Former Vice President Kamala Harris said her onetime boss, former President Joe Biden, made a ‘big mistake’ by not inviting Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a 2021 White House event on electric vehicles. 

In August 2021, Biden hosted an EV event at the White House with executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, but Musk was not invited, despite Tesla being the nation’s leading EV manufacturer. 

‘I write in the book that I thought it was a big mistake to not invite Elon Musk when we did a big EV event,’ Harris told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on Tuesday at the news outlet’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., referring to her memoir, ‘107 Days,’ in which she criticized Biden for initially running for re-election despite his health struggles.

‘I mean, here he is, the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space,’ Harris said of Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX.

Musk’s snub was widely viewed as an effort to support the United Auto Workers and organized labor overall, since Tesla plants are not unionized. Harris wrote in her book that she believed Biden was ‘sending a message about Musk’s anti-union stance’ but that she thought excluding him as the top player in the field ‘simply doesn’t make sense.’

Then–White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the event featured ‘the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers,’ emphasizing that Tesla’s workers are not unionized.

Pressed on whether Musk’s snub was punishment for his workers not being unionized, Psaki told reporters: ‘I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.’

The Biden administration defended inviting only those automakers, calling them key partners in the president’s push for union jobs.

Harris said that presidents should ‘put aside political loyalties’ when it comes to recognizing technological innovation.

‘So, I thought that was a mistake, and I don’t know Elon Musk, but I have to assume that that was something that hit him hard and had an impact on his perspective,’ she said.

Musk did appear to take offense after he was not invited to the event, taking numerous jabs at Biden.

‘Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,’ Musk wrote at the time on social media.

A month later, he said the Biden administration appeared to be ‘controlled by unions’ and was ‘not the friendliest administration.’

After Musk learned Tesla would not be invited, administration officials offered an apology, according to The Wall Street Journal. Biden aides later attempted to soothe things over, but tensions remained.

Harris’ comments on Tuesday mirrored a passage from her new book in which she wrote that the Biden administration’s move not to include Tesla was a mistake and that it appeared to alienate Musk, who later became one of current President Donald Trump’s top financial backers.

‘Musk never forgave it,’ she wrote.

Musk later endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and contributed roughly $300 million toward Republican campaign efforts. 

The U.S. Department of State on Saturday warned there are ‘credible reports’ that Hamas may break the peace agreement with a ‘planned attack’ on Palestinian civilians. 

‘This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and undermine the significant progress achieved through mediation efforts,’ the department said in a statement on social media. ‘The guarantors demand Hamas uphold its obligations under the ceasefire terms.’

The statement concluded, ‘The United States and the other guarantors remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring the safety of civilians, maintaining calm on the ground, and advancing peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza and the region as a whole.’

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect last weekend after two years of war in the region following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel. 

On Monday, the 20 remaining surviving Israeli hostages were returned to Israel per the agreement, but more than a dozen remains of hostages who were killed are still under Hamas control. 

The State Department added that ‘measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire’ if Hamas proceeds with the attack. 

On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued a warning on Truth Social after footage circulated online showing Hamas fighters executing Palestinians in Gaza City’s main square. 

‘If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,’ he wrote.

According to Reuters, at least 33 people were executed by Hamas in recent days in what officials described as a campaign to ‘show strength’ after the ceasefire. Israeli sources say most of those killed belonged to families accused of collaborating with Israel or supporting rival militias.

Trump later clarified that U.S. troops would not go into Gaza. 

‘It’s not going to be us,’ he told reporters. ‘We won’t have to. There are people very close, very nearby that will go in and they’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.’

Fox News’ Efrat Lachter and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A Pakistani man convicted Friday of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump and other politicians told an FBI agent he thought Iran ‘was responsible’ for the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Asif Merchant, 47, told the FBI agent, Jacqueline Smith, that the incident ‘was the same thing he was sent here to do,’ Smith testified during Merchant’s trial. Merchant told jurors the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent him on a ‘mission’ to kill U.S. politicians, including by telling him to attend a Republican rally.

Merchant was arrested July 12, 2024, one day prior to the shooting in Butler, where Thomas Crooks fired several shots into a rally crowd, killing one and grazing Trump’s ear. 

The FBI has said repeatedly it found no evidence that Crooks had co-conspirators or that any foreign actors were involved in the incident.

Merchant, who was convicted by a jury of murder-for-hire and attempting to commit terrorism, testified that Trump was not his only target, telling jurors then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley were also on his list. He claimed he only took part in the plot, which was foiled by the FBI before coming to fruition, because Iran’s IRGC warned it would target his family.

‘I had no other options,’ Merchant said. ‘My family was threatened.’

Merchant now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. His sentence will be determined at a later hearing.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that Merchant ‘landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement.’

‘The Department of Justice will remain ever-vigilant to protect Americans, prosecute terrorists, and halt acts of terrorism before they happen,’ Bondi said.

Merchant was arrested after he was recorded on camera outlining a plot on a napkin to kill a politician with a person who turned out to be an FBI informant. Federal prosecutors showed video during the trial of Merchant speaking to the informant. The prosecutors said Merchant also tried to hire two hit men and pay them $5,000, but the men turned out to be federal agents posing as assassins.

Smith, the FBI agent who met with Merchant after his arrest, said Merchant never conveyed that he feared for his family. Merchant said he wanted to do intelligence work and be paid for it, Smith said.

The FBI agent also said Merchant was told by an Iranian handler to attend a Republican political rally to scope out security. But Merchant was worried about being identified, so he watched the rally online instead.

Merchant’s defense team told jurors their client, who has two wives, was a family man and cared deeply about his faith and that he intentionally acted carelessly because he wanted to be caught.

In their closing arguments, defense lawyers said Merchant had his hand forced in the operation, thinking his family would be harmed if he did not cooperate. Additionally, the lawyers cited several instances in which Merchant’s actions as an intelligence operator were little more than incompetent.

Fox News’ Danielle Cavaliere and Brendan McDonald contributed.

Several Democrat senators seemed ready to expand COVID-era Obamacare tax credits holding up spending legislation needed to reopen the government — but less willing to grapple with what that would mean for the country’s expenses.

‘I’ll disagree with the framing of deficit increase,’ Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said when asked about the program’s implications for the country’s bottom line.

Others, like Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., declined to respond.

The country plunged into a shutdown at the beginning of the month when lawmakers failed to agree on a short-term spending extension that would have funded the government through Nov. 21. But the disagreement wasn’t about the package itself. In 2021, Congress temporarily expanded eligibility for Obamacare’s enhanced premium tax credits subsidies, meant to help Americans pay for their health insurance plans amid the uncertainty of the pandemic. That increased eligibility sunsets at the end of 2025. Democrats have made the program’s continuation a key condition in support for any spending package.

Republicans need at least seven Democrats to advance spending legislation in the Senate, where Republicans must clear the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. The GOP holds 53 seats in the chamber.

According to the Committee of a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank, continuing the expanded credits could cost upwards of $30 billion annually.

Where Republicans see the expiration as an opportunity to return government spending to pre-COVID levels and shrink the national deficit, Democrats have expressed alarm over recipients who could face an abrupt end to their federal assistance.

‘You have literally millions of Americans who will no longer be able to afford their health insurance or will be thrown off health insurance when the tax credits that make the Affordable Care Act affordable expire at the end of this year,’ Coons said, referring to the 2010 health care reforms that put Obamacare into law.

Other Democrats pointed to healthcare as the key consideration at play.

‘Republicans need to restore healthcare to the American people. That’s my position,’ Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said.

Findings by KFF, a healthcare policy think tank, indicate that over 90% of the 24 million Obamacare enrollees make use of the enhanced credits.

Democrats have voted against reopening the government 10 times since the start of the shutdown.

Lawmakers like Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, have pushed back on Democrat opposition, noting that the credits were always designed to be temporary — and that Democrats were the ones who included the sunset provision to begin with.

‘This is a pre-determined crisis by the Democrats,’ Curtis said. ‘They’re the ones who put the expiration date on these.’

That’s also the position of Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark.

‘My concern is that [the credit expansion] was done during the pandemic, because of the pandemic. The pandemic is over. As a result, you’ve got people making $300,000 on a subsidy.’

‘So, what we need to do is get the government open, not hold the American people hostage and start talking, because there will be some people that are hurt,’ Boozman added.

Boozman isn’t the only Republican concerned about both: ballooning government costs and the Americans who would have to adjust their payments to afford healthcare without the subsidies.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who has cautioned against sudden shifts to healthcare programs, said talks to advance both priorities haven’t made much progress. 

‘I’m trying to figure out a way that we can ensure that healthcare coverage for Americans remains, and we’re not making much headway this week,’ Murkowski said. 

Other Senators hinted that talks were advancing in some way but declined to describe them.

‘I’m not getting engaged right now, because I may or may not be involved in any negotiations on what the ultimate resolution of this will be. At this point, until the Democrats open the government, I’m not going to discuss details,’ Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said.

Both chambers of Congress left Washington, D.C., for the weekend. The Senate will return Monday.

Israel announced Saturday that the latest remains handed over by Hamas via the Red Cross were that of a deceased hostage.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the deceased hostage as Eliyahu Margalit, known by many as ‘Churchill,’ who was murdered during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. It also underscored that ‘Hamas is required to fulfill its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families and to a dignified burial.’

Israel said Margalit was killed at the horse stables in Kibbutz Nir Oz and that his body was then taken into Gaza, where it was held for more than two years. The IDF initially confirmed Margalit’s death in December 2023.

Margalit’s daughter, Nili Margalit, was also taken hostage but was released during the brief November 2023 ceasefire. He leaves behind a wife, three children and grandchildren.

‘The government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Margalit family and all the families of the fallen abductees,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. ‘The government and the entire Israeli Public Security Bureau are determined, committed and working tirelessly to return all of our fallen abductees for a proper burial in their country.’

Margalit’s loved ones said he went to feed his beloved horses early in the morning on Oct. 7 and that the horses were taken along with him, according to The Times of Israel. The outlet added that Margalit was responsible for the kibbutz’s cattle for many years.

‘Our beloved Eli has returned home, 742 days after he was murdered and kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. We thank the people of Israel and the Hostage Families Forum for their support in the long struggle for his return, and promise that we will not stop or rest until the last of the hostages is returned for burial in Israel,’ the family said in a statement, according to The Times of Israel.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which was established in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, expressed condolences to Margalit’s family.

‘The families of the hostages and the released embrace the family of Eliyahu ‘Churchill’ Margalit at this difficult time, following the return of their beloved Eliyahu z’l to Israel last night for a proper burial,’ the forum wrote. ‘Alongside the grief and the understanding that their hearts will never be whole again, Eliyahu’s return brings some measure of solace to a family that has lived in unbearable uncertainty and doubt for over two years. We will not rest until all 18 hostages are brought home.’

The forum noted that Margalit was ‘a cowboy at heart’ and was linked to an organization known as ‘Riders of the South,’ which has been bringing horseback riding enthusiasts together for more than 50 years.

Margalit is the 10th deceased hostage to be returned to Israel, while the remains of 18 others are still in Gaza. Two of the deceased hostages whose bodies have not been returned are Itay Chen, 19, and Omer Neutra, 21, both of whom are U.S. citizens.