Dark horse candidate emerges as possible replacement for Vance’s Senate seat
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is considering an Ohio attorney and Trump surrogate to fill Vice President-elect JD Vance’s Senate seat once he vacates the position and moves on to the White House, Fox News Digital has learned.
Attorney Mehek Cooke, a Republican attorney who served as a political and legal surrogate for Trump in 2024, is under consideration to be chosen to fill Vance’s seat, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital.
Cooke, known as a formidable fundraiser in the state of Ohio, has appeared on Fox News and was a vocal supporter of President-elect Trump during the 2024 campaign, where he won Ohio by 11 points and his endorsement in the state is viewed as carrying a significant amount of weight.
State law dictates that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will select a Republican to take Vance’s spot in the Senate until a special election is held in November 2026 to determine who will serve the rest of Vance’s term, which ends in 2028. The winner of that special election will then have to run again in 2028 in order to start a new six-year term.
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Cooke, who ran for Ohio House of Representatives in 2020, spent time as the assistant chief counsel in the Ohio governor’s office from 2012 to 2014 and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, where she handled criminal cases involving corruption, terrorism, drug trafficking, asset forfeiture, and money laundering.
Cooke, a wife and mother of two, was born in India and immigrated legally to the United States with her family at the age of 5. Cooke is also the founder and President of American Frontier Strategies and has worked as a political consultant and commentator across the state of Ohio.
Marty Savko, the chair of the earth moving company Savko & Sons which has been in business in Columbus, Ohio for 75 years, told Fox News Digital that Cooke “is totally 100% in touch with both the average man and wife” in Ohio.
“She’s a proud American citizen, she’s proud of this country and she very much has a kind heart and realizes that not everyone has the same opportunities. She is a firm believer in what’s right and what’s wrong, and you know where she stands.”
“She’s not part of a clique like some people get to Washington or even get in the state house here in Ohio, and they become part of a clique, and they vote with the clique. No, she’s a person of her own determination and what she feels is the best for everyone involved, and she’s honest, extremely honest, extremely forthright.”
Savko, a prominent Trump donor, told Fox News Digital that Cooke is a “fighter” in the same mold as the last two senators who have been elected statewide, JD Vance and Bernie Moreno.
Multiple sources close to the situation told Fox News Digital that elevating women is important to DeWine and that he would like to appoint a woman to the seat, although gender is not the deciding factor.
Republican Jane Timken, an Ohio attorney who served as chair of the Ohio Republican Party from 2017 to 2021, is also widely considered to be another potential Vance replacement.
Other candidates reportedly in the mix include Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Attorney General Dave Yost, Treasurer Robert Sprague and State Sen. Matt Dolan.
Yost, who has said he wouldn’t accept the position, and Husted are believed to be focused on the upcoming governor’s race to replace DeWine. Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had been floated as a possibility but he recently accepted a position in the Trump administration and withdrew his name.
Three Republicans currently serving in Congress – Reps. Mike Carey, David Joyce and Warren Davidson – are believed to be options as well.
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Carey, who has strong relationships with both Trump and DeWine, reached out to DeWine shortly after Vance was selected, a source familiar with the discussion said this summer.
DeWine, who is viewed as part of the Republican establishment, will face a balancing act of appointing someone highly regarded by both the Trump base of the party and the more moderate wing.
Sources tell Fox News Digital that the decision from DeWine is likely not imminent and will be announced in line with whenever Vance officially vacates his seat.
Cooke and a spokesperson for DeWine’s office declined to comment.
DeWine press secretary Dan Tierney told Fox News Digital earlier this month that the timing of the governor’s announcement will depend on when Vance officially vacates his Senate seat and that the governor plans to appoint a “workhorse.”
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Tierney said that DeWine will be looking for a “workhorse” who is “qualified and ready to earn the trust of Ohio voters for another term.”
Prominent Dem facing fierce backlash after labeling Trump pick a likely ‘Russian asset’
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., is facing backlash online for claiming that Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence (DNI), is “likely a Russian asset.”
Wasserman Schultz made the claims, without providing any evidence, on MSNBC Friday, sparking furious responses with commentators honing in on the Florida lawmaker’s own record.
“She is considered to be essentially by most assessments, a Russian asset and would be the most dangerous,” Wasserman Schultz said, before being cut off and asked, “Is that what you consider her?”
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“Yes. There’s no question. I consider her someone who is likely a Russian asset who would be as the DNI, responsible for managing our entire intelligence community, hold all of our most significant intelligence information and secrets, and essentially would be a direct line to our enemies,” Wasserman Schultz said.
The comments drew sharp criticism.
“Tulsi Gabbard resigned as DNC Vice Chair in 2016 because Debbie Wasserman Schultz was rigging the election to ensure Hillary won — as Liz Warren, Donna Brazile and WL all showed,” journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote.
“Imagine fighting for your country and then having pro-war cretins like this impugn your loyalties.”
Commentator @TexasLindsay_ invoked the debunked Russian dossier scandal, which was used by Democrats to accuse President-elect Trump of being a Russian asset.
“Debbie Wasserman Schulz was DNC Chair when Hillary Clinton ran for president—during the time the DNC got caught spying on Trump’s campaign paying to fabricate the fake Russian Dossier to discredit Trump.”
“The fact that she’s now accusing Tulsi Gabbard of being a Russian asset is so outrageous, I can’t help but laugh at how stupid she thinks we all are.”
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Ian Miles Cheong cited a scandal involving Wasserman Schultz’s former IT aide Imran Awan who was indicted for federal bank fraud and conspiracy and was arrested trying to leave the U.S. Wasserman Schultz was criticized over mishandling sensitive information by defending him. Awan eventually made a plea deal with the Justice Department.
“This is pure defamation and it should not go unanswered,” Cheong wrote.
Commentator Bo Snerdley also chimed in and said he truly hopes Gabbard sues Wasserman Schultz “for slander and defamation of character.”
During the Friday interview, Wasserman Schultz attacked Gabbard for secretly meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, in 2017 who was accused of using chemical weapons on his own citizens during the country’s civil war. Gabbard refused to call him a war criminal during her 2020 presidential campaign and said she was skeptical that his government perpetrated a chemical weapons attack earlier that year that killed dozens of Syrians.
“Tulsi Gabbard is someone who has met with war criminals, violated the Department of State’s guidance and secretly clandestinely went to Syria and met with Assad who gassed and attacked his own people with chemical weapons,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who bucked her party and switched to the Republican Party, once called her former party as a “bunch of warmongers.”
It’s not the first time Democrats have accused Gabbard of being a Russian asset.
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In a 2019 interview, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton labeled her “favorite of the Russians” while citing apparent Russian media support for her.
Gabbard served in the U.S. House of Representatives from early 2013 through early 2021 as a Democrat. She mounted a presidential bid in 2019 but ultimately dropped out in 2020 and backed Joe Biden.
The Republican is also a veteran who served in Iraq, as well as an Army reservist. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves three years ago.
The former lawmaker supported Trump during the 2024 election and announced that she was joining the Republican Party.
“I’ve been a soldier for over 21 years, and currently serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve,” she noted in a post on Veterans Day this week.
In a statement on Wednesday, Trump said that Gabbard “has fought for our Country and the Freedoms of all Americans.”
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“As a former Candidate for the Democrat Presidential Nomination, she has broad support in both Parties – She is now a proud Republican!” Trump said, per a statement via his transition team.
“I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!”
The director of national intelligence leads the U.S. intelligence community, which includes overseeing the National Intelligence Program and advising the president on security matters. The current national intelligence director is Avril Haines.
Once confirmed to the position, Gabbard will advise Trump, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council on national security matters.
The six Republican senators who could reject Trump’s nominations
President-elect Trump is rounding out his administration with cabinet nominations, but their confirmation ultimately relies on support from linchpins in the Senate who could be skeptical of his appointees.
While the incoming president has the power to appoint members to his Cabinet, it is ultimately up to Congress to have the final say in whether they are confirmed to the positions through a confirmation process.
While the GOP will hold the majority in the next Congress, however, Senate confirmation could hang on a few key Republicans who have expressed mixed feelings about Trump’s cabinet selections.
Sen. Mitch McConnell
Longtime Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has had a rocky relationship with Trump over the years, most recently releasing a new book that revealed his not-so-flattering thoughts about the president-elect.
According to the book, the Senate minority leader has reportedly slammed Trump as “stupid,” “erratic,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist.”
“I can’t think of anybody I’d rather be criticized by than this sleazeball,” he said in 2022, as Trump continued to attack his wife, former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, calling her “Coco Chow.”
After the book’s release, McConnell told Fox News Digital that “we are all on the same team now.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said that she is not certain former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Trump’s controversial attorney general nominee, will make it through the confirmation process.
“I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general,” the Alaska Republican said. “We need to have a serious attorney general. And I’m looking forward to the opportunity to consider somebody that is serious. This one was not on my bingo card.”
Murkowski also expressed surprise to hear of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s nomination to secretary of defense.
“Wow,” Murkowski said. “I’m just surprised, because the names that I’ve heard for secretary of defense have not included him.”
Sen. Susan Collins
Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, said she was “shocked that he [Gaetz] has been nominated.”
“He’s under investigation by the House Committee on Ethics. Obviously, the president has the right to nominate whomever he wishes, but this is why the background checks that are done by the FBI and the advice and consent process in the Senate, and public hearings are also important,” she said.
Gaetz was under a yearslong ethics investigation in the House looking into reports of alleged sexual involvement with a minor, illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts.
Sen. Thom Tillis
After Gaetz was nominated, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said that despite a history of sparring with the attorney general nominee on social media, he would go through the confirmation process the same as any other pick.
However, Tillis said that the president should select nominees who can pass the chamber’s vetting process.
“The president deserves to put forth a nominee. The president has an obligation to make sure that that nominee is gonna pass vetting and have the votes on the floor,” the North Carolina Republican told reporters after Gaetz was nominated.
Tillis, however, suggested that the public should not be shocked if the former Florida congressman is not confirmed.
“I will consider Matt Gaetz like I will anyone else, but if they don’t do the homework, don’t be surprised if they fail. Maybe they’ve already done that work,” he added. “Nothing surprises me in politics, nothing. And I’m okay with this. But at the end of the day we have a process, and we’ll just have to run through it.”
Tillis added that he cares about “a defensible résumé, and a really clean vetting. Produce that he’s got a chance, don’t, and he doesn’t.”
Sen. Todd Young
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., who did not publicly support Trump for the Republican presidential nomination this year, could be another deciding vote on cabinet confirmations.
The GOP senator previously told reporters he would not be supporting Trump’s 2024 presidential run partly because the former president’s “judgment is wrong” on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Asked about Gaetz’s nomination, he did not respond and instead began praising Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as Trump’s Secretary of State pick.
Sen.-elect John Curtis
Utah Republican John Curtis, recently elected to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mitt Romney, said that he believes the Senate should have the final say in whether a Trump nominee is confirmed or not.
“Senator-elect Curtis believes that every president is afforded a degree of deference to select his team and make nominations,” Corey Norman, Curtis’ chief of staff, told KSL TV in a statement. “He also firmly believes in and is committed to the Senate’s critical role to confirm or reject nominations.”
Other senators have voiced uncertainty about Gaetz’s chances of being confirmed.
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Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said that Gaetz has got an “uphill climb” ahead of him, while Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said, according to The New York Times, that “I think all but Gaetz are very doable — maybe not lovable, but doable.”
Bill Maher torches left ‘doubling down’ on what led to disastrous election defeat
“Real Time” host Bill Maher had some tough words for Democrats who he accused of “digging” in the hole they’re already in following their disastrous showing in the 2024 election.
“Talk about doubling down on what got you f—ed in the first place,” Maher said in his closing monologue Friday night. “Even the one concession I’ve heard a few people on the losing side offer that liberals should stop saying that Trump voters are stupid comes with a kind of unspoken parentheses ‘We know they are stupid, just don’t say it.’ I got bad news for you. They don’t have a monopoly on stupid.”
“You wear ‘Queers for Palestine’ t-shirts and masks two years after the pandemic ended. And you can’t define a woman. I mean ‘person who menstruates.’ You’re the teachers’ union education party and you’ve turned schools and colleges into a joke. You just lost a crazy contest to an actual crazy person,” Maher continued.
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The liberal comedian sounded the alarm on polling that showed they found President Biden to be “too liberal” and how they wanted Vice President Kamala Harris to “distance herself” from far-left policies.
“What a shocker that the people who see everything through the lens of race and sex see their election loss as a result of racism and sexism. Yes, if only we weren’t so irredeemably unenlightened, we would have elected a Black president by now. Oh what, we did?” Maher said. “And sexism? Hillary got 3 million more votes than Trump… Democrats run for office as if the voters don’t live here, as if they don’t go to the grocery store and Starbucks and the office, but they do. They live here, and they actually see women and people of color, and it doesn’t look like some patriarchal racist nightmare.”
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“Democrats have become like a royal family that, because of so much incest, has unfortunately had children who are retarded. And the same thing can happen to ideas if they are also conceived in an atmosphere of intellectual incest. Maybe take the clothespins off your noses and actually converse with the other half of the country. Stop screaming at people to get with the program and instead make a program worth getting with,” he went on to say.
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Maher then cited the uproar surrounding recent comments made by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who said he didn’t want this daughters competing against biological male athletes in sports and that he’s supposed to be “afraid” to say that out loud, prompting his campaign manager to resign in protest.
He summarized the saga as the left’s “problem in a nutshell.”
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“Let that person go! Marginalize that guy!” Maher reacted. “Try making too woke be a cancelable offense. It’s important for America to have a center-left party and for that party to be competitive, and a good first step toward that goal would be to make the voters not want to punch you in the face.”
“The reason why I’m so mad at the Democrats is because, as a voter, the issues that were important to me were democracy and the environment. And now there’s no one to champion or defend either of them because you, with your aggressively anti-common sense agenda and s—-y exclusionary attitude, blew it. You’ve lost everything: House, Senate, White House, Supreme Court, and left us completely unprotected and ready to be violated,” Maher added.
Bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang’s human trafficking operations surge in red state
Tennessee police are warning about the surge of Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang activity in their four major cities, with a top law enforcement official placing the blame on the “porous” southern border.
“This gang has exploited [the border],” said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch on “Fox & Friends.” Friday.
Rausch said the gang has been running human trafficking operations and expanding into other criminal activities in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga.
“They go from human trafficking to organized retail crime theft, and then they move into the drug trade, taking on the cartels in very violent, bloody battles that they’ve had.”
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Rausch added that TdA has “zero respect” for police and has attacked law enforcement throughout the U.S. He added that the group was caught two years ago in a trafficking operation, but has returned in recent years.
Rausch said law enforcement is limited in their efforts to crack down on TdA-related activity, especially if suspects do not have immigration “detainers.”
“If we come upon them and they have a detainer on them, then we can take them into custody. But other than that, then all we can do is monitor and, and assure that they aren’t violating the law. But that is a challenge,” said Rausch, calling it a game of “cat and mouse” that’s getting more dangerous.
Rausch warned Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) during a budget hearing about the resurgence of the gang in major Tennessee cities.
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The Department of Homeland Security recommended last month that more than 100 migrants that it has identified as having possible ties to a bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang be put on an FBI watchlist, after the agency flagged more than 600 with possible ties overall.
NBC News first reported that DHS has identified more than 600 individuals with possible ties to Tren de Aragua, and that 100 of those are deemed “subjects of interests.” Fox has confirmed that it recommended they be placed on the FBI’s Watchlist for Transnational Criminal Organizations.
The gang is believed to have started in the Tocoron prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua and has since expanded into Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and the U.S. In a statement, DHS said that the identities emerged as part of an ongoing re-screening operation to tackle the gang.
Mom living with alopecia reacts to liberal women shaving their heads after Trump’s victory
A mother of three who is living with alopecia went viral on social media when she challenged the decision of liberal women to shave their heads to appear more “unattractive” to men in protest of the 2024 presidential election results.
In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s win over the current vice president, a slew of Kamala Harris supporters adopted the ideology of the radical feminist 4B movement that originated in South Korea amid dissatisfaction with gender inequality, pay disparity and violence against women.
“They’re like, ‘We’re shaving our heads to be unattractive,” Jessica Yang, a mother from Dallas, Texas, told Fox News Digital during a video interview. “Instantly, every emotion in me that I’ve been navigating with my alopecia just came to the surface that morning.”
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The movement, also referred to as the “Four Nos,” launched with a message for women to boycott or reject heterosexual relationships, dating, marriage and childbirth. American liberal women are banding together to opt out of intimacy with men for the next four years.
In the middle of the night, Yang learned of the show of feminist camaraderie via TikTok when she logged on and was met with nothing but bare-scalped videos.
“There was a video of a mom discussing how you should encourage your younger daughter to shave [her] head,” Yang said.
One after another, Yang scrolled through videos of women imploring one another to assume a less desirable look for men. Enough was enough for Yang, originally from Oklahoma, so she decided to post a video of her own.
“Stop,” Yang said in the viral video. “Stop. There are people that have lost their hair, like me, and it has been devastating.”
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“You guys claim to be so caring and kind, but look what you’re doing,” she went on. “You guys are not realizing that you are triggering people that have lost their hair that have cancer.”
The video quickly earned attention and has received 2.8M views and 16k comments on TikTok.
“Thank you,” one social media user wrote to Yang in the comment section, “My wife has cancer and is going through chemotherapy and is beautifully bald.”
Another user empathized with Yang and added that he had lost his wife to breast cancer at the age of 32. He said his wife had been devastated by her hair loss.
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“She was so beautiful,” he wrote. “You are too. I miss her. They don’t have a clue.”
While social media rapidly emerged with liberal women handling shears and razors, most of the videos appear to have been deleted.
“I woke up this morning feeling spicy,” one woman said in a stitched TikTok video as she shaved her head. “Have I given up on America? I have. Also, given up on coloring this hair. F-k coloring my hair. F-k having my hair be long and luxurious. F-k all that sh-t. F-k being skinny. F-k being hot. F-k being all the things that the patriarchy wants us to be ‘cause clearly, they don’t give a s-t about us.”
“I’m talking to you, too, those of you ladies who have the internalized misogyny required to do what you did,” she continued. “The minorities who are so scared of a woman in power that you’d rather cozy up to the white man just in case some crumbs fall off his plate so that you may eat from them.”
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“That’s not what we should be doing,” Yang said. “Especially if we’re living in a world where we want our youth to be kind.”
Yang told Fox News Digital that her reaction to the video was not to discourage liberal women from reacting to the election outcome, though she does not align herself with the movement or feel the same about the results.
“Can we stick with the blue bracelets,” Yang asked. “Can we not have it be bald and unattractive?”
Yang said she is Native American and compared the long and flowy hair she’s lost to Pocahontas’.
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“It hurt because I already feel very unattractive,” Yang said.
As an adult woman, Yang says she can “get over” the lack of awareness. However, she expressed concern for children diagnosed with cancer who are accidentally exposed to out-of-touch commentary.
“Hey, there’s kids that have cancer that still have to go to school sometimes,” Yang said. “There’s mothers that are going through chemo that are losing their hair and still have to show up for motherhood and do all the things. Then there’s people like me who have alopecia.”