FEASTERVILLE, Pennsylvania— House Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of a campaign swing with former President Donald Trump that Vice President Kamala Harris is “toxic” for the Keystone State.

Reschenthaler, who represents Pennsylvania’s 14th Congressional District, campaigned with Trump on Sunday across the state. 

“He’s fighting hard,” Trump said of Reschenthaler Sunday afternoon. “He wants us to win.” 

Trump’s comments about the congressman came during his visit to McDonald’s in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, where he traded in his signature suit jacket for an apron to learn how to cook French fries and deliver them to customers from the drive-thru window.

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The visit was intended to slam Harris for her claim that she was once a worker for the fast-food chain. 

“It is important to highlight that Harris has repeatedly lied — and so has [Gov. Tim] Walz — on this campaign trail,” Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the visit. “And you have President Trump who is willing to call out his opponent on being loose with the facts.” 

He added: “It just reminds voters again that Harris has misrepresented her past, and President Trump is going and connecting with the people of Pennsylvania.” 

The Harris campaign blasted the McDonald’s visit as a “staged photo-op,” saying Trump “doesn’t understand what it’s like to work for a living,” and saying the vice president “has a record of standing up for workers and taking on bad actors who rip people off, and she’ll do the same as President.”

Reschenthaler, who is up for re-election and hoping to seek a fourth term, says he is “feeling very good” with his own race, and is now focusing on helping Trump and other Republicans win in Pennsylvania. 

The congressman pointed to new ads airing in the state from incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., in his race against Republican Dave McCormick. 

Casey’s ad highlights how he “bucked Biden” and “sided” with Trump to end NAFTA and put tariffs on China to “stop them from cheating.” The ad highlights the Democrat senator as an “independent,” and features a Republican woman and her Democrat husband. It does not mention Vice President Harris. 

“As soon as I saw that ad where he was trying to tie himself to Trump, I knew — they’ve got to be seeing what we’re seeing in terms of internal polling — that Trump is surging,” Reschenthaler said. “They know that Trump has taken the lead, and they know that Harris has become toxic.” 

“That is the only reason why you would have a seasoned Democratic senator like Casey disavowing Harris and trying to tie himself to Trump,” he continued. “He sees the numbers.” 

Reschenthaler said he also thinks the ad shows that there is a “real chance that McCormick has a shot at beating Casey.” 

“People are going to come out and vote for Trump and Republicans down ballot, which will help us — not only in the Senate, but will help us in the competitive congressional districts as well,” he said. 

Later Sunday, Reschenthaler joined Trump at a town hall hosted by Sage Steele in Lancaster, Pa., and then attended the Pittsburgh Steeler’s game against the New York Jets with the former president. 

Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital that Pennsylvania is “such a critical state.” 

“They don’t call us the Keystone State for nothing,” Reschenthaler said, predicting that whoever wins Pennsylvania “is likely going to win this election.” 

“That is why it is so important for President Trump and Republicans to put up big numbers here in Pennsylvania,” he said. 

The chief deputy whip told Fox News Digital that it is “critical” for Republicans to gain traction in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and of Philadelphia while also getting voter turnout in the more rural parts of the state. As for the most important issues for Pennsylvanians, Reschenthaler said voters are focused on the economy, jobs, inflation and energy, stressing the importance of the natural gas industry for the state. 

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“And then you also have immigration, which is usually No. 2 or 3 in voters’ concerns,” he continued. “Everybody says, ‘Yeah, but Pennsylvania is not a border state,’ but under Harris’ reckless and dangerous far-left policies of the border, every state is now a border state.”

Reschenthaler said voters in his district, specifically in Southwestern Pennsylvania, have “definitely seen a difference” since the Trump administration. 

“They are struggling to afford groceries, gasoline, heating bills — just utilities in general,” he said, while noting that “real wage growth is actually decreasing under Harris,” but recalled the increasing wage growth under the Trump administration, especially for minorities.

“That’s another reason why President Trump is doing so well with minority populations, which, historically for Republicans, we’ve had a difficulty reaching minorities,” he said. “But not President Trump — he transcends that.”

According to a new USA Today/Suffolk University Poll, Harris has fallen back in support among Latino and Black voters in the seven weeks between surveys. The new poll found Latino voters now back Trump by 49% to 38%. Black voters prefer Harris by 72% to 17%, but that 55-point edge is significantly less than the advantage Democrats traditionally enjoy. 

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The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

A top political handicapper shifted its rating on Monday in the pivotal Pennsylvania Senate race, signaling dwindling chances for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey’s re-election. 

Unveiling two ratings changes roughly two weeks from Election Day, the Cook Political Report indicated heightened competition in both Pennsylvania and Nebraska, where an independent candidate is threatening to unseat an incumbent Republican. 

In Pennsylvania, the race between incumbent Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick is now considered a “Toss Up,” according to the handicapper. The battle was previously rated “Lean Democrat.”

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Cook cited McCormick “shoring up the GOP base and making gains in the western part of the state,” as part of its justification. It also noted that while Casey has a several point advantage over his opponent in public polls, the race is reportedly within the margin of error in both Democratic and Republican internal surveys. 

Casey’s race is now in the same category as Senate races in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. 

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The ratings change comes as the presidential election between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is practically tied in the battleground state. With split-ticket voting becoming increasingly rare, it’s very likely that whichever party wins the White House will also win the Senate race. 

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Casey defeated McCormick among likely voters 48% to 44% in a recent New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College poll. The survey of 857 Pennsylvania voters was conducted between Oct. 7 and 10. The margin of error was +/- 3.8 percentage points. 

Republicans also took a hit in the ratings shifts, with Sen. Deb Fischer’s race in Nebraska moved again to demonstrate a quickly developing tight race. The match-up shifted from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican.” 

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Independent candidate Dan Osborn, a union leader and mechanic, has appeared to take Fischer’s re-election campaign by surprise with his popularity just weeks from the election. No Democrat candidate was nominated in the race. 

Despite the notable challenge, “we still think the heavy red hue of the state wins out, GOP attacks on Democratic efforts to covertly boost Osborn break through and that Fischer makes it across the finish line,” Cook wrote. 

Fischer’s re-election bid is now in the same category as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Under former President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the federal estate tax – often referred to as the death tax – can only apply to estates passed on to heirs valued over $13.61 million. 

If that exemption threshold were to expire or lapse, as Vice President Kamala Harris has signaled she would allow if she becomes president, some experts say it could impact more than just the ultra-wealthy.

“It creates monopolies,” one conservative economist said. 

“It’s going to impact a lot of our clients,” a New Jersey estate planning attorney insisted. 

“The exemption is meant to reduce the double taxation of income,” another economist said. “In a way, it’s like the capital gains tax, where people are like, ‘Oh, it’s to [tax] privileged capital.’ No, it’s actually to reduce the double taxation of income.”

The Harris campaign told The New York Times in August that the vice president supports President Biden’s proposed tax increases laid out in the most recent federal budget plan put together by his administration, which would reduce the threshold at which the death tax kicks in from roughly $13 million to around $5 million. 

Meanwhile, Harris reportedly endorsed the death tax reforms outlined in the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2024, which would reduce the threshold even further to $3.5 million. While running for the presidency in 2019, Harris wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that raising the estate tax was a solution to poor teacher wages.

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Critics of letting the TCJA’s current exclusionary threshold for the death tax expire told Fox News it will promote monopolies, impact small businesses and create an additional tax for a meaningful portion of the country. However, others strongly disagree. 

“If estate tax parameters revert, that will only affect a tiny sliver (about two-tenths of 1%) of estates – those with estates over the (now lower) threshold,” Kimberly Clausing, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement. “Those affected will be quite well off and easily able to pay the tax, and without an estate tax, much capital income would escape tax entirely.”

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Garrett Watson is a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit aimed at helping Americans understand the tax code. He said under the new death tax threshold, only an additional 0.13% of heirs will be impacted. He added that under the $13 million threshold provided under the TCJA, about $206 billion in revenue would be lost from 2025 to 2034.

However, Michael Kulzer, an estate planning attorney from New Jersey, argued the move will impact “a lot” of his clients. “You bought a shore house 30 years ago for $500,000, it’s probably worth $3 million today,” Kulzer said. He noted that when adding other assets, like pensions, “you don’t have to be really wealthy today” for an estate to reach a $3.5 million, or even $5 million, valuation.

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Meanwhile, Heritage Foundation economist Richard Stern pointed out that “it’s really the business part of this where it will affect a lot of people.”  

Stern pointed to hopeful McDonald’s franchise owners as an example, who, on average, must have $1.5 million to $2.5 million in start-up costs to get going. “If the price to buy the franchise for one McDonald’s is a million and a half dollars, you don’t need to have a lot of restaurants under your belt to reach $3.5 or $5 million in value.” Family farms and family-owned construction companies, Stern added, are other examples of potentially vulnerable targets. Family-owned companies have gone public about being forced to sell, at least in part, due to estate taxes.

Stern added that a small business does not need to be far over the threshold to face a big tax bill when the owner dies and tries to pass it on to one of his heirs. This, Stern argued, would force the heir to start selling off parts of their business, and, in turn, serves to “create monopolies.”

“The people who are going to be affected the most are often those whose income is not held in cash. It’s often held in stocks. In a company. And in order to pay it, it means you have to sell it,” Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, added. “So, in a way, I don’t really care how many people it affects. It’s just a bad – it’s a bad policy.”

Oprah Winfrey, who has endorsed Harris for president, blasted the federal estate tax in 1997 as a “double tax” and blamed it for “why you always hear about people where their aunts left them houses, or left them stuff, and they can’t keep the house because the taxes are so much.” 

“In a way, it’s like the capital gains tax, where people are like, ‘Oh, it’s to [tax] privileged capital.’ No, it’s actually to reduce the double taxation of income,” echoed de Rugy in talks with Fox News Digital.

The Harris campaign declined to provide an on-the-record response for this article.

A super PAC associated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is pouring millions behind new ads in the Texas Senate race, which Democrats see as their best pickup opportunity this cycle. 

With about two weeks until Election Day, the Senate Majority PAC announced a new multimillion-dollar digital and radio ad purchase in Texas going against Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. 

Cruz is a two-term senator seeking a third term this cycle. 

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In the 30-second spot, a woman identified as Dr. Nancy O. claimed, “Texas women are in danger because of Ted Cruz.”

According to her, it is illegal to “provide care” to pregnant rape survivors and pregnant women with “severe complications.” 

“Colin Allred will restore a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions,” she said. 

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“The stakes of Texas’ Senate election couldn’t be higher. Ted Cruz has spent his time in office relentlessly pursuing a deadly agenda and self-enriching politics, utterly indifferent to the needs of Texans – and voters know it,” said SMP President JB Poersch in a statement. 

“That’s why Senate Majority PAC is going on offense, reaching voters where they are and working to elect a true, bipartisan leader to represent Texas in the Senate, Rep. Colin Allred.”

Abortion is illegal in most cases in Texas following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which allowed the states to determine their own laws on the procedure. 

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There is an exception if the life of the mother is in danger, in which case abortions can be performed. However, critics have noted that there is little clarity on what qualifies as a medical emergency under the Texas laws. 

The state doesn’t have exceptions for rape and incest, which are frequently supported by Republicans. 

Former President Trump has advocated for the issue to remain at the state level, and Republicans have largely gotten behind his stance. In a recent interview, Cruz indicated that abortion policies should be determined by individual states. 

National Democrats have conversely planned to codify Roe v. Wade into law if they are granted the presidency and congressional majorities. 

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Cruz’s campaign did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital. 

The ad campaign comes as the race between Cruz and Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, tightens, with a top political handicapper shifting its rating to “Lean Republican” from “Likely Republican.” 

In the latest Marist Texas Poll, Cruz defeated his Democrat challenger 51% to 46%. The poll was conducted between Oct. 3 and 7 and surveyed 1,500 Texas adults. The margin of error for likely voters was ±3.6 percentage points.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is making waves on the Pennsylvania campaign trail in support for former President Donald Trump’s re-election, including offering $1 million a day to swing-state voters who sign his political action committee’s petition backing the Constitution.

“Every day, from now through Nov 5, @America PAC will be giving away $1M to someone in swing states who signed our petition to support free speech & the right to bear arms! We want to make sure that everyone in swing states hears about this and I suspect this will ensure they do,” Musk, the wealthiest individual in the U.S., posted to X early Sunday morning. 

The night prior, Musk granted a $1 million sum to a Pennsylvania man named John Dreher during an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 

“The only thing we ask for the million dollars is that you be a spokesperson for the petition, and that’s it, really,” Musk said at the rally, as Dreher explained he “had no idea” he was selected. 

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Fox News examined the legality surrounding the initiative and found that it is a legal gray zone that appears to be open to interpretation, also finding similar Democratic initiatives in the Keystone State and nationally.

Under federal law, it is a crime to pay someone to register to vote. However, Musk’s giveaway is not enticing voters to register but instead sign a petition. 

Musk’s rules surrounding the $1 million award include that voters sign his PAC’s petition, which backs the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The initiative outlines that it only applies to registered voters in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and North Carolina, implying that non-registered voters do not qualify for the program. 

“The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments,” the petition reads. 

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The America PAC website details that a petition signer in the Pittsburgh area will be awarded the sum for Oct. 20, and another signer from Pennsylvania at-large will be awarded the sum for Oct. 21. 

“Oct 22 – Nov 5: Each day, one petition signer from either PA, GA, NV, AZ, MI, WI, or NC will earn $1,000,000,” the website continues, detailing which states are considered battlegrounds. 

The petition does not require a resident to register to vote to sign the petition, only prompting users to answer whether they are registered voters. 

The Washington Post detailed in a piece earlier this month, titled “Massive influx of shadowy get-out-the-vote spending floods swing states,” that a nonprofit in Philadelphia was sending more than 100,000 comic books to voters under the age of 32 in the area to increase voter turnout in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris. The outlet explained that the nonprofit also “has tried to juice voting” with $1,000 Target gift cards, $2,000 rent checks and $10,000 grants to community groups this cycle. 

A youth-focused nonprofit, The Civic Center, is running a similar promotion for high schoolers: $150 gift cards to students who help ready their schools for High School Voter Registration Week.

The $1 million a day giveaway amid a close and highly-anticipated election has spurred some criticism and legal concerns from Democrats, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who previously served as the state’s attorney general. 

“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That is deeply concerning,” Shapiro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He continued, “Look, Musk, obviously has a right to be able to express his views, and he’s made it very, very clear that he supports Donald Trump, and we have a difference of opinion. I don’t deny him that right, but when you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at.”

“You think it might not be legal, yes or no?” host Kristen Welker asked.

Shapiro responded, “I think it’s something that law enforcement can take a look at.”

Musk brushed off the concern on X, “Concerning that he would say such a thing.” 

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Earlier this month, Musk’s PAC announced that individuals seeking to increase voter registration and turnout are offered starting wages of $30 an hour – far above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – with the PAC also offering battleground state voters $47 for each registered voter they refer to sign the PAC’s petition. In Pennsylvania, Musk’s PAC is offering residents $100 to sign the petition and $100 for every referral. 

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The PAC, which bills itself as promoting “free speech, free markets, and a merit-based society,” was officially formed earlier in the summer, with Federal Election Commission filings from late last month showing the America PAC has already invested at least $2.4 million in more than a dozen key congressional races. Musk said in July he planned to commit about $45 million a month to the super PAC. 

Musk officially endorsed Trump over the summer, when the 45th president survived the first assassination attempt on his life this election cycle, and has since joined the campaign trail, most notably in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania to rally support and encourage people to vote. 

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He has made the First Amendment, Second Amendment, cutting government red tape and ending overregulation on businesses hallmarks of his campaign speeches. Trump has meanwhile lauded Musk for his support and said that the tech billionaire behind SpaceX and X is willing to take on the role of “Secretary of Cost-Cutting” for the federal government if Trump is re-elected to the White House. 

Musk’s campaign tour has apparently worried Democrats amid Trump’s effort to claim the Keystone State.

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Pennsylvania is viewed as the state that will likely determine the final outcome of the election, with both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly zigzagging the state to rally support among city dwellers, suburbanites and farmers alike. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman warned party members to not discount Musk’s influence with Pennsylvania voters. 

“Not even just that he has endorsed [Trump], but the fact that now he’s becoming an active participant and showing up and doing rallies and things like that,” Fetterman told the New York Post this month. 

“I mean, [Musk] is incredibly successful, and, you know, I think some people would see him as, like, a Tony Stark,” said Fetterman. “Democrats, you know, kind of make light of it, or they make fun of him jumping up and down and things like that. And I would just say that they are doing that at our peril.”

A group in Georgia is applying pressure to the state’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to release the results of a voter roll audit he announced over the summer.

“Millions of illegal immigrants have flooded our country since 2021, and it’s well-documented that thousands of them have successfully registered to vote in multiple states. But even with early voting now underway, Georgia voters are still waiting for confirmation that non-citizens are not casting ballots in our elections,” former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who now serves as the chairwoman for the group behind the effort, Greater Georgia, said in a release obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.

The comments come more than three months after Raffensperger announced the state was conducting a “SAVE audit” of noncitizens who may have registered to vote, which he called a “vital step in maintaining election security and integrity in Georgia.”

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“We are double-checking to make sure that if any non-citizens attempt to register to vote, they will not be able to vote unless they prove that they are U.S. citizens,” Raffensberger said in a release at the time, which also warned of prison sentences of up to 10 years and fines of up to $100,000 for noncitizens who register to vote in the state.

Raffensperger told NewsNation just a few weeks later that the audit was complete, boasting that he could promise residents of the state that “only American citizens are voting.”

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However, noting that states such as Virginia, Ohio, and Texas have discovered noncitizens on their own voter rolls, Loeffler wrote a letter calling on Raffensperger to release the results of the Georgia audit.

“If state officials want voters to trust in the process, they must stop delaying the transparency they have repeatedly promised,” Loeffler said. “We call on Secretary Raffensperger to immediately release the full results of his citizenship audit – and give voters the peace of mind that only American citizens are deciding American elections.” 

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Early voting has already begun in Georgia and runs through Nov. 1.

Raffensperger’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

New reporting about over a dozen unidentified drones that were allowed to fly over Langley Air Force Base has prompted fresh calls for change to a threat that experts say will only become more prevalent. 

For more than two weeks in December 2023, the mystery drones traipsed into restricted airspace over the installation, home to key national security facilities and the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. 

Experts say the incident is likely one of many that U.S. authorities are underprepared to tackle in an evolving threat environment. 

Lack of a standard protocol for such incursions left Langley officials unsure of what to do – other than allow the 20-foot-long drones to hover near their classified facilities. 

The Pentagon has said little about the incidents other than to confirm they occurred after a Wall Street Journal report this month. Whether it knows where the drones came from or what they were doing is unclear.

“I think they don’t know,” one congressional source familiar with defense operations told Fox News Digital. 

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As defense-minded lawmakers sought more answers, Langley officials referred them to the FBI, who referred them to Northern Command, who referred them to local law enforcement, the source said. 

“They should easily be able to know exactly what they are,” said Brett Velicovich, an advisor to drone tech company Red Cat Holdings and a Fox News contributor.

“There are all kinds of radar systems out there. Each drone has its own fingerprint.”

“Saying we don’t know what it is, and if we’re taking them for their word that they don’t know what it is, that speaks to a larger issue that the administration really just got caught with its pants down, and they’ve failed.” 

If the drones were a foreign adversary testing the limits of U.S. defenses, the message they took home is that encroaching on restricted airspace is easy enough, according to Velicovich. 

U.S. capabilities offer many different ways to take down a drone, including shooting them, zapping them with heat lasers and jamming the frequencies.

Whether Congress needs to change the laws is a point of contention, but one thing that is clear is incursions like the one at Langley prompt confusion over legal authority. 

When drones encroach near bases overseas, the rules of engagement give service members more leeway to engage with them. 

However, U.S. law does not allow the military to shoot down drones near its bases unless they pose an imminent threat. While Langley has the authority to protect its coastal base, the Coast Guard has the authority to protect the waters, the Federal Aviation Administration has authority over U.S. airspace – some of the most congested with commercial airliners in the world. 

“After 9/11, we invested all this money in homeland security to deal with exactly the kind of things that we’re seeing today,” said James Carafano, defense expert at the Heritage Foundation. “We built this whole infrastructure to deal with that. And it just seems, where is it today? We’ve been very lackadaisical about this.” 

“We’re going to have a terrorist attack here at some point. It’s just going to happen.”

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chair of the House Armed Services Committee, argued that the Defense Department needs to use the authority it has been given. 

“Drone incursions at DOD facilities are alarming. The Department needs to focus on deploying real, effective capabilities across critical installations using existing authorities given to them by Congress. I will continue to conduct oversight of the department’s response to these drone incursions,” he said in a statement. 

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, promised to introduce legislation to give the Pentagon greater authority to shoot down drones. 

“Military leaders currently lack the authority to engage until there is an imminent threat posed to our men and women in uniform. I am working on legislation to provide the Department of Defense with the necessary authorities to engage drones or unidentified aircrafts that breach our military airspace before it is too late to respond.” 

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for Congress to pass laws laying out counter-drone procedures.

“Adversaries like China, Russia and Iran are improving their drone capabilities every month. Our defenses are not catching up,” he said. 

“Congress needs to develop and execute a comprehensive set of plans to strengthen our counter-drone protocol and technological development right away. There is no time to waste. The lives of service members and all Americans are at risk.”

This month, Chinese national Fengyun Shi was sentenced to six months in prison for capturing drone footage over Huntington Ingalls Industries Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, 10 miles from Langley Air Force Base.

Two months prior to Langley, in October 2023, five drones flew over the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, used for nuclear weapons experiments. U.S. authorities were not sure who was behind those drones either. 

A Chinese surveillance balloon traversed over the U.S. for a week last year before the Air Force shot it down off the coast. 

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U.S. Air Force’s Plant 42 in California, home to highly classified aerospace development, has also seen a slew of unidentified drone incursions in 2024, prompting flight restrictions around the facility. 

“There are a lot of regulations on terms of what the DoD is allowed to do in the U.S. homeland that make this a really difficult problem,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security. 

Even jamming the GPS systems, so drones freeze up and fall out of the sky, risks collateral damage. It could interfere with nearby air traffic.

“Unlike when you’re in Iraq or somewhere and there are drones flying overhead, you can fire off a missile and intercept them without as much worry, because you’re in the middle of the desert,” he continuted. “We’re going to see more of this in the future, and I think it’s something that the U.S. is grossly underprepared for.”

Even abroad, experts warn U.S. forces are unequipped to handle the threat of advancing drone warfare. 

Three U.S. service members were killed in a drone strike in January in Jordan. 

“The response time for [counter-drone measures] is really small, and the U.S. doesn’t have a lot of systems that are optimized for this, and they’re quite expensive,” said Pettyjohn. “We’re going to see more of these, probably larger groups operating together. Right now, they’re all remotely piloted. Eventually, they’ll be autonomous and really truly swarm.”

Former Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade met with Biden administration staff on at least two occasions during District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe into former President Donald Trump, a newly released transcript suggests.

Wade was interviewed by House Judiciary Committee staff last week as part of Chairman Jim Jordan’s probe into the prosecutions of the former president.

A grand jury indicted Trump and allies last year on charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Wade did not disclose the details of his supposed meetings with White House representatives, including if they were in-person or remote, but he acknowledged the existence of invoices and other records that indicated discussions occurred.

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At one point, the transcript shows Wade was asked about an invoice line indicating “travel to Athens; conf with White House counsel, May 23rd, 2022.”

“So if it says conf with White House counsel, that would mean there was a conf with White House counsel?” investigators asked, according to the transcript.

Wade responded that the semicolon written after “travel to Athens” represented a separate thought.

The investigator asked, “So if you billed for a conf with White House counsel, would that have occurred?”

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Wade challenged, “If I billed for a conf with White House counsel, this document doesn’t say that that cong with White House counsel happened in Athens. That’s not what that says.”

Pressed again on whether the reference to White House counsel meant he billed for a conference with such an official, Wade said, “Yes.”

Wade later said he did not recall details of the meeting denoted by a record reading, “Interview with D.C./White House, November 18th, 2022. Eight hours at $250. Cost $2,000,” according to the transcript.

Details he did not recall included participants in the meeting, any possible travel, or who was involved in scheduling it.

But when asked, “And if you billed for it, if you billed 8 hours for interview with D.C./White House, it’s safe to assume that you would have taken part in the interview?,” Wade replied, “Yes ma’am.”

The transcript does not indicate what the meetings were about, including whether they were related to Trump. 

Wade said he did not know or recall information dozens of times throughout the course of the interview.

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Wade was brought into the Fulton County investigation by Willis as a special prosecutor but stepped away after it was revealed he and Willis began a romantic relationship, which has since ended.

Jordan has been seeking a committee sit-down with Wade for months over accusations that both he and Willis profited off of the probe during their relationship – something both circles have vehemently denied.

Both Willis and Wade have maintained that their relationship had nothing to do with the case and have accused Republicans of trying to unjustly interfere in the Fulton County probe.

One of Trump’s co-defendants had sued to have Willis and Wade disqualified from the case, arguing their relationship presented a conflict of interest and that they financially benefited from the probe.

A Fulton County judge ruled in March that Willis could stay on the case if Wade was removed. Wade subsequently resigned from the case.

The former special prosecutor was grilled by investigators for over four hours on Capitol Hill last week.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and an attorney for Wade for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Republican businessman Eric Hovde is using Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s previous comments on Trump supporters against her as he looks to unseat her in the critical swing state of Wisconsin. 

In a new ad by the Hovde campaign, Baldwin says, “Donald Trump might be one of the most offensive, hateful and unacceptable presidential candidates we’ve ever had. So what does that say about the people who support him?”

The remark, which is from a 2016 speech, is cut next to former Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables” comment, which was credited by some with costing her the election to then-Republican nominee Donald Trump. 

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The ad will run on television across Wisconsin starting Tuesday and is part of an ongoing multimillion dollar statewide ad campaign. 

“Tammy Baldwin hates Trump and Trump voters, just listen to her own words when it comes to what she thinks about them. Much like Hillary Clinton, the disdain Baldwin has for Wisconsin’s Trump voters will haunt her on Election Day,” Hovde spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement. 

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In response, a Baldwin spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Tammy Baldwin fights for all Wisconsinites no matter who they are, who they vote for or where they live. That stands in stark contrast to her opponent Eric Hovde who has literally called Wisconsinites deplorable, Democrats a ‘curse to society’ and insulted our farmers, seniors, young people, women, Black men, Native American communities and more.”

The Democrat senator’s campaign also pointed to an interview on “The Jerry Bader Show” in 2016, in which Hovde used the word “deplorable” to describe the level of civic knowledge among average Americans, with many not knowing the year of the country’s founding or who the vice president is. 

JUDGE ORDERS MORE JACK SMITH TRUMP INVESTIGATION DOCS TO BE MADE PUBLIC AHEAD OF ELECTION

In a recent Quinnipiac University poll of the Senate race, Baldwin beat Hovde 50% to 46%. The small, single-digit lead marks a significant closure of the initial polling gap between the incumbent Democrat and her GOP challenger. 

The survey was conducted between Oct. 3 and 7 and included 1,073 likely voters. It had a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

A top political handicapper, the Cook Political Report, recently shifted its Wisconsin Senate rating from “Lean Democrat” to a “Toss Up.” 

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In the latest Fox News Power Rankings, Wisconsin’s Senate race was considered “Leans Democrat,” with Baldwin still having an advantage. 

Split-ticket voting across parties has become increasingly rare, and with the Senate race coinciding with a presidential election, the winner could very well rely on which party takes the White House. 

With roughly two weeks until Election Day, many have already cast their ballots early and by mail. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Vice President Harris made campaign stops at Black churches in Georgia over the weekend, days after sparking controversy among Christian Americans by telling protesters praising Jesus “you’re at the wrong rally.” 

Harris celebrated her 60th birthday at two Black churches outside of Atlanta on Sunday as part of a nationwide push – known as “Souls to the Polls” – to encourage Black voters to participate in early voting.  

After the congregation at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, sang “Happy Birthday” to her, Harris made a veiled dig at her opponent, former President Trump, while speaking about her faith. 

“In this moment, across our nation, what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” Harris told Black churchgoers. “There are those who suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of what we know, which is the true measure of the strength of a leader, is based on who you lift up.” 

TRUMP, HARRIS NECK AND NECK AS DEMS LOSE GROUND AMONG LATINO, BLACK VOTERS: POLL

Harris was later serenaded by Stevie Wonder at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, Georgia, where the Democratic nominee referenced the parable of the good Samaritan a second time. 

“There is so much at stake right now,” Harris said, attempting to contrast herself against Trump two weeks from Election Day. “We understand that for us to do good works, it means to do it in the spirit of understanding that our strength is not based on who we beat down as someone tries to suggest….”

“Our strength is based on who we lift up, and that spirit is very much at stake in these next 16 days, which is are we a country that honors through our faith and our deeds the importance of kindness – of support, of understanding the dignity in each other and the respect that we should have for each other.” 

The concept of “Souls to the Polls” dates back to the Civil Rights Movement. Black congregations hold a tradition of leading get-out-the-vote campaigns to counter voter suppression efforts of the Jim Crow era. 

VANCE TAKES FAITH APPROACH AFTER HARRIS MOCKED PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS AT RALLY: ‘JESUS IS KING’

Harris’ appearances in the swing state of Georgia come days after she told two pro-life student protesters that they were “at the wrong rally” when they yelled, “Jesus is Lord,” and, “Christ is King,” during a campaign stop in Wisconsin last week.

By contrast, Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, repeated, “Jesus is King” when someone shouted the phrase at his rally in Wisconsin over the weekend, telling the crowd how he believes “there is something really bizarre with Harris’ anti-Christian rhetoric and anti-Christian approach to public policy.” 

Harris also skipped the Al Smith dinner, a Catholic charity event in New York City and a traditional campaign stop for presidential nominees, instead sending a poorly-received video message last week.

Trump is campaigning in another battleground, North Carolina, on Monday, where he is expected to visit Hurricane Helene devastation in Asheville before convening an “11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting” with Eric Trump and Ben Carson outside of Charlotte. The Republican nominee’s “Believers for Trump” initiative includes outreach to Black voters, a traditionally Democratic constituency where Trump has made inroads.

The engagement of faith voters in the 2024 election underscores an unprecedented blending of partisan politics with Christianity at a moment when many churches have seen attendance decline. 

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On Friday, the Democratic National Committee hosted a call to launch its “Souls to the Polls” effort with civil rights activist Martin Luther King III, who endorsed Harris and called Trump “a disaster for Black America.” The campaign kicked off its own “Souls to the Polls” program and set up a faith advisory board of progressive faith leaders that includes a pastor, Amos C. Brown, of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.