Luke Bryan is the latest star to take a light-hearted jab at the viral Coldplay Kiss Cam moment that involved Astronomer CEO Andy Byron.

During a show on July 17, Bryan took a moment to make a joke and asked the crowd, “Anybody here with your secretary tonight?” according to a video uploaded by Country Now to Instagram.

The country star’s joke hit with the audience and an eruption of laughter occurred.

Morgan Wallen also joined in on the fun during a recent show.

COLDPLAY’S CHRIS MARTIN HAS WARNING FOR CONCERTGOERS DURING FIRST PERFORMANCE AFTER KISS CAM CONTROVERSY

During his concert on Friday night at the State Farm Arena in Glendale, Arizona, Wallen seemingly referenced the viral video when addressing the crowd ahead of his performance of his song, “I’m A Little Crazy.”

“Anybody in here with their side chick or whatever, I think you’re safe here,” he can be heard saying in a video posted to TikTok taken by a concertgoer. “I don’t condone cheating, anymore.”

The Coldplay Kiss Cam scandal has dominated the internet since the show took place on Wednesday, July 16, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

During that performance, Byron appeared on the Kiss Cam with his arms wrapped around a woman, who was later identified as his company’s HR chief, Kristin Cabot. The pair were on the big screen during “The Jumbotron Song,” where Martin improvises songs about couples in the audience.

The woman immediately covered her face and turned away from the camera, while a stunned Byron ducked down and exited the frame. Martin then joked that, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”

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Chris Martin issued a cheeky warning to fans at Coldplay’s first show following the viral scandal.

On Saturday, the group performed at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

“We’d like to say hello to some of you in the crowd,” the 48-year-old said in a video posted on X, which sparked both cheers and laughter from the audience.

“How we’re gonna do that is we’re gonna use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen,” said Martin while grinning. “So please, if you haven’t done your makeup, do your makeup now.”

The fan who posted the snippet from Saturday’s show later wrote on X that “zero couples” were shown on the venue’s jumbotron.

WATCH: Coldplay’s Chris Martin catches couple on Kiss Cam, jokingly asks if they’re having an affair

Astronomer put out a statement after the incident, writing on social media, “Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability.”

“The Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter, and we will have additional details to share very shortly.”

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In another update on Friday, the company announced Byron had been placed on leave and an interim CEO had been appointed. The company later informed followers on Saturday that Byron had resigned from the company.

“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted,” the X post read in part. “The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO.”

It appears that Kristin is married to Andrew Cabot, the CEO of Privateer Rum. Fox News Digital confirms that they purchased a home as a married couple in April 2024. According to the New York Post, Cabot’s previous divorce was finalized in 2022. No divorce records were found for Byron, who appears to still be married.

Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco and Lori Bashian contributed to this report.

Former first son Hunter Biden disclosed his father was on an anti-insomnia prescription ahead of his disastrous 2024 debate that may have affected his command of the stage that evening.

Biden said former President Joe Biden had taken Ambien, a gamma-aminobutyric acid enhancer similar to benzodiazepines, to help him sleep better amid his grueling schedule and advanced age.

He criticized several members of former President Barack Obama’s inner circle for continually doubting his father, saying that the 2024 State of the Union was a make-or-break moment that the elder Biden “knock[ed] out of the park.”

The debate, he said, was the next test his father was given by Democratic elders to see if he should run for reelection.

HUNTER BIDEN RAGES AGAINST F—ING THUG TRUMP, INVOKES KKK IN IMMIGRATION RANT

“I know exactly what happened in that debate. He flew around the world, basically, the mileage that he could have flown around the world, three times. He’s 81 years old. He’s tired as s—. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep,” he said.

“He gets up on the stage. And he looks like he’s a deer in the headlights. And it feeds into every f—ing story that anybody wants to tell,” Hunter went on, adding that CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s book relied on several anonymous sources for his related expose because in reality no one had spoken out against Joe.

“If this was a conspiracy… somehow the entirety of a White House in which you’re literally living on top of each other has kept their mouth shut about you now, like what? And what’s the conspiracy? Did Joe Biden get old? Yeah, he got old. He got old before our eyes. The people that came out against him were who — nobody — except Speaker Emerita Pelosi did not give a full-throated endorsement, which allowed everybody else to kind of go, ‘OK.’

“Who came out full-throated? Progressives. AOC, Bernie, the entire progressive wing, [Silicon Valley Congressman] Ro Khanna. The entirety of the progressive side of the Democratic Party said Joe Biden has got more of our agenda accomplished in four years than any president in history. The largest investment into climate change in history, just that alone. And so he gets over the hump. He goes and does Stephanopoulos, and everybody said that’s not enough…”

Earlier in the interview, with Delaware Valley podcaster Andrew Callaghan, Hunter savaged Obama’s inner circle, mocking the hosts of “Pod Save America” — made up of his then-youthful close aides — as “Saviors of the Democratic Party.”

DNC VICE CHAIR COMPARES TRUMP TO NOTORIOUS SEGREGATIONISTS DURING HEATED TOWN HALL EVENT WITH BETO O’ROURKE

“[They’re] White millionaires that are dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago living in Beverly f—ing Hills telling the rest of the world what Black voters in South Carolina really want or what the waitress living outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin [want].

“I hear Rahm Emanuel’s going to run for president,” he added incredulously. “I think David Axelrod is going to run his campaign for him… there’s a f—ing answer; geniuses all.”

Hunter also disputed claims his father had been the unanimous choice of Democrats in 2020.

“Bull—-. We lost Iowa. We lost New Hampshire. We came in second in Nevada. David Plouffe and David Axelrod went on TV. They said that there’s no way Joe Biden can get the nomination, not a chance in the world. Mike Bloomberg’s gonna crush him in California. Elizabeth Warren’s gonna beat him in Massachusetts… A lot of rural voters said, ‘F— you, we love Joe.’ A lot urban voters said, ‘F— you. We love Joe.’ And they voted for him overwhelmingly,” he said.

He later defended himself against allegations about his decision to market paintings, saying they were a pastime that “saved him” from his vices.

“They accused me of crimes for painting. Not that I couldn’t sell my paintings, but that it was a clear conspiracy to launder money and to curry influence by selling acrylic on canvas — through this abstract painting by Hunter Biden,” he said.

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“All of a sudden, the Iranians are going to change their nuclear weapons program. It’s such f—ing insane bull—-. Meanwhile, these mother f—ers are selling gold telephones and sneakers and $2 billion investments in golf courses and selling tickets to the White House for investment into their memecoin.

“If you believe the worst possible thing that they’ve ever said about me [in terms of influence peddling] — what they are openly doing, they’re openly doing. And nobody’s batting an eye. Don Jr. is opening a club called the Executive Club in Georgetown in which it is promised that you will be able to rub shoulders at the cost of a $500,000 initiation fee with… people and decisionmakers in the cabinet of his father.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment, as well as a representative for former President Joe Biden in regard to the Ambien revelation.

The 13-year-old grandson of Dog the Bounty Hunter’s wife Francie Chapman has been killed in an apparent accidental shooting at his Florida home.

Dog is the pseudonym for Duane Chapman, a reality TV star and real-life bounty hunter. His stepson, Gregory Zecca, allegedly accidentally fired the fatal shot that killed his son, Anthony, in a “freak accident” inside their apartment Saturday, TMZ first reported.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Fox News Digital that no arrests have been made, but they are investigating a deadly shooting that happened around 8 p.m. Saturday at a home on Sumter Grove Way in Naples.

‘DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER’ CONFIDENT NOLA PRISON BREAK WAS AN ‘INSIDE JOB’

“This was an isolated incident,” a sheriff’s spokesman said. “Our detectives are conducting a thorough investigation looking into all the elements of this tragic incident. The investigation includes statements from witnesses who were at the scene, forensic testing, subpoenas and search warrants.”

Authorities did not publicly identify the victim.

The family did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday.

“It is such a tragedy,” a former spokeswoman for Dog told Fox News Digital.

HEARTBROKEN FATHER SAYS ‘GUT-WRENCHING’ ERROR KEPT CAREER CRIMINAL OUT OF JAIL BEFORE DAUGHTER’S MURDER

A redacted incident report states that the first deputy arrived four minutes after dispatchers received a frantic 911 call. First responders attempted first aid, but the child had suffered severe blood loss and succumbed to his injuries.

Deputies identified a gunshot wound on the victim’s “neck, just above his sternum,” according to the incident report. There was no visible exit wound.

Deputies recovered a handgun and an empty holster from the scene.

The investigation is ongoing.

Dog and Francie married in 2021. Dog’s former wife, Beth Chapman, died in June 2019 after a battle with throat cancer. Francie’s husband, Bob Frane, also died of cancer in December 2018. 

A federal appeals court overturned a guilty verdict in the case of a man convicted in the 1979 killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City, which could be considered one of the most notorious missing child cases in the country.

Pedro Hernandez was convicted in February 2017 of killing Etan. The conviction came just five years after Hernandez confessed to police that he lured the boy into the basement of the convenience store he worked at, using soda.

Prosecutors said Hernandez choked Etan, stuffed his body into a plastic garbage bag hidden inside a box, and took it out with the trash.

Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars in April 2017.

MENENDEZ BROTHERS BANK ON NEW TRIAL AS BACKUP IF PAROLE BID FAILS

But on Monday, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction because of how the trial judge handled a note from the jury during Hernandez’s second trial, which took place in 2017 — the first trial took place in 2015 and ended in a jury deadlock.

The appeals court found that the trial judge in 2017 gave “clearly wrong” and “manifestly prejudicial” instructions to the jury in response to a question about the suspect’s confessions to police.

During jury deliberations, the jury asked the judge whether, if it deemed invalid a confession Hernandez made before being advised of his Miranda rights to remain silent, it must also disregard a subsequent confession after those warnings were given.

The judge told the jury no, but the appeals court said that answer was incorrect.

MENENDEZ BROTHERS SCORE CRUCIAL LEGAL VICTORY IN DECADES-LONG FIGHT AS THEY AWAIT POTENTIAL FREEDOM

The decision overturns the guilty conviction, and the court ordered Hernandez to be released unless the state gives him a new trial within a reasonable period to be set by the lower court judge.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said it was reviewing the appeals court’s decision.

Hernandez, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, confessed soon after his brother-in-law told detectives the store clerk may have been a suspect, The New York Times reported. The relative claimed Hernandez told a prayer group decades earlier that he’d killed a child in New York.

EXPERT WARNS IDAHO MURDERER’S PLEA DEAL STRATEGY IS A DANGEROUS CALCULATED ‘LONG GAME’

However, the defense claimed he was mentally unstable, and incapable of keeping the truth separate from fiction. “Pedro Hernandez is an odd, limited and vulnerable man,” defense attorney Harvey Fishbein said during closing arguments.

Defense lawyers also pointed to a different man who was long the prime suspect — a convicted Pennsylvania child molester who made incriminating remarks about Etan’s case in the 1990s and who had dated a woman acquainted with the Patz family. He was never charged and denied killing the boy.

The sentencing was the culmination of a long quest to hold someone criminally accountable in a case that affected police practices, parenting and the nation’s consciousness of missing children.

Since the boy’s disappearance, law enforcement and volunteers have beefed up their capabilities in finding missing or lost children, establishing a nationwide network of search teams. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was incorporated in 1984 and soon launched a 24-hour hotline for tips.

National Missing Children’s Day is held every May 25 — the day in 1979 that Patz vanished.

Fox News’ Mike Arroyo and Lissa Kaplan, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

As a new report claims that premature organ transplants have endangered donors, HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced plans for a new initiative to reform the system.

Several families have stated that surgeons attempted to initiate organ retrievals while patients were still alive or improving, as noted in a July 20 report from The New York Times.

Amid a growing push for increased transplants, “a growing number of patients have endured premature or bungled attempts to retrieve their organs,” according to the report, which painted a picture of “rushed decision-making” and organ demand taking priority over donor safety.

PATIENT DIES FROM RABIES AFTER ORGAN TRANSPLANT FROM INFECTED DONOR

In a recent investigation by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), there were more than 70 canceled organ removals in Kentucky alone “that should have been stopped sooner” because the patients showed signs of revival, the report stated.

The problem appears to be linked to an increase in “donation after circulatory death,” which is when the patient has not been declared “brain dead” but is critically ill or injured.

In that case, life support is withdrawn and organs are harvested within a couple of hours after the heart stops naturally.

The Times report indicated that 55 medical workers in 19 states reported witnessing “at least one disturbing case of donation after circulatory death” — some even claiming that providers had administered drugs to “hasten the death” of donors.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a statement on Monday announcing an initiative to reform the organ transplant system.

The push follows the HRSA’s investigation, which reportedly revealed “disturbing practices by a major organ procurement organization.”

Secretary Kennedy said the investigation revealed that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin “when patients showed signs of life.”

“This is horrifying,” Kennedy said in a statement. “The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable. The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.”

Under this investigation, HRSA reviewed organ procurement organizations’ “conduct and treatment of vulnerable patients.”

“HRSA’s independent investigation revealed clear negligence after the previous [Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network] OPTN board of directors claimed to find no major concerns in their internal review,” the HHS noted.

HRSA examined 351 cases where organ donation was authorized but not ultimately completed, the agency indicated.

Of these, 103 cases, or over 29%, showed “concerning features,” including 73 patients who had neurological signs that were “incompatible” with organ donation.

The investigation also discovered that at least 28 patients may not have been deceased at the time of organ procurement.

The HHS said this raises “serious ethical and legal questions.”

ALCOHOL-RELATED LIVER TRANSPLANTS ON THE RISE AMONG YOUNG ADULTS, DOCTOR SAYS

“Evidence pointed to poor neurologic assessments, lack of coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices and misclassification of causes of death, particularly in overdose cases,” the agency said.

As part of the reform, organ procurement organizations will be required to follow “strict corrective actions” and make “system-level changes” to safeguard potential donors. 

Dr. Maureen McBride, CEO of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), responded to The New York Times report in an online statement, calling the patient situations “horrific.”

“This falls far below the standard that the American organ donation and transplant system — the global gold standard — demands, and it cannot be tolerated,” she said. 

“This sharply underscores the need for a more unified and accountable structure for overseeing the nation’s organ donation and transplant system.”

There is currently “fragmented oversight” of the organ transplant system — shared by the HRSA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — which has led to “confusion and inconsistent accountability,” according to McBride.

To ensure a “safe, effective and trustworthy” system, she called for consolidated oversight and an improved patient-safety reporting system.

The federal government “remains ultimately accountable for oversight of the system,” McBride noted.

“UNOS will continue to advocate for reforms to improve the system, and we look forward to sharing our proposed reforms with Congress this week and making meaningful progress in partnership with the federal government to strengthen the system,” she added.

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Robert Montgomery, M.D., director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, noted that his hospital follows a “strict protocol” to not harvest organs until five minutes after circulatory death.

“We take this very, very seriously,” he said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The highest ethical standards are used.”

“I have been working my entire career to overcome the drastic organ shortage that costs many lives.”

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There are currently more than 103,000 men, women and children on the national transplant waiting list, HRSA said.

Each day, 13 people die while waiting for an organ transplant.

EXCLUSIVE: Inna Vernikov, a NYC Republican councilwoman, spoke to Fox News Digital about the prospect of New York City being run by socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. 

“I think it’s a very dangerous situation we’re in. I think we’re looking at a chaotic city with lawlessness,” Vernikov told Fox News Digital when asked what New York City will look like after four years if Mamdani is victorious in November.

“I think we’re gonna see a lot of the wealthy and the middle class escape New York City.”

Vernikov, who was born in the Soviet Union and came to the United States as a child, told Fox News Digital she remembers standing in line with her grandfather for a bottle of milk and made the comparison between Mamdani’s policies and communist Russia.

MAMDANI CONFRONTED ON STREETS OF NYC ABOUT ‘COMMUNIST’ LABEL, REFUSES TO ANSWER

“Think about going into the DMV. Think about going anywhere, and just remember how much red tape and incompetence you’ll see going to any of these agencies, and that’s what Mamdani wants to do with New York City,” Vernikov said. “He wants government-run supermarkets. That is completely counter, runs completely counter to what America is supposed to be. America was built on the free market economy, free marketplace of ideas, the idea of meritocracy and capitalism, and competition. Capitalism is not perfect, but it’s based on the idea of competition.”

Vernikov added that New York City under Mamdani, in her opinion, will be “dangerous,” “chaotic,” and “lawless.”

Mamdani met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in New York on Friday as Democrats continue to be pressed on whether they will endorse Mamdani despite his past controversial comments on economics, Israel and policing.

MAMDANI SPARKS FIRESTORM WITH RESURFACED COMMENT ON ABOLISHING PRIVATE PROPERTY: ‘HE’S A COMMUNIST’

Many experts, including some who spoke to Fox News Digital earlier this month, suggested a Mamdani victory would spark a reckoning in the Democratic Party.

“There is just no way that moderate and centrist Democrats can abide by socialism, cultural revolution, and ever-bloated welfare state driving us into bankruptcy, and alignment with goals of Mid East fascist terrorists,” Former House Judiciary Chief Counsel Julian Epstein, a Democrat, told Fox News Digital. “So if he wins, not only will it continue to sink the national brand of the party, it may portend the eventual break-up of the party as we know it today.”

Vernikov echoed that sentiment to Fox News Digital and said that Mamdani “is the Democratic Party today.”

“The problem with the Democratic Party is it’s no longer the Democratic Party of JFK,” Vernikov said. “It’s the Democratic Party of AOC and all the radicals. It has radically moved to the left, and a lot of Democrats are now put into this position: Do we endorse this guy or do we stay away from this guy? And some of them actually have been threatened with physical violence, and the primary from a progressive, so they’re really stuck politically.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment.

President Donald Trump called for California Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff to face jail time while invoking recently declassified documents alleging Obama administration officials “manufactured and politicized intelligence” to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election.

“Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff is in BIG TROUBLE!” Trump posted to Truth Social Sunday evening. “He falsified Loan Documents. He once said my son would go to prison on a SCAM that Schiff, along with other Crooked Dems, illegally ‘manufactured’ in order to stage an actual coup.” 

“My son did nothing wrong, knew nothing about the fictional story,” he added. “It was an American Tragedy! Now Shifty should pay the price of prison for a real crime, not one made up by the corrupt accusers!” 

Schiff is under scrutiny after the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice in May sounding the alarm that in “multiple instances,” Schiff allegedly “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property.”

FEDERAL HOUSING OFFICIAL SUBMITTED SCHIFF CRIMINAL REFERRAL TO DOJ OVER MORTGAGE DOCUMENTS

FHFA is an independent federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. 

Schiff’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment Monday morning.

Trump publicly lambasted Schiff Tuesday over the alleged mortgage fraud, while Fannie Mae’s financial crimes investigations concluded last week in a letter to the FHFA that Schiff allegedly engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” on five Fannie Mae loans, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

“I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist,” Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday. “And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.” 

“Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA. I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020.”

Schiff has passed off the allegations as a continuation of Trump’s history of slamming the liberal lawmaker. 

“Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason,” Schiff posted to X earlier in July after Trump first accused Schiff of mortgage fraud. “So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution won’t stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot.” 

WATCH: ADAM SCHIFF SILENT AFTER TRUMP ACCUSED HIM OF MORTGAGE FRAUD

Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, which was underscored during Trump’s first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020, and when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. 

Days after Trump first posted about Schiff’s mortgages in Maryland and California, the president’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents that reportedly show “overwhelming evidence” that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe after Trump’s election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

“It lays out, these over 100 documents that you’re referencing, that I declassified and released, spells out in great detail exactly what happens when you have some of the most powerful people in our country directly leading at the helm, President Obama and his senior-most national security cabinet, James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Susan Rice and others, essentially making a very intentional decision to create this manufactured, politicized piece of intelligence with the objective of subverting the will of the American people,” Gabbard told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Friday evening.

TRUMP ACCUSES ‘SCAM ARTIST’ SCHIFF OF LYING ABOUT MARYLAND HOME TO COMMIT MORTGAGE FRAUD

She argued that the goal of Obama and his team was to essentially “not accept the decision of the American people” in 2016, and to use this “manufactured, politicized piece of intelligence” as a means to enact a “years-long coup against President Trump.”

Schiff was an incredibly vocal lawmaker amid the Russian collusion claims, most notably when the House censured him in 2023 over his promotion that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Schiff served in the House representing California from 2001 to 2024, when he was sworn-in as a senator after his successful 2024 campaign to serve in the nation’s upper chamber.

Schiff served as the ranking member of the House intelligence committee from 2015 to 2019, before becoming the committee’s chair from 2019 to 2023. In that role, Schiff was kept up to date on classified materials surrounding the Russian collusion claims. 

Schiff advocated in 2018 that Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, face a subpoena amid Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into claims Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to secure the election, which Trump cited in his latest Truth Social aimed at Schiff. Mueller’s investigation, which wrapped up in March 2019, into the Russia claims determined there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Senate Republican leadership is weighing whether to cancel, or shorten, their upcoming August break following President Donald Trump’s request to stay in town and finish confirming his outstanding nominees. 

Over the last six months, the Senate has moved at a breakneck pace to confirm the president’s nominees all while facing resistance from Senate Democrats. So far, 96 of Trump’s nominees have been confirmed. Still, there are 136 outstanding nominations on the upper chamber’s calendar that haven’t made it over the finish line.

Year in and year out, lawmakers typically escape from the Hill for the entire month of August, either recuperating from months in Washington, D.C., or selling their legislative accomplishments to people back home.

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS FACE BRUISING BATTLE TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

But Trump on Sunday called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to keep lawmakers in town to finish their work on confirming his slew of outstanding nominees.

“Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social. “We need them badly!!! DJT”

‘LONG OVERDUE’: SENATE REPUBLICANS RAM THROUGH TRUMP’S CLAWBACK PACKAGE WITH CUTS TO FOREIGN AID, NPR

Thune said he had spoken with the president about the August recess issue, but did not say whether the entire break would be canceled. A senior GOP aide told Fox News Digital that discussions over shortening the August recess were already happening before Trump’s request.

“We’re thinking about it,” Thune said. “We want to get as many noms through the pipeline as we can. And honestly, it’d be nice to have Democrats who actually would kind of act more according to historical precedents when it comes to this.”

The remaining spots that need to be filled run across nearly every facet of the federal government, including positions in the Defense Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Commerce Department and a slew of ambassadors, among others.

‘ONE MORE’: SENATE REPUBLICANS EYE TACKLING ANOTHER RECONCILIATION BILL

Among the remaining nominees are some familiar faces from the 2024 election and beyond, including Hung Cao, who ran against Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and was nominated as Navy undersecretary; Donald Trump Jr.’s ex-fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to Greece, and former Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., who was nominated to be Federal Transit administrator.

Thune accused Senate Democrats of being obstructionist and noted that so far, not a single nominee has been approved through the fast-track voice vote or unanimous consent processes. Indeed, every nominee has been put to a floor vote. Only Secretary of State Marco Rubio received a near unanimous, 99 to 0, vote.

Earlier this year, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., supported delaying all the president’s nominees who lack unanimous support in the upper chamber, effectively triggering floor votes for each. He also used an arcane Senate procedural move to stall federal prosecutors in committee.

“This is something that we’re very committed to, and we’re going to be looking at all the options in the next few weeks to try and get as many of those across the finish line as we can,” Thune said. 

Legendary musician Billy Joel told Bill Maher he doesn’t care if the far left complains about his statements or music anymore.

During the latest episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast released Monday, the two discussed the “woke” left’s reaction to anything it disagrees with, with Joel admitting he is over being concerned about what that group thinks of him.

“At this point… I’m inured to it,” Joel said in reply to Maher asking if he doesn’t care if woke people criticize him any longer.

BILLY JOEL’S WIFE SAYS SINGER’S ‘HEALTH HAS TO TAKE PRIORITY’ AFTER HE POSTPONED TOUR DUE TO MEDICAL CONDITION

Maher brought up woke outrage while talking to Joel about his 1976 song, “Angry Young Man.”

In the song, Joel sings, “I believe I’ve passed the age, of consciousness and righteous rage, I found that just surviving was a noble fight. I once believed in causes too, I had my pointless point of view, and life went on no matter who was wrong or right.”

With help from Joel, Maher recited the lyrics and commented, “I feel like that is the message of the age, even though some people will hear that and say, ‘Look at these two a——-!’” 

“Boomers,” Joel chimed in, mocking an insult often lobbed online at older generations. 

The host continued, noting how mad leftists get when people don’t declare, “’Trump’s the worst.’”

JOHN FETTERMAN AND BILL MAHER AGREE CHAOS IN LA AND DEM REACTION TO RIOTS WILL BE ‘GOOD FOR TRUMP’

The HBO host then brought up Joel’s Vietnam War-era song, “Goodnight Saigon” and its lyrics, “And who was wrong? And who was right? It didn’t matter in the thick of the fight.”

“Do you still feel that way?” he asked the singer, regarding the lyrics. 

“Yes,” he replied.

“And you don’t care what they say about you – the woke?” Maher asked.

“At this point, no,” the musician replied, though he noted how he tries to understand the point of view of people who disagree with him. 

“On the other hand, I’m always trying to find out the other point of view. What’s, you know, not my point of view – somebody else’s point of view. Okay, I’d like to understand why they think that way.”

“It’s so difficult in this day and age,” Maher replied.

Maher continued, “I mean it is what I am always trying to do on my show. It is, look, this is one safe space for everybody and I will take the heat from either – both sides. I mean I do feel like the left, who, ironically I’m more actually aligned with, is more snippy about it, and has a worse attitude about it, and makes me viscerally not like them more sometimes.”

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Elsewhere, the two discussed how social media makes political outrage worse. 

“People say things all the time on [social media] they would never say, if they had to say it to your face,” Maher said.

“It just always surprises me how people, they express this hatred,” Joel responded. “It’s like, you hate a musician because he wrote something?”

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Former President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen allowed “the sadistic criminal underclass” to enter the U.S. under his administration’s border policies, according to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. 

Biden has come under scrutiny for his alleged use of the autopen while in office, and President Donald Trump has said thousands of pardons Biden signed were void and that the former president did not know what documents he was signing through the automated device.

“Democrats created a puppet presidency under Biden and then used his autopen to resettle the sadistic criminal underclass of the world in our towns,” Miller said in a Monday X post. “The Left has weaponized migration against the American People.” 

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Miller’s post came in response to one from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that claimed that one of the suspects accused of ambushing and shooting an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in New York City Saturday entered the country illegally in 2023 under the Biden administration. 

According to DHS, Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez illegally entered the U.S. in April 2023, and authorities issued a criminal warrant for him for armed robbery with a firearm in February. 

Biden signed multiple executive orders pertaining to immigration, including the Keeping Families Together initiative that would have provided a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens. A federal judge struck down the order in November 2024, asserting that the order violated U.S. immigration law. 

When asked which specific orders Miller was referring to, the White House did not specify, but said Biden employed the autopen to all aspects of the presidency. 

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“Biden’s entire presidency – including his dangerous open-border policies and refusal to remove dangerous criminal illegals from our country – was run via autopen,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a Monday statement to Fox News Digital. “President Trump is exposing this fraud for what it was.”

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News. 

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Biden’s alleged use of the autopen has primarily attracted attention for a wide swath of pardons he issued toward the end of his term, including a series of preemptive pardons on his final day to officials like former chief medical advisor to the president Anthony Fauci and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. 

Multiple investigations are ongoing evaluating Biden’s alleged use of the autopen while in office, including the House Oversight Committee’s probe on the cover-up of Biden’s mental decline and potentially the unauthorized use of the autopen for pardons and other executive orders during his term.