Politics
Watchdog claims victory over Pentagon animal testing as lawmakers demand accounting of taxpayer funds
After several lawmakers criticized the Pentagon for sanctioning painful experiments on dogs, an animal-testing watchdog group said the Defense Department is only the latest agency to be exposed. Now, one-by-one, departments have been forced to put a stop to it.
One month after Fox News reported on the matter, representatives Young Kim, R-Calif., and Donald Davis, D-N.C., led more than two dozen House members in demanding a specific accounting of how the Pentagon spent taxpayer money in this way.
At the same time, a spokesperson for the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), an organization dedicated to ending the taxpayer-funded experimentation on animals, said he hopes the new attention, as well as a rider in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), will make the Pentagon the second known federal agency to halt painful testing on animals.
Justin Goodman, WCW’s vice president, said in addition to the experimentation highlighted in June, Pentagon-sanctioned testing has also reportedly been “electroshocking” cats to study erectile dysfunction.
PENTAGON’S ‘BARBARIC’ DRUG TESTING ON DOGS RAISES HACKLES WITH PET-LOVING LAWMAKERS
A beagle in snow (iStock)
He noted the exposure of the testing led House lawmakers to insert an amendment into the 2025 NDAA to ban the Pentagon from continuing with any biomedical pet testing. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., a member of the Congressional Dog Caucus, drafted that particular amendment.
The letter, addressed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, demands information on the timeline for dog testing, the number of dogs who underwent experimentation, the USDA “pain category” of Pentagon animal tests and an explanation of the testing relative to the fact the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not mandate canine testing for human drugs.
“We are concerned by the DOD’s use of taxpayer dollars on inhumane dog experiments for human drugs and do not believe it is a prudent use of its resources,” the letter states.
It also asked for figures on current grants, contracts and expenditures related to testing at the present and within the last five years. Goodman noted the particular defense contract relating to the beagle testing revealed in June ended July 31.
FAUCI UNDER FIRE FOR REPORT ALLEGING NIAID SPENT $400K FOR RESEARCH INFECTING DOGS WITH PARASITES
A plane flies over the Pentagon Jan. 11, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“This new letter also follows and cites our successful effort in the NDAA to unite Democrats and Republicans to defund all the DOD use (of cat and dog testing).” Goodman, whose group helped draft the letter, said.
“We have obviously exposed drug testing on puppies and these kitten-crippling experiments, but we don’t know the full extent of this wasteful spending because there’s such a lack of transparency about it.
“We eliminated dog and cat testing at the VA in recent years. And now we are working to make the DOD follow suit. And, unfortunately, there are several other agencies, including the NIH and the USDA, which are also spending taxpayer dollars to experiment on pets.”
Kim, the main signatory on the letter, said the Pentagon spent nearly $1 million on beagle testing alone, and she called the practice “inhumane and cruel.”
“The fact that this study was conducted despite DOD’s policy banning the use of dogs and cats for medical or surgical training and weapons development research shows we must continue to hold the administration’s feet to the fire and demand accountability,” she said.
Davis added that public funds should never be used for such testing and that Congress must work to stop the practices.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., who signed the letter, called the practice “horrendous.”
“It must stop immediately,” she said. “As co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, I’m proud to work across the aisle on efforts to stop DOD and other government agencies from abusing these innocent dogs and cats with cruel, costly and absolutely unnecessary experiments.”
Her fellow New York Republican, Michael Lawler, added that using taxpayer funds to experiment on animals is the “last thing” the Pentagon should be doing.
“Pet abuse is wrong, and we should all be working to end it. That must include the Biden administration, who have shown a propensity to testing on cats and dogs,” he said.
Two other signers offered similar takes, with Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, calling the practice taxpayer-funded “torture [of] animals,” and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., saying the Pentagon should look to proven, non-animal testing methods that are available.
In response, a Pentagon spokesperson said that, as with all congressional correspondence, the agency will “respond directly to the authors.”
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for the department to comment on proposed legislation,” the spokesperson said.
In his interview with Fox News Digital, Goodman also discussed a 2022 letter from Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough to Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., regarding feline experimentation to benefit stroke survivors and vets who have undergone amputations.
McDonough wrote to Heinrich, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the VA, telling him he approved of such a study and included a legally-mandated report on it.
Goodman said the VA has since been compelled by Congress to suspend any active testing on cats, dogs or primates by 2026 and took issue with any claim McDonough has been opposed to such testing.
A metal plaque on the facade of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington, D.C. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
In response, a spokesperson for the VA said approval of a study does “not at all mean advocacy for the continuation of the policy” and suggested McDonough has been a bureaucratic leader in trying to halt such tests.
“Under Secretary McDonough’s leadership, we are no longer conducting any feline testing and are now bringing an end to animal research on sensitive species,” VA press secretary Terrence Hayes said.
“Historically, VA has conducted research using sensitive species only when absolutely necessary to care for those who have served in our military. Over the last 19 years, VA has proactively reduced the number of studies involving sensitive species, driving an over 90% decrease in these types of studies,” Hayes added.
“The allegation that Secretary McDonough was personally advocating for this research is false.
Asked about the matter, Kim said it makes her wonder where else such testing is happening in the federal government.
“Resorting to testing animals should never happen, especially as we advance technological innovation,” Kim said.
When the Americans freed from Russia stepped on U.S. soil late Thursday night, the first hugs came from a beaming President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The scene showed a dramatic, poignant and possibly life-saving rescue of “wrongly detained” U.S. citizens.
It was also the kind of image political election campaigns would pay a fortune to get.
Politics, perhaps inevitably, became a subtext to the multinational prisoner swap that freed 16 Westerners from Russia and sent eight Russian spies and at least one convicted assassin back to Russia.
Biden, in announcing the hard-fought deal, credited the relationships with U.S. allies, especially Germany, that he had worked to repair after the era in which then-President Trump was dismissive of such partnerships. Even now, Republicans are campaigning on a platform that promotes isolationism.
“Allies matter,” Biden said from the White House earlier Thursday, surrounded by families of the prisoners as he announced the swap was under way.
“For anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do,” he said in an unsubtle dig at the GOP. “Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world. Friends you can trust, work with and depend upon, especially on matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this.”
Biden noted that Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey, as well as Germany, had to be persuaded to make “bold and brave” decisions to cooperate, in some cases agreeing to release criminals without receiving anything in exchange. All five countries are members of NATO, a longtime Trump target.
Biden was able to burnish his legacy as a world leader with keen diplomatic skills in the twilight of his long political career, a redemptive and validating moment for a man essentially being forced aside.
At the same time, administration officials were deliberate in placing Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the center of the picture. They emphasized what they described as her role in sealing the deal, including a one-on-one meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a reluctant participant in the exchange.
Scholz’s assent was essential because of the release from German prison of a convicted Russian government assassin, who had killed a former Chechen rebel in broad daylight in the middle of Berlin, satisfied Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top-of-the-list demand. (Germany received five of its citizens who had been imprisoned in Russia.)
Administration officials also saw to it that Harris was at Joint Base Andrews, site of the U.S. military airport outside Washington where the freed Americans arrived, in time Thursday night to be part of the reception. Earlier Thursday, her participation was not certain because she was in Texas delivering a eulogy at the funeral for Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“This is an incredible day and you can see it in the families and in their eyes,” Harris said from the tarmac where the freed Americans landed. The former captives, she said, showed “incredible courage in the face of atrocious and devastating circumstances.”
She both reveled in the heady moment and praised her boss and what his policies — many of them hers too — can accomplish.
“This is an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and strengthening alliances,” she said.
Whether or not by design, the deal also proved Trump wrong when he recently suggested that only he would be able to free the most high-profile of the captive Americans, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, because of his friendship with the autocratic president of Russia. He had said Putin would release the reporter as a “favor” when Trump wins the election.
It is not clear what impact any of this will have for voters.
But Trump was not waiting to find out. He swiftly launched into a rant disparaging the prisoner swap, suggesting without evidence that the administration may have paid cash for the release of Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan. U.S. officials said they did not pay Russia anything nor agree to ease any of the many sanctions Washington has imposed since Putin invaded Ukraine.
U.S. negotiators were “an embarrassment,” Trump said.
“They’re calling the trade ‘complex’” the Republican presidential candidate wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. “That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is!”
Every president in recent years, including Trump, has overseen deals to free U.S. citizens from imprisonment in foreign countries.
Biden, asked during his White House remarks about Trump’s brags that he could have freed hostages without giving up anything, said curtly: “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?”
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, made the unusual assertion that Moscow acted out of fear of a Trump presidency.
“We have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home?” he said on CNN. “And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house. …
“That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength,” Vance said.
The comment left senior administration officials scratching their heads.
“Well, on the last comment, I — I don’t — I don’t know what to say,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday on CNN.
“There’s absolutely zero evidence at all that this deal was brought about because of some potential fear of who might be the next president,” Kirby said.
As positive and optimistic as the scenes of the return were, Democrats might have a reluctance over using the images in the campaign. The prisoner swap carries some baggage: those Russians freed from Western custody in the exchange include convicted criminals.
In addition to the government assassin, there was a sleeper cell posing as a married Argentine couple with kids while spying; suspected malicious computer hackers; people accused of busting sanctions to steal U.S. military technology for Russia, presumably to use in its war in Ukraine.
By contrast, the Westerners who Russia freed were seen by the U.S. as innocents — journalists and peaceful opponents to the Putin regime.
Critics also note that these exchanges risk sending a message that rogue nations or entities can capture Americans or other Westerners, and the U.S. will make a deal.
“We need to find a way to break the cycle of innocent people being imprisoned in Russia on trumped-up charges and used as bargaining chips by Putin to secure the release of stone-cold killers who acted on his behalf,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “Russia needs to pay a heavier price in the future when they turn innocent people into pawns for their corrupt regime.”
Biden’s account on X, meanwhile, features photos and videos of the former captives joyfully embracing relatives. “Tonight is about reuniting families,” Biden wrote in one post. “Welcome home, Paul, Evan, and Alsu. You’re right where you belong.”
Native American voters were key to helping Democrats clinch Arizona in 2020. Though they make up only about 5 percent of the state’s population, they tend to vote heavily Democratic, and their power at the ballot box is growing through grass roots efforts to register and turn out the Native vote.
But in this election, many Native voters say they feel exhausted, disappointed and torn about how to vote. Some were re-energized by Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee. But overall it was frustration and anxiety that we heard as we talked with more than four dozen voters around Phoenix and on the Navajo Nation, the country’s largest reservation, about their concerns.
They worried about Arizona’s increasingly deadly heat. Many voters felt like they had been left out of the state’s growing economy, with unemployment for Native Americans almost double the national average. And they questioned why electricity, running water and good health care were still out of reach on reservations, even after the passage of a huge infrastructure bill in 2021.
Inflation, Immigration and Abortion Hit Close to Home
In interviews, many Native voters said the sting of inflation was even worse on reservations struggling with chronic poverty. People who commute hours to work from their rural homes on the Navajo Nation say they are spending hundreds of dollars more on gas. A loaf of bread at the sole grocery store in their towns can now run them $5.
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Liam Enos, 17, also a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, will cast his first vote in November. He wants to study business in college and is leaning toward Mr. Trump, because he wants the next president to bring more jobs and businesses. “I want to vote for someone who can help our community,” he said.
But Tony Santo, who runs a roadside stand serving fry bread and green chile, said too many people in his life had died of Covid for him to consider supporting the former president. “He disrespected the whole country,” Mr. Santo said.
On some of the most divisive issues facing Americans, Native voters were also split, with issues like immigration and abortion hitting close to home.
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Henrietta Jackson, 54, says she opposes Republican efforts to restrict abortion. At the same time, she is exasperated by how much the campaigns are focused on the issue. “It’s nobody else’s choice,” she said. “What we should be focusing on is getting our country united.”
Maryetta and Henrietta Jackson
With so much at stake, Native voters say they’re ultimately looking for a candidate who can bring answers — and change.
“We depend too much on the government,” said Olson Paddock, a 68-year-old retired nursing-home worker. “I’m pro-Trump. He’s the only one who’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
Sepchedhiosik and Angel Molina
Some who had been flirting with third-party candidates said they were now solidly backing Ms. Harris. Some even said they felt some optimism, including Angel Molina, 20, a member of the Gila River Indian Community.
“All I can do is hope that we will be able to come together,” she said, “and make a good judgment on what the future of our country will look like.”
Politics
GOP senators react to acting Secret Service Director Rowe’s press conference: 'Clearly a cover-up’
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was among a number of Republican lawmakers who reacted to acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe’s press conference Friday about the assassination attempt on former President Trump at a rally in July. Lee said he believes there’s more to the story than what Rowe told reporters.
“It is clear that the American people still have not been given the full story,” Lee told Fox News Digital in a statement. “From the beginning, rally attendees and people with cellphone footage seem to have been more invested in stopping the shooter and figuring out what happened than the Secret Service itself. It is shocking that more officials have not been held accountable.”
Lee added that he would “not stop hounding” the Secret Service for “this egregious failure.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said there was “clearly a cover-up.”
TRUMP RALLY VIDEO AFFIRMS SECRET SERVICE ‘FAILURE’ AFTER FIGURE SEEN ON ROOF BEFORE SHOOTING: ACTING DIRECTOR
Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe addresses reporters’ questions during a news conference Friday. (Fox News )
“I do not believe acting Director Rowe was forthcoming, as the government rarely admits to being wrong,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “I suspect that Rowe knows precisely who was responsible for this massive security failure and that this is clearly a cover-up. We need a detailed investigation and transcribed interviews to uncover the truth.”
Only three in 10 Americans are extremely or very confident the Secret Service can keep presidential candidates safe since Trump’s assassination attempt, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital he appreciated Rowe’s willingness to hold the press conference.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee joint hearing Tuesday. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s obvious that this was an epic failure by the leadership of the Secret Service and DHS, whose main responsibility was to protect President Trump at this rally,” Scott said. “Since the shooting, it seemed we got new information from outside sources but nothing from the agencies investigating this failure. So, I appreciate acting Director Rowe’s decision to give an update to the American people in a press conference today, and I encourage him to continue.”
He added that the FBI must follow suit.
“Unless we start getting daily press conferences, conspiracy and rumor will run wild, and trust will permanently disappear,” he said. “The American people still have unanswered questions, and they want to know people are being held accountable for the admitted failures.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital he appreciated Rowe’s willingness to meet with reporters Friday. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital: “When the Secret Service fails to accomplish its mission, people die. The tragic events that occurred in Butler, Pennsylvania, were a direct consequence of their failure, and the agency must listen to the concerns of every whistleblower that comes forward. We will be watching to ensure the Secret Service’s internal investigation results in real accountability.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Miss., reacted on social media Friday to a reporter writing about Rowe insisting the Secret Service didn’t know the shooter had a gun until he started firing.
“But Secret Service was IN CHARGE of this event, and in charge of local law enforcement,” Hawley wrote on X. “USSS lack of knowledge about events transpiring over nearly *two hours* at their own event is inexcusable.”
TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
During Friday afternoon’s press conference, Rowe gave updates on the investigation into the ill-fated Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, saying the Secret Service takes “full responsibility” for the security “failure” when Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump in the ear.
Former President Trump was shot in the ear while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pa., July 13. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
A rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, was killed in the shooting, and two others were critically injured.
“The Secret Service takes full responsibility for the tragic events of July 13. This was a mission failure. The sole responsibility of our agency is to make sure our protectees are never put in danger. We fell short of that in Butler, and I’m working to make sure that this failure does not happen again,” Rowe said Friday.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he thought there was “clearly a cover-up.” (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He pledged to fully cooperate with congressional oversight investigations and an independent review ordered by President Biden. The Secret Service is also conducting its own internal review.
“If policy violations by Secret Service personnel are identified by the agency’s mission assurance review, those individuals will be held accountable, and they will be held accountable to our fair and thorough disciplinary process,” Rowe said.
Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
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