Federal authorities arrested a 17-year-old Texas boy accused of plotting to assassinate Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, and carry out a separate terrorist attack in North Texas on behalf of ISIS, according to a local report.
The teenager, who has not been publicly identified, was arrested on Oct. 5 after acquiring a firearm, according to federal law enforcement sources cited by WFAA.
"I am grateful to the FBI and law enforcement for stopping this threat," Self said in a statement posted on X.
"My family and I are safe, and I remain focused on serving the people of Texas' 3rd District," he continued. "Preserving our constitutional republic from radical Islam means accepting the costs that come with itâname-calling, threats, and worse."
"Our Founders believed this country was worth the sacrifice," Self added. "I served 25 years in the military because defending freedom was worth the sacrifice. This only strengthens my resolve. I will not back down."
Self spoke about the situation to CBS News Texas following the arrest.
"When we knew about it, they had him," Self said, admitting he had limited knowledge of what went on.
"The FBI, through the Capitol Police, only tells us so much," he told CBS, although he did note, "I understand that they've known about this kid for a while."
According to WFAA, the teenager allegedly planned to target Self at an event last Saturday.
Federal investigators also believe the suspect was planning a separate attack on behalf of ISIS, the outlet reported.
When asked by WFAA whether his public positions on Islamic extremism might explain why he was targeted, Self said he could not be certain.
Regardless of the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections, any party that wins the majority will have done so because of the independent vote. For the past several elections, this cohort has been the crucial swing vote that ultimately decides the election. Independents are the kingmakers.
If Democrats win big on Nov. 3, expect a familiar story. Pundits will call it a mandate. Party leaders will say voters want their agenda. They will be wrong.
I have spent my career in partisan politics, and I keep seeing the same mistake. Both parties read the results of a protest as an endorsement.
Here is why. Independents do not fit neatly into a partisan box. They are not secret Democrats, and they are not secret Republicans. They agree with each side on some things and with neither on others, which is exactly why neither party can claim them.
That does not mean they lack convictions. Independents, like most Americans, have coherent views on politics and policy. And these positions are widely shared and present opportunity for meaningful legislation. On energy, 70% of Americans want government to actively expand supply: more energy, lower prices, less pollution. On immigration, 77% want legal immigration maintained or expanded, focused on the skills the economy needs. Respect our laws and welcome those who contribute.
On technology, 83% want parents to have the legal right to see and control what their kids do on social media. On spending, 73% want to bar Congress from using accounting tricks that hide the long-term cost of a bill. On corruption, 78% support term limits for members of Congress.
Put those together and the agenda is clear. Live within our means. Keep our promises. Win the future while protecting our communities, kids and liberties. Build a government accountable to people, not parties. That is not the progressive wish list, and it is not the Republican platform either. A vote against whoever is in charge is not a vote for anyoneâs program. It is a demand for these things.
Look at what independents are actually upset about. The border is still unresolved after years of promises. Energy costs keep squeezing family budgets. And artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping jobs and daily life while Congress offers speeches instead of a plan. These are not left or right complaints. They are complaints about people in charge who are not getting results.
Independents are now the largest bloc of American voters. They decide close elections, and they have no loyalty to either team. They vote for whoever seems least likely to make things worse. Two years ago, that was one party. This year it may be the other.
The numbers tell the story. Roughly two-thirds of independents say Washington does not hear them. That is not a number that describes people who have found a new political home. It describes people who feel abandoned and are looking for the exit.
For a blue wave to occur, it will rest on independents who are holding their noses. They will be voting for Democrats because the alternative looks worse, not because they have embraced the progressive wish list. Treating that vote as a blank check is how a party loses the same voters two years later.
Consider crime. Most Americans, whatever their party, want safe streets and a justice system that works. Imagine House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stepping to the microphone to announce a serious, commonsense crime bill. Fund good policing. Go after repeat violent offenders. Protect due process. It would not be a radical idea. It would be a reasonable one.
That single act would change the national story. Independents would take notice. It would say the party is willing to govern from the center and listen to people who do not agree with it on everything.
But that bill will not come, and the reason is not hard to see. A party that wants the support of the middle is being pulled by a left flank that treats a compromise on public safety as betrayal. Groups like the Democratic Socialists of America hold enormous sway over the energy and the primaries. Jeffries cannot move toward the center without a fight inside his own coalition, and so he does not try.
That is the real danger for Democrats. The very independents who may hand them a majority will be watching to see what they do with it. If the answer is a sharp turn toward the activist left, those voters will leave just as fast as they arrived.
Republicans should not take comfort either. If they lose, it will be because they too failed to listen. Both parties have spent years competing for the loyal base and ignoring everyone else. The result is a country in which most voters feel they are choosing between two disappointments.
There is a better path, and it is not complicated. Secure the border and fix the legal immigration system. Lower energy costs by building what we need. Set sensible guardrails on AI before the technology outruns us. Do these things in a way that respects voters of every stripe, and independents will reward you. Ignore them, and they will punish you, whatever letter follows your name.
This is why just a few handfuls of independents can entirely change the way we view and conduct politics. A growing share of the country is independent, yet very few members of Congress are. That gap is the story behind the story this November.
When the votes are counted, the winners should ask a hard question. Did voters choose us, or did they simply reject the other side? The honest answer will decide whether this election is a turning point or just another swing of the pendulum.
FIRST ON FOX: Cuban-American lawmakers are welcoming a Florida arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro over his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft, saying the move marks a new step toward accountability for the communist regime and vowing to keep fighting for freedom on the island.
The warrant comes after Ariana Fajardo Orshan, chief judge of Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit, found probable cause to believe Castro conspired to commit first-degree murder in connection with the shootdown of two Miami-based civilian aircraft involved in a humanitarian operation near Cuba in 1996.
"As the only Cuban-born member of Congress, this moment is deeply personal," Rep. Carlos Giménez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. "For decades, Raúl Castro and his communist regime have oppressed the Cuban people while evading accountability."
Giménez described the warrant as a "powerful message" in the "pursuit of justice," adding that those responsible for the suffering of the Cuban people could soon "answer for their crimes."
"No previous administration has taken this historic step, and our community is eternally grateful for it," he continued. "For the millions of Cubans who have suffered under this tyranny, including those of us forced into exile, this represents a significant moment in our decades-long struggle for freedom."
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told Fox News Digital that Castro allegedly "ordered" the "premeditated, state-sanctioned murder of four Floridians in cold blood," calling the warrant "a step toward accountability" for the conspiracy that led to the deaths of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr.
Uthmeier’s office said the warrant could limit Castro’s ability to travel to countries that have extradition agreements with the United States.
Giménez said that although the warrant is "historic," he and other lawmakers will continue fighting until Cuba’s "political prisoners are released" and the "Cuban people can determine their own destiny."
Florida state Rep. Juan Porras, another Cuban American lawmaker, said the warrant shows that Florida "will never forget" the victims of the communist regime’s atrocities.
"Thank you to the Miami judge who signed a state arrest warrant for Raúl Castro for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder," Porras told Fox News Digital. "Thirty years later, justice is still moving, but the work is not done. Cuba is not free yet, and we will not stop until it is."
The warrant stems from the Feb. 24, 1996, shootdown of two unarmed aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue over international waters. Four people were killed in the attack. Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time, was federally indicted earlier this year in connection with the deaths.
Abdul El-Sayed’s past support for Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Egypt is raising eyebrows in Congress after a former staffer for the left-wing Michigan Senate candidate says he's angling for a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if elected in November.
Two Republican panel members said there is no place on the committee for "radical views" held by El-Sayed, who has associated with controversial streamer Hasan Piker but has attempted during his bid for office to distance himself from the socialist arm of the Democratic Party.
"A man with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, who cheered their takeover of Egypt 15 years ago, and who campaigns with people saying America deserved 9/11, should not come anywhere near the U.S. Senate — and especially not the Foreign Relations Committee," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who serves on the power panel, told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., another member of the committee, responded to the controversy on X over the weekend.
"El-Sayed says he’s running on affordability, so why does he want a seat on @SenateForeign?" McCormick wrote. "I sit on that committee, and someone with El-Sayed's radical views has no business on it."
McCormick’s post came in response to a report by The Midwesterner that featured comments from Jordan Domingue, who worked as El-Sayed’s security chief during his 2018 campaign for Michigan governor.
"It is extremely difficult to comprehend how dangerous this can be if he is elected," Domingue wrote on X. "It’s especially troubling knowing that despite no foreign policy experience, he REALLY wants a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
In 2011, while working as an assistant professor at Columbia University, El-Sayed wrote an op-ed for The Huffington Post urging the Obama administration to support protesters associated with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sayed argued that supporting the protesters was in the U.S. interest and wrote that even if the Muslim Brotherhood overthrew Egypt’s government, the resulting state would not necessarily resemble Iran.
"It is in America’s interest to support Egyptian protesters’ efforts to achieve the ability to speak their mind and have a say in how they are governed," El-Sayed wrote . "If the U.S. truly wants to be the beacon of justice and liberty that it claims it does, it would behoove the Obama administration to fall decisively behind the protesters in Egypt."
In a recent town hall, however, El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrant parents, said he does disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. His campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request about his 2011 op-ed about protesters.
The Muslim Brotherhood-backed government took power in Egypt in 2012 but was ousted by the military in 2013.
El-Sayed has throughout his campaign emphasized healthcare, lowering gas and grocery prices and addressing the cost-of-living crisis, as noted by McCormick in his post about the candidate's reported interest in the Foreign Relations Committee.
"It shouldn’t be this hard to get by in the richest, most powerful country in the world," El-Sayed said during his primary campaign against Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.
McCormick wonders why, given that context, El-Sayed would be gunning for a spot on a committee that deals solely with issues related to U.S. foreign relations.
A winery co-owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was shuttered amid fraud claims, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said.
Comer said over the weekend that the winery had been selling empty barrels to investors under the guise of "wine to be aged."
"I can tell you from our initial investigation of Omar and her financial disclosure form that there are multiple fronts where you could get a search warrant issued," Comer told Trey Gowdy on Fox News' "Sunday Night in America."
"First of all, not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure form, there was the winery that was the big base of her $25 million listing on her financial disclosure form. That winery has, according to the press, been shut down because of fraud."
The winery, co-owned by the congresswoman's husband, Tim Mynett, shut down in April this year amid congressional scrutiny over Omar's finances.
His and his business partner's lawyers told the Minnesota Reformer, "Any suggestion that Will or Tim deliberately defrauded investors or otherwise consciously conspired to rip people off would be false and defamatory."
The revelation is not new, but it's one of several details that have resurfaced in recent days amid a federal probe into Omar's citizenship in the U.S.
Federal law enforcement executed a search warrant at her D.C. home earlier this month. The operation was linked to allegations that she and her father misrepresented the congresswoman's age to more easily obtain American citizenship.
Omar's critics, like House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., have called for the progressive Democrat to be deported if the allegations were proved true.
She and her allies have denied wrongdoing and attacked the investigation as a partisan hit job against one of President Donald Trump's most vocal opponents.
But it's not the first time Omar has faced accusations of impropriety as a member of Congress.
The House Oversight Committee had earlier probed Omar's finances after her public disclosures showed a rapid, and at the time unexplained, increase in her net worth. Omar previously chalked up the discrepancy to an accidental accounting error.
Comer zeroed in on the winery in a February letter sent just weeks before the business closed down.
He wrote to Mynett that Omar's 2023 financial disclosure forms "lists a stake in your winery eStCru worth between $15,001 and $50,000." The following year, her financial disclosure form listed a stake in eStCru "worth between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000."
"There are serious public concerns about how your businesses increased so dramatically in value only a year after reporting very limited assets," the letter said.
Omar told The Wall Street Journal in mid-April that she and her husband have less than $100,000 combined.
The winery, eStCru, was based in California and was founded in 2020 by Mynett and a business partner. The industry outlet Wine Business named it one of its "Hot Brands of 2022."
When asked about the probe, a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee pointed out to Fox News Digital that Comer had referred the case of Omar's finances to the House Ethics Committee for review.
"Regarding the investigation into her spouse, the House Oversight Committee referred the matter months ago to the House Ethics Committee and encouraged it to do its job and review the concerning allegations," the spokesperson said.
The bipartisan panel is tasked with investigating accusations of impropriety by lawmakers and recommending punishments if those probes turn up wrongdoing. It has not yet taken up Omar's case.
Fox News Digital reached out to Rose Lake Capital, another venture by Mynett and his business partner, for comment on Comer's remarks.
Last week, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin came to the University of Chicago to send a message to young conservatives: stay out of government, or else.
The visit came with little attention initially. Senator Slotkin chose her words carefully. She talked about fighting for the middle class, criticized President Trump’s economic policies and kept her name in the running for president in 2028.
But, buried between her typical politician-speak, she made a clear threat towards young conservatives. Asked whether she wanted to impeach the president, she pivoted and spoke of effectiveness. She thought the 67-vote threshold for conviction in the Senate was too hard to meet, so instead the best course of action would be to go after the people around the president. That way, young people who may be interested in working in the Trump administration would say, "Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, so let me avoid participating in that."
That threat felt personal to me. When I was in high school, I served as a United States Senate page. For those unfamiliar with the program, it selects 30 juniors from across the country to spend a semester going to school and working in the Senate. I did my math homework on the Senate floor when Congress was out of session and ran around delivering messages and papers during session. I made many of my closest friends during that program, few of whom share my viewpoints on politics. And I gained a deep respect for the body I worked for.
When I completed the program, my friends and family asked me whether I felt more optimistic or pessimistic about our government. The news coming out of Washington was so bad, they just assumed it would be pessimistic; they were interested in stories about senators yelling at one another and fighting to the death in meaningless partisan battles.
But I came out of that program more optimistic than ever. Top of the list of reasons was that no matter their political allegiance, senators encouraged us — a group of impressionable high schoolers — to go into politics and make our voices heard. I was excited about the prospect that I could really make a difference in the future of our country.
But I choose to believe that the United States Senate can still be the world’s greatest deliberative body and that young people can, in fact, have a say in our shared future. Senator Slotkin’s remarks should be an exception to how the Senate operates, not the rule.
Thankfully, her threat could not have come at a more prescient time. The midterms are only two weeks away. Senator Slotkin’s words are not empty; they are a game plan for what Democrats will do if they retake power in Congress this November. Unfortunately, running that game plan will come at the expense of young men and women interested in serving their country. More still, in that very same discussion, Senator Slotkin left the door open to running for president in 2028. It is far from inconceivable that two years from now, we’ll be welcoming President-elect Slotkin into the Oval Office.
That is why it is more important than ever that young conservatives speak out and show up. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Ph.D. from Harvard or dropped out of high school — your voice matters in this country. If you love our country and have the capacity to serve in government, I encourage you to do so.
I recognize that that is not an easy ask. If Senator Slotkin is serious — and there is little reason to think she is not — serving your country will come at a great personal cost. Some very powerful people will seek to make you a pariah, as the host remarked to Senator Slotkin during her interview. And during the Biden administration, Democrats in the White House and Congress did so to many young conservatives. And one cannot forget Charlie Kirk’s assassination last September at the hands of a radical gunman.
But the hardest fights are also the most important ones to win. Should our government fall into the hands of those who seek power for revenge and target the weak, our fates will be at the will of tyrants.
Preventing such a future requires the involvement of young people. John Adams once remarked to a crowd of young patriots in Philadelphia, "America and the world will look to our youth as one of our firmest bulwarks." 250 years after our nation’s founding, Adams’s words ring more true than ever before.
So, do not cower in the face of Senator Slotkin’s threats. In fact, take her threats as a reason to serve our country. I sincerely believe that the fate of our Republic depends on it.
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