Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Trump’s announcement he would not accept any further presidential debate offers, and praised local Native American communities during a campaign rally in Chandler, Ariz.

Harris returned to the Grand Canyon State on Thursday, about two months after she and running mate Minnesota Gov. Timothy Walz held their first joint rally on the other side of the Phoenix metro area in Glendale.

Harris told the raucous crowd that Trump had announced on Wednesday he would not debate her again, after their first meeting in front of ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis in September.

“Now, I think it’s a disservice to the voters. I also think it’s a pretty weak move,” Harris said.

OBAMA CALLS OUT ‘BROTHERS’ APPREHENSIVE TO VOTE FOR HARRIS

“But even if he will not debate, the contrast in this election is already clear. This election is about two very different visions, two very different visions for our nation. One is focused on the past, the other hours focused on the future, including being focused on the issues that matter most to working families across America, like bringing down the cost of living and investing in small businesses and entrepreneurs.”

In an all-caps message on Truth Social, Trump said he won the prior two debates – versus Harris and Biden – and added he accepted a Fox News Channel offer to debate Harris in September, but it was the vice president that time who declined to appear.

“JD Vance easily won his debate with Tampon Tim Walz, who called himself a knucklehead [in the debate]. I am also leading in the polls…”

“There will be no rematch,” Trump went on. “Besides, Kamala stated clearly [Tuesday] that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate.”

Harris also offered a public response to the wrath of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on the gulf side near Tampa Bay and wreaked havoc across the state to the Atlantic Coast, where several fatalities were reported near Port St. Lucie.

“I know as you do that our heart goes out to everyone who has been impacted by these storms. Our administration has mobilized thousands of federal personnel across the region to work hand in hand with local and state officials to give folks the help they need,” she said.

“I have spoken with state local officials, both Republican and Democrat, to let them know we will be with you every step of the way as you recover and rebuild.”

PROJECT 2025 REMAINS NONPARTISAN, TRUE TO 1980S GOOD GOVT INCEPTION DESPITE WIDE OUTCRY, KEY FIGURES SAY

Harris was, however, rebuffed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who reportedly declined to take her phone calls amid the crisis. DeSantis told CNBC he and President Biden had been in regular contact but that the vice president has “no role” in disaster recovery, and that up until this particular cyclone she had not reached out.

“She’s trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign,” DeSantis said.

At the rally, Harris also said she was the first vice president to visit the nearby Gila River Indian Community and offered her support for former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez in his congressional contest against incumbent Republican Rep. Elijah Crane.

“I strongly believe that the relationship between tribal nations and the United States is sacred. And, that we must and that we must honor tribal sovereignty, embrace our trust and treaty obligations and ensure tribal self-determination. And it is my promise as president of the United States – I will defend those principles always.”

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Harris also co-identified Trump’s campaign plan with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a connection the former president has long disputed.

“I continue to say I can’t believe they put that in writing. You know, they published it, they found it, and they handed it out. They’re out of their mind. And it is a detailed, dangerous blueprint for what he will do if he is elected president again,” Harris claimed.

Responding earlier this year to Harris’ claims about Project 2025, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said the characterizations were “fact-checked” by third-parties, including some “so blatant that even corporate media outlets like CNN are calling out her lies.”

“She has no policy record to run on, except her shambolic tenure as border czar,” Roberts told Fox News Digital at the time.

In Arizona, Harris continued her focus on Trump, calling him an “unserious man” and saying his return to the White House would result in “brutally serious” consequences.

There’s no let up in the war of words between President Biden and former President Trump over the federal government’s response to back-to-back devastating hurricanes that slammed into the southeast.

After Trump continued to charge that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been slow and ineffective in steering the government’s storm efforts, the president once again fired back.

Biden told reporters on Thursday that Trump needed to “get a life man, help these people.”

And he argued that “the public will hold him [Trump] accountable” for making false claims regarding the capabilities of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to assist storm victims.

BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES ROCK PRESIDENTIAL RACE 

But the former president’s son, Eric Trump, posted on X on Wednesday that the family has opened up one of its Florida hotels to house over 200 linemen who are helping in the storm’s aftermath.

Trump has also launched a GoFundMe campaign for victims of Hurricane Helene in Georgia, which has raised more than $7 million so far.

The president spoke as millions in Florida remained without power after Hurricane Milton tore a path of destruction across the central and northern parts of the state late Wednesday into Thursday.

Meanwhile, cleanup and recovery efforts continue across the southeast, which was hit hard by Helene nearly two weeks ago.

With less than four weeks to go until Election Day in November, Harris and Trump are locked in a narrow margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election, the politics of federal disaster relief are again front and center on the campaign trail.

CLICK HERE FOR UP-TO-DATE FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE STORMS

“Vice President Harris and I have been in constant contact with the state and local officials. We’re offering everything they need,” Biden emphasized on Thursday.

Among those the president spoke with was Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

While DeSantis and Harris have traded verbal fire this week over whether he ignored hurricane-related calls from her, the governor and Biden have worked together on storm response and relief efforts.

“I spoke with the president this morning,” DeSantis said during one of his numerous briefings on Thursday. “He said he wants to be helpful. And so if we have a request, he said, send them his way, and he wants to help us get the job done. So I appreciate being able to collaborate across the federal, state and local governments and work together to put the people first.”

Despite those comments and others from DeSantis as well as other leading Republican officeholders in the storm-struck southeast, Trump has continuously slammed Biden and Harris.

DESANTIS AND HARRIS TRADE FIRE OVER HURRICANE CALL

“THE WORST RESPONSE TO A STORM OR HURRICANE DISASTER IN U.S. HISTORY,” Trump claimed in a social media post on Tuesday.

“The worst hurricane response since Katrina,” the former president charged on Wednesday as he pointed to the much-maligned initial federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was heavily criticized for being slow and ineffective.

Trump, speaking at a campaign rally in battleground Pennsylvania, lobbed another political bomb at Harris, arguing that “She just led the worst rescue operation in history in North Carolina…the worst ever, they say.”

And the former president once again made false claims that FEMA diverted money intended for disaster relief and spent it on undocumented migrants in the U.S. as he turned up the volume on his inflammatory rhetoric over the combustible issue of illegal immigration.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS WEATHER UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON

“You know where they gave the money to: illegal immigrants coming,” Trump said as the crowd of MAGA supporters loudly booed.

Hours later, Biden pushed back, accusing the Republican presidential nominee of leading an “onslaught of lies.”

Biden charged that the rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans was “beyond ridiculous” and that “it’s got to stop.”

But on Thursday at a campaign event in Michigan, Trump kept up the attacks. He praised southern Republican governors for doing a “fantastic job” reacting to the storms and argued that “the federal government, on the other hand, has not done what you’re supposed to be doing, in particular, with respect to North Carolina. They’ve let those people suffer unjustly, unjustly.”

Harris, in a Wednesday interview with the Weather Channel, also chided Trump.

“This is not a time for us to just point fingers at each other as Americans,” the vice president said. “Anybody who considers themselves to be a leader should really be in the business right now of giving people a sense of confidence that we’re all working together and that we have the resources and the ability to work together on their behalf.”

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, responding to the criticism, said in a statement to Fox News on Thursday, “is this the same Joe Biden who President Trump knocked out of the race with the most dominant debate performance in history? Maybe he should keep quiet and go back to the beach. President Trump has a great life and it entails working hard every day to save this country from the mess Biden and Kamala got us into.”

Fox News’ Kirill Clark and Matteo Cina contributed to this report

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

Democratic strategists are calling on the Harris campaign to get more aggressive amid concerns her early momentum, spurred largely by Harris’ debate performance and the Democratic National Convention, has waned due to a number of factors.

“I’m scared to death,” Democratic strategist James Carville said Wednesday. 

“Now that the sugar high is gone, people have realized what Kamala Harris has said from the start, which is that she is the underdog,” Anthony Coley, a former Biden and Obama staffer turned political consultant, told The Hill. 

“If you’re not nervous, you’re not paying attention,” former Harris communications director Jamal Simmons added.

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Meanwhile, David Axelrod, widely regarded as the political mastermind behind former President Obama’s 2008 victory, recognized that “Harris had a great launch, right through the convention and the debate,” but he acknowledged “the race has plateaued.” 

Carville’s remarks that he is “scared to death” about Nov. 5, came during an interview Wednesday with MSNBC’s Ari Melber. Carville estimated that with Hurricane Milton dominating the news cycle, Harris only has about 20 days to amplify her messaging.

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An anonymous Democratic strategist told The Hill that Harris is still “fine-tuning her message” way too close to Election Day. “We are in the ‘make the sale’ phase of the campaign now. We’re not still tweaking the message,” the strategist pointed out.  

Some of the criticism from Democratic strategists also included suggestions the Harris campaign get more aggressive.

“They need to be sharp. They need to be aggressive. They need to stop answering questions and start asking questions,” Carville insisted Wednesday. “I think she and the whole campaign need to be much more aggressive and much less passive than they are.”

“In these campaigns, every time you clear a bar, the bar gets raised,” added Axelrod. “You have to lift your game and adjust your strategy.”

With Election Day rapidly approaching, polling in three critical battleground states show former President Trump making gains, but the race still remains a toss-up between the two candidates. 

According to polling from Quinnipiac University, Harris is maintaining a three-point advantage over Trump in battleground Pennsylvania. However, that is a drop from Harris’ six-point lead in Quinnipiac’s September polling of Pennsylvania voters. 

TRUMP HAS 9-POINT LEAD ON MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE TO VOTERS: POLL

Quinnipiac polling in Michigan shows Trump with a three-point edge, and it shows him with a two-point advantage in Wisconsin. Quinnipiac’s Michigan polling last month had Harris leading by five points, while its Wisconsin polling had her at a one-point advantage over Trump. 

“That was then, this is now,” Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac, said. “The Harris post-debate starburst dims to a glow as Harris enters the last weeks slipping slightly in the Rust Belt.”

It’s hard to understand the money when it comes to natural disasters.

Does FEMA have enough to respond? Will residents get money after their car, home, business, town are destroyed by floodwaters? Will Congress approve additional tranches of disaster relief – both in the near-term and down the road.

So, let’s follow the money.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: WITH NO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMAS IN SEPTEMBER

FEMA’s coffers for “immediate needs” and the Disaster Relief Program (DRF) were nearly bone dry as Congress approved an interim spending bill to keep the government from shutting down in late September. Lawmakers awarded FEMA more than $20 billion to reload the DRF, which dwindled to around $1 billion and change in September.

Congress restocked the DRF simply because it was prudent to do so. Lawmakers had to return to Washington in an emergency session in the late summer of 2005 to refurbish the DRF after Hurricane Katrina. Front-loading the DRF with $20 billion this year would be enough for FEMA to get through any natural disaster until Congress returned in mid-November.

That’s why FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell signaled things were fine with money for FEMA.

For now.

“I have the funding and sufficient resources to support the ongoing responses to Hurricane Helene, as well as Hurricane Milton,” said Criswell. “We had thought that we would go into immediate needs funding in December or January. I need to assess that every day to see if I’m going to be able to wait that long.”

This is why House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., resisted demands to recall Congress to address the storms. President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre have insisted that Congress come back ahead of schedule. The House and Senate are on recess until after the elections in mid-November.

Regardless of the severity of both storms, it’s hard to envision a scenario where Congress returns to replenish FEMA’s coffers. Yes. It’s good politics for the President, Mayorkas and lawmakers in the affected areas and others to implore Congressional leaders to summon the House and Senate back to Washington. It gives the illusion of exhausting all options. Plus, if Johnson or Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., don’t call people back, those from the opposite party can suggest that they aren’t responsive or taking the damage as seriously as they should.

Moreover, it’s probably not even necessary for Congress to come back into session until November 12th. The DRF is now well stocked. Only something as catastrophic as thermonuclear war could draw down the DRF to zero before next month. So draining the fund that fast – prompting Congressional action – is not likely.

When lawmakers returned in a dramatic, emergency, witching-hour session in 2005 to replenish money for FEMA in the wake of Katrina, it did so with a skeleton crew. Only a few lawmakers showed up. Then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., approved the bill on the floor after a few quick remarks and “unanimous consent.”

HOW US GOVERNMENT WILL DOLE OUT AID TO VICTIMS OF HURRICANES MILTON, HELENE

There are three methods for the House and Senate to vote. A roll call vote where each Member is recorded as yea or nay. A “voice vote.” That’s where those in favor yell “aye” and those opposed shout “nay.” The louder side (supposedly) prevails. Then there is “unanimous consent.” That’s where a bill comes to the floor and a Member simply asks to pass a bill (more often in the Senate). If all Members agree, the bill is passed. But if there is a single objection, everything stops. The bill is dead.

Approving an emergency storm relief bill with a handful of people may have worked right after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But American politics now occupies a very different galaxy than the one 19 years ago.

In late March 2020, Congress attempted to approve a staggering $2.3 trillion relief package as the COVID-19 pandemic burned across the planet. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution says that a “Majority” of the House and Senate “shall constitute a Quorum to do Business.” But the House and Senate conduct business all the time without a proper quorum. It’s usually not a problem so long as no one presses the issue.

When the COVID bill hit the House floor, leaders insisted on social distancing. The aim was to approve the bill via unanimous consent or a voice vote. A formal roll call would require that all 435 House members come to the floor at once. Not an optimal scenario in the initial, dangerous days of the pandemic.

However, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wanted to “make a point of order” that the House lacked a quorum and demand a roll call vote. Even former President Trump torched Massie, tweeting that the Kentucky Republican was “grandstanding” and should be evicted from the GOP.

Former Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., presided over the vote. He quickly counted Members present. Both the majority and minority devised a way to bring a large number of Members into the House chamber to represent a quorum. Some materialized, spread out on the floor. Others appeared on the balcony of the then-closed public viewing gallery.

For Brown, that was enough. The quorum was present. He gaveled the bill to passage without a roll call vote.

In today’s toxified atmosphere, it’s hard to believe that lawmakers from both sides wouldn’t protest if leaders try to summon the House and Senate back to Washington for an emergency vote, ala, Katrina. Even though it’s disaster aid, some will carp about the extra spending. They might accuse leaders of trying to ram through the measure without enough vetting. The 2020 coronavirus package vote hints at potential problems unless all lawmakers are recalled to debate and vote on emergency spending.

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Then there is the question of offsets.

Republicans representing the path of both storms certainly want the federal government to send disaster aid to stricken areas. But deficit hawks will demand offsets before authorizing new spending.

“We should definitely take take it from other places that the government just doesn’t need to be spending money in,” said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., on Fox. “There are areas that our government is spending money in that we should not be. It’s really just political pet projects.”

But what one Member views as a pet project is essential spending to another. Congress will gore someone’s ox if it takes this approach.

As we often say, it’s about the math.

“Tell me where you can get the votes to do it?” asked one senior House Republican source familiar with the spending process. “That isn’t going to happen. That never happens.”

The federal government is already into Fiscal Year 2025 and there is no agreed-upon topline spending number. So that makes it harder to find offsets.

So the fate of disaster relief?

“This will just go on the credit card,” said the source.

Here’s what to look for in the coming days:

There will be clamor for Congress to return to session. President Biden wants Congress to come back. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution says the President “may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them.” However, both House and Senate are not in the proper parliamentary posture for a presidential recall. The House and Senate are not “adjourned.” They are technically “in session,” meeting at regular three-day intervals with only a Member or two present until after the election.

Also, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., intends to bring Criswell before his panel in mid-November for a hearing.

Finally, Congress will struggle with refurbishing funds to the National Flood Insurance Program and helping the Small Business Administration have enough money to assist storm victims. Mayorkas said that he has always known the flood program “to be in the red.”

There’s a lot of money to follow in the coming months when it comes to the dual disasters. Was it too much? Too little? Did they spend it in the right places? Was it spent quickly? Too slowly? And inevitably, lawmakers will find something which went wrong.

The storms may have passed. But storm clouds on Capitol Hill about the federal response are just brewing.

Former President Trump is proposing that federal education dollars “follow the student” in his possible second term, while pushing his “universal school choice policy,” and stressing that he backs it “all the way.” 

The former president championed school choice last week, making his strongest case yet for the movement on the federal level. 

“We want federal education dollars to follow the student, rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.,” Trump said at an event in Milwaukee.  

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“If you want a better education for your child, Kamala Harris stands in your way,” Trump said. “Kamala and the Radical Left Democrat Party want to keep Black and Hispanic children trapped in family government. I think that’s really the reason.” 

The former president said he believes school choice “is the civil rights issue of our time.” 

“A child’s fate should be determined by their love of education, by their parents, by so many factors. But it can’t be determined by a ZIP code,” Trump said. “And no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government-run school.” 

Trump’s universal school choice would allow parents to send their children to public, private or religious schools.

Trump’s stance is reflected in the 2024 Republican Party platform. According to proponents of school choice, it recognizes a role for both federal and state governments in expanding tax credit scholarship programs and Education Savings Accounts, which currently serve more than a million K-12 students across the country. 

The Trump campaign said school choice “leads to higher graduation rates, higher parental satisfaction and involvement, lower costs, increased competition among schools, and higher reading and math test scores.” 

At this point, 11 states have universal school choice, and 32 states and Washington, D.C., have at least one private school choice program – but 18 states have none. 

“Before President Trump took office, zero states had a universal school choice policy. Now, almost a dozen do, and it is in large part because of the voice and visibility that he gave to elevate the issue into the national consciousness during COVID – but even before that,” former Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Digital.

“There is an increase in the number and needs of American school children with respect to alternatives to conventional public schools,” Conway said. “There is an increase in resistance among Kamala Harris and Democrats to allow these types of alternatives – these types of options and choices – to be in the hands of parents.” 

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are expanding their opposition to school choice, and teachers’ unions rejoiced when Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, dubbing the ticket as a major win for public educators. 

Walz is a former teachers’ union member who has said he is opposed to the school choice “agenda.” 

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Teachers’ unions pushed hard to prolong school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many districts shuttered for more than a year. 

Former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Walz was a “5-alarm fire for parents and students.” 

As for the Democratic Party platform, Democrats support all children “no matter their ZIP code” to have access to a “quality public K-12 education and for college to be affordable for every American.” 

Democrats are looking to push federal dollars toward public schools in an effort to “expand opportunities for higher education and job training.” 

Harris’ campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but her website lays out her plan to “ensure parents can afford high-quality child care and preschool for their children.” 

Harris also plans to focus on working to “end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to the middle class.” 

Harris said she would work to “scale up programs that create good career pathways for non-college graduates.” 

But Conway explained that parents are focused on having more of a role in their child’s education – now more than ever. 

“There is a continuation of the parent’s rights renaissance that started during COVID and spilled over into 2021 and into Glenn Youngkin’s election over Terry McAuliffe in 2021 and continues unabated in so many states across this country,” Conway said, noting that since the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered schools at the request of the teachers’ unions, there “are a higher number of people running for school board, and you have more parents engaged in choices of schools and character of curricula.” 

“There is a need for a charismatic and compelling leader to take this on,” Conway said, referring to Trump. 

By December 2020, Trump signed an executive order to expand education opportunities for American children and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That order offered flexibility to provide children with emergency K-12 scholarships to access in-person learning opportunities – an effort to provide an in-person learning option after prolonged school closures. 

The Trump administration also invested nearly $1.5 billion in the development of public charter schools and, under his tax reform bill, made it possible for parents to withdraw up to $10,000 tax-free per year from 529 education savings plans to cover public, private, or religious K-12 schooling costs. 

“President Trump says this is the civil rights issue of our time, and it is true, but also, when you look at the sheer numbers of charter schools and school choice scholarship recipients and even the alternatives, like homeschooled students – and that is still a growing piece – but parents want to take things into their own hands. They know their children best,” Conway said. “If Trump is re-elected, this is going to be a biggie.” 

As for the word “choice,” Conway said the left “wants to own that word” but only when it relates to abortion.

“The Democrat Party really only wants to talk to women from the waist down, whereas, these parents of school-aged children want people to talk to them from the waist up – their eyes, ears, brain and hearts – and that includes them giving choices,” she said. “We should not be ceding the word ‘choice’ and the idea that women have a right to choose to the left based on abortion. It should be, women have a right to choose where their children go to school and what is taught there.”

But Democrats believe school choice is anti-public schools – something Conway pushed back on – and argue that it would take funding away from teachers and schools themselves. 

“It is just about competition,” she said. “You can customize your coffee 14,000 different ways at Starbucks. You can get Amazon to deliver anything to your home this afternoon. And yet, you are stuck with one choice for school.” 

She added: “It is like shopping in a Soviet Safeway for your child’s education, and it makes no sense, and it does not match the rest of the way we live our lives.” 

The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment. 

New whistleblower records allege a failure of the Secret Service to provide funding for Homeland Security “jump teams” and their travel to support security efforts on the campaign trail ahead of the November election.

One email sent on Sept. 26 read, “Subject: Jump Team ‐ Out of Money,” according to a record obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and his oversight team. 

The Department of Homeland Security’s investigation unit jump team provides “a mechanism to build the connections between mission support and the front-line,” according to the DHS website. 

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Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an agency within DHS, is charged with addressing global threats. 

“Jump Team members are responsible for helping to solve immediate issues, guide how funding is allocated, and to assist in developing solutions to deliver support most effectively to our front-line,” the DHS website added. 

In the wake of two separate assassination attempts against former President Trump, who is currently campaigning to be president again, jump teams have been deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service. 

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However, the documents provided to Grassley’s office via legally protected whistleblower disclosures show that fears of unpreparedness and mismanagement in the DHS and Secret Service could still be true, despite efforts to ramp up security. 

“Please do not submit or resubmit Jump Team authorizations. There is only $33 on the line right now,” DHS officials told HSI agents on Sept. 9, per Grassley. The senator’s office pointed to this email as an example of just how low the funds had fallen. 

On Sept. 26, agents were informed, “We will not receive more money for Jump Team this year.” 

The email instructed agents not to use the usual methods of expensing items, laying out a process of what to do instead. 

“If by some miracle money is added, you will be notified immediately,” the email continued. 

“The Secret Service has a critical, no-fail protective mission to carry out. Based on protected whistleblower disclosures, it neglected to transfer enough funds for HSI to reimburse its agents, calling into question the agency’s ability to manage federal resources and raising major concerns,” Grassley said in a statement. “Congress and the American people have witnessed too many Secret Service shortfalls in recent months – they deserve answers, and it’s Congress’ job to bring transparency and accountability.” 

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In the Sept. 26 email from a DHS official, they revealed that “we had over $371,000 worth of Jump Team Authorizations Fail last night.” 

According to Grassley’s office and the documents it has obtained, agents have been required to pay for expenses the agency can’t cover. The senator noted that this would be in violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from obligating or spending federal funds before they are appropriated.

Reimbursements to agents are also apparently being delayed, and employees are left with uncertainty about their pay. 

In a Wednesday letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe; Patrick Lechleitner, the deputy director and senior official performing the duties of the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Katrina Berger, HSI executive associate director, Grassley described that “HSI agents are deployed, usually on very short notice, across the country on Jump Teams from as short as a few days for as long as multiple weeks, several times throughout the year.”

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“The whistleblower disclosures further show that in some cases HSI agents have had to pay for their own travel expenses such as flights, food, rental cars, and hotels, and other incidentals, because HSI has delayed reimbursing agents for costs due to the Secret Service failing to transfer funds to HSI.”

“If you have an explanation to add context to these emails, I welcome it,” he told the leaders. 

Grassley requested additional information from the department and agencies, including documentation about the finances of HSI and its jump teams. 

Neither the Secret Service nor Homeland Security immediately provided comment to Fox News Digital.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday refused to answer questions about an Afghan national accused of an Election Day terror plot on behalf of ISIS, amid ongoing concerns about the vetting of those brought to the U.S.

Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich questioned Mayorkas at a White House briefing on Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who was arrested and charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and receiving a firearm to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism.

The filing in the case initially said Tawhedi came to the U.S. on a Special Immigrant Visa, in Sept. 2021 after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and is now on parole, although officials have since clarified that he came to the U.S. via humanitarian parole and later applied for SIV status.

AFGHAN NATIONAL CHARGED WITH ELECTION DAY TERROR PLOT REIGNITES VETTING CONCERNS 

Heinrich asked Mayorkas how he was brought to the U.S. and the screening he underwent. But Mayorkas said he wished to focus on the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. He was in North Carolina and participated in the briefing remotely.

“Over 200 people have lost their lives in Hurricane Helene. We have reports that at least ten individuals have lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Milton. And I’d be very pleased to answer your question in a different setting, but we’re here to talk about emergencies and the support that we can deliver to people in desperate need,” he said.

Heinrich asked again, specifically asking why he did not have answers prepared, but Mayorkas said that was not the case.

“What I said is, I’d be pleased to discuss this issue at a different time, but I am here to speak about disasters that have impacted people’s lives in real time. And that is a subject that I am addressing today,” he said.

Heinrich followed up to ask again but Mayorkas again declined.

“Jacqui, your persistence in questioning can be matched by my persistence in answers,” he said.

After the exchange, a senior administration official told Fox News that Tawhedi was screened three times. He was screened first to work security for the CIA in Afghanistan, then for humanitarian parole to enter the U.S. in 2021 – where he was vetted and screened in a third country — and then for special immigrant status, for which he was approved. His status has not yet been finalized. Currently, officials believe he was radicalized after coming to the U.S.

There is also no indication that there were any red flags that should have barred his entry at any point in the process. His alleged co-conspirator in the case entered the country in 2018 and also passed vetting to receive a green card.

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The U.S. brought in more than 97,000 evacuees during the evacuation in 2021, of which about 77,000 were admitted via humanitarian parole, through a program called Operation Allies Welcome. 

But the new case has renewed concerns about vetting in the program, which have been identified for years by the DHS internal watchdog and by Republicans in Congress. In 2022, the DHS Office of Inspector General released a report in which it said it found that officials “did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees.” 

“As a result, DHS may have admitted or paroled individuals into the United States who pose a risk to national security and the safety of local communities,” the report said.

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A Pentagon inspector general report the same year revealed that at least 50 evacuees were brought to the U.S. whose information indicated “potentially serious security concerns” and that officials were unable to locate dozens with derogatory information.

A 2024 report found “vulnerabilities” in the processes of two DHS agencies for resolving derogatory information. It also found that DHS did not have a process for monitoring the expiration of the two-year parole period and guidelines for determining “re-parole” for parolees are “undefined.”

The Biden administration has repeatedly defended the vetting process, arguing that there is a multilayered process that includes classified and unclassified vetting, including against Pentagon and FBI databases as well as Interpol notices and other information. 

“Afghan evacuees who sought to enter the United States were subject to multi layered screening and vetting against intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism information,” a DHS spokesperson said on Wednesday. “If new information emerges after arrival, appropriate action is taken.” 

But the latest revelation has only fueled concerns from Republicans. In a letter to Mayorkas on Tuesday, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said it was “unacceptable that the Biden-Harris administration is precariously failing to take measures to safeguard U.S. national security by allowing alleged terrorists into the interior of the United States to plot terrorist attacks.”

Fox News’ Matteo Cina contributed to this report.

The West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 has been brought under fresh scrutiny this week – as outgoing NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg insisted the war in Ukraine may not have happened if the U.S. and NATO had a stronger response to that incursion. 

“If we had delivered a fraction of the weapons we have delivered after 2022, we may have actually prevented the war,” he said in an interview with Politico.

Stoltenberg, a Norwegian politician, led NATO from 2014 until last week. 

President Biden reportedly expressed a similar sentiment. 

“They f—ed up in 2014,” Biden said, according to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “War,” obtained by Fox News Digital. 

“That’s why we are here,” the 81-year-old said. “We f—ked it up. Barack never took [Russian President Vladimir] Putin seriously.”

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“We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue!” the president went on. “Well, I’m revoking his f—ing license!”

In 2014, the Kremlin annexed the Crimean Peninsula after the so-called Revolution of Dignity, when Ukrainians ousted Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. It was a quick and bloodless takeover. Russia flooded the regions with migrants and fended off Ukrainian efforts to take it back. 

The Obama administration provided Ukraine with defensive weapons, sanctioned the Kremlin and kicked Russia out of the G-8, but some, even reportedly including Obama’s then-vice president, Biden, believe he should have done more. 

It came as Russia had also invaded Ukraine’s Donbas region and shot down a Malaysia Airlines flight with nearly 300 people on board. 

He stopped short of providing Ukraine with lethal weaponry. As president, Donald Trump reversed Obama’s policy, approving a plan to sell Ukraine Javelin missiles for $47 million.

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.”

In 2012, Obama famously downplayed the threat of Russia during a debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Romney had asserted that Russia was the U.S.’s greatest geopolitical foe. 

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“The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” Obama chided at the time.

He also tasked his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, with pursuing a “reset” in U.S.-Russia relations, scrapping plans by President George W. Bush to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe that Russia saw as a direct military threat. Putin called that decision “correct and brave.”

Obama defended his 2014 policy in a 2023 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. 

“Ukraine of that time was not the Ukraine that we’re talking about today,” Obama said. “There’s a reason there was not an armed invasion of Crimea, because Crimea was full of a lot of Russian speakers, and there was some sympathy to the views that Russia was representing.”

The U.S. has offered some $175 billion in security assistance and financial aid since the outbreak of war in 2022. 

Earlier this week, Ukraine struck a large oil terminal off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea in the latest wave of attacks on Russian-controlled energy facilities. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bashed Vice President Kamala Harris for attempting to insert herself into the response to hurricanes Helene and Milton on Thursday.

DeSantis and Harris have clashed in recent days after the governor declined to take a call from Harris regarding the hurricane response. He said Thursday that Harris has “no role” in the process and added that she had never attempted to call him during previous storms in Florida.

“I am working with the president of the United States. I’m working with the director of FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency]. We’ve been doing this now nonstop for over two weeks,” DeSantis said Thursday. 

“Although I’ve worked well with the president, she has never called Florida. She has never offered any support,” he said of Harris. “I don’t have time for those games. I don’t care about her campaign. Obviously, I’m not a supporter of hers, but she’s not, she has no role in this process. And so I’m working with the people I need to be working with.”

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The spat between DeSantis and Harris made its way to the White House press office on Wednesday, with a reporter asking President Biden whether it was the governor’s responsibility to take the vice president’s calls.

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“All I can tell you is I’ve talked to Governor DeSantis,” Biden answered. “He’s been very gracious. He thanked me for all we’ve done. He knows what we’re doing, and I think that’s important.”

Biden has had multiple phone calls with DeSantis since Hurricane Helene began barreling down on the Southeast two weeks ago, followed by Hurricane Milton making landfall late Wednesday, and told both DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to “call him directly” if any further support is needed. 

HURRICANE MILTON FORCES ST. PETERSBURG CRANE COLLAPSE

DeSantis, meanwhile, noted Tuesday morning that all his federal requests for more support have been answered.

Harris has accused DeSantis of “playing political games” amid the hurricanes.

“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games with this moment, in these crisis situations, these are the height of emergency situations, it’s just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris told reporters Monday.

Biden, by contrast, had instead referred to the Florida governor as “cooperative.”

Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego faced off against Republican challenger Kari Lake on Wednesday night and wasted no time exchanging blows over the illegal immigration crisis plaguing the state’s southern border.

Lake, trailing behind Gallego entering into the debate, appeared much more on the offensive. Meanwhile, Gallego – a five-term member in Congress – appeared more relaxed, given his comfortable lead in several recent polls. 

The two candidates sparred over border security and abortion in the first half of the debate night. Lake touted H.R. 2 – the House GOP-led bill that would tighten border security – while Gallego pointed to his support for the failed bipartisan border bill that Democrats, Republicans and White House officials negotiated earlier this year.

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Gallego also accused Lake of wanting to deport Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, while Lake accused Gallego of not wanting to deport any of the illegal immigrants who have crossed the border over the last three and a half years.

“Dealing with the people who’ve poured in during the Bidenvasion, the 20 million people who have come in unvetted into our country, we must deal with them in order to save our homeland,” Lake said during the debate. “We must send them back to their homeland. I’m talking about the people came in unvetted in the past three and a half years. I’m not talking about the dreamers.”

“Do you want to deport any of the people who’ve invaded our country in the last three and a half years? Ruben, do want to deport any of them?” Lake probed.

“Yes, actually we should have a proper deport deportation proceedings,” Gallego replied. “But I also think that we shouldn’t deport Dreamers.” 

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“She says she’s going to deport people. Will you deport those Dreamers? Just be honest, yes or no,” Gallego said.

Lake responded that former President Donald Trump wanted to make a deal when it came to Dreamers, which Gallego did not support.

“You said no. Unfortunately, the radical Democrats, like my opponent, would rather use people as political pawns. I want to secure the border,” Lake said.

Though it was a debate for the Arizona Senate seat, the debate did not shy away from weighing into national waters. Other issues like reducing inflation and re-federalizing Roe v. Wade came up later in the debate. 

At one point during the night, Gallego took a swipe at Lake, accusing her of spending more time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago than visiting the border. 

Lake also made sure to align herself as a strong Trump ally throughout the night who would restore a “strong Trump economy,” while painting Gallego as a supporter of “Kamala Harris, the border czar, and Joe Biden’s open border.”

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When it came to abortion, which Democrats have selected as one of their winning platform issues this election cycle, Lake said she opposed a federal abortion ban, but Gallego pointed to her supporting the state’s 1864 near-total ban in 2022. 

Gallegho said “it is absolutely abhorrent” that his 15-month-old daughter “has less rights in control of her body than her mother and then her grandma.” State law currently bans abortion at 15 weeks gestation.

“And the reason we need to codify [Roe v. Wade] because people like Kari Lake are the ones that make this a dangerous situation,” he said.

Lake responded that abortion rights should be “left to the states.”

The debate came on the first day of early voting for Arizona, as the state’s Senate race is one of the highly contested seats this election cycle.