EXCLUSIVE: Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is charging that overseas conflicts escalated under the Biden administration.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken testified before the committee in December after a report on the administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, where he was pressed to “take responsibility” for the widespread conflicts that erupted across the globe following the deadly event.

Speaking with Fox News Digital on Monday, Lawler delved into the report that claimed the Biden administration “has left the world in a worse off place than it inherited it” — beginning with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“The report on the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is his legacy and that of the Biden administration, because in my estimation, it’s set about a series of events around the globe that have left us in the most precarious place since World War Two, starting with that disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members,” Lawler told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

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The congressman detailed several tragic events under the Biden administration that followed the Afghanistan withdrawal, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, threats in the Indo-Pacific from China, and the “illicit” oil trade between China and Iran that Lawler says is “funding terrorism.”

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“This administration has left the world in a worse off place than it inherited it. And that, in my view, is the legacy of the Biden-Harris administration and that of Secretary Blinken,” the New York Republican said.

Lawler added that while national security has appeared in the most “precarious” position since WW2, foreign policy will soon look different under the incoming Trump administration.

A sign displaying photos and names of the 13 service members killed in a terrorist attack at Abbey Gate outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport is seen during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 9, 2024 in Washington, DC.  (Kent Nishimura)

“I think President Trump obviously had four years in which there was greater peace and prosperity around the globe. And the difference between Biden and Trump is that Biden is unable to stop conflicts. Trump is willing to act,” Lawler told Fox. “When you are strong, when your adversaries acknowledge and understand that you are willing to act and strike. They think twice about it.”

Lawler also said that he thinks “President Trump will be a very strong leader when it comes to foreign policy, when it comes to bringing these conflicts to an end.”

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., will serve as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee next Congress, where Lawler says there will be “a lot of the focus is going to be on reauthorizing the State Department operations,” such as how the agency programs operate and how its funds are used.

“I think, obviously, with President Trump coming in, the foreign policy of the United States is going to change,” Lawler said of the incoming administration. “It is going to be much stronger, much more unforgiving on our adversaries. And certainly seek to bring these conflicts to an end.”

More than a month after voting by mail in the presidential election, South Los Angeles resident Taylor Johnson learned that his vote had not been counted because election workers had taken issue with the way he signed his name on the ballot envelope.

The elections office told Johnson that his ballot signature didn’t match another signature they had on file. Johnson wasn’t sure which signature that was, but he knew it would have looked different: After printing his name for years, he perfected his cursive signature only a few months ago.

“Most people my age just kind of scribble,” said Johnson, 20, who works as an administrative assistant at a medical imaging clinic.

For young Americans who rarely sign anything beyond a paper receipt or a coffee shop iPad, a written signature just doesn’t mean much anymore — except when voting by mail, when a signature is critical to determining whether a mail ballot is counted.

In California, voters younger than 25 made up 10% of the November electorate, but had nearly 3 in 10 of the ballots set aside for signature issues, according to an analysis by the voter data firm Political Data Inc. More than half of the state’s ballots with signature issues were from voters younger than 35.

California generally verifies the identities of mail voters through their signatures. As many as three elections workers scrutinize each ballot envelope to ensure the signature matches the voter’s registration paperwork or driver’s license, and set aside envelopes with missing or mismatched signatures.

Election officials are required to notify those voters and give them an opportunity to fix the error.

In the November election, nearly 200,000 ballots were flagged for signature issues across California’s 58 counties. Nearly 6 in 10 were eventually counted through a process known as “curing,” in which a voter can fill out a form to attest that the flawed ballot was theirs, while more than 83,000 were not counted.

In a survey of voters whose ballots were flagged because of signature problems, 40% of respondents said their signature looked different than it used to, another 40% said they used a sloppy, incomplete or casual signature, “like one I use signing a restaurant bill,” and 12% said they forgot to sign the envelope entirely.

“When you’re dealing with a state with 22 million voters, and 16 million sending their ballots in with signatures, there’s a multitude of ways that some little nonsensical thing can create a problem,” said Paul Mitchell, a vice president at PDI who conducted the survey.

Orange County registrar of voters Bob Page recommended that voters look at the signature on their driver’s license before signing their ballots and should consider sending in a new registration form if their signature has changed. He said Orange County plans to send forms to 12,000 voters in hopes of getting a new signature on file.

“We know that signatures change over time,” Page said. “And we know that the way people sign at the little pad with their finger at the DMV is not how they really sign their names.”

Mitchell’s analysis found that in the state’s six most competitive congressional races, 85% of Republicans and Democrats whose ballots were flagged for signature issues were able to cure their ballots and have their votes counted, a 25-point jump over the statewide averages.

The Republican and Democratic parties mounted armies of volunteers and staff members to go door to door in the most competitive U.S. House of Representatives districts.

In the Central Valley, where Democrat Adam Gray narrowly bested GOP Rep. John Duarte, the number of ballots cured by Democrats and Republicans far outstripped the 187-vote margin of the race.

Campaign volunteers and workers went door to door in the districts, trying to talk to voters in person and explaining how to complete the ballot paperwork, in some cases helping them navigate scanning in, printing out and returning the forms.

Mitchell found that voters with no party preference had a far lower rate of return than voters affiliated with the Republican and Democratic parties in competitive swing districts, suggesting that each party was focusing on their most loyal voters first.

In less competitive districts, voters were more on their own.

Cassidy Crotwell, 22, registered to vote during an economics class in her senior year at El Toro High School in Orange County. Everyone in the class registered on their phones, she said, and she didn’t sign anything.

Crotwell learned about the issue with her November ballot signature through a text message from the Orange County Registrar’s office. Republican Rep. Young Kim, who represents her Congressional district, easily won reelection, and neither party mounted a meaningful curing operation there; no other groups or campaigns contacted Crotwell, she said.

She assumed the elections office had a signature on file from when she got her driver’s license at age 16, but her signature is “a little more defined now,” she said — the result of a job in human resources where she signs a lot of paperwork. She didn’t end up fixing her ballot but plans to update her signature the next time she goes to the DMV.

Johnson, the South L.A. voter, did not fix his ballot, either. By the time he learned his vote hadn’t been counted, the presidential election had been over for weeks.

In the 2026 midterms, Johnson said, he’s going to vote in person — no signature required.

Nebraska’s Republican Gov. Jim Pillen was injured and transported to a hospital on Sunday after he was bucked off a horse.

Pillen, 68, is expected to be hospitalized for several days.

The first-term governor was riding horses with his family when he was thrown off a new horse and suffered injuries, according to the governor’s office.

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Pillen was rushed to Columbus Community Hospital in Columbus, Nebraska, before he was transported, out of an abundance of caution, to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

“The Governor is alert and is in continuous touch with his team,” Pillen’s office said.

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Gov. Pillen is expected to be hospitalized for several days, though the severity of his injuries was not revealed. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

Pillen’s office did not detail what injuries he suffered or the severity.

The GOP governor was elected in 2022, running in the gubernatorial election that year because former Gov. Pete Ricketts, also a Republican, was term-limited. 

Pillen then appointed Ricketts to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat vacated by former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who resigned in 2023 to become president of the University of Florida. Sasse has since stepped down as the university’s president.

Pillen was elected as Nebraska’s governor in 2022. (Getty Images)

Pillen worked as a veterinarian and owned a livestock operation before he was elected as governor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.