Former President Joe Biden’s campaign team allegedly opted against a Super Bowl interview last year because of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report, Fox News Digital has learned.

A source familiar with Anita Dunn’s interview with the House Oversight Committee told Fox News Digital that the report –  in which Hur described Biden as ‘well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ – played a factor in the then-president breaking with the decades-old tradition.

But a source close to Dunn told Fox News Digital that she said Biden’s team decided against doing a Super Bowl interview last year because they thought the main coverage would be about what he did with classified records and not about the president’s policy decisions. They claimed the choice was made before Hur’s report was released.

Dunn sat with House investigators for just over five hours on Thursday, as Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., probes allegations that Biden’s inner circle worked to conceal evidence of mental decline in the former president.

The source familiar with her interview said Dunn also told committee staff that Biden’s inner circle came to a consensus he should not take a cognitive test, concluding it would offer no political benefit to the then-president.

It comes two days after Fox News Digital was told that ex-deputy White House chief of staff Bruce Reed, who met with House investigators on Tuesday, said Biden’s White House physician Kevin O’Connor called cognitive tests ‘meaningless.’

The source close to Dunn said Thursday that Biden’s team believed he would be able to pass a cognitive test, even if they saw no political benefit in one.

Dunn also told investigators that she was not aware of Biden’s stutter, which he’s said he dealt with all his life, until media coverage of it in 2020, the first source said. 

‘She went on to blame the media for pushing the narrative that President Biden was old,’ the source said.

The practice of pre-Super Bowl interviews began with former President George W. Bush opting to sit for an interview before the big game in 2004 and has been since followed by both former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump – though Trump also skipped out on a Super Bowl interview in 2019.

Biden sat for Super Bowl interviews in 2021 and 2022, but did not in 2023 and 2024.

In 2023, talks about a pre-Super Bowl interview fell through with Fox Corp.

Hur’s report was released publicly on Feb. 8, 2024. The Super Bowl took place that year on Feb. 11. 

He was appointed special counsel by former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2023 to investigate whether Biden mishandled classified documents. 

Hur ‘uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice-presidency when he was a private citizen’ but said it did not ‘establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’

Given that Biden ‘would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,’ Hur said, ‘it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.’

Dunn is the tenth ex-Biden administration official to appear before the House Oversight Committee.

In addition to investigating the alleged cover-up, Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is also looking into whether decisions were approved via autopen without the former president’s knowledge.

Of particular interest to Comer is the myriad of clemency orders Biden signed in the latter half of his presidency, though the former president told The New York Times last month that he was behind every decision.

Dunn, like most of those who appeared before her, defended Biden’s mental acuity to committee investigators.

‘The President made it clear that decisions rested with him, and White House staff brought issues to him for him to decide,’ Dunn said in her opening statement, obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘I believed strongly then, and I believe just as strongly today, that Joe Biden was an effective President who accomplished many important things for the American people.’

A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee criticized Dunn after the statement came out in the media, however.

‘It’s no surprise Anita Dunn is telling the American people not to believe their own eyes, claiming Joe Biden was sharp and ‘fully engaged.’ This opening statement, leaked to media before Ms. Dunn even delivered it, is yet another example of the absurd lengths Biden loyalists will go to defend his failed presidency,’ the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital also reached out to a representative for Biden and to Dunn’s counsel for comment.

After a report by the Daily Mail cited ‘well-placed’ sources close to Steve Bannon who claim he is gearing up for a 2028 presidential run, the former chief strategist to Donald Trump gave a two-word response. 

‘Trump 2028,’ Bannon said in response to a report he’s seeking political advice for a potential run. The report also claimed Bannon had privately disparaged Vice President JD Vance, considered the top contender to run for the presidency on the GOP’s ticket in 2028.

A source in Bannon’s inner circle told the Daily Mail Bannon has repeatedly said he does not think Vance is tough enough to run in 2028.

However, this week, President Trump said JD Vance would most likely be his successor. He added that Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would make a formidable ticket, noting it was ‘too early’ to discuss the matter. 

‘I thinkJD Vance would be a great nominee if he decides he wants to do that,’ Rubio said during an interview with Lara Trump.

Bannon’s two-word response was published by the conservative news outlet The National Pulse, which blasted the Daily Mail for the ‘thinly sourced story’ and argued the article was an effort to drive division within the Republican Party.

Bannon told Politico in March that ‘all I do is back President Trump and try to move the populist agenda and the America First agenda. I don’t think like a politician.’ Bannon also described the notion of him running for president as ‘absurd.’ 

In April, Bannon told News Nation that there are ‘many different alternatives’ that could permit Trump to sidestep constitutional term limits, noting in another interview the same month that ‘we have a team’ looking at those alternatives. 

Three days after Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced a constitutional amendment that would allow the president to serve a third and final term. 

According to Congress.gov, that proposal was referred to the House Judiciary Committee but has received no further consideration thus far.

The official Trump Store continues selling ‘TRUMP 2028’ merchandise, such as a hat for $50, which has further fueled speculation about a potential Trump run for a third term.

The Trump administration will deliver $93 million in new food aid to 12 African countries and Haiti to fight malnutrition, the State Department has announced.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a Thursday press briefing that the Trump administration will treat nearly one million children suffering from malnutrition through $93 million in ready-use therapeutic food (RUTF). 

The food aid will be distributed in Haiti, Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Kenya and Chad.

Following the announcement, Pigott was asked to square the discrepancy between the Trump administration’s revocation of visas belonging to Haitians in the U.S. and plans to potentially deport them, with the administration’s efforts to try to promote stability in the region through food assistance.  

‘Look, we’ve seen actions from this administration in order to try to encourage stability in Haiti. We’ve seen actions, announcements taken to try to go after those that are leading to instability in Haiti,’ Pigott responded. 

‘For specifics on TPS, I assume that you’re talking about whether they are afraid of [Department of Homeland Security] in terms of those specific decisions. But we have seen actions here from the State Department to try to encourage stability in Haiti.’

The announcement about new foreign nutrition aid comes after the Trump administration gutted billions from the government’s spending on foreign aid. As part of the reforms, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the primary government agency tasked with disbursing foreign aid, was folded into the State Department.

The $93 million in new food assistance will be utilized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and will run until June, according to Semafor, which spoke to a State Department official familiar with the new food aid disbursement. 

In addition to providing ready-to-eat food, the new assistance, which will all be American-made, according to the State Department, will also be used to help produce or grow more ready-to-eat food, Semafor reported.  

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has condemned the Department of Health and Human Services’ move to shift funding away from mRNA vaccine development, claiming it undermines President Donald Trump’s agenda to make the nation healthy again.

‘We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,’ Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, according to an HHS press release.

‘BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.’

Cassidy registered his objection to the move.

‘It is unfortunate that the Secretary just canceled a half a billion worth of work, wasting the money which is already invested. He has also conceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease. President Trump wants to Make America Healthy Again and Make America Great Again. This works against both of President Trump’s goals,’ the lawmaker said in a post on X. 

The HHS stated, ‘While some final-stage contracts (e.g., Arcturus and Amplitude) will be allowed to run their course to preserve prior taxpayer investment, no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated. HHS has also instructed its partner, Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC), which manages BARDA Ventures, to cease all mRNA-based equity investments. In total, this affects 22 projects worth nearly $500 million. Other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Cassidy’s office to request comment from the senator on Thursday, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Cassidy, who has served in the upper chamber since 2015, is aiming to get re-elected in 2026, though the incumbent faces competition from other Republicans who have also launched bids for the Senate seat.

In February 2021, Cassidy voted to convict Trump after the House impeachment in the wake of the January 6 episode at the U.S. Capitol. That Senate vote, which occurred after Trump had already left office, ultimately fell short of the threshold necessary to convict.

Anita Dunn is the 10th former Biden administration aide appearing before the House Oversight Committee as the panel investigates whether former President Joe Biden’s inner circle covered up evidence of mental decline, and whether decisions were signed off on via autopen without his full awareness.

Dunn is a longtime Democratic operative who has run communications for top left-wing figures and causes for decades.

She first likely engaged with Biden when serving as communications director for Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in the late 1980s.

Dunn was a central figure in shaping communications policy during Biden’s White House term as well, and she played a key role in helping him prepare for re-election in 2024.

Her husband, lawyer Robert Bauer, is also known as a figure close in Biden’s orbit – having reportedly served as his personal lawyer.

‘If it’s a room of five people, Anita and Bob are two of them,’ an unnamed former White House aide told NBC News in January 2023.

But her relationship with others in Biden’s circle has reportedly been rocky at times, particularly toward the end of his four-year term.

NBC News reported in July 2024 that Biden family members discussed whether the president should fire Dunn and Bauer amid fallout from his disastrous debate against now-President Donald Trump, though White House chief of staff Jeff Zients dismissed the reports as ‘unfounded and insulting rumors’ in a statement to the outlet at the time.

Her relationship with Hunter Biden in particular, the former president’s only living son, has been in the spotlight on multiple occasions.

Dunn criticized the president’s handling of his son Hunter’s pardon during an event in Dec. 2024, saying that she disagreed with the ‘timing’ and the ‘rationale,’ describing it as an ‘attack on our judicial system.’

‘Had this pardon been done at the end of the term in the context of compassion, the way many pardons will be done, I’m sure, and many commutations will be done, I think it would have been a different story,’ Dunn told a New York Times panel at the DealBook Summit 2024.

‘So, I will say, I absolutely agree with the president’s decision here. I do not agree with the way it was done, I don’t agree with the timing, and I don’t agree, frankly, with the attack on our judicial system.’

Hunter, meanwhile, recently name-checked Dunn during a tirade against Democratic operatives during a recent interview on YouTube show Channel 5.

He said Dunn ‘made $40 or $50 million’ off of work on behalf of the Democratic Party, while going further in criticism of others like David Axelrod and James Carville.

Notably, however, Dunn was among those who continued to defend Biden after his debate – while criticizing fellow Democrats’ reaction to it.

‘It was a bad debate, but it didn’t feel catastrophic at all, certainly in terms of voters,’ Dunn told Politico Magazine in Aug. 2024, noting she was watching the debate at home while monitoring voters’ reactions in real time.

‘What did change it was 24 days of unremitting negative, horrible attacks on Joe Biden. . . . From his own party and from the press,’ Dunn said.

She went further in that interview, calling the public criticism of Biden ‘bullying’ while arguing that it was led by the media rather than voters themselves.

‘[T]he data still didn’t support this at all. We were looking at it and we were not seeing huge changes. But we were seeing an environment in the press that was just unremittingly negative. And nobody was covering Trump whatsoever,’ Dunn said.

‘I went to Wisconsin with [Biden] for an event, and people felt very strongly about the bullying. They didn’t like it, and voters didn’t like it. They felt that it was unfair and that it was wrong. So you had a lot of different things going on here. You know, clearly there were leaders of the party who decided to go ahead and go very public. And that gave permission to other people to go public.’

Before joining Biden’s 2020 campaign and later his White House as a senior advisor, Dunn was known as a close ally of former President Barack Obama, having aided both his 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

Both she and her husband worked in the Obama administration. Dunn served as White House communications director in 2009 and Bauer as White House counsel from 2010 to 2011.

Dunn spent time before and after that as a consultant at public affairs firm SKDK, raising questions at the time about her influence with both outside actors and those in Obama’s inner circle.

The New York Times reported in 2012 that Dunn had visited more than 100 times since leaving her communications job there.

That report also had White House officials denying any conflicts of interest on the part of Dunn or the administration. 

After leaving Biden’s White House, Dunn moved on to play a key role in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ short-lived 2024 campaign.

She’s since returned to SKDK as a principal.

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

Veteran Democratic operative Anita Dunn will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a closed-door interview with House Oversight Committee investigators.

She is the tenth former White House official to appear before the panel’s lawyers, as Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., probes whether former President Joe Biden’s inner circle worked to cover up signs of mental decline in the elderly leader – and whether executive actions signed via autopen were done without his awareness.

Dunn is appearing voluntarily before the committee’s lawyers for a transcribed interview. It’s expected to begin around 10 a.m. and will likely last several hours into the afternoon.

Three of the 10 former Biden administration officials who have appeared so far have come under subpoena, and each pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering material questions.

Appearing voluntarily does not give people the ability to invoke the constitutional right against self-incrimination, but it’s possible Dunn will give House investigators little to work with.

The six former White House aides who appeared voluntarily before her have all defended Biden’s mental acuity and ability to serve as president, sources said, even as some, like ex-Chief of Staff Ron Klain, have conceded the 82-year-old’s age has worn on him over time.

Dunn, like those who appeared before her, has known Biden for years.

She’s been a key player in Democratic communications and public relations strategies for decades, and reportedly was a central figure in Biden’s messaging strategy both at the White House and during his short-lived 2024 campaign.

‘She’s running everything,’ one unnamed White House advisor told CNN in June 2023 while discussing Biden’s re-election bid.

A January 2023 report by NBC News described Dunn and her husband, former Obama administration White House counsel Robert Bauer, as central figures in Biden’s orbit. Bauer also reportedly served as Biden’s personal lawyer.

‘If it’s a room of five people, Anita and Bob are two of them,’ an unnamed former White House aide told the outlet.

Dunn was also a central figure amid the fallout after Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate against then-candidate Donald Trump.

NBC News reported in July 2024 that Biden family members discussed whether he should fire Dunn and Bauer, though White House chief of staff Jeff Zients dismissed the reports as ‘unfounded and insulting rumors’ in a statement to the outlet at the time.

Dunn served as White House communications director under former President Barack Obama, and Biden brought her onto his 2020 campaign to help with his own communications strategy.

She also served as senior advisor to the president for communications in the Biden White House before playing a key role in his 2024 campaign.

Comer wrote in his letter summoning Dunn, ‘You served as former President Biden’s ‘most senior communications adviser.’ Former President Biden confided in you extensively over the past decade.’

‘The Committee seeks to understand your observations of former President Biden’s mental acuity and health as one of his closest advisors. 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,’ Comer wrote.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin appear to be on track to soon have their first meeting since Trump took office for his second term earlier this year.

‘As for Ukrainian affairs directly, at the suggestion of the American side, an agreement was agreed upon in principle to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days, that is, a meeting of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump,’ aide to the Russian president Yuri Ushakov noted, according to a Russian to English translation by Google Translate of Ushakov’s comments.

‘As for the option of a trilateral meeting, which for some reason was discussed yesterday in Washington, this option was simply mentioned by the American representative during the meeting in the Kremlin. But this option was not specifically discussed. The Russian side left this option completely, without comment,’ Ushakov noted. ‘We propose first of all to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with D. Trump and we believe that the main thing is for this meeting to be successful and productive.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment early on Thursday morning.

The potential meeting would come as President Trump has been trying to help broker an end to the years-long Russia-Ukraine war.

‘My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made!’ Trump declared in a Wednesday post on Truth Social. 

‘Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted, ‘As President Trump said earlier today on TRUTH Social, great progress was made during Special Envoy Witkoff’s meeting with President Putin. The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky. President Trump wants this brutal war to end.’

Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy contributed to this report

In a win for Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) advocates, six more states have gotten waivers allowing them to ban soda, candy and other high-sugar junk foods from being purchased through the federally funded, but state-operated Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. 

The waivers, which amend the statutory definition of eligible food for purchase under SNAP, were granted to West Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. The new restrictions on what can and cannot be purchased will go into effect in 2026.

The six new waivers bring the number of states that have sought to restrict SNAP purchases of junk food to 12. The other states who received waivers from the Trump administration earlier this year were Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho and Utah.

‘For years, SNAP has used taxpayer dollars to fund soda and candy, products that fuel America’s diabetes and chronic disease epidemics,’ Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said

‘These waivers help put real food back at the center of the program and empower states to lead the charge in protecting public health.’

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has praised the historic efforts that states, mostly those with Republican leadership, have made to help improve the health and nutrition assistance provided through SNAP. 

On average, 42 million low-income Americans receive food stamp assistance each month, including one in five American children under 17, according to a report from the Trump administration released earlier this year.

‘It is incredible to see so many states take action at this critical moment in our nation’s history and do something to begin to address chronic health problems,’ Rollins said after the latest announcement of new waivers. ‘President Trump has changed the status quo, and the entire Cabinet is taking action to Make America Healthy Again. … These state waivers promote healthier options for families in need.’

Of the 12 states that have been granted SNAP waivers thus far, all of them will restrict SNAP funds from being used to purchase sugary drinks, including soda, while at least eight of the states have indicated plans to ban SNAP funds for candy purchases. Some states, such as Florida, Louisiana and Nebraska, will explicitly ban energy drinks as well, while others, like Arkansas, have indicated drinks with less than 50% natural juice will be banned. 

ABC News medical correspondent Darien Sutton argued the move, although pushed as an effort to improve health outcomes, lacks evidence.

‘There’s no evidence that taking away access to soda will actually fight these conditions,’ he said, according to ABC News. ‘Sugar is one of those culprits that you always have to be mindful of.’ 

Sutton pointed out that U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that men do not have more than 35 grams of sugar per day, while women are told to limit it to 25 grams per day. 

A Senate Republican renewed his push to federalize Washington, D.C., following an attack on a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer and President Donald Trump’s threat to put the District under federal control.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has long called for control of Washington to fall under Congress, going so far as to introduce the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act, named after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, in an effort to combat crime in the District.

The bill, which Lee introduced alongside Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., has not made it out of committee since being dropped in February. But Trump’s highlight of an attack against former DOGE staffer Edward Coristine, also known as ‘Big Balls,’ has resurrected the discussion.

‘The Constitution already federalizes D.C.,’ Lee said on X. ‘We just need Congress to do its job — and reassert its lawmaking power over our nation’s capital city. My bill, the BOWSER Act, would do that.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Lee for further comment.

Lee’s bill would effectively repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, a law passed in the 1970s that established a city council and mayor and reduced the amount of oversight that Congress has over the city and its affairs.

But calls have grown by lawmakers over the years to increase Congress’ oversight of the city, largely centered on concerns over increased crime and criticisms of attempts to rewrite the District’s criminal code.

And Trump jumped into the discourse, too, threatening that if ‘D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City.’

‘Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime,’ Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social. ‘If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City.’

Fox News reached out to Bowser’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a former prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that in the past, the D.C. council has pushed ‘policies that have made it much more difficult for law enforcement, for prosecutors, to do their jobs and keep citizens safe.’

Bowser and the D.C. Council have, for several years, worked to update the District’s criminal code. However, changes to the code that would have severely lowered sentencing for a variety of crimes that were at first vetoed by Bowser were on the precipice of becoming law before Congress and former President Joe Biden overrode the reforms.

Smith noted that Congress still has the authority to legislate the District, meaning that lawmakers and the federal government are ‘still the backstop,’ and that both Trump and Lee were right to call for a ‘reevaluation of the District’s status.’

‘That’s why Congress was able to step in and overturn that proposed radical rewrite of the Criminal Code,’ he said. ‘And so what the BOWSER Act would actually do, if it repeals home rule, it would essentially change the way the local D.C. government functions. It might involve Congress and the Federal Government taking a more direct role.’

‘I think there is broad and in some ways bipartisan consensus that the current system in D.C. is not working as it should,’ he continued. 

The horse race for the next open Senate seat in Tennessee is already kicking off after Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., announced a bid for the governorship earlier Wednesday.

Tennessee Republican Reps. Andy Ogles and Tim Burchett both told Fox News Digital they’re interested in Blackburn’s seat.

Ogles said, ‘Absolutely,’ when asked if he would consider a push for Congress’ upper chamber. Burchett noted that any such situation was a ‘long ways off’ but confirmed he was looking at it as well.

Blackburn just won re-election for her second term in the U.S. Senate in the November 2024 cycle.

If she ran for governor and won, Blackburn would have to vacate her seat – setting up a potential power vacuum in the Volunteer State.

Tennessee law grants the governor the ability to appoint someone to fill Senate vacancies until the next regularly scheduled election.

That means that if Blackburn leaves by 2026, her successor would be tapped to serve until 2031. 

Both Ogles and Burchett said they would be interested in running for the seat in the 2030 election cycle if appointed to the upper chamber.

But it could very well be up to Blackburn to choose her successor, depending on when she hypothetically resigned from the Senate.

Tennessee state law does not specify when she has to step down from the Senate, according to local outlet Knox News.

If the vacancy occurred before Blackburn stepped down, the decision would likely fall to term-limited Gov. Bill Lee. But Lee could leave the decision to Blackburn if she resigned after being sworn in to take his place.

‘Trump is back, America is blessed, and Tennessee – better than ever,’ Blackburn said in a video announcing her campaign launch on Wednesday. ‘I love Tennessee, I believe in Tennesseans, and I’m ready to deliver the kind of conservative leadership that will ensure our state is America’s conservative leader for this generation and the next.

Her candidacy sets up a high-stakes GOP primary against her congressional colleague, Rep. John Rose.

If she wins, Blackburn would be the first female governor of Tennessee.