Politics
A theme in GOP attack ads in California House races: Linking Democrats to pedophiles over support for LGBTQ group
A not-so-subtle theme has emerged in recent Republican attack ads in battleground California congressional races: linking Democrats to pedophiles.
Take, for instance, the 30-second spot from the National Republican Congressional Committee attacking Democrat George Whitesides, the former NASA chief of staff who is challenging GOP Rep. Mike Garcia in the Antelope Valley in one of the nation’s most hotly contested races.
Melancholy piano music plays over images of an upturned bicycle and a set of empty playground swings. The camera cuts to a computer tablet displaying a messaging app.
“I’m literally the next block over. Come chill!” writes a user nicknamed SKTRDUDE293.
“ON MY WAY!!!” responds a girl, who looks about 12, with the user name SWIFFTIEE661.
The tablet is propped up in a cozy-looking bedroom next to a lava lamp, a mascara tube and a framed portrait of the girl and her dog. The camera lingers on the girl’s face before showing her photograph taped to a wall next to pictures of other kids in a dark, dingy-looking room where a laptop — apparently belonging to a child predator — has the same chat open.
“George Whitesides funded a group opposing pedophiles registering as sex offenders,” text on the ad says, referencing Equality California, one of the state’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organizations.
Another ad targeting state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine), who is running to fill the seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of Orange County, says that, because of legislation Min supported, “sex predators, including the creeps that victimize children, roam free.” The ad says Min is “endorsed by a group that helps sex offenders” — another reference to Equality California.
Sponsors of the advertisements say the focus on child sex crimes, while uncomfortable, accurately portray Democrats — and those who endorse them — as soft on crime. But critics say the ads are both inaccurate and offensive, based on homophobic and transphobic misconceptions about LGBTQ+ people preying upon children.
“This is the same playbook that right-wing extremists and their allies have used for decades, perpetuating the harmless and baseless stereotype that LGBTQ+ folks are inherently pedophiles,” said Tony Hoang, the executive director of Equality California.
An unprecedented amount of money — with some projections as high as $17 billion — is being spent on political advertising nationwide in this election cycle, said Steve Caplan, an adjunct instructor of public relations and advertising at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
“Crime and immigration typically are issues that have been used on the Republican side to affect elections, particularly in highly competitive districts,” he said.
The ads — which Caplan called an “attempt to shock voters” — indicate that Republicans see these House races as must-win contests, he said, because “media costs in Southern California are hugely expensive.”
California is home to 10 competitive House races that will shape which party controls Congress, making the state a consequential battleground this year.
Whitesides is a first-time candidate with no voting record to scrutinize. So, Republicans have zeroed in on his hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to progressive candidates and causes, including Equality California. The group advocates for legislation advancing LGBTQ+ rights and works to elect candidates who support its mission.
Equality California, along with the L.A. County district attorney’s office, co-sponsored the controversial 2020 California Senate Bill 145, which was intended to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in sex crimes involving a minor and a young adult.
The law, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, allows judges to decide whether an adult convicted of having anal or oral sex with a minor should register as a sex offender in cases in which the minor is 14 or older and the adult is not more than 10 years older than the teenager.
Before SB 145, an adult convicted under those circumstances was automatically added to the state’s sex offender registry, while an adult convicted of vaginal sex with a minor was not.
Proponents said SB 145 would address the disparity in state law that was a remnant of California’s old anti-sodomy laws, many since repealed, and that it would give judges more discretion to determine appropriate punishment when two people close in age — a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old, for example — are in a sexual relationship.
“SB 145 makes sure that everyone is treated equally under the law, nothing more or nothing less,” Hoang said.
The bill faced strong pushback from Republicans in the state Legislature, with some opponents using it to falsely claim that California was legalizing pedophilia. The recent attack ads have latched on to the controversy that roiled the state Capitol four years ago.
Republican Rep. Mike Garcia, left, is being challenged for reelection by Democrat George Whitesides, right, in California’s 27th Congressional District in the Antelope Valley
(AP)
Ben Petersen, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement that Whitesides “might not like voters hearing he bankrolled soft-on-crime groups, but the facts are clear as day. From zero cash bail to lower penalties for criminals including sex offenders, Whitesides’ money backed it all.”
Equality California endorsed a 2020 ballot measure that sought, unsuccessfully, to end the use of cash bail in California.
Whitesides’ campaign manager, Emma Harris, said in a statement that “as a father of two kids, 12 and 14, George puts the safety of his family before all else.”
“It comes as no surprise that Congressman Mike Garcia and his far-right friends are lying once again — because he knows he’s losing this race,” Harris said, adding that “unfortunately for the GOP, these baseless attacks on Democrats up and down the state won’t work, and voters will see right through these lies.”
Whitesides’ new ad emphasizes his support from parents and families, with one woman embracing two children and saying, “The lies they’re telling about George are disgusting.” The ad closes with Whitesides standing beside his daughter.
In a statement, Garcia noted that his campaign “has no control over third party commercials, but voters are now finding out the real George Whitesides.”
“He doesn’t have a long history in our district,” Garcia wrote, “so follow who he supports to know who he really is.” Among those Whitesides has supported, he added, are “radical groups that put our kids in danger.”
Whitesides’ support for Equality California also was highlighted in a new ad by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC that supports Republicans running for the House and has reserved $27 million for TV and digital ads in the L.A. area this fall.
The new anti-Whitesides TV spot features a woman who says: “I just learned today that he’s a major donor of a group that sponsored legislation to lower penalties for pedophiles.”
Courtney Parella, a spokeswoman for the super PAC, said in a statement that the ad is fair game.
“These California liberals may be upset they got caught funding extreme political groups and backing radical policies, but the fact remains — these measures weakened penalties for sex offenders, put minors at risk, and made it harder for law enforcement to do their jobs,” she said.
The Congressional Leadership Fund also paid for the anti-Min ad that blasts his endorsement by Equality California. Min is running a tight race in the 47th Congressional District against Republican Scott Baugh, a Huntington Beach attorney who served in the California Assembly from 1995 to 2000.
The ad criticizes Min for voting in favor of the controversial California Senate Bill 357, which rescinded misdemeanor laws against loitering in public for the purpose of engaging in prostitution. Advocates argued that it would stop law enforcement use of state loitering rules to disproportionately target Black, Latino and transgender Californians, while opponents said the bill would remove a crucial tool to stop sex trafficking, especially of children.
In the attack ad, a deep-voiced man, using a play on Min’s name, says: “Predators get minimal treatment. Abusive partners? They get the min. Child sex offenders? They get the min, too.”
Democratic state Sen. Dave Min, left, and Republican Scott Baugh, right, are running for California’s 47th Congressional District in Orange County
(Rich Pedroncelli / AP, Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Min said in a statement that he was endorsed by police officers and deputy sheriffs and is “proud of my strong record on public safety as a State Senator, including authoring more than a dozen bills to protect survivors of sexual assault and abuse.”
He said Republicans were “lying about my legislative record, which is one of the toughest on crime in the State Senate” and that the advertisement was “especially odious in that it uses my endorsement from Equality California … to propagate the bigoted and hateful myth that gay people are child predators and groomers.”
Jon Fleischman, a spokesman for Baugh’s campaign, declined to comment on the ad, noting that “we do not control outside group spending.”
In Riverside County, an attack ad against Democrat Will Rollins says he is “backed by radicals who gave billions in taxpayer-funded stimulus checks to convicted felons including terrorists and pedophiles.” It, too, includes images of an empty swing set.
Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Ken Calvert in another extremely competitive race.
The ad is a reference to Democrats in Congress who voted for pandemic-era relief bills that resulted in stimulus checks being sent to prisoners. (Republicans supported such bills, too, but later tried to stop payments to inmates against Democratic opposition.)
The “radicals” referenced in the ad are Congressional Democrats who endorsed Rollins, said a spokesperson for the Americans 4 Security PAC, which paid for the spot and is largely funded by the oil and gas industry.
Coby Eiss, Rollins’ campaign manager, accused “Republican super PACs in Washington” of lying about Rollins’ stance on criminal justice.
“As a federal prosecutor, Will had a 99% conviction rate and worked hand-in-hand with law enforcement on a daily basis,” Eiss said in a statement.
Politics
Trump-aligned House holdouts accused of holding ‘life-saving’ veterans bill ‘hostage’ over SAVE America Act
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A sweeping veterans package supporters describe as the largest expansion of veterans’ health care and benefits in more than a decade is expected to return to the House floor when lawmakers come back from the July recess, but backers warn the legislation could once again become collateral damage in the Republican standoff over the SAVE America Act.
The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act rolls roughly 60 veterans bills into a package that would dramatically expand veterans’ health care and benefits. At its core, the legislation would cement veterans’ access to community care outside the VA while increasing benefits for combat-wounded veterans, caregivers and Gold Star families, expanding mental health services and enacting dozens of additional reforms.
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., told Fox News Digital he intends to bring the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act back for a vote as soon as the House reconvenes next week.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – MARCH 17: Eugene Simpson, 29, from Dale City, Virginia goes through physical therapy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. with Michael Minor, a kinesiotherapist with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs on March 17, 2006 in Washington, D.C., USA. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images) (Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images)
HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DERAIL GOP AGENDA IN SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWDOWN
The legislation was held up last month after a group of House Republicans joined Democrats to defeat a procedural vote, stopping the House from taking up the bill.
“I’m feeling good as long as my members stay with us on the rule,” Bost said. “Right now, there’s some politics being played, not about this bill, but just in general.”
The bill became entangled in a broader House Republican fight over the SAVE America Act, legislation championed by President Donald Trump that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
On June 30, the House voted on H. Res. 1398, the procedural rule governing floor consideration of several bills, including the National Defense Authorization Act and the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. The rule failed after 14 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition, preventing the House from taking up the veterans package and bringing floor business to a standstill. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., claimed to have voted against the rules vote in protest against House leadership’s handling of the SAVE America Act. As a result, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent the members home early.
Bost accused the holdouts of effectively putting veterans legislation on hold.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs building is seen in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019. (Photo by Alastair Pike / AFP) (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Image)
‘IT’S A MESS’: GOP TURNS ON HOUSE CONSERVATIVES AS VOTER ID BLOCKADE STALLS TRUMP’S AGENDA
“They’re holding all bills hostage,” Bost said. “They’re not voting for any rule. Any bill that has to pass a rule before it comes to the floor—which this bill does because of its size—can’t move.”
Although Bost said he supports the SAVE America Act and has voted for it three times, he argued the Senate’s failure to act should not stop the House from advancing unrelated legislation.
“I agree with that bill,” Bost said. “But the Senate still has to do their work. We don’t stop our work because the Senate isn’t doing it.”
With 23 legislative days left in the Congressional session, Concerned Veterans for America Strategic Director John Byrnes, a supporter of the bill, said time is of the essence.
“There are lots and lots of things that have to get done,” Byrnes told Fox News Digital. “There’s also the National Defense Authorization Act, which is a must pass every year, so these things eat up time. There’s requirements to have debate on these, which eat up session time.”
Byrnes argued that every procedural delay pushes other legislation further down the calendar.
“This bill will save lives in 2027,” Byrnes said. “If we lose veterans because they could have had faster, better access to health care, we’re never going to get those veterans back.”
Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. ( )
TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE IN THE SENATE DESPITE REPUBLICAN REVOLT
But Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who also voted no on the procedural vote, told Fox News Digital that he has concerns about how the bill is financed.
“I appreciate what the chairman’s trying to do in some respects, but there’s a few issues,” Roy said.
Among them, Roy pointed to provisions offsetting new spending through changes affecting other veterans.
“You’re taxing certain veterans to provide some sort of benefits and changes to other veterans,” Roy said. “There are concerns about some of the pay-fors.”
Veterans of Foreign Wars has also taken issue with Section 108 of the bill, warning that it would codify changes to future disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea to help finance other veterans priorities.
But Bost said this is inaccurate.
“No veteran is going to have their benefits reduced,” Bost said. “If you’re receiving a benefit right now, that’s not going to be reduced at all.”
Roy, who previously served two years on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he supported a lot of what the bill was seeking to accomplish; but said other pieces of legislation are priorities, too.
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“There is a block of us for whom border security, the SAVE Act and demonstrating our leadership on major issues is critical,” Roy said. “Some of these other bills may or may not get hung up based on a desire of many in the conference to see movement on other things.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Luna’s office and the White House for comment.
Politics
Assassinations unleashed under Trump haunt Iran war endgame
WASHINGTON — Shortly before President Trump ended a ceasefire with Iran this week, Israeli officials presented his team with intelligence indicating Tehran was hatching new plots to kill him.
It was not the first such warning. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have tracked evidence for years of Iranian efforts to target the president, with signals only increasing since the start of the war.
Their desire to target Trump and his top aides began six years ago, just outside Baghdad International Airport, when the president ordered a drone strike that killed Iran’s most powerful general. The assassination of Qassem Suleimani brought the two countries to the brink of war.
Yet even as full-scale war was averted, top Iranian officials vowed revenge for the strike, authorizing attempts on the lives not just of the president, but of his secretary of State and national security advisor, among others, even after they had left office.
Now, calls for revenge have reached a sharper pitch in Tehran, after a joint U.S.-Israeli operation killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the war in February.
At Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies this week, red flags of vengeance flew throughout the capital as protesters explicitly called on their government to “kill Trump.” His son, Mojtaba, the new supreme leader, was absent from the commemorations, fearing assassination himself.
Mourners hold an anti-President Trump banner at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque during mass funeral prayers for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family in Tehran on Sunday.
(Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The prospect of foreign assassination plots targeting U.S. leaders puts the United States in dangerous new territory, where its embrace of political killings could ultimately place its own officials at unprecedented risk. And experts fear the existential threat of assassination has pushed peace further out of reach: When both sides believe their survival is at stake, the trust required for diplomacy becomes far harder to achieve.
Israeli news organizations have reported that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, cited Iranian attempts to kill Trump in recent years as part of his case to go to war in the first place.
A U.S. official told The Times that a range of serious threats exist against the president, including from Iran, but that Israel’s intelligence pointed to a more specific plot. The official did not provide further details. Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said in recent months that the government sees vengeance against U.S. officials as “its legitimate duty and right,” and “will fulfill this great responsibility and duty with all its might.”
“The Suleimani killing accelerated a lifting of restraints on foreign assassinations — and the taboo on targeting and killing foreign leaders, with U.S. military assets, has been more or less lifted,” said Matt Dallek, a political professor at George Washington University.
“If the United States sets the example of how to conduct international relations, and it is using assassination of foreign leaders as a political weapon, it’s only logical that other countries will be more inclined to also engage in assassinations,” Dallek added. “It does seem likely that Trump will have a bigger target on his back.”
Returning from a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday, Trump was forced to switch back to an old model of Air Force One — equipped with specialized defensive technologies — from a new plane given as a gift by Qatar, after the Secret Service warned of potential threats to the aircraft from Iran.
“They want to take out the U.S. leader — me,” Trump told reporters aboard the plane. “I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long.”
The threat has remained on his mind in the days since. In an interview with the New York Post, Trump told the reporter, “I hope you’ll miss me,” adding that he has “been on their list for a long time.” And in a subsequent social media post Friday night, he warned of a catastrophic response he instructed the administration to pursue in the event Tehran succeeds.
“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote, “with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!”
The United States had a decades-old prohibition against assassinating foreign leaders before Trump’s presidency, codified in an executive order signed by President Ford in 1976 over concerns of a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro.
The policy was only strengthened further by subsequent administrations, fearing a new international standard for targeted killings could result in unintended consequences in the halls of Washington.
Other administrations have been accused of targeting foreign leaders before. Under the Obama administration, an international coalition targeting the Libyan regime of Moammar Kadafi during the country’s 2011 civil war struck his fleeing convoy, leading to his capture and killing by rebel fighters.
But experts say Trump’s explicit targeting of Suleimani and Khamenei — and his public celebration of their deaths — marks a new paradigm.
“Through words and actions, President Trump has done more to normalize political violence than any other U.S. president, certainly in modern times,” said Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of “Our Own Worst Enemies: America in the Age of Violent Populism.”
“On the international front alone, the president routinely brags about killing Iranian leaders and seizing the leader of Venezuela, among others,” he added, “to the point that assassination is becoming the new normal in international politics.”
Politics
Trump takes unusual step, lets bipartisan housing bill become law unsigned amid SAVE pressure campaign
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A bipartisan housing bill became law Saturday at midnight after President Donald Trump declined to sign it, capping a weeks-long saga over whether the president would veto the measure amid frustrations with Congress over his stalled agenda.
Trump refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — legislation aimed at expanding the nation’s housing stock and lowering costs — in an attempt to pressure Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, despite the housing bill clearing both chambers with overwhelming majorities.
“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats,” he declared on Truth Social Friday morning.
The Trump-backed election measure, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and impose voter ID requirements, has struggled to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
Meanwhile, the House has not passed a version of the bill that includes the president’s proposed crackdown on mail-in voting and banning men from women’s sports.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)
HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DERAIL GOP AGENDA IN SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWDOWN
Under the U.S. Constitution, Trump had 10 days, not including Sundays, to sign or veto the housing measure after the House formally transmitted the legislation to the White House in late June. The president ultimately chose neither option, allowing the measure to become law without his signature.
Though Trump declined to veto the legislation, he sharply criticized elements of the bill and argued it should not have been a legislative priority in recent weeks.
“It’s so unimportant … compared to the SAVE America Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in late June. “I think the SAVE America Act is exactly what it says. It’s saving America from crooked elections.”
Trump went on to call the housing bill “a yawn,” adding, “compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”
It would have taken a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override a veto — a margin the House and Senate exceeded when they passed the legislation. However, it remains unclear whether so many Republicans would have defied the president had he vetoed the bill.
Trump also appeared to criticize the bill over a provision restricting Wall Street investors from purchasing single-family homes — a policy he first proposed during his January State of the Union address and later urged Congress to pass. Trump previously argued the investor ban would give individual homebuyers a leg up against private equity firms in the housing market.
“I don’t want to hurt people that own houses, too,” Trump later told reporters, appearing to reference the provision. “These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They’ve become rich. I don’t want to hurt them either. What you want to do is what’s good for everyone, get the interest rates down.”
The law also aims to boost housing supply by streamlining federal environmental reviews, loosening rules around the construction of factory-built homes, and incentivizing local governments to modify their zoning laws to allow more housing, among roughly 60 provisions.
Trump’s souring on the legislation created headaches for Republicans, who touted the bill as an affordability win as voters grapple with high housing costs.
“It’s irresponsible to postpone signing the Housing bill due to the SAVE Act,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a retiring lawmaker who lost re-election to a Trump-backed challenger, wrote on social media. “We need to start delivering relief to people for the high cost of housing ASAP!!”
Construction workers stand on the roof of homes under construction at a new housing development on June 24, 2026, in Valencia, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
WARREN TELLS TRUMP TO ‘SIGN THE DAMN BILL’ AS BIPARTISAN HOUSING PACKAGE REMAINS STALLED IN WASHINGTON
Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for the legislation at the U.S. Capitol in June with GOP leaders. The stage had already been set, with at least one senior Republican arriving unaware the president had called off the event shortly before it was scheduled to begin.
The president then declared he would not sign the legislation until Congress passed the SAVE America Act, despite Senate GOP leaders insisting the votes do not exist to advance the measure.
Trump has also expressed frustration with the Republican-controlled Senate for declining to weaken the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to advance most legislation in the upper chamber.
“GET SMART REPUBLICANS, IF YOU DON’T, YOU WON’T BE IN OFFICE FOR LONG!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
Before Trump came out against the bill, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history” and said it included an array of policies “long championed” by Trump.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15, 2025. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Trump political operative James Blair touted the legislation for including the president’s Wall Street investor ban, which he referred to as a “signature commitment.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has argued that Republicans will still promote the landmark housing bill ahead of November.
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“We’ll still celebrate it, but he’s trying to make a point, and I think he’s making it very effectively,” the speaker recently told reporters, referring to Trump. “And the fact that you all ask me every three steps down the hallway illustrates that he has achieved the desired objective, and that is to make SAVE America the number one thing, because if we don’t get that right, everybody’s concerned about what happens next.”
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