Police chief says motive for Christian school shooting was a ‘combination of factors’
A 15-year-old girl killed a teacher and teen student in a shooting on Monday at a private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, and wounded six others, according to authorities.
Natalie Rupnow was identified as the shooter who opened fire inside a study hall inside Abundant Life Christian School, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Responding officers found Rupnow with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She died on the way to a hospital.
During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Barnes said “identifying a motive is our top priority.” He said the motive appears to be a combination of factors, but he did not elaborate any further.
Police were speaking with Rupnow’s father and other family members, who were cooperating, and searching Rupnow’s home, Barnes said. He declined to offer additional details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
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“He lost someone as well,” Barnes said of Rupnow’s father. “And so we’re not going to rush the information. We’ll take our time and make sure we do our due diligence.”
Rupnow used a handgun in the shooting, according to Barnes.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he told reporters.
The teacher and student who were killed in the shooting have not yet been identified.
Barnes said that of the six wounded in the shooting, two were students and remain in critical condition. A teacher and three students were also hospitalized with less serious injuries, and two of them were later released.
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Barnes said he did not believe that the school, which serves 200 students, according to the school’s website, had a resource officer. It was also revealed that the school did not have metal detectors but did have cameras and other security protocols.
He also clarified that the initial 911 call reporting the shooting was made by a second-grade teacher at the school. On Monday, he mistakenly said the call had come from a second-grade student.
James and Rebekah Smith, whose 17-year-old daughter is a student at the Abundant Life Christian School, told Fox News that they know all the victims and their families.
The Smiths said their daughter wasn’t in the same class as Rupnow, the alleged shooter, or knew her well, but said that Rupnow was new to the school and had enrolled sometime during the current semester.
They added that their daughter and her group of friends said they never saw Rupnow speaking to anyone at school.
The couple also said the student who was killed was a freshman girl who they’ve known since she was a toddler.
“She gave great hugs. She was an amazing pianist. She loved to read. She was just an amazing young girl,” Rebekah Smith said.
Rebekah Smith said the teacher who was killed had a daughter who was in sports with the Smiths’ daughter, and they talked with the mother at the games all the time.
She added that the victim had been a long-term substitute teacher at the school and just became a full-time teacher this year.
President Biden spoke with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway after the shooting, and he issued a separate statement that called the event “shocking and unconscionable.”
“We can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears entire communities apart,” Biden said.
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The FBI’s Milwaukee bureau says it has deployed agents to the scene to assist the investigation.
What lawmakers heard during 3-hour classified briefing on mysterious flying objects
Lawmakers exiting a classified briefing with U.S. intelligence officials insisted they received assurances nothing “nefarious” is going on with the recent uptick in drone sightings in New Jersey.
On Tuesday, U.S. officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department privately briefed members of the House Intelligence Committee in an effort to assuage growing fears over sightings of unmanned aircraft systems and fresh calls for federal action.
“There’s no evidence that anybody acted unlawfully here or that any of these drones, in as much as the authorities know anything about them, are associated with anybody with malign intent,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member of the committee, told reporters after the briefing.
“I don’t think we have any reason to believe that they are hiding information. And, again, we asked an extraordinarily detailed series of questions of 28 people over a period of three hours.”
‘DRONE’ SIGHTINGS IN THE NORTHEAST SPARK ‘UNFOUNDED’ PANIC, SAYS EXPERT
But the uptick in alleged drone sightings along the East Coast has touched off panicked calls for an investigation from residents and state lawmakers. The FBI has received more than 6,000 tips from the public on mysterious drone sightings.
One theory can definitively be ruled out, according to Himes. The drones are not the work of a classified government operation, he said.
“We asked this question over and over and over again,” he said, “They are not [linked to the U.S. government]. We were assured.”
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder stressed to reporters that the drones seen along the East Coast are not a DOD asset.
Instead, the running theory among U.S. officials seems to be that there is no one reason behind the phenomenon, and many of the sightings called in to law enforcement are planes, helicopters or hobbyist drones operating lawfully.
“There is no evident threat coming from any place. These are just traditional planes, drones, stars, private planes — all the things that are typically in our skies,” said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.
Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican and outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s response to the drones, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation as early as this week that would allow state police to better handle the drone threat, including tracking the unmanned aircraft and, if necessary, taking them down.
But Smith said Tuesday he sees the bill as a “very real extension of a capability that is needed right now” in the U.S. defense space.
“There’s more vulnerability here that anyone wants to accept, but we need to take action — decisive action,” Smith said.
On Friday, government agencies will lose their counter-drone authority without an FAA reauthorization from Congress. An extension of that authority is expected to be included in spending legislation to keep the government open, but security-minded lawmakers are pushing for more extensive reform to grant state and local law enforcement the authority to intercept and identify drones and equip them with radar detection capabilities.
“We got a lot of answers. Quite frankly, the technology of drones has outpaced the law,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. “We have to work in a bipartisan manner to plug some holes within the law in terms of who is allowed to operate drones in what manner and how do you disable or deal with drones in improper airspace.”
NJ DRONE SIGHTINGS COULD BE A ‘CLASSIFIED EXERCISE’: FORMER CIA OFFICER
On Monday, the DHS, FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pentagon issued a joint statement noting that while they “recognize the concern” from the public, there is no evidence that the drones are “anomalous” or a threat to national security.
The drone complaints began pouring in last month in New Jersey, where witnesses and residents first began reporting drone sightings off of coastal areas, including off of Cape May, a scenic town roughly 50 miles south of Atlantic City along the Jersey Shore.
More recently, lawmakers in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland have reported new drone sightings in their home states, with some witnesses claiming the aircraft in question have been the “size of cars” or seen flying above sensitive infrastructure or in restricted airspace.
Krishnamoorthi insisted he was “satisfied” with the answers he got from the briefing but that the government needs to do more to assuage the concerns of the public.
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“The public needs to see for themselves what these government officials have concluded and the technology that’s been used.”
Archaeologists find amulet that shakes up what we know about the history of Christianity
The earliest known evidence of Christianity north of Italy was recently unveiled by archaeologists, who call the discovery one of the “most important testimonies of early Christianity.”
The artifact, publicized by the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum last week, is called the Frankfurt silver inscription. Discovered in 2018, the inscription has been analyzed and studied for years before finally being released to the public this month.
The Frankfurt silver inscription is an engraving on silver foil that consists of 18 lines written in Latin. It dates to between 230 and 260 A.D. and was discovered wrapped in a small silver amulet.
In a press release translated from German, the museum explained that the artifact was found in a third-century grave in Hesse, Germany, in what was once the former Roman city of Nida. The inscription begins, “In the name of Saint Titus, Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, God’s Son!”
ARTIFACT WITH STRANGE INSCRIPTION DUG UP AT HOLY SITE IN JERUSALEM: ‘UNUSUAL LOCATION’
Saint Titus was a first-century Christian missionary and disciple of Paul the Apostle. The inscription also calls for the amulet to protect “the man who gives to the will the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son.”
“The heavenly, the earthly and the underground, and every tongue confess (to Jesus Christ),” the text concludes.
Written in Latin, the inscription took several weeks to decipher due to its deteriorated condition. Archaeologists needed to “digitally unroll” the silver foil, which had been crumpled for around 1,800 years.
Using computed tomography and state-of-the-art technological equipment, the text was finally decrypted in May. It was then translated over an extended period of time.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER ONE OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
“Sometimes it took weeks, even months, for me to have the next idea,” Goethe University professor Markus Scholz said of the translation process. “I brought in experts from the history of theology, among other things, and piece by piece we have approached the text together and ultimately deciphered it.”
Scholz added that the inscription was “very sophisticated” and called its author “an elaborate writer.”
“It is unusual that the inscription is completely in Latin,” Scholz said. “This is unusual for this time. Such inscriptions were usually written in amulets in Greek or Hebrew.”
Not only is the inscription not written in Hebrew, it doesn’t reference Judaism at all, nor does it contain any pagan elements, which makes it even more unique.
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“It is unusual that there is no reference in the inscription to any other belief besides Christianity,” the museum’s press release added. “Usually until the fifth century, a mixture of different faiths can always be expected with precious metal amulets of this kind. Often there are still elements from Judaism or pagan influences.”
“But in this amulet neither Yahweh, the almighty God of Judaism, nor the archangels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael or Suriel are mentioned, no forefathers of Israel like Isaac or Jacob. And also no pagan elements like demons. The amulet is purely Christian.”
The press release called the artifact “one of the most important testimonies of early Christianity worldwide.”
“So far, there has been no such early, authentic proof of pure Christianity north of the Alps,” the statement explained. “All [other] finds are at least around 50 years younger.”
“There are references from historiography to the first Christian groups in Gaul and perhaps also in the province of Upper Germania in the late second century,” the statement added. “However, certain evidence of Christian life in the northern Alpine regions of the Roman Empire generally only comes from the fourth century AD.”
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“These 18 lines, experts agree, will enormously enrich previous research on the spread of Christianity and the late period of Roman rule on the right of the Rhine.”
Trump names two more diplomatic picks before issuing warning to GOP senators
President-elect Trump dropped his most recent round of ambassador nominations on social media Tuesday night, before issuing a warning to Senate Republicans about any potential deals with Democratic lawmakers.
The Republican leader began by nominating Herschel Walker as his choice for U.S. ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Walker, a staunch Trump ally, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022 as a candidate from Georgia.
“I am pleased to nominate Herschel Walker as United States Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas,” Trump’s post began. “Herschel has spent decades serving as an Ambassador to our Nation’s youth, our men and women in the Military, and athletes at home and abroad.”
Trump went on to call Walker, a former National Football League (NFL) player, a “successful businessman, philanthropist, former Heisman Trophy winner, and NFL Great.” The president-elect also commended Walker’s previous work in the first Trump administration.
TIDE TURNS FOR HEGSETH AS TRUMP’S DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE GOES ON OFFENSE
“During my First Term, he served as Co-Chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Herschel has traveled to over 400 Military installations around the World, removing the stigma surrounding mental health,” Trump added. “He represented the United States at the 1992 Winter Olympics as a member of the U.S. bobsled team.”
“Congratulations Herschel! You will make Georgia, and our entire Nation, proud, because we know you will always put AMERICA FIRST!”
Trump followed up his post about Walker to announce Nicole McGraw as his pick for U.S. ambassador to Croatia. The president-elect described McGraw as a “philanthropist, businesswoman, and World renowned art collector.”
GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR?
“Nicole has brought fine art to the People through her work leading CANVAS Art Charities, and raised Millions of Dollars for neglected and abused children as a Board Member of Place of Hope,” Trump wrote. “She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a BFA in Art History and Studio Art. Congratulations Nicole!”
After issuing the nominations, Trump ended with a note warning Senate Republicans not to make deals with Democrats to “fast track” nominations this month.
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“To all Senate Republicans: NO DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS TO FAST TRACK NOMINATIONS AT THE END OF THIS CONGRESS,” Trump wrote. “I won the biggest mandate in 129 years. I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January when I am sworn in.”
MSNBC host says Biden team ‘started screaming and yelling’ when she asked about Hunter
MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle described a moment during her interview with President Biden in May 2023 where his team attempted to shut down the interview right after she asked about how an indictment of his son, Hunter Biden, might affect his presidency.
“In the way of traditional media, the White House runs the show. When I interviewed President Biden, they gave me 10 minutes, OK? A politician can knock out one answer in 15 minutes,” Ruhle told Lukas Thimm during an interview in early December. “At minute 9.5, I asked the president, ‘Your son, Hunter, might be indicted by your Department of Justice, how will this impact your presidency?’”
When the interview aired in May 2023, the Biden aides’ interruption did not appear, but according to a transcript, as reported by Mediaite, there was “crosstalk” noted after the MSNBC host asked the initial question. Ruhle asked the president to repeat his answer, citing issues with audio, according to the transcript.
“A completely reasonable question. As soon as I said those words, President Biden’s team waved in front of the camera, started screaming and yelling and stopped the interview.” Ruhle continued. “Now that immediately went on, that’s public record, that was in the transcript, that became its own story, and then they punished us.”
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When the interview aired in May 2023, Ruhle asked about Hunter at the end of the interview, and the president is heard responding, “First of all, my son has done nothing wrong. I trust him. I have faith in him. It impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of him.”
Prior to her asking about Hunter, MSNBC’s footage does show his team trying to end the interview after Ruhle asked about hate crimes being on the rise, gun violence and more. Biden held his hand up and indicated he wanted to answer the question.
MSNBC did not appear to air the cross talk or the Biden team’s efforts to stop the interview after Ruhle asked about the president’s son.
The president notably complained that “negative” press coverage was to blame for his bad poll numbers during the interview.
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“All they’ve heard is negative news for three years. Everything is negative,” Biden responded at the time. “I’m not being critical of the press, but you turn on the television – the only way you’re going to get a hit is if there’s something negative, you know. You don’t – anyway, that’s number one.”
Ruhle also revealed during the interview that she had called President-elect Donald Trump before the election to try to get him to do an interview with them.
She said Trump declined, but she emphasized she was able to call the president-elect directly and said it was much different than with President Biden or Vice President Harris.
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GOP calls on FBI to investigate Liz Cheney for ‘potential criminal witness tampering’
Former Rep. Liz Cheney is facing calls from GOP legislators that the FBI investigate her for “potential criminal witness tampering” related to her former role on the Jan. 6 House Select Committee, according to a report released Tuesday by House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight Chair Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga.
“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” states the report, which was provided to Fox Digital. “Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.”
The Jan. 6 committee was founded in July 2021 to investigate the breach of the U.S. Capitol earlier that year by supporters of Trump ahead of President Biden officially taking office on Jan. 20. The Jan. 6 committee’s investigation was carried out when Democrats held control of the House.
The committee concluded its 18-month investigation last year, when Republicans regained control of the House and sent referrals to the Justice Department recommending Trump be criminally prosecuted for his involvement in the lead-up to supporters breaching the Capitol. The committee was composed of seven Democrats and two Republican lawmakers, Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who are both no longer in office.
Loudermilk’s subcommittee was tapped to investigate the J6 committee and its findings in January 2023.
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The House Republicans’ report Tuesday specifically took issue with Cheney’s alleged “direct intervention” with Hutchinson, who was considered the star witness of the investigation, including allegedly encouraging Hutchinson to hire “Select Committee-friendly attorneys to represent her” as opposed to keeping her original legal representation.
Hutchinson, who worked as an aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, had alleged to the select committee that on Jan. 6, 2021, she was told Trump became “irate” and attempted to join supporters at the Capitol ahead of them breaching the government building. The incident reportedly unfolded after Trump delivered a speech at the Ellipse, which is a park just south of the White House fence.
Hutchinson alleged she was told Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel of a Secret Service SUV before the driver reportedly told Trump to remove his hand and that they were headed to the White House, not the Capitol. Hutchinson’s account was directly refuted by Anthony Ornato, who served as White House deputy chief of staff for operations under Trump after decades in the Secret Service.
Less than two weeks after firing her original attorney and hiring “the attorneys Representative Cheney suggested – Hutchinson sat for her fourth transcribed interview with the Select Committee under unusual circumstances,” the report states.
REP LOUDERMILK BLASTS JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE FOR TARGETING HIM: ‘THERE IS A WAR ON THE TRUTH IN THIS COUNTRY’
“Prior to this interview, nearly every interview the Select Committee conducted included approximately a dozen people – including committee staff members, committee counsel, often a Member of the Select Committee, the interviewee, and the interviewee’s legal representation. Most of the interviews were done in large conference rooms or over zoom, allowing space for all participants. Hutchinson’s fourth transcribed interview, however, was vastly different. It consisted of only four people: Representative Cheney, one attorney from the Select Committee, Hutchinson, and Hutchinson’s new counsel. Additionally, instead of the Select Committee conducting the interview in a conference room or virtually, Representative Cheney used her private hideaway inside of the United States Capitol Building,” the report states.
The House Republican report continued that Hutchinson’s testimony to the Jan. 6 committee was crucial, arguing “it is unlikely the Select Committee could make its assertions about President Trump’s mood, attitude, and alleged culpability in the events of January 6” without her comments.
“Hutchinson is mentioned by name in the Select Committee’s Final Report no fewer than 185 times. Inexplicably, the Select Committee discredited the multitude of legitimate witnesses who, under oath, repeatedly refuted Hutchinson’s testimony. These legitimate witnesses include senior government officials and federal agents.”
DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE’LL PARDON JAN 6 RIOTERS ON DAY 1: ‘ACTING VERY QUICKLY’
Cheney, in comments provided to Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon, defended her former committee’s investigation while arguing that Loudermilk’s report “intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence.”
“January 6th showed Donald Trump for who [he] really is – a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks to continue against our Capitol and law enforcement officers while he watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave,” Cheney said to Fox News Digital.
“The January 6th Committee’s hearings and report featured scores of Republican witnesses, including many of the most senior officials from Trump’s own White House, campaign and Administration. All of this testimony was painstakingly set out in thousands of pages of transcripts, made public along with a highly detailed and meticulously sourced 800 page report. Now, Chairman Loudermilk’s ‘Interim Report’ intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously.”
The Democrat former chair of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, also slammed Loudermilk’s report in a comment to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
HOUSE GOP REPORT ALLEGES JAN 6 COMMITTEE ‘DELETED RECORDS AND HID EVIDENCE’
“Representative Loudermilk has failed to discredit the work of the January 6th Select Committee. His so-called ‘report’ is filled with baseless, conclusory allegations rather than facts. That’s because there’s no escaping the reality that Donald Trump bears the responsibility for the deadly January 6th attack no matter how much Mr. Loudermilk would love to rewrite history for his political purposes,” he said.
The president-elect railed in an interview on NBC this month that Cheney, Thompson and others on the J6 committee “deleted and destroyed” evidence related to the investigation and “should go to jail.”
“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” he said in the interview. “They deleted and destroyed all evidence.”
“And Cheney was behind it. And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee,” he continued. “For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.”
Trump’s claims of the committee allegedly “deleting” evidence was supported by a previous report released by Loudermilk this year claiming the select committee “deleted” records and hired “Hollywood producers” to promote a political narrative while investigating Jan. 6.
The report released Tuesday found that the Jan. 6 committee failed to archive “as many as 900 interview summaries or transcripts” despite a process for committee chairs to properly archive data, including interviews.
“As part of its investigation, the Subcommittee learned that the Select Committee failed to archive or provide the Subcommittee with any of its video recordings of witness interviews, as many as 900 interview summaries or transcripts, more than one terabyte of digital data. Concerningly, of the documents that were archived, the Select Committee delivered more than 100 encrypted, password protected documents and never provided the passwords. It is unclear why the Select Committee chose only those documents to be shielded by password,” the report found.
BIDEN TEAM REPORTEDLY CONSIDERING PREEMPTIVE PARDONS FOR FAUCI, SCHIFF, OTHER TRUMP ‘TARGETS’
The Jan. 6 committee, the report found, failed to archive more than “one terabyte of digital data” after Thompson reported archiving more than four terabytes of data in a July 2022 letter. The subcommittee ultimately received less than three terabytes of digital data.
“One terabyte of data is equivalent to 6.5 million document pages such as PDFs or office files, 500 hours of high definition video, or 250,000 photos,” the report noted.
Thompson previously denied the claims of deleting evidence in a July 2023 letter to Loudermilk, detailing that the committee had called on the federal government regarding the “proper archiving of such sensitive material to protect witnesses’ safety, national security, and to safeguard law enforcement operations.”
Thompson provided three “facts” in response to the report Tuesday in a comment to Fox Digital.
“Here are the facts: (1) The Select Committee was properly constituted, as every court that heard challenges found. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro would not have gone to prison for contempt of Congress had there been a legitimate issue. Not even the Republican-controlled Supreme Court stayed their sentences, despite Mr. Loudermilk’s entreaties. (2) The Select Committee followed all House Rules, and it did not withhold or destroy any record that was required to be archived. Moreover, every record the Select Committee had was turned over to the Department of Justice, which was in turn provided to the former President’s defense team through the discovery process during his criminal proceedings. Most of those records are publicly available through the Government Publishing Office’s online repository,” he said.
“(3) The Members of the Select Committee and the witnesses who came before us – who were mainly Republicans from the Trump administration – acted honorably and out of patriotic duty to the Constitution. The Select Committee’s Final Report was not based on any single witness’s testimony, and it painted a damning picture of the former President’s dereliction of duty. That work stands on its own.”
JAN 6 COMMITTEE ALLEGEDLY SUPPRESSED TESTIMONY SHOWING TRUMP ADMIN PUSHED FOR NATIONAL GUARD PRESENCE: REPORT
Thompson added that Loudermilk failed to “to find a single valid problem with the Select Committee’s work” that reflects what he said is an “inescapable conclusion.”
“Donald Trump orchestrated a multi-part conspiracy that attempted to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 Presidential election by summoning a mob to Washington to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history,” he said.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tapped Loudermilk to investigate both the Jan. 6 incident itself and the Jan. 6 House Select Committee’s report on the Capitol breach in January 2023.
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“Over the past twenty-four months of this investigation, my subcommittee staff have faced incredible obstacles in pursuit of the truth; missing and deleted documents, hidden evidence, unaccounted for video footage, and uncooperative bureaucrats. At one point, the work of the subcommittee was completely halted due to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, and subsequently faced internal efforts to derail the investigation. However, our team persevered through the delays; and, when Mike Johnson took the gavel as Speaker of the House, he allocated even more resources to our investigation and committed to more transparency for the American people,” Loudermilk wrote in a letter to colleagues accompanying the report.
Senators blast NCAA boss for trans policy: ‘Why don’t you go to Amazon and buy a spine?’
NCAA President Charlie Baker sent a message to women’s college athletes who are uncomfortable sharing locker rooms with transgender athletes on Tuesday, putting the responsibility for their own safety squarely on the women themselves.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over legalized sports gambling, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questioned Baker about the NCAA’s policies that have allowed trans athletes to compete on women’s teams. Hawley confronted Baker about the NCAA policy that states “transgender student athletes should be able to use the locker room, shower and toilet facilities in accordance with their gender identity.”
Baker, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, responded by insisting other athletes have the option to find other accommodations if they’re uncomfortable with it.
“Everybody else should have an opportunity to use other facilities if they wish to do so,” Baker said.
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Baker added that NCAA guidelines give the institutions and organizations that host college sporting events, who he referred to as “locals,” the option to accommodate athletes however they see fit.
“I believe our guidelines give people optionality in how they choose to use their facilities,” Baker said. “We told the local folks who hosted our tournaments that they need to make accommodations for the people who are playing.”
Baker also refused to initially agree with the notion that biological males have physical advantages over female athletes. When asked by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., if trans athletes are at an advantage, Baker said the idea was debatable.
“There’s not a lot of research on it, but it’s certainly debatable,” Baker said.
Kennedy posed the question a second time, asking if Baker didn’t think that “a biological male has an advantage every time competing against a biological female.”
The NCAA president changed his answer, saying, “I think the way you defined it, yes, I would agree with you.”
When Baker was pressed about why he and the NCAA have not taken action to amend policies to prevent trans inclusion in women’s sports, he repeatedly cited federal law and recent rulings of federal courts that have enabled it. Kennedy loudly encouraged Baker to do something about it anyway.
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“Why don’t you go to Amazon and buy a spine online and take a stand?” Kennedy yelled at Baker.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also lambasted Baker for the NCAA’s current pro-trans policies during the hearing.
The Concerned Women for America provided a statement to Fox News Digital, addressing Baker’s comments on Tuesday.
“Charlie Baker’s time as NCAA President has exposed a scandalous dismissal of the safety and dignity female athletes deserve,” wrote Macy Petty, the organization’s legislative strategist. “His lack of leadership has compromised the integrity of all member institutions, and his carelessness for Title IX protections endangers female athletes. We’re grateful for Senator Hawley, Senator Blackburn, and Senator Kennedy’s leadership on the issue and we hope Congress takes further action to condemn the NCAA’s continued discrimination against women.”
During the hearing, Baker referenced “five lawsuits in the last 18 months” that have enabled trans athletes to compete against biological females. But as Hawley noted, there have not been any rulings that have explicitly instructed the NCAA to allow trans athletes to compete against females or share women’s locker rooms.
One case Baker mentioned was a ruling by Colorado district Judge Kato Crews in November that allowed trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming to compete in the Mountain West Tournament for San Jose State University after an emergency injunction by other players in the conference to have the athlete removed from competition.
Crews wrote that the plaintiffs’ request for an emergency delay “was not reasonable” and “would risk confusion and upend months of planning and would prejudice, at a minimum, [San Jose State] and other teams participating in the tournament.”
However, Crews’ ruling did not address the issue of trans inclusion at a macro level. It simply rejected a proposal that would disqualify a player, and potentially an entire team, from a conference tournament.
Other federal rulings on this issue in the last 18 months have focused on the issue occurring at the high school and youth level. This includes a ruling in Arizona in September that blocked a state law preventing two prepubescent trans athletes from competing in girls’ sports. In April, a ruling in West Virginia blocked a law that would have prevented a 13-year-old biological male from competing in girls’ cross-country.
Judges Landya McCafferty of New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virginia, who were both appointed during the Obama administration, each issued rulings this year that enabled biological males to play on high school girls’ soccer and tennis teams. McCafferty issued an order that allowed two transgender athletes to compete in New Hampshire, and Lauck ruled that an 11-year-old transgender tennis player was allowed to compete against girls the same age in Virginia.
Those cases did not address the inclusion of trans athletes at the NCAA level.
Meanwhile, there are two ongoing lawsuits against the NCAA over its policies that have enabled trans athletes to compete against women.
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Former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines is leading a lawsuit against the NCAA with other female athletes, accusing the governing body of violating their Title IX rights due to its policies on gender identity. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock that Gaines and other swimmers reportedly felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with trans swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 championships in Atlanta.
San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser, along with several other Mountain West volleyball players and former coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, filed their own lawsuit against the university and Mountain West Conference for allowing Fleming to compete as a woman without informing opponents or teammates of the athlete’s natural birth sex.
Both lawsuits are ongoing.
Controversial former NFL star reportedly accepts college football head coaching job
Michael Vick is reportedly going to be a college football head coach.
The former star NFL quarterback will take over as head coach of Norfolk State’s football program, according to The Virginian-Pilot.
Vick told the outlet Monday he was having conversations about potentially taking over the program.
“I know how to lead, and I know what it takes,” he told the newspaper.
Vick had also been linked to another college head coach opening at Sacramento State, according to ESPN.
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“He has expressed interest in the position, and, yes, I did meet with him about his interest in Sac State football and our athletic rise. As you can imagine, given the success of our athletic programs, our football head coach job is an attractive role,” Sacramento State President Luke Wood said in a statement to ESPN.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Sacramento State officials said the reports of Vick being considered for the job are “premature at best.”
Vick played his college career at Virginia Tech from 1998-2000, earning first-team All-American honors in 1999. Vick was then drafted with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, where he became one of the top young stars in the sport.
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Vick was the cover athlete of EA Sports’ Madden NFL 2004. That year’s version of the video game made Vick one of the fastest players in the game and one of the fastest quarterbacks in the history of the series.
But Vick’s career and reputation took a dark turn in 2007.
Vick infamously spent nearly two years in prison after pleading guilty to financing a dog-fighting operation, forcing him to miss the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Vick had to rehab his image, and the NFL allowed him to play with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he spent five seasons after being released from prison in 2009. He also joined the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers before retiring in 2015.
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Vick ventured into coaching in the summer of 2017, when he joined the Kansas City Chiefs and his former Eagles head coach, Andy Reid, as a coaching intern. He joined the NFL on FOX as an analyst after training camp concluded that year.
In April 2018, Vick was hired as offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Legends of the Alliance of American Football. However, shortly before the season began, head coach Kevin Coyle announced Vick wouldn’t serve as offensive coordinator but would remain with the team as a consultant.
Vick has never coached at the college level, but he now gets a chance to help turn a program around after a 4-8 season in 2024.