“Do you know what we’re here for? You know we’re here about AG.” “I don’t think you know what you’re here for.” “Well, you’re the one talking about —” “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up —” “Ain’t nothing —” “Hold on, hold on.” [gavel pounding] “Order.” “Mr. Chairman.” “That’s beneath even you —” “Order, order. Regain order of your committee.” “I would like to move to take down Ms. Greene’s words. That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person.” “Are your feelings hurt?” “Move her words, down.” “Aww.” “Oh, oh girl, baby girl.” “Oh, really?” “Don’t even play.” “Baby girl. I don’t think —” “We are going to move and we’re going to take your words down.” “I second that motion.” “You agree to strike your words?” “Yeah.” “O.K. — Ms. Greene agrees to strike her words.” “I believe she should apologize. No, no, no.” “Hold on. Then, after Mr. Perry’s going to be recognized, then —” “I’m not apologizing.” “Well, then you’re not striking your words.” “You reserve the right to object.” “I am not apologizing.” “Just to better understand your ruling: If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleached blonde, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?” “A what now?” “Chariman, I make, I make a motion to strike those words.” “I don’t think that’s —” “I’m trying to find clarification on what —” “Chairman, motion to strike those words.” We’re not, we’re not going to do this. Look, you guys earlier, literally just —” “You just voted to do this.” “Y’all did it first.” “You just voted to do it.” “Order, order.” “I’m trying to get clarification.” “Look — calm down. Calm down.” “No, no, no, no because this is what you all do. So I’m trying to get —” “Ms. Crockett, you’re not recognized.”

Fox News Media has invited the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign to participate in a vice presidential debate before the 2024 election. 

In a letter to the campaigns, Fox News Media said it requested the opportunity to host a vice presidential debate, and said it would be available to do so on July 23, August 13, or dates “following both nomination conventions.”

BIDEN CAMPAIGN ACCEPTS VP DEBATE INVITATION FOR SUMMER SHOWDOWN WITH KAMALA HARRIS AND TRUMP RUNNING MATE

The proposed vice presidential debate would be hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, who Fox News Media President Jay Wallace said “are obvious choices as the faces of our political coverage.” 

“In addition, FOX News Media has reached out to Virginia State University as a possible location, since it was selected by the CPD as the first historically Black College or University to host a Presidential debate,” the letter said. 

“Despite not having a Democratic debate in 2016/2020, FOX News was able to secure town halls with Democratic candidates such as: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand.
In recognition of FOX News Media’s capabilities and reputation, we cordially extend an invitation to all concerned parties to discuss our proposal,” the letter states. 

Former President Trump accepted the invitation Friday afternoon.

“On behalf of the future Vice President of the United States, who I have not yet chosen, we hereby accept the Fox Vice Presidential Debate, hopefully at Virginia State University, the first Historically Black College or University to host a Debate – Date to be determined,” Trump posted on his Truth Social. “I urge Vice President Kamala Harris to agree to this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” 

The Biden campaign already accepted CBS News’ vice presidential debate invitation for this summer, setting the stage for a showdown between Vice President Kamala Harris and whoever is selected as the Republican VP nominee. 

The campaign notified CBS News that they accepted the invitation to participate in studio on either of the proposed dates — July 23 or August 13. 

On Wednesday, the Biden campaign wrote a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, abandoning the decades-old tradition of three fall events organized by the debate commission. 

Former President Trump, shortly after, exclusively told Fox News Digital that he would accept the timeline proposed by Biden — scheduling the first presidential debate for June 27 on CNN and the second for September 10 on ABC News. 

Former President Donald Trump headlines a Republican National Committee spring donor retreat, in Palm Beach, Florida on May 4, 2024  (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

The Biden-Harris campaign asked that the debates occur inside a TV studio, with microphones that automatically cut off when a speaker’s time limit elapses. The letter also asked that the debates involve just the two candidates and the moderator — without “an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors.” 

TRUMP ACCEPTS BIDEN OFFER TO DEBATE HIM IN JUNE AND SEPTEMBER

They also want the debates without the participation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or other independent or third-party candidates. 

“We look forward to the Trump campaign accepting one of these dates so that the full debate calendar for this campaign can be set,” the Biden campaign said about the vice presidential debate schedule on Thursday. 

The fast scheduling began Wednesday morning after Biden posted a video to social media. 

“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal,” Biden said in a video message shared Wednesday morning. “I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.” 

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)

Trump, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital shortly after, said: 

“Crooked Joe Biden is the worst debater I have ever faced – he can’t put two sentences together,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “Crooked is also the worst president in the history of the United States, by far.” 

Trump told Fox News Digital that “it is time for a debate to take place – even if it has to be held through the offices of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which are totally controlled by Democrats and who, as people remember, got caught cheating with me with debate sound levels.”

JESSE WATTERS: BIDEN HAS A LIST OF DEBATE DEMANDS LONGER THAN A SPENDING BILL

“I’m ready to go,” Trump said. “The dates that they proposed are fine. Anywhere. Anytime. Any place. Let’s see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium.”

“The proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “I will provide my own transportation.”

And just moments later, Biden posted on his social media that he “received and accepted an invitation” from CNN for a debate on June 27. 

“Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, any time, any place,” Biden wrote. 

When asked for comment, Trump told Fox News Digital that he will accept and “will be there.” The Republican added that he is “looking forward to being in beautiful Atlanta.”

Later Wednesday, Trump took to his Truth Social, echoing his comments to Fox News Digital. 

“It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to ‘Catch on Fire.’ I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September,” Trump posted. “I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds – That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll be there. ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!’” 

Trump on Saturday appeared before a crowd of tens of thousands on the Jersey Shore in the deep-blue state. The campaign event was held in between Trump’s appearances in Manhattan Criminal Court.

A federal judge on Friday sentenced David DePape to 30 years in prison, six months after a jury found him guilty of attempting to kidnap former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and using a hammer to bludgeon her husband in a bloody October 2022 assault.

Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley delivered her decision during a hearing at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, reprimanding DePape at length and saying she believed he continued to pose a danger to the public and “all Americans.”

“He broke into the home of that public official, he broke into that private space of home and violently attacked a public official’s spouse,” Scott Corley said. “What that means and why this now is so harmful to everyone in the country and the future, is that when someone is considering now whether they want to go into public service, they have to think not only am I willing to take that risk myself, but am I willing to risk my spouse, my children, my grandchildren.”

DePape, dressed in an orange jail sweatsuit and wearing ankle restraints, did not outwardly react as his sentence was read.

The sentencing caps a federal trial that captivated the nation and raised chilling questions about the safety of public officials amid heightened political extremism and the proliferation of online venues that give traction to baseless fanatical conspiracy theories.

In letters to the judge that their daughter, Christine Pelosi, read in court, both Nancy and Paul Pelosi asked the judge to impose lengthy sentences.

In her letter, Nancy Pelosi said her husband continues to suffer physically and emotionally from the attack, and that the violent incident “has had a devastating effect on three generations of our family.”

“It is therefore necessary that the guilty party’s sentence be very long as a punishment for the attack and the injuries Paul continues to suffer — and as a deterrent to others considering violence against public officials,” the former speaker wrote.

Paul Pelosi said his life “has been irrevocably changed,” and that he hasn’t fully recovered. He noted that a blood stain on the front entryway and the metal plate now embedded in his head serve as enduring reminders of the assault.

Federal prosecutors had requested a 40-year federal prison term with a terrorism enhancement, arguing that DePape has demonstrated no remorse and that a tough sentence would serve as a deterrent to other would-be assailants motivated by ideological extremism.

“At a time when extremism has led to attacks on public and elected officials, this case presents a moment to speak to others harboring ideologically motivated violent dreams and plans,” Assistant U.S. Attys. Helen Gilbert and Laura Vartain Horn wrote in a May 10 filing.

DePape faced a combined 50 years in federal prison: 30 years on the assault charge and 20 years for the attempted kidnapping. Scott Corley sentenced him to the maximum term on both counts, but to be served concurrently for a total of 30 years. He will get credit for the roughly 18 months he has spent in state custody.

DePape, 44, was accused of traveling from his Richmond residence to the Pelosis’ Pacific Heights home in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2022, with plans to hold the lawmaker hostage and interrogate her regarding unfounded claims fueled by far-right conspiracy theorists of corruption, human trafficking and child abuse by Democrats and other public figures.

DePape broke into the home, but instead of finding Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, he stumbled across the bedroom where her husband was sleeping.

“The door opened and a very large man came in, with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other hand,” Paul Pelosi testified. “And he said, ‘Where’s Nancy?’ And I think that’s what woke me up.”

He was able to get to his cellphone and dial 911. When the police arrived, the two men were struggling over DePape’s hammer. The prosecutors showed jurors graphic police body-camera video of DePape bludgeoning Paul Pelosi, then 82, fracturing his skull and seriously injuring his right arm and left hand.

Still-pending state charges accuse DePape of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and threats to a public official and her family. In contrast, the federal trial centered on whether DePape’s actions that morning were indelibly tied to Speaker Pelosi’s official duties in Congress.

In making their case, federal prosecutors provided jurors a detailed review of DePape’s online purchases and search history to demonstrate how he spent months preparing for the attack. Jurors heard portions of a police interview in which DePape said he considered Speaker Pelosi the Democrats’ “leader of the pack,” and that he would “break her kneecaps” if she didn’t admit to corruption and other claims of human trafficking and child abuse.

DePape’s federal public defenders, Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, had urged the judge to consider a more lenient 14-year sentence, arguing their client suffers from mental health issues and trauma from an abusive relationship with Gypsy Taub, his former romantic partner and the mother of his children.

Linker and Chuang never disputed that their client committed the violence. They instead tried to convince the jury that DePape was motivated by elaborate conspiracy theories that were nonetheless his deeply held beliefs.

They referenced support letters from family and friends describing the crimes as “completely out of character.”

“David was never violent when he was young, and I am sorry that this has happened,” DePape’s stepfather, Gene DePape, wrote in a statement to The Times. “I am very sorry to Paul and Nancy.”

The attorneys based much of their request for leniency on the influence of Taub, a Bay Area nudism activist who recently served time in state prison for trying to abduct a 14-year-old boy in Berkeley. They maintained Taub isolated DePape from his family and “immersed him in a world of extreme beliefs where reality is not reality.”

“His long-term relationship with his ex-partner, Gypsy Taub, inflicted immeasurable harm to his mental state and what little support network he had in the form of his family,” DePape’s attorneys wrote in a May 10 sentencing memo.

Chuang reiterated that argument during the sentencing hearing, saying DePape was “gaslit, abused and he was very intentionally cut off from his family,” while Taub watched quietly from a court bench.

In a recorded audio statement she sent The Times this week, Taub dismissed the attorneys’ allegations of abuse, saying: “I love David. I will always love him, regardless of what he does or says.”

“He’s an incredibly beautiful human being. But he’s very broken,” Taub said.

During an interview with The Times before DePape’s trial in her cluttered, eclectic Berkeley home, Taub espoused a number of conspiracy theories, using phrasing nearly identical to what DePape shared in his testimony, including her belief that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were really “an inside job” and that government has been corrupted by satanic cults that prey on children.

At the time, she was adamant DePape had been falsely accused in the Pelosi attack, describing him as sweet and gentle. He was such a nice person, she said, that even after she married another man, she allowed DePape to keep living in her home and supported him financially.

In one video Taub shared from more than a decade ago, she and DePape are nude, discussing his recent experience with psychedelics at a Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.

“What is your dream for the planet?” Taub asked.

“I’d really like there to be peace,” he responded.

“And if the whole world could hear you right now, what would be your message to the world?” she asked.

“God is love. God is loving,” he said. “And this is an illusion.”