Politics
Michigan Republicans continue to spar with Dems over deal with Chinese EV company in key House race
The race for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District is generating national attention as Republicans attempt to tie their Democratic opponent to a controversial deal with a Chinese Communist Party-backed company.
Michigan Republicans are calling on former Democratic State Sen. Curtis Hertel, who is currently running to represent Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, to break his silence on a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) he signed in order to obtain details on controversial plans to use taxpayer funds to help build an electric vehicle battery plant in west Michigan owned by a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The plant, which was announced by Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2022, was set to get millions in incentives as part of a deal with Michigan lawmakers and Green Charter Township, with promises of bringing over 2,000 jobs to the area.
But the project quickly drew the ire of local voters, in large part due to the company behind the plant, Gotion Inc., being a subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, which has strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
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Two former Michigan state Senators: Republican Tom Barrett, left, and Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr., right, are running to represent Michigans 7th Congressional District. (AP Photo/File)
Last fall, local voters ousted five of the seven township board members over their support of the project, while the other two members resigned.
That controversy has now bled over into the race for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, one of the few true toss-up House races in the state, thanks to Hertel being one of several lawmakers from both parties to sign the NDA with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that allowed them to learn about and negotiate details on the proposed plans for the plant.
Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is vacating her seat in Michigan’s 7th District to pursue a run for U.S. Senate, recently spoke out against the Gotion deal, further intensifying calls on Hertel to do the same.
“To me, until there’s a national security vetting, I don’t love the idea of moving forward on any project or any sale of farmland” to a Chinese entity, Slotkin told reporters at a campaign event earlier this month. “I believe that we need to not just think about economic [aspects], but also about the national security implications of Chinese-affiliated companies.”
Rep. Elissa Slotkin. (Getty Images)
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“Hertel must answer whether or not he agrees with his comrade pal Elissa Slotkin, and if he regrets signing the NDA to sell out Michigan taxpayers to the CCP,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella.
The controversy over the plant has also garnered attention in the presidential race, with former President Donald Trump saying on Truth social last month that he is “100% OPPOSED” to the plant, adding that Gotion “would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.”
Meanwhile, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, highlighted the controversy during a campaign stop in Michigan last week.
“I think the most important thing is we have to stop paying Chinese manufacturers to manufacture, whether it’s here or overseas,” Vance told reporters in Michigan after his speech. “We want to build an American manufacturing industry and an American middle class. If we want to pursue these policies, let’s do them for Americans and American businesses.”
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Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks at NMC-Wollard Inc. / Wollard International on August 07, 2024 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
But questions over Hertel’s involvement in the project continue to be the focus of Michigan Republicans, most notably after it was reported last year that Hertel was on of several Democratic lawmakers in the state to receive funds from a Political Action Committee (PAC) linked to the law office of Warner Norcross + Judd, a firm acting as a foreign agent to represent Gotion.
According to a Fox News report last September, the firm’s PAC donated $2,400 to the state campaign for Hertel, who represented Michigan’s 23rd State Senate district from 2015 until January.
One lawmaker who did not sign an NDA related to the project is former Republican State Sen. Tom Barrett, Hertel’s opponent in the race for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District. Barrett has also seized on the controversy, arguing Hertel owes people an explanation for his involvement with the project.
“Curtis Hertel, a 22-year career politician, owes the people of Mid-Michigan an explanation as to why he signed a secret NDA to give $175 million of their tax dollars to a CCP-backed company,” Barrett told Fox News Digital. “The fact that he took money from foreign agents on behalf of Gotion should disqualify him from Congress.”
Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Hertel campaign communications director Sam Kwait-Spitzer dismissed the claims by Republicans as a “false attack.”
“Curtis signed no NDA with Gotion, and Tom Barrett is trying to cover for his own record of voting against 5,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs here in Mid-Michigan and trying to cede the future of the auto industry to China,” he said.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Politics
Preliminary Hearing for Man Accused of Killing Charlie Kirk Starts in Utah
Prosecutors on Monday began laying out their case against the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. It was the first day of a weeklong preliminary hearing that will determine whether or not there is enough evidence against the accused killer to stand trial.
Politics
Top Platner ally turns on him after bombshell rape allegation rocks campaign: ‘Red line’
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Support for embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is cratering among Democrats, with one of his most prominent supporters calling on him to exit the race following a harrowing rape allegation.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., rescinded his endorsement and called on Platner to suspend his campaign following a bombshell Politico report detailing a rape allegation by Maine resident Jenny Racicot, 41, who previously dated the scandal-plagued candidate.
Platner immediately denied Racicot’s account — which alleges that he barged into her home in 2021 and forced her to have unprotected sex — but has said his campaign is determining its next steps.
She also went on CNN Monday evening shortly after the report was published to tell host Jake Tapper that “by dictionary definition” Platner “raped” her.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speaks at a town hall event on Feb. 20, 2026 in Stanford, California. The town hall focused on taxing billionaires and the future of AI. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
DEMOCRATS BREAK WITH SCANDAL-PLAGUED GRAHAM PLATNER, WARN OF ‘CIVIL WAR’ IN PARTY
“I thought, here’s a man who was drunk and who, by dictionary definition, raped me. And he’s blaming drunk women,” Racicot said. “So I just felt like that was a very odd take to have on that. And I also feel like with all of the comments that he made about women, sexual assault, rape, even, um, you know, the comments that he had made that was in The New York Times article about, you know, threatening people with rape, like, why does this person have this issue, like scattered throughout their life, throughout their commentary, like it‘s on their mind?”
“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said in a post on social media Monday evening. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”
Khanna’s statement preceded Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, issuing a joint statement calling on Platner to “immediately” leave the race, so the party can choose a new nominee.
The pair said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) would not invest in Maine — a top pick-up opportunity for Democrats in November’s midterm elections — if he continued to seek the battleground seat held by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Both Schumer and Gillibrand supported Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, in the contentious primary and did not endorse Platner until he won the party’s nomination.
Meanwhile, Khanna, a far-left populist with likely presidential ambitions, had embraced Platner’s insurgent Senate campaign for months amid a patchwork of controversies.
Khanna personally campaigned with the Maine Senate hopeful in June shortly before Platner became the party’s nominee. The campaign stop came just one day after Lyndsey Fifield, a former Platner girlfriend, accused Platner of abuse — an allegation first reported by The New York Times that Platner has fiercely denied.
By that point, Platner was also facing scrutiny for sending sexually explicit messages to at least half a dozen women while married, making a plethora of offensive online statements over the period of a decade and getting a Nazi-linked tattoo that he wore for most of his adult life.
Shannon Watts, a Democratic strategist and founder of the gun control group Mom Demands Action, slammed the timing of Khanna’s statement.
“You flew to Maine to campaign with him AFTER he was accused of assault against another woman,” Watts wrote on social media.
Khanna previously appeared to dismiss the severity of Fifield’s account alongside many Democratic lawmakers, who seized on her background in Republican politics. He also argued that Platner, a combat veteran who has struggled with PTSD, had overcome a dark past and was deserving of redemption.
“Here you have a case of someone who had a dark chapter in his life, was in toxic relationships, was ashamed about it, who served this country, and the Maine voters are saying, ‘Look, let’s give him some grace, and his focus is stopping these wars, and it’s getting national health insurance, and it’s taking on economic inequality,” Khanna told CBS News in an interview.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his primary election event in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026. (CJ Gunther/Getty Images)
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And Khanna told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum in June that he asked Platner if there were any credible allegations of sexual assault that had yet to be revealed. He said Platner denied it.
“I made it clear that, for me, is a red line,” the California lawmaker said. “And he said, no, there is not.”
“Now, obviously, he had texts that were allegedly consensual, and while he was married, And that’s a matter for him and his wife. And his wife came out and said that she forgave him. And so that is a different matter for me than abuse or assault or what people did in the Epstein class. It’s a very different matter.”
Khanna was not the only prominent Platner supporter to disavow the Senate hopeful following Monday’s rape allegation.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., an early Platner supporter, was the first prominent Democrat to rescind his endorsement after Politico’s report broke.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., rescinded his endorsement Monday evening, but stopped short of calling on Platner to exit the race.
Gallego, a former ally of disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has faced scrutiny over his past treatment of women. The Senate Ethics Committee recently dismissed a complaint brought by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., in a bipartisan manner.
His Arizona colleague, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who did not endorse Platner, also called on the Senate hopeful to suspend his campaign.
“Character and accountability matter regardless of party,” Kelly wrote on social media. “It’s time for Graham Platner to drop out and allow for someone else to be nominated and give Democrats the best chance to win this seat in November.”
Far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has championed socialist candidates across the country, also distanced himself from Platner on Monday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., talks to reporters as he heads for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on Jun. 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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“This is beyond red flags. This is irredeemable,” Piker said during his livestream.
Fox News Digital reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.
Politics
Trump heads to NATO as tensions simmer with Europe
WASHINGTON — The leaders of Europe are bracing for another turbulent summit with President Trump this week as NATO members gather for their annual meeting in the Turkish capital.
European diplomats view Trump’s decision to attend as a positive sign of his continued commitment to the alliance. But the president’s grievances with several European governments over their refusal to join the U.S. war with Iran have cast a pall over a summit already strained by Trump’s wavering support for the continent.
The secretary-general of the transatlantic alliance, Mark Rutte, told reporters on Monday that Trump had aired his resentments in a recent phone call. But Rutte countered with a mix of flattery and countervailing facts that has thus far kept Trump engaged.
While Trump has accused European leaders of denying U.S. forces access to allied bases for takeoffs and refueling during the war, Rutte noted that about 5,000 sorties supporting Operation Epic Fury launched from European airfields. And last Friday, France and Britain committed to a joint military mission with Oman to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz — “an extremely important development,” Rutte said.
At last year’s summit, held in The Hague, all NATO member states — with the exception of Spain — agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035, marking a significant increase in historic spending goals for modern Europe. The pledge is divided into two categories, with 3.5% of spending allocated to core military requirements, and the rest committed to a broad set of security-related investments.
Trump’s tough love on the alliance “is, I think, bringing NATO closer together,” the secretary general told reporters.
“You could argue that he is the first president of the U.S. since Eisenhower who was able to come to this situation where the Europeans and the Canadians will spend the same as the Americans” on security, Rutte said. “This equalization was a wish for 50, 60 years, and now it’s happening — I think in large part due to his leadership.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte speaks to reporters Monday ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
(Hussein Malla / Associated Press)
In a video message posted on social media Monday, Trump’s ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, said the summit this week would serve as a “report card” to determine whether countries were beginning to fulfill their commitments from last year.
He offered a note of optimism and suggested the president’s goal is to enhance, rather than undermine, the alliance.
“The United States will be here, but we also need our allies to be here. We cannot do it alone, and the American taxpayer should no longer bear the burden,” Whitaker said.
A White House schedule for Trump’s trip lists bilateral meetings with Rutte and the leaders of Turkey, Syria and Ukraine, in between alliance-wide meals and conferences.
Ukraine will remain at the top of the agenda, Trump told reporters Monday, expressing hope that the war could soon come to an end after four brutal years of fighting.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused the greatest loss of life in Europe since World War II, resulting in more than 1 million casualties, including an estimated 600,000 dead. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022, following his covert invasions of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and eastern regions in 2014, Russian forces have captured roughly 12% of Ukraine’s territory.
The war has settled into a deadly stalemate since a 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive failed to break Russian defensive lines. While Russian forces have occasionally advanced, they have only managed to hold marginal gains along the front, at tremendous cost.
In recent weeks, however, expanded Ukrainian drone and missile capabilities have shifted the dynamic, striking military production sites deep inside Russia and targets near Moscow, bringing the war more directly into the Russian public consciousness and raising questions in the Russian capital whether the war effort is sustainable.
Ukraine’s boldness has impressed the Trump administration, Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, told the Financial Times this week.
“I think he does feel pressure,” Trump said of Putin, addressing reporters in the Oval Office before departing for Turkey on Monday.
The president referred to an ongoing U.S. effort to end the war, a goal that has remained elusive for Trump since returning to office.
“I think we’re getting much closer than people realize,” he said. “President Putin wants it to end, I will tell you that. Very strongly. Had a good call. And President Zelensky actually wants it to end now.”
“We’re going to be going to NATO, and we’re going to be talking about it,” Trump added. “And I think we’re going to get it ended. It’s been terrible.”
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