Politics
Biden likely to keep same routine, accomplish 'nothing' in waning months of presidency: insiders
President Biden’s tenure in the White House expires in January, and political insiders from both sides of the aisle believe the remaining six months of his lame-duck presidency will consist largely of the same routine and “absolutely nothing.”
Biden suspended his 2024 re-election campaign on Sunday, noting in a statement that he believed it “is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
Biden’s announcement, which included his “full support and endorsement” for Vice President Harris to take over as the party’s presidential nominee, led many Americans and political pundits to question what that fulfillment of duties will look like and whether the president will see through any meaningful policies or changes during his remaining months in office.
Former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in the House from 2013 to 2021, said she sees little change coming Americans’ way in the next six months, insisting Biden “hasn’t been the one making decisions” on key issues all along.
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President Biden suspended his 2024 re-election campaign on Sunday, saying he would “focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.” (AP Photo/Evan Vucci/File)
“Clearly, President Biden hasn’t been the one making decisions on our country’s domestic and foreign policy for the last three and a half years,” she said. “The same unelected people running the country with Biden as their figurehead will continue to do so for as long as he is in office and with Kamala Harris, if she’s elected.”
“The people who’ve been actually running the country are the unelected power elite from the administrative state, national security state and military industrial complex working hand-in-glove with the propaganda media acting as their agents,” she added. “Their goal is to remain in power at any and all costs, and [they] have already shown they are willing to do whatever it takes to defeat and destroy [former President] Donald Trump, as he is the greatest threat to their power.”
Biden’s unprecedented announcement came as an increasing number of Democrat lawmakers publicly called for him to step aside, with the party’s leadership reportedly engaged in efforts to convince the 81-year-old president he could not win the November general election against Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee who he defeated four years ago to win the White House.
“Clearly, President Biden hasn’t been the one making decisions on our country’s domestic and foreign policy for the last three and a half years,” former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News Digital. (Getty Images)
Julian Epstein, an attorney and former chief counsel to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital he believes there is “almost nothing” Biden will be able to accomplish in the months and days before the inauguration.
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“There is almost nothing that Biden can achieve in the next six months, other than treading water and maintaining the status quo,” he said. “If the White House were smart, it would double down on its support for Israel and make clear that the Democrats understand moral clarity on fighting what is in effect the Ku Klux Klan on the banks of the Mediterranean.”
American Majority CEO and founder Ned Ryun echoed Epstein’s assessment, saying he believes there’s “absolutely nothing” Biden will be able to accomplish in the shadows of Harris’ presidential campaign.
“First, there’s no way anyone on either side of the aisle would want to push the envelope as they have their own re-elections to worry about,” Ryan said. “[Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer would never let anything overtly problematic come to the floor in the Senate because it’s a terrible map already; he doesn’t need to make it even harder for them to try and hold majority.”
“So Biden will achieve precisely nothing, except via executive orders, as he’s beyond a lame-duck president and shouldn’t even still be in office,” he added.
President Biden and Vice President Harris (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
During his tenure in the White House, Biden has signed 140 executive orders, 196 presidential memoranda, 634 proclamations and 133 notices.
After his announcement, Biden’s schedule was largely cleared of campaign events and speeches.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Biden intends to complete his term in office and “run through the finish line” in January.
“We don’t see ourselves as a lame-duck president at all in this period of time,” she told reporters from the briefing room. “This is a president that has been incredibly successful, and he’s going to do everything that he can to continue to fight for the American people.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Politics
Warren tells Trump to ‘sign the damn bill’ as bipartisan housing package remains stalled in Washington
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., lashed out at President Donald Trump during a recent local television interview, labeling him a “man-child” throwing a “tantrum” over his refusal to sign a sweeping bipartisan housing package.
Appearing on WCVB’s “On the Record,” the left-wing senator did not hold back her frustration over the stalled legislation, delivering a blunt message to the president: “Sign the damn bill.”
“If he cared about the American people, he’d have already signed the damn thing,” Warren said during the interview, arguing that Trump “does not care about the economic survival of America’s working families.”
FILE – The Senate previously advanced the massive housing package geared toward lowering the costs of homes and supercharging the housing supply. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pitched it as legislation to prevent America from becoming a “nation of renters.” (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Borrowers ; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is an expansive bipartisan package that she said contains nearly 50 provisions designed to address the nationwide housing emergency.
Warren noted that decades of under-building have driven prices up, leaving the U.S. in need of millions of new units.
The primary focus of the bill is to lower the costs of construction and make it easier to build new homes.
FILE – President Donald Trump previously said lawmakers must first approve the SAVE America Act before he moves forward with the housing package. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg)
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The bill, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., also includes a secondary focus aimed at blocking corporate consolidation of the housing market.
Warren explained that the legislation is designed to keep private equity firms from buying up local neighborhoods and turning America “into a nation of renters.”
According to Warren, the legislation had widespread support from both sides of the aisle before it was stalled.
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She claimed the bill was “handed to the president on a silver platter” and that lawmakers from both parties were eagerly taking credit for the legislation.
“Republicans were all going online, saying, ‘well, I helped write that bill. This bill is terrific,’” Warren said. “So everybody’s out there saying, ‘my bill, I helped make this happen,’ right up until the man-child has a tantrum and announces he will not be signing it.”
FILE – Sen. Elizabeth Warren called President Donald Trump a “man-child” during the interview, describing his refusal to sign the bill as a “tantrum.” (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Critics of the legislation claim it does not allocate fresh federal funding, directly address rising costs of homeownership, or go far enough to address permitting issues.
The president previously canceled a scheduled signing event, insisting lawmakers must first approve the unrelated SAVE America Act, a voting-focused measure, before he moves forward.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.
Politics
MS NOW anchor Alex Witt to exit as network reduces live weekend programming
Veteran MS NOW anchor Alex Witt is leaving the news network, which is moving away from live evening programming on weekends.
The new weekend programming strategy announced Friday is a cost-saving measure that will give parent company Versant more resources for a new direct-to-consumer streaming offering that makes MS NOW available to consumers without a pay-TV subscription. The company is also looking to expand its live event business.
According to a memo from MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler, “The Weekend: Primetime,” a live discussion program launched last year, will have its final airing Saturday.
One of the program’s co-hosts, Antonia Hylton, will take over Witt’s midday shifts later this year. Hylton’s co-hosts Ayman Mohyeldin, Catherine Rampell and Elise Jordan will remain with MS NOW and continue to appear on other programs.
Kutler said job losses from the moves are minimal and encouraged staffers who lose their current roles to apply for 40 current job openings at the company with more on the way. MS NOW has been staffing up its news operation since separating from NBC News last year.
MS NOW changed its name from MSNBC in November. The network, along with other Comcast-owned cable channels, were spun off into Versant in January.
Weekends have long been a ratings weak spot for MS NOW, which while a distant second to Fox News, has seen audience growth in 2026 and remains ahead of CNN. The network has started to rely on podcasts such as “Pod Save America,” from Crooked Media, to fill some hours. The episodes have performed strongly enough for MS NOW to try similar deals with outside podcast producers.
“Throughout the summer, we will expand our taped strategy and announce new content partnerships,” Kutler said in her memo.
With the changes, MS NOW will still have 20 hours of live programming each weekend and will be staffed to handle breaking news.
Witt joined the network formerly known as MSNBC in 1999, long before it began its strong tilt toward progressive political commentary. Over the years, Witt’s weekend newscast became one of the few programs on the network that delivered straight news without opinion.
Kutler called Witt “a beloved longtime member of our MS NOW family” and “a continued, trusted, and steady presence for our audiences.”
While Witt works through the summer, Hylton will anchor the 11 a.m. weekday time period, which will eventually be handled by former NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander.
Politics
McCarthy says Trump will use ‘everything he can’ to force Senate action on SAVE America Act
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As infighting over the SAVE America Act throws congressional Republicans into disarray, President Donald Trump’s bid to get the stalled election bill across the finish line gained one notable ally.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital that he supports the election integrity measure and indicated that Trump should continue to use every available tool to pressure the Senate to pass it.
“He’s going to try everything he can to make sure he passes that through,” McCarthy said in a brief interview outside the U.S. Capitol.
The ex-speaker’s comments came after Trump abruptly called off a signing ceremony Wednesday for a bipartisan housing bill to pressure the Republican-controlled Senate to act on the SAVE America Act.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs Reading Regional Airport in Reading, Pa., on June 23, 2026. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
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The move surprised Republican lawmakers, some of whom were praising the bill’s passage at a press conference when Trump’s Truth Social post broke.
But Trump has repeatedly cast the election measure — requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and voter identification requirements — as his top legislative priority.
The legislation’s momentum, however, has slowed in the upper chamber, where Republican leadership insists the votes aren’t there amid widespread Democratic opposition. Senate Republicans have also been unwilling to eliminate the legislative filibuster, which requires a 60-vote threshold to pass the legislation.
Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks during a ceremony honoring President Ronald Reagan on the 115th anniversary of his birthday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Feb. 6, 2026. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group)
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Amid the SAVE standoff, a group of conservative lawmakers effectively shut down the House floor in an effort to force Senate action on the election bill.
But the Senate recessed Wednesday for two weeks over the July 4 holiday, leaving the measure in limbo until lawmakers return.
The conservative-led blockade sparked fierce backlash, with several members inside the GOP conference telling Fox News Digital the move risked torpedoing their own legislative agenda.
Meanwhile, the House has also yet to pass a version of the legislation incorporating several of the president’s priorities, including a mail-in voting crackdown and provisions banning men from competing in women’s sports and child sex change procedures.
Trump has not indicated whether he will sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, despite the likely existence of a veto-proof majority.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Thursday that the housing bill had been transmitted to the White House for Trump’s signature following a meeting with the president.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol on June 10, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Trump now has 10 days to sign the package or veto it. If he does nothing, the legislation automatically becomes law at the end of the 10-day period.
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