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Democrat swing candidate called Biden’s border handling ‘a huge misstep’ after backing his approach as mayor

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Democrat swing candidate called Biden’s border handling ‘a huge misstep’ after backing his approach as mayor

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A Democratic candidate is facing scrutiny over an apparent reversal on the southern border as she seeks to flip a battleground House seat this year.

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti recently criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of the southern border, calling it “a huge misstep” and “really terrible” during a March podcast appearance.

The House hopeful, however, did not appear to publicly criticize the administration’s border policies when Biden was president.

Cognetti, who has served as the mayor of Biden’s hometown since 2020, is vying to unseat freshman Rep. Rob Bresnahan in November’s midterm elections. The Northeastern Pennsylvania contest promises to be one of the most competitive House elections this year.

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JAMES TALARICO SAYS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WAS CONVINCED BORDER SECURITY WAS ‘RACIST’

Former President Joe Biden speaks to a crowd during a fundraising event with the South Carolina Democratic Party at the Columbia Museum of Art on February 27, 2026 in Columbia, South Carolina. The event marked the sixth anniversary of Biden’s presidential primary win in the early voting state of South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Cognetti’s recent messaging criticizing Biden comes as some Democrats have largely pivoted toward the center on border security after the party’s messaging fell flat in 2024.

When Cognetti called for “better control at our borders” during a September 2021 interview with a local outlet, she did not appear to hold the Biden administration responsible for the problem.

In August 2023, Cognetti co-signed a letter with a handful of Pennsylvania mayors appearing to approve of the Biden administration’s approach to the border.

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“You are working to bring more order to the southern border with a combination of strategies,” the group wrote to Biden, adding that he had “rightfully promised” to tie border security with expanding pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants living in the United States. 

A spokesperson for Cognetti said the mayor had been consistent in urging Biden to secure the border during his presidency.

“Like a lot of Northeastern Pennsylvanians, she has seen what the scourge of Fentanyl has done to our community and has said that President Biden didn’t do enough to secure the southern border,” the spokeswoman said, adding that Cognetti is “no stranger to calling out politicians from either political party when they get it wrong.”

JOSH SHAPIRO KNOCKS BIDEN RECORD, SAYS DEMOCRATS FAILED TO DELIVER RESULTS AMERICANS COULD ‘SEE OR FEEL’

Scranton, Pennsylvania mayor Paige Cognetti speaks at a Safer America rally. President Joe Biden visited Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to discuss his plan to reform gun control. During his speech, he touted beating the NRA. Biden is visiting cities for his Safer America plan. (Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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Cognetti also advocated for a more lenient approach to immigration when Biden was president, arguing immigrants, including those who entered the U.S. illegally, “contribute greatly to our cultural and economic growth.”

The 2023 letter to Biden that Cognetti signed urged the president to grant and expand legal protections to Venezuelan, Honduran, Salvadoran and Nicaraguan nationals living in the United States.

Cognetti, who became mayor in 2020, also called for mass amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants during the onset of Biden’s presidency in July 2021. She warned that failure to deliver pathways to citizenship could become a “national security issue,” The Center Square reported.

“If we don’t do this now, we will start to erode in our strength and that becomes a national security issue,” Cognetti told reporters.

Bresnahan said Cognetti’s support for mass amnesty would make the district less safe and accused her mayoral tenure of resulting in a Scranton crime spike in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

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“Mayor Paige Cognetti’s soft-on-crime policies have already led to a spike in violence in Scranton, and her support for legalizing every illegal immigrant in the country will only make things worse, especially in her city where she downplays homicides and gang violence and wants to disarm the police,” Bresnahan said.

Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., arrives for a House Republican Conference caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

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A spokesperson for Cognetti fired back that the mayor has a “proven track record” of investing in local law enforcement and said she has overseen a decrease in violent crime. 

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the swing contest as “Lean Republican.”

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Video: Trump Settled a Case With Himself. Was That Legal?

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Video: Trump Settled a Case With Himself. Was That Legal?

new video loaded: Trump Settled a Case With Himself. Was That Legal?

The Trump administration this week created a $1.8 billion fund to dole out taxpayer dollars to the president’s political allies, and declared that Mr. Trump is immunized from tax audits. Our chief legal affairs correspondent, Adam Liptak, explains how these legally questionable moves test the Constitution’s limits on the president’s power.

By Adam Liptak, Paul Abowd, Nikolay Nikolov, Rafaela Balster, Jon Miller and Whitney Shefte

May 21, 2026

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Rep. Tom Kean Jr. says he expects to return to Congress ‘in the next couple of weeks’ after missing 100 votes

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Rep. Tom Kean Jr. says he expects to return to Congress ‘in the next couple of weeks’ after missing 100 votes

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Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., said Thursday that he expects to return to Congress “in the next couple of weeks” after missing 100 consecutive House votes during an extended absence tied to what his office has described only as a “personal health matter.”

“My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” Kean, 57, told the New Jersey Globe in his first public comments since stepping away from Capitol Hill in March.

“I understand the need for public transparency, and I appreciate the support of my constituents,” he added. “I anticipate that in the next couple of weeks, I’ll return to voting and to the campaign trail.”

Kean last voted on March 5 and has missed every House roll call vote since then, according to GovTrack. His absence has drawn heightened attention because Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and because Kean represents one of the country’s most competitive congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

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TOM KEAN JR’S PROLONGED ABSENCE PUTS PRESSURE ON HOUSE REPUBLICANS’ RAZOR-THIN MAJORITY

Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., is running for a third House term in 2026 after fending off Democratic challengers in prior election cycles. (Getty Images)

His office has repeatedly declined to disclose details about the illness, saying only that the congressman is focused on recovery and expected to return “soon.” Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Kean for additional comment.

Last week, Kean’s father, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean Sr., told NJ.com that his son was recovering from a “serious illness.”

“You can’t say definitely, but their best guess is now he’ll be out in two or three weeks,” Kean Sr. said, referring to doctors treating his son. “Any time you’ve been through a serious illness, you can’t be 100% the day you get back. You’re gonna be able to do things, but gradually ramping up.”

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COMPLEX PARTIAL SEIZURE RULED AS CAUSE OF PAUSING EPISODE DURING HOUSE FLOOR SPEECH, DEM CONGRESSMAN SAYS

Tom Kean Jr., GOP candidate for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, speaks at his election night party in Basking Ridge, N.J., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Stefan Jeremiah/AP)

Kean Sr. also said doctors expect his son to make a full recovery but declined to discuss the diagnosis.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters this week that he had spoken with Kean recently but was unaware of details surrounding the congressman’s condition.

“We’re expecting him back here soon. He’s had a medical issue,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I don’t even know the details.”

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JOHNSON WARNS HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO ‘STAY HEALTHY’ AS GOP MAJORITY SHRINKS TO THE EDGE

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill while House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., listens. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

The absence has become a growing political issue in New Jersey as Democrats target Kean’s swing district. Kean is running unopposed in the Republican primary on June 2, while several Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination.

Earlier this month, a top Kean aide told The New York Times, “There’s no cameras where Tom is.”

Kean consultant Harrison Neely said this week the congressman remains committed to seeking reelection.

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“What I can tell you is that the congressman is dealing with a personal health matter. He is focused on his recovery,” Neely told the New York Post.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Pack contributed to this report.

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Influencer files complaint against Steyer campaign, alleging violations

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Influencer files complaint against Steyer campaign, alleging violations

A political influencer has filed a complaint against Tom Steyer’s campaign for governor, saying the committee failed to notify her of disclosure requirements, as required by law, when she was paid to meet with Steyer in March and later produced social media content from the meeting.

What’s more, she said the Steyer campaign falsely accused her of posting paid content in support of Steyer’s chief Democratic rival, Xavier Becerra, and failing to disclose it in a complaint filed by the billionaire’s campaign this week.

Maggie Reed, who regularly posts satirical takes on politics to roughly half a million followers on Instagram and TiKTok under the username mermaidmamamaggie, said she was actually paid by Steyer’s campaign and signed an agreement that barred her from disclosing the payment.

She posted, and later deleted, a video from her meeting with Steyer in March.

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“In plain terms: the Committee paid for political content, structured it to look like an ordinary creator’s organic opinion, and used a non-disclosure agreement to keep the public from learning the truth,” says the complaint, filed Thursday with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission.

Steyer’s campaign disclosed in a campaign filing that it had paid the agency that represents Reed $5,000 for digital advertising, but didn’t indicate that the payment was connected to Reed’s meeting with Steyer or her production of content.

The Steyer campaign said that while it did pay to meet with Reed, it left the decision of whether to create content entirely up to her.

Since then, Reed has produced several videos expressing support for Becerra, the former California congressman and U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, but she said that she was not paid to produce those videos and that they reflected her genuine support for Becerra’s campaign.

Becerra has been the top Democrat in recent polling in the race, maintaining a narrow edge over Steyer and a firm grip on one of the top two spots in the June 2 primary that would send him to the general election in November.

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Reed’s complaint is the latest volley in a back and forth involving the use of paid influencers in the gubernatorial race.

Two influencers who support Becerra — but were not paid by his campaign — filed a complaint last week saying that a number of influencers had created paid content in support of Steyer but failed to disclose so in their posts.

Steyer’s campaign then filed a complaint earlier this week in which it leveled accusations against Reed and another influencer named Jay Gonzalez, who is now a paid staffer on the Becerra campaign. The complaint alleges that Gonzalez made several pro-Becerra posts after joining the campaign and belatedly amended them to include disclosure that they were sponsored.

The Becerra campaign has maintained that it does not otherwise pay influencers to produce content on its behalf.

Steyer’s complaint included screenshots of an email sent to Reed’s talent agency by a gubernatorial campaign gauging her interest in producing paid content.

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While the screenshots produced in Steyer’s complaint did not disclose who had sent the inquiry, Reed said in her complaint that the request had come from a staffer for the gubernatorial campaign of former Los Angeles Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa.

Disclosure of paid political content by social media creators is required in California thanks to a law passed in 2023.

Influencers themselves are required to disclose that a post they created was sponsored, but campaigns are required to notify them of the requirement.

Violation of the law doesn’t trigger civil, criminal or administrative penalties, but the Fair Political Practices Commission has the right to take violators to court and request that a judge force compliance with the law.

The agreement Reed signed with Steyer’s campaign, which was attached to her complaint, indicated that she needed to follow all applicable state, federal and local laws, but made no specific mention of her requirement to disclose that content she produced was sponsored.

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The agreement did specify that Steyer’s campaign might need to disclose the payment.

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