In the weeks following the nearly back-to-back assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump, the Senate unanimously passed bipartisan legislation that would boost Secret Service protection to major presidential candidates.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Protect Our President Act, which will enhance U.S. Secret Service (USSS) protection for presidential nominees to the same level currently provided for a sitting president. However, a nominee is free to decline this. 

It would additionally extend that presidential-level protection to vice presidential nominees, in this case to Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn.

‘Over the course of just 65 days, two deranged individuals have tried to kill President Donald Trump, and one was able to shoot him in the head,’ Scott wrote during the bill’s introduction.

Additionally, the bill would require regular reporting from the Secret Service to leaders of the House and Senate on the status of candidates’ protection. 

The regular reporting would mandate that the agency provide a report of the nominee’s protection every 15 days during a presidential election year.

Such reports would include threat levels, security measures, costs, amount of personnel assigned and any needs that are unmet. 

The report would also include the threat level for each presidential nominee, the security measures being implemented, associated costs, the number of personnel permanently assigned to each protective detail, and any unmet security needs.

In a press release, Sen. John Barrasso, R-WY, said that the bill will ‘ensure’ that all candidates receive proper protection.

‘Our nation has witnessed two horrifying assassination attempts on President Trump. We were merely inches away from a catastrophic event that would have changed the course of our history,’ he wrote. ‘This cannot happen again. The Protect Our Presidents Act will ensure all presidential nominees receive the same level of protection provided to the president. This will give law enforcement the resources they need to keep President Trump and all of the candidates safe.’

Fox News Julia Johnson, David Spunt and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

Johnny Cash will be saying ‘Hello Out There’ to myriad tourists visiting the U.S. Capitol from now on – after congressional leaders got together to unveil a statue of the legendary musician.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders joined members of Cash’s family for the ceremony, which attracted hundreds of other attendees on Tuesday.

The statue is the latest to be unveiled in the halls of Congress and the first of a professional musician – something House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., noted in his opening remarks.

‘Johnny Cash is the perfect person to be honored in that way. He was a man who embodies the American spirit in a way that few could. He was an everyday man. He loved to fish, and he suffered the pain of loss. He was the son of southern farmers and of the Great Depression,’ Johnson said. ‘Americans related to Johnny Cash.’

He acknowledged that some people may wonder why Cash was being honored in the way of historic trailblazers, past presidents and dignitaries.

‘The answer is pretty simple. It’s because America is about more than laws and politics,’ Johnson said. ‘Johnny Cash gave a voice to the struggles of the people who were downtrodden and marginalized and who were too often forgotten.’

‘When we forgot about the factory line worker, there was Johnny Cash singing about that fellow who built the car one piece at a time. When we had forgotten about our troops, there was Johnny Cash, the man in black, remembering the 100,000 who died for that [flag]. When we forgot about the Native American, there was Johnny Cash, reminding us of the petrified but justified Apache tears.’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., noted in his own remarks that music has long been a part of American culture.

‘From the very beginning, in the DNA of this great country, artistic creativity has been recognized as incredibly important to our growth, our culture and to the American experiment,’ Jeffries said. ‘Throughout his life, he created a catalog of profoundly powerful works that cannot be ascribed to a single genre. At different times, he was country, blues, rock and roll and gospel.’

‘At all times, Johnny Cash was uniquely American. He was a trailblazing, transformational and trend-setting figure.’

Cash’s relatives participated in the ceremony as well – Adm. Carey Cash, a chaplain and the musician’s great-nephew, delivered the opening prayer.

The statue shows Cash with a guitar on his back and a Bible in hand. His is one of three statues at the Capitol holding the Bible, another being Billy Graham’s.

Each state selects two statues to be represented in the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

Arkansas’ state legislature voted in 2019 to replace statues of two lesser-known figures with Cash and civil rights activist Daisy Bates. The latter statue debuted earlier this year.

The Cash statue was created by Little Rock artist Kevin Kresse.

It’s a nod to Cash’s own roots, growing up in Dyess, Arkansas, on a cotton farm before going on to become one of the best-selling musical artists in history.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer made an unfortunate gaffe during a speech at his party’s conference Tuesday when he mistakenly called for the return of ‘sausages,’ instead of hostages, held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Starmer was speaking at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool when he called for a de-escalation between Lebanon and Israel, as well as a cease-fire in Gaza. 

He also called for the return of hostages being held by the terror group when he slipped up, before quickly recovering. 

‘I call again for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, the return of the sausages — the hostages — and a recommitment to the two-state solution: a recognized Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel,’ he said.

The mistake quickly went viral.

During his remarks, Starmer was also heckled by a spectator in the audience who shouted about Gaza. 

‘This guy’s obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference. We’ve changed the party,’ Starmer joked in response, Reuters reported. ‘While he’s been protesting, we’ve been changing the party. That’s why we’ve got a Labour government.’

Multiple hostages are still being held in Gaza nearly a year after the group attacked Israeli communities Oct. 7, sparking the latest conflict between Hamas and the Jewish state. 

Israel has proposed ending the war if Hamas releases the remaining hostages, along with the demilitarization of Gaza and the establishment of an alternative governing body. Hamas has rejected several offers to end the conflict. 

Israel has bombarded Gaza and pledged to hunt down those responsible for the deadly attack. Meanwhile, it has also had to defend itself on a second front against shelling in its north from Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Israeli forces said they have continued to carry out dozens of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets within Lebanon and that artillery and tanks continue to hit targets close to the border.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken could be held in contempt of Congress after a key House committee advanced the penal measure on Tuesday.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced a contempt resolution against the top Biden administration Cabinet secretary, setting it up for a House-wide vote after Congress returns from a six-week recess. A secretary of state has never in history been held in contempt.

‘We have a duty of oversight, and no one’s above the law,’ McCaul told Fox News Digital Tuesday morning.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital, ‘I’m sure we will,’ when asked if there would be a House-wide vote on holding Blinken in contempt when Congress returns in November.

If the House votes to hold Blinken in contempt, he would be automatically referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges.

The House GOP majority has already held another Biden official in contempt – Attorney General Merrick Garland. The DOJ declined to prosecute, however. 

House Republicans also voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, though it was quickly dismissed by the Senate.

McCaul has accused Blinken of stonewalling his committee’s probe into President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Blinken was absent from the hearing portion due to a full schedule at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, however.

In a letter sent to McCaul over the weekend, Blinken urged McCaul to withdraw his subpoena and efforts to hold him in contempt, saying he was ‘disappointed’ with the Texas Republican.

‘As I have made clear, I am willing to testify and have offered several reasonable alternatives to the dates unilaterally demanded by the Committee during which I am carrying out the President’s important foreign policy objectives,’ Blinken wrote.

But McCaul dismissed the Biden official’s arguments.

‘I gave him any day,’ McCaul challenged. ‘Any day in September, and he refuses.’

‘He doesn’t have one day in the whole month of September to show up before Congress? I mean, I’ve been very flexible with him since May to try to get cooperation.’

It comes after McCaul’s committee released an explosive report detailing Biden administration shortfalls that led to the hasty military withdrawal from Kabul following a lightening-fast takeover of the country by the Taliban.

The Republican-led paper opens by hearkening back to President Biden’s urgency to withdraw from the Vietnam War as a senator in the 1970s. That, along with the Afghanistan withdrawal, demonstrates a ‘pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners,’ according to the report.

The report also disputed Biden’s assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and it revealed how state officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them.

Two recent House contempt votes that resulted in criminal charges were those against former Trump administration advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro. Both were held in contempt by the previous House Democratic majority for failing to comply with subpoenas from the now-defunct House select committee on Jan. 6.