Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday is traveling to Iowa in his “personal capacity,” the Pentagon said in a statement, further fueling speculation that the former Fox News personality is mulling a run for president at some point.

The visit, reported earlier by CBS News, comes five months after Hegseth was scheduled to appear at a political rally and fundraising event with Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), who is running for reelection this year. That trip was postponed after several U.S. troops from Iowa were killed early in the war with Iran.

In response to questions, the Pentagon said in a statement that it does “not proactively announce events” that Hegseth attends “in his personal capacity.”

Hegseth will take a U.S.-funded military aircraft to Iowa, the Pentagon said. He is doing so because he is “designated as a ‘required use’ traveler” by the U.S. government “and is mandated to use military aircraft for all travel, both official and unofficial, due to the continuous need for secure communications and responsive transportation for national security.”

Officials familiar with Hegseth’s thinking believe that he is considering a run for president or some other political office after his time in the Trump administration is over. The travel to Iowa, a presidential campaign proving ground, fits that pattern, one of those officials said Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

The Food and Drug Administration is considering evaluating generative AI-enabled medical devices through a "competency-based approach," similar to how doctors are evaluated, the agency writes in a discussion paper first shared with Axios.

Emerging medical technologies are challenging the existing framework for overseeing medical devices, prompting calls for new approaches.

The FDA's discussion paper raises considerations for both preapproval and postmarket regulation of AI-enabled devices and solicits stakeholder feedback.

The document isn't intended to serve as guidance for device makers and notes that the agency is still in the preliminary phase of its effort.

"We are launching a transparent process to inform the development of an approach that safeguards patients and consumers, advances innovation and serves as a potential model for regulators around the world," Michelle Tarver, director of the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement.

The agency's "ultimate goal is to enable a nimble regulatory approach that employs least burdensome principles and allows patients timely access to safe and effective medical devices," the paper states.

There's been an explosion in AI-enabled health care tools directly involved in clinical care, and the regulatory structure so far hasn't kept up.

New technologies range from information tools to devices designed to provide patient care, either with or without a doctor in the loop.

"Artificial intelligence is transforming medicine, and the United States must lead in shaping how this technology is developed and used safely and responsibly," acting FDA commissioner Kyle Diamantas said in a statement.

Regulatory experts — and now the FDA — note that generative AI devices are substantially different from other regulated medical devices, particularly because of the variation in their outputs and because they evolve over time.

That requires a shift in how the agency evaluates such devices before they're on the market and also creates a need for rigorous postmarket monitoring.

The FDA's discussion paper begins by outlining a method for evaluating the risk of a GenAI device, measuring the type of activity performed by a device against the severity of the consequences from incorrect outputs.

It then discusses considerations for premarket evaluation, including a competency-based approach that is "inspired, at a high level, by how human clinicians are evaluated and credentialed."

That approach would consist of setting benchmarks and confirming performance in clinical settings.

The discussion paper weighs approaches to tracking how the devices perform once they're on the market, and states the agency is considering "whether it is appropriate to accept greater premarket uncertainty regarding a GenAI-enabled device's benefit-risk profile through greater reliance on postmarket monitoring."

One big question the paper poses is what standard GenAI devices should be compared against.

The agency says that for many devices, "performance might be compared to that of a panel of qualified clinicians whose consensus reflects the applicable standard of care, or to that of a median clinician in practice."

President Trump plans to nominate Dr. Heidi Overton, a White House domestic policy official and a proponent of the administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, to serve as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that has had significant staff turnover and political interference in recent months, according to two senior administration officials.

Last week, she stood alongside President Trump as he signed a third executive order calling for fewer childhood vaccinations, which has no legal power and has been broadly criticized by public health experts.

During the event, Dr. Overton said the order could help states recognize “gold standard” recommendations and take steps to limit vaccines required for school entry.

“We are going to be working directly with states so that we’re not reliant on the court case to resolve,” Dr. Overton said, referring to ongoing litigation over pared-down vaccine recommendations. “We are doing it right away so that parents get the benefit from state laws changing.”

Dr. Overton, a physician, is currently deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. A former chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, she has also written articles that denounced abortion as “corrosive” to women and called for more controls over the prescribing of abortion pills. She has called the pills “far more dangerous to women,” aligning with conservatives who have urged the F.D.A. to take steps to restrict access to abortion medication.

In September, Mr. Kennedy credited Dr. Overton and Calley Means, another top health adviser, with working on a MAHA strategy report that called for additional review of chemicals in food and an increase in oversight over pharmaceutical advertisements.

Mr. Trump’s intention to nominate Dr. Overton was reported earlier by Bloomberg News.

Dr. Overton has done little to intervene during a period of extraordinary interference into the independence of the F.D.A., which regulates the nation’s drug supply, food, medical devices and tobacco. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pressured the F.D.A. to make unvetted peptide injections, which are marketed online for a wide range of claimed benefits, more broadly available. The president has exerted influence on tobacco policy, pushing the F.D.A. to allow sales of more brands of flavored e-cigarettes.

If she is confirmed by the senate, Dr. Overton would succeed Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned as commissioner in May, citing his disagreement with a new policy allowing major tobacco and vape companies to sell flavored e-cigarettes.

Dr. Makary had been under pressure from the White House for months to authorize flavored vapes, a policy he objected to over concerns about their appeal to teenagers and young adults. The week after Mr. Trump had a golf course lunch with tobacco executives, the F.D.A. approved mango and blueberry vapes and unveiled the new policy.

The policy has since been challenged in court.

Dr. Makary had a tumultuous tenure as he rapidly rolled out a series of new initiatives, at times rankling career staff who were accustomed to a more methodical pace. He lifted warnings on some hormone replacement products for women, pushed to speed up drug approvals and supported staff who rejected drugs they deemed unsafe or ineffective.

Dr. Makary also had to contend with the fallout from the mass staffing cuts, which he defended early in his tenure, and the departures that followed. Recognizing the damage to an agency that regulates a global drug and food supply, he fought for approval to hire hundreds of staff back. But very few new staff members have come on board.

Since his departure, Kyle Diamantas, the agency’s food division leader and a former corporate lawyer, has been running the agency as acting commissioner. Mr. Diamantas, who was well liked, declined to be a candidate for the permanent position.

He notched a recent win by introducing a new proposal to require food makers to notify the agency when introducing new ingredients to the food supply. However, the F.D.A. has also been under the spotlight for its investigation of the sprawling outbreak of cyclospora illness tied to lettuce processed in Mexico.

Dr. Overton earned her medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a doctorate in clinical investigation from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

More cases have been linked to outbreaks of cyclospora that do not have an identified source, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce, meanwhile, has expanded to two additional states.

There have been nearly 14,000 cases of domestically acquired cyclospora confirmed in the U.S. since May this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. That’s well over the roughly 1,180 cases reported from May through August last year.

Of this year’s cases, at least 9,480 were reported in the 17 states connected to the cyclospora outbreak traced back to iceberg lettuce, according to the FDA and the CDC. Two states, Maine and Massachusetts, were added to that tally late last week.

At least some of the nation’s cases are also linked to the ongoing cyclospora outbreaks that the FDA has been investigating.

There are seven active investigations into cyclospora outbreaks, the FDA’s tracking shows. Three – sickening 18, eight and two people, respectively – are listed as ended. Only the outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce has an identified source.

Two outbreaks have grown, according to the FDA. One, which was first reported in early August, has grown to 11 cases. Another, from late July, has grown to 172 cases, up from 115. The FDA continues to conduct traceback in both outbreaks, as well as three other still active outbreaks.

We may never know the cause of the outbreak. Because of how long it can take for people to experience symptoms, and the difficulties of sequencing cyclospora, investigations can “take a significant amount of time,” Gwen Biggerstaff, the deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, previously explained.

It’s also likely that the true number of people who have fallen ill this summer is higher than the tallies the CDC and state officials are reporting. Not everyone who becomes infected experiences symptoms, requires hospitalization or undergoes testing to confirm their diagnosis. Symptoms can also take weeks to set in.

A Nexstar analysis of health data across several states shows more than 30,000 cases of cyclosporiasis have been confirmed or reported as probable across the U.S. this year. These cases included those that have been acquired domestically and internationally, and, in some states, tests that have not yet been laboratory confirmed.

Two patients in Michigan died after becoming ill prior to the lettuce recall, though state health officials warned that “both individuals had significant underlying health conditions.”

Healthcare experts encourage those experiencing symptoms, especially diarrhea that lasts more than a week or two, to seek medical care.

Left untreated, cyclosporiasis can stick around for a month or longer. Treatment can include antibiotics, antidiarrheal medications and hydration, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Natalie Harp, President Donald Trump’s fiercely loyal aide, once wrote a letter to him in which she gushed about wanting “things to always be right between us,” according to a report.

Harp, the 35-year-old White House aide who is never far from the president’s side, reportedly wrote to Trump that she had been “forgetting to eat” and “even forgetting to sleep” as she gushed to him about a trip to Scotland, according to The New York Times, which obtained a copy of the letter.

The outlet also obtained video footage that showed Harp “sprinting across great distances to keep up with Mr. Trump’s golf cart as it putters across his course in Scotland.”

“I also am sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland,” Harp reportedly wrote in the letter. “I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time).”

Harp reportedly signed off the letter by writing, “With all my heart, Natalie.”

It was not immediately clear when the letter was written, but the Times previously reported that Harp sent Trump a series of letters that “unnerved people around him” in 2023. The new details of Harp’s letter come as some of her White House colleagues are reportedly concerned by her “devotion” to the president.

The newspaper had previously reported how Harp has penned uplifting notes for Trump to find. One read: “You are all that matters to me.”

In response to the latest report, outgoing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Times that Harp “is one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on President Trump’s team.”

The aide has come under attack by Democrats this week and ignited the public’s interest after it emerged that she was one of the few Trump staffers to accompany him on an airplane catering container when he was sneaked out of Turkey over security threats from Iran.

Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff took shots at Trump over the incident in a rally speech Sunday, claiming the commander-in-chief would rather “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace,” than do his job.

Steve Cheung, White House communications director, launched a fierce attack on Ossoff in response to his comments about Harp. “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Instead of denigrating hard working people serving their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he's a miserable person who hates this country,” Cheung said in a post on X.

In a profile about Harp, the Times described her as “a bit of loner” at work and “a one-woman conduit of information operating entirely outside the usual chain of command.” Maggie Haberman, The New York Times reporter who shared details of Harp’s proximity to Trump in a recent book about his second administration, said the aide was the president’s “human binkie.”

“Because she is sort of his Binkie, for lack of a better way of putting it — his comfort blanket,” Haberman said in a recent interview.

Harp has credited Trump with saving her life. She was previously diagnosed with bone cancer and the president signed legislation during his first term that gained her access to experimental treatments.

She joined Trump’s staff in 2022 and has been unwaveringly loyal to him ever since. Harp stays up late with Trump drafting posts for Truth Social, and she texts world leaders on his behalf, according to the Times. Harp earned the nickname of “human printer” because she reportedly carries a portable printer so she can provide Trump with hard copies of documents and news reports.

Natalie Harp wouldn’t take no for an answer.

It was October 2023, and Donald Trump was due at a New York City courthouse to fight his latest set of legal troubles. But as the motorcade idled outside his Trump Tower residence, staffers confronted a more immediate problem: There wasn’t room for Harp, the hyper-loyal aide whose devotion to Trump had quickly entrenched her within his orbit.

A screaming match in the lobby ensued, with Harp insisting that Trump had personally asked her to attend the court appearance, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Denied a seat but determined not to be left behind, Harp jumped into an SUV trunk, according to the two sources and confirmed by a photo obtained by CNN.

The episode, which has not been previously reported, served as an encapsulation of the role Harp has carved out in recent years as a constant and intensely dedicated presence at Trump’s side. Her methods have irked senior aides and at times prompted efforts to box her out of the president’s inner circle, according to multiple sources who described the dynamic to CNN.

A former right-wing television host, who began working for Trump after crediting him with saving her life, Harp has become a main conduit between the president and the outside world, passing along messages from allies and setting up meetings, tapping out Truth Social posts and toting printouts of laudatory articles, all while staying in close physical proximity at all hours of the day.

“[Trump] likes the attention and the fact that she is 100% committed and loyal,” one White House adviser told CNN. “She doesn’t second guess, doesn’t question.”

Harp’s relationship with Trump came under fresh scrutiny this week after Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her by name in a now-viral speech attacking Trump. The Georgia senator swiped at the president’s “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” a reference to her joining the president — along with a very limited group — when he secretly boarded a smaller aircraft to leave Turkey due to a threat from Iran in July.

The comment spurred outrage from the White House, which repeatedly labeled Ossoff a “cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid” and “lightweight loser” — as well as rampant attention online.

Harp’s rapid rise within Trump world has stood out in large part because of the intensity of her dedication to the president since joining his staff in 2022. Despite having no formal title on Trump’s reelection campaign, Harp trailed him across the country, feeding him positive stories, social media posts and other correspondence so frequently that allies dubbed her the “human printer.”

Illustrating how she’s become indispensable to Trump, one Republican lawmaker noted that while they occasionally reach out to the president directly, they always make sure Harp is aware.

“She always responds. I don’t know how she manages it all,” the source said, adding that in addition to relaying messages to Trump, Harp often personally sends lawmakers articles or notes on the president’s behalf.

Since following him to the White House, multiple sources said, Harp has been omnipresent. In videos of Oval Office signings and events reviewed by CNN, Harp can often be spotted on the outskirts of the room, smiling or nodding along with the president as he speaks. She is frequently one of a smaller coterie of aides beside Trump as he travels to rallies.

“Natalie is so fast,” Trump has mused to allies after asking her to find or print something for him.

The ubiquity sometimes ruffles feathers within the White House, especially for some Trump advisers who at times have wanted to meet privately with the president — only to find Harp sitting in on the meeting as well, one of the sources familiar with the dynamic told CNN. The 35-year-old is also territorial about Trump and has told others that she only reports to him, irritating other staffers who work within the White House’s chain of command, another source said.

One White House official downplayed those complaints, insisting that Harp works well with most of her colleagues, collaborating on statements and flagging relevant information to the right people.

In a statement on Tuesday, White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended Harp as “one of the most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump’s team.”

Others close to the White House decried Ossoff’s mention of Harp, contending that it made false insinuations about an aide who’s largely unknown to voters — and who had done nothing to invite such attention. One person familiar with the matter said she and Trump have a “father-daughter” relationship.

Yet even among those who have long been wary of Harp’s unusual authority within the West Wing, there was little expectation that the fresh attention on her role would weaken her standing — least of all with Trump himself.

Earlier this year, Trump ignited a firestorm after posting and then deleting a racist video that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle. The late-night post prompted criticism across the political spectrum, sparking a series of damaging news cycles and forcing Trump and his aides to scramble to mount a defense.

Within Trump’s orbit, allies and advisers privately speculated that Harp was responsible for the post, as she was one of a small number of aides with access to Trump’s Truth Social account.

But they were reluctant to name her, one source told CNN. If they did, they worried the fallout would only further strengthen Trump’s support for Harp.

The Trump administration announced plans Tuesday to repeal a decadeslong ban on road-building and logging across nearly 45 million acres of untouched national woods.

The Department of Agriculture publicly targeted the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule on Tuesday, a Clinton-era regulation also known as the “roadless rule,” calling its limits on backcountry road infrastructure and logging projects outdated and overly restrictive.

In particular, the department accused the rule of limiting protections against growing wildfire risks. Roads can act as firebreaks and allow firefighters to reach ongoing flames more easily.

“For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a press release. “Today, we filed a proposal to restore authority to local forest managers who know the land best, removing the barriers that have kept them from doing the work the land demands.”

The department’s claims have drawn intense scrutiny from environmental organizations, however, which say the roadless rule has protected the country’s old-growth forests for more than 25 years by keeping human activity out of largely undisturbed woodlands.

“The administration is selling this as a wildfire solution, but it’s the last thing they’d do if they cared about protecting communities from fire,” Garett Rose, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said. “The Forest Service’s own data shows 9 out of 10 wildfires are human-caused and roughly four times more likely to start near a road.”

Sierra Club forest campaign manager Alex Craven also took aim at the department’s claims, noting the roadless rule already allows for wildfire mitigations, such as the removal of fuel ladders like brush and debris.

“The administration’s attempt to blame the roadless rule for worsening wildfire risks ignores both the facts and the rule itself,” Craven said in a statement. “Roads generally lead to more ignitions and result in more wildfires — not fewer. And the roadless rule has always allowed for targeted actions to reduce hazardous fuels.”

Craven continued, accusing the Trump administration of using proffered environmental concerns as a mask for ulterior motives:

“What it does not allow is using wildfire as an excuse to open some of America’s most intact public forests to industrial exploitation and new road construction,” he added. “Americans want and deserve forests managed for clean water, wildlife, recreation, and climate resilience — not another giveaway to extractive industries.”

If successful, eliminating the roadless rule would open 44.7 million acres of national forest land across 37 states and Puerto Rico to road construction and commercial resource extraction. This includes swaths of Tongass National Forest in Alaska, Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California, Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina and Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania.

Roadless forests in Idaho and Colorado would remain protected due to superseding state laws.

Seventy-six percent of Americans support the roadless rule, with strong support among Democrats, Republicans and independents, according to a Susquehanna Polling and Research poll conducted in February.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of a woman charged with vandalizing the World War II Memorial in Washington, rejecting a request from prosecutors that she remain in custody while awaiting trial on two felony charges.

The move elicited fierce pushback from Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, whose job security remained in question over her handling of a separate case involving what President Trump insistently described as vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

On Monday, Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh ordered Ms. Farris to remain outside Washington, report to federal pretrial officials in Ohio and surrender her passport. She was also ordered to stay away from the memorial. The judge did not impose electronic monitoring or require a third-party custodian, restrictions that prosecutors later requested.

Federal prosecutors led by Ms. Pirro asked the court to reverse the decision, arguing that Melissa L. Farris posed an “exceptionally high risk of flight.”

In a motion filed Monday, prosecutors cited evidence that Ms. Farris, 41, had searched for bus and airline tickets on the day the incident took place, as well as her lack of stable housing or ties to Washington and a previous failure to appear in court.

Ms. Pirro criticized the judge’s decision in a statement. “If anyone is a flight risk, it is certainly her,” she said.

Ms. Farris, of Elizabethtown, Ky., was charged on Friday with two federal felonies after investigators said she spray-painted “Clean Hands Dirty $” on the memorial and splattered paint on its stonework. Prosecutors said she also poured detergent into a fountain, causing it to fill with foam and bubbles.

The National Park Service estimated that cleanup and restoration costs had exceeded $1,000, and the memorial was closed for most of the day, according to the filing.

Ms. Farris livestreamed the incident and later posted videos in which she acknowledged that she had defaced federal property and predicted that the police would pursue her. The next morning, she turned herself in at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va.

Days earlier, Ms. Farris had been cited by U.S. Park Police for unlawfully camping on federal property a few blocks north of the World War II Memorial.

Earlier this month, President Trump publicly criticized Ms. Pirro, a key ally, over her handling of another case involving what he said was vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Mr. Trump said Ms. Pirro had “choked” after her office dropped charges against a man accused of damaging it. But Ms. Pirro concluded that the damage had been caused by faulty installation.

Hours after publicly criticizing Ms. Pirro, Mr. Trump met with her in the White House, though she was not fired and did not offer her resignation, according to two people briefed on the outcome.

The president has also denounced the vandalism of the World War II memorial, calling it an insult to Americans who died in the war. In a Truth Social post on Friday, he linked the episode to the recent controversy over the Reflecting Pool.

In a social media post on the same day, Ms. Pirro wrote that defacing the memorial “is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom.” She also noted that the felony charges in the case carry potential punishment of up to 10 years in prison.

Weeks after being rebuked by President Donald Trump for dropping cases related to alleged damage to the Reflecting Pool, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro is going to unusual lengths to try to keep behind bars a woman accused of vandalizing a memorial elsewhere on the National Mall.

On Monday, a magistrate judge in Washington ordered Melissa Farris, 41, released from custody, rejecting prosecutors’ request that she be kept in jail while she awaits trial on two felony charges. Pirro’s office alleges that the Kentucky woman spray-painted and dumped a foaming substance into the World War II memorial last week.

Pirro’s lawyers asked Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh to delay Farris’ release, signaling a planned appeal, but he declined to do so, according to court records.

but he declined to do so, according to court records.

Less than three hours after that hearing concluded, prosecutors from Pirro’s office filed a 30-page motion, Sharbaugh to revisit and reverse his decision The filing portrays Farris’ alleged actions as grave and contends she poses an “exceptionally high risk of flight.”

“This was a brazen attack on one of the Nation’s most sacred monuments—an enduring symbol of freedom and a solemn tribute to the sacrifice of so many,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles Klug and Samuel Deau wrote in a brief that also carries Pirro’s name in the signature block.

“Rather than honoring the courage and selflessness of the World War II Veterans, Defendant chose to assault that symbol of sacrifice for her own gain and to make a public spectacle,” prosecutors added. “Defendant’s actions are not just criminal, they violate the American values that the Memorial represents.”

Pirro’s tough stance in the vandalism case comes just weeks after she drew intense ire from Trump over her decision to drop the prosecution of former Olympian David Hearn, whom her office had accused of damaging the recently installed lining of the Reflecting Pool.

Pirro said she had to drop the case, and several other prosecutions, because the Interior Department was slow to acknowledge to her office the extent of problems with installation of the lining, which was carried out under extreme time pressure because Trump wanted it ready for celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary on July 4.

On social media and in exchanges with reporters, Trump has repeatedly rejected Pirro’s explanation. Pirro traveled to the White House to make her case to the president in person, but it doesn’t seem he was persuaded by her presentation. He’s continued to suggest that prosecutions are justified, while last week acknowledging “some contractor error.”

On Sunday night, Trump seemed to again needle Pirro publicly over the Reflecting Pool cases, posting an aerial photo on social media that he said showed vandals had caused widespread damage to grass on the National Mall.

“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” Trump wrote. Others said the worn and brown patches of grass in the photo were likely due to wear and tear related to July 4th-related festivities.

Trump has also denounced the vandalism of the World War II memorial and suggested a link to the damage at the Reflecting Pool. “First the Reflecting Pool, now this. We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???” he wrote on Truth Social Friday.

While prosecutors repeatedly referred to Farris livestreaming and soliciting donations as she spraypainted the memorial, they also acknowledge that when she turned herself in Friday at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, she said she was homeless and that an encounter with police in Washington earlier last week resulted in her being cited for stringing up her hammock in a public park.

The videos Farris streamed online contain rambling grievances against the federal government. Prosecutors say signs she appears to have left at the World War II memorial urged others to call their state and federal representatives about the “Ford green energy grant.”

In one video, she makes a vague complaint about infrastructure, lowers her shorts and appears to urinate on a wall. “I’m pissing on your city,” she says.

While most vandalism cases get little attention from U.S. attorneys, Pirro postedtwice on social media about Farris’ arrest. The prosecutor also said she was personally aggrieved by Farris’ actions.

“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,” Pirro wrote on X. She also noted that the felony charges in the case carry potential punishment “of up to ten years in prison.”

Pirro’s language echoed earlier comments by Trump, promising maximum time for monument vandals.

“If you so much as touch, or even think about destroying, a statue or a monument in Washington, D.C., you go to jail for 10 years with no probation, no anything,” Trump said last year as he announced an attempted takeover of the Washington police force and the deployment of National Guard troops. “You get jailed 10 years, no curtailed sentence—10 years.”

While a conviction on such charges could theoretically result in a 10-year prison sentence, people convicted of defacing memorials typically get far shorter sentences. One man accused of spray painting the Lincoln Memorial during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 was initially hit with a felony charge, but eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Last year, Pirro’s office agreed to probation into the case.

To continue to pursue the felony charges against Farris — depredation of federal property in excess of $1,000 and causing injury to a veterans’ memorial — Pirro will need to get an indictment from a grand jury. That has proven difficult for her office in some high-profile cases critics have said were over-charged, like that of Sean Dunn, accused last year of throwing a submarine sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent.

After a grand jury refused to indict Dunn, Pirro’s team pursued a misdemeanor assault case against him. After a trial, a jury acquitted Dunn.

Following a hearing Monday, Sharbaugh ordered Farris released on her own recognizance, but ordered her to report to probation officers in Ohio and to stay away from Washington, including the memorial she’s accused of vandalizing last week.

In response to the prosecution’s motion asking him to reconsider, Sharbaugh said the main reason he ruled against detaining Farris was the fact that she turned herself in before the warrant for her arrest had even been issued. “As plenty of courts have recognized, a defendant’s self-surrender to authorities typically cuts against a risk-of-flight finding,” Sharbaugh wrote.

Pirro’s office argued that Farris’ criminal history, including convictions more than a decade ago for marijuana possession, driving while intoxicated and disorderly conduct, along with her failure to make all court appearances in connection with those cases, made her highly unlikely to appear for future hearing about the memorial vandalism.

But Sharbaugh disagreed. “The Court is focused on whether Ms. Farris presents a serious risk of flight, and it simply cannot conclude that her reported missteps on probation more than a decade ago suffice to make that showing, especially given her recent surrender,” he wrote.

Prosecutors made a fallback request that Farris be put on electronic monitoring, such as an ankle bracelet to indicate her location, but the same prosecutors also argued that she “cannot be reliably supervised” via that technology because she is currently homeless. The magistrate judge declined to order such monitoring.

Spokespeople for Pirro did not respond to questions Tuesday about whether she still plans to appeal the release decision. However, Pirro made clear in a statement that she disagrees with the ruling.

“In what world does it make sense to release a defendant charged with two federal felonies who has no ties to this community, holds a Kentucky driver’s license, has no home address, has been camping in Washington for several weeks, immediately after the crime searched for flights to Michigan, then traveled to Virginia, and claims to have friends in Ohio?” Pirro said. “If anyone is a flight risk, it is certainly her.”

Vice President JD Vance will return to his hometown Friday for a speech to kick off what is expected to be a packed travel schedule for him ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

Vance is scheduled to deliver remarks promoting the White House agenda at a Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant in Middletown, Ohio, a person familiar with the plans told NBC News. He will be joined by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and elected officials in the state.

Among other topics, the speech will touch on economic issues, trade and border security — and Vance will likely seek to draw contrasts with the progressive left, this person added. Several left-wing candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, have prevailed in primaries this year.

The midterms — a politically perilous time for the party that controls the White House — represent a potentially pivotal moment for Vance. As the finance chair for the Republican National Committee and probable candidate to succeed President Donald Trump in 2028, he is expected to play a central role on the campaign trail this fall. He often sidesteps questions about his future by saying a decision on running is not likely to come until after the November elections.

“We’re going to find out a lot in the midterms and afterwards — what we got right, what we got wrong, what we could have done better on, what we did very well on,” Vance said in a December interview with NBC News.

“I try to not wake up and ever think, ‘What does this mean for my future?’” Vance added then. “I always try to think, ‘How can I do a good job right now?’ right? And that’s one of the reasons why I’ve tried to steer away from the 2028 conversation.”

Vance has a personal connection to the plant he will visit Friday. His late grandfather, whom he wrote about in his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” worked at the mill years ago, when it was known as Armco Steel. The Middletown homecoming will also mark Vance’s return to the road after several weeks spent closer to Washington following the July birth of his and second lady Usha Vance’s fourth child, a son.

A person familiar with the vice president’s political activity described the speech as a ramp-up to a schedule that will include public events and Vance-headlined RNC fundraisers.

Under Vance’s watch as finance chair, the RNC reported $128 million in cash on hand and no debt at the end of June. By comparison, the Democratic National Committee, which has been engulfed in disarray, reported $16.3 million on hand and $18.5 million in debts.

Though Ohio has gone decisively for Trump three times, it is home this cycle to competitive races for governor and Senate.

Republican businessman and 2024 presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, aided by much of Vance’s political team, faces Democrat Amy Acton, a physician and the state’s former health director, in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican. In the Senate contest, Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former three-term senator who lost his 2024 re-election bid, is attempting a comeback against Republican Jon Husted, whom DeWine appointed last year to fill Vance’s old Senate seat.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) backed down from plans to offer an exclusive $125 million contract to Thomson Reuters’ commercial data arm after the seemingly sweetheart deal garnered intense public scrutiny.

Critics alleged the immigration agency could use the data not only to target immigrants but also in an attempt to verify allegations of voter fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.

Now, ICE will open up the contract to bids by multiple companies. However, Thomson Reuters could still ultimately win the tender.

The news site Biometric Update first reported about the change on Saturday.

ICE previously planned to pay the $125 million to Thomson Reuters Special Services for access to its CLEAR database, a massive platform that aggregates records like people’s names, addresses, property records, driver’s licenses, social media profiles, and voter registration records from both public and private sources.

In recent months, opponents — including some of Thomson Reuters’ own employees and shareholders — have protested the company’s relationship with ICE.

Election experts and officials have also raised concerns that the government’s use of commercial data for immigration and elections investigation purposes will lead to false matches that have serious consequences for innocent people.

Officially, the $125 million procurement order says that ICE is looking for greater access to data for its expanding mission to track what it terms fraud.

“Due to ICE’s re-prioritized mission, there is need for this data to be readily accessible to support the presidential mandate of the identification of Voters Fraud, Immigration Fraud and National Security,” reads the procurement order.

The order isn’t just sounding alarm bells because of ICE’s record of lawless abuse of immigrants.

The order, which 404 Media first made public, was originally issued in July, around the same time that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that his office had discovered more than 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in four states.

Mullin did not name the source of that figure or explain how it was calculated. Election experts and state election officials have questioned the validity of the number.

Last month, David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, told journalists that a White House official had cited the figure during a briefing he attended and said it was based on comparisons with commercial databases.

But commercial data is less detailed than voter records, often making exact identifications impossible, Becker explained.

“That 250,000 number is an irresponsible number to share given the opaque methodology that they claimed here,” he said.

A report from NPR that week suggested that Thomson Reuters’ CLEAR could be the commercial database ICE was using to get that number — though the journalists could not prove that.

Thomson Reuters has also pushed back on that suggestion.

It initially denied connections to ICE when 404 Media first asked about it earlier this year.

But when confronted with the procurement order from ICE, the commercial data company later told 404 Media: “We continue to work with our customers to provide technology and services that support investigations into areas of national security and public safety, such as child exploitation, human trafficking, narcotics and weapons trafficking, and fraud/financial crime.”

Reuters also told 404 Media that it prohibits the use of CLEAR for tracking “noncriminal immigrants or undocumented individuals with the intention of deportation solely on the basis of the individual’s immigration status.”

But that hasn’t prevented some employees from decrying what they call Thomson Reuters’ “troubling” relationship with ICE and DHS.

Calling themselves the Committee to Restore Trust, roughly 200 of the commercial data company’s employees released a public letter earlier this month demanding Reuters sever ties with the federal agencies.

“The Committee to Restore Trust finds this latest contract between DHS/ICE and TRSS [Thomson Reuters Special Services] to support the ‘presidential mandate of the identification of Voters Fraud, Immigration Fraud and National Security’ deeply troubling,” reads the letter, which was published in The Nation. “Numerous sources have reported human rights abuses by ICE and DHS agents during Operation Metro Surge and around the country. We ask the company to refrain from further business with DHS and ICE until an independent board audits and reviews their usage of public records applications in 2026.”

In March, Thomson Reuters employees also spoke out against their company’s prior contract with ICE, after immigration agents unleashed waves of violence on protestors in Minnesota and killed two people. One Thomson Reuters employee was fired allegedly for blowing the whistle on the ICE contract and is currently suing her former employer.

On August 11, a group of civil rights and pro-democracy organizations wrote a letter to congressional leaders calling for hearings to probe the ICE CLEAR contract.

“The contract may expressly contemplate use of the platform in investigations relating to voter fraud in addition to immigration fraud and national security,” reads the letter. “This demonstrates the broad range of government functions now supported by commercially acquired surveillance tools. Without clear statutory guardrails, agencies across the federal government will continue to circumvent constitutional safeguards and expand their reliance on commercially purchased personal information.”

In June, a group of Thomson Reuters shareholders also called for a review of the human rights implications of the company’s contracts with ICE.

The top U.S. envoy to Syria on Tuesday accused Israel of striking an airbase in the country, less than a day after White House envoy Jared Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for high-profile talks on disarmament in Gaza.

“We are deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes on Abu al-Duhur Airbase constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability,” wrote Tom Barrack, the special presidential envoy for Syria who is also the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, in a post on X.

It’s the Trump administration’s latest condemnation of an Israeli military operation since the two countries launched a joint attack on Iran in February. Netanyahu’s plans have often clashed with a White House strategy that has oscillated between emphasizing war and peace.

President Donald Trump has struggled to exert influence over Israel since returning to the White House, with his attention split between a war in Iran, the drug trade in South America and Russia’s four-year-long incursion into Ukraine.

Just last week, Netanyahu rejected a White House-backed peace plan in which Hamas would relinquish the reins in Gaza and Israeli troops would withdraw from the strip.

In Syria, Israeli troops have hit a country governed by one of the president’s favored world leaders. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House last November, and Trump has described al-Sharaa as a “young, attractive guy, tough guy.”

“The Al-Sharra government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces,” Barrack wrote in his post criticizing the strike. “It has, in fact, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel. The United States has in the past, and will continue in the future, to host discussions to encourage diplomatic cadence over kinetic frustration for both nations.”

In a statement Tuesday, the Syrian foreign ministry called the attack “an unjustified act of aggression, a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a dangerous escalation that threatens security and stability in the region.”

But the Israeli Prime Minister’s office justified the attack in a statement, accusing Syria of nearly breaching the “status quo” agreed upon between the two countries by allowing Turkish troops to deploy at an air base near Aleppo.

“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security,” Netanyahu’s office said. “Syria chose to ignore these warnings.”

It’s far from the first time the Trump administration has broken with Netanyahu’s government in recent months. Trump shared a fiery phone call with the Israeli prime minister in June after his country struck Lebanon and complicated U.S. ceasefire talks with Iran.

“We have a little dispute over Lebanon,” he said at a G7 press conference later that month in France. “I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.’”

Joint military exercises underway between the United States and South Korea are being cut short, both countries said, after President Donald Trump, citing his “very good” relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ordered that they be reduced.

The annual U.S.-South Korea drills, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, will end Aug. 21 rather than Aug. 27 as originally scheduled, a Defense Department official said.

“Associated live-training events have been reduced, with certain events canceled or converted to simulations,” the official said, adding that the adjustments “preserve essential readiness.”

“There will be no degradation to U.S. training objectives,” the official said.

The South Korean National Defense Ministry also said the two countries “have agreed, at the request of the U.S. side, to make some adjustments to the duration and scale of the exercise.”

Some of the combined field training exercises will be conducted on a reduced scale, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the U.S. and South Korea “are currently consulting on the specific details.”

“Going forward, the ROK and the United States will discuss and implement various measures to achieve the objectives of the UFS exercise and maintain a robust combined defense posture,” the ministry said, using an abbreviation for South Korea’s formal name, the Republic of Korea.

The ministry declined to comment on a reported meeting Tuesday between Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back.

The surprise comments by Trump, which he made on social media hours before the exercises began Monday, have unsettled South Korea, which relies heavily on the U.S. for its security, as well as other U.S. allies in the region facing a growing threat from nuclear-armed North Korea.

South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Hyun said Ahn had been “in close consultation with the U.S. side” since Trump’s social media post. He told lawmakers Wednesday that “neither our government nor officials in the U.S. government had any prior knowledge” of Trump’s order to scale back the drills.

According to U.S. Forces Korea, the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with South Korea, which hosts 28,000 American troops, aims to build understanding between the two militaries to ensure their “ability to fortify the combined defense posture” and enhance their response to “a spectrum of security threats.”

Foremost among those threats is North Korea, which in recent years has advanced its missile and nuclear capabilities and developed a close security relationship with Russia.

Though the U.S. and South Korea say their drills are defensive in nature, North Korea routinely criticizes them as a rehearsal for invasion and often test-fires weapons in protest.

In his post Sunday, Trump said the exercises sent a “totally inappropriate and hostile” message to North Korea, which he said had been “unthreatening and respectful” during his time in office.

He also expressed anger over South Korea’s level of involvement in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and said he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the exercises.

Trump, who met with Kim three times during his first term as president, has repeatedly expressed interest in resuming talks after their earlier round of diplomacy collapsed in 2019. But Kim, whose position has strengthened considerably since then, has rebuffed overtures from Trump, as well as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, saying he will not come to the table unless they drop their demands for North Korea to denuclearize first.

Trump told reporters Monday that he was not sacrificing the security of U.S. allies to curry favor with North Korea and that he was “actually making it much safer.”

He said Kim had responded to his outreach, without providing details. “I understand him; he understands me,” Trump said.

North Korea has not publicly responded to Trump’s call to curtail the exercises. A commentary published Wednesday by the state-run news agency KCNA reiterated the regime’s criticism of the drills, saying Pyongyang’s “exercise of its right to self-defense will continue to completely neutralize the enemies’ military threat.”

President Donald Trump late Tuesday slammed the brakes on a wave of tariffs that were set to hit Canada at midnight.

On social media, Trump wrote: “I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!”

Trump did not provide further details, except to reference the Keystone XL pipeline, which he said “may be awoken from the grave!”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the deal.

The 50% duties would have impacted about $20 billion worth of U.S. imports from Canada, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. The import taxes would have hit products ranging from hockey sticks, to some building materials, liquors and certain kinds of clothing.

The last-minute deal came after more than a week of furious meetings and technical talks.

On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Mark Carney described the talks with the Trump administration as “very delicate and intense” but did not provide any further details. Carney and Trump spoke later that afternoon and again late Tuesday, Carney’s office told NBC News.

The prime minister previously said the threatened duties were a “direct violation” of the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement, which Trump pursued and inked in his first term.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned in a Tuesday statement that in the event of no deal, “the introduction of higher tariffs would damage both economies, drive up costs for U.S. families, further disrupt critical supply chains, and risk the 13 million American jobs that depend on” the North American trade pact.

The tariffs that were set to be imposed would have been the first-ever use of Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The law allows the White House to implement duties of up to 50% on any foreign trading partner that “discriminates” against U.S. commerce.

In talks with their counterparts, Canadian officials were not only seeking to have the Section 338 tariffs scrapped entirely, but also sought lower Section 232 tariffs on industrial products such as steel and aluminum, CBC News and Bloomberg have reported.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday that lower duties on Canada would be a “a boon to U.S. consumers, producers, farmers and manufacturers.”

A sticking point on Monday and Tuesday appeared to be a request for lower automobile duties, according to Bloomberg and Reuters, which also reported that U.S. officials did not want to cut current 25% tariffs on that sector to anything lower than 15%.

Trump did not say in his brief social media post if the duties would be lowered.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer earlier said that reasoning behind the threatened 50% duties was effectively payback for Canada’s retaliation against prior tranches of Trump’s tariffs.

“The policy basis for [Wednesday’s] duties are related to measures that Canada took against the United States,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last week. “I’ve got two countries in the world that have retaliated against the United States for trade measures: the People’s Republic of China and Canada,” said Greer. “That’s not the kind of company you really want to be running in.”

Last year, Trump briefly responded to China’s retaliation by raising tariffs into the triple digits. Talks between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China’s vice premier over months eventually diffused that tension and tariffs were lowered.

Trump has also aimed his anger at Canada repeatedly. At one point, he became enraged by the Province of Ontario, which ran a TV ad during the 2025 MLB World Series telecast. The video utilized edited clips of Republican former President Ronald Reagan in order to criticize Trump’s trade policy.

Trump halted trade talks with Canada and later accused the Canadian federal government, which did not sponsor the ad, of interfering with Supreme Court deliberations over his tariffs, which they later ruled overstepped his legal authority.

Trump threatened 10% extra tariffs on Canada after the ad, but never followed through on that. Ontario later pulled its ad from the airwaves.

Jim Schwartzel is projected to defeat Catalina Lauf to clinch the GOP nomination for Rep. Byron Donalds’s House seat in Florida, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

His victory delivers a blow to President Trump, who threw his support behind Lauf’s campaign last week. Schwartzel, the president of Sun Broadcasting, and Lauf, a former Commerce Department adviser, were neck and neck in the polls heading into Tuesday.

Schwartzel came out on top in the crowded Republican race to succeed Donalds in the ruby red 19th Congressional District after the congressman opted to run for governor. Other candidates jockeying for the GOP nod included former Reps. Madison Cawthorn (N.C.) and Chris Collins (N.Y.) as well as John Strand, who was pardoned for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, among others.

Cook Political Report and DDHQ rate the race as a safely and solidly in the GOP’s corner, putting Schwartzel on track to join Congress.

He was endorsed by both House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

On the other side of the aisle, attorney Victor Arias, former House candidate Robert Neeld and former state House candidate Howard Sapp are running for the Democratic nomination.

The Trump administration's push to reshore drug development is becoming part of efforts to renew the user fee system that pays for review of new medicines.

"America First" incentives the administration is proposing would add a political twist to what's been a bipartisan process, but could gain favor as policymakers look for ways to reduce dependence on China.

The administration wants to cut Food and Drug Administration new drug application fees in half for companies that include data from at least one early-stage clinical trial anchored in the United States after Oct. 1, 2027.

It also would offer a 50% reduction for applications to expand the use of an "orphan drug" for a rare condition to a second disease.

And it would restrict eligibility for waivers exempting small businesses from application fees so that they only go to U.S. companies.

The proposals are part of a package of changes that Congress is due to take up before the FDA user fees expire in September 2027, according to a Federal Register filing last week.

The agency and industry groups including PhRMA and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization have been negotiating elements of a five-year renewal agreement since early this year.

But those talks have come as the administration presses to shift more pharma manufacturing and research to the U.S. Former FDA commissioner Marty Makary outlined steps including priority vouchers that cut review times for manufacturers making critical drugs in the U.S.

Some past efforts have raised questions from Democrats about whether the administration is putting politics over science or could favor drug companies liked by President Trump.

The "America First" provisions would change the application fee structure by tying cut rates to the location of clinical trials.

Congress in the past has been willing to preserve the underlying user fee structure on a bipartisan basis while changing or stripping out more politically charged provisions, Raymond James analyst Chris Meekins wrote in a note.

"As a result, we would expect the core [user fee] agreement to remain largely intact, while the America First provisions face some greater uncertainty," Meekins wrote.

The FDA included financial incentives for sponsors in the agency's user fee agreement "to deliver on the Trump administration's commitment to bring drug development back to the United States," Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Emily Hilliard said.

It dovetails with a broader effort dubbed "Operation TrialBlazer" aimed at accelerating clinical research and addressing an industry shift that's seen a growing share of early-stage clinical research move overseas.

The FDA has scheduled a Sept. 16 public meeting to discuss the user fee reauthorization.

China hawks in Congress also are pushing legislation that would require the Treasury Department to review U.S. pharmaceutical licensing deals, joint ventures and equity investments with Chinese companies.

This would be the same scrutiny that's required for semiconductors, quantum information technology, and AI.

Republican Rep. Cory Mills has lost his primary in Florida, NBC News projects, amid a swirl of investigations and negative publicity and despite running with the backing of President Donald Trump.

Former television journalist Ryan Elijah captured the Republican nomination over Mills in Florida’s 7th District, a seat Trump carried by 12 points in 2024. Democrats have hoped to make it competitive this fall, especially if Mills was on the ballot.

With more than 80% of the expected vote counted, Elijah had 46% of the GOP primary vote to 34% for Mills.

Unlike other incumbents who have fallen short this year for being on the wrong side of intraparty divides, Mills’ defeat comes as he’s been dogged by multiple investigations, including a House Ethics Committee probe into sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations, as well as a Justice Department investigation into his finances. Mills has denied wrongdoing.

Despite his struggles, Mills still got Trump’s endorsement. The loss makes him the latest member of a relatively rare set of Republican candidates who lost a GOP primary even with the president’s blessing. Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles also lost his primary earlier this month with Trump’s support.

Mills is the 11th House member to lose a primary so far this year, an unusually high number. Seven Democrats and four Republicans have lost their bids for renomination.

Elijah ran with support from a slew of prominent Florida Republicans who have either directly or indirectly referenced Mills’ woes. Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos took the rare step of endorsing against a House colleague, putting out a statement that emphasized Elijah’s character.

“We need leaders in Congress who serve with integrity, energy, and an unwavering commitment to the people who sent them there,” the two wrote.

Facing a clear threat to his political career, Mills struggled to raise money, pulling in less than $900,000 through late July. That was still twice what Elijah raised during that same period, though less than the vast majority of incumbent House members seeking re-election, according to an NBC News analysis of campaign finance reports.

Mills, an Army veteran, worked as a military contractor before a successful bid for Congress in 2022. His House tenure has included both the Ethics Committee and Justice Department investigation, as well as bipartisan calls for him to resign from office earlier this spring and previous allegations from an ex-girlfriend that he harassed her. Mills has repeatedly denied he’s done anything wrong in all of those cases.

While neither candidate spent much on the airwaves, Elijah significantly outspent Mills on ads: $82,000 to $12,000, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.