Former Biden official Neera Tanden, who testified before Congress Tuesday as part of an investigation into his mental acuity, has a long history as a Democratic operative and fell short of being appointed to Biden’s Cabinet due to her past controversial social media posts.

‘I had no experience in the White House that would provide any reason to question his command as president,’ Tanden told the House Oversight Committee in her opening statement Tuesday behind closed doors. ‘He was in charge.’

She added that her ‘cooperation’ with the House committee’s investigation ‘should not be taken to mean’ that she believes it is a ‘worthy subject of oversight’ before pivoting to the Trump administration and making multiple allegations.

Tanden was initially nominated by Biden to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before the nomination was withdrawn over a lack of congressional support for her and after criticism over some of her past posts on Twitter, now known as X. 

Leaders from both sides of the political spectrum called out Tanden for personal attacks and statements she has made on social media.

Those statements included calling Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ‘the worst’ and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a ‘fraud,’ saying that ‘vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz’ and referring to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as ‘Moscow Mitch’ and ‘Voldemort,’ referring to the Harry Potter villain.

Tanden deleted more than 1,000 of her past tweets ahead of her confirmation hearing. 

Additionally, committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said at the time he was worried about the millions of dollars the Center for American Progress (CAP) has received from large corporations and special interest groups. Tanden returned to CAP in February to take over her previous role as the left-wing think tank’s president and CEO.

‘Tanden, Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), disclosed earning $731,528 from the Center for American Progress (CAP) for the last two years, along with thousands in investments and speaking fees, according to the documents,’ Fox News Digital previously reported. ‘That amounts to about $365,000 a year.’

Tanden previously described CAP’s mission as becoming the ‘central hub of the Trump resistance.’

A longtime Democratic operative, Tanden worked on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s two presidential campaigns. Under former President Obama, she also helped draft the Affordable Care Act legislation as an advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Tanden also repeatedly pushed the Russia collusion narrative about Donald Trump and repeatedly hyped the discredited Steele dossier as credible evidence. At one point, Tanden referred to Steele on social media as ‘the next James Bond.’

After her nomination was withdrawn, the president vowed to find a place for Tanden in his administration, one without the requirement of Senate approval, which ended up being senior advisor to the president and later White House staff secretary. 

Tanden met with the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors Tuesday as it probes whether those closest to Biden in his White House knowingly colluded to hide the former president’s declining mental acuity and used methods to circumvent the former president when it came to the issuance of important orders.

A House Oversight Committee aide told Fox News ‘Neera Tanden told investigators during her transcribed interview today that from 2021 to 2023 she was authorized to direct autopen signatures. It was a system inherited from previous administrations. She also said Biden was in charge,’ according to an X post from Fox News’ Chad Pergram.

President Donald Trump also ordered the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the matter. The president directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House counsel David Warrington to handle the investigation.

In response to the Trump administration’s call for an investigation, Biden declared he was the only one who ‘made the decisions’ during his presidency and called Trump’s efforts a ‘distraction.’

Fox News Digital’s David Montanaro, Elizabeth Elkind, and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., plans to move full steam ahead with his war powers resolution, despite a fragile ceasefire reached Tuesday between Israel and Iran.

The fresh ceasefire deal between the warring countries faced early hiccups, with President Donald Trump accusing both sides of breaking the truce, but it has so far held, despite widespread skepticism over its longevity on Capitol Hill.

And Kaine argued that the halt in fighting actually gave his resolution more credence.

‘I think the ceasefire actually gives us the ability to have the conversation without the pressure of like, ‘Oh, you know, [Trump’s] got to do a bombing run tomorrow night,’’ he said.

‘The combination of the ceasefire and the Israelis saying that the nuclear program has been sent back at least two or three years opens up — you can really have the deliberate discussion that this merits,’ Kaine continued.

Kaine’s war powers resolution is designed to both put a check on Trump’s power and reaffirm Congress’ constitutional authority to declare war. However, whether a strike like the one over the weekend constituted an act of war that required congressional approval was a hot topic of debate among lawmakers last week.

The Constitution divides war powers between Congress and the White House, giving lawmakers the sole power to declare war, while the president acts as the commander-in-chief directing the military.

A similar bipartisan resolution cropped up in the House, too, but one of its co-sponsors, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital that he is ready to stand down if the ceasefire lasts.

‘If the ceasefire becomes a truce and holds, we won’t press for the vote,’ he said. ‘We need to hear from Iran and Israel, and also whether our own president is satisfied that the predicate for his first attack, nuclear weapons, no longer exists.’

Kaine’s bill could hit the floor by Friday in the Senate, but whether it survives is another question.

‘Bring it up. Let’s vote it down,’ Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital.

The resolution does have the backing of Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who told Fox News Digital that before the strikes there were up to eight Republicans that supported it.

‘I support Tim,’ Durbin said. ‘His approach to this is entirely consistent with the Constitution, and I wish the Senate would stand up as a body for its own rights and authority under the Constitution.’

The House’s conservative fiscal hawks are warning that President Donald Trump’s ‘one big, beautiful bill’ could run into serious problems after the Senate made key changes to the legislation.

‘There’s real problems with it,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. ‘We’re on board with the president… but we’re concerned about the changes.’

He and other members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus are particularly incensed by the Senate’s decision to defer the expiration of certain green energy tax credits from the former Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — which those conservatives have dubbed ‘the Green New Scam.’

They’re also wary of additional dollars being spent on raising the debt limit, which Trump has directed GOP lawmakers to do before the U.S. runs out of cash to pay its obligations sometime this summer. 

The Senate’s version of the bill increases the U.S. debt limit by $5 trillion, whereas the earlier House version hiked it by $4 trillion.

Congressional Republicans are working to pass Trump’s agenda on tax, immigration, defense, and energy in one massive bill via the budget reconciliation process.

By lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, reconciliation allows the party in power to pass sweeping legislation while sidelining the minority – in this case, Democrats – provided the measures included fall within a strict set of budgetary rules.

The House passed its own version of the bill late last month by just one vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pleaded with his Senate counterparts to change as little as possible, citing his razor-thin majority.

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is also grappling with a small majority of Republicans – and his chamber’s product has made several key updates to please the GOP conference there.

‘The changes that we’re hearing about are not good. And Mike Johnson told the Senate, ‘Don’t send us back a revised bill, a significantly revised bill, because we passed it with a one-vote margin in the House,’’ Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. 

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital he would vote against the bill if the Senate’s product was returned in its current form – though he did not discuss the parliamentarian’s further changes.

Harris voted ‘present’ on the bill when it passed the House in May, telling reporters he had some lingering concerns but would not vote ‘no,’ in order to keep Trump’s agenda moving.

‘The currently proposed Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill weakens key House priorities – it doesn’t do enough to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid, it backtracks on the Green New Scam elimination included in the House bill, and it greatly increases the deficit – taking us even further from a balanced budget,’ Harris said in a statement.

‘If the Senate tries to jam the House with this version, I won’t vote ‘present.’ I’ll vote NO.’

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., similarly said in a statement that he would oppose the bill if it came back to the House in its current form. The Missouri Republican voted to advance the bill in May.

Freshman House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., who also voted for the House version of the bill, said in a public statement, ‘In the many moving pieces and rumors of how the Senate’s One Big Beautiful Bill is shaping up, I get more concerned each day!’

And Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the Freedom Caucus policy chair, wrote on X, ‘Rumor is Senate plans to jam the House with its weaker, unacceptable OBBB before 7/4.  This is not a surprise, but it would be a mistake…I would not vote for it as is.’

Republican leaders have set a goal of getting a bill to Trump’s desk by Fourth of July. 

The president ordered congressional Republicans to remain in Washington until the legislation is passed in a lengthy Truth Social post on Tuesday.

‘To my friends in the Senate, lock yourself in a room if you must, don’t go home, and GET THE DEAL DONE THIS WEEK,’ Trump wrote. ‘Work with the House so they can pick it up, and pass it, IMMEDIATELY. NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE.’

While right-wing conservatives rail against the bill, other moderate Republican factions within the House GOP have demanded changes to the Senate’s revisions to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and Medicaid, specifically tweaks to the provider tax rate, among others.

Compounding issues for House Republicans are a slew of cost-saving provisions that have been ruled out by the Senate Parliamentarian during a process called the ‘Byrd bath,’ which tests whether an item in the bill comports with reconciliation rules that stipulate policy has to deal directly with budgetary and spending effects. 

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., scoffed at the House GOP’s threats. 

‘‘We’ll do better than what you did,’ is what I would tell them,’ he said. 

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital that a bill of the magnitude that Republicans were trying to pass would be hard to build a complete consensus around. He noted in particular complications around tax negotiations, as Republicans work to extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

‘Follow your heart. Take your brain with you,’ Kennedy said. ‘Don’t impose the largest tax increase in history on the American people. Look, it’s undeniable that everybody’s not going to be completely happy. I’m not completely happy with where we are, and we’re not there yet. We’re making progress.’ 

When asked his thoughts on conservatives bashing the bill, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said, ‘Everybody’s got to thump their chest a little bit, gotta stake their ground.’ 

‘But at the end of the day, if [Roy] votes against making the Trump tax cuts permanent, and against economic growth and against significant and serious reforms to IRA credits, reforms to Medicaid, I just don’t know how he lives with his own sort of conscience and votes ‘no,’’ he said.

But it’s not clear if Senate Republicans are unified on the bill themselves. Thune acknowledged there could be defections when he puts the bill on the floor. He can only afford to lose three votes. 

‘We’ve got a lot of very independent-thinking senators who have reasons and things that they’d like to have in this bill that would make it stronger,’ he said. 

Speaker Johnson downplayed the differences between the two chambers in his regular press conference on Tuesday.

‘I don’t think we can say it’s a vastly different product and prejudge it yet. We’re still awaiting the final details. We’ve given space for the Senate to work their separate chamber,’ Johnson said. ‘I’ve been emphasizing from the very beginning this is a one-team approach. The House and Senate Republicans working together in tandem with the White House. There’s no daylight between any of us and the ultimate goal and objective.’

The FBI has initiated criminal investigations of three children’s hospitals after commitments from Attorney General Pam Bondi that the Trump administration would enforce federal statutes outlawing female genital mutilation to protect children from often irreversible sex-change surgeries.

The investigations target providers who work at Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, according to a source familiar with the investigation who spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity. These hospitals have been among some of the foremost providers of sex change procedures for minors in America over the last several years, according to the source.

Just days after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to work toward terminating the ability for children under 18 to receive ‘irreversible medical interventions’ as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Part of that effort included Attorney General Bondi issuing a memorandum several weeks later, directing Justice Department personnel to enforce 18 U.S.C. § 116, which is a federal statute that makes female genital mutilation against the law. 

‘I am putting medical practitioners, hospitals and clinics on notice: In the United States, it is a felony to perform, attempt to perform or conspire to perform female genital mutilation (‘FGM’) on any person under the age of 18,’ Bondi’s memo said. ‘That crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count. I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to investigate all suspected cases of FGM — under the banner of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ or otherwise — and to prosecute all FGM offenses to the fullest extent possible.’

Bondi also said in the memo that the Justice Department would be launching a new Coalition Against Child Mutilation, which will partner with state attorneys general to build cases against hospitals and practitioners violating federal or state laws banning female genital mutilation. The memo added that the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs is drafting legislation establishing a private right of action for children and parents of children ‘whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals through chemical and surgical mutilation’ so they can hold hospitals and providers retroactively liable.

Amid the Trump administration’s focus on banning irreversible transgender medical treatments for minors, numerous hospitals have amended their policies for who can obtain gender transition treatments and surgeries.

Earlier this month, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced it would permanently close its Center for Transyouth Health and Development, effective July 22, 2025. The decision was attributed to ‘significant operational, legal and financial risks stemming from the shifting policy landscape at both the state and federal levels,’ according to CBS News.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles did not respond to Fox News Digital’s repeated requests for comment. 

Children’s Hospital Colorado initially suspended its transgender medical treatments for patients under 19 in response to the president’s executive order directing hospitals to halt irreversible transgender treatments for minors. But after a judge’s ruling blocking Trump’s order, the hospital announced it would resume providing puberty blockers and hormone-based treatments to minors.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Children’s Hospital Colorado noted that it has ‘never’ provided transgender surgeries for those under 18, adding that, two years ago, the hospital stopped providing these surgeries for patients over 18. Instead, starting in 2023, the hospital decided to begin referring patients to outside providers for such services, according to Colorado Newsline. 

Boston Children’s Hospital continues to operate its Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS) program, according to publicly available information. While the hospital only provides gender-change surgeries for patients over 18, its GeMS program does offer transgender hormone therapy, puberty blockers and social transitioning for patients under 18. It also provides referrals for gender-transition surgeries to minors as well.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Boston Children’s said it had not yet received any notice from the FBI regarding alleged violations of federal law. The FBI said that, as a matter of policy, it ‘declines to confirm or comment on investigations.’

It’s a measure of President Trump’s success in bombing Iran’s key nuclear sites that even some of his harshest detractors are praising the risky endeavor.

The calculated deception – ‘I may do it, I may not do it’ – and dispatching of a decoy fleet of B-2 bombers were crucial to achieving the mission. 

Yes, the situation may look very different in six months, depending in part on the response of Russia and other allies of Iran, the world’s largest terror state. Just yesterday, Tehran launched ballistic missiles at the U.S. military base in Qatar, with no reported casualties. 

Still, Trump should avoid landing on any aircraft carriers with a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner, a reminder of how George W. Bush’s premature celebration turned into the Iraq quagmire that cost more than 4,000 American lives.

Yes, a sizable chunk of the MAGA coalition was opposed to U.S. intervention after the original Israeli airstrikes on grounds that Trump had always vowed to keep this country out of faraway wars. Some of them are falling into line, as there’s a rally-round-the-president effect after military action – especially when it’s successful. 

Sure, Trump followed up by posting about the possibility of ‘regime change’ – this after JD Vance told ‘Meet the Press:’ ‘We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.’

Maybe the Truth Social message was simply designed to boost pressure on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who could have been taken out – or maybe Trump is tempted by the W-era mentality of ‘we will be greeted as liberators.’ 

No one is quibbling with the deceptions, any more than Dwight Eisenhower was criticized for deploying dummy tanks and vehicles on D-Day to convince the Nazis that the 1944 attack would come at a different location rather than Normandy.

Bret Stephens, an anti-Trump conservative columnist at the New York Times, called the bombings ‘a courageous and correct decision that deserves respect, no matter how one feels about this president and the rest of his policies…Trump could have continued to outsource the dirty work of hitting Iran’s nuclear capabilities to Israel, hoping that it could at least buy the West some diplomatic leverage and breathing room.’

David Ignatius, not a fan of the president’s foreign policy, wrote in his Washington Post column that ‘Trump and his top advisers acted boldly to hit the prize targets in Iran’s nuclear program — at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz — that remained after nine days of Israeli bombing. The operation was bigger and more comprehensive than even some Israelis had expected, and it showed that the U.S. military, even during the chaotic Trump presidency, still performs with unmatched power, precision and reach.’

But these are among the relatively few exceptions. By and large, liberals and Democrats denounced the president’s action, and conservatives and Republicans hailed it. 

And you know the reaction would have been reversed if Joe Biden was in office and had ordered the airstrikes. 

There’s a legitimate question about whether Trump should have sought approval from the Hill, but this Congress has largely ceded its role on foreign affairs (and on tariffs, for that matter). Besides, a floor debate would have been like sending up neon lights about the coming attack.

Sometimes a commander-in-chief has to attack unilaterally. When Barack Obama and Bill Clinton ordered military strikes without consulting Congress, almost nobody made a big issue of it.

The Times reports that Iran warned Qatar of the retaliatory attack, which was an obvious attempt to minimize casualties and render the half-dozen missiles largely symbolic (though not to the military personnel having to seek shelter). That amounted to a muted initial response by the Iranians, since any American deaths would clearly trigger a further escalation by the Trump military.

The United States is the only country with bunker-busting bombs, which enabled it to damage or destroy the underground uranium enrichment site buried under the Fordow site. The truth is that our experts don’t know how much damage was done far below the surface and may not for weeks.

But given that the U.S. completely controls Iranian airspace, thanks to the earlier Israeli strikes, Trump could order devastating new attacks at any time with virtually no fear of our planes being shot down. And the Iranians are acutely aware of that.

It was deception and misdirection that enabled the Pentagon to pull this off. When Trump said he would decide what to do in the next ‘two weeks’ – a stance echoed by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt – he had already approved the military plan, subject to last-minute reservations. The attack began 30 hours later.  

When Trump dined with Steve Bannon, the most prominent opponent of the U.S. attacks, along with Tucker Carlson, some surmised he was changing his mind. The same was true when he went to a fundraising dinner at his Bedminster, N.J. golf club, and nothing seemed imminent.

When Fox’s Brian Kilmeade asked Leavitt yesterday about her boss’s regime change posting, she did not minimize it:

‘If the Iranian regime refuses to come to a peaceful diplomatic solution, which the president is still interested and engaging in, by the way, why shouldn’t the Iranian people take away the power of this incredibly violent regime that has been suppressing them for decades?’

Multiple media reports say Trump was angry with his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, for testifying in March that the intelligence community believes that Iran is nowhere near building a nuclear weapon, and a video she made after visiting Hiroshima. She has tried to walk it back, but there is little question she has been partially sidelined.

The Washington Post yesterday reported having obtained the audio file of an Israeli intelligence operative’s June 13 call to a senior Iranian commander:

‘I can advise you now, you have 12 hours to escape with your wife and child. Otherwise, you’re on our list right now,’ the translation said. The operative suggested Israel could target the general and his family at any moment: ‘We’re closer to you than your own neck vein.’

There is no independent verification that the call was actually made.

I don’t use this word lightly, but Iran is an evil country. Anyone of a certain age recalls how the Iranians, in 1979 after the ouster of the Shah, held our embassy staffers hostage for 444 agonizing days.

The ruling theocracy also finances the terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas. In fact, if it had not been for Hamas’ spectacular miscalculation in mounting the barbaric massacre in Israel on Oct. 7 – which again included the seizing of civilian hostages – Gaza would not now be the wasteland it has become. Israel bears some responsibility for this, yet also knows that it would be the prime target if Iran succeeds in enriching weapons-grade uranium.

Finally, even if things go south, what happened on Sunday has in my view changed the way people look at Donald Trump. He rolled the dice in a high-stakes gamble. He’s not just a garden-variety isolationist. He doesn’t have to run again, but he managed to keep everything secret and pulled it off with the aid of our superb military. And that took guts.