Politics
Biden will address nation from Oval Office on decision to exit 2024 race
President Biden will address the nation on Wednesday after his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election.
Biden will speak to the American people about why he decided to exit the race and what he plans to focus on for the remaining six months of his first term. His address will be delivered from the Oval Office, the White House said.
The president is expected to be seen in public for the first time in six days on Tuesday as he returns to the nation’s capital from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Biden has not appeared publicly since reportedly testing positive for COVID-19 last week. His only public remarks on his stunning decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election came Monday during a brief phone call into the campaign headquarters of Vice Presidential Kamala Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee.
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President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday, July 17, 2024. This was the last time Biden was seen before his COVID isolation. (Susan Walsh/AP)
According to the president’s public schedule, Biden will depart from Delaware at 12:30 p.m. He will then fly from Dover Air Force Base to Joint Base Andrews to return to the White House at around 2:30 p.m. The president will receive his daily briefing at 3 p.m. There are no public events on his schedule.
In a letter released on X Sunday, Biden said he believes it is in the “best interest 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.”
“I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision,” he added, though he gave no details on the time, place or manner in which he would speak.
Last week, Biden began to self-isolate after reportedly testing positive for COVID-19. He was last seen publicly deplaning in Delaware on July 17.
In a letter updating the status of 81-year-old Biden’s medical condition on Friday, the physician to the president, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, wrote that Biden “completed his sixth dose of PAXLOVID this morning.”
JOE BIDEN RETURNING TO WHITE HOUSE FOR FIRST TIME SINCE ENDING PRESIDENTIAL BID, COVID DIAGNOSIS
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during an event with NCAA college athletes on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday, July 22, 2024. This is Harris’ first appearance since Biden endorsed her to be the next Democratic nominee for president. (Demetrius Freeman/Getty Images)
Biden “is still experiencing a loose, non-productive cough and hoarseness, but his symptoms continue to improve steadily,” O’Connor wrote in the letter released by the White House.
“His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain absolutely normal,” the doctor said. “His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear.”
The doctor said Biden has the KP .2.3 variant, which accounts for approximately 33.3% of new infections in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The President continues to tolerate treatment well and will continue PAXLOVID as planned,” the letter says. “He continues to perform all his presidential duties.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Biden on Thursday at the White House. (Fox News/Getty Images)
Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday at the White House, according to a U.S. official. Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. a little more than 24 hours after Biden announced that he would no longer seek re-election.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu will give a speech in front of Congress, though Harris reportedly declined to preside over the address, according to the Washington Post. Before departing Israel for D.C., Netanyahu told reporters that his country would stand by the U.S. “regardless [of] who the American people choose as their next president.”
“In this time of war and uncertainty, it’s important that Israel’s enemies know that America and Israel stand together,” the leader said.
Netanyahu also requested a meeting with former President Trump this week, according to Politico. It is unclear if Trump agreed to the meeting.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.
Politics
Republicans light cigars, cigarettes on burning photos of Khamenei to show support for Iranian protesters
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Republican lawmakers are jumping on a social media trend to show their support for the anti-regime protesters in Iran.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., posted photos of themselves using burning photos of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light up a cigarette and a cigar respectively. Both lawmakers used the caption “Smoke ’em if you got ’em.”
The lawmaker’s images mirror a social media trend in which people are using burning photos of Khamenei to light cigarettes and cigars. The trend emerged as the people of Iran hold increasingly intense protests against the Islamic regime. The movement against the regime has seen increasing support from abroad as world leaders back the people of Iran.
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People gather during a protest on Jan. 8, 2026, in Tehran, Iran. (Anonymous/Getty Images)
Khamenei’s regime has started to crack down on protests and even instituted a sweeping internet blackout to try to quell the unrest. Some have posited that the internet blackout was also meant to impede the spreading of information about and visuals of abuses committed against protesters by regime-backed forces.
Recently, exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi has publicly urged President Donald Trump and the U.S. to back protesters in Iran as they fight the decades-old regime.
Sheehy told Fox News Digital that he takes the issue personally, saying that Iran has participated in the torturing, kidnapping and killing of Americans across the globe, “including friends of mine.”
“The Iranian regime are a bunch of murderous b——- who have been chanting ‘death to America’ for the past 46 years. They have backed up this chant by kidnapping, torturing, and killing thousands of Americans all over the world, including friends of mine. For me, it’s personal; it’s time to take out the trash,” Sheehy said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital via email.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., showed his solidarity with the people of Iran by hopping on a social media trend in which she used a burning photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light a cigarette. (Courtesy of Sen. Tim Sheehy’s Office)
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The senator also expressed his solidarity with the people of Iran and encouraged them to keep fighting the regime.
“To the Iranian people — we applaud your courage, keep fighting, and know we fully support your brave efforts to topple this evil regime,” he added.
Tenney’s office also spoke with Fox News Digital about the congresswoman’s post, praising the bravery of the people of Iran for standing up to the regime. Additionally, Tenney’s office expressed the congresswoman’s solidarity with the Iranian people.
“The bravery of the Iranian people in the face of decades of oppression by a brutal, extremist regime is extraordinary. Men and women across Iran are risking their lives to stand up to authoritarian mullahs who have denied them basic freedoms for generations,” Tenney’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., showed her solidarity with the people of Iran by hopping on a social media trend in which she used a burning photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light a cigar. (Courtesy of Rep. Claudia Tenney’s Office)
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“The congresswoman stands firmly with the Iranian people and their demand for dignity and self-determination, and believes their courage must be recognized and amplified. Today, the Iranian people finally have an ally in the White House, President Trump, who has made clear that the United States stands with those fighting for freedom against tyranny,” Tenney’s office added.
Trump has been vocal about his support for the people of Iran and has warned that the U.S. would be ready to step in if the regime used violence against protesters.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Jan. 10. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”
SACRAMENTO — California announced an investigation into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI on Wednesday, with Gov. Gavin Newsom saying that the social media site owned by the billionaire is a “breeding ground for predators to spread nonconsenual sexually explicit AI deepfakes.”
Grok, the xAI chatbot, includes image-generation features that allow users to morph existing photos into new images. The newly created images are then posted publicly on X.
In some cases, users have created sexually explicit or nonconsensual images based on real people, including altered depictions that appear to show individuals partially or fully undressed. Others have generated images that appear to show minors, prompting criticism that there are not sufficient guardrails to prohibit the creation of child pornography.
The social media site has previously said “we take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
Newsom called the sexualized images being created on the platform “vile.” Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said his office will use “all tools at our disposal to keep Californians safe.”
“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” Bonta said in a statement Wednesday. “This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet. I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further. We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material.”
Newsom signed a pair of bills in 2024 that made it illegal to create, possess or distribute sexually charged images of minors even when they’re created with computers, not cameras. The measures took effect last year.
Assembly Bill 1831, authored by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), expanded the state’s child-porn prohibition to material that “contains a digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated depiction [of] what appears to be a person under 18 years of age” engaging in or simulating sexual conduct. Senate Bill 1381, authored by Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward), amended state law to more clearly prohibit using AI to create images of real children engaged in sexual conduct, or using children as models for digitally altered or AI-generated child pornography.
new video loaded: Supreme Court May Allow States to Bar Transgender Athletes
transcript
transcript
Supreme Court May Allow States to Bar Transgender Athletes
The Supreme Court heard two cases from West Virginia and Idaho on Tuesday. Both concerned barring the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports teams.
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“It is undisputed that states may separate their sports teams based on sex in light of the real biological differences between males and females. States may equally apply that valid sex-based rule to biological males who self-identify as female. Denying a special accommodation to trans-identifying individuals does not discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity or deny equal protection.” “West Virginia argues that to protect these opportunities for cisgender girls, it has to deny them to B.P.J. But Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause protect everyone. And if the evidence shows there are no relevant physiological differences between B.P.J. and other girls, then there’s no basis to exclude her.” “Given that half the states are allowing it, allowing transgender girls and women to participate, about half are not, why would we at this point, just the role of this court, jump in and try to constitutionalize a rule for the whole country while there’s still, as you say, uncertainty and debate, while there’s still strong interest in other side?” “This court has held in cases like V.M.I. that in general, classification based on sex is impermissible because in general, men and women are simply situated. Where that’s not true is for the sorts of real, enduring, obvious differences that this court talked about in cases like V.M.I., the differences in reproductive biology. I don’t think the pseudoscience you’re suggesting has been baked.” “Well, it’s not pseudo. It’s good science.” “It’s not pseudoscience to say boys’ brain development happens at a different stage than girls does.” “Well, with all respect, I don’t think there’s any science anywhere that is suggested that these intellectual differences are traceable to biological differences.” “Can we avoid your whole similarly situated argument that you run because I don’t really like it that much either? And I’m not trying to prejudice anyone making that argument later. But I mean, I think it opens a huge can of worms that maybe we don’t need to get into here.”
By Meg Felling
January 13, 2026
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