Triangles of orange and yellow candy corn are now spread around the house. Reese’s Cups have now morphed into chocolate and peanut butter pumpkins from their original, fluted wafer form. The dog regularly freaks out when you take it for a walk and some mechanical ghoul begins cackling in an evil laugh when you ’round a corner in your neighborhood.

The calendar flipped seamlessly from September to October. It’s especially seamless in Congress. And while September is “government shutdown season” on Capitol Hill, Congress escaped unscathed this year. Bipartisan lawmakers approved a stopgap spending measure that keeps the lights on through Dec. 20. That’s why those who toil on Capitol Hill – or for the federal government – can enjoy the “Halloween” season this October. They don’t have to focus on “Continuing Resolutions” to keep the government afloat. They can instead embrace apparitions rather than appropriations. 

September’s salvation also rescued Thanksgiving next month. It’s customary for Congress to approve a stopgap spending bill or two each fall. Depending on the congressional schedule – and if it’s an election year – one might run the government through mid-October or later. Another may punt until just before Thanksgiving or just afterward. 

But this year’s emergency spending plan is special. It funds the government for autumn. All of October. All of November. It expires just before Christmas. So does everyone on Capitol Hill get to celebrate Christmas? Don’t bank on it. 

You got Halloween and Thanksgiving. Two out of three ain’t bad.

“Why have we picked Dec. 20th?” asked Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., during a meeting of the House Rules Committee prepping the temporary spending package. “Because it’s the same reason we always have [with] Dec. 20th. Everybody up here is human. There are no AIs or robots in Congress. And when you get to Dec. 20th, you’re five days from Christmas. You’re four days from Christmas Eve. And you desperately want to be there with your family. This is when the leadership here has the maximum influence.”

FORMER NIH OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF MAKING EMAILS ‘DISAPPEAR’ PLEADS FIFTH TO COVID SUBCOMMITTEE

Massie argues that bipartisan congressional leaders choose such a date so they can maximize their leverage over members. The proximity to the holiday helps leaders wrangle the votes to pass another spending plan – anything – to avoid a holiday government shutdown.

Massie said he’s been in meetings where a speaker of the House basically threatened Republicans that they’d better vote “yes” on a spending measure.

“[He] walks in and says, ‘If you vote for this, you can go home and unwrap presents with your kids. And if you don’t vote for this, you’re going to spend Christmas here with Nancy Pelosi.’ And then the chants start, ‘Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote!’ literally, people get enthusiastic to vote for something that they haven’t read,” said Massie.

The soupcon of jet fumes will permeate the Capitol in mid-December as lawmakers try to fund the government and avoid a shutdown over Christmas. The question is, how long a spending plan might run? Deep into calendar year 2025? Maybe until February? Perhaps late March as some conservatives advocated? Or will lawmakers actually reach an agreement on the 12 annual spending bills or even knock a few out, one by one?

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is ruling out an “omnibus.” He’s also spoken out about doing “minibuses.” That’s where they glom several spending measures together. It’s not an “omnibus.” It’s smaller, hence the Volkswagen comparison. 

What would Herbie the Love Bug say? 

However, the length of another interim spending plan likely hinges on which party controls the House and Senate next year, as well as who won the White House. The wishes of the president-elect will prompt lawmakers to bend the spending bill in his or her direction. 

But in September, the goal was to avert a shutdown and hash out the hard stuff later.

“We’re out of time. We cannot afford a shutdown,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., last month. “This path ensures Americans aren’t needlessly punished with a costly shutdown and allows, importantly, the next president to have a say in the appropriations process.”

Even though the Democrat-controlled Senate advanced zero spending bills on the floor this year, the Republican-operated House did a little better, approving five appropriations measures. But Cole partly blamed his own GOP colleagues for the legislative stumbles.

“We’re the majority. The majority ought to be governing,” said Cole. 

He added that it was “disappointing” that the House GOP majority had to again rely on Democrats to avert a shutdown.

That’s why Cole and others hope the House is able to knock out a few if not the remainder of outstanding spending bills after the election. Otherwise, a harrowing holiday season awaits.

Like Massie, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, warned against “a crazy, massive omnibus train, which is the inevitability of doing something right before Christmas.”

So how is Johnson going to manage this? Especially with the distinct possibility of Congress having to boost FEMA with an “immediate needs” bill nearly as soon as lawmakers return in mid-November? Then there’s the question of a shutdown in December. And that’s to say nothing of approving some plan to address Hurricanes Helene and Milton along with other natural disasters.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: ALL ABOUT THE POLITICS OF DISASTER RELIEF

By the way, if it’s clear that Democrats lost the Senate, failed to capture the House and lost the presidency, there’s a good chance they’ll balk at assisting Republicans with any spending bills. That could well launch the potential second term of former President Donald Trump under a government shutdown. 

There are headaches galore for Mike Johnson as he attempts to fund the government, address multiple crises, satisfy irate conservatives who are already grumbling about his leadership, and possibly cling to power. Calling the wrong play could jeopardize Johnson’s status in the speaker election on Jan. 3, if Republicans maintain the majority.

But what is the right play call for Johnson? No one knows. Johnson tried to appease the right with a spending plan that included a provision to require proof of citizenship to vote last month. However, Republicans couldn’t even pass their own bill. In other words, kowtowing to the margins doesn’t automatically guarantee success in the House Republican Conference.

But regardless, there was little drama passing the interim spending bill to avoid a government shutdown in late September.

That opened the door for the denizens of Capitol Hill to enjoy the end of the rest of the month. Embrace Halloween in October. Even Thanksgiving.

But Christmas? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Christmas may be a struggle.

Face it. Christmas came early this year. In September. There was no government shutdown.

Which is why actual Christmas could be a nightmare this year. 

The Supreme Court offered clear support Tuesday for continued federal regulation of so-called “ghost guns” that can be assembled from kits into a working firearm without a background check or the usual serial numbers.

At issue in oral arguments was whether the devices meet the federal definition of a “firearm” and “frame and receiver,” and whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its authority to regulate and enforce their sale.

Ghost guns are do-it-yourself functional weapons that are often purchased online, and marketed by some sellers as easy to assemble.

The Justice Department said more than 19,000 hard-to-trace ghost guns were seized by law enforcement in 2021, a more than tenfold increase in just five years.

That was driven in part by recent technological advances, many containing polymer-based unassembled firearm components.

Final home assembly typically requires the use of some readily available tools, including drilling holes and milling or sanding the unfinished frame or receiver, which enable the installation of parts.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the rising sale of untraceable “ghost guns” had created a “public safety crisis” with an “explosion” of crimes committed using them.

Several justices in the 75-minute argument appeared to back much of the Biden administration’s arguments, suggesting nearly complete parts meet the ordinary definition of a firearm subject to regulation.

“What is the purpose of selling a receiver without the holes drilled in it?” said Chief Justice John Roberts, rejecting suggestions the kits were marketed at the weekend gun hobbyist. “Drilling a hole or two, I would think, doesn’t give the same sort of reward that you get from working on your car on the weekends. My understanding is that it’s not terribly difficult for someone to do this.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who could be the key deciding vote — raised concerns someone ignorant of the law might inadvertently sell or buy a ghost gun kit.

“What about the seller, for example, who is truly not aware, truly not aware that they are violating the law and gets criminally charged?”

But Kavanaugh also signaled some backing of the government’s position, telling Prelogar, “Your statutory interpretation has force.”

The 1968 Gun Control Act was revised in 2022 to regulate the growing market for certain “buy build shoot” kits.

The law defines a “firearm” to include “any weapon… which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,” as well as “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.”

The administration said it was not seeking to ban the sale or use of these kits, merely requiring them to comply with the same requirements of other commercial firearms dealers. That includes serial numbers on the parts and background checks on the purchasers.

A federal appeals court late last year struck down the updated rules, after a legal challenge from kit sellers and buyers, but the Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court.

Gun rights groups say that the rule is “unconstitutional and abusive,” arguing the ghost gun kits consist of “non-firearm objects.”

Attorney Peter Patterson said only Congress can change the law over ghost gun regulations and added that 42 of 43 unlicensed manufacturers of the kits would be driven out of business if the rules go fully into effect.

The devices can also be made from 3D printers or from individual parts. That is part of separate legal challenges in the lower courts.

In oral arguments, the high court wrestled with questions about the ease of assembling a “ghost gun” from a kit, and whether judges should even be involved in the matter.

“I’m worried about… the Court taking over what Congress may have intended for the agency to do in this situation,” said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “I think it can’t be assumed that the agency exceeds its authority whenever it interprets a statutory term differently than we would such that all we have to do as a part of this claim here today is just decide what we think a firearm is.”

But others on the court questioned whether a bunch of unassembled parts really made them into a gun.

“Here’s a blank pad and here’s a pen, all right? Is this a grocery list?” asked Justice Samuel Alito.  “If I show you — I put out on a counter some eggs, some chopped-up ham, some chopped-up pepper, and onions. Is that a western omelet?”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett then appeared to blunt Alito’s argument, focusing on do-it-yourself kits.

“Would your answer change if you ordered it from HelloFresh, and you got a kit, and it was like turkey chili, but all of the ingredients are in the kit?” she asked, mentioning the ready-to-cook meal kits delivery service.

Barrett also appeared skeptical of the legal alternatives to the ATF rules, proposed by Patterson, the lawyer representing the gun rights supporters.

“It seems a little made up,” she said.

Prelogar claimed the new rules had led to a dramatic drop in the online sales of the ready-to-assemble weapons.

The ATF’s rule requires unfinished parts of a firearm, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun, to be treated like a completed firearm. These parts need to be licensed and must have serial numbers.

The rule also requires manufacturers to run background checks before selling these parts, as they are required to do for whole commercial firearms.

The Supreme Court had previously allowed the regulation to remain in effect while the lawsuit continued through the courts, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voting with the three liberal members of the court to form the majority.

The justices have been revisiting the Second Amendment in recent years, after the conservative majority in 2022 made it easier to carry handguns outside the home for protection.

In June, a federal ban on bump stocks, devices that can convert semi-automatic rifles into weapons that can fire hundreds of rounds a minute, was struck down by the high court.

But that same month, the justices upheld a federal ban on firearms possession for people subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders.

The case is Garland v. VanDerStok (23-852). A ruling is expected by summer 2025. 

President Joe Biden praised GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being “cooperative” and doing a “great job” in his response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, despite Vice President Kamala Harris slamming DeSantis for “playing political games” instead of doing his job in response to the storms.

NBC News reported Monday that DeSantis was denying phone calls from Harris’ team. “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. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s opinion about the GOP Florida governor’s response to Hurricane Helene and his preparation for Milton, diverged substantially from that of his vice president’s. 

“The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said – no – you’re doing a great job, it’s all being done well and we thank you for it,” Biden said at a press conference from the White House Tuesday. “There was a rough start in some places, but every governor, every governor – from Florida to North Carolina – has been fully cooperative and supportive.”

RON DESANTIS: 51 COUNTIES ARE UNDER A STATE OF EMERGENCY

After a DeSantis staffer told NBC on Monday that the Florida governor had chosen not to take the vice president’s call, DeSantis later clarified that he was never even aware Harris was trying to contact him. 

DeSantis also shot back at Harris’ claims that he was playing politics with the storm, accusing her of being the actual culprit of engaging in political gamesmanship.  

“I’ve worked on these hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She has never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now,” DeSantis told “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning following reports of the vice president’s criticism. “Why, all of the sudden, is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics, we know it’s because of her campaign.”

“Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this,” DeSantis added. “The idea that I should be, like, worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is just quite frankly absurd.”

BIDEN CANCELS OVERSEAS TRIP AS MILTON BEARS DOWN ON FLORIDA; DESANTIS TELLS VP ‘IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU KAMALA’

Biden, who has had multiple phone calls with DeSantis since Hurricane Helene began barreling down on the Southeast, told him and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to “call him directly” if any further support is needed. DeSantis, meanwhile, noted Tuesday morning that “every” one of his federal requests for more support have been answered.  

DeSantis pointed out as well that, at the state level, he has been reallocating resources as necessary to help Florida’s smaller communities that have fewer resources. 

COASTAL FLORIDIAN WARNS OTHERS TO ‘GET OUT’ AS HURRICANE MILTON CLOSES IN: ‘WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S COMING’

Gov. DeSantis’ office declined to comment to Fox News Digital on the record, but pointed to the governor’s comments on both “Fox & Friends” and “Hannity,” respectively. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Harris campaign for comment, but did not receive a response in advance of publication time. 

As Florida continues to clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, it is now preparing for a potentially even worse storm in Hurricane Milton and is calling on millions of residents to evacuate.

“Helene was a wake-up call – this is literally catastrophic,” Castor said Tuesday. “And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.”

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

What’s happening…

–North Carolina residents will see changes to early voting after Hurricane Helene

-Atlanta voters split on who will win Georgia

-Prospects of a deal with Israel fade away as Saudis invite Iranian foreign minister to visit

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview on “60 Minutes” on Monday, when she dodged or refused to get specific about her plans for the country.

With less than a month before the election, CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker repeatedly pressed Harris for details on how to pay for her economic proposals, on whether President Biden’s loose immigration policies were a mistake and how a Harris foreign policy might differ from Biden or former President Donald Trump. There were several moments when Whitaker had to ask follow-up questions after Harris did not directly answer his inquiries. 

Overall, the Democratic vice president did not differentiate herself much from her 2020 running mate, the sitting president of the United States. CBS said her Republican rival, former President Trump, backed out of an invitation to appear on “60 Minutes,” though the Trump campaign said there was never a formal agreement for Trump to appear on the program…Read more

‘BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS’: Kamala Harris’ tough words on Iran confounds critics…Read more

‘ALL OUR REQUESTS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED’: Biden cancels overseas trip as Milton bears down on Florida; DeSantis tells VP ‘it’s not about you Kamala’…Read more

STRAINED RELATIONSHIP: Biden White House has ‘very low’ trust in Netanyahu regime, urges transparency…Read more

FLORIDA’S WORST HURRICANE?: Biden says Hurricane Milton could be ‘worst storm to hit Florida in over a century’…Read more

FIRST ON FOX: Top outside group backing House Republicans sets fundraising record…Read more

DENIED: PA gov takes victory lap after Supreme Court rejects GOP bid to overturn election law ‘usurpations’…Read more

LETHAL WEAPONS: GOP lawmaker unveils effort to ban illegal immigrants from using IDs to buy guns…Read more

POST-MCCONNELL PLAN: Mike Lee outlines roadmap for McConnell successor, warns the ‘health of the Republican Party’ is at stake…Read more

BATTLEGROUND 2024: Wisconsin Senate race shifts to ‘toss up’ by handicapper as Tammy Baldwin fights for re-election…Read more

CHANGED AGENT: Harris takes slim lead over Trump in new poll as voters view her as candidate of change…Read more

TACKLING TURNOUT: Trump, Republicans venture to blue areas in Wisconsin to boost GOP turnout…Read more

‘CHAOS AND FEAR’: Trump announces rally in ‘war zone’ Colorado city…Read more

COURTING REPUBLICANS: New poll shows Harris taking a slim lead over Trump thanks to support from a surprising group…Read more

WHO’S MORE ACCESSIBLE?: Trump-Vance ticket has done combined 69 interviews since August compared to 31 for Harris-Walz…Read more

HISPANIC VOTERS IN KEY SWING STATES: Hispanic voters rail against ‘dishonest’ Biden-Harris border record as poll shows Trump gaining in key states…Read more

‘IT CAME THROUGH UPS’: Overseas meth sent to US election building shuts down office for hours…Read more

REGISTERED, NOT VERIFIED: Texas AG demands Biden-Harris admin help verify citizenship of nearly 500K registered voters…Read more

EATEN ‘ALIVE BY INFLATION’: Wisconsin dairy farmer says ‘no question’ Trump admin was ‘much better’ than Biden-Harris…Read more

POLITICAL STORMS: Mayorkas rips ‘politicized’ atmosphere over FEMA disaster response amid GOP criticism: ‘It sows distrust’…Read more

HITS KEEP COMING: NYC First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright resigns as Eric Adams’ administration suffers more departures…Read more

SERIOUS CONCERNS: Oregon mistakenly registered hundreds more voters without proving citizenship…Read more

DEEPLY TROUBLED: Vulnerable Dem Jon Tester turns on Biden admin over DEI after Montana universities stripped of federal funds…Read more
 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

Some of the eight Tajikistan nationals with alleged ties to ISIS who crossed the southern border illegally have already been deported from the United States, or are in detention waiting for removal, officials said on Tuesday.

The eight nationals crossed the U.S. southern border illegally, and a federal source told Fox News in June that no derogatory information was initially flagged during their processing by officials at the border.

The illegal immigrants were nabbed in coordinated raids in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Force.

OVER 1.7M MIGRANTS WHO COULD POSE NATIONAL SECURITY RISK ARRIVED IN US DURING BIDEN ADMIN: REPORT

The case highlighted concerns about a potential terror threat that could come across the southern border amid what was then a historic border crisis. 

A DHS spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday that some of the nationals had already been removed.

“In close coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), these individuals were detained in June, have remained in ICE custody since then, and either have already been removed from the United States or remain in ICE custody pending completion of their removal proceedings,” the spokesperson said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

“The arrest and removal of these individuals demonstrates the successful collaboration and partnership between DHS and FBI to disrupt and dismantle potential national security threats,” they said.

CBS News had first reported the removals, reporting that three have been deported to Tajikistan and Russia, four are awaiting removal flights to Central Asia and one is still awaiting his legal proceeding after a medical issue.

There have been continued fears over the potential for terror attacks from ISIS in the U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee in June that there is an increasing concern of a potential coordinated attack in the U.S., similar to the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) attack in March in Russia.

BIDEN ADMIN SLAPS RESTRICTIONS ON RELEASING MIGRANTS FROM CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRY AMID TERROR CONCERNS: REPORT

“Just in the time that I’ve been FBI director, we’ve disrupted multiple terrorist attacks and cities and communities around the country. We need funding to continue protecting America from terrorism,” Wray said.

With the November presidential election looming, the Biden administration has been emphasizing its efforts to remove or prevent the entry of illegal immigrants into the U.S. Numbers have gone down sharply since the signing of a presidential order limiting asylum in June.

BIDEN DHS REVEALS 50 MIGRANTS STILL AT LARGE AS ISIS-AFFILIATED SMUGGLING NETWORK BRINGS HUNDREDS TO US

Officials say that since June 5, they have removed or returned more than 131,000 individuals to more than 140 countries, including operating more than 400 international repatriation flights. But returning illegal immigrants can often be difficult if host countries refuse to accept their nationals. 

But a recent report by the House Judiciary Committee shows that there have been more than 1.7 million “special interest aliens” (SIAs) who have arrived at the border during the Biden administration. Special interest aliens come from countries identified by the U.S. government as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism or potentially pose some sort of national security threat to the U.S.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.

A group that has labeled Vice President Harris a “pro-genocide candidate” has endorsed third-party presidential candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 contest.

The “Abandon Harris” campaign says America, as well as presidential candidates Harris and former President Trump, is supporting an “Israeli project of Palestinian annihilation” and urges Muslim Americans and those who oppose genocide to cast their ballot for the Green Party this year.

“In October 2023, under the darkening shadow of the U.S.-backed Israeli project of Palestinian annihilation, the Abandon Harris campaign – formerly Abandon Biden – was born. Our movement remains dedicated to ensuring that the American people, especially the Muslim-American community, recognize the responsibility we share in standing up against oppression and using all our power to stop genocide – wherever it may arise,” the group declared in a press release.

ABANDON BIDEN CAMPAIGN RELAUNCHES, TARGETS HARRIS IN KEY SWING STATES

“We are confronting two destructive forces: one currently overseeing a genocide and another equally committed to continuing it. Both are determined to see it through. We call on Muslim-Americans and all those who stand firmly against genocide to vote for the Green Party in 2024,” the press release states.

Stein has expressed her gratitude to the group and its support of her candidacy.

The Abandon Harris campaign says on its website that its “current goal is to hold Harris accountable for her continued support of genocide.”

“It’s painfully obvious that Kamala Harris can only sound articulate and firm when parroting US support for Israel,” the group wrote in an August post on X. “She fumbles through everything else, but when it comes to endorsing the killing of Palestinians, she suddenly finds a pristine level of eloquence,” the post added.

GEORGIA’S MUSLIM VOTERS OPPOSING HARRIS, TRUMP IN ELECTION OVER BOTH CANDIDATES’ SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

Israel launched a war effort last year in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks perpetrated by Hamas terrorists who committed atrocities that included rapes, kidnappings and murders.

“What Hamas did that day was pure evil – it was brutal and sickening,” Harris said in a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the attack on Monday. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated, that it is never again able to govern Gaza, that it fails in its mission to annihilate Israel, and that the people of Gaza are free from the grip of Hamas,” she declared in the statement.

JILL STEIN SLAMS DEMOCRATIC EFFORTS TO ‘SILENCE COMPETITION,’ SAYS THEY ARE ‘NOT SERVANTS OF DEMOCRACY’

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7 launched a war in Gaza. I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year – tens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine. It is far past time for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the suffering of innocent people. And I will always fight for the Palestinian people to be able to realize their right to dignity, freedom, security, and self-determination,” Harris said in the statement.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has been a political lightning rod for controversy during the Biden-Harris administration, on Monday pushed back against what he claimed was “intentionally false information” about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) work.

“I have not seen it ever before at this level,” he said on MSNBC, speaking to host Jen Psaki. “You and I both remember a time when an extreme weather event, a natural disaster, actually brought people together. Now, unfortunately, tragically, quite frankly, it is politicized.”

Both DHS and FEMA have been under fire over their response to Hurricane Helene, with claims that it has diverted resources to illegal immigrants, has been delayed in its response, and is out of money.

SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ 

Much of the controversy was triggered last week when Mayorkas said FEMA “does not have the funds to make it through the season.” He went on to say that the agency has the money for “immediate needs” but is concerned about not having a stable supply of funding. Congress recently freed up $20 billion for the disaster fund, but officials have called on Congress to pass a supplemental spending bill.

Critics quickly pointed to FEMA’s role in distributing more than $650 million in funds to help illegal immigrants as part of its Shelter and Services Program (SSP). Former President Trump recently accused the Biden administration of stealing FEMA money “for their illegal immigrants.” 

However, the Biden administration has noted that that funding, which comes from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and is congressionally appropriated for grants to local governments and nonprofits, is entirely separate from the significantly larger Disaster Relief Fund.

“No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts,” FEMA said in a release this week.

HURRICANE HELENE: NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AS BASIC GOODS BECOME SCARCE

It has still faced questions from some Republican senators about whether its “entanglement” in the border crisis has affected its operational readiness.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, told Fox News Digital last week that the administration has “failed in that response.”

“They are scrambling to cover their egregious errors and mistakes. And there’s an effort to blame others or blame circumstances when this is just purely a lack of leadership and response,” the speaker said.

FEMA also faced backlash last week after its unearthed emergency management “equity” blueprint went viral. The number one goal listed in the Biden-Harris agency’s priorities is to “instill equity as a foundation of emergency management.” 

According to FEMA’s plan, “Diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be optional.” 

This week, FEMA has been pushing back against claims that FEMA grants have to be repaid, that it is restricting airspace for rescue and recovery operations, and that it is distributing aid based on demographic characteristics. It has published a fact sheet to check some of those claims.

Mayorkas, who was impeached by the Republican-led House this year, on Monday again stressed that there is help available for those who need it, and warned of the effects of misinformation.

TRUMP TARGETS BIDEN, HARRIS OVER FEDERAL RESPONSE TO HURRICANE: ‘INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED’

“What happens is the people who are victimized by the natural disaster are the ones who will suffer,” he said. “It sows distrust in their government, and therefore they don’t seek the help that they truly need.” 

“We have funds to put in their pockets to be able to help them address immediate needs. These individuals are not seeking that relief because of the disinformation, the intentionally false information they are receiving.”

He also said the misinformation hurts the workforce.

“These are individuals who are putting their lives on the line to search and rescue for victims of Hurricane Helene, a hurricane of historic magnitude,” he said. “It is very sad.”

Critics have pointed to his handling of the historic crisis at the southern border, including his fueling of a since-debunked controversy about Border Patrol agents on horseback allegedly mistreating Haitian migrants, when judging his record.

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

With a second powerful hurricane in less than two weeks bearing down on Florida, President Biden on Tuesday canceled an upcoming international trip in order to oversee federal storm preparations and response efforts.

As the death toll rises and nearly 200,000 people remain without power or running water over a week and a half after Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction through the southeast United States, Hurricane Milton – an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm – is on course to slam into Florida on Wednesday.

“Given the projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton, President Biden is postponing his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for and the response to Hurricane Milton, in addition to the ongoing response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Tuesday.

The president was scheduled to leave for Berlin on Thursday, followed by a stop in Angola before returning home on Oct. 15. The trip would have marked Biden’s first stop on the African continent during his tenure as president.

EYE OF THE STORM: BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IMPACT HARRIS-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the president called Milton a potentially “devastating” storm that could be one of the worst to hit Florida in a century. He also urged anyone under an evacuation order to “evacuate now, now, now.”

“It’s a matter of life and death,” Bien emphasized.

Biden also said he spoke on Monday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, adding that the conservative governor had been cooperative and that he gave his personal phone number to DeSantis.

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

When asked about the federal storm response, DeSantis said during a news conference on Monday that “we have gotten what we need from the feds… the president has approved what we asked for… I’m thankful for that.”

“Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he’s approved,” DeSantis highlighted.

The governor reiterated those comments Tuesday morning in an interview on “Fox and Friends.”

“Every request that we’ve made – I’ve been in contact with the president, I’ve been in contact with the FEMA director,” DeSantis highlighted. “All of our requests have been answered.”

While DeSantis has complimented the president’s actions, he has taken aim at Vice President Kamala Harris. The Democrats’ presidential nominee on Monday – reacting to reports that the governor had refused to take her calls regarding federal storm efforts – described him as “selfish.”

When asked about the dispute, DeSantis argued in his “Fox and Friends” interview that “my focus has not been on dealing with Kamala Harris. I saw the news report. I didn’t know that she tried to contact me. But I’d also say it’s not about you, Kamala. It’s about the people of Florida. My focus is exactly where it should be.”

“I’ve worked on these Hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She’s never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now. Why all of a sudden is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics. We know it’s because of her campaign. I have zero time to entertain these political games,” DeSantis charged.

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

The war of words appeared to be triggered by reports from NBC and later ABC News on Monday afternoon that the Florida governor was not taking calls from Harris regarding storm recovery efforts, citing unnamed aides to the governor who said the calls seemed political in nature.

When asked a couple of hours later, DeSantis said he was not aware Harris was trying to reach him.

“I didn’t know that she had called. I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me,” he said. “It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did, in terms of saying it was political.”

Speaking around the same time, as she departed the nation’s capital for New York, the vice president took aim at DeSantis.

“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations…is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris charged. “It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”

However, DeSantis, pushing back in his Fox News interview, argued that “Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this. The idea that I should be…worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is quite frankly absurd.”

When asked if his vice president has been helpful as the federal government deals with back-to-back dangerous hurricanes, Biden nodded and told reporters “yes.”

Harris, speaking on Tuesday on the popular daytime program “The View,” said “I have called and talked with, in the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, with Democrat and Republican governors…. So, obviously, this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders, but maybe it’s for others.”

With four weeks to go until Election Day in November and Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a bitter 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 once again front and center on the campaign trail.

Trump, for a week and a half, has been repeatedly attacking Biden and Harris over the federal response to Hurricane Helene, and making unproven claims. 

On Monday, Harris clapped back, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of mis and disinformation.” 

Fox News’ Nick Rojas contributed to this story.

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

WAUKESHA, Wisconsin – At Cozy Nook Farm, they cover three areas: Cows, pumpkins, and Christmas trees. 

“We’re diversified here,” laughed dairy farmer Tom Oberhaus in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

He explained that he and his wife are conservative Republicans who have been sure of who they were supporting in the 2024 election for a long time. 

“There’s no question in our mind that our four years under Trump management was much better than the three and a half years under Biden management – or whoever is, you know, that’s the great mystery is, who is actually running the government right now?” he asked. 

WISCONSIN SENATE RACE SHIFTS TO ‘TOSS UP’ BY HANDICAPPER AS TAMMY BALDWIN FIGHTS FOR RE-ELECTION

They previously voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. 

One issue he has with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat presidential nominee, is that she vouched for President Biden’s cognitive ability. 

“It bothers the heck out of me that we’re thinking about electing a person that just six weeks ago… told us ‘Oh, Biden’s on top of it. He’s really aggressive and really knows what he’s doing,'” Oberhaus said. 

“We all seen that in the debate, you know, he’s past his time,” he said of Biden’s June debate with former President Trump that preceded his campaign suspension. 

TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT

Critics have claimed Trump is bad for farmers, pointing to his fondness for tariffs and his past trade conflict with China. But Oberhaus said the tariffs, which ramped up in 2018, “certainly didn’t hurt us.” 

“We’re much better off with tariffs than having that government printing press printing out money,” he added. 

At Cozy Nook Farm, Oberhaus said their biggest struggle has been inflation. “We’ve been [eaten] alive by inflation,” he claimed. 

He explained that they do not set their own prices, and they tend to “run a couple of years behind everybody else.” 

They’re now paying “twice as much for tires and fuel and feed and everything else.” However, “our milk price stays the same, until just now in the last month that it finally came up.” 

VULNERABLE DEM JON TESTER TURNS ON BIDEN ADMIN OVER DEI AFTER MONTANA UNIVERSITIES STRIPPED OF FEDERAL FUNDS

He also stressed illegal immigration as a top issue for him, even hundreds of miles from the southern border. But the problem is surfacing even as far north as Wisconsin, he explained. 

“Little town of Whitewater 35 minutes away,” he said. “It’s a town of, what, 15,000 people? And then they got a thousand new immigrants.”

Local Wisconsin outlets reported that last year Whitewater Police Chief Daniel Meyer and City Manager John Weidl penned a letter to Biden, asking for help after the “rapid increase” of about 800 to 1,000 immigrants since 2022.

“As a municipal government, our focus is not on legal status, but rather ensuring we are providing the resources expected of a municipality to all residents of the City. Unfortunately, we are increasingly finding it difficult to do that,” the letter reportedly read. 

HERE’S WHAT 2 UNDECIDED WISCONSIN VOTERS ARE HOLDING OUT FOR IN 2024 ELECTION

“How do you handle that?” asked Oberhaus. 

As for those who argue that with strict immigration enforcement there would result in fewer people to work on farms, he called it “baloney.”

“We got plenty of people to do the farm work,” he said. 

On Trump, who recently ventured into Wisconsin’s biggest Democratic enclaves in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the farmer said, “I think that’s the sign of a leader – that you’re not afraid to go into the other camp and tell them what your ideas are.”

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

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has written to the Biden-Har­ris administration urging it to provide data that would help identify up to half a million people who could be erroneously registered to vote in the state but not be a citizen.

Paxton, a Republican, said that the Biden-Har­ris administration has “legal obligations” to hand over such information so that the Lone Star state can help determine the citizenship status of certain registered voters who do not have a state of Texas-issued driver’s license or identification card since those are only issued after citizen checks. 

Non-U.S. citizens lawfully present cannot legally vote but can lawfully apply for and receive a driver’s license or ID card.

Paxton said he is investigating those registered voters so Texas can be in compliance with federal and state election laws which prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting. He penned his letter Monday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Jaddou.

ARIZONA LAW REQUIRING PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP TO VOTE SUPPORTED BY 24 STATE AGS IN EMERGENCY STAY WITH SCOTUS

“I demand full cooperation from the federal government to ensure that any noncitizens remaining on Texas’s voter registration rolls are identified,” Paxton said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration is legally obligated to assist States in doing so, and it is imperative that we use every tool available to uphold the integrity of our elections.” 

Paxton said that while it is a crime for noncitizens to register to vote, federal law paradoxically creates opportunities for non-citizens to illegally register to vote while also prohibiting states from requiring voters to have proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

He said it is particularly troubling given the current scale of the illegal immigration and that the Senate has not passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (“SAVE Act”), which would allow states to ensure that votes are being cast legally by eligible voters. He said that requiring proof of citizenship is a commonsense measure that helps identify illegal registration.

Paxton has obtained a list of approximately 454,289 Texas registered voters who have never had their citizenship verified. The list is derived from the Texas Secretary of State’s (SOS) computerized list of voters the office is required to maintain.

THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS REMOVED FROM VOTER ROLLS, DOZENS OF LAWMAKERS WANT ANSWERS FROM GARLAND

“Although I have no doubt the vast majority of the voters on the list are citizens who are eligible to vote, I am equally certain that Texans have no way of knowing whether or not any of the voters on the list are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote,” Paxton wrote in the letter.

“Indeed, a recent SOS audit verified that over 1,300 noncitizens were registered to vote in the four randomly chosen counties that were subject to an election audit—and that is just what was verifiable. That is 1,300 too many when so many of our federal, state, and local election are decided by a handful of votes.”

Paxton has been trying to crack down hard on non-citizens voting. 

In August, his office’s Election Integrity unit executed searches in three South Texas counties as part of his ongoing probe to investigate fraud and ballot harvesting allegations. 

In the same month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced 6,500 potential noncitizens had been removed from the voter rolls since 2021. Approximately 1,930 had a voter history.

Republicans have raised concerns about voter integrity issued and non-citizens being registered to vote ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

Officials in Oregon announced Monday that they have identified an additional 302 people on the state’s voter rolls who didn’t provide proof of citizenship when they were registered to vote. The announcement comes just two weeks after officials in the Beaver State said 1,259 possible noncitizens have been registered to vote since 2021, bringing the total number of mistaken registrations to 1,561. 

Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that nearly 98,000 people whose U.S. citizenship has not been confirmed will be allowed to vote in the upcoming state and local elections.