State Department says Trump is ‘spot on’ with France protests after Macron decries ‘stupid’ comments

2026-10-23T13:07:07-04:00 / Fox News

Spokesperson Tommy Pigott defended Trump’s remarks on mass migration as Paris braces for more protests Saturday

By Greg Norman-Diamond Fox News

Published October 23, 2026 1:07pm EDT

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott speaks to Fox News Digital about the anti-government protests sweeping across France, which President Donald Trump said is being “looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists and communists.”

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The State Department told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump’s views on France are “spot on” after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized foreign leaders for making “unacceptable and stupid comments” about the protests rocking the European country.

Speaking at a midterms rally on Monday, Trump said that “the migrants have taken over France” and that the country should close its borders following a weekend of anti-government demonstrations that evolved into rioting and looting. He added that France, a “once great nation,” is “being conquered, looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists and communists who hate Christianity” and “the Western civilization itself.”

Macron then claimed Wednesday that “there was foreign manipulation of information” following the protests, including AI-generated images that showed scenes that never happened in France, which gave way to “unacceptable and stupid comments from many people including foreign leaders.” Macron said he was referring to Trump, “among others,” and also mentioned, “We’ve had people claiming that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false,” The Associated Press reported.

When asked for a reaction to Macron’s remarks, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told Fox News Digital that Trump “is on point as he is consistently on point.”

“He has been clear about the dangers of mass migration for years, especially since the beginning of this administration, but certainly long beforehand as well. The president has secured the border on day one when it comes to the United States of America,” Pigott said. “But we’ve also been clear from the State Department’s perspective that we are going to oppose international institutions, for example, that seek to impose an agenda upon sovereign nations to encourage mass migration.

President Donald Trump has spoken out about the mass protests, center, that have engulfed French President Emmanuel Macron’s country.(Reuters/Umit Bektas; Reuters/Abdul Saboor; Teresa Suarez/Reuters)

FRANCE’S MACRON BLAMES PROTESTS ON ‘ULTRA-LEFT GROUPS WHOSE AIM IS TO BRING DOWN THE REPUBLIC’

“Mass migration is inherently destabilizing. It is inherently destabilizing. It is something that we don’t believe solves problems, but actually creates problems. And this is something the president has raised time and time again. He’s raised it in reaction to these recent protests,” Pigott added.

“He’s also raised it directly to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. Two years in a row raising this issue, calling for an end to the destructive policies of illegal amassed migration. Illegal amassed migration that, by the way, only helps criminal cartel groups. That’s something we see in our own hemisphere, for example,” Pigott continued. “The fact that cartel groups have traveled along these migration pathways. So the president is spot on, he’s bringing attention to this issue, he is taking action to address this issue and, from the State Department’s perspective, we have also taken concrete action to end the era of mass migration.”

FRANCE’S RIOT CHAOS FUELS FARAGE’S WARNING THAT MASS IMMIGRATION FAILURES COULD HAUNT ANOTHER COUNTRY NEXT

Protesters run past a looted store during a demonstration in Paris on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026.(Thibault Camus/AP)

The Louvre and other major museums in Paris will be closed on Saturday as more protests are scheduled in the French capital, according to the AP. Reuters also reported that businesses in central Paris have started boarding up their windows over concerns of violence.

French officials said more than 3,000 shops were looted, and some 2,500 people were taken into police custody in connection to last weekend’s nationwide protests.

“One of things that we really stress to Americans is that when they’re traveling abroad, if they could please register for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). That program lets you tell us which countries you’re going to so that we can provide real-time information to Americans in the country that have registered,” Pigott told Fox News Digital.

A fire burns as police officers in riot gear stand guard during civil unrest in Paris, France, the day after a national day of demonstrations against the cost of living and rising fuel prices on Oct. 18, 2026.(Reuters)

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“Speaking generally, when it comes to Americans that need assistance, we have personnel across the world at the State Department, at embassies and consulates that are working 24/7 to help the American people. If you have an issue when you’re abroad, please contact the embassy or consulate,” he added. “There are people that are there to help you that can provide information. Everything from a lost passport to responses to a security situation, that is something that is hugely important and a huge factor for the State Department.”

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

Federal judge kicked off ‘botch job’ anti-DEI case after stunning appeals court rebuke

October 23, 2026 2:00pm EDT / Fox News

Judge Jerry Smith wrote the district court ‘ignored and manipulated governing law’ to satisfy a ‘policy agenda’

By Elaine Mallon Fox News

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A federal judge was removed from a challenge to Mississippi’s anti-DEI law after the Fifth Circuit blasted his handling of the case as a “botch job,” pointing to orders riddled with factual errors, an apparent AI-hallucinated case citation and faulty applications of Supreme Court precedent.

In an opinion penned by Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, the appeals court vacated Reagan-appointed Judge Henry Wingate’s preliminary injunction blocking the law and ordered the case reassigned to a different judge — an “extraordinary” and “rarely invoked” move.

“This district judge carelessly exercised his Article III power by issuing sloppy edicts based on falsehoods and fabrications,” Smith wrote, adding that “the district court—or perhaps, being charitable, its AI agent—ignored and manipulated governing law, apparently to satisfy a policy agenda.”

The controversy surrounding Wingate’s handling of the case began with serious errors in a temporary restraining order he issued in July after a group of teachers, parents and students sued, arguing that a Mississippi state law restricting DEI-related practices in public schools and universities violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES STRIPPING TAX-EXEMPT STATUS FROM SCHOOLS USING RACE-BASED PROGRAMS

University of Louisville students holding a rally to protect diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on their campus in March 2024.(Clare Grant/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Wingate replaced the order just two days later after Mississippi officials flagged major factual errors, including 11 individuals and organizations identified as plaintiffs who were never a part of the case, two officials incorrectly named as defendants and unsupported claims that three schools had already canceled DEI programs because of the law.

The original TRO also cited purported declarations from four people who did not appear anywhere in the record and “may not even exist,” according to the Fifth Circuit. It also attributed language to the bill that does not appear in the law, including references to “race or sex stereotyping,” “race or sex scapegoating,” “critical race theory” and “institutional bias.”

“We are grateful—and, indeed, lucky—that the defendants provided a copy of the original TRO as an exhibit in their July 28 motion, ECF 58-1, given that Judge Wingate kept it from public view,” Smith wrote.

Humans are using laptops and computers to interact with AI, helping them create, code, train AI, or analyze big data with fast, cutting-edge technology.(Getty Images/Wanan Yossingkum)

Even the corrected TRO contained errors, including a citation to a nonexistent case that the Fifth Circuit called “an apparent AI hallucination.” Wingate cited the purported case while discussing the relationship between temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, leading Smith to conclude that the fabricated citation was “arguably part of the shoddy reasoning of the preliminary injunction, too.”

Wingate later acknowledged that a law clerk had used artificial intelligence to assist in drafting the TRO, following accusations of AI use surfacing publicly. Wingate said the errors were “clerical” and did not affect the court’s “core legal reasoning or the ultimate judgment on the merits.”

The Fifth Circuit pushed back on that explanation, questioning “how so many mistaken facts could not at least marginally ‘affect’ ‘core legal reasoning’ or support for the judgment on the merits.”

The Fifth Circuit found major flaws in Wingate’s legal reasoning, accusing the judge of misinterpreting Supreme Court rulings on free speech challenges, exceeding the limits of court injunctions and mishandling legal protections for government and public-employee speech.

The panel zeroed in on the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Moody v. NetChoice, which sets a two-step test for courts considering First Amendment challenges seeking to strike down a law entirely.

DOJ MOVES TO BOOT FEDERAL JUDGES FROM IMMIGRATION CASES OVER NYT INTERVIEW

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue third-country deportations while the justices consider a legal challenge to the policy.(Getty Images)

Under the Moody analysis, a court can strike down an entire law on First Amendment grounds only if its unconstitutional applications substantially outweigh its constitutional ones. The appeals court took issue with Wingate describing the Moody framework as “supposedly” required.

“That Judge Wingate twice refers to the Moody framework as ‘supposedly’ required calls into question whether he even tried in good faith to follow the law,” Smith wrote.

“The district court’s laxity in observing the binding authority of the Supreme Court is yet another reason to doom the preliminary injunction,” Smith continued.

The appeals court also faulted Wingate for his reasoning in granting preliminary relief, pointing to his ruling that the court “should pause when faced with an unsettled area with such dire possible consequences.”

“That gets the entire law of injunctive relief completely backwards,” Smith wrote.

“A preliminary injunction cannot stand just because there is a possibility of success on the merits,” Smith continued.

The appeals court also accused Wingate of misreading the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Trump v. CASA, which limits judges from issuing orders that go beyond what is needed to protect the people who filed the lawsuit.

Wingate cited CASA in concluding that injunctions like the one before him “should be all-or-nothing renditions.”

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“That is almost exactly the opposite of what CASA says,” Smith wrote. “The quoted portion was the Supreme Court’s cautioning against overbroad relief and urging judges to tailor relief to what is absolutely necessary and nothing more.”

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The Fifth Circuit sent the case back to the Southern District of Mississippi, where a new judge will consider it.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.

Reporter’s Notebook: Congress braces for post-election game of musical chairs as leadership battles loom

October 23, 2026 12:57pm EDT / Fox News

From Mike Johnson to Hakeem Jeffries to John Thune, every top leadership post could be up for grabs after the election

Chad Pergram

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Capitol Hill is about to embark on a biennial game of musical chairs.

Everyone needs to find a seat when the music stops. Those who don’t are out.

There are four sets of leadership elections pending in Congress over the next few weeks. House Republicans and Democrats will pick their top leaders. The same with Senate Republicans and Democrats. The entire House must elect a speaker when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. The full Senate chooses the majority leader. That’s decided individually by the majority party in the Senate.

We anticipate a scramble for leadership positions in the days following the election, depending on which party captures the majority of each body for the new Congress.

JORDAN EMERGES AS POTENTIAL NEXT GOP LEADER IF DEMS SEIZE HOUSE

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., attend a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 2026.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Let’s start with House Republicans.

If Republicans maintain control of the House, the GOP will likely maintain its current leadership team of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. However, if the GOP loses control of the House, recriminations — and an epic game of vicious political musical chairs likely commences.

The reason? In the minority, a party only has two top leadership positions compared to three in the majority. Will Johnson slide to minority leader? Does he want that slot? Does President Donald Trump want him in that position? Or someone else?

Regardless, whoever Trump wants as the top House Republican is the one who gets that slot in the new Congress.

Would Scalise become minority leader? Would he slide to minority whip? Where does Emmer fit in here? Could Emmer become the top House GOPer?

Then there is Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

It’s clear that Jordan wants to become the top Republican in the House. He’s campaigned for Republican candidates and members for months and has raised money on the GOP’s behalf for years. It’s unclear if Jordan might be in a race against Johnson or any of the others soon.

Keep in mind that Scalise, Emmer and Jordan all lost bids to become speaker when the House dismissed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in the fall of 2023. In fact, Jordan lost multiple floor votes for speaker before the House Republican Conference nixed him as the GOP nominee.

In the interim, Jordan has worked to build bridges among Republicans who opposed him three years ago. The Ohio Republican also remains a close ally of Trump. Jordan also maintains strong ties to the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

JEFFRIES WELCOMES DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS INTO THE FOLD AS CRITICS WARN PARTY IS REVEALING ‘EXACTLY WHO IT IS’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks at a press conference with Senate Republican leaders following a policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2026.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The question is what rank-and-file Republicans want to do if they find themselves in the minority? Some might prefer a wholesale set of changes among the GOP leadership team. But it will come down to musical chairs. And somebody — if not several somebodies — probably lack a seat when the music stops.

For the Democrats, their situation is easier. Let’s say Democrats do win control of the House. Yes, the Democratic Socialists of America and some possible members have reservations about promoting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to become speaker of the House. But it’s hard to see that Democrats wouldn’t tap him as the first Black speaker in American history. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., would matriculate to majority leader. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., would likely become majority whip.

However, if Democrats don’t win the House, would their top leaders remain in place? Unclear. Democrats have established high expectations. So one can envision a scenario where rank-and-file Democrats are so exercised about a midterm loss that they call for some new leaders if Democrats fail to flip the House in such a toxic political environment for Republicans.

Then, there’s the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., does not wield the same political currency with Trump as Johnson. The president has started to make demands of the Senate schedule or what he wants passed. The South Dakota Republican has resisted many of those entreaties. But what happens if Republicans lose control of the Senate?

Many Senate Republicans are apoplectic at how the president treated Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who formerly served as Senate GOP whip. They will rage if the president calls for the dismissal of Thune — in the minority but especially the majority. So far, Trump has kept things in check and not expressed direct displeasure with Thune personally. But one wonders how long that would continue. Especially considering what the president said about former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. – who ushered three Supreme Court nominees to confirmation under dramatic circumstances.

THUNE MAKES BOLD PREDICTION ABOUT REPUBLICANS’ SENATE CHANCES AS GOP PULLS MILLIONS FROM KEY RACES

President Donald Trump waves as he leaves the stage following a campaign rally at Freeman Coliseum on Oct. 7, 2026, in San Antonio, Texas.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Who could step into a possible Senate GOP leadership void?

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., is the obvious choice. Barrasso appears closer to the president than Thune — and remains airtight when given the opportunity to criticize Trump. That could work in Barrasso’s favor if there’s an opening.

But leadership elections are always about opportunities. And sometimes those figures with certain bona fides have too much baggage from being on the job for a while. Here are the names to watch if there’s a push for changes inside the GOP leadership ranks: Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., John Kennedy, R-La., and Rick Scott, R-Fla.

A former Senate aide, Britt has a solid “inside game” and works well with the administration. Kennedy’s folksy manner makes him a darling of TV appearances. He also spent lots of time on the road campaigning for Senate Republican candidates. Scott ran for majority leader two years ago and lost to Thune and Cornyn in the first round.

Then there are Senate Democrats.

Some have lobbed gobs of criticism at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. His age. His style of politics seems archaic to some. But it’s hard to argue with success. Schumer likely becomes majority leader if Democrats flip the Senate. But things could change if Democrats fail to gain control of the body. Political observers don’t think Democrats have as good a chance at flipping the Senate as the House. So it’s not a done deal that Democrats will want new leadership if Democrats fail to gain control.

The one “known” is the pending candidacy of Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, to succeed retiring Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. However, one could envision a scenario where Schatz becomes the top Senate Democrat if Schumer departs. Like Britt, Schatz is an intense internal operator and understands the subtleties of the Democratic Caucus.

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Others who may have an interest in a leadership post — if they don’t run for president — include Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Booker has credibility for his record-breaking 25-hour speech last year. Murphy appeals to the party as a telegenic spokesperson — and spoke on the floor for nearly 15 hours on gun violence in 2015. Slotkin is a moderate Democrat in a purple state who likes to tangle with the Trump administration — despite picking some of her spots to address the press corps. She’s said that the “old” Senate leadership models are no longer working. Warren commands the support of progressives. And Van Hollen already has the backing of Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

This is a lot to sort out. And it all hinges on the election outcomes. Leadership elections usually take place in mid to late November. It’s possible there could be a delay in leadership elections if it takes a while to sort out which party controls which body of Congress.

But the music is already playing. And everyone is jockeying for a seat because the music is about to stop.

Chad Pergram currently serves as Chief Congressional Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.

‘Can’t trust Amy Acton’: Viral ad distracts from what’s really at stake in critical race, GOP strategist says

October 23, 2026 2:30pm EDT / Fox News

Political strategist Mehek Cooke argues Amy Acton’s record as health director during COVID-19 lockdowns should be the focus

By Andrew Mark Miller

Fox News Digital spoke to attorney Mehek Cooke about Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial gubernatorial ad and why she believes Amy Acton’s record disqualifies her from leading.

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An ad earlier this week from Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy sparked outrage from both sides of the aisle, but a political strategist in the state says that the record of his opponent, former health director Amy Acton, is what ultimately makes the difference in the race.

The ad features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her daughter of lying about her childhood and questioning her fitness to serve as governor. Acton responded by saying she and her brother were removed from their mother’s custody after her stepfather was accused of sexually abusing her, and Ramaswamy was quickly blasted by Democrats and some Republicans over the ad, which he has defended and spent millions to run over the next couple of weeks.

The controversy over the ad went viral on social media and was even commented on by President Donald Trump, who strongly defended Ramaswamy. Ohio attorney and political strategist Mehek Cooke told Fox News Digital that Acton’s record is what should be under the microscope, not the ad.

“I think that we have to really shift from Vivek’s recent ad into the most important question for Ohioans is, who do you want governing the state of Ohio? We clearly can’t trust Amy Acton, and she has a record of that,” Cooke told Fox News Digital.

RAMASWAMY TORCHES DEM RIVAL OVER ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ COVID-19 CLAIM: ‘SPEWING LIES’

Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, left, and Democratic candidate Amy Acton, right.(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images ; Stephen Zenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Acton’s record involves controversies both professionally and personally, many of which have been focused on by ads in the state of Ohio.

Acton served as health director under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine during the first months of COVID-19, when Ohio closed schools, shuttered bars and restaurants, restricted businesses and imposed a statewide stay-at-home order.

She also signed orders restricting nursing-home visitors, closing senior centers and adult daycare facilities, limiting mass gatherings and closing gyms and personal-service businesses before leaving the position amid pushback for the negative impact the lockdowns had.

‘GENERATION COVID’ EXPLORES THE LASTING TOLL OF PANDEMIC-ERA SCHOOL CLOSURES

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton speaks at a primary election night campaign event after winning the party’s nomination for governor in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday, May 5, 2026.(Jay LaPrete/AP Photo)

“She worked as a health director for Mike DeWine and left after masking our children, shutting down our state, and yes, Mike DeWine’s name is on those orders, but at the end of the day, it was Amy Acton’s signature,” Cooke said. “And she’s the one who pushed for locking down our kids. I don’t ever want to hire somebody who quits on the state during a pandemic. I can’t imagine if she had another meltdown, whether it was managing our state budget or anything else. So people don’t trust Amy.”

Acton’s handling of nursing homes has also drawn criticism in pro-Ramaswamy advertisements on the airwaves. Ohio imposed a broad visitor ban at nursing homes and similar facilities in March 2020, separating residents from family members during the early months of the pandemic.

The Ohio Department of Health was later sued over its refusal to release facility-level COVID-19 death data. An Ohio appeals court ruled that the department violated the state’s public-records law by refusing to provide information about nursing-home deaths.

‘COVID 2.0’: LAWMAKERS PUSH BACK ON SWEEPING HEALTH ‘POLICE POWER’ IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE

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The ruling involved the health department as an agency and did not establish that Acton personally ordered the records to be withheld. However, critics have continued to argue that the controversy raises questions about transparency during her tenure.

Acton’s closure orders also became the subject of litigation from Ohio gyms. In the Rock House Fitness case, a court described the state’s actions as “arbitrary, unreasonable, and oppressive,” though subsequent legal proceedings and changes to the state’s orders complicated the dispute.

More recently, five current and former state-government workers told the Washington Examiner that Acton was sometimes absent from pandemic strategy meetings and emotionally volatile while leading the state’s response. One source alleged that she was found curled up on the floor before an emergency meeting, while another said she was seen crying in a bathroom.

A separate 2019 police report has also become a campaign issue. Bexley police responded to Acton’s home after a reported domestic dispute involving her husband. According to reporting based on the police report, Acton’s daughter told police that Acton had been drinking, throwing things and breaking glass. The report also said Acton pulled a mirror from a wall, shattering it.

No one was injured and no charges were filed. Acton’s campaign described the episode as a normal marital argument and disputed claims that it demonstrated alcohol abuse. Acton has called broader accusations that she is an alcoholic or drug addict “lies” and “a complete fabrication.”

Cooke explained that supporting law enforcement will be a critical attribute the next governor needs and that Acton has shown she is weak in that area, pointing to an Acton comment that appeared to compare ICE agents to the KKK and tying Acton to the “defund the police” ideology popular with socialist candidates across the country.

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Amy Acton, former director of the Ohio Department of Health and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, meets with local residents while campaigning at Bottoms Up Coffee in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, April 6, 2026.(Stephen Zenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“There are people coming out there wearing masks, with all the gear on,” Acton said earlier this year during a City Club of Cleveland forum. “We don’t even know who they are. They’re just showing up. Does this not feel like the Ku Klux Klan to anyone?”

While Ramaswamy has faced blowback for using Acton’s mother in an ad, the race had already gotten personal and tied to family, with Acton’s side running ads invoking Ramaswamy’s mother.

“They have run an attack ad on Vivek Ramaswamy’s mother and the failure of an Alzheimer’s drug, they started attacking family first and I think politics is brutal,” Cooke said. “This is a contact sport in terms of anything in your closet. It all goes, but the difference is Vivek actually comes and addresses questions. He talks to people. He explains whether it was his businesses or anything else that he has conducted for the betterment of our economy and Ohioans. Amy continues to hide.”

With 11 days until voters decide who will be the next governor of Ohio, Acton has not yet agreed to debate Ramaswamy, which Cooke says is because she can’t articulate the complicated issues.

“They’re trying this Joe Biden strategy of hide in the basement, play the victim card, and it’s not going to work,” Cooke said.

“Amy will never get on a stage because the truth is she doesn’t know what she stands for, she’s going to have policies written for her by Democratic socialists that are running her party today, and right now, the plan is, let’s hide.”

Cooke recounted a recent visit to a doctor, who politically identifies as an Independent, where Ramaswamy’s ad came up and described a response that suggests the ad is not as damaging to Ramaswamy as being portrayed in the media.

“He said, ‘I don’t care about what’s in the ad,’” Cooke explained. “‘I care about her integrity. And the problem is, what does she stand for? I know what Vivek stands for. I have no idea what she stands for.’”

Fox News polling, conducted before the ad fallout, shows a tight race with likely voters favoring Acton over Ramaswamy by 50% to 48%.

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter from Pasadena, California, who has been with Fox News Digital since 2021. You can reach him at AndrewMark.Miller@fox.com.

Jeffrey Epstein has been everywhere this campaign season. But voters wonder how much he should matter

2026-10-23T16:00:15.788Z / CNN

Ashville, Ohio—

Standing in front of red and green tractors on an unseasonably warm October afternoon, Sherrod Brown made his pitch for returning to the Senate: Inflation, diesel prices and the cost of healthcare were out of control, the former Ohio senator said, while his Republican opponent, Sen. Jon Husted, was a “special interest guy in Washington.” One name never came up: Jeffrey Epstein.

Brown’s in-person message as early voting was getting underway in Ohio was a far cry from some of the ads that had earlier this year flooded this battleground state, where the Senate race could help decide control of Congress. Epstein, a convicted sex offender whose name has become political shorthand for dark suspicions about the wealthy and powerful, has been used by candidates this election cycle to cast their opponents as morally compromised.

Yet in the final stretch of the midterms, the candidates are calibrating how much they lean into the issue as they court voters in cities, suburban towns and rural areas across the state.

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“My first priority is how to bring prices down,” Brown told CNN when asked how high the Epstein issue would rank for the former senator if he were to return to Washington. “That means ending this war; that means ending these tariffs.”

He spoke to CNN at a “Farmers for Brown” event in Ashville, south of Columbus, shortly after meeting with a group of Epstein survivors who were in town. Brown declined to share details about the private gathering.

Brown’s campaign has run ads accusing Husted of receiving money from billionaire donor and Ohio native Les Wexner, who was identified in government documents as one of Epstein’s co-conspirators. Husted, in turn, has accused Brown of accepting money from Epstein “associates” — though the list of donors includes those with tenuous connections to Epstein or whose connection predates Epstein’s mid-2000s arrest.

How the Epstein issue might affect the midterms was anyone’s guess, Brown said, before once again emphasizing that the economy is the single concern he is hearing about most from his former constituents: “Everywhere, people are talking about prices.”

Ahead of Husted’s meeting with a group of doorknockers on the same day in October, CNN asked the senator whether he believes Wexner had enabled Epstein — an allegation that some Epstein survivors have made.

Without addressing Wexner’s potential complicity, Husted told CNN that he donated any campaign contributions he received “from anyone that was in those files” to charity and that he was also working on legislation to stop human trafficking.

“I’ve always been supportive of releasing the Epstein files. What’s out there is because of what I made to make it happen,” he said when asked whether Congress should push the Justice Department to release the rest of the Epstein files.

Epstein was Wexner’s longtime money manager. Wexner has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing and in a voluntary interview earlier this year with the House Oversight Committee, he denied any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.

A recent CNN analysis found that candidates and outside groups have aired more than 160 unique Epstein-related ads in the 2026 midterms, backed by more than $35 million in airtime. Epstein has been invoked overwhelmingly by Democrats — and occasionally by Republicans — to attack opponents or promote themselves.

In Ohio, more than $6 million has been spent on Epstein ads, in races up and down the ballot.

In the closely watched House race for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, the longtime incumbent Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who won in 2024 by just more than 2,300 votes, has issued ads this cycle saying she is not working for “the Epstein class.” She also hosted a roundtable in Toledo with Epstein survivors last weekend.

“There’s a little bit more Epstein juice in the air in Ohio than there might be in an average state” in no small part because Wexner is a household name there, said David Niven, an associate professor of American politics at the University of Cincinnati.

The Wexner donations mentioned in the Brown attack ads “fit exactly the story that Sherrod Brown wants to tell about Jon Husted: that he’s on their side,” Niven added. “He means billionaires, and he means Epstein, and he means the electric company … the data center folks.”

On the first day of early voting in Ohio this month, many of the people CNN spoke with outside of a polling station in blue-leaning Franklin County said they were sympathetic to Epstein survivors and believed the Epstein issue represented so much of what is wrong with Washington.

Still, most of them said, the Epstein files were not their top electoral concern.

“The war, the economy, the corruption that’s going on within the government. Everything,” Columbus resident Ann Yurick, a 77-year-old independent who leans Democratic, said when asked to describe what is driving her vote.

Democrat Nancy Snyder said she’s planning on voting straight down the ballot for a few reasons: “Food, gas, housing, medical care, that’s it.” She said about Epstein: “You don’t hear a lot about it, but they’re also just screwing us and taking all the money they can.”

Another Democratic voter, retired air traffic controller Robert Ende, said he was not concerned about Wexner’s donations to Husted as he pointed out that the billionaire is also a generous donor to good causes throughout the state, including the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. The hospital has a research wing dedicated to Abigail Wexner, Wexner’s wife.

The Epstein survivors who met with Brown earlier this month were in Ohio to help promote the “Epstein Reading Room,” a traveling installation of printed copies of the files released by the DOJ.

Funded by a non-profit, the exhibit has been going from one swing state to the next, trying to encourage people to vote for more accountability and transparency. Officially named “The Donald J Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room,” it features a large photo of Epstein and Trump together, as well as “Trump Collection” books that contain files in which Trump’s name appears.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein.

Many of the survivors had lived privately prior to a press conference on Capitol Hill in September 2025 that called on the DOJ to release the Epstein files. One year later, some have transformed into full-time public advocates, pressing for accountability around a political controversy that has consumed Washington.

If Democrats were to take control of Congress after the midterms, the Epstein issue could become more inflamed still, as some Democrats have already vowed to explore Trump’s connections to Epstein and investigate what they see as important leads contained in the Epstein files.

Sharlene Rochard, an Epstein survivor who has been traveling with the Reading Room as it has made stops in states from Texas to Pennsylvania, told CNN that she believes they are, in fact, having an impact on voters.

“There’s 17,000 pounds of books in here. It’s unbelievable to realize that this is a crime and that’s evidence of a crime in those books and people are really receptive. I think we’re changing hearts and minds along the way,” Rochard said, standing in the middle of rows of bookshelves containing over three million pages of documents.

For Wendy Pesante, another Epstein survivor who now lives in Ohio, the installation hit close to home.

Pesante was around 15 when she first met Epstein in West Palm Beach — a meeting that she describes as the beginning of a dark downward spiral into abuse and exploitation. She wiped away tears as she stared at the year that she was abused on a large timeline of Epstein’s crimes.

“I should’ve been found back then. There’s so many girls that still should’ve been found from then,” Pesante said.

She is ultimately glad that the exhibition is there andsaid: “People should know.”

Pesante said that until last year — when she shared her story of abuse — she had paid little attention to politics and barely understood the distinction between a Republican and Democrat. Now, with a critical midterm election ongoing, she says she is getting ready to vote for the first time.

She plans to support Democrats.

Asked whether that is because of the Epstein issue, Pesante replied: “It’s 100% because of that.”

Brazil’s rapid election count puts spotlight on voting security ahead of US midterms

Published October 23, 2026 3:49pm EDT / Fox News

About 125 million Brazilians voted on machines that never connect to the internet and are audited publicly for months

By Solly Boussidan Fox News

Footage from a polling station in Rio de Janeiro showed electoral officials retrieving the voting results reports and disconnecting the machines after the first round of voting on Oct. 4, 2026. (Reuters)

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SAO PAULO, Brazil— About 125 million Brazilians voted Oct. 4 on machines that print no paper ballots. Less than four hours after polls closed, the country knew its presidential election was headed to a runoff between conservative challenger Flavio Bolsonaro and leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

That process has been in place for over three decades, and Brazilians have become accustomed to its speed, simplicity, accuracy and routine. The system is robustly audited, completely disconnected from the Internet, and is the largest digital voting system deployed on the planet.

Eleven days before the U.S. midterms, Brazil’s system, analysts say, could offer Americans a more secure way to vote.

The system has been widely praised and was also mentioned in President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order on elections, where he cited Brazil’s biometric voter identification as an example. Yet Brazil’s count runs partially on the kind of paperless machines that the president has vowed to scrap.

STATE DEPARTMENT CONSIDERS SHARING PASSPORT RECORDS FOR VOTER CITIZENSHIP CHECKS

Election workers prepare and seal electronic voting machines ahead of the upcoming general elections in Brasilia, Brazil, on Sept. 23, 2026.(Mateus Bonomi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

One citizen, one vote: digitally checked

Over the years, Brazil merged federal, state and municipal databases into a digital voting record, whereby voter identity, eligibility and single ability to vote can (and usually must) be verified biometrically. Nearly 9 in 10 voters unlock the machines with a fingerprint.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, or TSE, which designs the machines and oversees elections, says there has been no proven fraud since their 1996 debut. The 499,248 machines used on Oct. 4 never connected to the internet. Their software was open to inspection by parties, universities and watchdogs for 11 months before being digitally signed and sealed in public. Last December, the Brazilian government invited a record 149 outsiders to try to break the system; evaluators concluded nothing they found could alter results or reveal how anyone voted.

An electronic voting machine at a Regional Electoral Court (TRE) facility in Brasilia, Brazil, on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026.(Ton Molina/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On election day, randomly drawn machines are fed paper ballots on camera as federal auditors and foreign observers watch and specifically track results.

Meanwhile, at closing, every machine used at every polling station prints its tally, which is then posted in front of the polling place with a QR code, so anyone can check it against the national count. In an email to Fox News Digital, TSE said each file’s digital signature “confirms that the result was produced by the electronic voting machine registered for that polling station.”

Karina Stange Calandrin, a political scientist and professor at Instituto Brasileiro de Mercado de Capitais (IBMEC), says the system combines three traits rarely found together: voting is electronic, votes hashed to voter eligibility are stored locally in the machine and tallying is automated.

“It is an extremely secure and safe system. The machines never connect to the Internet and even the central database system used to transmit tallied votes to TSE must match results issued physically and locally by each individual machine without human interference,” she said. Corrupting it, she added, would require breaking the seal of each machine and installing software that wouldn’t match the TSE’s version, automatically disqualifying its tally — a scale of collusion so large that it “simply could not pass undetected.”

COLOMBIA’S ‘EL TIGRE’ SECURES PRESIDENCY AS LEFTIST RIVAL FINALLY CONCEDES DEFEAT

Brazil’s right-wing senator and presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) gestures next to federal deputy and candidate for governor of Rio de Janeiro, Douglas Ruas (L) during a campaign rally on the eve of the general election, in Campo Grande neighborhood, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 3, 2026. Brazilians go to the polls on Oct. 4, 2026.(Douglas SHINEIDR / AFP via Getty Images)

The machines passed their toughest political test in 2022, when former President Jair Bolsonaro, now serving a 27-year sentence for plotting to overturn his 2022 defeat, spent years attacking their credibility without evidence. Bolsonaro is presently serving time under house arrest.

This year, for the first time, a Bolsonaro appointee ran the TSE: Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, finished first with 47% to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 45%. The machines at the center of the senior Bolsonaro’s controversy may yet hand victory to his son.

Florencia Ferrer, CEO of e-stategiapublica, which has audited elections in 17 countries, has no doubt the Brazilian system is the most modern and secure in the world. “In India votes are electronic, but each voter gets a printed version of their vote to take home, which weakens voter safety and augments coercion rates,” she says, adding that Estonia’s internet voting and the Philippines’ electronically tallied paper ballots carry their own risks.

An engineer from the University of São Paulo’s Polytechnic School who audited the machines in 2014, and declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of his work, agreed. “While no system is completely infallible… we have found no traces of tampering, wrong-doing or malicious intent,” he told Fox News Digital.

Still, some defend higher scrutiny. Security researchers say a clean record is not proof enough, and the Carter Center said voters should at least see a printed version of their ballot deposited into a separate area of the machine; otherwise, results integrity rests on software alone. Germany’s top court ruled in 2009 that voters must be able to check their ballot without expert help, effectively barring a Brazilian-like system.

Brazil’s machine has traveled mostly on loan to countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Paraguay adopted it permanently in 2006, with machines that now print each individual vote.

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Brazil’s President and presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (C) waves next to Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin (L) and to his candidate for São Paulo’s governor, Fernando Haddad during a campaign rally on the eve of the general election, in São Paulo, Brazil on October 3, 2026. Brazilians go to the polls on Oct. 4, 2026,(Luis Robayo/AFP Via Getty Images)

“It’s obvious Washington and the remainder of the U.S. are way behind both technology as well as security when it comes to polling on voting day,” Ferrer said. U.S. elections are run in thousands of local jurisdictions under 50 sets of state rules and about 30% of 2024 ballots came by mail, which is slower to process. Brazil has one national election authority, compulsory voting and no mail-in ballots.

Brazilians will vote this coming Sunday on Oct. 25. The winner is expected to be known and certified in under five hours.

“The question is not whether Brazil has invented a perfect voting machine. No voting system is perfect. It is whether democracies can combine the speed and consistency of digital tabulation with independent verification, public scrutiny and rules that citizens across the political spectrum have reason to trust,” Ferrer said.

Solly Boussidan is an international journalist covering Latin America for Fox News Digital. He has previously covered international affairs, war, finance and travel for several U.S. and international outlets. He is currently based in Brazil.

Trump DOJ sues to block Alaska US Senate results if Republican incumbent loses | CNN Politics

2026-10-23T19:50:08.159Z / CNN

Trump DOJ sues to block Alaska US Senate results if Republican incumbent loses

By Blake McGill, CNN

Published 3:50 PM EDT, Fri October 23, 2026

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The Trump administration has preemptively filed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska’s US Senate election if the Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan loses in the critical contest which could decide the balance of power in the Senate. CNN Correspondent Gabe Cohen reports.

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Why Trump’s dubious election lawsuits in Alaska and California should raise eyebrows

2026-10-23T19:25:28.138Z / CNN

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has gone to great lengths to bulldoze the ethical line between enforcing the law and serving as the legal wing of Trump’s political operation.

The latest episodes: A pair of extraordinary lawsuits in which the DOJ seeks to intervene in the vote-counting process in two states: Alaska and California.

Both lawsuits appear very unlikely to bear fruit; indeed, experts say they basically amount to legal Hail Marys.

But there’s a bigger takeaway. They signal a very notable willingness by Trump’s DOJ to engage in highly questionable behavior to try and put its thumb on the electoral scale for Trump and his fellow Republicans. And the president isn’t even trying to be subtle about his role here — asked about his take on the Alaska lawsuit Friday afternoon, he replied: “I’m the one that said do it.”

In that case, Trump’s DOJ is seeking to block the certification of that state’s Senate race if GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan loses by a small enough margin that it’s possible that another candidate with a similar name, Daniel J. Sullivan, won enough confused voters to cost the senator victory. Alaska is a critical state for Democrats’ hopes of flipping control of the Senate.

In California last week, Trump’s DOJ sought to block state officials from counting the ballots of around 20,000 people that the administration has claimed could be noncitizens.

There are major and readily apparent legal problems with both of these lawsuits.

The Alaska filing claims that certifying Democrat Mary Peltola as the winner without examining whether voter confusion cost Sen. Sullivan the race would violate Alaska’s duties under the National Voter Registration Act to “protect the integrity of the electoral process.”

But Notre Dame Law School Professor Derek Muller wrote on the Election Law Blog on Friday that the law doesn’t actually place any such “duties” on a state.

Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, told CNN: “I would give the complaint in this case a failing grade if it were written by one of my students. It’s an embarrassment to the Department of Justice and is extremely unlikely to succeed.”

The California lawsuit is seen as a similar longshot. The administration argues it can challenge how California has handled purported noncitizen voting because of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which states that federal law prevails when it conflicts with state law. But Muller and Hasen noted there is no federal law regarding how states should verify citizenship.

Beyond that, there are other eyebrow-raising problems.

In Alaska, it is very unlikely that Daniel J. Sullivan would ever actually matter due to the state’s ranked-choice voting, meaning anybody who is confused could rank both Dan Sullivans, and their vote will in all likelihood be counted for the senator. Also, the senator, unlike Daniel J. Sullivan, is listed on the ballot as an “incumbent” and a Republican.

It’s also not at all clear how an investigation would ever ascertain how many votes Sen. Sullivan lost due to voter confusion.

This issue has already been litigated extensively in court, and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that the Daniel J. Sullivan was qualified for the ballot.

So this looks like an effort to inject doubt if Peltola wins, as much as anything.

And then there’s Trump outright saying he directed his DOJ to file the lawsuit, which carries obvious implications for him politically. That’s not surprising at this point — he’s clearly played a role in getting DOJ to prosecute his political foes, for example — but it’s still highly problematic.

(And no, we never saw anything like it with Joe Biden’s DOJ.)

As for the California lawsuit, Attorney General Todd Blanche objected Thursday when asked whether the government was inflicting chaos on the election with its late move.

“It continues to baffle me why anybody … if presented with evidence that there are tens of thousands, 20,000 ineligible voters that are receiving ballots — that there isn’t some motivation, anything to do something about that,” Blanche said.

The problem is that the administration has been crying wolf about noncitizen voting for a very long time. It has regularly claimed numbers that utterly fell apart under scrutiny.

It claimed there were as many as 16,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls in Nevada, for example. It later sharply pared that number back to 185. But when Nevada probed the cases, it found all 185 were citizens.

A federal judge this week cited that flawed data while halting portions of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation of purported noncitizen voting in a series of states, including California.

The judge cited how the efforts could ultimately mostly amount to “interference or intimidation.”

And that’s really the point here. It’s one thing to file lawsuits that target legitimate issues; it’s another to file longshot efforts for political purposes or even just to apply pressure.

The 2020 election showed that lawsuits don’t need to succeed to have an impact. Trump’s many wild and false claims of mass voter fraud whipped his supporters into a frenzy, with many hundreds of them later attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, when legal avenues failed.

Even absent threats of a violent uprising, these kinds of legal efforts could deliver a pretext for other extraordinary action related to the election — which Trump has repeatedly left on the table.

What happens if the courts won’t step up to (supposedly) prevent Democrats from cheating to win the Alaska Senate race? What happens if they won’t assist the federal government’s efforts to prevent (supposed) illegal votes in California?

Think about the things a president could justify.

Blanche was asked Thursday whether the Justice Department would ever get involved in the certification process or try to block states from certifying their elections. He declined to rule it out but suggested it would only be in a “doomsday scenario.”

Shortly thereafter, we found out the DOJ is indeed moving to block a state from certifying its election — at least conditionally — because Trump told it to.

Polls suggest young men are turning away from Trump and Republicans | CNN Politics

2026-10-23T19:08:18.923Z / CNN

Polls suggest young men are turning away from Trump and Republicans

By Blake McGill, CNN

Published 3:08 PM EDT, Fri October 23, 2026

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Young men, a group that helped propel Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024, appear to be souring on him and the Republican Party. CNN Senior Reporter Steve Contorno reports.

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Thune weighs nightmare scenario for GOP as Democrats threaten to flip House

The Senate majority leader dismissed the prospect of divided government while campaigning for GOP candidates in Nebraska

By Alex Miller, Elizabeth Elkind Fox News
Published October 23, 2026 1:01pm EDT

Election forecasters see Democrats taking the House, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital he is confident Republicans will hold the chamber, and he won’t have to work with potential Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

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FREMONT, Neb. — If Democrats are able to gain control of the House of Representatives, one relationship between the top two lawmakers on both sides of Congress could define the remainder of President Donald Trump’s time in office.

If that’s the outcome on Election Night, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would have to work with the Democratic leader who rises in the House, and that is expected to be House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who has led Democrats in the lower chamber since 2023.

But Thune, in an interview with Fox News Digital on the campaign trail in Nebraska, remained confident that wouldn’t be the outcome.

THUNE MAKES BOLD PREDICTION ABOUT REPUBLICANS’ SENATE CHANCES AS GOP PULLS MILLIONS FROM KEY RACES

If the House flips and the Senate doesn’t, the relationship between Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., could define the remainder of President Donald Trump’s time in office.(Alex Miller/Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Well, I mean, I think obviously that’s an entirely different dynamic,” Thune said. “You’ve got a situation with divided government and that creates a different incentive structure in terms of if you want to be able to get things done, but I don’t assume for a minute that’s going to happen.”

“I still think that when push comes to shove and people look at the choices in front of them that we have a really good shot at hanging on both the House and the Senate,” he continued.

Election forecasters predict that the Senate could stay in Republican control, though seven total races are considered toss-ups by the Cook Political Report. Republicans’ chances of holding onto power in the House, however, are murkier, given that dozens of battleground seats are in play that have shifted favorably toward Democrats.

The GOP has had a grip on the lower chamber since 2022, when it flipped the House during former President Joe Biden’s presidency. But a deeply unpopular Trump, whose approval ratings have dipped to historic lows, and continued economic pressures could contribute to Democrats regaining power.

JOHNSON DOWNPLAYS GOP’S MIDTERM WOES AS DEMOCRATS EYE HOUSE TAKEOVER: ‘I AM VERY BULLISH’

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Jeffries’ office did not respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital asking whether he could work with Thune if both won their respective leadership spots.

There has been no love lost between the two men during this congressional term so far, with each sharply criticizing the other during key legislative fights.

Thune blasted Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., earlier this year as talks began to break down over funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The top Republican accused both of being “afraid of their shadows,” and being controlled by their left flank.

That prompted Jeffries to retort to reporters that it was Thune who was “scared of his own shadow” during the partisan standoff. During the 2025 government shutdown, Jeffries accused Thune of “trying to bluff his way into an agreement” on federal spending.

Congress is no stranger to a divided government, either. From 2023 to early 2025, Republicans controlled the House and Democrats held a razor-thin majority in the Senate.

SCHUMER WARNS OF REPUBLICAN ADVANTAGE THAT COULD CHANGE THE BATTLE FOR SENATE CONTROL

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during Capitol news conference.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., spoke during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

During that time, according to data collected by the Pew Research Center, the split Congress produced 106 laws. This version of Congress has so far produced 121 laws, with some major legislative action happening, like the “big, beautiful bill” and a major housing affordability package, passing between historically long government shutdowns.

Thune is laser-focused on keeping the GOP’s control of the Senate, which was under Democratic control until 2024, when Trump and Republicans clinched a trifecta in Washington, D.C.

He’s crisscrossed the country for the last several weeks of the homestretch heading into the election on Nov. 3, boosting candidates in competitive races that could determine the balance of power in the Senate.

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Republican control of the upper chamber, he contended, would be vital to continuing key chunks of Trump’s agenda, including confirming his judicial and other executive branch nominations.

“So if you want to see the country succeed and move forward, we’ve got to have a majority in the U.S. Senate to work with this president,” Thune said. “Hopefully with a majority in the House as well, but I am very committed to doing whatever I can in the next couple of weeks getting around the country on behalf of our candidates to ensure that we have that majority in the Senate.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.