House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is calling for bipartisanship on a key vote that could lead to former President Bill Clinton and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton facing criminal charges.

Comer will ask Democrats to join Republicans in teeing up House-wide votes on holding the Clintons in contempt of Congress on Wednesday, after both defied subpoenas to appear for his committee’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein.

‘The Committee does not take this action lightly. But subpoenas are not mere suggestions; they carry the force of law and require compliance,’ Comer will say, according to an excerpt obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘Former President Clinton and Secretary Clinton were legally required to appear for depositions before this Committee. They refused.’

Comer’s statement will also argue the committee ‘acted in good faith’ in trying to schedule the depositions but that ‘actions have consequences.’

‘We’ve offered flexibility on scheduling. The response we received was not cooperation, but defiance, marked by repeated delays, excuses, and obstruction,’ Comer will say. ‘Today, the Clintons must be held accountable for their actions. And Democrats must support these measures, or they will be exposed as hypocrites.’

The committee is meeting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to mark up a pair of reports on holding the Clintons in contempt. 

If they pass — which they are expected to do, largely along party lines — it will pave the way for the full House to vote on whether to refer the Clintons to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution.

‘We must do what is necessary to uphold Congress’s investigative authority, which is imperative to the legislative process,’ Comer will say. ‘And we are doing so to demonstrate to the American people that justice is applied equally to everyone, regardless of position, pedigree, or prestige.’

A contempt of Congress conviction is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum fine of $100,000 and up to one year in jail.

Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, associates of President Donald Trump, were each found guilty of the charge after defying subpoenas sent by the now-defunct House select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The Clintons were two of 10 people Comer subpoenaed over the summer as part of the Oversight Committee’s probe into Epstein. But despite the initial bipartisan push, the investigation has fallen into partisan infighting as both sides accuse the other of politicizing the probe at the expense of Epstein’s victims.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, accused Comer of hypocrisy in trying to hold the Clintons accountable while not pushing harder to enforce the subpoena aimed at forcing the DOJ to release all of its Epstein files, which it has not yet done.

‘I think it’s incredibly hypocritical for James Comer to go out and try to hold in contempt his political enemies while [Attorney General Pam Bondi] is actively breaking the law, and he refuses to hold her in contempt,’ Garcia told MS NOW last week.

Comer also issued a statement on Tuesday stating that he rejected an offer from Bill Clinton’s lawyer for himself and Garcia to sit down with the former president in New York, for an interview without an ‘official transcript.’

‘The House Oversight Committee rejects the Clintons’ unreasonable demands and will move forward with contempt resolutions on Wednesday due to their continued defiance of lawful subpoenas,’ Comer said.

Donald J. Trump was inaugurated for a second term as president exactly one year ago. It is safe to say the country, and the world, will never be the same. 

President Trump has engaged in energetic and bold governing and diplomacy, fulfilling campaign promises like boosting domestic energy production, while also seeking peace in turbulent parts of the world and attempting to follow through on long-term ambitions, like acquiring Greenland.

He has engaged with the press on a near-daily basis, boosted recruitment for our military, dismantled harmful left-wing shibboleths like DEI, convinced our NATO allies to spend more on their own defense, junked burdensome regulations that interfered with our country’s progress, challenged our woke universities, extracted and jailed alleged drug kingpin Nicolás Maduro, defended women’s sports, significantly derailed Iran’s nuclear program, overseen new health initiatives like ridding our food of artificial dyes, shrunk the ever-expanding federal bureaucracy, and pushed through a reconciliation bill that lowered taxes for middle-class Americans. It is an incredible boatload of accomplishments.

But Trump’s first year is most notable for closing the southern border that predecessor Joe Biden opened to millions of unvetted illegal immigrants, and for resetting U.S. trade relations through the introduction of tariffs. As he might boast, few imagined that these efforts would succeed; however, neither has been without controversy.

Today, President Trump is at a crossroads. He begins midterm campaigning with approval ratings that are underwater, according to polling aggregated by RealClearPolitics, even on his signature issues of immigration and the economy. He has, in particular, lost favor with independents and with some of the groups that helped him win in 2024, like young voters and Hispanics. 

Surveys suggest voters think the president is spending too much time on foreign affairs instead of working to reduce the cost of living. While he pursues peace between Ukraine and Russia, Americans want lower cereal prices and cheaper housing. 

President Trump is trying to do too many things at once. On the one hand, we applaud the energy and pace of this president, a welcome change from the inert Joe Biden. On the other hand, Americans want stability, not chaos.

President Trump is aggrieved that the country is not giving him high marks for booming economic growth, a declining fiscal deficit, new investments flowing into the U.S., a declining trade gap, rising middle-class wages, all-time high oil production and record stock prices. And, inflation is substantially lower than the decades-high 9.1% recorded during the Biden presidency.

Public perceptions about the economy will play a decisive role in the midterm elections. Given today’s subdued consumer sentiment, President Trump faces the very real prospect that Republicans will lose their slim control of the House and maybe even their advantage in the Senate. He has warned more than once that should Democrats take over, they will almost certainly move to impeach him; he may well be right. 

Faced with that threat, and seemingly rattled by Democrats’ new ‘affordability’ pitch, Trump has unleashed a barrage of new policies meant to address the cost of living, some of which appear half-baked. He has proposed capping interest rates on credit cards at 10% and has strategized about that controversial notion with progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a development giving most Republicans hives. In addition, he has launched an attack on corporate-owned housing, which he claims has driven up rents. The number of homes bought up by businesses in recent years is small, and not likely to be a major source of rent inflation.

The frustrated president is also lashing out at adversaries, threatening to sue JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon for ‘debanking’ him in 2021 and waging war against Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, for instance. 

Trump blames the Fed chair for keeping interest rates too high, which in turn drives up the cost of living. The Justice Department’s investigation into whether the Fed Chair lied to Congress about the costly renovation of the Fed’s headquarters was a foolish miscalculation; it has backfired as Powell has dug in and caused the Senate to balk at confirming his successor.

Trump has also recently rolled out ‘The Great Healthcare Plan,’ which would make payments directly to households to cover health expenses rather than send federal subsidies to insurers on consumers’ behalf. This proposal comes as Congress continues to debate extending enhanced premium subsidies on Obamacare; the lapsing of payments augmented during COVID-19 will raise some peoples’ insurance costs significantly. For not being ready with a solution to this dilemma, which was anticipated for more than a year, voters should blame Republicans in Congress, not President Trump. Nonetheless, attempting to reconfigure our dysfunctional healthcare system, nearly one fifth of our economy, should not be done on the fly.

Most recently, Trump has again threatened to slap onerous tariffs on European Union countries unless Denmark agrees to sell Greenland. This is a mistake, as it undermines the president’s constructive use of tariffs, indicates our partners cannot trust hard-fought trade agreements, and again plunges America’s commitment to NATO into uncertainty.

President Trump is trying to do too many things at once. On the one hand, we applaud the energy and pace of this president, a welcome change from the inert Joe Biden. On the other hand, Americans want stability, not chaos.

They especially don’t want chaos on the streets of Minneapolis, with ICE agents under attack. They also don’t want chaos in our dealings with foreign nations. And, they don’t want chaos in our economy, with tariffs being raised and lowered according to the latest push from the Oval Office and with major proposals being spun out almost daily.

The president has accomplished a great deal in his first year in office. He needs to build on the wins, and remind voters why they elected him. That begins with deescalating some of his confrontations and restoring confidence through steady leadership. It continues with hitting the campaign trail, talking to the American people, and bringing them back on board.

President Trump’s agenda is not complete; let us hope he reboots and wins for three more years to continue making America great again.   

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to pull the trigger and launch strikes against Iran — a move that could potentially expose the weaknesses of both Russia and China, according to experts. 

While Russia and China have sought to make inroads in areas of Africa and Latin America — presenting themselves as partners for infrastructure and military equipment — neither Russia nor China intervened to defend their ally Venezuela when the U.S. took action Jan. 3 to topple dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime. 

Potential strikes in Iran, coupled with the strikes in Venezuela to overthrow Maduro, would drive home just how formidable the U.S. is and even near-peer adversaries like Beijing can’t compete, according to experts. 

‘Beijing would likely respond with familiar condemnations and calls for restraint, but the deeper takeaway would be uncomfortable: China’s partnerships offer little protection when the United States decides to act,’ Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in a statement Wednesday. ‘Venezuela made that clear regionally; Iran would underscore it globally. Chinese officials will brand Washington reckless or rogue, but privately this episode would validate long-standing Chinese views about how power is actually exercised and that the U.S. is the only country willing and able to project force across multiple theaters on short notice.’

‘Two complex military operations in two regions just two weeks apart would reinforce a core assessment inside China’s system: America’s military might remains unmatched, and Washington is willing to use it when it judges the risks manageable,’ Singleton said. ‘That combination commands professional respect even as it sharpens Chinese unease.’ 

Mark Cancian, a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ defense and security department, voiced similar sentiments and said that countries like Iran and Venezuela who’ve cozied up to Russia and Beijing are likely realizing the pitfalls of those ties. 

For example, Venezuela has had long-standing ties to Russia and has purchased Russian military equipment — yet Russia was not there to safeguard Caracas from U.S. strikes or prevent the U.S. from capturing Maduro, Cancian said. Another military strike in Iran would only expose Russia and China’s limitations further, Cancian said.

‘I think many countries are seeing that Russia and China can’t protect them, that those alliances have severe limitations,’ Cancian told Fox News Digital Friday. 

‘I think that a strike on Iran would make the same point,’ Cancian said. 

According to Cancian, the reason Moscow and Beijing can’t defend their allies and partners is because neither maintains a global military like the U.S. does. 

‘The United States does maintain United bases all over the world,’ Cancian said. ‘It has a Navy that deploys all over the world. The Chinese don’t have that. The Russians don’t have that. So although they have powerful militaries, they don’t have the global capability to protect allies and partners.’

Meanwhile, Trump is still weighing whether he’ll conduct strikes on Iran again. The president told reporters Jan. 11 on Air Force One that the administration was ‘looking at some very strong options,’ and Tuesday said that all meetings with the Iranian regime were scrapped until ‘the senseless killing of protesters STOPS.’ He said that those who’ve killed anti-regime demonstrators will face consequences. 

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that even though ‘killing in Iran is stopping,’ he wouldn’t rule out military action and that the U.S. would ‘watch and see’ what happens. Meanwhile, Trump said Friday that he had held off on strikes for now because Iran had canceled executions for more than 800 people.

Protests broke out across Iran in December 2025 in response to economic hardships facing the country, as well as a referendum against Iran’s theocratic regime. 

More than 2,000 people — including at least nine children — have died in the recent protests, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported Tuesday. 

Trump authorized several major military operations in recent months, on top of the strikes in Venezuela. For example, he also signed off on strikes in Nigeria and Syria in December targeting those affiliated with the Islamic State.

This also wouldn’t be the first time Trump has conducted strikes against Iran — should he choose to go through with them. In June, he signed off on strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear sites Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Iran’s supreme leader has publicly acknowledged for the first time that thousands of people were killed during recent anti-government protests, according to reporting from the BBC, as President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric and called for new leadership in Iran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the remarks during a public address Saturday, blaming the U.S. for the unrest and violence and saying some protesters died ‘in an inhuman, savage manner,’ the BBC reported.

The protests, which began in late December over economic conditions, later expanded into calls for an end to Iran’s ruling system. 

U.S.-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates that more than 3,000 people were killed over roughly three weeks of unrest, though Iranian authorities have not released an official death toll.

According to the BBC, nationwide internet shutdowns have made independent verification difficult, with connectivity dropping to roughly 2% of normal levels, citing data from cyber monitoring group NetBlocks.

Videos authenticated by BBC Persian and BBC Verify show Iranian security forces firing on demonstrators during the unrest.

Trump told Politico on Saturday that ‘it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,’ after being read a series of hostile posts from Khamenei’s X account accusing the president of responsibility for the violence.

‘What he is guilty of, as the leader of a country, is the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before,’ Trump said, according to Politico. ‘Leadership is about respect, not fear and death.’

Trump went further in personal terms, telling Politico, ‘The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people.’

‘His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership,’ Trump added.

Trump has previously urged Iranians to continue protesting and ‘take over institutions,’ saying that ‘help is on its way,’ according to Politico. The president later said he had been informed that the killings had stopped.

‘The best decision he ever made was not hanging more than 800 people two days ago,’ Trump told Politico, when asked about the scope of potential U.S. military action.

In a series of posts on X posts, Khamenei accused Trump of responsibility for the violence, writing, ‘We find the US President guilty due to the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation.’

In another post, Khamenei claimed that ‘America’s goal is to devour Iran.’

Trump has said in recent days he was looking at ‘very strong options’ including possible military involvement.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker pushed back against growing European backlash over Washington’s focus on Greenland after France announced new military exercises with Denmark, saying Arctic security is a core American defense interest and that Europe ‘has a tendency to overreact.’

Asked whether the dispute reflects American pressure or European inaction, Whitaker said, ‘This is ultimately an issue between the United States, Denmark and Greenland.’

Whitaker said Greenland’s importance has been clear for years as the ice melts, it reshapes the Arctic and opens new routes. ‘The security of the high north, which I’ve talked about a lot before this ever happened, is the most important issue,’ he said. ‘As the ice thaws and as routes open up in the Arctic, Arctic security, and therefore the security of Greenland, which is the northern flank of the continental United States, is crucial.’

He stressed that Greenland’s location makes it central to U.S. defense planning. ‘If you think about Greenland as part of the access to the naval assets, that monitoring and awareness and fortification of that part of the Western Hemisphere is crucial for the long-term security of the United States,’ Whitaker said.

Whitaker said recent diplomacy shows the issue can be addressed without escalation. ‘I know that a very successful meeting happened between the Danes and Greenland and Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, so I think it’s going to be constructive,’ he said.

Still, he cautioned European allies against inflaming tensions. ‘Europe sometimes has a tendency to overreact anytime that an issue is put out on the table,’ Whitaker said. ‘This is one of those things where cooler heads need to prevail.’

US COMMANDER SAYS RUSSIA AND CHINA’S ARCTIC PATROLS ARE ‘NOT FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES’

NATO, deterrence and the ‘Reagan spirit’

Speaking from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Whitaker used Reagan’s ‘peace through strength’ doctrine as justification for pushing NATO allies to spend more and move faster.

‘The most important thing that we’re doing at NATO is, one, the United States is strong. Nobody denies that. We have demonstrated through Midnight Hammer, through what we did in Venezuela and elsewhere, that the United States is capable and can project power. We want all of our allies inside of NATO to be equally as strong, and they’re not at this point in time,’ he said.

He added, ‘Some of them have certainly become more capable, and that’s why you can’t just paint with a broad brush when it comes to all of our NATO allies. But there are some that are not.’

‘Europe and the EU are going to have to untie their hands from behind their back,’ he continued. ‘They’re going to have to deregulate, they are going to have to find more capital and economic growth, because at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to allow them to live up to the promises they’ve made to increase their defense spending and therefore their defense capabilities.’

He said, ‘One of the things that I’m talking about constantly with our friends downtown in the EU,’ Whitaker added, ‘is that they have to get their economy going, and there are proven, tried-and-true ways to do it.’

Whitaker said his top priority is ensuring NATO allies follow through on the major defense commitments agreed to last year in The Hague.

‘This is number one on my list right now,’ he said, ‘making sure that the political commitments we made in The Hague turn into real military capabilities at NATO.’

He said proximity to Russia has shaped how seriously countries take the threat.

‘You look at the Baltic countries like Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and you look at the Nordic countries… they’re very aware of the threats that Russia [poses],’ Whitaker said, citing Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Poland, he added, stands out. ‘Poland is clear-eyed,’ Whitaker said. ‘They’re gonna spend over 5% on core defense in the coming year or two.’

Others, he said, are still lagging. ‘I keep a dashboard, a one-page dashboard on my desk that is updated regularly,’ Whitaker said. ‘It’s too soon to tell.’ ‘It has to be on capabilities,’ he said. ‘It has to make them stronger, ready to fight tonight.’

‘President Trump announced a $1.5 trillion defense budget,’ Whitaker said. ‘We’ve demonstrated our capabilities that nobody else can match right now.’

‘I’m here at the Reagan Library, and it reminds me, Ronald Reagan really was able to put those policies in place to spur growth,’ Whitaker said. ‘President Trump certainly has followed that same tradition, to unleash the American entrepreneur, unleash American innovation, and get out of the way, get the regulations out of the way so that American companies can grow and prosper.’

As NATO moves forward, Whitaker said pressure on allies will remain. ‘We’re asking our European and Canadian allies to do more,’ he said. ‘So far, so good.’