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Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.

FIRST ON FOX: The ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus is calling on Republican leaders to reject President Biden’s $98.4 billion disaster aid request.In an official position staked out by the GOP group on Wednesday evening, lawmakers are demanding a slimmed-down package covering what is “absolutely necessary,” to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

President-elect Trump announced Wednesday he is nominating former Missouri Rep. Billy Long to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in his new administration.In a statement released Wednesday, Trump called the former congressman “an extremely hard worker, and respected by all, especially by those who know him in Congress.” The president-elect also referenced Long’s experience working as a tax adviser.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.

First son Hunter Biden was spotted on camera for the first time since his father, President Biden, pardoned him, smiling for the cameras as he picked up a fast-food order in California. Hunter was seen on Wednesday afternoon in Santa Barbara sporting a T-shirt, jeans and baseball cap while picking up food from an Arby’s. The media was heard asking Hunter in a short video outside the restaurant if he had any comment on the pardon.

Oklahoma will consider a new measure to make the role of school district superintendent an elected position in response to a spate of controversial situations involving scholastic leaders, Fox News Digital has learned.

Democrat Adam Gray has won California’s 13th Congressional District race, defeating incumbent Republican Rep. John Duarte, according to The Associated Press.California’s 13th Congressional District was the last seat to be called, with the district being one of the most competitive races in the Golden State. Republicans maintained the majority with 220, with Democrats trailing at 216.

The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case issued a sharp rebuke of President Biden’s claim that his son was unfairly treated as well as the president’s delivery method following the president’s last-minute pardon.U.S.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is considering a run to lead Democrats on the House Oversight Committee as younger members of the party seek to oust aging committee leaders. The New York Democrat may be looking to replace Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., if he vacates his seat to challenge Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., for the top Democratic spot on the House Judiciary Committee, Politico reported. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.

Attorneys for first son Hunter Biden filed a motion with the court arguing that the grand jury indictment against President Biden’s son be dismissed completely, though the special counsel assigned to the case says the dismissal should be denied.President Biden pardoned his son Hunter late Sunday evening, sparing him from being sentenced in a pair of separate court cases in which he was found guilty of illegally purchasing a gun and failing to pay $1.

President-elect Trump will travel to Paris this weekend to attend the re-opening of the Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after a devastating fire damaged the 12th-century structure. Trump announced the Dec. 7 visit on social media.

President-elect Trump suggested to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week that if a tariff for failing to address trade and immigration issues would kill the neighbor to the north’s economy, maybe it should become the 51st state, sources told Fox News.Last Friday, Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago unannounced after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

President-elect Trump picked businessman and philanthropist Warren A. Stephens to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James, who, in simple terms, is the country’s representative to the U.K.”Over the last 38 years, while serving as the president, chairman, and CEO of his company, Stephens Inc., Warren has built a wonderful financial services firm, while selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

President Joe Biden faced mounting criticism Monday for his decision to issue a sweeping pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, with detractors not only citing the breadth of the pardon itself but also the degree to which it breaks with the president’s history of extolling the virtues of the judiciary as a bulwark against executive abuses of power.

First son Hunter Biden said Sunday after his father, President Joe Biden, pardoned him that he has “taken responsibility” for his mistakes which have been “exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.

Lawmakers reacted with harsh criticism on Sunday after President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who earlier this year was convicted in two separate federal cases.The pardon comes after Biden and his communications team continued to insist the president’s son would not be pardoned.

President-elect Trump reacted to President Biden’s surprise decision to pardon his son Hunter on Sunday.Biden’s move to pardon – a decision he previously claimed he would not make – turned heads across the country. In a Truth Social post on Sunday night, Trump suggested that Biden should have pardoned Jan. 6 protesters.”Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump wrote.

President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after the first son was convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year.The announcement was made by the White House on Sunday night. The pardon applies to offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed” from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024.”Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden wrote in a statement.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., appears to be in favor of the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), after slamming the Pentagon’s budget and failed audits on social media and admitting, “Elon Musk is right.”President-elect Trump tapped Musk and former GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE in an effort to stop the government’s wasteful spending.Sanders addressed the wasteful spending on Sunday in a post on X.

It’s long been said that Congress is a lot like school.What’s the first thing they do in school? Take attendance.That is one thing which they usually don’t do in Congress.But they might next year.FAMILIAR FACES, FAMILIAR PLACES: THE LATEST FROM CAPITOL HILLFiguring out who is present and accounted for and who is out will emerge as one of the most dramatic daily events on Capitol Hill.It is always about the math on Capitol Hill.

President Biden on Friday picked up a copy of a book that described Israel as a colonial power in the face of Palestinian resistance despite his repeated support for the Jewish state. Biden was spotted by the press leaving Nantucket Bookworks holding a copy of “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017” by Columbia University professor emeritus Rashid Khalidi, the New York Post reported.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has flown to Florida to meet with President-elect Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.A person familiar with the matter, according to the AP, said Trudeau will have dinner with Trump. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc accompanied Trudeau on the trip.

After its Facebook account was suspended, the popular American gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson thanked Elon Musk and X for supporting free speech amid what it called ongoing attacks against the First and Second Amendments.Andy Stone, a representative for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told Fox News Digital that the account had been suspended in error and that it has since been restored.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned several threats, mostly focused on lawmakers from Connecticut, targeting members of his caucus, just days after numerous threats were made against President-elect Trump’s Cabinet selections.Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Texas could implement a plan to bus migrants directly to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an effort to get them processed for deportation, according to media reports. The move would be a departure from the state’s program, part of Operation Lone Star, that has bussed thousands of migrants to sanctuary cities, a source told the New York Post. It has yet to be approved by Gov. Greg Abbott. Fox News Digital has reached out to Abbott’s office and ICE.

President Biden on Thanksgiving said he was thankful that the transition of power to a second Trump administration has gone smoothly, while urging the incoming commander-in-chief to “rethink” threats to impose steep tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods. “I hope that [President-elect Trump] rethinks it.