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.

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.

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.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she backs eliminating the 60-vote filibuster requirement in order to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which would federalize abortion access nationwide, during a Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) interview Tuesday. 

The filibuster is a Senate rule that allows a minority to block legislation pending a supermajority vote, so ending it would make it easier to pass laws related to abortion rights.

‘I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,’ Harris said on the ‘Wisconsin Today’ show. ‘And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.’

The vice president’s remarks were made during her fourth campaign visit to the battleground state and drew attention from West Virginia independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a strong supporter of the filibuster. Although the former Democrat had indicated earlier this month that he would endorse Harris, he reversed his position due to her comments on Tuesday.

‘Shame on her,’ Manchin said at the Capitol, CNN reported. ‘She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.’

‘That ain’t going to happen,’ Manchin said, regarding backing the VP for president in November.

Harris also said in the WPR interview that, ‘It is well within our reach’ to keep a Democratic Senate majority and ‘take back the House.’

‘I would also emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House,’ Harris said.

While Harris first said she would support ending the filibuster to reinstate Roe v. Wade era abortion protection in 2022, she has since made abortion a major issue in her Democratic bid for presidency this election cycle. She also supported ending the filibuster to pass the progressive Green New Deal climate legislation in 2019. 

‘With just two more seats in the Senate, we can codify Roe v. Wade, we can put the protections of Roe in law,’ Harris said in September 2022. ‘With two more seats in the United States Senate, we can pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Two more seats.’

‘You know, our President, Joe Biden, he’s been clear. He’s kinda done with those archaic Senate rules that are standing in the way of those two issues,’ Harris said of the Senate filibuster in 2022. ‘He’s made that clear and has said that he will not allow that to obstruct those two issues. And, you know, for me, as vice president, I’m also president of the Senate.… I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and reproductive rights. I cannot wait! Fifty-nine days.’

House GOP leaders are poised to skirt Republican opposition to their federal funding plan as they race the clock against a partial government shutdown.

‘We’ve got a lot of people that honestly think a government shutdown is a good idea, or at least don’t want to take responsibility for avoiding one,’ House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday. ‘It’s not good for the American people, it doesn’t work politically…and you’re sent up here to be responsible.’

Normally, a bill would have to advance through the House Rules Committee and then receive a House-wide procedural vote, known as a ‘rule vote,’ before lawmakers decide on the measure itself.

However, rule votes traditionally fall along party lines, regardless of who supports the bill itself.

Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who sits on the Rules Committee, told Fox News Digital on Monday night that he would support the rule advancing through the panel but would reject it on the House floor.

With opposition bubbling up and just a three-seat majority, House GOP leaders likely do not have the votes to pass the rule.

Instead, multiple people told Fox News Digital they expect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put the measure up for a vote under suspension of the rules – meaning it forgoes the House-wide rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds of the chamber.

The bill is a short-term extension of this year’s government funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through Dec. 20. The goal is to give Congress more time to negotiate spending priorities for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1.

A significant number of Republicans are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing it is an unnecessary extension of government bloat. 

However, a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day could come at a heavy political cost for Republicans – something Johnson pointed out to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, three people told Fox News Digital.

Johnson also promised lawmakers they would not be forced to vote on an end-of-year ‘omnibus’ spending bill, which wraps all 12 annual appropriations bills into a massive vehicle – something nearly all Republicans oppose.

Johnson was always expected to need Democratic votes to pass his December CR. Dozens of Republicans have voted against such measures in the past. 

Putting the bill up under suspension of the rules, however, appears to be an indirect acknowledgment that Democrats will need to carry much of the weight for it to pass.

‘Having to rely on liberal Democrats to pass anything is very disappointing,’ Norman said after Tuesday morning’s meeting.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, ‘A CR, an appropriations bill, under suspension? That’s not the way to run a railroad.’

Both said they expected Congress to be forced into an omnibus bill, jammed up against the holiday recess.

Johnson did get some backup from House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., however.

‘I take the speaker at his word that he will not do that,’ Harris said when asked about an end-of-year omnibus.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters that the CR would get a vote on Wednesday, suggesting suspension of the rules was their likely option.

Last week, a more conservative CR – one that would’ve kicked the funding fight into March and attached a measure cracking down on noncitizens voting in U.S. elections – was defeated by 14 Republicans and all but three Democrats.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the 14 rebels who voted against that plan, gave Johnson grace for the position he was in.

‘Speaker Johnson’s on the spot,’ Burchett told reporters. ‘He has to do what he has to do.’

House GOP leaders are poised to skirt Republican opposition to their federal funding plan as they race the clock against a partial government shutdown.

‘We’ve got a lot of people that honestly think a government shutdown is a good idea, or at least don’t want to take responsibility for avoiding one,’ House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday. ‘It’s not good for the American people, it doesn’t work politically…and you’re sent up here to be responsible.’

Normally, a bill would have to advance through the House Rules Committee and then receive a House-wide procedural vote, known as a ‘rule vote,’ before lawmakers decide on the measure itself.

But rule votes traditionally fall along party lines, regardless of who supports the bill itself.

Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who sits on the Rules Committee, told Fox News Digital on Monday night that he would support the rule advancing through the panel but would reject it on the House floor.

With opposition bubbling up and just a three-seat majority, House GOP leaders likely did not have the votes to pass the rule.

Instead, multiple people told Fox News Digital they expect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put the measure up for a vote under suspension of the rules – meaning it forgoes the House-wide rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds of the chamber.

The bill is a short-term extension of this year’s government funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through Dec. 20. The goal is to give Congress more time to negotiate spending priorities for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1.

A significant number of Republicans are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing it’s an unnecessary extension of government bloat. 

But a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day could come at a heavy political cost for Republicans – something Johnson pointed out to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, three people told Fox News Digital.

However, he also promised lawmakers they would not be forced to vote on an end-of-year ‘omnibus’ spending bill, which wraps all 12 annual appropriations bills into a massive vehicle – something nearly all Republicans oppose.

Johnson was always expected to need Democratic votes to pass his December CR. Dozens of Republicans have voted against such measures in the past. 

Putting the bill up under suspension of the rules, however, appears to be an indirect acknowledgment that Democrats will need to carry much of the weight for it to pass.

‘Having to rely on liberal Democrats to pass anything is very disappointing,’ Norman said after Tuesday morning’s meeting.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, ‘A CR, an appropriations bill, under suspension? That’s not the way to run a railroad.’

Both said they expected Congress to be forced into an omnibus bill, jammed up against the holiday recess.

Johnson did get some backup from House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., however.

‘I take the speaker at his word that he will not do that,’ Harris said when asked about an end-of-year omnibus.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters that the CR would get a vote on Wednesday, suggesting suspension of the rules was their likely option.

Last week, a more conservative CR – one that would’ve kicked the funding fight into March and attached a measure cracking down on noncitizens voting in U.S. elections – was defeated by 14 Republicans and all but three Democrats.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the 14 rebels who voted against that plan, gave Johnson grace for the position he was in.

‘Speaker Johnson’s on the spot,’ Burchett told reporters. ‘He has to do what he has to do.’

When the Biden administration nominated Michael Sfraga to be special ambassador to the Arctic, he failed to disclose his deep history with Russia and China. 

The Senate is expected to vote on Sfraga’s confirmation on Tuesday – over a year after his nomination, which was held up by Republicans who claim he is too close to U.S. adversaries. 

Sfraga has traveled extensively across Russia and China, and even spoke at an event where Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the headline address. 

An Alaskan and geographer by background, Sfraga chairs the Polar Institute and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. He is looking to lead the U.S. in diplomatic relations between the eight Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation and the U.S.

His foreign ties prompted Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, to write a letter in 2023 asking the FBI for help in vetting Sfraga, Fox News Digital has learned. 

He negotiated joint partnerships with Chinese academic institutions tied to defense and intelligence services and spoke glowingly about the two U.S. adversaries in interviews for different publications – all of which he failed to reveal until confronted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff.  

Sfraga had to update his disclosures three times, claiming he had forgotten to mention his record of trips and collaboration with Chinese and Russian leaders, Republicans have said. 

Risch placed a hold on Sfraga’s nomination, which prompted Republican infighting. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R–Alaska, recommended Sfraga to the Biden administration, and she defended him to the committee. ‘If there is any challenge that you have as a committee, it’s that his expertise in the Arctic is so voluminous,’ she said. ‘It takes a while to wade through all of it.’

Sfraga was key in negotiating memorandums of understanding – legal documents that establish a partnership – between the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and Chinese universities, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has been designated a ‘high threat’ due to its high-level defense research and alleged ties to cyberattacks. 

The partnership included access to UAF’s IT infrastructure and involvement in policy and legal reviews on any Arctic region subject, in addition to research and exchange programs.

In 2021, Sfraga spoke on a virtual panel on ‘Cooperation and Environmental Sustainability in the Arctic at Fort Ross Dialogue,’ an event sponsored by two U.S.-sanctioned Russian companies, Transneft and Sovcomflot, and Chevron. His co-panelist was ​Russian Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Cooperation Nikolai Korchunov.

The event stressed cooperation with Russia on Arctic issues. In a 2021 interview with Voice of America’s Russia service, Sfraga claimed Russia and the U.S. were ‘not understanding each other’ and that ‘the Arctic is an integral part of Russia’s DNA.’

In a 2022 Newsweek article on mounting U.S.-Russia tensions in the Arctic, Sfraga is quoted lamenting that the Arctic is no longer insulated from strains in the bilateral relationship. He said it is ‘not a good thing’ that the Arctic Council canceled a forum with defense chiefs, including Russia’s, following Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea. ‘I certainly understand the motives, but it’s not a good thing to have that happen,’ he said. 

In 2021, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea but before the war in Ukraine, Sfraga argued for cooperation with Russia in the Arctic. 

‘If both nations, especially the United States, are looking for places to actually cooperate with the Russians like we do in the International Space Station and trying to find a path towards some amount of productive engagement, I would argue that the Arctic may provide for us at least a few of those pathways to a more predictable and stable relationship between these two countries,’ he said.

At his Senate hearing in March, he struck a tougher tone with Russia. 

‘Russia’s war against Ukraine has rendered cooperation virtually impossible with Russia, including in the Arctic,’ he said. ‘The PRC (China) is attempting to reshape the global aid rules based system in its favor, and increasingly working with Moscow to elevate and advance its presence and its influence in the Arctic in ways that threaten our interests.’

In 2017, Sfraga attended the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia, an event headlined by Putin and attended by numerous other state-sanctioned people. He was a speaker on a panel entitled ‘Arctic: Territory of Professionals.’ 

When questioned about the event in a Senate hearing, Sfraga said, ‘It’s hard to ignore half of the Arctic, which is Russia, and in the North, it is a big neighborhood, but a small community, and you must engage. And indeed, at one of those conferences, President Putin did provide a keynote address, but I had no interaction with President Putin at all.’ 

Reports show Sfraga has taken at least half a dozen trips to China to participate in panels on Arctic issues. 

In October 2019, for example, he attended the Arctic Circle China Forum in Shanghai, where he spoke to the panel on the topic of, ‘The Arctic Council: A Model for Regional Cooperation.’

In November 2018, he attended the 11th Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he co-chaired the breakout session ‘China’s Arctic Policy: Opportunities and Challenges’ with Dr. Yang Jian, vice president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

In April 2016, he attended the Fulbright Arctic Initiative Symposium in Washington, D.C., where he met with Chinese representatives from the Polar Research Institute of China and the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration. He also delivered a keynote speech on ‘The Arctic in a Globalized World’ at the China-Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium in Beijing.

Additionally, during a 2018 event entitled, ‘The Polar Silk Road: China’s Arctic Ambitions,’ Sfraga is quoted as saying, ‘In the United States, we think four seconds long; we think commercials and sound bites and bumper stickers. But the Chinese think in long narratives; they go over decades… [The United States] think[s] about reaction versus being proactive… as we see the polar ice continue to retreat — and there’s both opportunity and challenge there.’

‘As the Arctic ice continues to retreat, there’s both opportunity and challenge there. How we best situate our own interests and those of like minds is probably best considered quickly. That doesn’t mean we’re pitted against China. I think there are ways we engage with them in a very productive, meaningful dance forward – and that can be for the good of a lot. But we should not be lulled into a false narrative either way.’

Sfraga also has ties to the Arctic Circle – an organization that some have raised concerns about giving China an outsized voice on Arctic issues. Unlike the Arctic Council, which only includes Arctic nations, the Arctic Circle includes China and is its preferred platform to engage on Arctic issues. 

Under Sfraga, the U.S. Arctic Research Council became an official Partner to the Arctic Circle, but his attendance at Arctic Circle events dates back to at least 2016. Olafur Grimsson, chair of the Arctic Circle, described Sfraga as a ‘good friend’ and said he looked forward to collaboration when he was named head of the Research Council. 

Grimsson’s name appeared on a list of pro-Russian European experts who Russia intended to use in an influence campaign targeting the Baltic States. A report by Ukraine state news agency Ukrinform notes that Grimsson opposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 as Iceland’s president and called for turning the old U.S. airbase in Keflavik over to the Russians, and took part in Russian government-organized events.