Tense scenes played out in the House of Representatives on Tuesday night as a group of moderate Republicans took a stand against a trio of GOP-led labor rule bills.

One of those bills failed to pass, while the other two were quickly scuttled to avoid the same fate — an embarrassing blow to House Republican leadership and the majority of GOP lawmakers who supported them.

It’s an example of a situation that has been growing increasingly common in Congress’ lower chamber as Republicans wrestle with a party-line majority of anywhere between three and one vote, depending on attendance that day.

‘We’ve got simple bills like this that should be a no-brainer, and we’ve got several moderate Rs that are going to kill the bill,’ Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital on the sidelines just before the first bill failed. ‘What I foresee, and you’re seeing it in appropriations bills, they don’t care about guys like me … they’re just working with the Democrats to pass them.’

Several Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital this week said there’s growing concern about Democrats growing their number of legislative victories despite Republicans holding the gavel — or potentially using their numbers to take over the agenda.

As Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., put to reporters last week, ‘We are one flu season away from losing the majority.’

Steube said he did not believe Democrats could actually take the speaker’s gavel but conceded the situation was tenuous. He pointed to the recent sudden death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., as an example.

‘You’re a heart attack and a car accident away from the majority. There’s people in our conference that are not young people. I mean, you saw what just happened with LaMalfa. In my opinion, he was young, 65. We have people who are much older in the conference,’ he said Tuesday night.

‘Now, Democrats couldn’t take over the gavel, but like, what you’re seeing here, you’ve got attendance issues, you’ve got seven Republicans voting with the Democrats. You lose more than two, you’re toast.’

Despite that, however, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., denied there was a fight for the agenda on Tuesday night.

‘We’re totally in control of the House,’ he told reporters. 

He added, however, that leaders were watching attendance closely.

‘They’d better be here,’ Johnson said of his members. ‘I told everybody, and not in jest, I said, no adventure sports, no risk-taking, take your vitamins. Stay healthy and be here.’

It comes after several recent incidents that have put their tenuous grasp on the House in perspective for Republicans.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., abruptly resigned earlier this year after publicly falling out with President Donald Trump. Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., returned on Tuesday badly bruised from a car accident that he spent the week prior recovering from.

And just this week, Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said he is home recovering from major brain surgery. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., is in his district caring for his ill wife.

Beyond conversations about their own mortality, it’s also spurred discussion among some Republicans about what unexpected life events could do to their majority.

‘The margins are really, really close. A few of us were in a car the other day, driving … if that became an accident, that would have tipped the scale. So I think it’s a concern to be vigilant, prudent, and just understand that the consequences of an accident may have, you know, consequences outside of the norm,’ Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital.

He also warned his fellow Republicans, as a former Navy SEAL, to be mindful of unsafe situations.

‘Say some evil mind wants to change the majority in the House — we don’t have the same protection that the president does. And that’s why I say just remain vigilant,’ Zinke said. ‘I have faith that we’ll continue, but I think it should be a concern, because it’s a big deal to change power outside of a normal election cycle.’

One House Republican speaking to Fox News Digital anonymously pointed out that there appeared to be more Democrats than Republicans voting on a slate of bills — albeit, relatively uncontroversial ones — on Monday night.

‘I’d guess they’re terrified,’ the lawmaker said of GOP leaders on Tuesday. ‘Sometimes life happens — look at Derrick Van Orden … car accidents, COVID, or flu. I mean, I don’t think we had the majority last night.’

‘They’re going to have to get smart about the calendar, probably break some arms,’ that GOP lawmaker said. ‘It’s kind of unprecedented. I don’t know how it would work. Say, unfortunately, someone else passed. You can’t fix that. You may have to wait a few months. You might have to strip committees. There’s a whole lot of uncharted waters to deal with.’

There are also more than a dozen GOP lawmakers running for higher office — something that could also spur absences, as South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., pointed out.

She dismissed fears of Democrats taking over the agenda, however.

‘Certainly there’s concern with the slim majority. There are many of us that are running for higher office as well, and as the debate season gets underway, there’s going to be members that miss votes to make debates and to be campaigning,’ Mace said.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital he was not worried about Democrats taking over the floor but conceded there was tension over the slim margins for Republicans.

‘I know they’re carefully watching attendance,’ Ogles said. ‘I think the joke is that no two members should travel together at this point.’

But not all House Republicans are agonizing over how the politics of the situation are playing out.

One moderate GOP lawmaker who spoke with Fox News Digital anonymously said the thin majority could save Republicans in the middle from taking politically perilous votes.

‘It gives folks in the center a little more juice on preventing bills from coming to the floor,’ they said.

An example they used is Thursday morning’s expected vote on a bill dealing with the joint-employer labor rule, telling Fox News Digital, ‘There’s an active effort among pro-labor Republicans to block that from coming to the floor, and we can only really get that done in our majority.’

A Senate Republican wants to codify President Donald Trump’s desire to cap credit card interest rates, but it’s an idea that’s already been met with resistance among top Republicans.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., plans to introduce legislation that would make good on Trump’s push to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year. However, Republican leadership in both chambers has already pushed back against the idea, arguing that it could lead to credit scarcity.

Marshall’s bill, the Consumer Affordability Protection Act, would limit the amount that credit card companies could charge for one year, capping the ceiling at Trump’s desired rate of 10%.

That cap would only apply to banks and financial institutions with over $100 billion in assets, with the idea being that smaller community banks and most credit unions would not be affected.

Marshall said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the legislation was about ‘giving families breathing room, restoring fairness in the marketplace, and making sure the American Dream is still within reach for everyone who works hard and plays by the rules.’

‘Credit cards were meant to be a tool — not a trap,’ Marshall said. ‘Right now, millions of hard-working Americans are getting crushed by outrageous interest rates that make it nearly impossible to pay down debt and get ahead.’

The bill follows Trump’s demand that Americans no longer be ‘‘ripped off’ by credit card companies that are charging interest rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration.’

He set a target date for the cap of Jan. 20, the one-year anniversary of his inauguration to his second term in office.

‘AFFORDABILITY! Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%,’ Trump said on Truth Social.

Marshall’s push isn’t his first foray into the world of credit — he and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have a long-simmering bill that would boost competition among credit card payment networks. Trump endorsed that legislation earlier this week, and the bipartisan duo reintroduced it in the Senate shortly after.

Durbin and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., are co-sponsors of Marshall’s latest bill. Trump and Marshall also have an unlikely ally in Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The progressive lawmaker spoke with the president earlier this week about affordability, and both found middle ground on their desire to cap credit card interest rates. But she was wary that any real action, either from the White House or the GOP-controlled Congress, would come to fruition. 

‘I supported it for years,’ Warren said. ‘And when he first floated the idea over a year ago, I said, ‘I’m all in,’ and so far, Trump hasn’t done anything.’

But despite Trump’s edict and the patchwork of bipartisan support, the top Republicans in Congress aren’t completely sold on the idea.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., warned that capping credit card interest rates could ‘probably deprive an awful lot of people of access to credit around the country.’

‘Credit cards will probably become debit cards,’ Thune said. ‘So, yeah, I mean, that’s not something I’m out there advocating for.’

And House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., warned of ‘unintended consequences’ of such a change.

‘One of the things that the president probably had not thought through is the negative secondary effect: they would just stop lending money, and maybe they cap what people are able to borrow at a very low amount,’ Johnson said.

Israel will reportedly honor slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk with an award for his efforts battling antisemitism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office indicated that this recognition will take place at the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, The Associated Press reported.

Kirk, who founded the conservative organization Turning Point USA, was assassinated while holding an event at Utah Valley University in September.

‘A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization,’ Netanyahu said in a post on X on the day Kirk was fatally shot.

In the post, the Israeli leader called Kirk ‘an incredible human being’ whose ‘boundless pride in America and his valiant belief in free speech will leave a lasting impact.’

Kirk asserted in a post on X less than a month before he was killed, ‘Jew hate has no place in civil society. It rots the brain, reject it.’ 

Kirk, who was a supporter of Israel, indicated last year on ‘The Megyn Kelly Show’ that some in the pro-Israel camp had unfairly criticized him.

‘The behavior by a lot, both privately and publicly, are pushing people like you and me away. Not like we’re gonna be pro-Hamas,’ he said. ‘But we’re like, honestly, the way you are treating me is so repulsive.’

‘I have text messages, Megyn, calling me an antisemite. I am learning biblical Hebrew and writing a book on the Shabbat. I honor the Shabbat, literally the Jewish sabbath. I visit Israel and fight for it,’ he noted at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump is slated to meet with Venezuela’s opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient María Corina Machado at the White House Thursday. 

Trump announced Jan. 3 that the U.S. had captured dictator Nicolás Maduro and that the U.S. would be running Venezuela until a safe transition could occur. But instead of endorsing Machado, Trump cast doubt on her abilities to lead the country. 

‘I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,’ Trump told reporters on Jan. 3. ‘She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.’ 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration chose not to support Machado because the U.S. didn’t want to make similar mistakes to the ones it’s previously made in the Middle East in Latin America, although he said he had ‘tremendous admiration’ for Machado.

‘But there’s the mission that we are on right now. … A lot of people analyze everything that happens in foreign policy through the lens of Iraq, Libya, or Afghanistan,’ Rubio said Jan. 4 in an interview with CBS. ‘This is not the Middle East. This is the Western Hemisphere, and our mission here is very different.’

A classified CIA assessment, which senior policymakers requested and presented to Trump, evaluated who would be the best fit to oversee an interim government in Venezuela following the overthrow of Maduro, a source familiar with the intelligence told Fox News Digital. Ultimately, it determined that Marduro’s vice president, Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, would be best situated to lead the country. 

Although the Washington Post reported that Trump was annoyed Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 — an award he had hoped to receive and that Machado dedicated to him — the White House claimed that Trump’s choices were based on ‘realistic decisions.’ 

As a result, Trump has put his support behind Rodríguez who is now serving as interim president. On Wednesday, Trump shared he had a call with Rodríguez, and later described her as a ‘terrific’ person.’  

‘We are making tremendous progress, as we help Venezuela stabilize and recover,’ Trump said in a social media post Wednesday.

‘This partnership between the United States of America and Venezuela will be a spectacular one FOR ALL,’ Trump said. ‘Venezuela will soon be great and prosperous again, perhaps more so than ever before!’

Specifically, Trump said that he and Rodríguez discussed oil, minerals and national security matters. On Jan. 7, Trump announced that Venezuela would provide the U.S. with 50 million barrels of oil that would be sold ‘immediately.’

Rodríguez voiced similar sentiments following the call, and said that the two’s ‘courteous’ call ‘addressed a bilateral work agenda for the benefit of our peoples, as well as pending matters between our governments.’ 

Meanwhile, Machado has praised Trump for his role overthrowing Maduro, and told CBS News that the president and the U.S. have ‘done much more than anybody thought was possible.’

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on what Trump and Machado planned to discuss. 

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

Former Democratic Attorney General Eric Holder, who served during former President Barack Obama’s tenure, played a key role in vouching for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the Democratic Party’s 2024 pick for vice president before a massive fraud scandal rocked the Gopher State. 

‘There’s nothing that of any substance that was missed by our vetting team,’ Holder told CNN in an October 2024 interview as the federal election came down to its final days. 

Walz is in the midst of facing a sweeping fraud scandal involving alleged money laundering operations related to alleged fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services that prosecutors say could total as much as $9 billion, Fox News Digital has reported. Dozens of individuals have been charged amid the investigations, most of whom are from the state’s Somali community. 

The scandal led to Walz dropping his re-election bid to serve a third term as Minnesota governor. 

Walz has said he is ‘accountable for’ the scandal as the state’s top elected official, but has accused Republicans and the Trump administration of sensationalizing multibillion-dollar figures of alleged fraud. 

Walz bucked calls to step down as governor, declaring during a press conference Tuesday: ‘Over my dead body will that happen.’

More than a year ago, Walz’s run on the 2024 Democratic ticket catapulted his national name recognition after serving in politics for decades, including in the U.S. Congress from 2007 until 2019, before his election as governor. Ahead of his name being floated as a potential vice presidential contender, Walz was a relatively unknown name to everyday Americans. 

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Obama’s former attorney general to lead the vetting process of her potential running mates during the 2024 cycle. 

Holder is a longtime Obama ally and was one of the officials tasked with vetting Obama’s potential running mates back in the 2008 election cycle before landing on then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. 

Holder told the media in 2004 that Walz was not at the top of his list when vetting 11 candidates for Harris’ running mate, but that he moved up the list of names as Holder reviewed his ‘very impressive’ and ‘significant’ work in Minnesota, including signing a law in 2023 for universal free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students in the state, KSTP reported in November 2024 ahead of the election. 

‘As part of the process, the vetting process, I looked at almost every YouTube he’s ever been on,’ Holder told KSTP of Walz. ‘Everything we could ever find about his media interactions and he’s a genuine nice guy. He’s got that Minnesota Nice thing.’

‘There was a chemistry that I saw, I actually saw that happen with Kamala Harris and with Tim Walz,’ Holder added at the time. ‘So it was a combination, I think, of accomplishments and chemistry that propelled him to the number two spot on the ticket.’

A source with knowledge of Walz’s vetting process told Fox News Digital that the fraud investigation was included in the vetting process, as details had already emerged during the governor’s 2022 re-election race. 

‘Governor Walz’s Department of Education had been in contact with the FBI regarding investigations into organizations diverting funds from child nutrition programs,’ the source explained. ‘This issue was not a factor in the 2024 presidential campaign, nor did Kamala Harris’s vice presidential choice ultimately prove to be a negative factor in the race.’ 

Walz’s emergence as the vice presidential pick quickly drew scrutiny over a string of past controversies, including allegations he exaggerated his military service, repeated misstatements about his presence during China’s Tiananmen Square massacre and questions about his handling of Minnesota’s 2020 riots — issues Republicans seized on as Democrats rushed to elevate him on the national stage. 

The 2024 election cycle was unprecedented for a multitude of reasons, most notably when then-President Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, 2024, amid mounting concerns over his health and a pair of assassination attempts on then-former President Donald Trump’s life. 

Holder joined CNN in October 2024 and defended the vetting process of Walz, calling him an ‘authentic guy, a person with a great record as the governor of Minnesota and who I think will be a superb vice president.’

‘He has resonated with the American people,’ Holder told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at the time. ‘He has generated enthusiasm for the ticket. And I think that the slight exaggerations, misspeaking that he has done, and, again, for which he has, you know, taken responsibility, is not something that’s going to ultimately hurt him,’ he said of Walz’s past misstatements. 

Holder was pressed if he and ‘your team of lawyers (missed) important information about him during the vetting process,’ considering the previous misstatements. Walz, for example, claimed in 2018 he had carried ‘weapons in war,’ but had not been deployed to an active combat zone across his 24 years in the Army National Guard. 

‘No, I don’t think we did,’ Holder responded about whether his team missed anything on Walz’s record. ‘I mean, I don’t think that we were surprised by any of the things that he has said. And as what he has indicated is that sometimes he misspoke, but he is — unlike Donald Trump, who lies like all the time. Tim Walz has made some misstatements that he has said, you know, I was wrong in saying that, apologized for making the misstatements.’

Walz has been directly implicated in the Minnesota fraud schemes, though the Trump administration has pinned some of the blame on the governor. 

‘I think Tim Walz should resign,’ Vice President JD Vance told the media Thursday during a White House press briefing. ‘Because it’s very clear either that he knew about the fraud in Minneapolis, he knew about the welfare fraud, or at the very least, he looked the other way. I mean, this is not this is not like Lex Luther, right? This is not movie villain fraud. This is the lowest IQ possible fraud.’

Amid the fraud investigations, federal law enforcement converged on Minneapolis in January. A fatal shooting broke out in a residential area Jan. 7 when a woman allegedly attempted to use her car as a weapon against immigration officers in what the Department of Homeland Security called an ‘act of domestic terrorism.’ The woman was shot and killed, sparking fierce condemnation from Democrats and Trump critics, including some lawmakers referring to the incident as a ‘murder.’ 

Fox News Digital also reached out to Walz’s office and Obama’s office regarding the 2024 vetting process considering the fraud investigations, but did not immediately receive replies. 

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.