Second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife released a statement defending her ex after he confessed to having an affair with a nanny during their marriage.

‘Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago,’ Kerstin Emhoff told the Washington Post in a statement Saturday. ‘He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together.’

Emhoff admitted to having an affair with a nanny shortly after the Daily Mail published a report last week that the second gentleman had an affair with his daughter’s nanny and got her pregnant. The nanny’s close friend told the outlet that she did not keep the baby, but did not elaborate further. 

‘During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,’ Emhoff told CNN last week of the affair. 

Emhoff and his first wife were married from 1992 to 2008 and share two adult children. Vice President Kamala Harris married Emhoff in 2014, and helped co-parent his children, who call their stepmom ‘mommala.’ 

The divorce cited ‘irreconcible differences’ as the motivation behind parting ways, the New York Post reported. 

Harris knew about the affair before they married, and the Biden 2020 campaign knew about it when it was vetting her for Biden’s vice presidential pick, CNN reported. 

Despite the affair and divorce, Kerstin Emhoff has posted supportive messages regarding her ex-husband’s second wife. 

‘LFG!!!! It’s time for democrats to put their differences aside and find common ground. We can’t give up and lose to DJT. ALL HANDS ON DECK!! Kamala Harris for President!’ she posted to her Instagram account, accompanied by a Time cover of Harris following President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race. 

‘For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I,’ she told CNN last month in defense of Harris. 

‘She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and always present,’ she continued. ‘I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the vice president’s office for comment on the matter, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Former anti-Trump Republicans, or ‘Never Trumpers,’ are now supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, who is aiming to reposition herself as a moderate while moving away from her past progressive positions.

The campaign officially launched as Republicans for Harris on Sunday with several former lawmakers on board, including former Trump White House officials Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye.

While the Trump campaign has focused on highlighting Harris’ progressive background during her tenure as the California attorney general, Harris’ campaign is now shifting gears to frame her more moderately while distancing itself from positions she once championed, all while painting former President Trump as ‘extreme.’

When reached for comment, a Trump campaign spokesperson said Trump ‘is building the largest, most diverse political movement in history because his winning message of putting America first again resonates with Americans of all backgrounds.’

‘Kamala Harris is weak, failed and dangerously liberal, and a vote for her is a vote for higher taxes and inflation, open borders and more war,’ the Trump campaign told Fox News Digital.

In a campaign press release, national director of Republican outreach, Austin Weatherford, described Trump as ‘toxic’ to ‘Republicans who no longer believe the party of Donald Trump represents their values and will vote against him again in November.’

‘Donald Trump said he doesn’t want these voters, but Vice President Harris and our campaign are working overtime to earn the support of my fellow Republicans who care about defending democracy and restoring decency — all of which would be torn away in a second Trump presidency,’ Weatherford said.

Other figures ditching the Republican campaigning for Harris’ include former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld — who previously challenged Trump in the 2020 primary, former Reps. Adam Kinzinger, Jim Greenwood, Claudine Schneider, Tom Coleman Denver Riggleman and Joe Walsh, another previous Trump challenger. 

‘Serving as his chief spokesperson and one of the longest-serving members of his team, I saw firsthand the lengths Trump was willing to go to stay in power as he did on January 6th, and the lies he so easily told Americans for the length of the Administration. I might not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on everything, but I know that she will fight for our freedom, protect our democracy, and represent America with honor and dignity on the world stage,’ Grisham, Trump’s former White House press secretary, said in a statement.

‘I was a proud Republican, but Donald Trump is unfit to lead our nation,’ Whitman also said in a statement. 

Former GOP Washington state chair and state Sen. Chris Vance, Reed Howard of Young Republicans for Harris, and former RNC delegate Rina Shah are also among Harris’ supporters.

To garner attention during her primary run for president in 2019, Harris catered to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. 

She discontinued that campaign in December that year, and just months later, in the summer of 2020, aligned more with the new radical ideals pushed by Democrats following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis and the Black Lives Matter anti-police protests and riots that rocked the U.S. afterward. 

In resurfaced clips that began airing in ads by Republican David McCormick’s campaign for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Harris is seen on camera opposing fracking, stating she would ‘think about’ abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), describing hiring more police officers as ‘wrongheaded thinking’ and weighing the proposal of permitting felons to vote. Harris is also seen saying she was in favor of a ‘mandatory buyback program’ for guns and said private health insurance should be eliminated, according to a summary of the ads’ content by the New York Times. 

On fracking, which is particularly important to the economy in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state during the 2024 race, the Harris campaign reversed course on Friday. An official with Harris’ re-election campaign told The Hill that she will not seek to ban fracking if she is elected president. 

That contrasts with what Harris told CNN while campaigning for the 2020 presidential nomination. 

‘There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,’ Harris said at the time.

A Harris campaign official told the Times that Harris staffers plan to paint Republicans who drudge up Harris’ past statements espousing left-wing ideas as exaggerated claims or lies about Harris’ record. The campaign also plans to paint Harris as a candidate with deep ties to law enforcement by highlighting her record as a local prosecutor and state attorney general in California, according to the newspaper. 

Harris is facing one of the most crucial weeks in her two-week presidential campaign thus far, as she is expected to pick her running mate by Tuesday. Harris and her VP nominee will then travel across several battleground states to court voters as the latest national and key battleground state polls are now showing a margin-of-error race between Harris — who replaced Biden on the 2024 ticket after increasing internal pressure in the Democratic Party — and the former president.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. 

Vice President Kamala Harris is facing the most significant decision of her quarter-century political career – choosing a running mate to join her on the Democratic Party’s national ticket.

And an announcement of her decision is expected in the coming hours – ahead of the first rally by Harris and her running mate Tuesday evening in Philadelphia.

It’s the crucial moment in the most consequential stretch for Harris in the two weeks since she replaced President Biden at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.

The vetting, screening and interviewing of running mates normally takes months. But these are far from normal times for the Democrats, and Harris is facing an extremely compressed timetable.

Harris stayed in the nation’s capital this weekend, meeting in-person with Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, three of the roughly half-dozen running mate contenders, Democratic sources confirmed to Fox News.

Among those also in contention, according to sources, are Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Ahead of her meetings with the contenders, Harris was briefed by a vetting team led by former Attorney General Eric Holder.

The rollout of the announcement is not known, but it’s likely it could come through a video introduction, similar to how Biden announced Harris as his running mate four years ago. But the Harris campaign’s plans could be upended on Monday or Tuesday by a media leak of the announcement.

It’s been mostly smooth sailing for Harris since Biden’s blockbuster announcement amid a rising chorus of calls from fellow Democrats to end his re-election bid following a disastrous debate performance in late June against former President Trump.

A party eager to keep Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, from returning to the White House quickly unified behind Harris. The vice president experienced a surge in contributions and more than doubled Trump in July fundraising, and volunteers flocked to Biden-turned-Harris campaign offices.

And the small but telling lead that Trump had built over Biden in the weeks following the late June debate instantly vanished, as the latest national and key battleground state polls indicated a margin-of-error race between Harris and the former president.

But the smooth sailing could potentially turn into choppier seas.

While Harris and her team have remained mostly quiet about the naming of a vice presidential nominee, allies of the contenders have been advocating on their behalf and interest groups within the party have been increasingly making their wishes known. 

The announcement by Harris in the coming hours will likely disappoint some of those supporting candidates who weren’t named as the running mate, and could exacerbate policy divisions between the moderate and progressive wings of the party that have been papered over the past two weeks.

Harris and her to-be-named running mate will team up on Tuesday at a rally in Philadelphia to kick off an ambitious and jam-packed swing state tour through Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, the seven battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential election.

The vice president drew over 10,000 at her first major rally since taking over for Biden at the top of the Democrats’ ticket, last week at the Georgia State Convocation Center in Atlanta. 

It was the first time this cycle that the Democratic ticket drew a crowd comparable to the large audiences Trump has been regularly drawing for much of his more than year-and-a-half long campaign to return to the White House. And the size and energy of Harris’ crowds during this week’s swing state tour will be closely monitored.

Trump and his running mate – Sen. JD Vance of Ohio – held a rally at the same venue in Atlanta on Saturday, where the former president continued his relentless attacks and insults of Harris.

In social media posts earlier on Saturday and at the rally, Trump charged Harris had a ‘low IQ’ and was ‘dumb,’ and accused her of lacking ‘mental capacity.’

The Harris campaign, firing back on Sunday morning, claimed that Trump was ‘weak… struggling… panicking… and Donald Trump is running scared.’

Harris has yet to sit for a major interview since taking over for Biden, and the Trump campaign is turning up the criticism.

‘Kamala Harris is too afraid to answer media questions and cannot lead us in these troubled times,’ Vance charged in a social media post on Monday.

Vance plans to tail Harris as part of the Trump campaign’s plan to bracket the vice president and her running mate on their initial swing state tour.

Sources in the senator’s political orbit confirmed to Fox News that Vance will be in Philadelphia on Tuesday as the vice president kicks off her campaign swing. 

Harris will start the week by formally landing the party’s presidential nomination, as a virtual roll call run by the Democratic National Committee concludes at 6 p.m. ET. But there’s no drama, as the vice president was the only candidate to qualify for the roll call.

The roll call kicked off on Thursday and DNC Chair Jaimie Harrison announced on Friday that Harris had clinched the nomination by winning the votes of a majority of delegates to the party’s nominating convention, which gets underway in two weeks in Chicago.

While the past two weeks have been smoother than many expected, the Harris campaign is well aware there are still three months to go until the November election.

Battleground states director Dan Kanninen emphasized that ‘it is the task of the Harris campaign to turn the unprecedented energy behind the Vice President into action.’

Venezuela’s attorney general announced a criminal investigation on Monday, into President Nicolás Maduro’s opponents for calling on the country’s armed forces to stop supporting their leader and stop repressing demonstrators.

The Associated Press reported that Attorney General Tarek William Saab released a statement on the investigation tied to a written appeal by presidential candidate Edmundo González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The appeal, sent hours before Saab announced the investigation, was about Maduro and the demonstrators who protested in defense of their votes cast during the July 28 election.

In a post on X, Saab accused the duo of falsely announcing ‘a winner of the presidential election other than the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Council, the only body qualified to do so.’

Saab also said González and Machado openly incited ‘police and military officials to disobey the laws.’

According to Saab, the written appeal by González and Machado exhibits that they committed various crimes like usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to cause fear and conspiracy.

The two suspects called on leaders of security forces to reconsider their loyalty toward Maduro.

‘We appeal to the conscience of the military and police to put themselves on the side of the people and their families,’ González and Machado wrote. ‘We won this election without any doubt. It was an electoral avalanche.’

‘Now it’s up to all of us to respect the voice of the people,’ they added.

The Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council handed victory to the incumbent with an alleged margin of 51%, compared to 44% support for the opposition. They have yet to produce voting tallies to prove Maduro won the race.

Pre-election polling (which is illegal in the country) indicated that opposition candidate González received double the votes of Maduro. The opposition also claims to have collected records from over 80% of the 30,000 polling booths across Venezuela showing it beat Maduro.

The U.S. eventually recognized González as the winner after claiming to have reviewed the tally sheets.

On Saturday, Maduro announced his government had arrested 2,000 opponents and at a rally in Caracas he pledged to detain more and send them to prison. The uprising following the election results has also claimed the lives of at least 11 people, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based human rights group, the AP reported.

González and Machado called on Venezuelans with family members serving in the security forces to urge their loved ones to not obey illegal orders and to not attack protesters. The duo said they would offer ‘guarantees’ to soldiers who follow the constitution, even while promising there would be no impunity for those behind abuses and following illegal orders.

González is a former diplomat and Machado was barred by the government from running for office. Both of them are in hiding and have said they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro has threatened to lock González and Machado up.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

One of the most powerful committees in Congress has sent a letter to dozens of major corporations in the United States demanding answers on their involvement in an advertising alliance that Republicans say is potentially trying to silence conservative voices in media and news.

‘The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight into the adequacy and enforcement of U.S. antitrust laws,’ the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Adidas, one of more than 40 companies it reached out to in total, seeking answers about collusion concerns. 

‘Through its oversight, the Committee has learned that collusive activity is occurring within the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), of which your company is a member. In particular, the Committee has uncovered evidence of coordinated action by GARM and its member companies, including boycotts of disfavored social media platforms, podcasts, and news outlets.’

Along with Adidas, the letter was sent to a variety of other companies, including American Express, Bayer, BP, Carhartt, Chanel, CVS and General Motors, asking them to preserve documents related to their involvement with GARM.

GARM describes itself on its website as a ‘cross-industry initiative established in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) to help the industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising.’

The website adds that GARM is ‘apolitical’ and ‘voluntary.’

Republicans aren’t so sure and suggest in their letters to the major corporations that GARM ‘has deviated far from its original intent, and has collectively used its immense market power to demonetize voices and viewpoints the group disagrees with.’

The committee previously released an extensive report outlining how it believes ‘large corporations, advertising agencies, and industry associations participated in boycotts and other coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content deemed disfavored by GARM and its members.’

The committee wrote, ‘For an organization reliant on speech and persuasion in advertising, GARM appears to have anti-democratic views of fundamental American freedoms. In discussing his views on freedom of speech, GARM’s leader and co-founder, Rob Rakowitz, has expressed frustration with an ‘extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution’ and complained about using ‘‘principles for governance’ and applying them as literal law from 230 years ago (made by white men exclusively).’ With this worldview, GARM pushed what it called ‘uncommon collaboration’ to ‘rise above individual commercial interest.’

The report claims that GARM facilitated advertising crackdowns on Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Spotify, political candidates and news outlets, including Fox News, The Daily Wire and Breitbart News.

Musk has gone as far as to suggest taking legal action against GARM while referring to it as an ‘advertising boycott racket.’

Fox News Digital reached out to GARM for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

In a statement to the New York Post, a World Federation of Advertisers spokesperson called the Republican charges ‘unfounded.’

‘GARM is not involved in operational steps relative to monetization eligibility, content ratings, platform assessments or media investment decisions,’ the statement said.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is embarking on a 20-state tour this month to campaign for House Republicans and GOP candidates across the country, Fox News Digital has learned, in a bid to keep hold of his majority in November.

Johnson will be visiting key districts in Wisconsin, Arizona, Ohio, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, Connecticut and other states to meet with candidates and fundraise. 

Republicans have been rushing to recalibrate after President Biden dropped out of the White House race just two weeks ago, effectively anointing Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.

Harris is now set to embark on her own battleground state blitz beginning with Pennsylvania on Tuesday and including Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. She’s expected to reveal her chosen running mate sometime before Tuesday’s event in Philadelphia.

‘House Republicans are on offense to grow our majority from coast to coast. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris wrecked our economy, opened our border, and invited chaos and wars around the world,’ Johnson told Fox News Digital.

‘I look forward to meeting with Americans across our country and contrasting Harris’ disastrous and radical record with common sense, pro-growth, and America First policies that Republicans will reinstate when we grow the majority, flip the Senate, and win the White House.’

The 2024 election cycle is in its final sprint with roughly three months left until Election Day. 

Johnson has proven to be a potent fundraiser for the House GOP, bringing in more than $18.5 million for his conference’s campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), since he became speaker in October.

The speaker is using part of his August tour to bolster his frontline lawmakers, with a stop planned this week in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District with Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va.

He’s also planning visits in blue states where a handful of swing seats in California, New York, New Jersey were critical to the GOP wrestling control of the House from Democrats in November 2021.

This week, Johnson will also be in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District for the opening of a new NRCC battle station, a program rolled out earlier this year to give campaigns in key districts more on-the-ground resources. There, Republicans hope to unseat moderate Democrat Rep. Jared Golden.

It comes as Democrats are enjoying a new surge of enthusiasm over Harris after 81-year-old Biden ducked out of the race.

The former California senator’s campaign announced it raised a record-breaking $310 million in July alone, with $200 million coming in the first week following Biden stepping aside.

But Johnson and other Republicans have continued to project confidence, insisting that Harris is an equal owner of the Biden administration’s progressive agenda.

The speaker told Fox News Digital at the Republican National Convention (RNC) last month, days before Biden’s announcement, that it did not matter who was at the top of Democrats’ ticket.

‘As President Trump has said, he was, they had sort of prepared in the mindset that they would run against Biden, but it doesn’t matter. I mean, if they put Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, she’s the co-owner of all the policies. It’s not any better,’ Johnson said in Milwaukee.

‘It doesn’t matter who they run. Anybody that they would put in that place. This election is not about personalities — it’s about policies and what it means to people.’

A controversial advertising alliance has drawn the attention of one of the most powerful House committees in Congress as critics allege it has fostered corporate collusion in order to silence certain political messages. 

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) describes itself as a ‘cross-industry initiative’ started as part of the World Federation of Advertisers that, according to a spokesperson, ‘was established in 2019 to help the advertising industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising.’

‘It was set up in the wake of the Christchurch Mosque shootings in which the killer livestreamed the attacks on Facebook,’ the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘This followed a slew of high-profile cases where brands’ advertisements appeared next to illegal or harmful content, such as child pornography and content promoting terrorism. This included the 2017 London Times exposé entitled ‘Big brands fund terror through online adverts.’’

The group claims to be ‘apolitical’ and ‘voluntary’ and says that it benefits its members by providing use of ‘resources and information about best practices to learn where their advertising investments go, and to avoid placement next to illegal or harmful content that could damage their brands’ reputation.’

‘GARM offers voluntary frameworks to help brands choose the content they want their ads to appear next to,’ GARM’s website says. 

However, GARM’s critics have a different view of the organization and suggest that it has colluded with dozens of major U.S. corporations to push boycotts and suppress speech in a manner that targets conservatives.

In discussing his views on freedom of speech, GARM’s leader and co-founder, Rob Rakowitz, has expressed frustration with an ‘extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution’ and complained about using ‘‘principles for governance’ and applying them as literal law from 230 years ago (made by white men exclusively).’ With this worldview, GARM pushed what it called ‘uncommon collaboration’ to ‘rise above individual commercial interest.’

The House Judiciary Committee released an extensive report outlining how it believes ‘large corporations, advertising agencies, and industry associations participated in boycotts and other coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content deemed disfavored by GARM and its members.’

GARM is alleged to have worked with large companies to implement advertising crackdowns on Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Spotify, political candidates and news outlets, including Fox News, The Daily Wire and Breitbart News.

‘The Committee’s oversight has shown that GARM has deviated far from its original intent, and has collectively used its immense market power to demonetize voices and viewpoints the group disagrees with — even intervening in situations that do not have a so-called ‘brand safety’ concern,’ Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wrote in a letter to over 40 companies last week. 

‘Through its oversight, the Committee has learned that collusive activity is occurring within the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), of which your company is a member. In particular, the Committee has uncovered evidence of coordinated action by GARM and its member companies, including boycotts of disfavored social media platforms, podcasts, and news outlets.’

‘The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight into the adequacy and enforcement of U.S. antitrust laws,’ the letter said.

Along with Adidas, the letter was sent to a variety of other companies, including American Express, Bayer, BP, Carhartt, Chanel, CVS and General Motors, asking them to preserve documents related to their involvement with GARM.

Musk has also publicly criticized GARM and suggested taking legal action against the group while referring to it as an ‘advertising boycott racket.’

The WFA spokesperson, Will Gilroy, told Fox News Digital this week that the ‘recent allegations by the US House Judiciary Committee against GARM for anti-competitive behavior are unfounded.’

 ‘Membership of GARM is entirely voluntary. Its frameworks and tools are intentionally broad, and individual companies are free to review, adopt, modify, or reject them, as they see fit,’ Gilroy said. ‘The decision where and when to advertise is always down to the individual advertiser, in collaboration with their agency partners where relevant.’

‘Recent engagement with industry leaders suggests that GARM’s work remains valuable and increasingly relevant as digital media continues to develop,’ he continued. ‘As such, GARM will continue to live up to its commitment to help allow its members to drive more responsible marketing practices.’