Senate Republicans confirmed a staggering tranche of President Donald Trump’s nominees on Tuesday as the government shutdown continues.

Lawmakers voted along party lines to confirm the batch of 107 of Trump’s nominees, a move that whittled down the remaining pending nominees on the Senate’s calendar to double digits. It also came as the upper chamber was deadlocked in the midst of a government shutdown, during which floor votes have largely been dedicated to trying to reopen the government.

The slate of confirmed nominees included many of Trump’s top allies and former candidates that he hand-picked to run in previous elections.

Some of the most recognizable on the list were former Republican Senate candidate and ex-NFL star Herschel Walker, who was tapped as the U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, and Sergio Gor, a top advisor to Trump who he picked to be his U.S. Ambassador to India.

Other posts confirmed included a wave of senior administration officials, several prosecutors and the reappointment of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins to a seat on the commission until 2031.

The vote also marked the second time that Senate Republicans have deployed the new rule change surrounding confirmations since going ‘nuclear’ on Senate rules last month.

Republicans opted to change confirmation rules to allow a simple majority of votes to advance large swathes of nominees in response to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus’ blockade of Trump’s picks that lasted nearly nine months into his presidency.

Typically, subcabinet-level nominees, particularly those with bipartisan support out of committee, are sped through the Senate either by unanimous consent or through a voice vote, two fast-track procedural moves in the upper chamber. But Senate Democrats refused to relent, and Republicans argued they forced their hand on a rules change that they believed would benefit both parties in the future.

The rule change allows for an unlimited number of nominees to be confirmed in a single batch, but includes several procedural hoops to jump through before a final confirmation vote.

Senate Republicans previously confirmed 48 of Trump’s picks last month. Among that batch were Kimberly Guilfoyle, who Trump tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to Greece, and Callista Gingrich, who was picked to be the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.

An expected sixth vote to reopen the government didn’t come to fruition on Tuesday, but lawmakers face a new wrinkle: the possibility that furloughed employees won’t be paid. 

The government shutdown marched into its seventh day with both Senate Republicans and Democrats still at odds on a path forward, and no real clear end in sight. The Senate was expected to vote on the GOP’s plan again, but no agreement could be reached to bring the bill, along with the Democrats’ counter-proposal, to the floor. 

Both sides are still entrenched in their positions, too. Senate Democrats want a firm deal on the extension of expiring ObamaCare tax credits to earn their votes to reopen the government, while Senate Republicans have promised that negotiations on the credits can happen once the government is open again.

Lawmakers failed to hold a sixth vote to reopen the government Tuesday as a new White House memo warned that furloughed workers may not get paid.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has continued to ramp up his messaging that Americans broadly support their push, and blamed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Republicans for not being in session as a major roadblock to progress. 

‘Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed and thousands more are working without pay. And meanwhile, House Republicans are getting paid and not working,’ Schumer said. ‘So federal workers working and not getting paid. House Republicans paid and not working. Very bad. Very bad thing for them. Very bad picture for them.’

While lawmakers traded barbs and discussed an off-ramp on Capitol Hill, the latest memo from the White House, first reported by Axios, signaled that up to 750,000 nonessential furloughed federal workers may not be paid.

The memo adds fresh uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of federal employees caught in the political crossfire.

When asked if it was the White House’s position whether federal workers should be paid back pay, President Donald Trump said, ‘I would say it depends on who we’re talking about.’

‘I can tell you this,’ Trump said. ‘The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about. But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.’

Many lawmakers had just learned about the memo as of Tuesday afternoon. It suggested that a 2019 law signed by Trump that guaranteed back pay for furloughed workers in future shutdowns may not have to be followed.

‘I just heard that,’ Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., said. ‘My phones are lighting up.’

When asked if the memo hurt or helped talks, she said, ‘It could get more urgent, it also could tick a lot of people off.’

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said that the memo was ‘probably not a good message to send right now to people who are not being paid.’

‘I’m not an attorney, but I think it’s bad strategy to even say that sort of stuff,’ Tillis said. ‘We got a lot of hard-working people there on the sidelines now because the Democrats have put them there.’

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that she believed that issue had been settled with the 2019 law, but as a ‘back up,’ Congress could pass a bill that any ‘obligations that were incurred during the shutdown are authorized to be paid.’

And Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, argued that regardless of the memo, the law said ‘shall.’

‘I left my law degree in the car, but ‘shall’ is relatively straightforward,’ he said. ‘I think it doesn’t matter at all, because we’re fighting for healthcare.’

The latest pressure tactic on Senate Democrats comes after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed in a previous memo that mass firings could be on the horizon beyond the typical furloughs during a shutdown.

It also comes after OMB Director Russ Vought announced nearly $30 billion in federal funding was set to be withheld from blue cities and states. 

Both Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wanted to see federal workers get paid, but contended that the issue would go away if Schumer and Senate Democrats reopened the government.

‘My assumption is that furloughed workers will get back pay,’ Thune said. ‘But that being said, this is very simple. Open up the government and this is a non-issue. We don’t have to have this conversation. Everybody gets paid when the government is open.’

Meanwhile, the previous tactics did little to nudge Democrats from their position, and so far, have not killed talks between either side.

But Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H., who has been a key communicator for Senate Democrats in bipartisan talks, said that Vought’s actions weren’t helping matters.

‘It would be a lot easier to resolve the situation if Russ Vought would stop talking,’ Shaheen said. 

Former FBI Director James Comey will be arraigned in federal court Wednesday morning after being indicted on charges of alleged false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

Comey has said he is innocent.

The former FBI director is set to have his first court appearance at 10 a.m. Eastern Time in the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The judge presiding over the hearing is District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff.

Comey was indicted in September by a federal grand jury on two counts: alleged false statements within jurisdiction of the legislative branch and obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

The indictment alleges that Comey obstructed a congressional investigation into the disclosure of sensitive information in violation of 18 USC 1505.

The indictment also alleges Comey made a false statement when he stated he did not authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source. According to the indictment, that statement was false.

Fox News Digital exclusively reported in July that Comey was under criminal investigation by the FBI. The probe into Comey centered on whether he lied to Congress during his Sept. 30, 2020, testimony about his handling of the original Trump–Russia probe at the FBI, known inside the bureau as ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’

‘No one is above the law,’ Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X after the indictment, adding that it ‘reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.’

FBI Director Kash Patel said ‘previous corrupt leadership and their enablers weaponized federal law enforcement, damaging once proud institutions and severely eroding public trust.’

‘Every day, we continue the fight to earn that trust back, and under my leadership, this FBI will confront the problem head-on,’ Patel said. ‘Nowhere was this politicization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose.’

He added: ‘Everyone, especially those in positions of power, will be held to account – no matter their perch.’

Comey, after being indicted, posted an Instagram video, denying the allegations.

‘My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,’ he said. ‘We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she’s right.’

‘But I’m not afraid,’ Comey added.

‘My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I am innocent, so let’s have a trial and keep the faith,’ Comey said.

Fox News Digital also exclusively reported that former CIA Director John Brennan is under criminal investigation related to the Trump–Russia probe. 

Under federal law, prosecutors have five years to bring a charge, with the five-year mark occurring Tuesday.

The case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The FBI opened its Trump-Russia probe in July 2016, known inside the bureau as ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’ 

President Donald Trump, during his first term, fired Comey in May 2017. 

Days later, Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to take over the FBI’s original ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation.

After nearly two years, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March 2019, yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.

Shortly after, John Durham was appointed as special counsel to investigate the origins of the ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ probe.

Durham found that the FBI ‘failed to act’ on a ‘clear warning sign’ that the bureau was the ‘target’ of a Clinton-led effort to ‘manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes’ ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

‘The aforementioned facts reflect a rather startling and inexplicable failure to adequately consider and incorporate the Clinton Plan intelligence into the FBI’s investigative decision-making in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,’ Durham’s report states.

‘Indeed, had the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation as an assessment and, in turn, gathered and analyzed data in concert with the information from the Clinton Plan intelligence, it is likely that the information received would have been examined, at a minimum, with a more critical eye,’ the report continued.

Durham, in his report, said the FBI ‘failed to act on what should have been — when combined with other incontrovertible facts — a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.’

This government shutdown isn’t President Donald Trump’s first rodeo navigating a lapse in government funding — but this time, the focus is less on the White House as all eyes are locked on Congress and its budget impasse. 

While the 35-day shutdown during Trump’s first term centered around the president’s priorities to fund a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the current shutdown doesn’t pit the White House against the legislative branch. 

Rather, there is a stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over certain healthcare provisions — alleviating pressure on the White House and giving Trump time to post videos showing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a sombrero in an AI-generated clip underscoring Republicans’ claims that Democrats want to provide healthcare to illegal immigrants. 

This paves the way for Trump to remain in the wings during the partial shutdown, and let Democrats take the fall for the consequences, according to libertarian political columnist Kristin Tate.

‘By staying relatively quiet right now, President Trump is allowing Democrats to ‘own’ the shutdown,’ Tate said in a Wednesday email to Fox News Digital. ‘The president realizes that if he says anything confrontational right now, the narrative will center around his remarks rather than the Democrats’ refusal to support a reasonable spending bill.’ 

‘By maintaining a low profile, Trump is allowing the public to see how the Democrats are acting,’ Tate said. ‘The Democrats will ultimately bear most of the political consequences of the shutdown.’

The government entered a partial shutdown Wednesday, amid a stalemate between Senate Republicans and Democrats over a short-term funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21. The House had previously passed the temporary spending bill in September. 

Three Senate Democrats joined Republicans to vote for the stopgap funding bill Tuesday, but the measure fell short of the required 60 votes needed for passage. 

Meanwhile, Trump and Republicans have claimed Democrats are seeking to provide health care for illegal immigrants, keeping the government from operating. They cite a provision that would repeal part of Trump’s tax and domestic policy bill — the so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ — which scaled back Medicaid eligibility for noncitizens. 

But Democrats have said Republicans’ claims are false, and instead, have said they want to permanently extend certain Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to lapse at the end of 2025. 

‘They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. ‘That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies that they tell.’

The shutdown differs from the one during Trump’s first term, where Trump and Democrats in Congress sparred about nearly $6 billion in funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall in the spending bill for weeks. 

Ultimately, Trump backed off amid mounting pressure to reopen the government so federal employees could resume being paid after weeks of stalled payroll, and signed off on legislation to temporarily reopen the government without the border wall funding. 

Matt Wolking, who previously served as the deputy communications director for Trump’s 2020 campaign, said that the main difference between this shutdown in comparison to the previous one is that Democrats are the one requesting a policy change — not the White House. 

‘Trump is as engaged as ever — and using humor effectively, of course — and the biggest difference between now and then is that now it’s Democrats who are demanding a specific policy change,’ Wolking said in a Wednesday email to Fox News Digital. ‘They voted against funding the government because they want taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants, and that’s why Trump and Republicans are well positioned to win the shutdown messaging battle this time.’ 

Additionally, Republican strategist Matt Gorman said that Democrats have put themselves in a tough position since they were the ones that voted against the continuing resolution. 

‘Times have shown over and over through the years that the public supports funding the government. They penalize the party that attaches extra policy priorities to whatever bill does that,’ Gorman, who previously served as the communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a Wednesday email to Fox News Digital. ‘You’re already seeing moderate Democrats splinter off. As this goes on, I expect that to continue.’

Meanwhile, Trump is taking advantage of the shutdown to advance his priorities to whittle down the federal government in an unprecedented move. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget ordered agencies in Septemberto draw up plans for a reduction-in-force in the event of a lapse in appropriations. 

While federal employees typically are furloughed during government shutdowns, the Trump administration’s plans would permanently scale back the size of the federal workforce if a government shutdown occurs.

‘Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud,’ Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday. ‘Billions of Dollars can be saved. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ 

Vice President JD Vance has adopted a proactive role carrying the administration’s position, and told reporters Tuesday he predicted the shutdown wouldn’t last long. Specifically, he said that evidence suggests moderate Democrats are ‘cracking a little’ because they understand the ‘fundamental illogic’ of the shutdown. 

Still, he said that layoffs were forthcoming. Trump said Sunday that layoffs were ‘taking place right now’ as thousands of workers’ jobs remain in jeopardy. 

‘We’re going to have to make things work,’ Vance said. ‘And that means that we’re going to have to triage some certain things, that means certain people are going to have to get laid off. And we’re going to try to make sure that the American people suffer as little as possible from the shutdown.’

The White House said in a statement to Fox News Digital that every shutdown comes with consequences.

‘The Democrats can reopen the government at any time,’ White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Monday. 

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.