The longest government shutdown in history finally ended on Wednesday night after nearly every member of the House of Representatives raced to Washington to cast their vote.

The threat of air travel delays — fueled in no small part by the fiscal standoff — as well as bad weather in parts of the country forced some lawmakers to find more unconventional routes to ensure they arrived on time.

First-term Rep. Addison McDowell, R-N.C., for example, found himself carpooling more than five hours alongside House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. — a powerful GOP lawmaker more than 50 years his senior.

‘It dawned on me that, for a while there, I was one of the most powerful people in America, because I had the Rules chair, who — we couldn’t start the process of passing this bill until she got here,’ McDowell told Fox News Digital. ‘We had a one-seat majority, and there was two of us. So, you know, there was a lot of pressure to make sure she got here on time.’

Foxx’s committee was responsible for preparing federal funding legislation for a House-wide vote, which it did from just before 7 p.m. Tuesday until around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

‘She just kind of asked, ‘Hey, would you be willing to carpool?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, not a problem at all.’ I’ve got a truck, so I’ve got plenty of room. We could have taken the whole delegation up, just put all the guys in the back,’ McDowell joked.

He also knew that driving Foxx up earlier than most lawmakers had to be there came with sacrifices.

‘Neither of us got to participate in any Veterans Day events in our district, which was a real bummer. But we had an important job to do, and that was make sure our government services and our current troops are getting paid,’ he said.

McDowell said he spent the roughly five-and-a-half-hour drive asking Foxx questions about her work and her own life, which she happily answered.

And the senior House Republican told Fox News Digital that she appreciated the experience herself.

‘I have never had a chance to really sit down with him for a long period of time, so I really welcome the opportunity to get to know him better,’ Foxx said. ‘He told me a lot about experiences he’s had. We talked about things from my side, mostly policy issues, but I did tell him a little bit more about my background.’

Foxx said it was a combination of bad weather in the North Carolina mountains and concerns about flight delays that moved her to contact colleagues about driving up — until she found her schedule most aligned with McDowell’s, and she drove herself to meet him before the long ride.

‘I have to say he’s an excellent driver,’ Foxx said. ‘We stopped in Henderson, North Carolina, and got Chick-fil-A sandwiches — of course, what else would we get? We left there at 11 [a.m.] and we got here at about 4:40 [p.m.].’

Asked if she would do it all again, Foxx said, ‘In a heartbeat.’

Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, also opted to drive instead of fly — a trip that spanned more than 1,000 miles across 15 hours overnight.

Feenstra said he and two staffers ‘took turns driving’ through the night, stopping only for gas and arriving in Washington some time on Wednesday morning before the vote.

‘I had a lot of Veterans Day events. I wanted to make sure that I was in my district for that. And then, once that was completed at 5 last night, we headed this way,’ he said. ‘When that’s your only option, you do it. This job — you’ve got to do whatever you have to.’ 

And Midwestern Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., also took to the roads, but in a different vehicle.

‘Democrats shut the government down over 40 days ago now. And I could not count on air travel,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘So I talked to my wife for about five seconds and said, ‘I’m getting on the motorcycle and leaving.’ So I did, and I got here on time.’

Van Orden, who first told The Hill of his plans, said he rode through sub-zero temperatures and had to navigate black ice on the roads. At one point, he stopped at a hotel ‘for four or five hours’ when the environment appeared ‘sketchy,’ he said.

‘Someone asked me, ‘Why don’t you just drive a car?’ Here’s why. We only have one car. And I wasn’t going to inconvenience my wife, because she is one of my constituents, and she happens to be my favorite constituent,’ he said.

‘People around here don’t seem to understand that the mission is more important than their personal security or comfort. And if more people in this building took their job more seriously and realized it’s about the American people than not, then we will be a better country.’

The postmortems for Republicans’ lackluster results in this month’s spate of elections in New Jersey, Virginia and beyond are in, and while pet theories abound, there is one thing almost everyone agrees on: In the age of President Donald Trump, the GOP does not fare well when he is not on the ballot.

The question for Republicans in tough congressional campaigns across the country is how they can symbolically get Trump on the ballot, and more importantly, get his often reluctant voters to the polls to fill out said ballots.

The best way to achieve this goal is an idea that Trump himself has floated, a midterm national Republican convention that showcases the party’s achievements under Trump’s second term and that makes it crystal clear that Americans won’t just be voting for Congress, but for Trump’s agenda.

The success of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee was a bit overshadowed by assassination attempts and top of the ticket shakeups, but it is widely and rightly regarded as one of the best ever staged, and it made a difference.

The RNC was not only excellent prime-time television that showcased the priorities of the Trump GOP, it was an even better live event on the ground, cornhole courts and bars and restaurants created a festive, even joyous atmosphere.

This live event feeling could be amplified by satellite parties, even if the main convention is in Philadelphia for the 250th anniversary of America, or Chicago, to celebrate the birth of the Republican Party. Every city and town could have its own smaller version.

The power of such live events is something that both President Trump and the late founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, understood intuitively. If the midterm convention could be part Trump rally, part TPUSA party, well, that’s a powerful combination.

The most important reason why a midterm convention is vital is to put Trump front and center in the election. By then his signature One Big, Beautiful Bill Act will have cut taxes on tips and overtime, some of the trillions of new investment will be taking root, and Trump will be able to point to these achievements.

One thing that was notably missing in this most recent off-year election season was any emphasis on the Make America Healthy Again wing of the Trump movement led by Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

That was a mistake, Kennedy’s focus on making sure we aren’t poisoning our kids played a massive role in Trump’s 2024 win. A midterm convention could put the issue back on the table, and MAHA moms everywhere back in play.

This convention would also highlight Trump’s all but miraculous closing of the southern border, and celebrate, rather than denigrate, federal officials working to rid the nation of criminal illegal aliens.

Trump’s message would be simple: ‘I’ve got two more years to do what you put me in office to do, but to do it, I need Congress.’

If Republicans get really lucky, then holding a midterm convention might lead Democrats to hold one of their own, an exercise that could not help but betray the deep divisions in their ranks.

Who would speak at the DNC? Who would be welcome? Socialist mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani or Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., or maybe both at once yelling at each other about who’s a Zionist and who’s an antisemite. You see my point?

Trump is perhaps first and foremost a showman. That can be colored as a criticism or assessed as an asset, but it cannot be denied. The best chance that Republicans have in 2026 is to let him put on his show.

Although I am told that conversations have occurred behind the scenes in preparation for a potential midterm convention, it would still be a heavy lift. Usually there are four years to plan these things, not six months. But the Trump movement has the infrastructure and wherewithal to pull it off.

The ‘Trump Rally’ will go down in history, alongside the Lincoln-Douglas debates and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside chats, as one of the most successful forms of political communication our nation has ever seen. My sense is that voters are up for one more encore performance.

Letting Trump be Trump might not just be the best strategy for Republicans in 2026, it might be the only one. And hey, if you’re going to lose anyway, why not go out with a party?

: Former Special Counsel Jack Smith allegedly sought the private, personal cellphone records of then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as part of his investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, Fox News Digital has learned.

Smith also sought the private phone records of now-former Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas.

Fox News Digital exclusively reviewed the document that FBI Director Kash Patel recently shared with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson containing the explosive revelations. Grassley and Johnson have been leading a joint investigation into Smith’s ‘Arctic Frost’ probe.

According to the document, Smith, on Jan. 24, 2023, allegedly sought the ‘toll records for the personal cell phones of U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (AT&T) and U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert (Verizon.)’

The information was included as part of a ‘Significant Case Notification’ drafted by the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division May 25, 2023.

‘Jack Smith’s radical and deranged investigation was never about finding the truth,’ former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told Fox News Digital. ‘It was a blatant weaponizing of the Justice Department to attack political opponents of the Biden administration. Perhaps no action underscores this point more than the illegal attempt to access the phone records of sitting members of the House and Senate — including the Speaker of the House.’ 

‘His illegal targeting demands real accountability,’ McCarthy continued. ‘And I am confident Congress will hold hearings and access documents in its investigation into Jack Smith’s own abuses.’ 

‘At the same time, I will ask my own counsel to pursue all areas of redress so this does not happen to anyone else,’ McCarthy said. 

The revelations come after Fox News Digital exclusively reported in October that Smith and his ‘Arctic Frost’ team investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots were tracking the private communications and phone calls of nearly a dozen Republican senators as part of the probe, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.

An official told Fox News Digital that those records were collected in 2023 by Smith and his team after subpoenaing major telephone providers. 

Smith has called his decision to subpoena and track Republican lawmakers’ phone records ‘entirely proper’ and consistent with Justice Department policy.

‘As described by various Senators, the toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021, with a focus on telephonic activity during the period immediately surrounding the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol,’ Smith’s lawyers wrote in October to Grassley.

Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., have been investigating the matter, and seeking answers from major telephone providers.

In AT&T’s response to Grassley, it noted that Smith sought phone records for two members of Congress.

Fox News Digital has learned that AT&T informed Grassley’s staff that one of the members was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but refused to disclose the second member.

The newly declassified document reviewed by Fox News Digital appears to reveal that the second member of Congress that Smith sought records from AT&T for was McCarthy, R-Calif. 

Fox News Digital obtained AT&T’s response to Grassley, in which the company notes that Smith sent them a grand jury subpoena that included a request for phone records associated with two members of Congress.

‘However, when AT&T raised questions with Special Counsel Smith’s office concerning the legal basis for seeking records of members of Congress, the Special Counsel did not pursue the subpoena further, and no records were produced,’ AT&T told Grassley.

AT&T also stressed that the company ‘has not produced any records or other information to Special Counsel Jack Smith’ relating to ‘any member of Congress.’

‘Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation looks more and more out of control with each passing day,’ Grassley told Fox News Digital. ‘Based on my oversight, it was a fishing expedition that swept up Republicans in and out of Congress, from top to bottom.’ 

‘Arctic Frost’ was opened inside the bureau April 13, 2022. Smith was appointed as special counsel to take over the probe in November 2022. 

An FBI official told Fox News Digital that ‘Arctic Frost’ is a ‘prohibited case,’ and that the review required FBI officials to go ‘above and beyond in order to deliver on this promise of transparency.’ The discovery is part of a broader ongoing review, Fox News Digital has learned.

Smith, after months of investigating, charged President Donald Trump in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., in his 2020 election case, but after Trump was elected president, Smith sought to dismiss the case. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted that request. 

Smith’s case cost taxpayers more than $50 million. 

Smith did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

As President Donald Trump redirects U.S. resources toward operations closer to home, former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Mike Pompeo warned that America’s adversaries could benefit from a reduced global footprint.

Clinton told an audience Wednesday that she’d heard of internal Pentagon discussions advocating a ‘spheres of influence’ model that would focus U.S. power in the Western Hemisphere while allowing Russia to dominate Eastern Europe and China to control much of East Asia.

‘There seems to be a group within the Pentagon who are advocating for these spheres of influence … I think that’s a disaster. And I think it weakens us vis-à-vis our principal problem, which is… the Chinese Communist Party,’ she said during a discussion at Columbia University.

The remarks come as the Pentagon increases counter-narcotics and maritime security missions across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, expanding the U.S. military presence in the Southern Command region to its largest level in decades — a shift that reflects Trump’s renewed emphasis on prioritizing the Western Hemisphere. 

The U.S. last week said it would withdraw a rotational infantry brigade largely based in Romania, with some forces in Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Clinton, who was an early architect of the Obama administration’s ‘pivot to Asia’ strategy during her 2009–2013 tenure at the State Department, said any retreat from the Indo-Pacific would invite instability and signal weakness to U.S. adversaries.

Pompeo largely agreed, saying the United States should strive for global ‘American hegemony’ rooted in Western values and must never concede leadership to rivals.

‘I agree with almost everything Secretary Clinton said there,’ Pompeo said. ‘I want American values to dominate the world for the next 250 years … I want to influence every sphere of influence.’

Even as the War Department has prioritized a focus on the Western Hemisphere, Secretary Pete Hegseth has promised the U.S. would ‘stoutly defend’ its interests in the Indo-Pacific. 

Pompeo directed particularly harsh words at China, even as U.S.–China relations show tentative signs of easing after Trump’s recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

‘We shouldn’t use the word competition and the Chinese Communist Party in the same sentence… The Chinese Communist Party wants to cut our heads off,’ he said, adding, ‘They killed 10 million people and didn’t lose a moment’s sleep when a virus was foisted around the world.’

Pompeo, who served as secretary of state and CIA director in the first Trump administration, also claimed that China had given its blessing to North Korea to send troops to assist Russia in its war on Ukraine.

‘There are 13,000 North Koreans on the ground inside of that conflict today,’ he said. ‘They did not go there without Xi Jinping asking Chairman Kim… to go.’

Clinton, meanwhile, accused congressional Republicans of staying silent when the White House oversteps its power, citing Trump’s repeated extensions of a deadline for TikTok to divest or face a U.S. ban.

‘Their tongues must be totally bitten off because they don’t speak out,’ Clinton said.

She warned that social media is now shaping — and in some cases distorting — public opinion, posing ‘a huge danger to democracy.’ Clinton also said TikTok was ‘found by a bipartisan decision of Congress to be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.’

Pompeo echoed that concern. ‘I’m worried about the fact that we’ve got social influencers on TikTok that are shaping your minds, and that that’s controlled by the Chinese Communist Party to a significant degree,’ he said. 

The pair of former officials found common ground years after Pompeo vowed to release more of her emails in the run-up to the 2020 election. Trump had expressed disappointment that Pompeo’s State Department had not released more of the emails Clinton famously sent from a private server during her time leading the department.

‘We’re doing it as fast as we can’ Pompeo told Fox News at the time, while predicting ‘there will be more to see before the election.’

‘It’s pathetic,’ Clinton had told The New York Times of Pompeo’s promise.

Pompeo has also been critical of Clinton’s ‘failures’ related to Benghazi and ‘rampant corruption.’