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Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Project 2025: Governance reform or Culture War battle plan?
Project 2025 became a flashpoint during the 2024 presidential campaign. The sweeping conservative policy blueprint aims to overhaul the federal government and reshape United States society. How closely is President Donald Trump following its direction? And how much does it test the limits of the Constitution? Marc Lamont Hill talks to Paul Dans, the former director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation.
The Hill
19 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Pence: American right facing ‘existential identity crisis'
Former Vice President Pence warned in a new essay that the conservative movement is being threatened by what he describes as 'populist fervor' and the 'transformation into the anti-woke movement.' 'An existential identity crisis now grips the American right,' Pence wrote in the essay, which was co-authored by a founder of the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank. 'A political movement once united by a commitment to limited government, moral order, and a robust defense of American ideals now appears fractured, its purpose clouded by populist grievances and ideological drift.' 'The question for today's conservatives is clear: Will we remain a party of enduring principles, or will we succumb to populism unmoored from conservative ideals?' he added. Pence, whose relationship with President Trump crumbled after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, did not identify Trump as the force behind his grievances with the current state of conservativism, but he detailed several issues of concern that resemble policies of the second Trump presidency. He wrote in the 4,200-word piece against adopting universal baseline tariff policies, lessening support for Ukraine, focusing too much on anti-woke endeavors and using 'government power to steer corporate behavior.' Trump adopted a baseline tariff strategy in April that applied to most countries including American allies; repeatedly questioned support for Ukraine; and pressured companies to drop diversity, equity and inclusion policies and since his return to the White House in January. Pence framed each of those issues as populist priorities that are not rooted in conservatism. 'Populist policies that seek to dismantle perceived enemies without regard for long-term consequences risk undermining the very order they claim to advocate,' he wrote. 'Whether it be tariffs that alienate allies, regulatory overreach for the sake of punishing progressive firms, or isolationism that leaves the world's despots unchecked, these approaches are the antithesis of … careful, measured conservatism.' Pence took aim in the article at the 'Democratic Party's efforts to banish common sense,' but he argued that the response has led the right astray from its conservative principles. 'Though subtle at first, the consequences of the conservative movement's transformation into the anti-woke movement have steadily accumulated,' he wrote. 'By the time Donald Trump won his second term, much post-election analysis correctly framed his victory not as a triumph of conservative ideals, but as a mere repudiation of a decadent and debauched Democratic Party.' 'While such opposition can attract allies and can even win elections when Republicans are out of power, it cannot serve as a movement's moral foundation. Conservatism cannot be defined solely by what it isn't,' he added. The White House rejected the characterizations in Pence's piece. 'President Trump's dominance in the GOP primary and general election is proof that Americans have firmly embraced the America First movement and resoundingly rejected the career politicians who have devastated Main Street prosperity, unleashed global chaos, corrupted our institutions and eroded our values,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to The Hill. Pence, who has himself lambasted so-called 'woke-ism' in speeches since leaving office, briefly sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 but gained little traction before dropping out of the race. The former Indiana governor said in an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press' last month that he doubted he would run for the White House again but would advocate for 'conservative values.' 'I want to be a voice for the policies and liberties enshrined in the Constitution of the United States,' Pence said. 'I want to be a champion of the conservative cause, and that's where I'll stay focused, and we'll let the future take care of itself.'
Fox News
20 hours ago
- Business
- Fox News
Mystery flights from China to Iran raise questions amid Israel conflict
Print Close By Andrew Miller, Cameron Arcand Published June 19, 2025 Several Boeing 747s have been spotted on radar leaving China for Iran over the last week, according to reports, sparking concerns that the CCP is helping the Middle Eastern nation transport cargo or people out of the country as Israel continues to strike the country's nuclear facilities. Starting on June 14th, FlightRadar24 shows that at least five flights traveled from China to Iran, and The Telegraph reported that the "mystery transport planes" had flown westward along northern China before crossing into Kazakhstan, south through Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and then fell off radar as they approached Iran. Additionally, the report indicated that the flights had a final destination of Luxembourg but don't appear to have ever crossed into European airspace. Some experts have speculated that these types of planes are typically used for transport and could be evidence of China aiding its longtime ally Iran during the conflict with Israel, although Fox News Digital has not independently confirmed the nature of the flights. 'INSTINCTS FOR RESTRAINT': SENATE DIVIDED OVER WHO GETS TO DECLARE WAR "I think it's important to remember what the relationship is, forty-three percent of China's oil and gas comes from the Middle East, a large volume of that from Iran," Robert Greenway, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for National Defense, told "The Ingraham Angle" on Wednesday night. "It likes to buy sanctioned oil below market value, and that fuels the Chinese economy and also its military ambitions, and so, that's the central relationship. They've been relatively quiet – in fact, extremely quiet – about the current conflict and coming to Iran's assistance. We also know that a large fire in Bandar-Bas port was Chinese solid propellant for missiles that exploded and created a tremendous amount of damage just about a month ago. I think it's unlikely to see Chinese arms shipments under the circumstances to Iran. It's more likely that Iran may be removing material or personnel or regime valuables to safe haven in light of the conflict. I think that's probably the extent to which China is willing to accept the risk associated with the current circumstances." HOW BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS WORK AND HOW THEY COULD DESTROY IRAN'S FORDOW NUCLEAR SITE In 2021, Fox News Digital reported that Tehran and Beijing signed a 25-year cooperation deal amidst great fanfare in the Iranian capital. University of Tehran Professor Mohammad Marandi, who is close to the regime, told Fox News that it is about much more than what's on paper. "This strategic partnership is important because it allows Iran and China to build a roadmap for long-term relations that will be much more fruitful," he said. "It's also a signal being sent to the United States. The more the U.S. tries to isolate Iran and China, the more it causes countries like Iran and China to move more closely to each other." TUGBOATS, CRUISE SHIPS AND FLIGHTS: ISRAEL BEGINS EMERGENCY EVACUATION OF CITIZENS AMID IRAN WAR Some have cast doubt on the flights representing a nefarious connection between the two nations, including Atlantic Council fellow Tuvia Gering who posted on X that an aviation expert told him the flights are "nothing to write home about." "There are regular cargo flights by the Luxembourg-based freight company from several locations in China to Europe, with a stopover in Turkmenistan (just a few dozen kilometers from the Iranian border)," Gering wrote. "Some flight tracking websites lose the tracking signal shortly before landing and continue to show a projected route that appears to enter Iranian airspace. The sites clearly indicate that this is an estimated path; checking the aircraft tail numbers shows they take off again from Turkmenistan a few hours later, and reviewing the flight history of these routes shows they always land in Ashgabat and do not continue into Iran. All this is before even considering the obvious logic that a major European cargo company is highly unlikely to be the channel through which China transfers its super-advanced, top-secret strategic weapons to Iran." ISRAEL'S WAR WITH IRAN IS A GLOBAL FLASHPOINT. AMERICA MUST LEAD BEFORE IT SPREADS Tensions between Iran and Israel have escalated significantly in recent days, with the United States contemplating whether it will get directly involved in striking Iran. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and he is expected to meet with national security and defense leaders again on Thursday. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "Yes, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this that Iran's got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate," Trump said Wednesday. "And I said, why didn't you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn't you go? I said to people, why didn't you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country. It's very sad to watch this," the president added. Print Close URL
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
The shocking date of Biden's first use of the autopen exposed... and it's earlier than previously known
During an explosive Republican-led hearing on Joe Biden 's rapid decline over the course of his four-year presidency, shocking details emerged about the extensive use of an autopen by the former president. One of the witnesses called by the Senate Judiciary committee was Theo Wold, currently a Visiting Fellow for Law and Technology Policy at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, DC - based conservative think tank. Wold is also a board member of the Oversight Project, an independent, nonprofit organization previously a part of Heritage. The Oversight Project's research discovered that the first time President Joe Biden used an autopen was five days into his presidency, Wold stated as part of his sworn testimony. "The autopen is a device that signs the president's signature to a document. The Oversight Project, of which I am a board member, has discovered that the Biden White House deployed an autopen to affix President Biden's signature to pardons, prison commutations, executive orders, and presidential proclamations,' Wold noted. "The Oversight Project's research has found that the Biden White House first deployed the autopen to affix President Biden's signature to a proclamation on day five of his administration and that there were at least three different autopen signatures in use throughout president Biden's tenure in the White House,' Wold continued. He added: 'In June 2022, the Biden White House began deploying the autopen to sign clemency warrants and executive orders. Autopen use skyrocketed from there. We found that of the 51 clemency warrants issued during the Biden presidency, over half, 32 in total, were signed with an autopen.' Another eyebrow-raising revelation Wold shared was that after a review of the president's public schedule, and publicly available media, the Oversight Project was not able to find evidence of Biden 'personally approving these actions, such as a statement.' Were legally binding documents signed without President Biden's knowledge or consent? The American people deserve to know whether unelected bureaucrats usurped presidential power via autopen. @ItsYourGov @RealTheoWold — Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) June 18, 2025 Wold additionally disclosed that many of the days the autopen was used were days that the President was in Washington, DC for at least part of the day. Wold was formerly the Acting-Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the first Trump Administration. Before that, he served as Deputy Chief Counsel to United States Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, before which he testified Wednesday. Echoing Wold's concerns about evidence of Biden personally approving the times his autopen was used, Senator Josh Hawley called up the former president to release documents. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on former President Biden and the autopen: "If you want an answer to the question 'Did Joe Biden actually assent to the use of the autopen?'... There should be a record of it. This is a binary question...I call on President the documents." — CSPAN (@cspan) June 18, 2025 Hawley's fellow Missouri colleague Eric Schmitt doubled down on he claims that nameless and faceless staffers were in control during the course of the Biden Presidency. Schmitt brought a graphic with him to Wednesday's hearing which showcased blacked out silhouettes, underneath which '46th, Liberal Staffers, 2021-2025' was written. . @SenEricSchmitt / @Eric_Schmitt calls out faceless nameless staffers as being truly in control during the Biden Presidency in today's Senate Judiciary Hearing titled Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution. Here for @DailyMail! — Victoria Snitsar Churchill (@snits_churchy) June 18, 2025 Earlier in the hearing, Democrat Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) tried to flip the script on his Republican colleagues. In his opening statement, Durbin attempted to paint Donald Trump, 79, as the one who is not fully mentally competent, not his predecessor Joe Biden. To prove his point, Durbin brought up the recent incident of Trump saying the UK was the same thing as the EU. A clip of Trump announcing the signing of the US/UK trade deal with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the G7 meeting in Canada earlier this week quickly went viral. 'Now, I'd like you to see a short video that includes some other examples of cognitive ability,' Durbin stated, prior to showing a video compilation of what he said were gaffes, not by Biden, but Trump. After the video, Durbin asked 'do any of these statements raise the question of cognitive ability?' Standing alongside Starmer, Trump said on Monday: 'We signed it and it's done', before mistakenly announcing the deal was with the European Union, rather than the UK. He added: 'It's a fair deal for both. It'll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.' And as Trump attempted to open a black folder with the signed agreement inside, several papers spilled out on to the floor, prompting Starmer to quickly bend down and intervene. 'Oops sorry about that,' the president said, before Starmer tried to brush off the gaffe by quipping: 'It's a very important document.' A majority of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee did not show up to take part in Wednesday's hearing. Senate Republicans are doubling down on the efforts of Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, which has called former top Biden White House aides to appear for transcribed interviews. A number of these former aides were subpoenaed last C ongress, and had their subpoenas blocked by the Biden White House. Joe Biden's former White House Physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor has been issued a formal subpoena to appear before the House oversight committee, after not agreeing to appear before the committee voluntarily. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer announced earlier in June that he was issuing a formal subpoena to Biden's former White House Physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor. The move was the latest escalation as the top Republican-led committee ramped up its investigation into the 'cover-up' of former President Joe Biden's mental decline. Chairman Comer ordered O'Connor to appear for a deposition on June 27 before his committee. Commenting on the importance of his investigation, Comer told members of the media earlier in June that the 'American people deserve full transparency and the House Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation to provide answers and accountability. The cover-up of President Biden's mental decline is one of the greatest scandals in our nation's history.' Comer's subpoena comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's recent announcement via executive order, demanding a federal investigation into former President Biden's staff. 'This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.' 'The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts,' Trump said in the order. Under Trump's order, all of the pardons, clemency grants, executive orders, presidential memoranda, and other presidential policy decisions issued by Biden will be investigated. Actions under review would include Biden's pardons for son Hunter and other family members and orders related to a variety of areas including education, immigration, health care, climate change and more. Trump has argued the use of the autopen invalidates Biden's orders. If his administration can get the courts to agree, it could undo thousands of actions taken by the former president. It's unclear which documents from the Biden administration were signed by the then-president and which may have been signed by an electronic pen. Biden hit back at Trump hours after the executive order was signed, accusing the president of seeking out distractions to avoid criticism over bad legislation making its way through Congress. 'Let me be clear,' he said. 'I made the decisions during my presidency. 'I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false. 'This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans,' Biden stated. Biden added at the time that Trump and his allies 'are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.' During his time in office, Biden was pictured signing some orders while in office, including ones on the use of AI and on gun safety issues. Biden's allies have pushed back on reports his mental and physical health were on the decline during his tenure.
Fox News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Evening Edition: Is Regime Change In Iran A Reality?
It's been less than a week since direct hostilities ignited between Israel and Iran. Israel's government claimed Iran was too close to achieving nuclear weapons and that it needed to commence a plan to stop them since negotiations with the U.S. seemed to go nowhere. Since the fighting began late last week, we've seen Israel, using both air strikes and commandos on the ground, eliminate key leaders in Iran's government, military, and domestic police forces, as well as their top nuclear scientists. And then came the destruction of government buildings, military bases, air force assets, and then attacks on Iran's infamous nuclear development sites. Some are rendered destroyed or inoperable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they've set back Iran's nuclear ambitions for a long time. But Iran has struck some blows, firing ballistic guided missiles at Israeli population centers. They've damaged or destroyed homes, killing people inside. Daniel Flesch, a Senior Analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a former IDF soldier, and former Senior Advisor at Israel's Permanent United Nations Mission, joins the FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition to discuss Israel's effort to dismantle Iran's nuclear program and whether this operation can lead to regime change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
