Leaders in the U.S. and around the world commended the recent Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal on Wednesday.

Biden announced the terms of the cease-fire during a news conference Wednesday at the White House. It will consist of two phases and will take place over the next several weeks. 

The first phase, which is set to begin Sunday, ‘includes a full and complete cease-fire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded,’ Biden said.

The second phase is contingent on Israel negotiating ‘the necessary arrangements,’ to mark a complete end to the war.

The response to the deal was overwhelmingly positive. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she was ‘very encouraged’ to see the cease-fire come to fruition.

‘This is something I’ve called for many, many months over the last year since the horrific, barbaric attack on innocent civilians in Israel that occurred on October 7 of last year,’ Hochul said. ‘My main priority has been bringing home the hostages.’

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., wrote on X that he felt ‘an indescribable sense of relief,’ about the return of the hostages.

‘The return of the hostages will mark the beginning of closure for Israelis and Jews, as well as countless others, who continue to be deeply affected by the indelible terror and trauma of October 7th,’ Torres wrote. ‘The hostages have been brought home by the power of the world’s most powerful friendship – the US-Israel relationship.’

The deal also attracted international attention. In a statement, British Prime Minister Kier Starmer called the cease-fire ‘long-overdue news.’

‘[The Israeli and Palestinian people] have borne the brunt of this conflict – triggered by the brutal terrorists of Hamas, who committed the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust on October 7th, 2023,’ Starmer said. ‘The hostages, who were brutally ripped from their homes on that day and held captive in unimaginable conditions ever since, can now finally return to their families.

‘But we should also use this moment to pay tribute to those who won’t make it home – including the British people who were murdered by Hamas. We will continue to mourn and remember them. ‘

In an X post translated from French to English, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the cease-fire must be respected.

‘After 15 months of unjustifiable ordeal, immense relief for the Gazans, hope for the hostages and their families,’ Macron said. He also referenced Ohad Yahalomi and Ofer Calderon, two French-Israeli hostages.

Though many are celebrating, some have expressed caution about the possibility of the deal falling through. 

On Wednesday, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said that the ‘big hurdle’ — which included finalizing the deal — had been ‘overcome.’

Hopefully, come this weekend, we’ll start to see some families reunited,’ Kirby said, adding that he was ‘confident’ that the deal will be implemented, despite hard work ahead.

Fox News Digital’s Joshua Comins contributed to this report.

President Biden is ending his tenure in the White House on a ‘sad’ note after ‘lying to the nation’ and taking credit for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas during his farewell address on Wednesday evening, a Trump transition official said. 

‘Joe Biden is going out sad. Lying to the nation trying to take credit for a deal that all parties credit President Trump for making happen. Biden has had well over a year to secure the release of these hostages and peace. He failed. Trump succeeded,’ a Trump transition official told Fox News Digital on Wednesday evening. 

War has raged in the Middle East since October of 2023, with Israel and Hamas coming to a ceasefire agreement on Wednesday that also ensured the release of hostages. 

Biden delivered his final address to the nation on Wednesday evening, where he took a victory lap for the cease fire in his opening remarks. 

‘My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from the Oval Office. Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration – by my administration – a cease-fire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas. The elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year,’ Biden said. 

‘This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans,’ he continued. 

Credit for reaching the agreement, however, was bolstered by the incoming Trump administration, according to sources who told Fox Digital that a recent meeting between Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly played a pivotal role in the deal. 

Netanyahu also thanked Trump on Wednesday for ‘his assistance in advancing the release of the hostages.’

‘Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this evening with US President-elect Donald Trump and thanked him for his assistance in advancing the release of the hostages and for helping Israel bring an end to the suffering of dozens of hostages and their families,’ the official Prime Minister of Israel X account posted. 

‘The Prime Minister made it clear that he is committed to returning all of the hostages however he can, and commended the US President-elect for his remarks that the US would work with Israel to ensure that Gaza will never be a haven for terrorism.’

The X account added later: ‘Prime Minister Netanyahu then spoke with US President Joe Biden and thanked him as well for his assistance in advancing the hostages deal.’ 

When asked who the history books would remember for championing the ceasefire deal earlier Wednesday, Biden balked at the suggestion Trump and his team spearheaded the effort. 

‘Who in the history books gets credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?’ Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked Biden at Wednesday afternoon’s White House news conference.

‘Is that a joke?’ the president responded.

‘Oh. Thank you,’ Biden responded when Heinrich said it was not a joke, and then walked away.

Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio sailed through his confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, all but assuring he will assume the role of top diplomat under the new Trump administration later this month.

Rubio’s confirmation hearing — a process usually full of verbal diatribes, strong political agendas and illusive answers — was full of pleasantries, with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers applauding his work in the Senate and his in-depth knowledge of complex issues across the globe.

Here were the top moments from Rubio’s hearing.

PROTESTERS

While Rubio may have been welcomed by his Senate colleagues, his hearing wasn’t entirely contention-free.

The secretary of state-hopeful’s opening remarks were interrupted by several protesters affiliated with a group known as Code Pink, who were protesting the Israel-Hamas war and wore pink shirts that read ‘stop killing the children of Gaza.’

Two of the demonstrators forced to leave the chamber were male, before a female protester also stood up and yelled out in Spanish. 

She was quickly escorted from the room and the hearing promptly restarted.

‘I get bilingual protesters,’ Rubio said to the panel of senators with a grin before resuming his remarks.

IN JEST

Rubio’s quip about the protesters appeared to set the tone for his hearing.

Though Rubio faced tough questions about detailed geopolitical issues on nearly every continent, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also joked around with their Senate colleague.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced Rubio at the top of the hearing and quipped that ‘finally’ he will get to be the senior senator of Florida after the duo have served together in the upper chamber since 2019.

Sen. Cory Booker , D-N.J., drew chuckles when he said, ‘Sen. Rubio, the President [elect] made a great decision in choosing you. You’re a thought leader in foreign policy. I, however, don’t think most Americans know how great of a thought leader you are in NCAA, NFL and high school football, and I’m a little disappointed that you’re not going to the head of the NCAA right now.’

To which Rubio replied, ‘Not yet,’ garnering laughs from the room.

In another bipartisan moment rarely seen during Cabinet nomination hearings, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told a touching story from one of her first encounters with Rubio — a stark contrast to her questioning of defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth the day prior. 

In 2018, not only was Duckworth relatively new to the upper chamber, but the soon-to-be new mom was also pushing the congressional body to change its rules and allow new parents to bring their infant onto the Senate floor during a vote.

Duckworth, who is physically disabled after surviving a 2004 RPG attack on her helicopter in Iraq, described rolling across the Senate floor in her wheelchair when she heard someone call out her name. 

‘And you came running down from the top back of the Senate chambers to tell me, ‘I’m with you. I will support you’,’ she said. ‘And I just want to thank you for that kindness… It was a moment of true bipartisanship.’

Rubio responded and said, ‘I think what I exactly said is, ‘What’s the big deal? This place is already full of babies,” once again drawing laughs.

SERIOUS MATTERS

The five-hour hearing wasn’t all fun and levity, as Rubio was pressed on issues with major security implications like the war in Ukraine, China, NATO and Artic security.

Rubio surprised no one with his tough-on-China approach and his commitment to remaining a strong ally of NATO’s.

However, one area senators may have hoped Rubio would have come out more definitively was over what continued support for Ukraine may look like and how the incoming Trump administration will handle the question of Ukraine becoming a NATO member. 

Both Ukraine and Russia have signaled they are open to negotiating a cease-fire. But securing a lasting peace deal could be difficult as Ukraine entering the NATO alliance has been deemed a non-negotiable by both Kyiv — who wants the alliance’s security — and Moscow — which has fervently opposed Ukrainian NATO membership.

‘The truth of the matter is that in this conflict there is no way Russia takes all of Ukraine. The Ukrainians are too brave, and fight too hard, and the country is too big,’ Rubio said.

But he added that ‘there’s no way Ukraine is also pushing these people [Russians] all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion.’

Rubio pointed out that Ukraine will not be able to keep up with the sheer number of bodies that Russia can throw in to the war.

‘It’s important for everyone to be realistic. There will have to be concessions,’ he said. ‘This is not going to be easy. ‘[It’s] going to require a lot of hard diplomacy.’

THE CHINA PROBLEM

The security threats surrounding China came up in nearly every issue Rubio was asked to address, including its growing presence in Africa and Latin America, its oppressive practices in the South China Sea, concerns over trade, human rights abuses, tech and its growing relationships with other adversarial nations.

But one issue newer to headlines as of late is China’s involvement in the Panama Canal.

‘This is something that’s existed now for at least a decade in my service,’ he said, referring to a 2017 trip he took to Panama. ‘Chinese companies control port facilities at both ends of the canal — the east and the west. And the concerns among military officials and security officials, including in Panama, at that point, [was] that could one day be used as a choke point to impede commerce in a moment of conflict.’

‘This is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted,’ Rubio added.

The issue of Chinese control over the major waterway resurfaced earlier this month when Trump refused to say whether he would rule out military intervention in the Panama Canal.

Rubio was pressed on the subject multiple times, though he was clear that he was not yet at a point where he knew enough about the legal parameters of U.S. intervention in Panama to give a thorough response. 

KAINE GUSHES 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., applauded Rubio for being ‘extremely well-prepared’ for his confirmation hearing as the next secretary of state — a stark contrast to his tense engagement with Hegseth during the hearing a day prior.

‘We’re used to seeing nominees who know a lot about a couple of things, and sometimes, who know very little about virtually everything,’ he said. ‘But I think you’ve seen a hearing with a nominee who — agree or disagree with the points he’s made — he’s not talking out of a briefing book.

‘He’s not having a thumb through a binder to decide how to answer a particular question,’ Kaine continued. ‘I’ve always been struck by working with Sen. Rubio on this committee, since I came to the Senate in January 2013, that he has a very well-developed sense of the world and a passion in all corners of it.’

Kaine’s sentiment appeared to be shared by the entirety of the committee, and many of the senators expressed confidence that Rubio will be unanimously confirmed for the top job.

The Congressional DOGE Caucus’ plans for cutting government waste are shifting into focus after the group’s second-ever closed-door meeting on Wednesday.

Caucus leaders are splitting lawmakers into eight working groups focused on different sectors for waste-cutting. Those will focus on retirement, social and family safety nets, emergency supplemental funding, energy permitting, homeland security, defense and veterans, the workforce, and government operations, according to a document viewed by Fox News Digital.

Co-chairs Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas, challenged lawmakers in the room to introduce at least one bill related to government efficiency in the 119th Congress.

Both told Fox News Digital that it was just one of the coordinated efforts the caucus is planning as it seeks to be the legislative support for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being co-led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

‘We’regoing to aim for a day where we will drop pieces of legislation, a day where we will go on the floor and speak to the American people,’ Sessions told Fox News Digital.

Bean expounded on the idea, labeling it ‘DOGE Days.’

‘We’re going to have a day where we hopefully can draw up 20, 30 bills and all the DOGE members come forward, boom, we’re on them,’ Bean said. ‘We’re going to have great team work and great synergy and momentum.’

They asked attendees to fill out a survey, a copy of which was obtained by Fox News Digital, designating which working groups they would like to be a part of. 

During the closed-door meeting, lawmakers took turns to discuss their own ideas for cutting government waste as well.

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., called for a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to balance the federal budget.

And Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., suggested cutting off child tax credit eligibility for illegal immigrants.

‘Currently, we’re not nearly careful enough… where illegal aliens are getting a child tax credit, childcare tax credit. That’s ridiculous. You know, so those are my point was those are the easy things to do, the low-hanging fruit,’ Van Drew told Fox News Digital when asked about his meeting comments.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who is leading the DOGE effort on the Senate side and also attended the Wednesday House meeting, urged lawmakers there to work with their counterparts in the upper chamber on bicameral bills.

Lawmakers have been enthusiastic about the goals laid out by Musk and Ramaswamy’s new panel. Commissioned by President-elect Trump, the group is an advisory panel aimed at recommending where the executive branch can cut government waste.

The DOGE Caucus is a bid to make Trump’s cost-cutting initiatives permanent through legislation.

The group opened and email tip line which Bean and Sessions said has already received over 15,000 emails.

Bean said he was surprised but pleased at the enthusiasm.

Sessions added, ‘I’ve gotten probably 200 letters here that were really typed out, and some were written, that said, ‘Thank you for doing this. I’d like you to hear from me.’ And this is an acknowledgement back to the American people who have skin in the game also.’

Reactions from social media came pouring in Wednesday night as President Biden delivered his farewell address to the country, ending a career in politics that spanned over half a century.

‘Joe Biden discussing democracy, a free press, institutions and the abuse of power in his final farewell speech is rich,’ GOP Congresswoman Nancy Mace posted on X. 

‘What an embarrassing and pathetic end to an embarrassing and pathetic term,’ Fox News host Greg Gutfeld posted on X. 

‘Joe Biden can’t even read. Every time he speaks it gets worse,’ conservative commentator and radio host Clay Travis posted on X. ‘Trying to run him in 2024 is the most reckless and indefensible presidential decision in any of our lives.’

‘My thoughts on President Joe Biden’s Farewell Address: It was underwhelming and divisive,’ Gabriella Hoffman, Independent Women’s Forum Center for Energy & Conservation director, posted on X.

‘I’m relieved his four-year term is coming to an end. Mr. Biden failed to bring Americans together and pushed terrible ‘whole of government’ policies that weakened us on many fronts: energy, national security, economics/small business, foreign affairs, and general freedoms. History won’t look kindly on Biden’s tenure. He’s now the most unpopular U.S. President in history.’

‘Joe Biden mentions climate hysteria ahead of actual priorities, like border security, lowering costs, and peace through strength,’ GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin posted on X. ‘They never learn.’

‘Joe Biden’s going out of office the same way he went in: Petty, partisan, and frankly not telling the truth,’ GOP Congressman Darrell Issa posted on X. 

‘I’m stunned,’ former Democratic adviser Dan Turrentine posted on X. ‘I’m no historian, but, I don’t recall a more dark Presidential farewell address? It’s more a cry to the DNC than accentuating the positive to the country. This is sad.’

‘Biden ends his presidency by using rhetoric that would be right at home in a third-world communist dictatorship,’ Red State writer Bonchie posted on X. ‘This may be the worst farewell speech in presidential history.’

Democrats, however, generally had a decidedly different take.

‘Four years ago, in the middle of a pandemic, we needed a leader with the character to put politics aside and do what was right,’ former President Obama posted on X. 

‘That’s what Joe Biden did. At a time when our economy was reeling, he drove what would become the world’s strongest recovery – with 17 million new jobs, historic wage gains, and lower health care costs. He passed landmark legislation to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and address the threat of climate change.  I’m grateful to Joe for his leadership, his friendship, and his lifetime of service to this country we love.’

Liberal commentator Harry Sisson posted on X, ‘President Biden just gave the best speech of his presidency.

‘His farewell address was incredibly moving. I will always be thankful for President Biden and his talented administration. Thank you to everyone who served and gave America an amazing four years.’

Biden has four days left in his presidency before Monday’s inauguration, when President-elect Trump will be sworn into office.

‘My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from the Oval Office. Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration —  by my administration — a cease-fire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year,’ Biden said in his opening remarks, taking credit for the recent announcement that a cease-fire deal had been reached in Israel. 

‘This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans.’ 

Biden’s speech also focused on the American dream and the ‘most powerful idea’ that ‘all of us are created equal.’

‘The very idea of America was so big we felt the entire world needed to see,’ Biden said. ‘The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France after our Civil War. Like the very idea of America, it was built not by one person, but by many people, from every background and from around the world. Like America, the Statue of Liberty is not standing still. Her foot literally steps forward atop a broken chain of human bondage. She’s on the march, and she literally moves. 

‘A nation of pioneers and explorers, of dreamers and doers, of ancestors native to this land, of ancestors who came by force. A nation of immigrants came to build a better life, a nation holding a torch. The most powerful idea ever in the history of the world that all of us, all of us are created equal. All of us deserve to be treated with dignity, justice and fairness that democracy must defend and be defined and be imposed, moved in every way possible, our rights, our freedoms, our dreams.’ 

Rep. Pete Aguilar, a top Democrat who served on the congressional committee investigating President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, isn’t expecting any favors from the outgoing commander-in-chief. 

He said he thinks a preemptive pardon from President Joe Biden, protecting him from Trump’s potential retaliation, is unnecessary because the Jan. 6 committee ‘didn’t do anything wrong.’ 

‘I don’t think a pardon is necessary. I stand by the work that we did,’ on the committee, Aguilar told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday.

The California Democrat also said that he has ‘not sought a pardon,’ nor has he spoken to anyone at the White House about one. Fox News Digital reached out to Aguilar to inquire whether he would accept one, if it were granted to him, but did not hear back.   

Lawmakers who served on the House committee investigating Jan. 6 have been split about the importance of a preemptive pardon. Some fear it will set a bad precedent for future presidents and assert that the Constitution’s speech and debate clause provides adequate protection against criminal prosecutions, or civil lawsuits, over their legislative work. Others, meanwhile, have welcomed the idea of a pardon, fearing ‘retribution’ from Trump.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the former Jan. 6 committee investigating Trump, said he spoke with the White House last month about the potential of issuing pardons for lawmakers who served on the committee, and said he would accept a pardon from Biden if it were granted to him.

‘I believe Donald Trump when he says he’s going to inflict retribution on this,’ Thompson said this week. ‘I believe when he says my name and Liz Cheney and the others. I believe him.’

Other than Thompson, no other members of the committee have indicated they will accept a pardon granted to them by Biden. However, they have stopped short of saying whether they would decline one.

‘I’ve not been in touch with the White House. I’ve not sought one,’ Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who served on the committee, said Tuesday. 

‘It would be the wrong precedent to set. I don’t want to see each president hereafter on their way out the door giving out a broad category of pardons,’ Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, who also served on the committee, said in an interview with CNN earlier this month. Former GOP Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger made the same argument as Schiff, but went a step further, saying that he did not want one.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said during a live event this week hosted by Politico that he wasn’t sure what the right call for Biden was. 

‘Different people have different feelings about the whole pardon thing because there are these outrageous threats that are being leveled against people just for doing their jobs, like Jan. 6 prosecutors at the Department of Justice,’ Raskin said. He added that ‘in a just world’ there would be no need for a pardon because the committee did nothing wrong.

‘I’m glad we’ve got a wise president with wise people around him who will be able to figure that out,’ Raskin said.  

During Biden’s final interview as president with a print publication last week, he indicated that preemptive pardons for Trump’s political foes were still under consideration. Biden also noted in the interview that he had personally urged Trump not to ‘try to settle scores’ when he met with the president-elect at the White House following his November election victory.  

Trump has referred to Thompson and other members on the Jan. 6 committee as ‘thugs’ and ‘creeps.’ During an interview on NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’ last month, Trump accused the members on the committee of destroying evidence, adding that ‘everybody on that committee … should go to jail.’

‘They lied. And what did they do? They deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony. Do you know that I can’t get — I think those people committed a major crime,’ Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a 137-page report outlining the details of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Due to Trump’s election victory, prosecutors were forced to drop the case, but the report, according to Smith, shows how Trump allegedly used ‘lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States’ democratic process.’

The Jan. 6 committee concluded its work after roughly a year and a half of investigations with a final report that determined Trump played a central role in the events that led to the siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and that there was enough evidence for federal prosecutors to convict him. The report included several criminal referrals that the committee ultimately passed on to the Department of Justice. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday accused Hamas of backing out of a cease-fire deal to release hostages and bring a pause to more than a year of fighting. 

Netanyahu’s office said Thursday his Cabinet won’t meet to approve the Gaza cease-fire deal until Hamas backs down from what it called a ‘last minute crisis.’

Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas, without elaborating, of trying to go back on part of the agreement in an attempt ‘to extort last minute concessions.’ 

The Israeli Cabinet was set to ratify the deal Thursday.

President Biden joined Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a Wednesday news conference announcing that the deal would roll out in three phases. 

Biden said the first phase will last six weeks and ‘includes a full and complete cease-fire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded. And I’m proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release and phase one as well. And the vice president and I cannot wait to welcome them home,’ he said. 

In exchange, Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Biden said, and Palestinians ‘can also return to their neighborhoods in all areas of Gaza, and a surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin.’

Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. 

Former FBI Special Agent Nicole Parker, who worked hand-in-hand with Trump’s pick for attorney general, said Pam Bondi is a ‘woman of integrity’ who, if confirmed, would prosecute fairly and stick to the U.S. Constitution.

Parker told Fox News Digital that she worked with Bondi after the February 2018 Stoneman Douglas massacre in Parkland, Florida, which stole the lives of 17 students. She noted that Bondi’s ‘tender heart’ and boots-on-the-ground attitude assisted the community during the tragic mass shooting.

‘At the time, Pam was serving as the attorney general, and I was an FBI Special Agent assigned to the Violent Crime Squad. And I was responding to that tragic, just absolutely heartbreaking incident, and Pam Bondi made her way down to South Florida as quickly as possible, and she was there for her constituents in this dark moment of need,’ she said.

‘What really inspired and touched me about Pam is that she has a very tender heart, and she has a lot of compassion, and she genuinely cares about the people that she serves,’ Parker said. ‘She has that very fine and delicate balance of being very tough and strong but also having a soul and having compassion and caring for the victims that she’s helping.’

Parker pointed to Bondi’s years of experience as Florida’s top cop, saying that ‘her number one goal is to serve and protect the American people.’

‘Based on her track record in Florida, it’s very obvious to me that she will be tough on crime, and she will make America safe again. And her loyalty, No. 1, is to the Constitution and to the truth,’ she said. ‘And that is what we need in an attorney general. She’s not just about saying what needs to be said to get where she needs to go. No, she is a woman of integrity, and she’s going to stand up for what is true.’

Bondi is a Trump loyalist with close ties to the president-elect and has been by his side since his first term in office. She also represented Trump during his first impeachment, serving as one of his lawyers, and remaining a vocal advocate.

On Wednesday, many of Bondi’s questions surrounded the extent of loyalty she has to the incoming president. Parker spoke of Bondi’s personal integrity and class, which she believes will be marks of her Cabinet role, if confirmed.

‘Based on my personal experience with her, she is a woman of integrity. She is a woman of class. She is brilliant. She is smart. She is kind, and she has compassion, and she genuinely cares,’ she said. ‘And I think she’s doing the right thing for the right reasons. And I think she will do a fantastic job as she always has.’

‘Based on my personal experience with her, she is a woman of integrity. She is a woman of class.’

— Nicole Parker, former FBI special agent

Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice promised in her congressional hearing to end the weaponization of the justice system, saying she ‘will not target people’ based on their political affiliation.

‘I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen in the last four years and what’s been happening to Donald Trump,’ Bondi said. ‘They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him, actually, starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him. That will not be the case if I am attorney general. I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.’

Parker echoed Bondi’s words, telling Fox News Digital that she’s going to ‘stand up for what is right.’

‘I think that’s something, sadly, that’s been lacking recently, especially in this administration,’ she said. ‘I know that for myself, having worked in the FBI, we reported to the Department of Justice and [current Attorney General] Merrick Garland, and it seemed that the goal was more pleasing this current administration. And I was very flabbergasted by some of the Democrats’ questions because they talked about their concern that she might politicize the Department of Justice. And I thought, ‘Where have you been the last four years?’ The Department of Justice has been politicized at a level that I have never seen before, and I’ve been with the FBI for close to 13 years.’

‘We are sick and tired of this two-tier system of justice. Americans just want fairness,’ Parker said. ‘They want Lady Justice to be blind again. And they want an attorney general that’s going to enforce the laws equally and fairly.’

Parker said that she believes that, if confirmed, Bondi will prioritize cracking down on human traffickers, violent crime, counterterrorism and illegal drug use plaguing the nation.

‘She is walking in to a situation where, in my opinion, the Justice Department has been focused on many of the wrong priorities for the last several years,’ she said. ‘We need to stop the political charade, and we need to get back to protecting the people.’

‘I think that she has a very clear vision and understanding of what her goals and priorities are,’ Parker said of Bondi. ‘And I think she made it very clear that she’s not there to push people’s political and social agendas like we’ve seen in the past.’

She also noted that state attorneys general ‘crave strong leadership’ and want to see a revival of trust in the top prosecuting agencies.

‘I appreciate that Bondi unequivocally expressed her appreciation for the excellent agents, law enforcement officers who are carrying out their duties with honor and put their lives on the line every day to protect Americans and uphold the Constitution. I worked shoulder to shoulder with some outstanding prosecutors and agents who work tirelessly behind the scenes,’ Parker said. 

‘The rank and file, those doing the heavy lifting, welcome Bondi’s arrival as the next AG,’ she said. ‘They crave strong leadership and anxiously await an AG with a strong track record of holding criminals responsible and who will regain the trust of the American people.’

Bondi said in her opening statement that if confirmed as attorney general, she will return the Justice Department ‘to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals.’

‘That includes getting back to basics: gangs, drugs, terrorists, cartels, our border and our foreign adversaries,’ she said.

Bondi said that, like Trump, she believes the DOJ is on the cusp of a new golden age.

‘Lastly and most importantly, if confirmed, I will fight every day to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice and each of its components – the partisanship, the weaponization – will be gone. America will have one tier of justice for all,’ she said.