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At a White House ceremony in the Rose Garden on Tuesday on what would have been her husband’s 32nd birthday, Mrs. Erika Kirk accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of Charlie Kirk and delivered a powerful, deeply personal tribute to his life and legacy.

“Thank you, Mr. President, for honoring my husband in such a profound way,” she began. “Charlie always admired your commitment to freedom.”

She offered thanks to the First Lady, the Vice President, and friends and family “watching from all around the world,” along with Turning Point USA staff and chapters nationwide. “You are the heartbeat of this future and of this movement,” she said. “Everything Charlie built lives through you.”

Erika added that the Presidential Medal of Freedom itself is rooted in America’s Founding. “The very existence of the Presidential Medal of Freedom reminds us that the national interest of the United States has always been freedom,” she said.

CHARLIE KIRK POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED MEDAL OF FREEDOM ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS 32ND BIRTHDAY

“Our founders etched it into the preamble of our Constitution, and those words are not relics on parchment. They are a living covenant. The blessings of liberty are not man’s invention. They are God’s endowment.”

She recalled how Charlie wrote about freedom often. “He believed that liberty was both a right and a responsibility. And he used to say that freedom is the ability to do what is right without fear. And that’s how he lived,” Erika said.

“His name, Charles, literally means ‘free man.’ And that’s exactly who my husband was,” she continued. “From the time I met him, sitting across from him being interviewed about politics, philosophy and theology, I saw the fire in his soul. There was this divine restlessness within him that came from knowing God placed him on this earth to protect something very sacred. He never stopped fighting for people to experience freedom.”

CHARLIE KIRK’S CLOSE FRIEND PRAISES ERIKA KIRK’S ‘RESILIENCE’ AHEAD OF EMOTIONAL WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY

Erika recalled Charlie often saying that “without God, freedom becomes chaos” and that liberty can only survive “when anchored to truth.” She remembered him telling an audience: “The opposite of liberty isn’t law. It’s captivity. And the freest people in the world are those whose hearts belong to Christ.”

Looking back at his years building Turning Point USA, she said, “While he was building an organization, he was also building a movement: one that called people back to God, back to truth, and a movement that was filled with courage.”

She described him as a man who loved life’s simplest pleasures: quiet walks, shelves full of books and Saturday mornings in the sun with decaf coffee and his phone turned off for the Sabbath. His birthday tradition, she recalled was mint chocolate chip ice cream, enjoyed only on July 4 and his birthday.

“Last year, his one birthday wish was to see the Oregon Ducks play Ohio State — and they won,” she said. “Mr. President, I can say with confidence that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have.”

CHARLIE KIRK’S COLLEAGUES AND PASTORS PRAISE HIS PATRIOTISM AS TRUMP READIES HIGHEST CIVILIAN HONOR

Turning to his final moments, Erika shared: “It was written across his chest in those final moments on one of his simple t-shirts that always carried a message — this one bearing a single word: freedom. That was the banner over his life.”

She said her husband never told anyone what to say but always encouraged them “to think outside of traditional political labels, anchored in wisdom and truth.”

“Charlie wasn’t content to simply admire freedom. He wanted to multiply it,” Erika said. “He wanted young people to taste it, understand it and defend it. He wanted them to see that liberty isn’t selfish indulgence — it’s self-governance under God.”

Every day, she recalled, he lived with fearless conviction. “He didn’t fear being slandered. He didn’t fear losing friends. He stood for truth and stood for freedom. Everything else was just noise to him. And it’s because his confidence in Christ was absolute.”

Erika said Charlie lived “only 31 short years on this side of heaven,” but filled every day with purpose. “He fought for truth when it was unpopular. He stood for God when it was costly. He prayed for his enemies. He loved people when it was inconvenient. He ran his race with endurance, and he kept the faith. And now he wears the crown of a righteous martyr.”

She told the audience, “Heaven gained what earth could no longer contain — a free man made fully free. To all watching, this is not a ceremony. This is a commissioning. I want you to be the embodiment of this medal. I want you to free yourself from fear. I want you to stand courageously in the truth. And remember that while freedom is inherited in this country, each of us must be intentional stewards of it.”

Before closing, Erika shared her daughter Gigi’s birthday message: “Happy birthday, daddy. I want to give you a stuffed animal. I want you to eat a cupcake with ice cream. And I want you to go have a birthday surprise. I love you.”

Her young son also gave his own gift, “deciding to become the man of the house and be fully potty-trained at 16 months.”

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“I know that you’re celebrating in heaven today, but gosh, I miss you,” she said through tears. “We miss you and we love you. And we promise we’ll make you proud. Charlie’s life was proof that freedom is not a theory. It’s a testimony. He showed us that liberty begins not in the halls of power, but in the heart of a man surrendered to God.”

She ended with a final tribute: “To live free is the greatest gift, but to die free is the greatest victory. Happy birthday, Charlie. Happy freedom day.”

The Department of Homeland Security clapped back at a “bizarre” anti-ICE protest that drew several hundred nude demonstrators who bared it all outside a Portland ICE facility on Sunday.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin assured that “these unsightly tactics won’t stop us or slow us down.”

“In a bizarre effort to obstruct ICE law enforcement, agitators are now laying in the street naked to stage ‘die-ins’ to block roads in front of ICE facilities,” she told Fox News Digital. “Our law enforcement will continue to remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists out of our country.”

A nude bicycle gang rolled up to the city’s immigrant detention center on a rainy Sunday, blasting music over a loudspeaker while some yelled “F— ICE” and made obscene gestures towards federal agents, as seen in a video posted to X by The Post Millennial’s Katie Daviscourt.

ANTI-ICE PORTLAND RIOTERS WITH GUILLOTINE CLASH WITH POLICE IN WAR-LIKE SCENES

Some had slogans written on their bare bodies, including “No Kings” and “No human being is illegal.” A handful of federal agents overlooked the unclothed open border enthusiasts from a rooftop, with two pulling out their phones in an apparent effort to record the salacious scene.

At another point, hundreds of naked demonstrators lay down on nearby Burnside Bridge as part of a “die-in” against ICE and President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops.

McLaughlin said that though the demonstration was absurd, federal law enforcement in Portland has had to deal with much more than just cheeky protesters.

ICE DIRECTOR REVEALS DANGEROUS NIGHTLY ANTIFA ‘BATTLE’ AS TRUMP PREPARES FEDERAL DEPLOYMENT TO PORTLAND

For weeks, federal officers have been targeted by violent protesters in major U.S. cities, including some who rammed and cornered an ICE vehicle in Chicago, prompting the agents to open fire. Anti-ICE protesters have blocked ICE vehicles and have thrown rocks and ignited fireworks at agents.

There has also been a surge of agents and their families being doxxed, and there has been a 1,000 percent increase against officials, according to DHS.

McLaughlin said that on Sunday, “Antifa domestic terrorists and anti-ICE rioters assaulted law enforcement outside the ICE office in Portland.”

FEDERAL AGENT SAYS CHICAGO’S ‘ICE-FREE ZONES’ ENDANGER OPERATIONS, EMBOLDEN PROTESTERS

According to McLaughlin, three “rioters” were arrested for “assaulting law enforcement, including for spitting, kicking, and biting officers.”

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“Thanks to President Trump, there is a SURGE of federal law enforcement resources from CBP, ICE, FBI, DOJ, and DEA,” she said. “This chaos and violence will end under President Trump. Law and order will prevail.”

Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.

New York City’s leading mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, raised nearly $13,000 from donors with addresses outside the United States, a Fox News review of New York City Campaign Finance records show — raising questions about campaign compliance and transparency. 

As of Oct. 3, at least 170 of the nearly 54,000 contributions to the Mamdani campaign may violate campaign finance rules, as only U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents are permitted to contribute to American political campaigns. Candidates are expected to return illegal donations. 

As of Tuesday, records revealed that 91 of the foreign donations have been refunded. According to data from the New York City Campaign Finance Records contribution refunds, $5,723.50 of the $7,190 has been returned to foreign donors. 

A review of the donors revealed that Mamdani’s mother-in-law in Dubai, Bariah Dardari, donated $500 in January. Her donation was refunded four days later. 

MAMDANI PROPOSES MASSIVE AMOUNT OF LEGAL DEFENSE FUNDING FOR IMMIGRANTS IN ‘TRUMP-PROOFING’ NYC PLAN

The New York Post was the first to report on the out-of-town donations. 

ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S $1M FUNDRAISING HAUL FUELED BY OUT-OF-STATE DONORS, DATA REVEALS

According to the campaign finance records, Dardari is a physician at Genesis Healthcare in Dubai, where she works as a pediatrician, according to Genesis’ website.

Overall, records revealed that Mamdani brought in at least $4 million in private donations, $12.7 million in public matching funds and has $6.1 million in cash on hand.

There are at least 79 outstanding foreign donations that have not been returned by the Mamdani campaign as of Tuesday evening. 

The Mamdani campaign told The New York Post over the weekend that “we will of course return any donations that are not in compliance with CFB law.” His campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News’ comment request. 

More than half of the $1 million that Mamdani’s mayoral campaign hauled in over the summer was from out of town, New York City Campaign Finance Board data revealed in late August. 

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The Mamdani campaign said that the democratic socialist raised $1,051,204.85 in July and August, but while his campaign touted more than 8,628 in unique donors, Campaign Finance Board data revealed that 53.5%, or $562,422, of Mamdani’s fundraising came from outside the state of New York. 

As Mayor Eric Adams suspended his re-election campaign last month, New Yorkers will elect a new mayor on Nov. 4. Mamdani has emerged as the frontrunner ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an Independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. 

Fox News’ Ryan Rugani contributed to this report. 

WINCHESTER, Va. – What was once the most contested city in the Confederacy is again divided — this time on the merits of the candidates in the upcoming Virginia elections.

While there are no longer recurring bloody battles along “The Valley Road” (now US-11) through Winchester, residents in the city in Virginia’s northwest corner — the region’s apple capital in the fall and also home of GOP gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears — offered competing views on the issues commanding the race. 

Fox News Digital spoke with multiple Winchester, Virginia, area residents along the Loudoun Street arcade, a pedestrian-only portion of the historic city’s central avenue that comprises several shops, restaurants and a Civil War museum.

Of the murder-texts scandal enveloping Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones, Kevin Callinan from neighboring Stephens City, Virginia, said that “no normal person” would say what Jones said about then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah.

SPANBERGER QUIET ON TWIN CONTROVERSIES IN FINAL STRETCH OF VIRGINIA RACE

“It just was really horrendous,” he said of Jones’ conversation referencing murdering Gilbert and seeing harm come to what the Democrat called the Republican’s “little fascist” children.

“He should have just had the moral of dignity to just say, ‘I’m gonna resign. I said that, it was horrible to even say it. Even if it was a joke, it is horrible, and I should have just walked away,’” Callinan said.

Nancy from Winchester, Virginia, said Jones “crossed the line” and that Earle-Sears is the best candidate to lead Virginia in light of Spanberger’s response to the controversy.

J.C. Moore from Berryville, Virginia, — a rural population center and gateway to Virginia’s horse country in neighboring Clarke County — told Fox News Digital he wasn’t sure if Jones should be pushed out.

Moore pointed to previous instances of political rhetoric referencing violence or murder — citing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s “bullseye” controversy focused on Hillary Clinton.

“It’s distasteful,” he said of the overarching rhetoric. Jones’ case “should be addressed, it should be criticized. But I’m not sure about total banishment.”

WINSOME EARLE-SEARS RELEASES ‘TWO BULLETS’ AD SCATHING OPPONENT FOR FAILING TO DEMAND JAY JONES’ OUSTER

Danielle from Winchester, Virginia, said Spanberger’s campaign would be “OK — if it wasn’t for Jay Jones.”

“Her entire platform is going to fall because of Jones,” she said, adding that Spanberger is otherwise very smart and an “amazing” candidate, but that Jones’ texts overshadow the Democratic ticket.

Nancy added that Spanberger hasn’t sufficiently addressed the Jones scandal.

“She said she would leave it up to the voters — which I think if she’s going to be our governor, she definitely needs to take a stand.”

While not Virginia voters, a couple visiting the area from Florida said they’ve been following the race closely from 1,000 miles away.

“That attorney general should drop out,” the gentleman called out to Fox News Digital as he passed, adding that if they lived in Virginia they would be voting for Earle-Sears.

WINSOME EARLE-SEARS RELEASES AD LINKING ABIGAIL SPANBERGER TO JAY JONES AFTER VIOLENT TEXTS RESURFACE

Asked about the transgender bathroom controversy in nearby Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William, Virginia, counties — and how Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger has handled criticism of her responses to it — Callinan said she has been “ducking the issue.”

“She keeps saying, ‘I’m a mother of three daughters,’ but … the basic issue of ‘should I have a boy in the bathroom with my three daughters?’ I think she’d say ‘no’ — but politically she just won’t even be honest about it,” he said.

“She would not want a grown man in a fitness center with her daughters, but she knows she doesn’t want to say it,” he said, appearing to refer to the case of chronically charged sex offender Richard Cox in Arlington, Virginia. 

In terms of which candidate can best handle the crime crisis that is particularly evident in urban areas, Callinan said President Donald Trump has done a “great job” in Washington, D.C., proper and that neighboring areas of Virginia would be best served by Earle-Sears following the president’s lead.

“The Democrats are never going to toughen up because they know it will alienate a significant part of their base,” he said.

Chris Ladner from Vienna, Virginia, in heavily Democratic Fairfax County, said Spanberger has been “unserious” about the transgender bathrooms controversy and “dodging what she really thinks.”

EARLE-SEARS COMES OUT SWINGING IN HEATED DEBATE AS SPANBERGER DODGES JAY JONES QUESTIONS

Ladner said he supports how Earle-Sears has responded to the issue.

Living close to Washington, Ladner added that Earle-Sears and incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares would do and have done a good job respectively on the crime issue.

“Jay Jones will not be good at that,” Ladner said.

Nancy separately agreed.

“Absolutely it would be Sears (who would be better). Number one, she was military, number two she has a clear idea of what’s right and wrong.”

“And plus, I like her religious views,” she said of the devout Christian.

SPANBERGER DEFENDS ABORTION AD CRITICIZING SEARS AFTER BERNIE WARNS AGAINST HIGHLIGHTING ISSUE

Moore, however, disagreed in his remarks to Fox News Digital.

He said Spanberger has been “deeper into” law enforcement — as she served as a federal agent prior to an interceding tenure in Congress — and that her economic-equality positions will help the issue.

“Most of (the crime problem) you can trace back to economic inequity and poverty,” he said.

Danielle added that neither candidate is ideal to fight the crime crisis, but that if Spanberger is able to force Jones off the ticket, she would win that proverbial tie-breaker.

Later this week, the attention shifts to the other end of the Zachary Taylor Highway from Winchester, as Miyares and Jones square off at the University of Richmond in their one and only debate.

The battle is likely to be headlined by the murder-texts controversy. The debate also notably takes place just over the city line from Henrico County, Virginia, where Spanberger hails from.

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In the lieutenant governor sweeps, Republican nominee John Reid repeatedly has called for debates against Democratic nominee state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi of Chesterfield, but any potential bout remains at an impasse.

Meanwhile, Earle-Sears has seen a campaign cash infusion since the Jones news broke, and on Monday released a new ad called “trigger” which uses snippets of her Norfolk debate to slam Spanberger’s response to the Jones controversy.

The Army is rapidly developing small, first-person-view drones — the same kind that have proven devastatingly effective in Ukraine — and envisions a future where “every infantryman will have a drone with them,” according to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

“We’re doing essentially a call to arms where we are ingesting the lessons being learned in Ukraine,” Driscoll told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual conference. “Ukraine was able to take out almost $10 billion worth of Russian equipment with $100,000 worth of drones.”

He added that the Army’s elite units are already planning around drones for every mission. “When you meet with our lead units like the Ranger Regiment or Delta Force,” he said, “they envision drones being a core part of every action they do.”

The remarks came during AUSA’s annual conference in Washington, where hundreds of Army leaders met with defense executives showcasing the latest battlefield technology. The event — one of the Army’s largest industry gatherings — almost didn’t happen this year amid the government shutdown.

ARMY PUSHES BATTLEFIELD AI AS COUNTER-DRONE FIGHT TAKES CENTER STAGE

AUSA stepped in with a $1 million donation to cover travel costs and fly in Army officers from around the world, allowing the service to continue its meetings with industry and push ahead on modernization plans.

Driscoll said the Army sees drones and counter-drones as “different sides of the same coin,” noting that future soldiers will need to be proficient at both. “You can’t really defend against one without being an expert in the other,” he said.

The service is also developing defensive networks that merge sensors and interceptors to protect key assets from aerial threats. “We’re using new technologies like drones to create a sensing layer that, paired with interceptors, will essentially allow us to build mini ‘Iron Domes’ over protected assets,” Driscoll said.

PENTAGON EXPLORING COUNTER-DRONE SYSTEMS TO PREVENT INCURSIONS OVER NATIONAL SECURITY FACILITIES

He described this “drone-pervasive” vision as part of a sweeping modernization campaign that spans artificial intelligence, industrial reform, and energy resilience — all of which, he said, are necessary for the Army to operate in contested environments such as the Indo-Pacific.

In a separate but related effort, Driscoll and Energy Secretary Chris Wright unveiled the Janus Program, a next-generation energy initiative that would place small nuclear microreactors at Army bases across the United States. The goal: make installations self-sufficient in power and less dependent on vulnerable fuel convoys or overseas supply chains.

“These reactors will be commercially built and operated,” Driscoll said, “and they’ll give us the ability to provide resilient, secure, round-the-clock power at our most critical installations.”

ARMY’S NUCLEAR COMEBACK: SWEEPING NEW PROGRAM AIMS TO BREAK ‘TYRANNY OF FUEL’ AT BASES ACROSS THE GLOBE

Wright said the program aims to replicate the reliability of nuclear propulsion in Navy submarines. “These engines are installed, they run the life of the submarine without refueling,” he said. “That changed the game for our Navy. And I think we can do the same thing for our Army with small reactors that can be deployed in all different settings.”

The Janus reactors, which will be developed in partnership with the Department of Energy, are designed to be small and transportable. Driscoll said each would be shielded with armor-grade materials — “the same material you put around a tank” — and protected by the same layered sensor and drone network envisioned for base defense.

One of the biggest hurdles to scaling microreactors is uranium enrichment. The reactors require high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) — a higher concentration of uranium-235 than is currently produced for civilian use.

“Nobody produces it today,” Wright told reporters. “Congress allocated some money a couple of years ago, but it’s been sat on too long. We’ll be giving awards to accelerate the rise of American-owned enrichment capacity in America.”

Wright said the goal is to restore the domestic uranium supply chain and eliminate reliance on foreign sources. “We built 100 reactors quickly, providing 20 percent of U.S. electricity — and then it stagnated for decades,” he said. “Now nuclear provides around 5 percent of global energy output. This is deeply disappointing.”

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Safety and security will be top concerns as the Army moves forward. “From a cyber perspective, no one is going to allow a nuclear reactor that is remotely operated,” Dr. Jeff Waksman, the Army official in charge of the Janus Program, said. “They’ll be connected by fiber optic — there’s no remote operation possibility.”

Waksman added that the reactors’ small size and design make them unattractive proliferation targets. The goal of the project is an eventual global scale, but for now, “these will be in the 50 U.S. states, not deployed to the front,” he said. “They’re small targets, with very small amounts of material inside.”

EXCLUSIVE: Amid soaring assaults on federal law enforcement and following a recent shooting at a Dallas facility, a caller left a disturbing voicemail taunting immigration agents, saying he hopes “every one of those lawless c—-” gets “doxxed one by one.”

“You know, it’s always the bad guys who need masks, not the good ones,” a male-sounding voice said in a voicemail recording obtained by Fox News Digital.

“I hope every one of those lawless c—- you call ICE agents get doxxed one by one, and they get the public shaming they deserve,” he said.

This comes as assaults on ICE agents have risen by 1,000%, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS RIPS HOUSTON HALLOWEEN DISPLAY DEPICTING HANGING OF ICE AGENTS, DEMANDS ‘SANCTUARY POLITICIANS’ STAND DOWN

On Sept. 24, a gunman named Joshua Jahn, carrying rounds with the words “anti-ICE” written on them, allegedly opened fire on a facility in Dallas, killing two and injuring another.

The Dallas Observer reported that authorities found notes in Jahn’s home in which he referred to ICE agents as “people showing up to collect a dirty paycheck,” and that he intended to “maximize lethality” against ICE personnel.

In a statement to Fox News Digital in response to the voicemail, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blamed the rise in animosity against agents on rampant rhetoric “comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols,” saying such rhetoric “has consequences.”

“The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop,” said McLaughlin.

EXCLUSIVE: IMMIGRATION AGENT REVEALS ‘BIGGEST FEAR’ AFTER DEADLY ANTI-ICE SHOOTING

“These type of threats against our brave ICE law enforcement officers and their families are disgusting. These officers risk their lives every day to arrest murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our communities,” she said.

“The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night.”

DHS recently called on sanctuary politicians and the media to “tone down their rhetoric” in the face of surging assaults, doxxings and threats against agents and their families.

According to DHS, a Texas ICE officer’s spouse received a call saying, “I don’t know how you let your husband work for ICE, and you sleep at night. F— you, f— your family. I hope your kids get deported by accident. How do you sleep? F— you.”

The caller also said, “Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because it’s what’s going to happen to your family.”

FEDERAL AGENT SAYS CHICAGO’S ‘ICE-FREE ZONES’ ENDANGER OPERATIONS, EMBOLDEN PROTESTERS

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, three women, Cynthia Raygoza, 37, Ashleigh Brown, 38, and Sandra Carmona Samane, 25, were indicted in September for livestreaming their pursuit of an ICE agent to his home and then posting the victim’s address on Instagram. Upon arriving at the law enforcement officer’s home, they began shouting “neighbor is ICE,” “la migra lives here,” and “ICE lives on your street and you should know.”

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Commenting on the indictment, Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said, “The conduct of these defendants are deeply offensive to law enforcement officers and their families. If you threaten, dox, or harm in any manner one of our agents or employees, you will face prosecution and prison time.”

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. military carried out another strike on a suspected drug vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six suspected smugglers.

“Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. 

US STRIKES ANOTHER ALLEGED DRUG-TRAFFICKING BOAT NEAR VENEZUELA, KILLING 4

“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Trump said. “No U.S. Forces were harmed.” 

The strikes comes after the White House sent lawmakers a memo Sept. 30 informing them that the U.S. is now participating in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug smugglers. 

Additionally, it comes on the heels of four other fatal strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean since September.

On Friday, the Department of War unveiled a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the Southern Command area of responsibility, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. 

TRUMP UNLEASHES US MILITARY POWER ON CARTELS. IS A WIDER WAR LOOMING?

The task force seeks to “crush the cartels, stop the poison, and keep America safe,” Hegseth wrote on X Friday. “The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.”

Even so, members of Congress have called into question whether the strikes have been legal. For example, Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., filed a war powers resolution in September to bar U.S. forces from engaging in “hostilities” against certain non-state organizations. 

“There has been no authorization to use force by Congress in this way,” Schiff told reporters Wednesday. “I feel it is plainly unconstitutional. The fact that the administration claims to have a list and has put organizations on a list does not somehow empower the administration to usurp Congress’s power of declaring war or refusing to declare war or refusing to authorize the use of force.” 

But the measure didn’t pick up steam, and failed in the Senate by a 51–48 margin Wednesday. However, Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted alongside their Democratic counterparts for the resolution. 

TRUMP TOUTS US STRIKE AS MADURO SLAMS MILITARY ‘THREAT’ OFF VENEZUELA

Trump has suggested that the strikes will continue and told military leaders in September the “military is now the knife’s edge in combating this sinister enemy.” 

“We have to put the traffickers and cartels on notice. … If you try to poison our people, we will blow you out of existence, because that’s the only language they really understand,” Trump told military leaders in Quantico, Virginia, Sept. 30. “That’s why you don’t see any more boats in the ocean. You don’t see any boats around Venezuela. There’s nothing.”

Congressional Democrats from Maryland and Virginia warned on Tuesday that they would sue over the administration’s planned firings and threats of no back pay for furloughed workers.

Both have been used as pressure points by the White House to get Senate Democrats to budge from their dug-in position and vote to reopen the government, but until late last week, no direct action had been taken.

Late last month, the OMB circulated a memo that there would be reductions in force (RIFs) beyond the typical furloughs during a government shutdown. It had remained a threat until last week, when OMB Director Russ Vought announced on X on the 10th day of the shutdown, “The RIFs have begun.” 

WHITE HOUSE ESCALATES SHUTDOWN CONSEQUENCES AS DEMOCRATS SHOW NO SIGNS OF BUDGING: ‘KAMIKAZE ATTACK’

Flash forward to Day 14, and Senate Democrats from Maryland and Virginia, states home to tens of thousands of federal employees, showed no signs of caving from their shutdown position despite the firings.

“When they tell you when they tell you that the shutdown is making them fire these federal employees, do not believe it for a moment,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said. “That is a big lie. It is a big fat lie. It is also illegal. And we will see them in court.”

The lawmakers also railed against threats that furloughed federal workers would not receive back pay. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that roughly 750,000 nonessential federal employees could be furloughed, and their estimated back pay could cost up to $400 million per day.

The threat runs counter to a law President Donald Trump signed in 2019 that required furloughed workers to receive back pay in future shutdowns.

“The idea that he doesn’t understand that everybody has to get paid back shows maybe how short his memory span is, or how [he] arbitrarily wants to pick and choose,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said.

SENATE SET FOR NEW VOTE TO END SHUTDOWN, BUT GRIDLOCK OVER OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES REMAINS

While the lawmakers threatened actions in the courts, Rob Shriver, who formerly served as acting director of the Office of Personnel Management under the Biden administration before taking a position at the non-profit legal services and public policy research organization Democracy Forward, said that a lawsuit was already in motion.

“As soon as Russ Vought tweeted on Friday, we were on our way back to court to file an emergency motion to stop those unlawful RIFs right in their tracks,” Shriver said. “A hearing on that motion is tomorrow, and no matter what happens, we will continue to fight these illegal RIFs.”

Still, despite the threats from the administration, there has been little progress toward reopening the government. The Senate will again vote on House Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR) Tuesday night, which has so far failed seven times. Both sides are firmly rooted in their positions.

TRUMP SAYS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN LAYOFFS ARE ‘UP TO’ DEMS AS STANDOFF CONTINUES

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want a firm deal in place to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies before open enrollment begins on Nov. 1, while Senate Republicans argue that they are open to negotiating a deal only after the government reopens.

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And the actions and threats from the Trump administration appeared to only further steel Democrats’ resolve on the issue.

“The message we have today is very simple, very simple,” Van Hollen said. “Donald Trump and Russ Vought: stop attacking federal employees. Stop attacking the American people and start negotiating to reopen the federal government and address the looming health care crisis that is upon us.”

With Election Day 2025 fast approaching, the only two states this year holding showdowns for governor have been jolted by October surprises.

In Virginia, explosive revelations in Virginia’s attorney general race that the GOP is aiming to leverage up and down the ballot shook up the race for governor, forcing Democratic Party nominee former Rep. Abigail Spanberger back on defense in a race where most polls indicated her enjoying a lead over Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

And in New Jersey, a couple of weeks after the controversy over Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s Naval Academy records sent shockwaves through her gubernatorial battle with Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, the race was rocked again last week after her allegations that Ciattarelli was “complicit” with pharmaceutical companies in the opioid deaths of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states to hold gubernatorial showdowns in the year after a presidential election and the contests traditionally grab outsized attention and are viewed as political barometers ahead of the following year’s midterm elections.

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Here’s where things stand in both races with three weeks to go until Election Day.

Virginia

Virginia attorney general Democratic nominee Jay Jones has been in crisis mode since his controversial texts were first reported a week and a half ago by the National Review.

Jones acknowledged and apologized for texts he sent in 2022, where he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he was given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head.

But he’s facing a chorus of calls from Republicans to drop out of the race. 

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Earle-Sears hasn’t wasted an opportunity to link Spanberger to Jones.

And during last week’s chaotic and only gubernatorial debate, where Earle-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee called on her Democratic rival to tell Jones to end his attorney general bid.

“The comments that Jay Jones made are absolutely abhorrent,” Spanberger said at the debate. But she neither affirmed nor pulled back her support of Jones.

Earle-Sears has kept up the pressure.

“Abigail Spanberger should have been the first to call for Jay Jones to step down. Instead, she doubled down—because deep down, she’s OK with what he said,” Earle-Sears argued Monday in a social media post.

But a leading Virginia-based political scientist isn’t sure if the controversy will be enough for Earle-Sears to close the gap with Spanberger.

“It definitely made everybody wake up and made Spanberger take a stand,” University of Lynchburg political science chair David Richards told Fox News. “It may hurt her a little bit.”

But Richards noted that the story broke well after early voting in Virginia had already begun.

“Early voting has been off the charts. I think the race is kind of baked in at this moment,” he argued.

But with the Virginia attorney general debate scheduled for later this week, the furor over the texts is certain to stay in the political spotlight a while longer.

New Jersey 

Sherrill on Monday doubled down on her claim that Ciattarelli is “complicit” with opioid companies in the deaths of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans.

Sherrill spoke during a press conference on the Garden State’s opioid epidemic, accusing Ciattarelli of “looking at ways to help people get access to the drugs that were killing them” through his ties to pharmaceutical-backed training programs.

“So you heard it, Jack made millions,” she said. “The opioid companies made billions, and thousands of New Jerseyans were dying.”

“I think we’ve laid out the case that Jack is complicit with these opioid companies, in league with these opioid companies,” Sherrill said.

Sherrill first made her claims that Ciattarelli contributed to the opioid epidemic during last week’s second and final gubernatorial debate.

“With regard to everything she just said about my professional career, which provided [for] my family, it’s a lie. I’m proud of my career,” Ciattarelli responded at the debate.

And Ciattarelli’s campaign fired back the day after the debate, pledging to file a defamation lawsuit against Sherrill.

On Monday, Ciattarelli charged during a campaign stop that Sherrill had “lied about me left and right.”

And Ciattarelli campaign chief strategist Chris Russell charged in a statement that if Sherrill “had any decency, she would retract her slanderous comments and apologize.”

Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics and winning election as a state lawmaker, is making his third straight run for New Jersey governor. Four years ago, he grabbed national attention as he came close to upsetting Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

It was during his 2021 campaign that Ciattarelli’s connection to opioid manufacturers first surfaced. Ciattarelli sold his company, which published content promoting the use of opioids as a low-risk treatment for chronic pain, in 2017.

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At a post-debate news conference last week, Ciattarelli claimed the attack by Sherrill was “a desperate tactic by a desperate campaign on behalf of a desperate candidate.”

The race in New Jersey was rocked three weeks ago by a report that the National Personnel Records Center, which is a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, mistakenly released Sherrill’s improperly redacted military personnel files, which included private information like her Social Security number, to a Ciattarelli ally. 

But Sherrill’s military records indicated that the United States Naval Academy blocked her from taking part in her 1994 graduation amid a cheating scandal that rocked the U.S. Naval Academy three decades ago.

Sherrill has claimed that Ciattarelli was going on a “witch hunt,” to raise questions about her possible involvement in the cheating scandal.

Ciattarelli and his campaign have repeatedly called on Sherrill, who went on to pilot helicopters during her military career after graduating from the Naval Academy, to release her military records to explain why she was prevented from attending her graduation ceremony.

And Sherrill, her campaign, and allies have called for an investigation into the improper release of her records, and charged that the Ciattrelli campaign “broke the law to attack a veteran.”

Despite the viral moments the past few weeks in the Ciattarelli-Sherrill showdown, Fairleigh Dickinson University polling director Dan Cassino said that “we haven’t seen big shifts in this race.”

Most polls indicate Sherrill holding a single digit advantage, with some surveys suggesting the race is a dead heat.

Cassino did note that Sherrill’s latest accusations appeared to push Ciattarelli off his message. “This is not what they want to be talking about three weeks before an election,” he said.

And Cassino predicted that “turnout in the race is expected to be low. People are not paying attention. Turnout in New Jersey elections is normally pretty low. We’re expecting it to be abominably low this time.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James rallied with New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Monday night and vowed to continue fighting President Donald Trump’s “aggressive policies” in her first public appearance since she was indicted on fraud charges.

With three weeks until Election Day, the “Our Time Has Come” rally in Washington Heights underscored how New Yorkers are uniting behind James as she faces federal charges. Mamdani was joined by James, Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Adriana Espaillat, and New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé.

“Thank you to New York’s attorney general, Tish James,” Mamdani said. “For years, you have fought the good fight for New Yorkers, and now it’s our time to fight for you.”

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan announced Thursday that a federal grand jury indicted James for bank fraud and making false statements to financial institutions. 

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“I know what it feels like to be attacked for just doing your job,” James said Monday. “I also know what it feels like to overcome adversity, and so I stand on solid rock, and I will not bow. I will not break. I will not bend. I will not capitulate. I will not give in. I will not give up.”

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The Mamdani rally was James’ first public appearance since she was indicted last week. The attorney general has endorsed Mamdani and joined him on the campaign trail this year. 

“You come for me? You gonna come to all of us!” James shouted over the cheers of the Washington Heights crowd. The Mamdani campaign said 3,000 supporters attended the rally. 

James has dismissed the indictment as “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system,” calling the “president’s actions” a violation of constitutional order. 

“I will keep fighting for justice,” James vowed on Monday. “I will keep fighting for New Yorkers. I will keep fighting the aggressive policies of Washington, D.C. And I will not stop. I won’t give up, and I won’t give in.”

As New York attorney general, James brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and The Trump Organization, accusing them of inflating asset values and net worth to secure loans and insurance terms. A New York judge found Trump and his company liable for fraud. 

“We have no time to linger and focus is on pettiness and revenge,” James said. “We’ve got to press on, press forward, continue the journey, claim the victory. Triumph over fear and courage. Courage, my friend, is resistance to fear. And so I fear no man. I see the courage that is embodied in Zohran.”

Mamdani joined fellow New York Democrats to condemn James’ indictment on Friday, calling it an “attack on our city.”

“We speak with a voice that recognizes that we are standing in front of the same courthouse where Attorney General Tish James did her job, upholding the law and holding Donald Trump accountable,” Mamdani said. 

James on Monday said she is supporting Mamdani for mayor because he is committed to fighting for a better New York City. 

“He, like me, knows what it’s like to be attacked, to be called names, to be threatened, to be harassed,” James said. “And each and every day he wakes up with this fire in his belly because he wants to build a better New York,” James said. 

While Mamdani self-identifies as a so-called democratic socialist, Trump has labeled him a “communist” since he secured the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City. Mamdani has committed to fighting Trump’s agenda in New York City if elected, while the president has teased cutting federal funding to New York City if Mamdani doesn’t “behave” if elected.

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As Mayor Eric Adams suspended his re-election campaign last month, New Yorkers will elect a new mayor on Nov. 4. Mamdani has emerged as the frontrunner ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an Independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.