House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., shared just a brief four-word response when a reporter asked him on Tuesday why he missed a congressional vigil for Charlie Kirk.

‘I had a meeting,’ Jeffries said when the matter was broached during his afternoon press conference.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced on Monday that Congress would hold a vigil later that evening to honor the conservative activist.

Kirk was assassinated last week when a gunman opened fire on him during a college campus speaking event in Utah.

Fox News Digital witnessed just a handful of House Democrats at the vigil, side by side with dozens of Republican lawmakers.

When asked why more Democrats did not attend, Jeffries said Tuesday, ‘I don’t know.’

‘I guess you’d have to talk to the individual Democrats as to what else was going on and why they were present or why they weren’t present,’ he said.

The vigil was held in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall in the 6 p.m. hour on Monday evening.

Democratic lawmakers who attended include Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., John Larson, D-Conn., Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., Chris Pappas, D-N.H., and Don Davis, D-N.C.

Notably absent were the top four House Democrats in senior leadership, including Jeffries.

Johnson, however, downplayed the lack of Democratic attendance in comments to reporters on Monday.

‘I honestly did not even see the composition of the group,’ he said when asked if he was disappointed in the number of Democrats who showed up.

‘I’m glad it was bipartisan, and I wish more had participated, and I’m not sure why they didn’t. So I don’t know what else we can do other than offer an all-member bipartisan vigil. And we’ve done that routinely for other things.’

Fox News’ Kelly Phares and Fox News Radio’s Ryan Schmelz contributed to this report.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi faced a torrent of criticism online Tuesday after she suggested in two separate interviews that the Justice Department would ‘absolutely target’ hate speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s shooting death — sparking intense backlash from Republicans and other conservatives and prompting her to further clarify her remarks.

Bondi attempted to bridge the divide between her remarks and what she called hate speech that leads to threats in a lengthy social media post Tuesday.

‘Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment,’ Bondi said, citing three U.S. laws that criminalize threats of direct violence, such as threats of kidnapping or injury. ‘It’s a crime.’ 

‘For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over,’ she said, adding that ‘free speech protects ideas, debate, even dissent but it does NOT and will NEVER protect violence.’

Bondi’s remarks, made during a ‘The Katie Miller Podcast’ interview and in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity during conversations about the fatal shooting of Kirk, prompted backlash across the aisle, though it was conservative voices who were the loudest. Many noted that Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder and subject of the interviews, was himself a vociferous defender of free speech protections under the First Amendment, which protects most forms of speech in the U.S., including offensive and hateful speech.

Many also appeared to view the new statement as insufficient cover for Bondi’s previous remarks. 

‘This isn’t a correction or a retraction or a retreat; it’s a post hoc attempt to bend the term ‘hate speech’ to mean something that it never has,’ Charles C.W. Cooke, a senior editor at the National Review, said on social media.

Nearly 24 hours after Bondi’s remarks, the criticism has continued — nearly all of it from Republicans and other notable conservative voices.

Bondi came under fire for the two interviews Monday, neither of which distinguished the type of speech that threatened imminent violence from hate speech.

 ‘There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech,’ Bondi said Monday in an interview with former Trump administration aide and podcast host Katie Miller.

.’We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech,’ Bondi said.

In a separate interview on Fox News, Bondi reiterated a similar sentiment, suggesting that the government could prosecute Office Depot after an employee reportedly refused to print posters with Kirk’s face on them.

She said further that the department was ‘looking at’ the Office Depot case in question.

‘Businesses cannot discriminate,’ Bondi said on Fox News. ‘If you want to go in and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that.’

‘I have Harmeet Dhillon right now in our Civil Rights unit looking at that immediately, that Office Depot had done that,’ she said of the Office Depot employee in question. ‘We’re looking it up,’ she said.

Most of the criticism that poured in Tuesday was from Republicans, who noted that Bondi’s remarks are a flagrant violation of free speech protections guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

They are also, some noted, directly at odds with the views famously espoused by Kirk.

‘Hate speech’ is a hopelessly subjective term, and even if it weren’t, there is no hate-speech exception to the First Amendment,’ said Ed Whelan, a conservative legal expert who formerly clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

‘I’m sorry, but this is the sort of leftwing progressivism that conservatives, including Charlie Kirk, abhorred,’ Erick Erickson said on X. ‘We stand with Jack Philips, not against him.’

Asked by ABC News’s Jon Karl to respond to Bondi’s remarks on Tuesday, Trump declined to clarify, and instead floated the idea of going after Karl’s outlet, albeit in a joking tone.

‘We’ll probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly,’ Trump said.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump received a full royal welcome from King Charles III following their arrival to Windsor Castle on Tuesday night.

Wednesday’s festivities kicked off with Trump, the first lady and several top U.S. officials participating in a carriage procession with the king, queen and other members of the royal family. Ahead of the couple’s arrival, hundreds of staff worked through the halls and grounds of the nearly 1,000-year-old castle to ensure the monarch welcomed the couple in true royal fashion.

Trump rode in the foremost carriage along with King Charles, while Melania was in a following carriage with the queen. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and special envoy Steve Witkoff also rode in follow-up carriages.

Ahead of his visit, Trump hailed the ‘great honor’ of being hosted by his ‘friend’ at ‘the ultimate’ Windsor Castle for his second state visit, the U.K.’s Standard reported.

‘My relationship is very good with the U.K., and Charles, as you know, who’s now king, is my friend,’ Trump told reporters, quoted by the outlet. ‘It’s the first time this has ever happened where somebody was honored twice. So, it’s a great honor.’

‘And this one’s at Windsor,’ Trump added. ‘And I don’t want to say one’s better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate, right? So, it’s going to be nice.’

‘Primarily it’s to be with Charles and Camilla,’ he continued. ‘They’ve been friends of mine for a long time, long before he was king, and it’s an honor to have this king.’

The centerpiece of Trump’s visit is set to be the banquet in St. George’s Hall. The Waterloo Table, about half the length of a football field, can seat up to 160 guests. The Associated Press reported it takes five full days to set the table, which is laid with more than 4,000 pieces, including 200-year-old silver.

The visit comes as the U.S. and U.K. continue trade negotiations, though the White House has not indicated that any deals will be announced during the event.

Trump is the first U.S. president to be invited for two state visits by a British monarch. The late queen hosted him and Melania in 2019 during his first administration.

Fox News’ Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report

Senate Republicans are calling foul on Senate Democrats’ opposition to the GOP’s short-term plan to keep the government funded, calling it hypocritical. 

House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled their seven-week funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), which congressional Republicans argue is as ‘clean’ as can be. That means that the bill largely lacks any additional spending or policy riders.

But Senate Democrats have dug in deep on their rejection of the proposal, increasing the likelihood of a government shutdown come Sept. 30. It comes after Democrats previously warned Republicans not to use government funding as a political weapon when Democrats were in charge of the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will ultimately need Democrats to pass a government funding patch. 

He argued that under former President Joe Biden’s administration, Senate Democrats overwhelmingly voted for 13 CRs.

‘Ninety-six percent of the Democrats voted for all 13 of those,’ Thune said. ‘This is, again, a new practice that’s been invented because of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and because these Democrats hate giving this president anything.’  

Senate Republicans are now titling the possibility of a partial government shutdown as a ‘Schumer Shutdown,’ given Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus’ unwillingness to support the GOP-authored bill.

‘Now, all of a sudden, they can’t vote for it? It’s ridiculous,’ Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s exactly where they’re coming from, and it should be called the ‘Schumer Shutdown.’’

When asked why Democrats were entrenched against the Republicans’ bill, given their previous push for clean stopgaps, Schumer argued that ‘we’re in a much different situation’ after the GOP passed President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ the $9 billion clawback of foreign aid and public broadcasting funding, and the administration’s move to claw back an additional $5 billion in foreign aid.

He also ripped Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for not sitting down with him and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to negotiate a spending deal. Thune countered that his office is right around the corner from Schumer’s.

‘They even refuse to have bipartisan negotiations,’ Schumer said. ‘We’ve always had bipartisan negotiations on this. Johnson put his bill in. No Democratic input, and that is why the Republicans are heading for us for a shutdown. We don’t want it.’

Part of the disagreement with the bill also stemmed from Trump’s edict that Republicans shouldn’t ‘even bother’ with Democrats and that ‘we have to get Republican votes.’

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told Fox News Digital that all Democrats needed was for Trump ‘to take back what he said about the process needing to be more partisan rather than less.’

‘If they go it alone, then it’s not unreasonable for us to say, ‘We wish you the best, but you won’t be getting our votes,’’ Schatz said. 

Despite the saber-rattling, they haven’t said precisely what they dislike about the House GOP’s offering. They say it’s not so much about what’s in the bill, but rather what’s not.

The top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told Fox News Digital that it was a ‘lack of language on impoundments and the pocket rescission, things like that that we’ve been talking about.’

The other part is that the CR does not contain an extension to ObamaCare premium subsidies passed during the COVID-19 pandemic that are set to expire in December.

Democrats argue that an extension should be attached to the stopgap because insurance providers are teeing up new insurance rates ahead of the Nov. 1 open enrollment start date for the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, argued that lawmakers could wait until November to move on an extension.

‘You can wait,’ Collins said. ‘Because… they can keep the eligibility criteria steady for next year and have the revised eligibility.’

While Schumer and Democrats are expected to give Thune headaches throughout the ordeal, he may have to wrangle some fiscal hawks weary of CRs on his side of the aisle, too. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., argued that the spending levels set in the House GOP’s bill were the same as those set under Biden, which Republicans ‘all decried in the election.’

‘So any Republican who votes for this, I guess maybe they should apologize to Biden for being against his spending levels,’ Paul said. ‘Because they’re actually voting for his spending levels now.’

And Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital that he hadn’t thoroughly reviewed the text of the bill yet, but he noted he was not typically a fan of funding extensions.

‘The goal was always that we start having a real budgeting process, and so it’s really frustrating that we haven’t done that,’ he said. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence is heading back to school.

Pence, who served as vice president during President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House but who later ran against his former boss in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries, is joining George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government as a distinguished professor of practice.

The northern Virginia-based school said that Pence will begin teaching undergraduate courses and public-facing seminars starting in next year’s spring semester.

The school, in a Tuesday announcement, also said that Pence will be available via moderated discussions and mentorship programs with students pursuing degrees in political science, law, public administration and related fields.

Schar School Dean Mark Rozell said that the former vice president’s ‘disciplined approach to communication and his deeply rooted conservative philosophy provide a principled framework to discussions of federalism, the separation of powers, and the role of values in public life.’

And Pence, in a statement, said that ‘throughout my years of public service, I have seen firsthand the importance of principled leadership and fidelity to the Constitution in shaping the future of our nation. I look forward to sharing these lessons with the next generation of American leaders and learning from the remarkable students and faculty of George Mason University.’

The now-66-year-old Pence, a former congressman, was Indiana’s governor when Trump named him his running mate in 2016. For four years, Pence served as the loyal vice president to Trump during the president’s first term in the White House.

However, everything changed on Jan. 6, 2021, as pro-Trump protesters — including some chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’ — stormed the U.S. Capitol aiming to upend congressional certification of now-former President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, a process overseen by Pence in his constitutional role as vice president. 

The attack on the Capitol took place soon after Trump spoke to a large rally of supporters near the White House about unproven claims that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ due to massive ‘voter fraud.’

Pence rejected the advice of the Secret Service that he flee the Capitol, and after the rioters were eventually removed from the Capitol, he resumed his constitutional role in overseeing the congressional certification ceremony.

The former vice president has repeatedly refuted Trump’s claim that he could have overturned the presidential election results. Despite that, Trump loyalists have never forgiven Pence, whom they view as a traitor, for refusing to assist the president’s repeated efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Pence in June 2023 launched a presidential campaign of his own, joining a large field of challengers to Trump gunning for the 2024 GOP nomination, becoming the first running mate in over 80 years to run against their former boss.

Pence ran on a traditional conservative platform, framing the future of the Republican Party against what he called the rise of ‘populism’ in the party. 

Among the slim anti-Trump base of the Republican Party, Pence received praise for his courage during the attack on the Capitol, often receiving thanks at town halls during his campaign for standing up to Trump. 

While Pence regularly campaigned in the crucial early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, his White House bid never took off. Struggling in the polls and with fundraising, he suspended his campaign just four and a half months after declaring his candidacy.

The Justice Department plans to call a fresh lineup of witnesses Wednesday as the federal trial of Ryan Routh, accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club in 2024, enters its eighth day.

Prosecutors told the court they expect testimony from Ronnie Jay Oxendine, the man who allegedly sold Routh the rifle tied to the case, as well as multiple FBI agents and specialists. The list includes Patrick M. Lantry, a task force officer with the FBI; Aaron Thompson; Matthew S. Perry, an FBI special agent;Garett L. Foo, an FBI special agent; and Laura E. Haller, an FBI special agent and digital forensic examiner.

Also scheduled are Lazaro and Samuel Plata, whose testimony will be aided by two Spanish-English translators in the courtroom.

Tuesday’s proceedings centered on forensic evidence from Routh’s alleged phones and DNA. Jurors saw WhatsApp messages and texts allegedly recovered from Routh’s seized devices, including one exchange where Routh wrote, ‘I hate him… shan’t get elected again,’ referring to Trump. Another message read, ‘If I can help just let me know what to do.’

FBI experts also testified that Routh’s DNA was strongly linked to the rifle grip, a bag, a glove and other items prosecutors say were found in the alleged sniper’s nest. Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon kept a tight rein on the pace of testimony, pressing prosecutors to shorten questioning and reminding Routh — who is representing himself — to stop interrupting.

With prosecutors expected to rest their case by the end of the week, Wednesday’s testimony could prove pivotal as jurors weigh the government’s evidence against the self-represented defendant who will bring his witnesses forward beginning next week.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will receive a full royal welcome from King Charles III following their arrival to Windsor Castle on Tuesday night.

Wednesday’s festivities will kick off with Trump, the first lady and several top U.S. officials participating in a carriage procession with the king, queen and other members of the royal family. Ahead of the couple’s arrival, hundreds of staff worked through the halls and grounds of the nearly 1,000-year-old castle to ensure the monarch welcomed the couple in true royal fashion.

Trump is set to ride in the foremost carriage along with King Charles, while Melania will ride in a following carriage with the queen. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and special envoy Steve Witkoff will also ride in follow-up carriages.

Ahead of his visit, Trump hailed the ‘great honor’ of being hosted by his ‘friend’ at ‘the ultimate’ Windsor Castle for his second state visit, the U.K.’s Standard reported.

‘My relationship is very good with the U.K., and Charles, as you know, who’s now king, is my friend,’ Trump told reporters, quoted by the outlet. ‘It’s the first time this has ever happened where somebody was honored twice. So, it’s a great honor.’

‘And this one’s at Windsor,’ Trump added. ‘And I don’t want to say one’s better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate, right? So, it’s going to be nice.’

‘Primarily it’s to be with Charles and Camilla,’ he continued. ‘They’ve been friends of mine for a long time, long before he was king, and it’s an honor to have this king.’

The centerpiece of Trump’s visit is set to be the banquet in St. George’s Hall. The Waterloo Table, about half the length of a football field, can seat up to 160 guests. The Associated Press reported it takes five full days to set the table, which is laid with more than 4,000 pieces, including 200-year-old silver.

The visit comes as the U.S. and U.K. continue trade negotiations, though the White House has not indicated that any deals will be announced during the event.

Trump is the first U.S. president to be invited for two state visits by a British monarch. The late queen hosted him and Melania in 2019 during his first administration.

Fox News’ Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report