House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dismissed the top House Democrat’s demand for a primetime debate on the government shutdown.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote to Johnson on Monday morning challenging him to a debate on the House floor ‘any day this week,’ to be broadcast live ‘to the American people.’

Johnson suggested he would not entertain that, however, calling the move a ‘publicity stunt’ to reporters that same morning.

‘When the poll says that about 13% of the people approve of your messaging, then you make desperate pleas for attention, and that’s what Hakeem Jeffries has done,’ Johnson said.

‘We debated all this on the House floor. As you know, before we passed our bill, he spoke for seven or eight minutes. He had all of his colleagues lined up. They gave it their best shot, and they argued, and they stomped their feet and screamed at us and all that. And still we passed the bill in bipartisan fashion and sent it over to the Senate.’

The House speaker was referring to a short-term federal funding bill aimed at keeping the government running through Nov. 21, in order to give congressional negotiators more time to pass fiscal year (FY) 2026 spending priorities.

That bill passed the House largely along party lines — with two Republicans opposed and one Democrat in support — but has stalled in the Senate.

‘The House has done its job. I’m not going to let Hakeem try to pretend for theatrics. I mean, this is a [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] decision. The ball is in the Senate’s court now,’ Johnson said.

‘We don’t need to waste time on that nonsense. Those debates have been had. I mean, Hakeem is a friend and a colleague. I respect him, but we all know what he’s trying to do there.’

The government is in its sixth day of the current shutdown, with Senate Democrats having rejected the GOP-led funding plan four times.

Democrats in the House and Senate, infuriated by being sidelined in federal funding talks, have been pushing for an extension of Obamacare subsidies enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those enhancements would expire by the end of 2025 without congressional action.

‘Democrats have been clear and consistent in our position. The country needs immediate, bipartisan negotiations between the White House and congressional leadership in order to reach an enlightened spending agreement that reopens the government, improves the lives of hardworking American taxpayers and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis,’ Jeffries wrote to Johnson on Monday.

‘Unfortunately, Donald Trump and your party decided to shut down the government, because the GOP refuses to provide healthcare to everyday Americans. Further, you have kept House Republicans on vacation instead of working with Democrats to reopen the government.’

The government shutdown entered its sixth day on Monday, and Senate Democrats are so firmly planted in their position that unless there is a deal on expiring Obamacare tax credits, they will not reopen the government. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus have largely remained unflinching in their demand that Republicans and President Donald Trump agree to a deal on the tax credits, which are set to expire by the end of the year.

It’s one of several demands they made in their counter-proposal to the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR), and appears to be the one that they believe to be the most attainable. Their other demands, repealing the healthcare section of the ‘big, beautiful bill’ and putting guardrails on the rescissions, are a nonstarter for Republicans and the White House.

Still, no party that has introduced unrelated demands into a government shutdown fight has walked away with a victory. The last government shutdown in early 2019 saw Trump demand that Democrats provide funding for his border wall, and he walked away empty-handed.

Throughout last week, Senate Democrats maintained a posture that they wanted Republicans to come to the negotiating table on the subsidies, which are set to sunset at the end of this year. Conversations among members are ongoing, which both Schumer and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., have encouraged.

‘We want Democrats to talk with Republicans,’ Schumer said. ‘And so it’s a good thing.’

But, he countered that Republicans hadn’t offered ‘anything really new — just the same old stuff.’

‘And so, nothing new on [Obamacare], nothing on rescissions,’ he said. ‘And so, look, Democrats want to go back and negotiate again, but they got to negotiate with something, get something in return.’

Democrats’ initial push was to make the subsidies — created during the COVID-19 pandemic to ease the cost of healthcare premiums available through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — permanent. The subsidies were later enhanced through the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 when Democrats last had a trifecta in Washington. That change removed the income cap on the subsidies. 

Republicans have said that they are interested in working out something on the tax credits, but that there should be reforms to the program.

‘The Obamacare enhanced, or COVID subsidies, are inflationary, and rates have been going up because that program is fundamentally flawed in ways designed,’ Thune said. ‘That doesn’t mean it can’t be reformed and fixed. It can, but we can’t get to that conversation until we get the government back open.’

Lawmakers are set to again vote on Republicans’ CR, and it is again expected to fail for a fifth time Monday, given that no deal was struck over the weekend. Both sides agree that a deal won’t come from the top level, but will have to be borne from negotiations among rank-and-file members.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., has been directly involved in the member-level negotiations and said that Republicans did want to tackle the Obamacare issue. But, Democrats have to agree to reopen the government first.

‘It would be nice if Sen. Schumer could say his shutdown is complete, but we suspect that it will take members of his conference to make that decision on his behalf,’ Rounds said. 

A weekend away from Washington did little to soften Senate Democrats’ resolve as they again blocked Republicans’ effort to reopen the government, ensuring the shutdown will last at least a week.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and most of his caucus are adamant that unless a deal is struck on expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, commonly known as ObamaCare subsidies, they will not provide the votes needed to fund the government.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., needs at least eight Democrats to cross the aisle and support the GOP’s bill, which would reopen the government until Nov. 21.

However, only Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, have broken with their caucus to end the shutdown. Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., remains the lone Republican to buck his party.

Senate Democrats have remained steadfast in their demand that a deal must be reached to extend expiring ObamaCare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year. They argue that unless Congress acts, Americans who rely on the tax credits will see their healthcare premiums skyrocket.

Both Senate leaders are encouraging talks among rank-and-file members to find a solution, but neither side can agree on when exactly the subsidies should be dealt with.

When asked what the appetite for tackling the expiring subsidies was within the Senate GOP, Thune said it was ‘a mixed bag.’ 

‘But like I said, you know, there may be a path forward,’ he said. ‘I think a lot of it would come down to what the White House lands on that, but certainly not without reforms. And we all know the program is broken, it needs to be fixed, so that would be certainly a starting place.’

Schumer wants an additional bulwark added to a deal: President Donald Trump has to sign off on it, given that there may be resistance among House Republicans to extending the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

‘Look, the bottom line on that is we need the president to be involved. [House Speaker Mike] Johnson and a whole lot of his caucus don’t like the ACA, don’t want to do the extensions,’ he said. ‘A lot of Republican senators in the Senate do, but they’re not enough. Good is not enough.’

‘You need Johnson and you need Trump to get it done,’ he continued. ‘So that’s the bottom line.’

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that ‘we’re talking to the Democrats.’ When asked if he would work to make a deal with them on ObamaCare subsidies to reopen the government, he said ‘Yeah.’ 

‘I’d like to see a deal made for great healthcare,’ Trump said. Ii want to see great healthcare, I’m a republican but I want to see healthcare much more so than the Democrats.’ 

Schumer fired back in a statement that Trump’s ‘claim isn’t true — but if he’s finally ready to work with Democrats, we’ll be at the table.’

And Fetterman, who has routinely voted against shutting the government down regardless of which party controlled the Senate, recognized that without Trump’s greenlight, a deal would go nowhere.

He gave the example of a bipartisan border deal negotiated between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate in 2023 that was sidelined under orders from Trump.

‘It got tanked. Trump tanked that, and he wasn’t the president, and he didn’t have to sign that thing,’ Fetterman said. ‘So what I’m saying, where’s the leverage? Because ultimately, doesn’t he have to sign off on any of it anyway?’

A Senate Republican argued that Senate Democrats are demanding tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid for LGBT projects, pastry cooking classes, electric buses and more in exchange for reopening the government.

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have remained steadfast in their position that unless a deal is struck to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits, they will not provide the votes needed to reopen the government.

But Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., charged on the Senate floor on Friday that his colleagues’ demands go beyond their healthcare push, and is being driven by the ‘socialist wing’ of the Democratic Party, and more specifically, by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

‘I don’t think Senator Schumer was the person in charge, because Senator Schumer is not the leader of the Socialist wing of his party, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is,’ Kennedy said. ‘She’s running the show.’

When reached for comment, Ocasio-Cortez’s office pointed Fox News Digital to an interview she did with NBC News on Republicans’ claims that she was driving Democrats’ position. 

Ocasio-Cortez called the claims that she was running the show ‘ridiculous,’ and charged that Republicans were the ones that had shut down the government. 

‘It is so important to understand that these people are all talk, they are all talk, they are negotiating with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic leadership, and Democrats are united to that end,’ she said. 

He argued that congressional Democrats, driven by the far-left, wanted to unlock funding that Republicans and the White House had canceled earlier this year in the $9 billion rescissions package. 

The lawmaker listed out nearly $20 million in foreign aid funding that he alleged Democrats had their eyes on, including, $4.2 million for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex people in the Western Balkans and Uganda, $3.6 million for pastry cooking classes and dance focus groups for male prostitutes in Haiti, $6 million dollars for media organizations for the Palestinians and $3 million for circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia.

He also accused congressional Democrats of seeking hundreds of thousands for electric buses in Rwanda, transgender people in Nepal, a pride parade in Lesotho and for social media and mentorship in Serbia.

‘I could spend the rest of the afternoon here,’ Kennedy said. ‘We took all that out.’

Kennedy’s office did not provide details to Fox News Digital when asked specifically where the funding he referred to could be found. 

And Democrats’ goal in their counter-proposal to Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR) did not include a repeal of the rescissions’ package, which saw billions in foreign aid canceled earlier this year. 

Their plan demanded a permanent extension to the expiring healthcare premium subsidies, nearly $200 million for beefed up security for lawmakers, a repeal of the healthcare title in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ a clawback of canceled funding for NPR and PBS, and stiffer guardrails on President Donald Trump’s rescission powers.

However, their CR does not include a provision that would undo the broader rescissions package passed earlier this year that canceled billions in foreign aid funding.

And Senate Democrats have remained bullish in their demand that Senate Republicans must negotiate with them on a deal for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to earn their votes to reopen the government.

‘We have asked Republican leaders for months to sit down and talk to us, talk with us. They’ve refused and barreled us into a shutdown,’ Schumer said. ‘They thought they could bludgeon us and threaten us and scare us. It ain’t working, because my caucus and Democrats are adamant that we must protect the healthcare of the American people.’

Fox News reached out for comment from Schumer’s office but did not hear back immediately.

The Vatican’s top diplomat on Monday condemned both Hamas’ ‘inhuman and indefensible’ Oct. 7 attacks and Israel’s ‘ongoing massacre’ in Gaza, warning that even legitimate self-defense cannot justify the destruction of a ‘largely defenseless population.’

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state and one of Pope Leo XIV’s advisers, spoke in an interview marking the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel — a raid that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 people taken hostage.

Parolin said Israel’s military response has stretched far beyond the bounds of proportionality, turning Gaza’s crowded neighborhoods into ruins.

‘The war waged by the Israeli army to eliminate Hamas militants disregards the fact that it is targeting a largely defenseless population, already pushed to the brink, in an area where buildings and homes are reduced to rubble,’ he told Vatican media.

‘Those who are attacked have a right to defend themselves,’ he said, ‘but even legitimate defense must respect the principle of proportionality.’

Reuters reported that Hamas-run Gaza health authorities claim Israel’s campaign has resulted in over 67,000 deaths in Gaza, mostly civilians.

The remarks rank among the Church’s sharpest rebukes of the war. They also mark a shift toward a more forceful Vatican voice under Leo, who succeeded Pope Francis in May.

Parolin also faulted global powers for their paralysis.

‘It is… clear that the international community is, unfortunately, powerless and that the countries truly capable of exerting influence have so far failed to act to stop the ongoing massacre,’ he said.

‘I can only repeat the very clear words spoken by Pope Leo on July 20: ‘I renew my appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and to respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of the population.’’

Parolin went further, questioning the morality of arms sales to parties in the conflict.

‘It’s not enough to say that what is happening is unacceptable and then continue to allow it to happen,’ he said.

‘We must seriously ask ourselves about the legitimacy… of continuing to supply weapons that are being used against civilians.’

In July, Pope Leo XIV expressed sadness and called for a ceasefire after Gaza’s only Catholic Church was hit in an apparent Israeli strike, leaving at least two dead and several injured. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said ‘stray ammunition’ hit the church.

Parolin’s warning lands as European leaders face growing pressure to do more than issue statements of concern. His use of ‘massacre’ echoed humanitarian groups that say Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has collapsed.

At the same time, he reiterated the Church’s demand that Hamas free all remaining hostages.

‘Those attacks were inhuman and indefensible,’ he said, underscoring that neither side’s suffering diminishes the other’s.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Vatican on the matter.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Monday evening slammed Democratic lawmakers for shutting down the government amid one of ‘the most successful economies,’ calling on them to reopen the government tonight.

‘Democrats have SHUT DOWN the United States Government right in the midst of one of the most successful Economies, including a Record Stock Market, that our Country has ever had,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘This has sadly affected so many programs, services, and other elements of Society that Americans rely on — And it should not have happened.

‘I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open,’ he added. ‘In fact, they should open our Government tonight!’

Trump made the post after Senate Democrats, again, blocked Republican efforts to reopen the government, ensuring the shutdown will last at least a week.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and most Democrats say they won’t support funding the government unless Congress agrees to extend expiring ObamaCare subsidies.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., needs at least eight Democrats to back the GOP bill, which would reopen the government through Nov. 21. So far, only Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, have broken ranks to end the shutdown, while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., remains the only Republican holdout.

Democrats warn that without a deal to extend the subsidies expiring this year, millions could face soaring premiums. Both sides say they want an agreement but remain split over when to address the issue.

Schumer also wants assurance that Trump will sign any deal, pointing to expected resistance from House Republicans.

‘We need the president involved,’ Schumer said. ‘[House Speaker Mike] Johnson and a whole lot of his caucus don’t like the ACA, don’t want to do the extensions. A lot of Republican senators in the Senate do, but they’re not enough. Good is not enough. You need Johnson and you need Trump to get it done. So that’s the bottom line.’

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, ‘we’re talking to Democrats.’ When asked if he’d work with them on a deal to reopen the government, he said, ‘Yeah.’

‘I’d like to see a deal made for great healthcare,’ Trump said. ‘I want to see great healthcare. I’m a Republican, but I want to see healthcare much more so than the Democrats.’

Schumer fired back, saying Trump’s ‘claim isn’t true — but if he’s finally ready to work with Democrats, we’ll be at the table.’

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., tore into Special Counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of ‘spying on political opponents’ during the Jan. 6 probe and calling the alleged surveillance ‘an abuse of power beyond Watergate.’

The FBI, working under Smith’s direction, obtained call logs and metadata tied to nearly a dozen GOP senators, including Hawley, as part of its investigation into the Capitol riot, Fox News reported. The tracking involved call records and timestamps, not the content of the conversations.

Hawley told Fox News Digital on Monday that the newly released documents suggest that Biden’s administration was ‘spying on the president’s political opponents,’ which he called ‘a profound violation of the separation of powers.’

He said the activity fits what he views as part of a broader pattern of executive overreach under Biden, citing alleged surveillance of Catholic churches, parents at school board meetings and social media censorship.

‘The truth comes out. Biden’s Stasi who claimed to be saving ‘our sacred democracy’ in fact worked overtime to destroy it — all for power. They spied on Catholic churches, prosecuted pro-lifers, deployed the FBI against parents at school board meetings — and tried to tap the phones of their political enemies. Including mine,’ Hawley wrote on X.

‘This is an abuse of power beyond Watergate, beyond J. Edgar Hoover, one that directly strikes at the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the First Amendment,’ he continued. ‘We need a full investigation of all involved: who knew about it, who ordered it, and who approved it. Anyone and everyone who violated the law must be prosecuted. The way to save the country is to restore the rule of law.’

Hawley said he was targeted because he is a conservative Republican who vocally opposed Biden and ‘his lawlessness.’

‘It’s obviously totally partisan,’ the senator said, adding that he’s proud to have called out what he described as the abuse of power by the FBI. He also said the alleged conduct was ‘dangerous, very, very dangerous’ for the country.

Hawley said the scope of the alleged surveillance was even greater than Watergate.

‘This is worse than Watergate,’ he said, arguing that Biden ‘activated the entire government to go after anybody who dared to oppose him.’ He accused the administration of using agencies such as the FBI, DOJ and DHS to silence critics and monitor private citizens.

Hawley called for a full Justice Department investigation and said appointing a special counsel ‘who will devote their full attention to it’ would be appropriate.

‘We’ve got to have a total accountability, total transparency and a full accounting of everybody who was involved in this — everybody who knew about it, signed off on it, and had any part in it, and I just can’t imagine that this is legal… and anybody who committed legal violations needs to be prosecuted,’ he said.

Hawley has framed the controversy as a test of constitutional limits, saying the government must be held accountable when power is used to pursue political opponents instead of upholding the rule of law.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Two years since the horrific events of Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and killed 1,200 men, women and children, before they took 251 others into the Gaza Strip, there is still no hostage deal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is facing possible collapse. 

Netanyahu has found an unlikely ally in former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, who extended a ‘security net’ to the conservative leader this week in a move to secure the government as negotiations with Hamas remain ongoing. 

‘Nothing is more important than making this deal, bringing our hostages back home,’ Lapid said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

The need for Lapid’s political backing comes as right-wing leaders in Netanyahu’s coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s acceptance of President Donald Trump’s peace plan with Hamas and threatened to leave the coalition at numerous points over the last year. 

Netanyahu’s coalition lost its majority in the Israeli parliament in July when two ultra-Orthodox parties left their ministerial posts after an exemption that granted religious students a pass for military conscription expired. 

The move left Netanyahu’s coalition in control of just 50 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.

‘Now he’s totally dependent on the extreme alt-right within his government that says no to any deal [with Hamas],’ Lapid explained. 

When asked how likely he thought it was that special elections would be triggered once parliament returns from its Autumn break on Oct. 19, Lapid said, ‘very likely.’

A special election is unlikely to happen sooner than February or March 2026, Lapid explained, pointing to a designated time frame that allows for campaigning in Israel, should the Knesset trigger an early election cycle by November – just seven months sooner than the previously scheduled October 2026 elections. 

Lapid believes the Israeli public will favor a more centrist government that would encompass both the right and left, a move that would still prioritize Israeli security, but also ensure there is an end to the war in Gaza and repairs are made to Jerusalem’s international standing.

‘If there’s one thing I’m sorry about, [it] is the fact that nobody in the government has the political courage to stand up and say…this is a just war, we are doing what needs to be done in order to protect ourselves, but we are sorry for every child that loses his life,’ Lapid said. ‘Children should not die in grownups’ wars.’

‘As Jews, as human beings, as people who believe in Judeo-Christian traditions and morality, it’s heartbreaking,’ he added. 

Lapid said this failure of the current government not only led to ambiguity when it came to Israel’s strategy in countering Hamas, it fueled what he said is media bias and false reporting, and it cost Israel dearly in terms of international support, even among ‘groups that traditionally supported Israel.’

The opposition leader described a meeting he had with Netanyahu on Oct. 7, 2023, in which he said the prime minister appeared ‘gray and tired and old all of a sudden.’

 ‘I said something at that meeting that later on became a cliché – I said, ‘Prime Minister, this is the worst day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. 

‘What we need to do, is form a unity government,’ he said. ‘You have to get rid of the extremists in your government, and we can create a unity of government because we have opposite us, a challenge that is unparalleled to anything you, or I, have ever seen.’

Lapid said Netanyahu was ‘reluctant’ to pursue this route. 

‘Until this day, I’m sorry about this. I thought it was the right thing to do, and I still think it was the right thing to do,’ he added. 

Netanyahu has spent 15 years as Israel’s prime minister, first serving from March 2009 to June 2021, before retaking the top job in December 2022. 

Lapid described his lengthy tenure as ‘admirable’ and emblematic of his ‘resilience.’

‘But in other ways, I can see now, to say politely, the benefits of the two-term limits that you have in the United States,’ he added.

The opposition leader said he thinks Israelis are ready for a ‘unity government’ in response to Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition, noting that he thinks the upcoming elections will be ‘interesting.’

‘It’s going to cross political lines, and it’s going to be based on hope,’ he added in reference to the bloc he is building. ‘I know it sounds like big words, but I’m telling you, it is what we need right now. 

‘It’s been the hardest two years of everybody’s lifetime. And the first time in a long, long time, the fragility of the Israeli society was tangible to us. And we need to rebuild,’ Lapid added. 

Netanyahu’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions by the time this report was published.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2015 told the CIA he would ‘strongly prefer’ an intelligence report documenting Ukrainian officials’ concerns with his family’s ties to ‘corrupt’ business deals in the country ‘not be disseminated’ — and so it wasn’t, according to a newly-declassified email and records made public by the agency. 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe declassified the heavily redacted records, which he said he believes is an example of ‘politicization of intelligence.’

Fox News Digital obtained the declassified documents, which were discovered during a CIA review of historical agency records.

A senior CIA official briefed Fox News Digital on the declassified documents and intelligence report, stating that the intelligence was discovered along with an email showing that Biden ‘expressed a preference to not share the report.’

Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

CIA officials discovered and declassified an email dated February 10, 2016, with the subject line stating: ‘RE: OVP query regarding draft [REDACTED].’ The email was sent to the CIA.

The classification of the email was listed, and crossed out, as ‘SECRET.’

‘Good morning, I just spoke with VP/ NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding,’ the email states, signed by a redacted name, but with the title of ‘PDB Briefer.’ The ‘PDB’ is the presidential daily brief.

The report in question included intelligence revealing that Ukrainian officials viewed the Biden family’s alleged ties to corrupt business practices in Ukraine ‘as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.’

‘Intelligence officials agreed that, at the time of collection, it would have met the threshold [for dissemination], but based on the Office of the Vice President’s preference, the information was never shared outside of the CIA,’ the official said.

The CIA, during its review, confirmed that Biden’s request was granted and that the intelligence report ‘had not been disseminated.’

The senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that it was ‘extremely rare and unusual’ and ‘inappropriate to go outside of the intelligence community and inquire with the White House on the dissemination of a particular report for what appears to be political reasons.’

The newly declassified intelligence report, which Biden sought to keep private, had a subject line of: ‘NON-DISSEMINATED INTEL INFORMATION: Reactions of [REDACTED] Ukrainian Government Officials to the Early December Visit of Senior United States Government Official.’

The document states the date of the information came in December 2015. The document was created in 2016.

At the time, Biden was vice president and was running U.S.-Ukraine relations and policy for the Obama administration.

The intelligence document stated that ‘officials within the administration of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed bewilderment and disappointment at the 7-8 December 2015 visit of the Vice President of the United States to Kiev, Ukraine.’

‘These officials highlighted that, prior to the visit, the Poroshenko administration and other [REDACTED] Ukrainian officials expected the U.S. Vice President to discuss personnel matters with Poroshenko during the visit, and had assumed that the U.S. Vice President would advocate in support of or against specific officials within the Ukrainian Government,’ the intelligence states.

‘After the visit, these officials assessed that the U.S. Vice President had come to Kiev almost exclusively to give a generic public speech, and had not had any intention of discussing substantive matters with Poroshenko or other officials within the Ukrainian government,’ the intelligence states.

‘Following the visit of the U.S. Vice President, [REDACTED] officials within the Poroshenko administration privately mused at the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine,’ the intelligence states. ‘These officials viewed the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.’

Biden, on Dec. 9, 2015, gave a speech in Ukraine, in which he discussed corruption in the country.

‘And it’s not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption,’ Biden said in the speech. ‘The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform.’

In that speech, Biden also said Ukraine’s ‘energy sector needs to be competitive, ruled by market principles — not sweetheart deals.’

‘It’s not enough to push through laws to increase transparency with regard to official sources of income,’ he said. ‘Senior elected officials have to remove all conflicts between their business interest and their government responsibilities.  Every other democracy in the world — that system pertains.’

At the time, Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was investigating Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings. Several months later, in March 2016, Biden successfully pressured Ukraine to remove Shokin. At the time Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Biden, at the time, threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

‘I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’’ Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. 

Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

But during his first term, President Donald Trump was impeached after a July 2019 phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Burisma and Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted.

At the same time as that call, Hunter Biden was under federal investigation, prompted by his suspicious foreign transactions. 

Trump was acquitted in Feb. 2020 on both articles of impeachment against him — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — after being impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019. 

Meanwhile, the declassified intelligence report had a ‘warning,’ noting that ‘due to the extreme sensitivity, this report should be distributed only to the renamed recipients. No further distribution is authorized without prior approval of the originating agency. Violation of established handling procedures are subject to penalty, including termination of access to this reporting channel.’

It added that ‘any discussion of or reference to information in this report [REDACTED] is strictly prohibited. Any references to this report in derived or finished intelligence should include this warning.’

A senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that Ratcliffe believes the suppression of this intelligence is an example of ‘politicization of intelligence.’

‘Director Ratcliffe believes this is an example of politicization of intelligence that we need to work to eliminate and for what we have zero tolerance,’ a senior CIA official told Fox News Digital. ‘We believe transparency is important. We will release information and avoid any future weaponization of the intelligence community.’

As for the heavily redacted nature of the intelligence report, the senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that the agency was ‘careful about protecting CIA sources and methods with redactions.’

The official stressed that Ratcliffe believes in ‘maximum transparency’ and said he will continue to declassify CIA information and intelligence ‘when it serves the public’s interest.’

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry against Biden during his presidency, and found, after years of investigating, that he engaged in ‘impeachable conduct,’ ‘abused his office,’ and ‘defrauded the United States to enrich his family.’ 

President Donald Trump made a social media post about Hamas on Sunday evening, minutes before the deadline for a peace proposal passed.

The deadline was 6 p.m. ET Sunday. In a message on Truth Social, Trump wrote that there had been ‘very positive discussions with Hamas, and Countries from all over the World (Arab, Muslim, and everyone else) this weekend, to release the Hostages, end the War in Gaza but, more importantly, finally have long sought PEACE in the Middle East.’

‘These talks have been very successful, and proceeding rapidly,’ Trump said. ‘The technical teams will again meet Monday, in Egypt, to work through and clarify the final details.’

The president added that the first phase of the peace plan ‘should be completed this week.’

‘I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST,’ Trump emphasized. ‘I will continue to monitor this Centuries old ‘conflict.’’

Trump added, ‘TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE OR, MASSIVE BLOODSHED WILL FOLLOW — SOMETHING THAT NOBODY WANTS TO SEE!’

Trump previously announced the deadline in an Oct. 3 post on Truth Social, delivering an ominous warning to Hamas about accepting the deal.

‘If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas,’ Trump wrote. ‘THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

The peace proposal was unveiled by Trump in late September.

The plan calls for an end to Israel’s military operations, the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip under a Palestinian governing body overseen by a U.S.-led international coalition.

Israeli  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reportedly agreed to the 20-point plan, per Reuters.

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and Bonny Chu contributed to this report.