Politics
Biden's 'big boy' NATO news conference carries high stakes as first presser since disastrous debate
President Biden is slated to face the media late Thursday afternoon in his first solo press conference since his disastrous debate last month, and it’s anticipated that he’ll be grilled as the nation weighs his mental acuity amid heightening health concerns.
Biden is expected to hold the news conference on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. after hosting NATO leaders in Washington, D.C., this week. The media has dubbed the press conference a “big boy press conference,” with the president fielding questions from the media solo. It marks Biden’s first solo press conference of the year and the first time he will speak to the media at a presser since his debate against former President Trump on June 27, Fox News found.
Biden is facing heightened concerns over his health in the wake of his poor debate performance, which opened floodgates of concern in the Democratic Party that the president’s 81 years of age and alleged slipping mental acuity will cost the party as the Biden campaign squares up against Trump.
At least nine elected Democrats have called on Biden to drop out since the debate, and at least 23 Democrats, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin, have expressed concern over Biden’s performance and re-election effort.
DEMOCRATS, MEDIA DEMAND BIDEN DO MORE INTERVIEWS, PRESS CONFERENCES AMID DEBATE FALLOUT
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg listens as President Biden speaks during NATO’s 75th anniversary celebratory event in Washington, D.C., on July 9, 2024. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Biden has vowed to remain in the race despite rising concerns and calls for him to drop out and let another candidate take on Trump.
“There’s been a lot of speculation: What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out? What’s he going to do?” Biden said Friday in a speech in Madison, Wisconsin. “Well, here’s my answer: I am running and going to win again.”
On Wednesday, Pelosi suggested in an interview that Biden should reconsider his vow to remain in the race, adding fuel to the fire of the party’s disarray.
NATO SUMMIT IN DC IS ‘PIVOTAL’ MAKE-OR-BREAK MOMENT FOR BIDEN AS SCRUTINY OVER FITNESS FOR OFFICE INTENSIFIES
“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” she said. “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”
“I want him to do whatever he decides to do, and that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with,” she added.
Pelosi said in the interview that she and other Democrats are waiting to see how the week goes for Biden, suggesting that she told fellow Democrats to not speak publicly about their thoughts on Biden until the week concludes.
“Let’s just hold off,” she said. “Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”
Biden delivered a strong NATO speech on Tuesday afternoon, compared to his disastrous debate performance and repeated gaffes during public events in recent months, but praise for the speech from prominent allies has been few and far between.
The president earned praise on social media from liberal-leaning accounts that said the president delivered a “classic” and “strong speech.” Prominent Democrats, however, overwhelmingly remained silent from publicly remarking on the speech. Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Mark Warner and the White House for comment about whether they view the speech as a success but did not receive replies.
“Today, NATO is more powerful than ever,” Biden said Tuesday evening during his speech. “It’s good that we’re stronger than ever because this moment in history calls for our collective strength. Autocrats want to overturn global order, which is, by and large, kept for nearly 80 years and counting. Terrorist groups continue to plot evil schemes, cause mayhem and chaos and suffering in Europe. Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues, and Putin wants nothing less than Ukraine’s total subjugation to end Ukraine.”
BIDEN DELIVERS STRONG SPEECH TOUTING NATO AMID HEALTH QUESTIONS, DEMOCRATS’ CONCERNS
In addition to the president’s NATO speech on Tuesday, Biden’s schedule is stacked with NATO meetings, dinners, a bilateral meeting with newly minted U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and a meeting with the nation’s largest federation of trade unions, the AFL-CIO, among other engagements this week. The press conference is the most highly anticipated event on his schedule for members of the media as well as the Democratic Party because it allows the president to directly speak with reporters as questions mount about his health.
Heads of state are shown during NATO’s 75th anniversary celebratory event in Washington, D.C., on July 9, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Since Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Democrats and the media have repeatedly said that if Biden remains in the race, he needs to hold more interviews and press conferences.
“The only way for him and the campaign to respond is not by talking to senators or governors, because this is not a tell-me situation. It’s a show-me situation,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told CNN last Wednesday. “So he’d have to be out and about in the hurly-burly of a campaign, open-ended press conferences with folks like you, engagements with voters that are unscripted.”
BIDEN ‘WORKING THE PHONES’ IN BATTLE TO SAVE RE-ELECTION BID, WITH DEMOCRATS STARTING TO RETURN TO HIS CAMP
President Biden shocked the nation with his disastrous debate performance, sparking calls for him to leave the 2024 race. (Getty Images)
Biden did sit down for an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopolos that aired on July 5, but the interview did not quell mounting concerns over the president’s mental acuity and age, most notably when Biden repeatedly dodged whether he would take a cognitive test.
BIDEN SAYS ‘WORLD’S LOOKING TO AMERICA’ AS HE FACES SCRUTINY BEFORE HOSTING NATO SUMMIT
“Have you had the specific cognitive tests, and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“No, no one said I had to. … They said I’m good,” Biden responded.
President Biden raised eyebrows when he expressed uncertainty about whether he had watched his debate performance in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. (Screenshot/ABC)
Stephanopoulos pressed Biden a third time on taking a cognitive or neurological test and whether he would release the results of such a test to the public. The president, however, brushed off the question by saying he is tested every day in his role as president.
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden said. “Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world. Sounds like hyperbole, but we are the central nation in the world.”
President Biden has insisted he has no intention of stepping aside. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Biden’s public events this week will be crucial for not only his campaign but also for how America is viewed on the world stage, experts previously told Fox News Digital, which might explain why Democrats were not eager to outright praise the president’s NATO speech on Tuesday.
“This week is pivotal for President Biden not only because of the intense interest in what he will be saying at his press events but also because this summit provides a clear example of restored American global leadership in support of our nation’s defense,” Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, previously told Fox News Digital.
DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS MOSTLY RESIST CALLING FOR BIDEN TO DROP OUT DESPITE PRIVATE CONCERNS: REPORTS
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital this week that Biden “must show the American public that he has the ability to serve out the remainder of this term, let alone a future one” as the “eyes of the world” watch the NATO summit.
“It is on President Biden to show he’s capable and up to the task,” Lawler said. “What we’ve seen in recent weeks doesn’t cut it.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (Andrew Thomas/NurPhoto via Getty Images/File)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week that reporters can expect to ask the president questions during the presser at the end of the NATO summit.
“You can expect a solo press conference from this president at the end of … the NATO summit. He’s looking forward to it. And he will be taking your questions. So, that’ll be a good thing,” Jean-Pierre said on Monday.
Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken and Hanna Panreck contributed to this article.
Politics
Israel shares intelligence warning Iran plotted new assassination attempt against Trump: report
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Israel recently shared intelligence with the United States indicating Iran had developed a fresh plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to a Wall Street Journal report Thursday citing people familiar with the matter.
The reported intelligence would mark an escalation in the longstanding threats against Trump, who Iran has repeatedly vowed to retaliate against over the 2020 U.S. strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
The White House referred Fox News Digital to Trump’s remarks Wednesday when asked about the report.
TRUMP FACES UNPRECEDENTED THIRD ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. Trump addressed threats against his life after a report said Israel shared intelligence with the United States about an alleged new Iranian assassination plot. (Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“They want to take out the U.S. leader — me. I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists,” Trump said. “And, so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long. These are evil, sick people. And we have to root out that cancer. That cancer. You know what you do? You’ve got to cut out cancer early. And that’s the way I feel.”
Fox News Digital has also reached out to Israel’s Embassy in Washington and Iran’s Mission to the United Nations for comment.
The Journal reported the intelligence surfaced as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have diverged in recent weeks over how to proceed after last month’s conflict with Iran. Netanyahu has advocated for continuing military pressure on Tehran, while Trump has sought to preserve a fragile ceasefire after U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
NETANYAHU REJECTS REPORTS OF A RIFT WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP, SAYS THE TWO REMAIN ALIGNED ON IRAN
President Donald Trump, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House March 25, 2019. The leaders spoke Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported Israel had shared intelligence with the United States about an alleged new Iranian plot targeting Trump. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Trump and Netanyahu spoke Thursday and agreed to continue coordination between the two countries, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, which said Trump also updated the Israeli leader on recent U.S. activity in the Gulf.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)
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Iranian mourners at the funeral for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei chanted for Trump’s death and displayed a banner that said, “We Will Kill Trump,” according to the Journal.
Iran has publicly vowed for years to retaliate against Trump over the U.S. operation that killed Soleimani, the former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, in Baghdad in January 2020.
Politics
Iran ceasefire is ‘over,’ Trump says, and orders additional strikes
WASHINGTON — A tentative armistice between the United States and Iran reached less than a month ago appeared all but dead Wednesday after the two sides traded fresh military strikes, and as President Trump directed further attacks on the Islamic Republic.
The escalation marked a dramatic turn after the Trump administration spent weeks selling a diplomatic breakthrough with Tehran that proved controversial across the political aisle, lifting oil sanctions and a naval blockade on Iran in exchange for the promise of talks over the status of the Strait of Hormuz and its decades-old nuclear program.
Now, speaking to reporters at the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump said he believed the truce — which diplomats describe as a memorandum of understanding — was “over” and that it was a “waste of time” dealing with Iranian leadership.
“They’re scum. They’re sick people,” Trump said of Iranian leaders, whom he had characterized last month as “very rational people” and “very nice to deal with.”
The president’s dim views of the ceasefire agreement’s fate were shared by Iran’s foreign ministry, which issued a statement on Wednesday saying the American attacks, the reinstatement of a U.S. naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, and Israel’s continuing attacks in Lebanon rendered “important and fundamental” parts of the deal “ineffective.”
The truce’s unraveling was underscored by Trump ordering the U.S. military to launch a series of strikes against Iran on Wednesday afternoon to “further degrade their ability to threaten” the commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement on social media.
Earlier in the day, Trump signaled that the United States planned to “hit them hard” and floated the possibility of taking over Kharg Island, which is vital to Iran’s economy. His remarks quickly prompted oil prices to rise and global stock markets to fall, a worry that Trump acknowledged but which did not seem to sway his decision-making in relation to Iran.
“If we hit Iran, oil goes up a little bit, it is all right,” Trump said. He later added that the United States may “do some other thing that could lift it a little bit, but I don’t think it’s gonna lift it a lot at all.”
As Trump signals the continuation of fighting, his administration has been seeking more than $67 billion in funding to cover expenses related to the Iran war, a request that Congress has not yet approved as lawmakers have been split over the president’s handling of the conflict.
“The American people are paying the price for Trump’s total failure in Iran,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Wednesday. “Our troops are back in harm’s way and high gas costs are continuing to punish working families.”
The president’s stance on the war marked the latest setback to a fragile truce that has barely held since the 14-page agreement was signed June 17, as the U.S. and Iran engaged over the last few weeks in cycles of attacks and counterattacks.
Trump was noticeably angrier at Iran on Wednesday as he cast doubt over the deal. Last month, Trump had complimented Iranian leadership for trying to reach a peace deal and celebrated the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for the world’s oil and gas. But based on his remarks, it was clear he was out of patience.
“I am not happy with them,” Trump said. “They’re cuckoo. There’s something wrong with these people. For 47 years, they’ve been the bully of the Middle East and they are not the bully anymore. They are not the bully anymore.”
Trump expressed frustration with Iran’s negotiators and their resistance to abiding by U.S. demands to reopen the strait. When asked if he intended to send troops to Iran, the president dismissed the idea.
“Why would I go in now?” Trump said. “I’d go in when they’re completely eliminated or an agreement is made.”
Still, the president kept the door open for negotiations, saying that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner “want to negotiate.”
“They’re good people, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they have to come back to me,” Trump said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with [the Iranians]. They’re liars.”
The latest breakdown to the ceasefire followed a now-familiar chain reaction of tit-for-tat attacks, starting with a series of strikes on three oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, including a Qatari vessel carrying natural gas, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center.
The Qatari tanker was off the coast of Oman when it was hit and caught fire, the maritime monitor said, in what experts say was a move to thwart ships attempting to use an alternate transit route to the one Iran specified. Iran did not claim responsibility, but a report on Iranian state television said the Qatari tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings to turn back.
The two other vessels were damaged but were able to continue to their destination, according to the U.K. group.
Qatar, which has played a vital role in facilitating negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, condemned the attack on its tanker as “unacceptable.”
The U.S. responded with a wave of strikes against more than 80 Iranian targets aimed at “impos[ing] heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway,” according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. That tally included roughly 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in the strait.
Iranian state media said U.S. strikes targeted Sirik, Qeshm Island and Bushehr and Bandar Abbas, while a U.S. drone strike on the port city of Mahshahr killed one Revolutionary Guard member.
Ahead of the strikes, the White House revoked the 60-day temporary license given to Tehran to sell and deliver oil during the truce.
Iran’s military countered with its own strikes on 85 U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait; it also shot down an MQ-9 drone, according to a statement on Wednesday.
Kuwait said its military intercepted two ballistic missiles and 13 drones, but that none had resulted in material damage or casualties.
Global oil prices surged 6% on news of Trump’s reversal on the deal, rising to more than $78 a barrel, down from the peak during the war but still above prewar levels.
The renewed violence appeared to have little effect on the funeral for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Feb. 28, in the war’s opening hours.
The funeral, a days-long period of mourning, is set to end on Thursday, when Khamenei’s body will return from Iraq to be buried in the city of Mashhad, his birthplace. Negotiations were to begin once more.
In his remarks Wednesday, Trump said Iranian leaders had asked for a “timeout” to attend the funeral, and that he had promised not to kill them.
“And I said give it to them, and they start shooting missiles,” Trump said.
Whether those talks — which were meant to deal with the thorniest issues between the two countries, including the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program — will go ahead remains unclear. Iran, for its part, maintained a defiant attitude.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” wrote Mohammad Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to the supreme leader, posted on X that Trump’s policy had “driven the region towards fire.”
“We had previously warned that the region is not a place for the political gambling of small countries, and we have repeatedly proven that adventures are met with an immediate response,” he wrote.
He added that the Axis of Resistance — a reference to Iran’s network of allied groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen — would not be “silent against humiliation and adventurism” and has “its finger on the trigger.”
Bulos reported from Beirut and Ceballos from Washington.
Politics
Omar’s disclosures erased millions, leaving her with potential negative net worth. She won’t explain why.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., refused to address her revised financial disclosures that could imply she has a negative net worth after the progressive lawmaker dramatically reducing the reported value of assets tied to her husband’s business ventures.
“Can you tell us if your husband still has the consulting business and the wine business?” Fox News Digital asked Omar.
The congresswoman stayed silent as she was repeatedly questioned, after previously telling Fox News Digital that the original filing — showing Omar’s reported assets reducing by as much as $29.9 million — was inaccurate and “incomplete” information.
ILHAN OMAR’S OFFICE SAYS SHE’S ‘NOT A MILLIONAIRE’ AFTER $30M FILING REVISED DOWN TO UNDER $100K: REPORT
US Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, speaks during a press conference with family members of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as members of Congress call for US investigations into Israel’s actions and reintroduce the Justice for Shireen Act, outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, May 18, 2023. The Al Jazeera journalist, who was a dual US citizen, was killed on May 11, 2022. The Israeli army later admitted one of its soldiers likely shot the reporter. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The controversy surrounding Omar’s finances began when a 2024 financial report estimated that Omar and her husband possessed between $6 million and $30 million in assets, all while the Minnesota fraud scandal within the Somali community was beginning to come to fruition.
A more recent 2025 financial disclosure report shows Omar’s revised value of shared assets between her and husband to sit at a maximum of $125,000 — a multi-million-dollar drop from the year prior. The lower estimate of their assets, $20,000, compared to the low and high debt estimates, $30,000 and $100,000, would imply the Minnesota Democrat could have a negative net worth.
Both her and her husband have separate debts, each ranging somewhere between $15,000 and $50,000 — from her own student loans and her husband’s credit card debt, according to the disclosures.
WATCH: OMAR SILENT WHEN CONFRONTED ON ALLEGED TIES TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL
RICHFIELD, MN – AUGUST 08: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (C) campaigns with her husband Tim Mynett (R) at the Richfield Farmers Market on August 8, 2020 in Richfield, Minnesota. Omar is hoping to retain her seat as the representative for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in next week’s primary election. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
The biggest change in the documents involved Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett. His reported ownership interests in both his winery and venture capital advisory firm, which were previously valued in the millions of dollars, are listed with no value now.
In Omar’s 2024 financial disclosure records, Mynett’s share in his winery was valued between $1 million and $5 million, and his share at the venture capital advisory firm was valued between $5 million and $25 million. Now, his equity interests are both listed at $0.
Omar’s office previously told Fox News Digital that Mynett has partners in both businesses and said the earlier disclosure mistakenly reflected the businesses’ total equity rather than his ownership interest. The office also said the original filing listed assets without accounting for liabilities.
VANCE REFERS TIM WALZ, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL TO DOJ FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OVER STATE’S ALLEGED FRAUD
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has publicly voiced his interest in the Ethics Committee opening an investigation into Omar’s personal finances after the 2025 financial reports came out showing the possibility of a $29 million drop in her net worth.
Vice President JD Vance also has previously said the U.S. Department of Justice will be opening a probe into her alleged fraud as part of the administration’s anti-fraud taskforce that he spearheads, though no formal investigations have been shared with the public at this time.
Omar has been reluctant to answer Fox News Digital’s questions about her financial fallout and potential probes to be opened against her.
The Minnesota lawmaker similarly dodged answering any of Fox News Digital’s questions just last month about the revised disclosures.
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“There’s also the possibility that it might rain on this sunny day,” Omar replied without responding directly to the content of the question.
Fox News Digital’s Robert Schmad contributed to this report.
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