer envelope to determine whether the vote should be counted.

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“The important date for casting the ballot is the date the ballot is received. Here, the date on the outside envelope was not used by any of the county boards to determine when a voter’s mail ballot was received in the November 2022 election,” Baxter wrote.

FIRST ON FOX: A top House Republican has tossed his support behind a former NASCAR driver-turned-GOP congressional candidate in Maine.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., endorsed GOP congressional candidate Austin Theriault on Tuesday amid his quest to flip the seat held by Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden from blue to red, Fox News Digital has learned.

In a statement obtained by Fox, Scalise said he was “thrilled” that Theriault was making a run for Congress.

“Thrilled to have Austin Theriault, a strong conservative from a French-Catholic family in northern Maine, running to represent Maine’s 2nd District,” Scalise said. “We badly need more conservative fighters who understand rural America in Congress, and Austin fits the bill perfectly. That’s why he has my complete and total endorsement.”

SPEAKER JOHNSON ENDORSES FORMER NASCAR DRIVER FOR MAINE DEMOCRAT’S CONGRESSIONAL SEAT

Offering his appreciation for Scalise’s support, Theriault, who currently serves as a state representative in Maine, insisted that the Republican leader has displayed immense “courage and perseverance.”

“Leader Scalise has demonstrated incredible courage and perseverance, as well as dedication to conservative values,” he said. “His recovery from being shot by a deranged leftist and his fight against cancer are inspiring testaments to his fortitude, and I appreciate his support.”

Theriault added, “Rural America is being hurt by Joe Biden and Jared Golden’s border and inflationary spending policies, and I’m running to fight back.”

Scalise’s endorsement comes as Theriault seeks the seat held by Golden in a race that is expected to be one of the most competitive House races this cycle.

Theriault announced his campaign last September, saying he would “come in with fire” to Congress to confront issues like inflation, illegal border crossings and dying small towns.

“Regular hardworking folks are getting held down by out-of-touch, out-of-state elites who are clueless about how hard it is to make a living in Maine,” he said at the time.

KELLYANNE CONWAY WARNS GOP ‘BETTER LEARN’ SOME LESSONS AFTER DEMOCRATS FLIPPED NY HOUSE SEAT

Theriault has been vocal in his campaign on issues facing America, including speaking out against “pro-Hamas” protesters as well as the effort to remove former President Trump from the primary ballot in Maine.

Scalise is not the only leading House Republican to endorse Theriault’s candidacy. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., endorsed Theriault last month, referring to the former NASCAR driver as “a hardworking public servant with a strong track record of success.”

Additionally, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., threw her support behind Theriault in December.

Theriault, who has also been endorsed by numerous local and state leaders in Maine, recently announced that he has raised $500,000 since he launched his campaign.

Last Friday, Theriault’s campaign launched a district-wide radio buy touting his “pro-Trump” candidacy in the race.

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“Theriault’s not a politician, he’s a former NASCAR driver born in Aroostook County and raised on county values of hard work and grit,” the ad stated. “Theriault’s had it with Joe Biden and the radical left treating criminal illegals better than hardworking Mainers.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• The Wisconsin Legislature, in its final session, addressed various issues through voting, including a substantial tax cut and out-of-state hunting fees.
• The Assembly voted on a constitutional amendment to limit the governor’s veto powers, a measure needing statewide voter approval.
• Other tax measures include increasing credits for married couples and retirees’ income exemptions.

The Wisconsin Legislature was racing to finish its work for the session by voting Tuesday on everything from a massive tax cut to raising out-of-state hunting fees.

The Assembly was also voting for the first time on a constitutional amendment that would curb the veto powers of Wisconsin’s governor, which are the broadest in the country. That proposal would ultimately need to be approved by voters statewide. The Senate was also expected to vote to reject one of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ appointees to the Department of Natural Resources policy board.

The moves come as the Assembly was planning to finish its work for the session on Thursday, with the Senate wrapping up next month. Lawmakers will then quickly turn to campaigning for the fall election under new maps Evers signed into law on Monday.

WISCONSIN GOV. EVERS SIGNS NEW LEGISLATIVE MAPS INTO LAW AFTER REPUBLICANS PASS THEM

The Senate was slated to give final approval to a package of bills that would cut taxes about $2 billion in the first year and $1.4 billion every year after that. Evers has not said whether he will sign the package, or veto it like he has other similar Republican-backed tax cut proposals.

The centerpiece of the package is a measure that would expand the state’s second income tax bracket so more income would be subject to a lower rate.

Currently, the second bracket covers individuals earning between $14,320 to $28,640 and married couples making between $19,090 to $38,190. Under the bill, earnings up to $112,500 for individuals and $150,000 for married couples would be subject to the 4.4% rate, down from 5.3% now.

Other measures would increase the income tax credit for married couples, expand the state’s child care tax credit and increase the amount of retirees’ income exempt from the state income tax.

The Senate was expected to reject the appointment of Todd Ambs to the state’s Natural Resources Board. Ambs was the only one of four Evers appointees rejected by a GOP-controlled Senate committee following a tense public hearing last year. All four appointees were forwarded by Evers after the Senate in September rejected four DNR board appointees.

Ambs served as deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources before retiring in December 2021.

Ambs was questioned by GOP lawmakers at a December hearing about his online criticism of the Republican Party. Ambs said at that hearing that he would make “no apologies” for speaking out against former President Donald Trump.

LAWMAKERS ADVANCE BILL REQUIRING UNIVERSITIES OF WISCONSIN TO ADMIT ALL TOP-PERFORMING HIGH SCHOOLERS

The state Assembly was set to approve a bill that would raise bow and crossbow license fees for out-of-state deer hunters for the second time in less than a year in an attempt to shrink a gaping deficit in the state’s wildlife management account.

The Republican-authored proposal would raise out-of-state fees for bow and crossbow licenses from $165 to $200, the current cost of a nonresident gun deer license. The $35 increase is projected to generate an additional $409,000 for the account annually, according to DNR estimates.

The move comes as the state Department of Natural Resources looks for ways to shore up its fish and wildlife account. The fund covers a wide host of projects ranging from fish stocking and habitat restoration to paying farmers’ wolf depredation claims. The account was built with revenue from hunting and fishing license sales, timber sales and tribal gaming payments.

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Donald Trump’s campaign predicts that the former president will lock up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination by the middle of next month. 

And pointing to the former president’s very large double-digit lead over Nikki Haley in the latest polls in Saturday’s South Carolina GOP primary, Trump’s campaign argued Tuesday in a memo that Haley’s White House bid will end “fittingly, in her home state.”

But Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, doesn’t sound like a candidate ready to drop out of the race.

TRUMP HOLDS LARGE DOUBLE-DIGIT LEAD OVER HALEY AHEAD OF CRUCIAL SHOWDOWN

“I promise you this, I am in this fight. I will take the bruises. I will take the cuts,” she told supporters at a large rally in this city in upstate South Carolina on Monday night. “This is going to be messy and I’ll take the hurt because I believe nothing good comes easy. Sometimes we have to feel pain to appreciate the blessing.”

LAST RIVAL STANDING: HALEY FACES BIG CHALLENGE IN HER HOME STATE AGAINST TRUMP

The Trump campaign memo forecasts an “a—kicking in the making in South Carolina” for Haley, and that “the end is near” for her presidential run due to “a very serious math problem” she has in the race to lock up enough delegates to win the GOP nomination.

Looking ahead to next month, when nearly 800 delegates are up for grabs on Super Tuesday. Fifteen states hold Republican presidential contests on March 5, with over 150 at stake over the following two weeks, the Trump campaign predicted the former president would secure the nomination on March 19, even under a “most-generous model” for Haley.

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Trump’s campaign memo came out hours before Trump returns to South Carolina on Tuesday to headline a Fox News town hall in Greenville hosted by Laura Ingraham. The pre-taped one-hour event, which will focus on both domestic issues and overseas conflicts, will air at 7 p.m. ET.

And Haley will deliver what her campaign describes as a “state of the race” speech in Greenville earlier in the day.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

GREENVILLE, S.C. – With the clock ticking toward Saturday’s Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, a new poll indicates that former President Trump maintains a large double-digit lead over Nikki Haley, his last remaining major rival in the race for the GOP nomination.

Trump, the commanding frontrunner for the Republican nomination as he makes his third straight bid for the White House, stands at 63% support among those likely to vote in Saturday’s Republican presidential primary, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today survey released on Tuesday.

Haley, a former two-term Palmetto State governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, stands at 35% in the poll, which was conducted Feb. 15-18. The survey is the latest this month to suggest Haley faces a steep uphill climb in her home state.

Getting past the top lines, the poll also indicates Trump with a massive 72% to 25% lead among Republicans questioned, with Haley holding a narrow 53%-46% advantage among independents.

LAST RIVAL STANDING: HALEY FACES BIG CHALLENGE IN HER HOME STATE AGAINST TRUMP

While South Carolina’s GOP primary is open to all voters as long as they have not already cast a ballot in the Feb. 3 Democratic presidential primary, nearly two-thirds of those sampled by the poll indicated they were Republicans, with only 28% identifying as independents.

Independents helped fuel Haley’s 43% finish in last month’s New Hampshire GOP presidential primary, 11 points behind Trump.

HALEY SPOTLIGHTS TRUMP CHAOS’ AS JUDGE SETS FORMER PRESIDENT’S HUSH MONEY TRIAL DATE

Haley started turning up the volume on Trump last month, when she became the final rival standing against the former president in the GOP nomination race. Additionally, Haley has been sharpening those attacks in recent days.

Pointing to Trump’s controversial comments a week ago that he would not stand in the way of Moscow if Russian leader Vladimir Putin attacked a NATO member country that failed to pay its full share of dues, Haley at rallies Monday in Greenville and Camden once again charged that her rival “gets unhinged when he goes off the teleprompter.”

Haley also savaged Trump over the death of high-profile Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which much of the world assumes was ordered by Putin.

“I don’t know why he keeps getting weak in the knees when it comes to Russia. But l tell you what, Russia’s not getting weak in the knees,” Haley argued.

A day earlier, during a Fox News town hall in South Carolina hosted by John Roberts, Haley spotlighted the former president’s silence on Navalny’s death, saying “Donald Trump needs to answer whether he thinks Putin is responsible for Navalny.”

HALEY SPOTLIGHTS TRUMP CHAOS’ AS JUDGE SETS FORMER PRESIDENT’S HUSH MONEY TRIAL DATE

On “Fox and Friends” on Monday morning, Haley argued that Trump was too distracted by his legal difficulties and multiple trials and cases, saying “Trump’s doing late-night rants about his court cases. He’s going to be in court for the rest of the year. We can’t be distracted.”

Haley also continues to hammer Trump over his recent comments mocking the absence on the campaign trail of her husband Michael – who is on a military deployment overseas. She is using those remarks by the former president to highlight what she argues is his long history of disparaging military members.

However, Suffolk University political research director David Paleologos spotlighted that the new poll indicated “Trump was winning by a wider margin among South Carolina military households than among non-military households, despite his questioning of the presence of Haley’s husband.”

“Within the subset of the Republican Primary electorate, nothing sticks to Trump,” Paleologos said.

Trump grabbed a majority of the votes last month in Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary victories, and won by a landslide two weeks ago in the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Island caucuses, as he moved toward locking up the nomination.

While South Carolina is home for Haley, the former president enjoys the backing of the state’s governor, nearly the entire congressional delegation and scores of state lawmakers and local officials.

“She’s getting clobbered,” Trump emphasized last week at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, as he touted his formidable lead over Haley. “She’s finished.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News “Nikki Haley can’t name a single state she can win, and she is five days away from getting crushed in her own backyard, so it’s no surprise that her embarrassing daily temper tantrums over President Trump are getting more and more desperate.”

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Trump returns to South Carolina on Tuesday to headline a Fox News town hall in Greenville hosted by Laura Ingraham. The pre-taped one-hour event, which will focus on both domestic issues and overseas conflicts, will air at 7 p.m. ET.

Hours earlier in Greenville, Haley will deliver what her campaign describes as a “state of the race” speech.

While Trump is dominating the Republican nomination race, Haley repeatedly points to general election polls that suggest she would be the stronger GOP standard-bearer to face off in November against President Biden.

She reiterated that argument on the campaign trail Monday.

“Donald Trump can’t win and we have to win. That’s the biggest thing. He lost it for us in 2018. He lost it for us in 2020. He lost it for us in 2022. Look at last week. He lost another court case on immunity. Now he’s going to be named citizen Trump,” she emphasized.

Haley argued that “everything he touches, we lose. How many more times do we  have to lose before we say maybe he’s the problem.”

Haley has enjoyed strong fundraising so far this year, and she is telling supporters that “I’m in this for the long haul.”

She reiterated to Fox News Digital in a recent interview that “our focus is on South Carolina, Michigan, Super Tuesday.”

Michigan holds its primary on Tuesday, Feb. 27, three days after South Carolina, and 15 states hold contests on Super Tuesday on March 5.

Pointing to the weeks ahead, as she pledged to continue her underdog effort, Haley told the large crowd Monday night in Greenville that “I promise you this, I am in this fight. I will take the bruises. I will take the cuts. This is going to be messy and I’ll take the hurt because I believe nothing good comes easy. Sometimes we have to feel pain to appreciate the blessing.”

Fox News’ Deirdre Heavey and Kirill Clark contributed to this report.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

FIRST ON FOX: President Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, paid off thousands in taxes owed since 2015, Pennsylvania Department of Revenue filings show. 

As of Jan. 3 at 12:30 a.m., the Department of Revenue updated Ashley’s docket to “satisfaction filed,” indicating the previous lien notification “should be removed from the court records” in Philadelphia County.

On Dec. 18, Fox News Digital first reported Ashley’s tax delinquency after the issuance of a tax lien at the start of the month, indicating unpaid taxes totaling $4,985 plus a filing fee of $94.44, totaling $5,079.

A tax lien is a legal claim imposed by the government on a property or assets to secure unpaid taxes after repeated attempts to collect.

BIDEN’S DAUGHTER OWES THOUSANDS IN INCOME TAXES, LIEN DOCUMENTS SHOW

On Dec. 1, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue in Philadelphia County notified Ashley Biden that the “amount of such unpaid tax, interest, additions or penalties is a lien in favor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania upon the taxpayer’s property – real, personal, or both – as the case may be,” according to the notice.

The period start date listed on the lien begins Jan. 1, 2015 – when Joe Biden was vice president in the Obama administration – and ends Jan. 1, 2021, days before he was sworn in as president.

Ashley Biden’s attorney and the White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s multiple requests for comment.

BIDEN DAUGHTER ADDS TO LENGTHY FAMILY HISTORY OF TAX ISSUES

Ashley worked as a social worker in the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families from 2007 to 2012. She received her master’s degree in social work from University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice in 2010.

In 2017, while working at the Delaware Center for Justice – a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization – she launched a charitable fashion brand, Livelihood. In 2019, she left her job at the Delaware Center for Justice to help her father’s presidential campaign.

Garrett Ziegler, one of the board members of the nonprofit Marco Polo and former President Trump aide, told Fox News Digital in a statement Monday that “Marco Polo is pleased that Ashley has come into compliance with the law.”

Ziegler, who Hunter Biden is suing for leaking the contents of his infamous laptop, first notified Fox News Digital about the tax filings.

“However, to be clear, as a social worker who has had to deal with adversity and trauma from her past … and as the wife of a prominent surgeon, Ashley should have never had to deal with this — the people in her life should have done a better job of helping with her financial affairs,” he said.

Ashley’s brother, Hunter Biden, meanwhile, allegedly carried out a multiyear scheme to bypass paying $1.4 million in federal taxes while living an indulgent lifestyle that included spending significant sums on escorts and illegal drugs, according to his California indictment on nine tax-related charges.

MAN, WOMAN PLEAD GUILTY TO STEALING ASHLEY BIDEN DIARY, SELLING IT TO PROJECT VERITAS

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Special Counsel David Weiss said he “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020,” which was in the middle of his father’s presidential campaign.

Weiss added that in “furtherance of that scheme,” Hunter Biden “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions” from the company “outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform.”

Hunter Biden had allegedly “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” and in 2018, “stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015.”

Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report.

The Biden campaign raised more than $42 million in January and has $130 million in cash-on-hand–a figure President Biden’s re-election team is touting as “the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history” at this point in the election cycle, Fox News Digital has learned.

The campaign has raised nearly $278 million since the president announced his run for a second term in April 2023.

BIDEN CAMPAIGN REPORTS $97M IN Q4 OF 2023, TOUTS ‘HISTORIC’ $117M CASH-ON-HAND ON DAY OF IOWA CAUCUSES

“January’s fundraising haul – driven by a powerhouse grassroots fundraising program that continues to grow month by month – is an indisputable show of strength to start the election year,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager, said in a statement.  “While Team Biden-Harris continues to build on its fundraising machine, Republicans are divided – either spending money fighting Donald Trump, or spending money in support of Donald Trump’s extreme and losing agenda.”

She added: “Either way, judging from their weak fundraising, they’re already paying the political price.”

Chavez Rodriguez said that the 2024 election “will determine the fate of our democracy and our freedoms,” and stressed that the Biden campaign “is using its resources to build a winning operation that will meet voters where they are about the stakes of this election.”

Meanwhile, campaign senior communications advisor TJ Ducklo said the team is “particularly proud that January shattered our grassroots fundraising record for a third straight month.”

BIDEN EXPECTED TO RAISE MORE THAN $15 MILLION IN STAR-STUDDED FUNDRAISING BLITZ: SOURCES

“This haul will go directly to reaching the voters who will decide this election,” Ducklo said. “That’s reason number 355 million that we are confident President Biden and Vice President Harris will win this November.”

The Biden campaign, in January, had its strongest grassroots fundraising month, breaking its previous record from December. The campaign said last month that 1.1 million supporters have made nearly 3 million contributions.

The campaign also touted “high-profile moments” that motivated grassroots donors, saying that they raised $1 million each day in the three days following the GOP Iowa Caucuses.

HALEY TOUTS JANUARY FUNDRAISING HAUL AHEAD OF FIRST RALLY IN SUPER TUESDAY STATE

“January’s unprecedented fundraising numbers underscore the grassroots momentum to send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot this November,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “From coast to coast, Americans are rallying together to safeguard our democracy and defend our freedoms in a historic way.”

He added: “As this election year kicks into full gear, Team Biden-Harris and the DNC stand united, leveraging the power of grassroots donors to propel Democrats to victory at every level.”