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Cause of death confirmed for Mitt Romney’s sister-in-law

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Cause of death confirmed for Mitt Romney’s sister-in-law

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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

The death of former Sen. Mitt Romney’s sister-in-law has been confirmed to be a suicide, the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office announced Tuesday.

Carrie Elizabeth Romney, 64, died of “blunt traumatic injuries” after plunging from a five-story parking garage in California in early October. She had been married to Mitt Romney’s older brother, George Scott Romney, 81, and the pair had been going through a months-long divorce.

“Our family is heartbroken by the loss of Carrie, who brought warmth and love to all our lives,” Mitt Romney said in a statement after Carrie’s death.

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FETTERMAN’S BRUTALLY CANDID ACCOUNT OF BATTLING DEPRESSION, FEELING SUICIDAL, BEING THROWN OUT OF HIS HOUSE

Sen. Mitt Romney’s sister-in-law died in October. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“We ask for privacy during this difficult time,” he added.

Carrie and George had been married since 2016. They had been separated since late May, and George filed a divorce petition in early June.

FLASHBACK: MITT ROMNEY MOCKED IN 2012 FOR SELF-DEPORTATION CONCEPT THAT HAS NOW BECOME A REALITY

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George Scott Romney stands during the Pledge of Allegiance during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 30, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney served as a Utah senator until 2024, when he decided not to run for re-election. 

“I have spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another. At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-eighties. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in,” Romney said at the time.

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“We face critical challenges — mounting national debt, climate change, and the ambitious authoritarians of Russia and China. Neither President Biden nor former President Trump are leading their party to confront them,” Romney said.

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“It is a profound honor to serve Utah and the nation, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so.”

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Marco Rubio spotted behind DJ booth at family wedding as social media reacts to viral clip

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Marco Rubio spotted behind DJ booth at family wedding as social media reacts to viral clip

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going viral — not for diplomacy, but for stepping behind a DJ booth at a family wedding and hyping up the crowd in a clip shared online that’s quickly gaining attention.

The video, posted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino on X, shows Rubio wearing headphones and standing behind a DJ setup, leaning over the controls as music plays and guests dance nearby.

At several points, he pumps his fist, nods along to the beat and appears to cue up the next track, drawing cheers from people gathered around the booth.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is seen in a formal setting, with an inset image showing him behind a DJ booth at a wedding. (Rubio DJing: Dan Scavino X ; Marco Rubio thumbs up: Getty Images)

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“MOMENTS AGO, BEHIND THE SCENES—Our Great Secretary of State @MarcoRubio DJ’s weddings too! Here he is in action tonight at a family wedding… Let’s goooooo!!!” Scavino wrote in the post.

DUFFY JUST GOT AN ADDITIONAL JOB IN TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION — AND HE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE WEARING MULTIPLE HATS

The track playing in the video is “Shiver” by John Summit and Hayla, a high-energy dance song known for its pulsing beat and dramatic drop — a fitting backdrop as the crowd moves in sync and reacts to the music.

The unexpected scene has set social media on fire, with users reacting to the unusual sight of a sitting U.S. secretary of state taking on DJ duties at what appears to be a family celebration.

ONE-MAN CABINET: MARCO RUBIO WENT FROM RIVAL TO TRUMP’S POINT MAN, BUT CAN HE HANDLE IT?

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife Jeanette Christina Dousdebes Rubio attend the White House Correspondents’ dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2026.  (Alex Wroblewski/AFP)

One user wrote, “Marco becoming the official White House DJ,” while sharing an AI photo of Rubio dressed in black, wearing sunglasses and headphones and standing beside DJ equipment. The image shows Rubio in a club-like setting, with lighting and staging that mirrors a professional DJ setup.

Other X users shared AI images of Rubio mixing it up behind two turntables and a microphone.

MARCO RUBIO EMERGES AS KEY TRUMP POWER PLAYER AFTER VENEZUELA OPERATION

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Jan. 28, 2026, to explain President Donald Trump’s policy toward Venezuela following the U.S. military raid that ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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Another user wrote, “Marco can do it all!” posting another AI image showing Rubio at the turntables as Vice President JD Vance sits nearby on an ottoman, surrounded by haze and lighting effects.

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Rubio, who is also serving as acting national security advisor and has held several other roles, has taken on a wide range of responsibilities over the course of his career — and now, at least for one night, he can add DJ to the list.

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Taxes, program cuts and Newsom’s legacy on the line in budget negotiations

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Taxes, program cuts and Newsom’s legacy on the line in budget negotiations

One of Gavin Newsom’s top goals as he winds down his final year as California governor is to leave the state with a balanced budget.

After years of the state spending more money than it brings in, it’s Newsom’s last opportunity to fix a chronic deficit or dump the problem on the next governor.

How far he goes to solve the state’s structural spending imbalance will define his legacy as a steward of trillions in taxpayer dollars. As a potential candidate for president in 2028, he could also have a political incentive to do as little as possible.

“Any cuts you make are going to cause people to scream,” said Darry Sragow, a veteran Democratic strategist. “Any increases in taxes are going to cause people to scream and in terms of what’s best for a presidential run, it would be nice if people weren’t screaming.”

As California’s 40th governor, Newsom expanded publicly funded healthcare to income-eligible undocumented immigrants, increased state-subsidized child-care slots and provided free meals for schoolchildren among a wishlist of progressive wins since he took office in 2019.

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His achievements have helped struggling Californians live in an increasingly unaffordable state and given him bona fides to tout to voters if he launches a bid for the White House.

But the state could never afford to pay for existing services and the new programs that Newsom and Democratic lawmakers enacted, according to an analysis of ongoing state spending since before the pandemic released by the Legislative Analyst’s Office last week.

Spending from the state’s principal operating fund has grown about $100 billion since Newsom’s first full fiscal year in office in 2019-20, mostly due to the growing cost of existing programs that he inherited. State spending has outpaced California’s strong revenue growth by about 10%, creating a perennial budget shortfall — a structural deficit — that Newsom and the Democratic-led Legislature solve with largely temporary fixes each year.

Instead of making across-the-board program cuts or raising taxes to align spending with revenue, Democrats have tapped into reserves designed to preserve social services for the state’s most disadvantaged communities during economic downturns.

While the California economy remains stable and state revenue has increased, Newsom and lawmakers have taken $12.2 billion from the rainy day fund. Democrats have borrowed $28 billion more from other state funds to cover their spending in recent years, according to the LAO.

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“Taken together, these trends raise serious concerns about the state’s fiscal sustainability,” Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek wrote in a review of Newsom’s January budget proposal.

Fiscal watchdogs have warned that the spending trends will leave California in a precarious position if the stock market tanks and tax receipts bottom out.

Personal income taxes are driving higher-than-expected revenue now, which analysts attribute to an artificial intelligence boom on Wall Street, and suggest the state could have no deficit in the upcoming year. In January, the Newsom administration anticipated significant operating deficits in the years ahead: $27 billion in 2027-28, $22 billion in 2028-29 and $23 billion in 2029-30.

The LAO, the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal advisor, said the state has already solved $125 billion in budget problems over the last three years with mostly short-term solutions.

“This issue is really whether they’re going to take seriously the structural deficit that is several years in the making now, where the spending has outpaced revenue, and to address that, they’re going to either have to make some fairly deep cuts or raise revenue and or both,” said former state Controller Betty Yee, who worked as a budget aide under Gov. Gray Davis and recently dropped her own campaign for governor. “But they have to be real. I think resorting to these one-time solutions has really exacerbated the problem.”

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How Newsom wants to address the state’s financial challenges will be revealed on May 14 when he is expected to present his revised budget plan in Sacramento. His January budget proposal did not include any significant reductions or cuts to programs.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, said the governor is looking to solve the budget problem with more than a temporary fix.

“Although he is still finalizing his proposal that he’ll put forth to the Legislature, as he has said, he wants those solutions to be durable, and he wants them to have an impact beyond a single fiscal year,” Palmer said.

To stabilize California’s budget, Democrats will probably have to raise taxes or fees to generate new revenue and cut programs, according to the LAO. At least 40 cents for every dollar in revenue is dedicated to education under the state Constitution, requiring policymakers to find between $30 billion and $60 billion annually in additional revenue to cover projected shortfalls in 2027-28 and beyond if relying on new taxes alone.

President Trump’s cuts to healthcare are adding to the problem.

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HR 1 will add $1.4 billion in state costs to the general fund. Newsom’s January budget proposal did not include a plan to help millions of low-income Californians who are expected to lose access to healthcare under the federal cuts.

To temper those cuts in California, other groups proposed a new tax on billionaires that appears poised to qualify for the November ballot.

Spearheaded by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the initiative would apply a one-time 5% tax on taxpayers with assets exceeding $1 billion. If approved by voters, the tax would generate roughly $100 billion, which would fund healthcare programs.

The measure has divided unions and Democrats at the state Capitol.

Newsom has criticized the initiative, citing concerns that increasing taxes on the wealthy will have the opposite intended effect and drive the highest earners out of California. Under a progressive tax structure, the state budget is dependent on income taxes paid by the ultra-rich on earnings largely from capital gains.

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Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, have already purchased residences in Florida, along with others looking to escape the tax if it goes through in November. Billionaires launched their own ballot measure campaign to undercut the tax proposal.

State lawmakers are also considering avenues to raise revenue, which include repealing a “water’s edge” tax break. Under the change, multinational companies would no longer be allowed to shield the income of their foreign subsidiaries from state taxes. California loses about $3 billion in revenue from the tax break each year.

In its budget plan released in April, the state Senate proposed a new fee on the largest corporations in the state to provide $5 billion to $8 billion annually for Medi-Cal.

The upper house said 42% of Medi-Cal enrollees are full-time workers who are not enrolled in their company’s healthcare plan because their wages are low enough to qualify for state-subsidized healthcare. As a result, corporations aren’t paying for healthcare for many of their employees and instead taxpayers are picking up the bill through Medi-Cal.

SEIU California, the powerful state union council representing over 700,000 workers, endorsed the plan. The union said Trump’s tax policy will reduce corporate taxes by $900 billion, while 3 million Californians lose healthcare.

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“In this urgent moment, California’s workers need to see our leaders show us what they’re made of,” said Tia Orr, executive director of SEIU California. “The Senate is showing the courage to demand corporations pay their fair share, rather than making working people pay with their lives.”

The change is being described as a more politically palatable “fee” and not a tax.

“We explored multiple revenue options, and this was the one that felt more narrow, it felt more focused, and it also felt like it was directly going for the subsidy that’s being lost because of the Trump HR 1 cuts,” said Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who leads the upper house of the Legislature.

Limón said her caucus believes it’s important to address potential revenue streams because of the depth of federal healthcare reductions.

“If we don’t address the structural deficit, we are looking at severe cuts,” she said. “You are looking at people without health insurance. You are looking at hospitals closing down. You are looking at medical providers not being able to take more patients. You are looking at our emergency rooms over capacity, with not enough medical providers. I mean, you’re looking at a place that’s really, really, really difficult, and we feel like we have to, at least, look at what are viable options that are conditional on these cuts coming.”

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Newsom has not commented publicly on the Senate’s plan. As governor, he’s been reluctant to embrace new taxes and fees.

Newsom could reject all the proposals for new taxes or fees and continue what he’s done before: take advantage of higher-than-expected tax collections, shift funds around, delay program implementation and borrow money to knock the deficit down to zero, or forecast a surplus, for his last budget year that begins July 1.

If he doesn’t take on California’s larger budget imbalance, then the problem would be the next governor’s to solve. A stock market crash, or economic recession, could force his successor to make drastic cuts across the board with limited reserves to support programs.

Kicking the can again would cement Newsom’s fiscal legacy as a governor who championed bold headline-making policies that bolstered the safety net for low-income Californians, but who failed to provide a solution to pay for his agenda.

“Not only has he not come up with a plan, he has pretended we don’t need one,” said Patrick Murphy, a professor of public affairs at the University of San Francisco.

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Newsom’s interest in running for president could seemingly discourage him from slashing the budget and raising attention to the state’s financial woes, Sragow said. Newsom is setting himself up as a potential front-runner for his party. He has said he remains undecided about officially launching a 2028 campaign.

As a Democrat from California, his opponents would automatically label him as financially irresponsible and tax-happy. Calling out the massive budget problem on the horizon, raising taxes and making painful cuts will give them ammunition.

“There’s a long list of things that he’s going to be charged with, and this is likely to be one more,” Sragow said. “But I guess the question is, is he going to be charged with a political misdemeanor or a political felony?”

Former state Sen. Steve Glazer said Newsom is standing on political quicksand either way. State budget projections are based on assumptions about the future that often don’t bear out, leaving his choices exposed to criticism that he went too far, didn’t do enough, and everything in between.

“Whatever the governor decides to do in his May revise and in his final budget, it’s fraught with political risks, because it can be manipulated so easily by all sides,” Glazer said.

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If Newsom ignores the spending problem, his successor could blame him for California’s financial woes when they take office in January and provide their own outlook of the state’s fiscal future. At the time, Newsom could be trying to convince America to make him the nation’s next president.

Murphy said Newsom has championed major policies and been reluctant to back off them later when revenue doesn’t pencil out.

In terms of spending, he’s governed similarly to the men who led California before him, with the exception of Jerry Brown, who cut programs to reduce a deficit he inherited in his second stint in the governor’s office and left Newsom with a surplus.

“It’s not all that different than most of the governors have done, which is finding it very hard to say no and finding it very hard to take on a tough choice of going to the ballot to ask for more money or raise taxes,” Murphy said.

On taxation, Newsom is perhaps most similar to former Gov. George Deukmejian, who opposed general tax increases for most of his administration.

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Deukmejian left a budget disaster for his successor, Gov. Pete Wilson. Deukmejian publicly claimed he passed a balanced budget in his final year and blamed an economic downturn for the problems Wilson encountered.

When Wilson announced a record $13-billion budget deficit early in his first year in office in 1991, he said the Persian Gulf War, an economic downturn and natural disasters added to a structural deficit in the budget.

The Legislature and Deukmejian, Wilson said, had “papered over” the problem.

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In Mississippi, a Democrat Challenges the Senator Who Blocked His Judgeship

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In Mississippi, a Democrat Challenges the Senator Who Blocked His Judgeship

Three years ago, Scott Colom, a state prosecutor in Mississippi, was on a bipartisan glide path to a lifetime appointment to a federal judgeship when his nomination was blocked by a single Republican senator. Now Mr. Colom, a Democrat, is seeking to unseat that senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, in a long-shot challenge to the incumbent in a deeply conservative state.

The race is far from the center stage in the developing battle for control of the Senate, considering that Mississippi has not elected a Democratic senator since 1982, as the era of Southern segregationist Democrats came to a close. But the history between the two candidates adds a unique twist to a contest that would not even be taking place had Ms. Hyde-Smith not upended Mr. Colom’s nomination by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to a district court seat.

“It is fair to say that I would not have resigned from the federal bench to run for Senate,” Mr. Colom, who is Black and who has been elected three times as the prosecutor for a four-county district in northeast Mississippi, said in an interview.

The MAGA hotbed of Mississippi is an acknowledged reach for Democrats. But they have begun to pay attention to it given Mr. Colom’s appeal and credentials, and as the national political environment improves for their party. Democrats are hoping the momentum they have shown in elections around the country this year can translate into competitive races outside the top tier and deliver an unexpected win or two.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and minority leader who plays a central role in mapping his party’s Senate campaign strategy, has long been intrigued by the prospect of competing in Mississippi. He met with Mr. Colom multiple times in recent years in an effort to recruit him.

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“This is a good year to expand the map, and Mississippi is a long shot,” Mr. Schumer said. “Still, if it’s ever going to be doable, this is the year.”

He and other Democrats point to a close contest for governor in Mississippi three years ago that suggested Democrats could still compete there given the right conditions. And they see Democratic success in Georgia, another Southern state with a significant Black population that has elected two Democratic senators, as a template for Mississippi. Plus, they say, President Trump is not on the ballot to draw out his base and Ms. Hyde-Smith, a low-profile lawmaker and former state agriculture commissioner, is vulnerable.

Republican strategists in Washington and Mississippi dismiss Democratic designs on the state as a pipe dream, saying Ms. Hyde-Smith is well positioned to win a second full term after being appointed to fill a vacancy in 2018. They say Mr. Colom is waging a campaign of retribution because she cost him the judgeship.

“Colom should save himself the embarrassment of being denied a job twice by Hyde-Smith,” said Bernadette Breslin, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The Hyde-Smith campaign is hitting Mr. Colom with the same criticism the senator raised when she killed his nomination: he was backed in his races by contributions from the far left and supported transgender rights. The transgender issue played well nationally for Republicans in 2024.

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“Colom’s extremist views have no place in Mississippi, which is exactly why Senator Hyde-Smith blocked him from the federal bench and will defeat him in November,” Jake Monssen, who is managing the Hyde-Smith campaign, said in a statement that called the prosecutor the “transgender defender.”

Mr. Colom, who in 2021 signed a letter with other prosecutors opposing the criminalization of transgender care, said her claim that he would not protect female athletes was wrong and noted that he coaches his two soccer-playing daughters.

“I am not for biological boys playing girl’s sports,” Mr. Colom said.

The prosecutor said he didn’t envision his candidacy as payback for the senator torpedoing his nomination and that he had forgiven her after witnessing some of the forgiveness expressed by victims of serious crimes he had prosecuted.

But he said Ms. Hyde-Smith’s opposition had led him to play closer attention to her record and that he did not like what he saw, including her votes against an infrastructure bill and for the major Republican policy law enacted last year that cut funding for safety net programs like Medicaid — a major source of health care in the state — to help pay for large tax cuts.

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“We are already in a situation where our rural hospitals are in terrible shape,” he said. “We are already in a crisis, and she made it worse. We can’t afford this type of leadership in D.C.”

Despite Ms. Hyde-Smith’s objection, Mr. Colom’s judicial nomination had significant support from other Mississippi Republicans, including the senior G.O.P. senator, Roger Wicker, as well as two former Republican governors, Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant. The Colom family has long ties to Republican leaders in the state.

So far, the Democratic Senate campaign committee and the political action committee aligned with Mr. Schumer have not devoted resources to the race. But party strategists have seen signs that give them glimmers of hope, including a surge in primary turnout in the state in March that saw nearly as many people vote in the Senate Democratic contest as the Republican one — a notable difference from previous years. They also point to ongoing voter registration campaigns they believe could aid the Democrat.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York and the chair of the Democratic Senate campaign arm, called the possibility of Mr. Colom knocking off the senator who bounced him from the bench “poetic justice.”

The clash is not the first time rejection for a federal judgeship has prompted an ex-nominee’s interest in Washington. Jeff Sessions, the former Republican senator from Alabama and attorney general, had his nomination shot down by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986. A decade later, Mr. Sessions won election to the Senate, where he would eventually sit on that very panel.

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