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Former President Joe Biden will be feted by South Carolina Democrats later this month, to mark the sixth anniversary of his Palmetto State primary landslide, a comeback victory that rocketed Biden to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and later the White House.

But with many Democrats still smarting from their party's major 2024 election setbacks, fueled in part by a very unpopular Biden presidency and the then-president's dropping his re-election bid amid serious questions about his physical and mental abilities following a disastrous debate with now-President Donald Trump, the South Carolina celebration appears to be an outlier.

As they seek office in gubernatorial and congressional races in this year's elections, nine candidates who served in the Biden administration appear to be keeping their distance from the former president, according to a new report from Axios.

POTENTIAL 2028 CONTENDER SHAPIRO KNOCKS BIDEN'S RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

Biden ended his presidency with approval and favorable ratings well underwater, and the 13 months since he left office have not apparently healed the damage done to his standing among those in his own party.

"Biden remains a liability," a veteran Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital. "Being associated with the Biden administration is doing some candidates no favors as they run this year."

HOUSE DEMOCRATS ON OFFENSE: EXPAND THE 2026 MAP

That's a switch from the 2018 elections, the previous midterm cycle where Trump was in office and the Democrats were out of power, when former President Barack Obama as well as then-former Vice President Biden were in demand on the campaign trail.

Among those not highlighting Biden this cycle is Deb Haaland, a former House member from New Mexico who served as Department of the Interior secretary in the Biden administration and is now running for governor in the blue-leaning state. The former president isn't mentioned in Haaland's campaign website.

Another example is Xavier Becerra, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services under Biden and is now running for California governor. The former president isn't mentioned in Becerra's campaign launch video.

IT'S EARLY IN 2026, BUT THE 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE IS WELL UNDERWAY

But some Biden alumni running in solidly blue areas are mentioning their service during his administration. That includes Democratic congressional candidate Sanjyot Dunung, who is seeking office in Illinois 8th District. She mentions in her launch video that she served on Biden's foreign policy working group.

It's still too early to tell if the former president could end up being a drag on potential 2028 presidential contenders that served in his administration. Both former Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are seen as possible White House contenders.

For Democrats hoping Biden stays out of the limelight, the former president has mostly obliged. Biden has only made a handful of high-profile public appearances and sat for just a couple of major interviews since the end of his presidency.

Fox News reached out to Biden's post-presidency team for comment, but didn't receive a response at the time this story was published.

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced she was ending the work of a task force that sought to reform the U.S. intelligence community, including rooting out what she described as the politicization of intelligence gathering, after less than a year since its creation.

Gabbard established the group in April, when it was also tasked with probing ways to reduce spending on intelligence and whether reports on high-profile topics such as COVID-19 should be declassified.

In a statement on Wednesday, Gabbard said the task force's work was always intended to be temporary after she was tapped to oversee coordination of the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.

"In less than one year, we’ve brought a historic level of transparency to the intelligence community," Gabbard said in her statement. "My commitment to transparency, truth, and eliminating politicization and weaponization within the intelligence community remains central to all that we do."

TULSI GABBARD DENIES WRONGDOING OVER DELAYED WHISTLE-BLOWER COMPLAINT REFERRAL TO CONGRESS MEMBERS: 'BASELESS'

The number of officers assigned to the task force, as well as their identities, are classified, according to Gabbard's office.

The officers will now return to other intelligence agencies to continue the work the group started, her office added.

The group sparked criticism against Gabbard after its creation, with Democrats and some intelligence insiders raising questions about whether it would be used to undermine intelligence agencies and bring them under tighter control of President Donald Trump.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last year that the group appeared to be a "pass for a witch hunt" designed to target intelligence officers deemed disloyal to Trump.

TRUMP CLAIMS DNI TULSI GABBARD WAS AT GEORGIA ELECTION HUB SEARCH BECAUSE AG PAM BONDI WANTED HER THERE

"This seems to be just a pass for a witch hunt and that's going to further undermine our national security," Warner told Reuters at the time.

Gabbard has implemented significant changes to the country's intelligence gathering in the last year, including by using agencies to back up Trump's claims about alleged interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

In August, she revealed plans to cut her office's workforce and slash more than $700 million from its annual budget. She also fired two top intelligence officials in May after concluding that they opposed Trump.

Since Gabbard took over as director, the federal government has revoked the security clearances of dozens of former and current officials, including high-profile political opponents of the president, which critics have panned as being a punishment for siding against Trump rather than posing security risks.

Gabbard's presence for a recent FBI search of a Georgia election office in connection to the 2020 election has led to criticism from Democrats who argue she is blurring the traditional lines between foreign intelligence collection and domestic law enforcement.

The CIA has also released additional information about its investigations into the origins of COVID-19, such as an assessment released last year that affirmed the position that it most likely originated in a lab in China.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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As House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith dropped the gavel at 10:05 a.m. on Tuesday opening a hearing on "malign foreign influence," the groups under scrutiny did not retreat, apologize or go silent.

They escalated.

Inside Room 1100 of the Longworth House Office Building, Smith warned that the U.S. nonprofit sector had become a vulnerability exploited by foreign adversaries. Outside the hearing room — across social media — far-left organizations tied to Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, born in the U.S. and living in Shanghai, pressed forward with rhetoric vilifying the United States for its alleged "colonial policies" and "imperialism" and amplifying narratives aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, and communist allies like Cuba.

"This is not politics. It’s about national security," Smith said, as he opened the hearing titled "Foreign Influence in American Nonprofits: Unmasking Threats from Beijing." He said the committee was investigating "money trails" behind tax-exempt groups accused of "sowing chaos, fueling antisemitism," and interfering in elections.

HOUSE COMMITTEE INVESTIGATES LEFT-WING ORGANIZATIONS ‘SOWING CHAOS’ ACROSS US

During the hearing, Smith sharpened the warning.

"The CCP is taking advantage of our tax-exempt sector," he said.

For any organization allegedly breaking nonprofit tax laws, he said: "We’re coming for you!"

Breaking the fourth wall, Fox News Digital examined how the Singham network positioned itself outside the hearing room. A flurry of social media posts reveal that, even as Smith's words echoed in the hearing room, the ecosystem he described was aggressively putting forward their own rhetoric of defiance.

On Tuesday, during the hearing, CodePink, co-founded by Singham’s wife Jodie Evans, was circulating a narrative accusing the United States of enabling atrocities abroad. On its X social media account, CodePink shared an article claiming Israel had "evaporated" Palestinians in Gaza, concluding: "Horrors beyond comprehension — made possible by the United States."

The message mirrored language long pushed by U.S. adversaries, including the terrorist group Hamas. 

While CodePink activists often crash hearings, screaming interruptions and heckling Republicans, they didn't show up for this hearing, where their name was invoked several times for scrutiny.

In his opening remarks, Smith waved letters he had sent the night before to BreakThrough BT Media, a multimedia nonprofit, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a think tank – both media entities funded by Singham – demanding records on their ties to Singham and alleging they promoted propaganda aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.

Online, the groups gave no indication they were retreating. BreakThrough News posted protest footage from San Francisco, even with drone video of teachers picketing, one of them carrying a bold yellow-and-black sign from the Party for Socialism and Liberation that read, "MAKE THE BILLIONAIRES PAY."

BreakThrough News showcased anti-U.S. narratives, one demonstrator shouting, "Enough is enough!"

The far-left groups persisted as Network Contagion Research Institute co-founder Adam Sohn testified, "This is engineered subversion," describing how foreign-aligned narratives move through U.S. nonprofits and activist networks.

The response from those networks was more performative "agitprop," a Soviet-era tactic for agitation propaganda. 

As lawmakers questioned witnesses about fiscal sponsorships and donor-advised funds, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which is also part of the Singham’s network, promoted street protests and posted videos declaring victory. 

One post from the Party for Socialism and Liberation from San Francisco racked up likes during the hearing, emblazoned with the words: "WE WILL WIN!"

That posture — aggressive, unapologetic and public — is exactly what experts warned about regarding the influence operation that U.S. adversaries are able to wage against the nation.

"They don’t need spies anymore," Sohn told lawmakers. "They can use nonprofits," like a Trojan horse, to "launder" their propaganda.

WATCH: HARDCORE SOCIALIST GROUPS STAGE-MANAGE ANTI-ICE PROTEST IN WASHINGTON

By late morning, Democratic Socialists of America, which has 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations, added their own signal of defiance. As lawmakers debated foreign narrative laundering, Democratic Socialists of America widely shared a post where it praised the Super Bowl halftime performance by the Puerto Rican sensation "Bad Bunny," as "a damning critique of the harms of U.S. colonial policies."

"As socialists in the U.S.," Democratic Socialists of America declared. "It is our duty to support the struggles of peoples across the world suffering from the full weight of U.S. imperialism."

The rhetoric landed as Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, testified that "foreigners abuse this sector in order to hide their influence ops."

"This committee is investigating money trails," Smith warned. "This is about national security."

Still, the messaging outside the room intensified.

The People’s Forum shared content praising communist Cuba and circulated a "Call to Conscience demanding an end to Trump’s assault on Cuba," even as Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick called the groups out for "digital laundering operations," the process of repackaging the narratives and rhetoric of foreign adversaries to make them appear organic from inside the U.S.

Inside the hearing, Smith warned, "If you are an American, you should be extremely concerned." He asked witnesses to walk through Singham’s "web" of nonprofits.

Outside, that web responded in kind.

Students for Justice in Palestine, a nonprofit ally of the groups in the Singham network, urged Americans to "END ALL OCCUPATIONS," whatever that meant, "from Palestine to Minneapolis."

By 1:45 p.m., Smith dropped the gavel again.

"The committee stands adjourned," he said.

Online, the campaign never paused. Democratic Socialists of America pushed a "Call to Conscience" to end the Trump administration’s "cruel blockade on Cuba." The People’s Forum, an "incubator" hub for Marxist groups in the Singham network, based in New York City, moved ahead with its Tuesday night event for "comrades."

It hosted an evening discussing the "Hidden Histories of Rebellion in the US."

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It was a famous question that Howard Baker asked as the Watergate scandal was enveloping Richard Nixon.

"What did the president know and when did he know it?" the Tennessee senator proclaimed.

Plenty, as it turned out, and Nixon resigned rather than face certain impeachment and conviction.

Now, more than half a century later, the same question is being asked about another president.

TRUMP ALLEGEDLY THANKED POLICE FOR PROBING EPSTEIN IN 2000S, WARNED GHISLAINE MAXWELL IS ‘EVIL’: FBI DOC

It’s important to say upfront that the long-awaited Jeffrey Epstein files have produced not a scintilla of evidence that Donald Trump personally engaged in sexual misconduct.

But he knew a helluva lot more than he’s let on.

Thanks to the relentless reporting of the Miami Herald’s Julie Brown, who has blanketed this story since the sweetheart sentencing deal that Epstein finagled in 2008, Trump knew exactly what was going on between the reprehensible pedophile and underage girls.

EPSTEIN VICTIMS USE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL TO PRESSURE PAM BONDI OVER WITHHELD FILES

The scoop is based in part on a 2019 FBI interview with the former Palm Beach police chief, Michael Reiter.

In the summer of 2006, Reiter said, Trump called him and said everyone in Palm Beach and New York knew about Epstein’s sexual activities with minors.

He also said that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s enabler and onetime girlfriend, now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, was "evil" and to focus on her.

"Thank goodness you’re stopping this, everyone has known he’s been doing this," Reiter recalled Trump saying, referring to an Epstein probe the chief had launched three years earlier.

What’s more, the chief says Trump told him "he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present and he ‘got the hell out of there.’"

During this period, a woman had called authorities and said her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been molested by Epstein, as had other girls at the same high school, who allegedly were giving Epstein massages or being subjected to assault or rape, according to this account.

Reiter brought the case to the state’s attorney, which declined to prosecute, and then to the FBI.

In a 2019 email before his suicide in prison, Epstein wrote: "Of course he knew about the girls, as he begged Ghislaine to stop."  

That same year, asked by reporters if he knew about Epstein’s depraved pedophilia, the president said: "No, I had no idea. I had no idea." 

CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST SAYS DONALD TRUMP HAS LOST THE COUNTRY. IT’S COMPLICATED.

The absurd deal: prosecutors gave Epstein federal immunity in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of solicitation, one involving a minor. He served all of 13 months.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who is working with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, yesterday named six people whose files were inexplicably redacted. That shielded them from public disclosure.

"There were six wealthy, powerful men that the DOJ hid for no apparent reason," Khanna said.

Khanna and Massie were allowed to review the unredacted files for two hours.

Khanna named them on the House floor, where he has immunity: 

"Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, Nicola Caputo, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, CEO of Dubai Ports World, and billionaire businessman Leslie Wexner, who was labeled as a co-conspirator by the FBI. 

"Now my question is, why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public? And if we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3 million files."

That is indeed the question. Why were they shielded from public exposure? How many more are there?

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE'S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY'S HOTTEST STORIES

Maxwell, summoned by Republican James Comer’s Oversight Committee, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and indicated she would continue to do that unless Trump granted her clemency.

Trump had dropped hints when he and Epstein were still friendly. In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump called him a "terrific guy…it is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

The Epstein files have been politically toxic for Trump since the start of his second term. And now the plot is thickening.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to consider Moderna’s application for a new flu vaccine using mRNA technology, the company announced Tuesday, a decision that could delay the introduction of a shot designed to offer stronger protection for older adults.

Moderna said it received what’s known as a "refusal-to-file" (RTF) letter from the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), citing the lack of an "adequate and well-controlled" study with a comparator arm that "does not reflect the best-available standard of care."

Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said the FDA's decision did not "identify any safety or efficacy concerns with our product" and "does not further our shared goal of enhancing America’s leadership in developing innovative medicines."

"It should not be controversial to conduct a comprehensive review of a flu vaccine submission that uses an FDA-approved vaccine as a comparator in a study that was discussed and agreed on with CBER prior to starting," Bancel said in a statement. "We look forward to engaging with CBER to understand the path forward as quickly as possible so that America's seniors, and those with underlying conditions, continue to have access to American-made innovations."

RFK JR. DEFENDS FIRING SPREE AT CDC, VOWS ‘NEW BLOOD’ AT AGENCY

The rare decision from the FDA comes amid increased scrutiny over vaccine approvals under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized mRNA vaccines and rolled back certain COVID-19 shot recommendations over the past year.

Kennedy previously removed members of the federal government’s vaccine advisory panel and appointed new members, and moved to cancel $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts.

The FDA authorized COVID-19 vaccines for the fall for high-risk groups only. Last May, Kennedy announced the vaccines would be removed from the CDC’s routine immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women.

SEN BERNIE SANDERS CALLS ON RFK JR TO RESIGN FOLLOWING DEPARTURE OF CDC OFFICIALS

According to Moderna, the refusal-to-file decision was based on the company’s choice of comparator in its Phase 3 trial — a licensed standard-dose seasonal flu vaccine — which the FDA said did not reflect the "best-available standard of care."

Moderna said the decision contradicts prior written communications from the FDA, including 2024 guidance stating a standard-dose comparator would be acceptable, though a higher-dose vaccine was recommended for participants over 65.

Moderna said the FDA "did not raise any objections or clinical hold comments about the adequacy of the Phase 3 trial after the submission of the protocol in April 2024 or at any time before the initiation of the study in September 2024."

RFK JR LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO SCHOOL FOR ALLEGED VACCINATION OF CHILD WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT

In August 2025, following completion of the Phase 3 efficacy trial, Moderna said it held a pre-submission meeting with CBER, which requested that supportive analyses on the comparator be included in the submission and indicated the data would be a "significant issue during review of your BLA."

Moderna said it provided the additional analyses requested by CBER in its submission, noting that "at no time in the pre-submission written feedback or meeting did CBER indicate that it would refuse to review the file."

The company requested a Type A meeting with CBER to understand the basis for the RTF letter, adding that regulatory reviews are continuing in the European Union, Canada and Australia.

Fox News has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

Fox News Digital's Alex Miller and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A grand jury in the nation's capital on Tuesday refused the Justice Department's attempt to indict a group of Democratic lawmakers who encouraged U.S. military members to ignore "illegal" orders in a video posted online.

The DOJ opened an investigation into the video featuring six Democratic lawmakers calling on troops and members of the intelligence community to defy illegal orders from the federal government. The lawmakers all served in the military or at intelligence agencies.

The lawmakers in the video were Sens. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona, as well as Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Jason Crow of Colorado.

"This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens," the lawmakers said in the video. "Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution."

DEM SENATOR SAYS SHE'S UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION OVER 'UNLAWFUL ORDERS' VIDEO

Grand jurors declined to sign off on charges against the lawmakers, according to The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors had pursued indictments against all six lawmakers or what charges they attempted to bring.

Prosecutors could still attempt to secure an indictmentto secure an indictment against the Democrats.

President Donald Trump had accused the lawmakers of being "traitors" who engaged in "sedition at the highest level" and "should be in jail." He even suggested they should be executed over the video, although he later attempted to walk that comment back.

Slotkin, who previously worked at the CIA and Defense Department, was targeted with a bomb threat just days after the clip and Trump's subsequent statements suggesting the Democrats be executed.

SEN MARK KELLY DIGS IN ON 'ILLEGAL ORDERS' STANCE, TELLS JIMMY KIMMEL HE'S 'NOT BACKING DOWN'

"Tonight we can score one for the Constitution, our freedom of speech, and the rule of law," Slotkin said in a statement on Tuesday. "But today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the Administration. It was another sad day for our country."

Kelly, a former Navy pilot, called the attempt to bring charges an "outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackeys."

"Donald Trump wants every American to be too scared to speak out against him," Kelly said on X. "The most patriotic thing any of us can do is not back down."

In November, the Pentagon launched an investigation into Kelly, pointing to a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the secretary for possible court-martial or other punishment.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has censured Kelly and is attempting to retroactively demote Kelly from his retired rank of captain over his participation in the video, which affirms that refusing unlawful orders is a standard part of military protocol.

"As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice," Hegseth wrote in an X post on Jan. 5.

Kelly responded by suing Hegseth to block those proceedings, which he called an unconstitutional act of retribution.

During a hearing last week, a judge appeared to be skeptical of key arguments that a government attorney made in defense of Hegseth's move last month to censure the Arizona senator.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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FIRST ON FOX: Hours before banging the gavel to commence a hearing Tuesday to investigate the dynamic of "malign foreign influence," House Committee on Ways and Means chair Jason Smith escalated his investigation into the China-based, American-born Marxist tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, who has allegedly been "sowing chaos and spreading Chinese propaganda, possibly in coordination with a foreign government."

Fox News Digital has obtained copies of letters that Smith sent on Monday night to two U.S. nonprofits – BreakThrough BT Media Inc. and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research – demanding records of their ties to Singham and alleging they are promoting propaganda aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.

At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Smith will chair a hearing called, "Foreign Influence in American Non-profits: Unmasking Threats from Beijing and Beyond." The hearing will be broadcast online at the committee’s website. Singham, Tricontinental and BreakThrough BT Media, which publishes articles as "BreakThrough News," didn't respond to requests for comment.

Congressional investigators say the Singham network sits at the center of a malign foreign influence operation that allegedly exploits U.S. nonprofit laws to inject anti-American propaganda into domestic protest movements and sow discord from within the United States.

In separate letters, Smith demanded records from BreakThrough and Tricontinental, warning that both tax-exempt organizations may be operating outside their lawful purpose as possible unregistered foreign agents, while helping to fuel domestic unrest under the guise of journalism and academic research.

ANTI-ICE 'DIGITAL MINUTEMEN' USE MILITARY-GRADE SURVEILLANCE TACTICS AGAINST FEDS

The letters describe a full-spectrum operation, with funding aligned with foreign interests flowing into tax-exempt nonprofits that produce ideological research, media narratives and social media messaging, which are then deployed onto U.S. streets through tightly choreographed protests.

Over the past year, Fox News Digital has documented a pattern of coordinated protests by socialist, communist and Marxist groups, revealing a synchronized ecosystem of funding, media amplification, ideological framing and street-level mobilization that aligns with the strategic interests of hostile foreign governments, including the People’s Republic of China.

"Tax-exempt status is a privilege not a right," Smith told Fox News Digital. "Nonprofits must remain accountable and refuse to act as instruments of hostile foreign governments."

The Ways and Means Committee "continues to investigate how foreign money and foreign-linked networks are funneled through tax-exempt entities to sow discord and unrest in our society," he said. "That’s why we’re demanding answers from Tricontinental and BreakThrough about their funding streams, activities and communications with CCP-linked individuals, including Neville Roy Singham."

"If the evidence shows these groups are acting as conduits for CCP-aligned propaganda or functioning like foreign agents while enjoying U.S. tax benefits, their tax-exempt status should be revoked immediately," Smith said. "We’re going to follow the money and demand accountability to put a stop to Beijing’s exploitation of our tax-exempt sector."

In his letter to Karla Reyes, chair and director of BreakThrough, Smith wrote that he was "disturbed by the connections between BreakThrough and Chinese Communist Party linked organizations" and launched an inquiry into whether the outlet deserves its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

Smith emphasized that the investigation is not about suppressing speech but about whether nonprofit protections are being abused. He wrote that, under federal law, "if more than an insubstantial part of an organization’s activities is not in furtherance of a tax-exempt purpose…the organization is not operated exclusively for such exempt purpose." He cited Supreme Court precedent stating that "the presence of a single nonexempt purpose, if substantial in nature, will destroy the exemption regardless of the number or importance of truly exempt purposes."

In the letter, Smith warned that receiving funding from "an individual who lives in Shanghai, maintains business ties with companies and individuals linked to the CCP, works with and physically alongside a foreign propaganda company, and attends CCP forums on how to promote the party abroad" raises "serious questions" about whether BreakThrough qualifies as an "agent of a foreign principal" under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

THE FAR-LEFT NETWORK THAT HELPED PUT ALEX PRETTI IN HARM'S WAY, THEN MADE HIM A MARTYR

Since its inception, he noted that BreakThrough has produced and distributed content that "aligns with pro-CCP rhetoric across both the United States and the globe." Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Smith wrote that BreakThrough News "dramatically shifted their coverage in a way that suggests its intent on sowing division within the United States," while portraying China in an "overwhelmingly positive light."

As reported, BreakThrough was one of the first social media accounts to publish the video of the killing of anti-ICE demonstrator Alex Pretti.

The investigation places BreakThrough within a broader network that includes Tricontinental, the People’s Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, groups that Fox News Digital has documented working alongside organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America to mobilize protests, train "rapid responders" and flood social media with coordinated narratives during flashpoint events, from immigration enforcement actions to the arrest of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.

BreakThrough was also one of the first social media accounts to publish video of the U.S. strike over Caracas when Maduro was arrested.

SECOND FRONT: HOW A SOCIALIST CELL IN THE US MOBILIZED PRO-MADURO FOOT SOLDIERS WITHIN 12 HOURS

In his letter to Vijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental, Smith said that he was "disturbed by the connections between yourself, Tricontinental and organizations linked to the CCP." He described Tricontinental as an organization that has been "responsible for spreading Marxist and anti-American rhetoric across both the United States and the globe," and possibly "sowing chaos and spreading Chinese propaganda, possibly in coordination with a foreign government."

Committee investigators tied Prashad directly to Chinese state-linked institutions, noting his role as a senior fellow at a think tank connected to China’s Ministry of Education and his participation in conferences hosted by universities funded by the Chinese Communist Party. He also detailed Tricontinental’s financial relationship with Maku Group, a Chinese media company whose stated mission is to "tell China’s story well," and disclosed that Tricontinental paid the firm more than $2.1 million for "research, analysis, and translation services."

The committee also documented Tricontinental’s deep financial and structural ties to Singham, noting that the organization received millions of dollars from entities linked to him, employs his son as a researcher and lists Singham as chair of its international advisory board. Multiple reports, Smith wrote, have found that Tricontinental is "part of Mr. Singham’s network of non-profit organizations that serve as his conduits to spread pro-CCP narratives," including media outlets where Prashad appears regularly.

Researchers say the nonprofits under scrutiny engage in a dynamic known as "narrative convergence," echoing the propaganda of foreign adversaries. In a new report, the Network Contagion Research Institute, based in Princeton, N.J., documented how the Democratic Socialists of America sent delegations to China, Cuba and Venezuela and then, upon returning to the United States, deployed slogans at protests that mirror the anti-U.S. rhetoric of those governments.

The institute concluded that the Democratic Socialists of America "exhibits multiple indicators" warranting scrutiny as a foreign lobbyist. Democratic Socialists of America didn't return a request for comment.

Smith echoed those concerns in his Tricontinental letter, warning that the People’s Forum and allied groups "continued to organize protests aligned with Chinese talking points," including demonstrations that "turned violent in Minnesota."

National security analysts say the hearing represents a critical moment in what they describe as a new cognitive war, in which foreign adversaries seek to weaponize outrage, protest and information to weaken the United States from within.

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