Left-wing commentator Ana Kasparian said this week on an episode of “The Young Turks” that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., responded to her social media criticism with personal attacks, following a public exchange on X centered on U.S. policy toward Israel and a reported plot targeting activist Nerdeen Kiswani. 

Kasparian framed the response as emblematic of a broader pattern, comparing it to rhetoric often associated with President Donald Trump.

“She did respond to me, and she demonstrated that she does have some Trump-like responses to members of the media who dare challenge her,” Kasparian said.

Kasparian pointed to a post Ocasio-Cortez published on X responding directly to her criticism, where the representative wrote that she had “never” supported the claim and accused Kasparian of lying for attention.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

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“I never have. Feel free to continue lying publicly, though. Those checks don’t cash themselves, and you aren’t talented enough to be relevant with the truth,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.

The exchange began after Ocasio-Cortez issued a statement addressing a reported assassination plot, condemning the incident as political violence and confirming the suspect had been arrested.

“This is a reprehensible act of political violence. There is no place for it in our city nor our country,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I am thankful Ms. Kiswani is safe and the assailant is under arrest.”

Kasparian said her reply to that post was intentionally sarcastic and aimed at highlighting what she described as inconsistencies in Ocasio-Cortez’s record on funding to Israel. 

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“You should vote to send Israel more money for weapons,” Kasparian wrote back on X.

Kasparian explained that her criticism stemmed from frustration with Ocasio-Cortez’s broader approach to foreign policy and Democratic Party politics, while addressing Ocasio-Cortez’s accusation that she misrepresented her voting record.

“I’m sick of AOC being incredibly weak on things that she shouldn’t be weak on,” Kasparian said. “If I found that I was wrong… that’s embarrassing, and I want to correct that mistake, but I didn’t make a mistake. She lied.”

Kasparian then cited a 2021 House vote on additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome system as a key example shaping her view, arguing that pressure from Democratic leadership influenced the outcome of that vote.

“Originally, AOC was on the right side… she was going to vote no,” Kasparian said. “Nancy Pelosi… pressures her to change her vote, and guess what, AOC changed her vote from no to present.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., had a social media spat this week with a “Young Turks” host. (Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Referencing footage from the House floor during the 2021 vote on additional Iron Dome funding, Kasparian described Ocasio-Cortez as visibly emotional after changing her vote from “no” to “present,” a move she argued reflected political pressure from Democratic leadership.

“She’s clearly very visibly upset… she later on confirms that she was in fact tearful and weeping,” Kasparian said.

Kasparian argued that the vote change, which came after initial opposition to the funding, undercut the significance of dissent within the Democratic caucus and reflected a broader willingness to yield to party leadership.

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“No one can force you to change your vote,” Kasparian said. “You changed your vote because you got a little bit of pressure, effectively making your vote useless because you voted present. To cave to the likes of Nancy Pelosi shows a devastating level of weakness.”

FIRST ON FOX: A bipartisan pair of top-ranking senators want to know why sanctioned Russian officials were in Washington, D.C., and given access to the Capitol and meetings with administration officials as wars in Iran and Ukraine rage on.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised counterintelligence concerns over the recent visit of a delegation of Russian Duma members, all of whom are sanctioned for “conduct deemed to be harmful to U.S. national security.”

“The delegation came onto U.S. soil for one purpose: to advance the Kremlin’s strategic aims — including gathering additional useful intelligence,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

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Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jeanne Shahenn, D-N.H., raised counterintelligence concerns with the recent visit of a delegation of Russian officials to Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images; Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

“They did not come to engage in dialogue or pursue democratic aims,” they continued.

The lawmakers argued that Duma members “include Kremlin subordinates who have committed numerous cyber and ransomware attacks on Americans and have facilitated war crimes against Ukrainian civilians.”

“Remarkably, they are now helping Iran target U.S. military and diplomatic personnel across the Middle East,” Wicker and Shaheen wrote.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Moscow-appointed head of Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Yevgeny Balitsky, during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Nov. 18, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin via AP)

Several members of the Russian Duma visited Washington, D.C., late last month on a trip organized by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. She was joined by Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., and Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, for a meeting with the delegation.

Luna later gave them a tour of the Capitol after posing for photos outside the United States Institute of Peace.

“As representatives of the world’s two greatest nuclear superpowers, we owe our citizens open dialogue, the exchange of ideas, and open lines of communication,” Luna said on X following the meeting. “We will continue to foster this dialogue and push for peace in support of this [administration’s] efforts, as well as economic opportunity.”

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Wicker and Shaheen noted that the Duma members were “far from innocent participants in a cultural exchange.”

“It included Vyacheslav Nikonov, who in 2023 referred to the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as the ‘Fourth Reich’ on Russian television. Mikhail Delyagin has advocated for destroying Ukraine’s energy sector. Boris Chernyshov once claimed that Russian retaliatory strikes were ‘an expression of our hatred [of Ukraine],’” they wrote.

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Wicker and Shaheen demanded that Rubio and Bessent explain why sanctions were waived for the Russian officials’ visit, what meetings the delegation had with Trump administration officials, what counterintelligence assessments were conducted on the visiting Russians, and provide a complete manifest of who traveled from the Russian Federation.

The lawmakers wrote that the delegation’s visit came “at a time when Russia’s intentions are unambiguously clear.”

“Numerous public reports have cited Russian support for Iran’s military targeting of American service members in the Middle East,” they wrote. “European intelligence agencies have reported that Russia intends to attack NATO member states in the coming years. And [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has made it clear that peace in Ukraine is a mirage. His singular ambition for Ukraine is to erase its existence.”

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was treated for dehydration at a hospital after a previously undisclosed March 20 incident in Philadelphia, sources told Fox News. 

He was not admitted and returned home the same night without complications.

Alito, 76, attended a Federalist Society dinner that evening and reported feeling lightheaded, prompting his security detail to recommend a precautionary hospital visit. Sources said the justice has had no issues since.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was treated for dehydration at a hospital after a previously undisclosed March 20 incident in Philadelphia, sources told Fox News.  (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

ActBlue, a central piece of the Democratic Party’s fundraising infrastructure, potentially misled Congress when it said it was adequately vetting incoming donations, according to a new report released this week.

The head of ActBlue, a major nonprofit fundraising platform that helps steer donations to left-wing candidates and causes, wrote in 2023 to Congress — in response to concerns about the platform’s ability to vet foreign donors — that it was taking all the necessary steps to ensure it was following the rules to ensure money from foreign sources were not making it through, according to a Thursday report from The New York Times. 

However, behind the scenes, ActBlue’s attorneys at Covington & Burling were expressing grave concerns that ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones’ claims in her letter to Congress were misleading and could open up the platform to significant legal risk, the report said.

ActBlue was already facing scrutiny from Trump, with him calling on the Justice Department last year to investigate the group over concerns the platform was allowing straw and foreign donations, which are barred by federal election laws. The fundraising platform has also been targeted by several congressional probes led by Republican House Committees.

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Employees work at ActBlue in Somerville, Mass. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The concern from ActBlue’s legal counsel was found by the Times after reviewing memos between ActBlue and its legal counsel, resignation letters, and other communications. The Times also held interviews with ActBlue employees on the basis of anonymity. 

The memos reportedly communicated that claims to Congress by Wallace-Jones, indicating that ActBlue had a multi-layered vetting framework and processed contributions with foreign mailing addresses only if the donor supplied a U.S. passport number, were not fully accurate. Wallace-Jones also reportedly wrote in her letter that ActBlue’s framework would contact donors to request their U.S. passport information in order to process donations and would return any money when they could not reach the donor. However, this was also reportedly not happening on a consistent basis, according to The Times’ reporting.

“It can be alleged that ActBlue accepted and/or facilitated the acceptance of foreign-national contributions into American elections,” one memo reportedly stated. “In addition, because ActBlue’s staff was aware that its system was not as robust as necessary, it could be alleged that these violations were ‘knowing and willful,’ a standard that both increases the penalties the F.E.C. might seek and gives the Justice Department jurisdiction for a potential criminal investigation.”

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“An aggressive prosecutor may view the November 2023 letter not just as a false statement but as an effort to conceal the foreign contributions,” ActBlue’s legal counsel wrote, The Times reported.

Supporters hold up signs at a campaign rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in Madison, Wis., on July 1, 2015. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The concerns about Wallace-Jones’ statements to Congress and what to do subsequently resulted in behind-the-scenes chaos at the political fundraising nonprofit, including a slew of departures at ActBlue that were reported publicly by The Times. Additionally, the relationship between ActBlue and its legal firm, Covington & Burling, which is known for representing some of the most high-profile political clients in the United States, was ultimately severed amid disagreements over whether Wallace-Jones’ claims in 2023 were the fault of the legal counsel,or ActBlue, according to the Times’ reporting on Thursday. 

“We have complete confidence in the legal advice our lawyers provided to ActBlue,” a Covington spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

ActBlue did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment in time for publication. 

In May, ActBlue put out a press release informing people about “what’s really happening and what you need to know,” pertaining to the investigation into ActBlue’s vetting mechanisms. The press release called it a “myth” that the platform allows foreign nationals to illegally contribute donations.

An Election Countdown Calendar hangs at ActBlue in Somerville, Massachusetts. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

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“While ActBlue has always had strong measures in place that have successfully prevented illegal foreign donations, beginning in 2025 we have gone even further,” the press release states. “We now require that Americans living abroad be physically present in the United States to make a contribution on our platform, despite campaign finance laws allowing citizens to contribute to campaigns while living abroad.”

Trump called on the DOJ early in his term to return a report within 180 days to him about the status of its findings into ActBlue. However, according to The Times, that report has never been made public. The outlet added that three investigations by GOP-led House committees remain ongoing.