I often rely on my crystal ball when Congress approaches a potential government shutdown or a debt ceiling crisis.

But I didn’t consult mine lately.

You don’t need a crystal ball to see that it’s likely the government shuts down this weekend.

DEMOCRATIC SEN. BOB MENENDEZ STEPS DOWN ‘TEMPORARILY’ AS CHAIRMAN OF SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE

The House and Senate appear to be talking past one another right now on divergent spending plans. And even if there wasn’t a chasm between the spending bills now before the House and Senate, the parliamentary mechanics of Capitol Hill would make it challenging at best to avert a shutdown. There’s not enough time. That fact alone may mean there’s almost no way for Congress to recover to fund the government before money expires at 12:00:01 am Sunday. 

A bipartisan, 45-day Senate funding bill scored 77 yeas Tuesday night. It has the backing of both Senate leaders. But conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., say they will make the Senate run all parliamentary traps and not allow speedy passage of the package. That’s because it includes money for Ukraine.

‘So U.S. government workers, get this,’ said Paul. ‘If they force a shutdown by forcing us to send more money we don’t have to Ukraine, they will in essence be saying ‘We’re going to continue to pay Ukrainian government workers, but not U.S. government workers.’ That is particularly galling.’

An effort by Paul to slow the process means the Senate could take until Saturday or Sunday to pass the bill, skipping through various parliamentary hurdles.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., helped author the package. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told McConnell he wouldn’t entertain the Senate bill in the House, no matter what.

‘I would like to see something much different,’ said McCarthy. ‘(They) put a focus on Ukraine and (didn’t) focus on the southern border. I think their priorities are backwards.’

Seventy-seven votes – more than three-quarters – is a substantial bloc of support for anything in the Senate. Sure, all it takes is one senator or a small group of senators to slow things down. But it’s rare for the Senate to conjure up that many votes on anything.

However, the Senate’s strength did little to impress House conservatives.

‘Seventy-seven senators are wrong,’ said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. ‘If you look at $33 trillion in debt, 77 senators have been wrong for a long time up here. Just because they come to some silly agreement over there that changes nothing about our country, does it mean that they’re right? That just means that they’re weak.’

McConnell defended the Senate’s approach which fell on deaf ears among House Republicans.

‘We can take the strategy approach and fund the government for six weeks at the current rate of operations or we can shut the government down in exchange for zero meaningful progress on policy,’ said McConnell. ‘Shutting down the government isn’t an effective way to make a point.’

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he opposed the Senate’s parliamentary move to advance a ‘shell’ of a spending package because the measure won’t prevent a shutdown.

TRIPLE HOUSE MELTDOWN ON DEFENSE BILL MAY MARK THE WORST RUN FOR A HOUSE MAJORITY IN MODERN HISTORY

‘We must avert a shutdown. That means a bill to fund the government needs to pass in both chambers with bipartisan support,’ said Tillis. ‘It makes absolutely no sense for the Senate to waste the rest of the week voting on a spending bill that is dead on arrival in the House. In fact, it guarantees a shutdown.’

Members of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus has a bill which Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said would be a ‘better fit’ to address a potential shutdown.

‘I hope that will be a fallback or landing spot for people,’ said Bacon.

Why?

Because it’s unclear if McCarthy’s still unfinished, interim spending bill with border security can pass.

‘It’s a great question,’ said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., ‘We’ll see what happens.’

Regardless, the Senate plan – or even the Problem Solvers caucus proposal could score 275-300 votes.

Some Republicans attributed McCarthy’s effort to placate the right to pressure applied by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. Gaetz has touted calling for a new Speaker’s election should the California Republican drift too far from conservative principals or align with Democrats to avoid a shutdown.

‘This is just a pissing match between McCarthy and Gaetz,’ said one senior House GOPer. ‘That’s the whole reason the government could shut down. I don’t think he intends to use (his resolution to vacate the chair).’

Gaetz may say otherwise. But the Florida Republican hasn’t made his move yet.

This is what concerns centrist Republicans who represent districts carried by President Biden like Bacon. Moreover, there is a mother lode of about 200 House Republicans who are outraged at the tactics of a small, vocal few.

‘We should never let five or ten people push us around like this,’ said Bacon.

If you haven’t noticed, Republicans are essentially tussling with each other.

That said, after weeks of infighting, Republicans did finally coalesce around one subject: border security. McCarthy latched onto that after a lengthy impasse between his own lawmakers trying to advance bills onto the floor. McCarthy now wants President Biden to meet with him about the border – even though the Speaker never made that request dating back to late July.

‘The President needs to make a decision,’ warned Rep. August Pfluger, R-Tex. ‘If he wants to keep the government open, he needs to shut down the border. No border security, no funding.’

The border inflection point gave the GOP a rallying cry. But moderate Republicans who represent battleground districts fear the political impacts of a shutdown. Moreover, they also fear the wrath of ultra-conservative voters in a primary.

So some of these Republicans may need to have it both ways as the government funding deadline looms.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called out the GOP.

‘In the House, Republicans have tried everything but bipartisanship,’ said Schumer. ‘The Speaker twisted himself into pretzels again, trying to avoid his responsibility of governing.’

So, there’s a standoff.

And some GOP members might be okay with a shutdown.

‘People in my district are willing to shut the government down for more conservative fiscal policies,’ said Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., on Fox.

Regardless, there’s not much time.

During an appearance on FOX Business, McCarthy was asked if he could keep the government open.

There’s a chance the government may not shutter early Sunday morning. But if that’s the case, the bills presently before the House and Senate don’t appear to be the legislative vehicles which would prevent a shutdown.

And for that, we’ll need a crystal ball.

The U.S. Department of Justice ordered FBI and IRS investigators involved in the Hunter Biden probe to ‘remove any reference’ to President Biden in a search warrant related to a Foreign Agents Registration Act probe, new documents released by the House Ways & Means Committee reveal.

Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., led a vote Wednesday to release new documents provided by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler that ‘corroborate their initial testimony to the Committee and reinforce their credibility and their high esteem among colleagues.’

‘The Biden Administration — including top officials at the Justice Department — lied to the American public and engaged in a cover-up that interfered with federal investigators and protected the Biden family, including President Biden himself,’ the committee said.

One document released Wednesday was an August 2020 email sent by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf in which she ordered investigators to remove any reference to ‘Political Figure 1’ from a search warrant. Subsequent documents released Wednesday revealed that President Biden is ‘Political Figure 1.’

‘As a priority, someone needs to redraft attachment B,’ Wolf writes in the email. ‘I am not sure what this is cut and pasted from but other than the attribution location, and identity stuff at the end, none of it is appropriate and within the scope of this warrant.’ 

Wolf adds: ‘Please focus on FARA evidence only. There should be nothing about Political Figure 1 in here.’ 

A document released Wednesday and reviewed by Fox News Digital states that ‘Political Figure 1’ is ‘Former Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.’

‘VP BIDEN is currently the Democratic Party Presidential candidate for the United States and served as the 47th officeholder for the position of the Office of the Vice President of the United States (VPOTUS) in the Barack Obama Administration from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017,’ the document states. ‘He is the father of SUBJECT 1.’

‘SUBJECT 1’ is presumably Hunter Biden, the target of the investigation.

The Justice Department indirectly revealed that Hunter Biden is still under investigation for a potential violation of FARA during his first court appearance in July, in which his ‘sweetheart’ plea deal collapsed.

When asked by federal Judge Maryellen Noreika of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware whether the government could bring a charge against Hunter Biden related to FARA, the DOJ prosecutor replied, ‘Yes.’

Whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler have testified that Wolf, throughout the years-long investigation into Hunter Biden, sought to ‘limit’ investigators’ questioning related to President Biden, despite objections from FBI and IRS officials. 

Meanwhile, the committee said that documents also revealed that the Hunter Biden federal investigation was being ‘hampered and artificially slowed.’ 

The committee said during a September 2022 interview with the president’s brother, James Biden, that investigators were ‘not allowed to ask if then-Vice President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s deal with CEFC China Energy,’ or follow ‘normal investigative leads.’

The committee also said a May 2021 report from investigators detailed that they were ‘not allowed to follow investigative leads on potential campaign finance violations related to a wealthy Hollywood lawyer, Kevin Morris, who was enlisted to help the family, and who paid millions of dollars to help Hunter around the time that Joe Biden becomes president.’ 

‘Investigators wrote that ‘there may be campaign finance criminal violations. AUSA Wolf stated on the last prosecution team meeting that she did not want any of the agents to look into the allegation,’’ the committee said Wednesday. 

Chairman Jason Smith said the new documents show a ‘clearer connection between Joe Biden, his public office, and Hunter Biden’s global influence peddling scheme that resulted in over $20 million in payments to the Biden family.’ 

‘In addition to then Vice-President Joe Biden attending lunches and speaking on the phone with his son’s business associates, the details released today paint a fuller picture of how Joe Biden’s vice presidential office was instrumental to the Biden Family’s business schemes,’ Smith said.

Smith said that the evidence included in the documents shows ‘a pattern of Hunter Biden creating for-profit entities to shield at least $20 million from foreign sources from taxes and hide the trail of payments that led to members of the Biden family.’

A congressional aide told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the Biden family and their associates collected more than $24 million in foreign payments between 2014 and 2019.

‘The growing body of evidence further calls into question the Justice Department’s attempted sweetheart plea deal for Hunter Biden, and the reasons for appointing the architect of that plea deal as the special counsel for Hunter Biden’s case, in light of officials’ efforts to protect President Biden and his son,’ Smith said. ‘This evidence makes clear Hunter Biden’s business was selling the Biden ‘brand’ and that access to the White House was his family’s most valuable asset — despite official claims otherwise.’

Smith, who is leading the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden alongside House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said his committee will continue to take ‘appropriate steps’ in its investigation, including sharing documents with committee Democrats ahead of their release.

‘We have promised to go where the facts lead us, and that is exactly what we will do to get answers for the American people,’ Smith said.

The documents come out as part of House Republicans’ formal impeachment inquiry investigation against President Biden. The House Oversight Committee is set to hold its first public hearing as part of the inquiry on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET.

White House spokesperson Sharon Yang dismissed the new documents Wednesday evening, telling Fox News Digital that House Republicans have ‘again cried wolf and provided no evidence tying President Biden to wrongdoing.’ 

‘Instead of wasting time with media stunts trumpeting half-baked conspiracy theories, House Republicans should realize the clock is ticking – it’s time they stop trying to distract and start focusing on priorities that matter to the American people, like doing their jobs to prevent a government shutdown that would inflict real pain on working families,’ Yang added. 

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

EXCLUSIVE: Disagreements within the House GOP over funding for Ukraine are threatening to derail Republicans’ defense spending bill for a fourth time. 

A procedural vote to advance the bill failed twice last week amid infighting over how to proceed with funding the government. Before that, a planned vote for the same legislation was scuttled over questions about whether it will pass. 

The House is expected to vote on the defense bill on Friday. Multiple GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that they believe there is enough opposition to yet again cause a headache for GOP leaders — this time, regarding $300 million in funding toward Ukraine that the bill provides. 

Those critics are also opposed to Ukraine funding in the bill for the State Department, Foreign Operations and related agencies. That bill does not provide a specific spending topline for Kyiv.

‘Both of those bills are dead on arrival. And I told leadership, I told them ahead of time,’ said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. ‘I’ve been clear from day one, that no money should be going to Ukraine, that our position should be bringing peace to that country. We’re currently right now funding the destruction of Ukraine.’

Greene was the lone Republican to vote against a procedural hurdle, known as a rule vote, clearing those two bills and two others for individual floor votes.

But Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who voted with the GOP on Tuesday night, said he would oppose the individual spending bills when they reached the House floor.

‘We’ve made our statement, we’ve been pretty clear about that. It’s a slippery slope. Nobody trusts the Pentagon, what they say they’re doing,’ Burchett said.

Asked why he voted for the rule, he said, ‘Bring it to the floor, I don’t mind.’

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., another skeptic of Ukraine funding, said he was ‘probably’ leaning no on the defense and State Department funding bills. 

‘Why in the world they would leave that in there and not carve that out for a separate vote, I have no idea,’ Norman said. ‘I’m gonna get advice from other people, kind of weigh it. I’m debating it.’

Norman said, ‘Oh yeah, big time,’ when asked if conservative colleagues felt the same way.

House Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas, did not say how he would vote but criticized the decision to leave Ukraine funding in the spending bills. Like Norman, he called for that money to be brought to the House floor on its own.

‘I don’t think they should be in there. I think we should have a separate vote on Ukraine. Now, you know, whether that rises to the level of whether or not I would accept the two bills in their current form depends a lot on what the Speaker lays out in terms of the overall plan,’ Roy said.

He conceded that the relatively small amount in the defense bill is ‘not going to drive whatever is going on in Ukraine. Though he added, ‘If they’re left as they are, I don’t believe that’s showing, I think, a good sense of where a number of people in the conference are. But again, we’ll see how the next 24 hours unfold.’

With just a razor-thin majority, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., can only afford to lose a handful of votes to pass a bill with no Democratic support. Absences can shift the number — last week, it took five GOP critics to sink the defense bill.

The opposition to Ukraine funding also spells more trouble for the Senate’s stopgap funding proposal, known as a continuing resolution (CR), which includes about $6 billion for Kyiv’s defense against Russia. 

Lawmakers in the House and Senate must reach some kind of an agreement on how to fund the government by Sept. 30 or risk a partial shutdown.

FIRST ON FOX: The contentious 2024 Republican presidential primary is driving an uptick in ‘valuable’ new donors to the GOP’s online fundraising platform WinRed, the platform told Fox News Digital.

WinRed, which launched in 2019 to compete with the Democratic Party’s fundraising platform ActBlue, has 1.4 million donors so far this year, and 532,000 — or 38% — are new donors, up three points from 35% during the 2022 election cycle, the platform told Fox News Digital.

The platform attributes the increase in new donors to the Republican National Committee’s strict threshold requirements for candidates to qualify for each debate.

‘The numbers are clear that the RNC’s debate requirements are driving significant new donor acquisition,’ WinRed told Fox News Digital. ‘This critical threshold is driving cultural change at campaigns, which is crucial for Republicans to surpass Democrats in online fundraising.

‘WinRed seeks to educate the industry about the value of these donors so that we can continue to drive technological and cultural change at the campaign level and arm our candidates with the resources needed to win more elections.’

The RNC’s qualification thresholds have been raised for each debate. The candidates needed to hit 1% in polling and have 40,000 donors to qualify for the Fox News-hosted event in Milwaukee Aug. 23.

The candidates needed to hit 3% in the polls and 50,000 donors for Wednesday night’s second debate, a FOX Business-hosted showdown at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

To participate in the third debate, each candidate must have a minimum of 70,000 unique donors and reach 4% support in two national polls, or reach 4% in one national poll and 4% in two statewide polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, the four states that lead off the Republican presidential nominating calendar.

Candidates are also required to sign a pledge saying they agree to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee. They must agree not to participate in any non-RNC-sanctioned debates for the rest of the 2024 election cycle and agree to data-sharing with the national party committee.

Aside from individual candidates, a number of Republican committees utilize WinRed’s services, including the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Republican State Leadership Committee, the Republican Governors Association and the Save America JFC.

However, WinRed said a whopping 88% of the 532,000 new donors this year came from presidential campaigns. 

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Wednesday gave an impassioned argument that the U.S. government should take back Chinese-owned farmland.

The Pennsylvania Democrat spoke during a broader hearing by the Senate Agriculture Committee on foreign ownership in U.S. agriculture and its impact on food security and national security.

‘I hope many of our colleagues agree, the Chinese government and other U.S. adversaries should own zero, zero agricultural land in our country, I believe that,’ Fetterman said. ‘They’re taking back our pandas.! We should take back all of their farmland.’

According to Department of Agriculture data, Chinese agricultural investment increased tenfold between 2009 and 2016 alone.

Fetterman was referring to the expiration of the panda bear loan agreement between most U.S. zoos and the China Wildlife Conservation Association in December. The most famous of the giant pandas, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub, Xiao Qi Ji, at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., will all be returned to China.

The only pandas remaining in the U.S. after the deadline can be found at the Atlanta Zoo.

Meanwhile, Republican legislation that would create additional federal safeguards to protect U.S. agriculture land from Chinese buyers overcame its latest hurdle by a substantial margin earlier this week, putting it on track for a full floor vote.

The vote on the Agricultural Security Risk Review Act, which received support from Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and ranking member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., sets up a full floor vote in the coming weeks.

Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.

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A new bill that will allow the legal marijuana industry to bank with financial institutions cleared a big hurdle in the Senate on Wednesday.

The Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act (SAFER Act) was approved by the Senate Banking Committee in a 14-9 vote Wednesday morning. The bill will now proceed to the full chamber for a final vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. – one of the bill’s staunch supporters – said on the floor Wednesday morning the upper chamber will prioritize passing the bill.

‘I will bring SAFER banking to the floor for a vote as quickly as possible,’ Schumer said in his opening remarks. ‘For too long, cannabis businesses have been forced to rely primarily on cash transactions. No credit or debit cards, dealing only in cash, stifles these businesses’ growth, opens them up to so many risks, makes them easy targets for theft, robbery and other crimes.’

The SAFER Act, authored by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., was introduced last week with some bipartisan support. While 39 states have already legalized marijuana, the industry has been a target of theft and crime as they are required to make only cash transactions.

The legislation, which allows cannabis businesses access to insurance and other financial services, prevents banking institutions from closing an account unless there is a ‘valid’ reason. 

‘Personal beliefs or political motivations’ are also not permissible reasons to terminate clients’ accounts, according to the bill.

Even though Daines co-authored the bill, he said during Wednesday’s mark up he doesn’t support the federal legalization of marijuana – rather, he narrowed in on his support for legal cannabis businesses being permitted to utilize banking services.

‘This bill is about public safety first and foremost,’ Daines said. ‘The current all-cash model of legal cannabis businesses makes them targets for theft, for tax evasion, and for organized crime.’

He added, ‘The key to addressing this risk is by ensuring all legal businesses have access to the banking system.’

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed relaxing some restrictions on marijuana by reclassifying it from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug.

The prior iteration of the bill, known as the SAFE Banking Act of 2021, did not succeed in obtaining a Senate vote, even though it had been passed by the House seven times.

If the bill clears the Senate, it will then have to battle for survival in the GOP-controlled lower chamber. 

Who is Ron DeSantis?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will once again try to establish himself as the top challenger to former President Donald Trump and change the narrative after a series of setbacks the past few months, which triggered weeks of negative stories spotlighting his campaign’s overspending, staff layoffs, change of leadership and other setbacks.

‘I know from the military, when you’re over the target, that’s when you’re taking flak. And if you look really in the last six to nine months, I’ve been more attacked than anybody else. Biden, Harris, the media, the left, other Republican candidates,’ DeSantis said. ‘And there’s a reason for that, because people know that I’m the biggest threat. So we view it as positive feedback. We’ll be ready to do what we need to do to deliver our message, but we absolutely expect that, and we’ll be ready for it.’

Asked whether his first debate strategy included punching back at rivals on the stage, DeSantis told Fox News, ‘Yes, that means defending ourselves but more importantly showing why we are the leader to get this country turned around.’

Who is Nikki Haley?

Former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley announced in February that she would be running for president, seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 election.
Born in Bamberg, South Carolina, Haley has long been viewed by political pundits as a potential GOP presidential contender.

Haley has crisscrossed the country the past two years through her political group Stand for America, helping fellow Republicans running in the 2022 elections. Her travels brought her numerous times to Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, which hold the first, second and fourth contests in the Republican presidential nominating calendar. Haley’s home state of South Carolina votes third in the GOP primary schedule.

‘America is not past our prime, it’s just that our politicians are past theirs,’ Haley said in her first campaign speech, as the crowd chanted ‘USA’ and ‘Nikki.’

Haley has called for years for the U.S. to be more aggressive in combating the threat from Beijing and in June called for a fundamental change in the U.S. outlook to the threat from the East.

In late July, Haley unveiled an extended plan to deal with the Chinese Communist Party. The plan includes a pledge to roll back Biden-era green energy mandates, which she says are a giveaway to Beijing.

While polls indicate Haley is an underdog compared to other candidates like former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Haley has a history of winning tough elections.
In 2004, she defeated the state’s longest-serving state House member in the GOP primary on her way to winning a state legislative seat. And six years later, she topped a congressman, the state’s lieutenant governor, and the attorney general in the Republican gubernatorial primary, ahead of her general election victory.

Haley is the daughter of immigrants from India who grew up to become South Carolina’s first female governor and the nation’s first female governor of Asian American heritage.

Following her tenure as governor of the Palmetto State, Haley served in Trump’s administration as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, leaving at the end of 2018 on good terms with the then-president.

Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Vivek Ramaswamy, a health care and tech sector entrepreneur, conservative commentator and author who has become a crusader in the culture wars, declared his candidacy in the Republican presidential primary in February.

Born in Cincinnati, Ramaswamy quickly made a name for himself on the campaign trail. Ramaswamy, who was dubbed ‘the CEO of Anti-Woke Inc.’ in a New Yorker magazine profile last year, said earlier this year that his campaign is ‘about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence in our country. It means you believe in merit; that you get ahead in this country not on the color of your skin but on the content of your character and your contributions.’

In an interview with Fox News Digital in August, Ramaswamy said that he wants to answer ‘the question of what it means to be American in the year 2023.’

‘I’m 37 years old. When you ask people my age and younger what it means to be American today, you get a blank stare,’ he said.

Ramaswamy has called for a ‘total decoupling’ from Communist China, which he argues is a greater threat to America today than the Soviet Union was during the Cold War because China makes the ‘shoes on our feet and the phones in our pockets.’

As the son of Indian migrants who legally came through America’s ‘front door,’ Ramaswamy is a strong supporter of merit-based immigration and would not grant leniency for those who broke the law when entering the country.

Other top priorities of his include ‘restoring free speech,’ which would involve making political expression a civil right and banning Big Tech censorship executed at the behest of the government, and ‘dismantling’ affirmative action and the ‘new climate religion,’ which he calls a ‘cancer on the American soul.’

Who is Tim Scott?

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott announced in May that he would seek the GOP nomination for president.

Known for his fundraising prowess, Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, entered the White House race with his campaign coffers well stocked. Scott reported nearly $22 million cash on hand at the end of last year — funds left over from the senator’s convincing 25-point re-election victory in November in reliably red South Carolina.

A pair of Scott-aligned super PACs started 2023 with roughly $16 million in the bank, thanks to contributors from numerous Republican mega-donors including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

‘Here’s a kid that grew up in North Charleston, South Carolina, mired in poverty, in a single parent household. To think about one day being the President of the United States just tells me that the evolution of the American soul continues to move toward that more perfect union,’ Scott told Fox News in May.

Prior to his campaign announcement, Scott, who has served in the Senate since 2013 and was born in North Charleston, South Carolina, had been viewed by political pundits as a potential 2024 Republican presidential contender.

While the senator had repeatedly demurred when asked about a White House bid, he hinted last November at a possible future run during his re-election victory celebration by telling the story of how he took his grandfather to the polls in 2012, and that his grandfather proudly voted for him as well as for Democrat Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president.

‘I wish he had lived long enough to see perhaps another man of color elected President of the United States,’ Scott said, before adding ‘but this time let it be a Republican.’

Who is Chris Christie?

Former two-term New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie officially launched his second White House bid in June, joining a crowded field of presidential hopefuls vying for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Declaring his candidacy during a town hall event at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire — the state with the first GOP presidential primary — Christie said: ‘I can’t guarantee you success in what I’m about to do. But I guarantee you that at the end of it, you will have no doubt in your mind who I am and what I stand for and whether I deserve it.’

In his speech, Christie railed against the division that he said has driven Americans into smaller groups, brought about by the likes of former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. He also touted America’s role throughout its history in ‘fighting evil’ across the world.

Christie focused a portion of his campaign announcement speech on taking jabs at former President Donald Trump, describing him as a ‘leader who won’t admit any of his shortcomings’ and referring to him as ‘Voldemort,’ the infamous villain in the ‘Harry Potter’ novels.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Christie held the highest office in the state from 2010 to 2018 and was the deep-blue state’s last Republican governor. 

He first ran for president in the 2016 cycle. At the time, Christie placed all his chips in New Hampshire, but his campaign crashed and burned after a disappointing and distant sixth-place finish in New Hampshire, far behind Trump, who crushed the competition in the primary en route to winning the nomination and eventually the White House.

Christie became the first among the other GOP 2016 contenders to endorse Trump, and for years he was a top outside adviser to the then-president and chaired Trump’s high-profile commission on opioids. However, the two had a falling out after Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to now-President Joe Biden. Over the past two years, Christie has become one of the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP.

Who is Mike Pence?

Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to launch his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in early June.

Pence was serving as the governor of Indiana when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump named him his running mate in 2016. For four years, Pence served as the loyal vice president to Trump.

However, everything changed on Jan. 6, 2021, as demonstrators — including some chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’ — stormed the U.S. Capitol aiming to upend congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory that was overseen by Pence.

In the more than two years since the end of the Trump administration, the former president and vice president have drifted further apart. Pence has repeatedly rebuked his former boss, calling him out by name while discussing Trump’s claim that Pence could have overturned the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Pence has described the 2021 protest at the Capitol as ‘tragic,’ insisting that ‘it dishonored the millions of people who had supported our cause around the country.’ He has emphasized that he did ‘the right thing’ and performed his ‘duty under the Constitution.’ He has also noted a number of times that he and Trump may never ‘see eye to eye on that day.’

Trump loyalists will likely never forgive Pence, whom they view as a traitor for refusing to reject the 2020 election results.

In announcing his campaign, Pence became the first running mate in eight decades to run against his former boss, since Vice President John Nance Garner unsuccessfully challenged President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 election.

Born in Columbus, Indiana, Pence has touted the Trump-Pence administration’s policy successes in stump speeches but contrasts himself with the controversial former president in terms of tone and tenor.

‘People around the country want us to see us restore a threshold of civility in our political debate,’ Pence emphasized. ‘You can disagree without being disagreeable. People that know me know I take very strong stands. I’m conservative, but I’m not in a bad mood about it.’

He has stressed that ‘should we enter the fray in this campaign in the days ahead, we’re going to bring those principles, but we’re going to bring a commitment to civility that I think the American long to see.’

Pundits had long viewed Pence as a likely 2024 contender, as he spent the past two years crisscrossing the country to campaign and help raise money for Republicans running in the 2022 elections. Those travels took Pence multiple times to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — the first four states to vote in the Republican presidential nominating calendar — as he strengthened relationships in the early voting presidential primary and caucus states that usually precede the launch of a White House campaign.

Who is Doug Burgum?

Before becoming the 33rd governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum established himself as a successful businessman in the software industry. 

Burgum, 67, steered his one-time small business, Great Plains Software, into a $1 billion software company. His business — and its North Dakota-based workers — were eventually acquired by Microsoft, and Burgum stayed on board as a senior vice president.

In 2016, the then first-time candidate and long shot convincingly topped a favored GOP establishment contender to secure the Republican nomination in North Dakota before going on to a landslide victory in the gubernatorial general election in the solidly red state. Burgum was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2020 to a second term as governor.

‘Governor Burgum is looking forward to sharing his focus on the economy, energy and national security at the August debate,’ Burgum campaign spokesman Lance Trover said last month. ‘In less than 7 weeks, Governor Burgum has exceeded all the requirements for the debate. As a Governor and business leader Doug knows how to fix the economy, unleash American energy and win the Cold War with China.’ 

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, Adam Shaw, Andrew Miller, Brandon Gillespie and Kyle Morris contributed reporting.

House Republicans passed a procedural hurdle on government funding on Tuesday night after a week of disarray that saw multiple planned votes scuttled. 

Lawmakers voted 216 to 212 late Wednesday to advance four appropriations bills, teeing them up for debate and final vote sometime this week. The only Republican to vote ‘no’ was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who protested funds going toward Ukraine in two of the bills. 

The House and Senate must come to an agreement on how to fund the government past Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2023, or risk a partial government shutdown.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., took a victory lap on Tuesday night after the bill was passed. He also said lawmakers would likely vote on a short-term funding bill known as a continuing resolution (CR) on Friday after working to advance the four spending bills.

‘We want to make sure government stays open as we do the work. We’re gonna be here working late tonight. Senate has not passed anything yet,’ McCarthy said. 

Asked about CR timing, McCarthy said: ‘We’ve got these four bills coming up so it’s — this’ll take us to Thursday, probably on Friday.’

Congressional leaders in both parties have agreed that a CR would be necessary to give lawmakers more time to reach a deal on the next fiscal year. 

But the House GOP’s current CR proposal — which would cut government spending by about 8% from this year’s enacted funding levels for 30 days and includes measures from Republicans’ border security bill — has been labeled a non-starter in the Democratically-held Senate

The two chambers are also still far apart on their 12 individual appropriations bills to fund the government for the next fiscal year. The Senate is working toward toplines agreed to by McCarthy and President Biden during the debt limit negotiations, while the House is working toward a lower number. 

They are also distant on a CR. As the House prepared to vote to advance their spending bills on Tuesday night, the Senate agreed to proceed with its own CR that would preserve this year’s funding levels and include additional dollars for Ukraine aid and U.S. disaster relief. 

McCarthy dodged a question on the Senate CR, telling a reporter, ‘Ask me when they pass it.’

In addition to battling Democrats, however, McCarthy is also dealing with members in his own conference who are opposed to any kind of CR on principle, arguing it is an endorsement of the last Congress’s Democratic priorities. 

It’s also not immediately clear if the four appropriations bills advanced Tuesday will pass their individual votes.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News Digital when asked whether he thinks they will have issues, that ‘some of them might. I hope they don’t, I mean we’ve got some amendments to deal with and that’s a good thing. That’s the way the process should work.’

McCarthy and his allies have attempted to pressure the holdouts by claiming they would give Democrats the upper hand if they did not agree to a CR with conservative priorities.

‘I don’t understand how a Republican is going to sit and support what is currently happening on the border and defend President Biden on keeping the border wide open. I don’t understand how someone can do that,’ he said. ‘So I’m not quite sure how they would defend that position.’

He also said the House would vote on a CR regardless of what happens to the four appropriations bills this week.