Steve Ricchetti, a longtime Democratic operative and lobbyist, is sitting down with House Oversight Committee investigators Wednesday.

He’s known as a member of former President Joe Biden’s inner circle who reportedly played a key role in downplaying concerns, both public and private, about the ex-commander-in-chief’s mental fitness for office.

Ricchetti also reportedly helped craft Biden’s historic letter announcing the end of his 2024 re-election bid that July, according to the New York Times.

But long before that, Ricchetti graduated from Miami University in Ohio and got a Juris Doctor from Virginia’s George Mason University.

His first major role in electoral politics came when Ricchetti served as executive director for the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, from 1990 to 1992.

Ricchetti then worked for former President Bill Clinton as a congressional liaison from 1993 to 1996 and then again as White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 1998 to 2001.

During that second stint, he played a critical role in wrangling House Democrats during the GOP’s impeachment proceedings against Clinton.

In between and in later years, Ricchetti enjoyed a lucrative career as a lobbyist, even founding the lobbying firm Ricchetti Inc. with his brother in 2001.

His work with Biden began in 2012 when Ricchetti was appointed to be counselor to the vice president during the Obama administration – one of several ex-lobbyists appointed to that White House, despite former President Barack Obama’s vow not to hire K Street operatives. He was soon elevated to be Biden’s chief of staff in late 2013.

Ricchetti also chaired Biden’s 2020 campaign before playing a critical role in his administration, where he acted as part of a small ‘Politburo’ of close advisors who helped control the White House, Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN host Jake Tapper wrote in their book ‘Original Sin.’

‘In terms of who was running the White House, it’s a small group of people that have been around,’ Thompson told the PBS program ‘Washington Week’ earlier this year.

Several members of Ricchetti’s family also notably had roles in the Biden administration; two of his sons and his daughter worked for the Treasury, State Department, and in the White House, respectively.

At the time, the White House argued they got the jobs on their merits rather than their father’s closeness to Biden.

Ricchetti also reportedly played a key role in dismissing concerns about Biden’s mental health.

Two weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump, the New York Times reported that Ricchetti got into a ‘shouting’ argument with Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., after the latter called to express concerns about Biden’s political viability.

U.K.-based outlet The Times reported that Ricchetti ‘sounded like a mob boss’ in a conversation with actor George Clooney days before the Hollywood star and longtime Democratic donor penned an explosive op-ed calling for a new 2024 nominee in early July 2024.

And multiple outlets have reported that Ricchetti also denied any concerns about Biden’s mental acuity in an off-the-record conversation with an unnamed reporter at an unnamed outlet that almost ran a story shining a light on concerns about Biden’s mental health.

Ricchetti is the seventh ex-Biden aide to speak with investigators in House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe into whether White House officials covered up signs of Biden’s decline.

Longtime Democratic operative Steve Ricchetti is appearing before House investigators on Wednesday, the seventh former White House aide to be summoned for Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s probe.

Ricchetti most recently served as counselor to President Joe Biden during the vast majority of the Biden White House’s four-year term.

He’s now expected to sit down with House Oversight Committee staff for a closed-door transcribed interview that could last several hours.

Ricchetti said little to reporters on his way inside the room. His lawyer told Fox News Digital to expect a statement after his interview.

‘I’m not gonna say anything on the way in. I’m just gonna go in and- just go in and give an interview,’ Ricchetti told Fox News Channel’s Chad Pergram.

Asked if Biden was ‘up for the job’ of president, Ricchetti said, ‘Of course he was.’

Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

Ricchetti first began working for Biden in 2012, when he was appointed as counselor to the vice president during the Obama administration. He was soon promoted to Biden’s chief of staff in late 2013.

Ricchetti, who made a living as both a lobbyist and a Democratic insider, chaired Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign as well.

The committee’s interest in him, however, lies in his alleged key role in managing the White House while aides reportedly worked to obscure signs of the president’s mental decline.

‘As Counselor to former President Biden, you served as one of his closest advisors. According to a report, you were part of a group of insiders who implemented a strategy to minimize ‘the president’s age-related struggles,’’ Comer wrote to Ricchetti in June, referencing a Wall Street Journal report.

‘The scope and details of that strategy cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response.’

Axios reporter Alex Thompson, who co-wrote ‘Original Sin’ with CNN host Jake Tapper about Biden’s cognitive decline and his aides’ alleged attempts to cover it up, told PBS program Washington Week earlier this year that Ricchetti was part of a small group of insiders that some dubbed Biden’s ‘Politburo.’

He also played a key role in Biden’s legislative agenda, most notably as one of the Democratic negotiators working with then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to avoid a full-blown fiscal crisis over the U.S. national debt in early 2023.

It comes after another close former aide, former White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain, appeared before investigators for his own transcribed interview last week.

Like Klain, Ricchetti is appearing on voluntary terms—the fourth former Biden aide to do so.

Three of the previous six Biden administration officials who appeared before the House Oversight Committee did so under subpoena. Former White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as former advisers Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all pleaded the Fifth Amendment during their compulsory sit-downs.

But the three voluntary transcribed interviews that have occurred so far have lasted more than five hours, as staff for both Democrats and Republicans take turns in rounds of questioning.

A top White House official waded into the Sydney Sweeney-American Eagle advertisement controversy late Tuesday, calling left-wing backlash and claims of a ‘shift toward whiteness’ more ‘cancel culture run amok.’

Steven Cheung, President Donald Trump’s communications director, reposted an MSNBC headline claiming Sweeney’s ad promoted racial superiority in the form of genetic ‘whiteness’ – and wrecked it in a caption.

‘Cancel culture run amok,’ Cheung said.

‘This warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024. They’re tired of this bulls—.’

While some TikTokers simply noted the ad’s multiple similarities to a 1980 Calvin Klein ad featuring then-child-model Brooke Shields – others lambasted Sweeney’s version as a sinister nod to eugenics; citing how ‘great genes’ and ‘great jeans’ are homophones.

TikTokkers, compiled by the New York Post, lambasted the ad as ‘Nazi propaganda’ and ‘fascist-weird.’

Activist Zellie Imani, whose X profile includes the phrase ‘All Black Everything,’ called the ad a ‘love letter to White nationalism and eugenic fantasies, and Sydney Sweeney knew it.’

Those types of responses drew their own incredulous comment from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas:

‘Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women — I’m sure that will poll well,’ Cruz said on X.

First son Donald Trump Jr. took to Instagram to troll critics as well.

Trump Jr. posted an artificially-generated image of his father in the ad instead of Sweeney and paraphrased Owen Wilson’s fashion-designer-character catchphrase from the Ben Stiller film ‘Zoolander.’

‘Hanse – Um, Donald is so hot right now,’ Trump Jr. quipped.

Such signaling from the first family and the White House has also led to feelings that the cultural tide is turning in favor of the right for the first time in decades.

Proponents of that view also point to the cancellation of Stephen Colbert and the entire CBS ‘Late Show’ franchise.

American Eagle will reportedly be donating proceeds from such jeans to the national Crisis Text Line to support victims of domestic violence.

The company defended the ad in a statement last week:

‘This fall season, American Eagle is celebrating what makes our brand iconic – trendsetting denim that leads, never follows,’ American Eagle & Aerie president and creative director Jennifer Foyle said.

‘Innovative fits and endless versatility reflect how our community wears their denim: mixed, matched, layered and lived in. With Sydney Sweeney front and center, she brings the allure, and we add the flawless wardrobe for the winning combo of ease, attitude and a little mischief.’

American Eagle CEO Jay Schottenstein and family also have friendly ties with the Trumps, as the Wall Street Journal reported they have been Mar-a-Lago members for years and Schottenstein’s son held his wedding at the Palm Beach compound.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called on the FBI to conduct a counterintelligence threat assessment on the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Schumer said on the Senate floor on Tuesday that the FBI assessment should accomplish three things: determine if foreign intelligence agencies could gain access to the information ‘the president does not want to release in the Epstein files, through methods that include cyber intrusion;’ identify any vulnerabilities that could be exploited by foreign intelligence agencies with access to non-public information in the Epstein files, ‘including being able to gain leverage over Donald Trump, his family, or other senior government officials;’ and result in the FBI publicly showing that the bureau is ‘developing mitigation strategies to counter these threats and safeguard our national security.’ 

At his weekly Democratic leadership press conference afterward, Schumer condemned what he categorized as the Epstein ‘cover-up,’ further taking aim at President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

‘Trump promised he’d release the Epstein files while he was on the campaign trail, yet he has yet to do it,’ Schumer told reporters. ‘Speaker Johnson quite literally preferred to shut down Congress, sending everyone home on an Epstein recess to avoid the topic. Americans are right to be angry over the lack of transparency, but there are also some very real questions about risks to national security.’

‘Given Trump’s total about-face on releasing files and given what we know from the FBI whistleblowers, it’s natural to ask, what happens if our adversaries use cyberattacks and other means to access files and materials into Epstein that are damaging or worse for President Trump and or those around him?’ Schumer continued. ‘What happens if the Epstein files end up in the hands of Russia or North Korea, or Chinese governments? Unless the Epstein files are fully released to the public, could our adversaries use that, Epstein, to use that information to blackmail someone like the president? 

Last Thursday, Schumer noted, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services were among several government agencies hacked as part of a breach to Microsoft SharePoint system. 

‘This was confirmed that it was Chinese actors. So we don’t need this happening again,’ Schumer said. ‘We have to ensure that it can’t happen. National security is not and should never be a partisan issue. We need to do everything we can to make sure we protecting the U.S. and American families. This report is vital in doing that. Beyond that, there is one more thing Donald Trump could do to quell people’s anger, confusion, frustration, and/or deep fears. That is, release the files.’ 

Last week, Johnson ended the House legislative session a day early, averting a potential vote on a resolution by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., that would have compelled the Justice Department and the FBI to release the Epstein files. Johnson asserted on Sunday that House Republicans supported ‘maximum disclosure’ but argued that the resolution was ‘reckless’ and poorly drafted, arguing that it ignored federal rules protecting grand jury materials and ‘would require the DOJ and FBI to release information that they know is false, that is based on lies and rumors and was not even credible enough to be entered into the court proceedings.’ 

Johnson said he supported the Trump administration’s stance that ‘all credible evidence and information’ be released, but emphasized the need for safeguards to protect victims’ identities.

During a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland on Monday, Trump was asked why he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida, years ago. 

‘That’s such old history. Very easy to explain, but I don’t want to waste your time by explaining it. But for years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t talk because he did something that was inappropriate,’ Trump told reporters. ‘He hired help, and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata. I threw him out and that was it.’ 

Trump said he turned down an invitation to Epstein’s notorious island in the Caribbean and claimed former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard University President Larry Summers had gone. 

‘I never went to the island and Bill Clinton went there, supposedly 28 times. I never went to the island, but Larry Summers, I hear, went there. He was the head of Harvard and many other people that are very big people. Nobody ever talks about them,’ Trump said. ‘I never had the privilege of going to his island. And I did turn it down. But a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down.’ 

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

Longtime Democratic operative Steve Ricchetti is appearing before House investigators on Wednesday, the seventh former White House aide to be summoned for Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s probe.

Ricchetti most recently served as counselor to President Joe Biden during the vast majority of the Biden White House’s four-year term.

He’s now expected to sit down with House Oversight Committee staff for a closed-door transcribed interview that could last several hours.

Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

Ricchetti first began working for Biden in 2012, when he was appointed as counselor to the vice president during the Obama administration. He was soon promoted to Biden’s chief of staff in late 2013.

Ricchetti, who made a living as both a lobbyist and a Democratic insider, chaired Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign as well.

The committee’s interest in him, however, lies in his alleged key role in managing the White House while aides reportedly worked to obscure signs of the president’s mental decline.

‘As Counselor to former President Biden, you served as one of his closest advisors. According to a report, you were part of a group of insiders who implemented a strategy to minimize ‘the president’s age-related struggles,’’ Comer wrote to Ricchetti in June, referencing a Wall Street Journal report.

‘The scope and details of that strategy cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response.’

Axios reporter Alex Thompson, who co-wrote ‘Original Sin’ with CNN host Jake Tapper about Biden’s cognitive decline and his aides’ alleged attempts to cover it up, told PBS program Washington Week earlier this year that Ricchetti was part of a small group of insiders that some dubbed Biden’s ‘Politburo.’

He also played a key role in Biden’s legislative agenda, most notably as one of the Democratic negotiators working with then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to avoid a full-blown fiscal crisis over the U.S. national debt in early 2023.

It comes after another close former aide, former White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain, appeared before investigators for his own transcribed interview last week.

Like Klain, Ricchetti is appearing on voluntary terms—the fourth former Biden aide to do so.

Three of the previous six Biden administration officials who appeared before the House Oversight Committee did so under subpoena. Former White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as former advisers Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all pleaded the Fifth Amendment during their compulsory sit-downs.

But the three voluntary transcribed interviews that have occurred so far have lasted more than five hours, as staff for both Democrats and Republicans take turns in rounds of questioning.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he may skip the G20 summit in South Africa in November over the nation’s ‘very bad policies,’ and instead send someone else to represent the United States.

Trump made the remarks aboard Air Force One in response to a reporter’s question as he returned from a trip to Scotland, where the president achieved a massive trade deal with the European Union.

‘I think maybe I’ll send somebody else because I’ve had a lot of problems with South Africa,’ Trump said. ‘They have some very bad policies.’

‘Very, very bad policies, like policies where people are being killed,’ Trump added.

In May, Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House with news clippings and a video allegedly showing grave treatment of White farmers.

Trump has claimed that White Afrikaner South African farmers are being slaughtered and forced off their land. The Afrikaners are descendants of mostly Dutch settlers who first arrived in South Africa in 1652. 

South Africa and its president have denied claims of genocide and harassment. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio already boycotted a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in South Africa earlier this year over the government’s controversial land seizure policy.

Both the Trump and former Biden administrations have also criticized South Africa after the nation accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and brought a case to the International Court of Justice.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.

From Gaza to Greenland, French President Emmanuel Macron appears to be taking increasingly bolder diplomatic stabs at President Donald Trump’s foreign policy even though such gestures don’t ‘carry weight’ as Trump pointed out last week after the French leader declared his intention to recognize a Palestinian state.

‘French Presidents from Charles de Gaulle onwards have reveled in the idea that they are a natural counterweight to U.S. foreign policy on the international stage,’ Alan Mendoza, executive director of the U.K.-based Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital Monday.

Charles de Gaulle was France’s long-serving leader in the 1950s and 1960s and was famously resistant to U.S. global dominance, withdrawing his country from NATO’s military command structure in a bid to increase its military independence and criticizing U.S. policies in Eastern Europe and Vietnam.

Such contrarian actions, Mendoza said, ‘have in many ways defined the French Fifth Republic, with larger-than-life characters thrusting their views onto the world stage.

‘The difference now is that France matters far less globally than it did 60 years ago,’ he said, adding that a weakening of the European country’s economy and its military might ‘means that where once de Gaulle could roar, now Macron whimpers.’ 

‘What was once a sign of French strength and confidence now therefore looks more like a desperate attempt to escape irrelevance,’ said Mendoza.

In a dramatic announcement last week, Macron said that at the United Nations General Assembly in September France intends to declare its recognition of a Palestinian state, even as Palestinian terror groups continue to battle Israel in the Gaza Strip. 

The statement drew condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said such a move ‘rewards terror.’ 

It was also criticized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called the decision ‘reckless’ and ‘a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.’ He said the U.S. strongly rejected such a plan. 

Trump merely dismissed Macron’s Gaza move, telling reporters at the White House Friday ‘what he says doesn’t matter.’ 

‘He’s a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn’t carry weight,’ the president said.

This is not the first time the president has discounted Macron as inconsequential.

Last month, after the French president speculated about Trump’s reasons for leaving the G7 summit in Canada early and returning to Washington, the president wrote on his Truth Social platform, ‘Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that. Whether purposely or not, Emmanuel always gets it wrong. Stay Tuned!’ 

In the same post, Trump said Macron was ‘publicity seeking.’ 

The disparaging comments came after Macron directly contradicted Trump’s foreign policy by stopping on his way to the summit in the semi-autonomous Arctic territory of Greenland, which Trump has said he wishes to acquire. 

‘Greenland is not to be sold, not to be taken,’ Macron declared in a diplomatic stab at Trump’s foreign policy and seemingly an attempt to rally support from other European countries to stand up to the U.S. 

Asked about Trump’s ambitions for Greenland, Macron, according to Reuters, said, ‘I don’t think that’s what allies do. …  It’s important that Denmark and the Europeans commit themselves to this territory, which has very high strategic stakes and whose territorial integrity must be respected.’

In February, the French president paid his first visit to the White House since Trump’s return to power, and while the meeting appeared to be warm, it also came amid tension over the U.S. approach to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Hours before the meeting, the U.S. voted against a United Nations resolution drafted by Ukraine and the European Union condemning Russia for its invasion.

Tensions between Macron and Trump are not personal, said Mendoza, but they are also not totally ideological. 

They stem from Macron’s ‘desire to be relevant and to stand for something,’ he said. ‘The French are famous contrarians, but they do it for the sake of being contrarian.’

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Washington, D.C., think tank, said Macron was no ‘different from most European leaders. … Trump just isn’t their cup of tea.’

‘Most view Trump as a convulsive, hostile force who views America’s historic relationship with Europe as transactional,’ he said.  

‘Macron, like most French leaders, defines himself in part against the U.S.,’ Gerecht added, explaining that, traditionally, France and America ‘had a ‘mission civilisatrice’ or a competitive enlightenment mission.’ 

‘The American way has been enormously appealing in Europe since World War II, but it has come in part at the expense of the French, who have culturally lost a lot of ground to the Anglophones, especially the Americans,’ he said. ‘Consequently, many Frenchmen have a love-hate relationship with the U.S.’   

On Macron, Gerecht added, ‘He is part of the French elite. They are a bright lot who punch way above their weight, but, educationally, temperamentally, they are nearly the opposite of Trump.’ 

The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee Emil Bove as a federal judge Tuesday, handing a controversial leader at the Department of Justice a lifetime role on a powerful appellate court.

Bove was narrowly confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in a 50-49vote with no support from Democrats. His confirmation followed a contentious weeks-long vetting process that included three whistleblower complaints and impassioned outside figures voicing both support and opposition to his nomination.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said from the Senate floor before the vote that he supported Bove and believed the nominee had been the target of ‘unfair accusations and abuse.’

‘He has a strong legal background and has served his country honorably. I believe he will be a diligent, capable, and fair jurist,’ Grassley said. 

Bove’s ascension to the appellate court marks a peak in his legal career.

He started out as a high-achieving student, college athlete and Georgetown University law school graduate. He went on to clerk for two federal judges and worked for about a decade as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, leading high-profile terrorism and drug trafficking cases through 2019.

Alongside Todd Blanche, now a deputy attorney general, Bove led Trump’s personal defense team during the president’s criminal prosecutions. Blanche told Fox News Digital in an interview last month that Bove was a ‘brilliant lawyer’ who authored the vast majority of their legal briefs for Trump’s cases. In a letter to the Senate, attorney Gene Schaerr called Bove’s brief writing ‘superb.’

Bove will leave behind his job as principal associate deputy attorney general at the DOJ. Attorney General Pam Bondi congratulated him in a statement.

‘This is a GREAT day for our country,’ Bondi wrote on X. ‘I cannot thank Emil enough for his tireless work and support at @TheJusticeDept. He will be missed — and he will be an outstanding judge.’

Two Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted against Bove.

Democrats and some who crossed paths with Bove during his time in New York and at DOJ headquarters fiercely opposed his nomination and said he was unqualified.

One whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, had become a successful prosecutor at the DOJ over the last 15 years when he was fired under Bove’s watch. Reuveni said he was party to a meeting in March in which Bove floated defying any court orders that would hinder one of Trump’s most legally questionable deportation plans, a claim Bove denies. Reuveni also said the culture at the DOJ, particularly during the most intense moments of immigration lawsuits, involved misleading federal judges and was like nothing he had experienced during his tenure, which included Trump’s first term.

Two other anonymous whistleblowers emerged at the eleventh hour during the confirmation process and vouched for Reuveni’s claims.

A spokeswoman for Grassley told Fox News Digital the third whistleblower only brought claims to Senate Democrats and did not attempt to engage with Grassley. Grassley’s staff eventually met with the whistleblower’s lawyers after the chairman’s office reached out, the spokeswoman said.

Grassley said his staff interviewed more than a dozen people to vet the initial whistleblower claims and could not find evidence that Bove urged staff to defy the courts.

‘Even if you accept most of the claims as true, there’s no scandal,’ Grassley said. ‘Government lawyers aggressively litigating and interpreting court orders isn’t misconduct—it’s what lawyers do.’

While in New York, Bove also alienated some colleagues. In 2018, a band of defense lawyers said in emails reported by The Associated Press that Bove could not ‘be bothered to treat lesser mortals with respect or empathy.’ Another lawyer who had interactions with Bove in New York told Fox News Digital he was a ‘bully’ who browbeat people. 

A group that opposes Bove’s nomination, Justice Connection, published a letter signed by more than 900 former DOJ employees calling for the Senate to reject Bove’s nomination.

Among their concerns was that Bove led the controversial dismissal of Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ federal corruption charges. Several DOJ officials resigned in protest over Bove’s orders to toss out the charges. In the letter, the former employees said Bove has been ‘trampling over institutional norms’ and that he lacked impartiality.

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, in an unusual move, staged a walkout at a hearing on Bove before a recent vote to advance his nomination. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called him a ‘henchman,’ a description Democrats have widely adopted for him.

‘He’s the extreme of the extreme,’ Schumer told reporters. ‘He’s not a jurist. He’s a Trumpian henchman. That seems to be the qualification for appointees these days.’

Bove defended himself against critics during his confirmation hearing.

‘I am not anybody’s henchman. I’m not an enforcer,’ Bove said. ‘I’m a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this.’

Fox News’ Alex Miller contributed to this report.

The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after his first choice struggled to gain support.

Susan Monarez, a longtime fixture in Washington who has taken on leadership positions in a number of government public health roles, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday, crossing yet another position off the lengthy and growing number of nominees awaiting confirmation.

Monarez was confirmed on a 51to 47party line vote.

Across her roughly two-decade career in D.C., she has served as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health within the Department of Health and Human Services and in roles at the White House, including at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council.

She is the first CDC director to undergo the Senate confirmation process after a new law changed the requirement in 2023. Prior to her confirmation, Monarez had served as the acting director of the CDC since the beginning of this year.

But Monarez, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, was not Trump’s first pick to lead the public health agency, which is tasked with protecting Americans from public health threats.

Trump tapped Monarez in March shortly after withdrawing his nomination of Dr. David Weldon, a former House member, after it was clear that he couldn’t get enough votes from Senate Republicans to make it across the finish line.

He lauded Monarez’s credentials, and charged that Americans had ‘lost confidence’ in the CDC.

‘Dr. Monarez will work closely with our GREAT Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr,’ he said on social media at the time. ‘Together, they will prioritize Accountability, High Standards, and Disease Prevention to finally address the Chronic Disease Epidemic and, MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!’

But questions also linger on how well Monarez and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might work together.

During her confirmation hearing last month, Senate Democrats grilled Monarez over whether she agreed with Kennedy’s positions on vaccines. Kennedy has long been outspoken about his skepticism regarding vaccines, particularly COVID-19 vaccines.

The CDC has been hit with thousands of staff cuts and resignations and subject to changes in vaccine policy — notably Kennedy’s decision to remove the COVID-19 from the vaccine schedule for pregnant women and healthy children — in the last six months. 

‘I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines,’ Monarez said during her confirmation hearing.

Her confirmation also comes as Kennedy, in his budget request for the HHS, seeks a slash in funding to the CDC of nearly 50%, or from about $9.2 billion to $4.2 billion, for the upcoming fiscal year.

But Kennedy made clear in an X post at the time of her nomination that he supports Monarez to take on the position.

‘I handpicked Susan for this job because she is a longtime champion of MAHA values, and a caring, compassionate and brilliant microbiologist and a tech wizard who will reorient CDC toward public health and gold-standard science,’ he said. ‘I’m so grateful to President Trump for making this appointment.’

And an HHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘Once Dr. Monarez is confirmed, the Secretary looks forward to working with her to advance common-sense policies that will Make America Healthy Again.’

Lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee met with stakeholders and law enforcement to address the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S., during a closed-door congressional roundtable on July 22, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The roundtable comes amid growing concerns about antisemitic violence months after recent attacks in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., along with growing fears surrounding the potential election of Zohran Mamdani, who has espoused anti-Israel viewpoints, as New York City mayor. 

‘Jewish communities across the country are living in fear, and I am committed to standing with them. This roundtable comes at a critical moment: a far-left activist who has defended the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’ is inching closer to leading a city home to one of the world’s largest Jewish populations,’ Rep. August Pfluger, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee’s counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee, said in his opening statement, obtained by Fox News Digital. 

‘Antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric is becoming dangerously mainstream. We must act now to expose and combat this vile hatred wherever it is spread,’ Pfluger said. 

The roundtable focused on improving interagency coordination, intelligence sharing, training, and enforcement to better prevent and respond to antisemitic violence, according to a House Homeland Security Committee aide.

In particular, the meeting addressed ways to bolster communication between the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, along with state and local law enforcement, according to Michael Masters, the CEO of the Secure Community Network, a non-profit organization focused on the safety of the Jewish community in North America. 

This interagency coordination is absolutely paramount as the Secure Community Network has flagged 500 credible threats to life this year – which all have required immediate law enforcement intervention, according to Masters. 

‘Bad guys don’t respect orders. Bad actors don’t respect jurisdictions, and that means that our intelligence can’t be siloed,’ Masters told Fox News Digital on Monday. 

Additionally, the roundtable’s discussion highlighted how extremist rhetoric can spread, especially on college campuses and via social media, the aide said. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, student protests have erupted across college campuses in the U.S., including at Columbia University in New York. 

Likewise, those participating in the roundtable addressed the prevalence of homegrown and foreign-influenced extremism, when one participant highlighted instances where anti-Israel terrorist organizations have disseminated tool kits and talking points aimed at promoting attacks in the U.S., the committee aide said. 

The discussion is expected to inform legislative priorities centered around bolstering officer training, improving data collection, and ensuring ‘robust prosecution’ of antisemitic offenses, the committee aide said. 

Those who participated in the roundtable included representatives from the Secure Community Networks; the Anti-Defamation League, an organization dedicated to stopping the defamation of the Jewish people; the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence & Analysis; and law enforcement officials. 

Pfluger, a Republican from Texas, has spearheaded legislation that would bar any visa holders backing Hamas or other designated terror groups from staying in the U.S. 

He also led a hearing last month on the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S., following a May shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington and a terrorist attack in Colorado targeting a grassroots group advocating for the release of Israeli hostages.

Antisemitic violence reached a new high in 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 

The group recorded 9,354 antisemitic instances of harassment, assault, and vandalism in the U.S. in 2024 – a 5% increase from the 8,873 incidents recorded in 2023 and a 344% increase in the past five years. Likewise, the number of incidents is the highest the group has recorded since 1979, when the group first started tracking these cases. 

Incidents of antisemitic violence in 2024 were highest in the state of New York, where Mamdani is currently a state assemblyman. 

Mamdani has attracted scrutiny, including from Democrats, for initially failing to condemn the term ‘globalize the intifada,’ a phrase used to back Palestinian resistance against Israel. However, he has since said he will not use the term and will discourage others from using it as well. 

Still, concerns remain over what his potential leadership as mayor could mean for the Jewish community in New York City. Roughly 1.4 million people in the Greater New York Area identified as Jewish in 2023, according to UJA-Federation of New York. 

‘There’s a lot of fear in the Jewish community if this guy becomes mayor,’ New York City Republican councilwoman Inna Vernikov told Fox News Digital. 

‘This is a guy who wants to globalize the intifada,’ Vernikov said. ‘We’ve never seen anything close to this in New York City. We have the largest Jewish population in America, and I’ll tell you Jews are telling me they’re going to run away from New York City, and Jews have contributed a lot to the city and to this country, and the idea that they are now afraid to live here – it’s unacceptable and unprecedented really, this has never happened here.’

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.