With less than a month until Election Day, candidates are working to capitalize on the issues important to voters. As Democrats focus on abortion most Republican candidates have focused their campaigns to address issues a little closer to home for most Americans; crime and the economy.
My co-host John Solomon addresses the heart of the issue in a recent article.
See what I have to say below:
During a recent interview, the second lady responded to speculation her husband, JD Vance, is angling to be the next Republican presidential nominee.
“People do ask about it,” Usha Vance told Meghan McCain on her podcast “Citizen McCain.”
While she acknowledged the possibility of her husband, Vice President JD Vance, running for president, Usha Vance emphasized that she moved into the Washington area with “no intention whatsoever” of considering his political future. However, she pointed out that she also had no intention of being involved in politics four years ago.
For now, Usha Vance said she is focused on the present, though she did not completely dismiss the idea.
“My attitude is that this is a four-year period where I have a set of responsibilities to my family, to myself, to obviously the country and that’s really what I’m focused on,” Usha Vance said. “I’m not plotting out next steps or really trying for anything after this.”
She continued, “In a dream world, eventually I’ll be able to live in my home and kind of continue my career and all those sorts of things. And if that happens in four years, I understand. If that happens in some other point in the future, I understand. Just sort of along for the ride and enjoying it while I can.”
As vice president, Vance is considered the political frontrunner to be the Republican nominee for president in 2028.
“I really am just not focused on politics. I’m not focused on the midterm elections in 2026, much less the presidential election in 2028. When we get to that point, I’ll talk to the president. We’ll figure out what we want to do,” Vance told Lawrence Jones in a “Fox & Friends” exclusive interview in April.
In March, Tucker Carlson, co-founder of the Daily Caller News Foundation, forecasted that Vice President JD Vance will emerge as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2028. Carlson’s statement, made on the “VINCE” podcast, sheds light on the increasing influence of Vance within the party and the likelihood of him becoming the successor to Donald Trump’s political legacy.
Despite Donald Trump declining to endorse Vance during a February Fox News interview, where he stated there were “a lot of very capable people” in the Republican Party, Carlson is optimistic that the former president will ultimately support the vice president in 2028. Trump’s comment, which may have seemed like a rejection to some, was interpreted by Carlson as a temporary stance, not a definitive end to any future support.
“I think people want to leave a legacy, all of us do, and great men especially do. And the only person in the entire Republican Party from my position who’s capable of carrying on the Trump legacy and expanding it, making it what it should fully be, is JD Vance,” Carlson explained. He also praised Vance’s loyalty to Trump and his profound service, indicating that Trump’s current withholding of endorsement may have been a strategic decision.
The Republican primary field is shifting…
A new poll of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire showed former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley— not Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — running second in the first primary state.
Haley beat DeSantis 19 percent to 10 percent in a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA TODAY survey released on Wednesday morning.
But they both remain far behind the frontrunner, Donald Trump. The former president leads his Republican rivals with 49 percent support in the poll of 500 likely GOP primary voters that was conducted after the second debate and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
But Trump remains immovable atop the field. And no other candidate cracked double digits in the Suffolk/Globe/USA TODAY survey. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie notched 6 percent support, while entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott got roughly 4 percent apiece. Former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum trailed even further behind, with just 1 percent each.
The poll comes days before GOP candidates will descend on New Hampshire next week, starting with the former president on Monday and most of the rest of the field at a weekend cattle call hosted by the state GOP.
The Biden administration is unable to locate 85,000 child migrants initially processed at the U.S. border, and now members of Congress are demanding an explanation amid reports the children are being trafficked.
Seventy-six House Republican reveal in a letter that Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are “knowingly and recklessly discharging unaccompanied children to adults across the country and doing nothing to find the tens of thousands they had lost touch with,” the Washington Examiner reports.
The letter was issued after the New York Times reported the Biden administration cannot locate 85,000 children initially processed as migrants seeking asylum, and many are being forced into child labor.
Lawmakers “referenced reports by the New York Times that concluded children were extorted by smugglers to pay off the thousands they owed through forced labor, including sex trafficking. Other children were trafficked against their will and are effectively slaves within the U.S.,” the Examiner reports
“The border crisis is not a stand-alone crisis. It has created a new catastrophe in every direction,” said Congressman Morgan Luttrell (R-TX)
“Unaccompanied migrant children are crossing our border, and Joe Biden’s failed policies aren’t leading them to the American Dream. Instead, these children are released with no follow-up and are facing forced labor, sex trafficking, and abuse,” said Luttrell.
“The policies of the Biden Administration are failing everyone. Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden not only need to address the ongoing exploitation and lack of contact with minors, but also secure our southern border and ensure people seeking to come to our great country are going through the proper, legal channels,” Luttrell added.
Even worse, it appears many of the children tried to contact U.S. officials to seek help.
“We are particularly heartbroken to read reports of children contacting HHS after their release to their sponsors in hopes of the agency intervening, with no follow up,” the letter reveals.
“The policies of this administration are enriching the cartels and transnational criminal organizations, who are profiting from the pain, abuse, and exploitation of these children as they smuggle them into the country,” the lawmakers conclude.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
This has to sting…
Fox host Stuart Varney did not shy away from telling former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that he doubts the presidential candidate will succeed while discussing the upcoming debate.
Before adding his opinion on Christie’s electability, Varney asked the candidate to give some insight into the current debate stage.
“Of the people who are going to be on the debate stage less than two weeks away. Here’s your opportunity. Who do you think spews, if I may use that word, the most BS?” Varney asked.
“Well, Stuart, I’ll just base it on the last debate and it’s no doubt it’s Vivek Ramaswamy. He has absolutely no clue what he’s talking about on Ukraine. No idea what he’s talking about with China and Taiwan. He wants to abandon Israel. This is a guy who has read a lot of books but hasn’t done much. And so I think he wins the award from debate number one. But we’ll be together in California in two weeks. We can make a decision who spews the most in debate number two,” Christie asked.
“So you will make that decision, will not be me,” quipped Varney, asking, “You think you can win?”
“Of course,” Christie shot back.
“You have to believe you can win. But realistically, sir, I don’t think you could win the governorship of New Jersey at the moment,” Varney added, pressing the issue hard.
“Oh, look, I don’t. Well, I think given what Phil Murphy’s done, I think it could win the governorship of New Jersey again if I ran,” Christie replied, adding, “But that’s not what I’m running for. I’m running for president United States. Right now, we’re in second place in New Hampshire ahead of Ron DeSantis, ahead of Nikki Haley.”
“And that’s your big hope, isn’t it? Sure. Catch up in New Hampshire and Iowa. That’s your big hope,” Varney followed up.
“Yes. New Hampshire is where we’re staking a lot of our hopes and South Carolina. But remember, when each one of those primaries or caucuses happen, it changes the race completely where people actually vote as opposed to all the polling that we see. Polling is just hot air. Voting is when you go in and you make your voice heard. That’s what we’re counting on in New Hampshire in late January. And I’ll come right on Varney & Company after I win the New Hampshire primary. We can talk about it then,” Christie responded as the interview ended on a friendly note.
A House Democrat is seeking to censure a MAGA Republican…
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) wants to censure Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) over a TV interview in which the Republican congresswoman criticized Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) over his display during President Trump’s congressional address.
Green notably heckled President Donald Trump multiple times during his first address of his second term to Congress last week until House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ordered the Sergeant at Arms to escort Green from the chamber.
On Monday, Rep. Houlahan submitted a resolution calling to censure Boebert “for her recent disparaging and derogatory comments” about Green.
During a March 7 interview with Real America’s Voice News, Boebert said, “Al Green was given multiple opportunities to stand down, to sit down, to behave, to show decorum.”
“For him to go and shake his pimp cane at President Trump was absolutely abhorrent,” Boebert added.
The resolution said those words uttered by Boebert “are disparaging, derogatory, and racist toward another colleague, and are a breach of proper conduct and decorum of the U.S. House of Representatives.”
It calls for Boebert to be censured, “forthwith present herself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure,” and that Boebert “be censured with the public reading of this resolution by the Speaker.”
In a statement, Houlahan said, “After my discussion on the House floor last week when Speaker Johnson told me he’d have to censure half the members if he actually enforced the rules of the Congress, I decided to help, and tonight introduced a resolution to censure Representative Boebert for her racist and derogatory statements about Representative Al Green.”
The lower chamber of Congress voted to censure Green the next day, and Johnson condemned how the Democrat “chose to deliberately violate House rules in a manner that we think is probably unprecedented in history.”
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton is sounding alarms over growing speculation that the Trump administration could take dramatic action against Cuba’s communist leadership — warning officials not to repeat what he called the “Venezuela game plan.”
Bolton, who has long advocated for hardline policies against authoritarian governments in Latin America, said Thursday he fears the administration could use newly filed criminal charges against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro as justification for a high-risk operation targeting the aging strongman.
“I’m a little worried that they’re going to try and run the Venezuela game plan and kidnap or snatch Raúl Castro, who’s 94 years old, under this indictment, which is perfectly justified, but it won’t change anything in Cuba, as it really hasn’t changed anything politically in Venezuela,” Bolton said during an appearance on NewsNation’s On Balance.
His comments come as tensions surrounding Cuba have intensified after the Justice Department announced murder charges against Castro and five others tied to the 1996 shootdown of two civilian humanitarian aircraft over international waters.
Federal prosecutors allege Castro authorized the Cuban military operation that destroyed the planes, killing four men — including three American citizens. The aircraft were operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based humanitarian group that searched for Cuban migrants attempting to flee the island.
The indictment represents one of the most aggressive legal moves taken against senior Cuban officials in decades and has fueled growing speculation about whether the Trump administration is preparing a broader strategy aimed at regime change.
Bolton, despite supporting political change in Cuba, argued that removing a single figure would do little to dismantle the country’s entrenched communist system.
“In Cuba, you need the top echelon of government to depart the island, maybe for exile in Mexico or wherever they want to go, and we have to have a way to bring the government back under the control of the people,” he said, adding that such a process would “take some time.”
The administration has steadily increased pressure on Havana in recent months through legal, diplomatic, and economic measures.
A U.S. oil embargo implemented earlier this year has reportedly worsened Cuba’s already severe energy shortages. The island nation of roughly 10 million people has faced repeated rolling blackouts, while shortages of food, fuel, and medicine continue to strain daily life.
President Donald Trump has also declined to rule out military action. Asked this week about possible intervention in Cuba, Trump told reporters he would “be happy to do it.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said diplomatic solutions remain the administration’s preferred option but suggested hopes for peaceful negotiations are fading.
“The president’s preference is always a negotiated agreement that’s peaceful. That’s always our preference. That remains our preference with Cuba,” Rubio said in Miami before departing on an overseas trip.
“I’m just being honest with you. You know, the likelihood of that happening, given who we’re dealing with right now, is not high.”
Fueling further speculation, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group recently arrived in the Caribbean, leading some observers to question whether Washington could be positioning military assets closer to Cuba.
Trump has dismissed suggestions that the deployment was intended as intimidation.
Bolton, however, questioned whether the administration had fully thought through what comes next.
“Is the Nimitz carrier strike group really equipped to take military action?” Bolton asked. “I mean, we have a real advantage in Cuba we didn’t have in Venezuela, we have the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base right there on the island, so that’s a, that’s a step forward, but this is something clearly we need to be talking to key figures in the opposition in Cuba, the Cuban American community, I’m sure can be extremely helpful here.”
“Let’s just think this through before we force it into something that could be very detrimental to the people of Cuba, if the army and the police stick with the regime,” he added.
The escalating rhetoric comes as questions continue to swirl over whether Washington’s pressure campaign is designed primarily to force concessions from Havana — or whether the administration is laying groundwork for something much larger.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has referred two former U.S. officials to the Justice Department for potential criminal investigation, escalating efforts to revisit the events that led to President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
A spokesperson for Gabbard confirmed that the referrals target a whistleblower and former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, both of whom played central roles in the 2019 inquiry. The spokesperson did not specify what crimes were alleged, and any decision to pursue charges rests with federal prosecutors.
The move follows Gabbard’s release of newly declassified testimony and documents that she argues show a “coordinated effort” within the intelligence community to “manufacture a conspiracy” used to justify Trump’s impeachment.
Atkinson’s actions were instrumental in advancing a whistleblower complaint that raised concerns about Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In that call, Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate then–former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
The whistleblower wrote at the time: “I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”
Gabbard has sharply disputed the legitimacy of that complaint and Atkinson’s handling of it. Her office said Atkinson relied on “secondhand information” and “politicized, manufactured narratives,” and “did not follow standard IG procedures.”
“In his own words, IC IG Atkinson recognizes that his conclusions were based on a ‘preliminary investigation,’” her office said, quoting testimony in which he acknowledged he had not determined whether the alleged actions “actually took place.”
Under federal law, however, an inspector general’s role at that stage is limited to assessing whether a whistleblower complaint appears credible, not to fully investigate or verify the claims.
In a post on X, Gabbard accused “deep state actors” of constructing “a false narrative that Congress used to usurp the will of the American people and impeach duly-elected President @realDonaldTrump in 2019.”
Atkinson, who was fired by Trump in 2020, previously defended his conduct, saying he had “faithfully discharged” his duties and served “without regard to partisan favor or political fear.”
Democrats quickly condemned the referrals and the broader effort to revisit the impeachment.
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the whistleblower “demonstrated courage and principle” in exposing Trump’s “efforts to extort Ukraine and falsely smear his opponent.”
“This apparent criminal referral will amount to nothing because no misconduct occurred,” Himes said. “But what it will do is chill future whistleblowers from coming forward… I suspect that is precisely the point.”
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, dismissed the declassified materials as “a nothingburger” and “another sad attempt… to get in Donald Trump’s good graces.”
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress tied to the Ukraine matter. He was acquitted by the Senate in early 2020 in a largely party-line vote and has consistently denied wrongdoing, calling his conversation with Zelenskyy “perfect.”
The latest referrals come as part of a broader push by Gabbard and other officials to reexamine controversies from Trump’s first term, including intelligence assessments of Russian election interference. While some figures connected to those investigations have been subpoenaed in ongoing probes, no charges have been filed.
At the same time, the effort unfolds against a backdrop of renewed political and legal scrutiny surrounding Trump. While prior impeachment proceedings ended in acquittal and are widely viewed as politically unlikely to result in removal from office, they continue to shape partisan divisions in Washington. Any new impeachment-related efforts would face long odds in Congress, particularly given the high threshold required for conviction in the Senate.
Still, the renewed focus on the 2019 impeachment underscores how the political battles of Trump’s presidency continue to reverberate, with competing narratives over the Ukraine episode remaining central to broader debates about executive power, accountability, and the role of intelligence agencies in U.S. politics.
A senior Trump administration official has made new criminal referrals against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said in a letter Wednesday to prosecutors in Florida that James may have falsified information on a homeowner’s insurance application submitted to Fort Lauderdale-based Universal Property Insurance. In a separate letter to prosecutors in Illinois, Pulte alleged that James may have also provided false information on an application to Allstate.
The referrals mark the latest development in a series of legal actions pursued by officials in President Trump’s administration against James, a longtime political adversary. In a Truth Social post Wednesday night, President Trump wrote that James had been “referred again for criminal prosecution for alleged homeowner insurance fraud.”
One of the referrals was sent to Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Quiñones is currently leading an investigation into Obama-era officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, related to intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to benefit Trump. Last year, Quiñones also sought records connected to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into Trump.
The second referral was sent to Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Abbe Lowell, an attorney for James, rejected the allegations and criticized the administration’s actions.
“abusing their power to pursue a vendetta against her by trying to rename, refile, and repeat baseless allegations.”
“These desperate tactics will fail — just as every previous attempt has failed — and exposes an Administration that has abandoned its responsibility to the American people in favor of petty political payback,” Lowell said.
The new referrals follow a previously dismissed federal case against James. Last fall, she was charged in federal court with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, based on allegations that she misrepresented details about a property in Virginia to secure more favorable mortgage terms. James denied wrongdoing, and the charges were later dismissed.
The earlier indictment came after Pulte referred James for possible mortgage fraud, though the charges ultimately focused on a different property than the one cited in his referral. A federal judge dismissed the case in November, ruling that interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed. A separate case brought by Halligan against former FBI Director James Comey was also dismissed, and two federal grand juries later declined to re-indict James on bank fraud charges.
According to the original indictment, James purchased a Virginia home in 2020 using a mortgage that required the property to be used as a second residence, but she allegedly rented it out as an investment property to obtain a lower interest rate.
James has argued that she is being targeted for political reasons, particularly after she sued Trump in civil court during the period between his presidential terms. A New York judge found Trump and his company liable for fraud and ordered them to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, though an appellate court later overturned the financial judgment.
In court filings last year, James’s attorneys accused Pulte of using the Federal Housing Finance Agency — which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — as a “weapon to be brandished against President Trump’s political enemies.”
CBS News previously reported that prosecutors have also examined financial transactions between James and her longtime hairdresser, Iyesata Marsh, as part of a separate line of inquiry. Pulte has since sought a protective security detail, citing threats he said were connected to the case.
It’s about time.
Watch Amanda explain the situation below:
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
