Latest news with #MichaelRulli
Fox News
6 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Socialist Mamdani's supermarket plan would be 'bullet to the heart' of blue-collar America, lawmaker warns
A House Republican who's had experience with his own family grocery store chain is criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's call for government-owned markets. "This will be a bullet into the heart of the U.S. grocery industry, if this caught on," Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an interview. Mamdani, a self-declared democratic socialist, has proposed a pilot program of five government-owned grocery stores – one in each New York City borough – in a bid to reduce food insecurity in underserved areas and bring down grocery costs. But skeptics like Rulli note that grocery stores already operate on razor-thin profit margins, generally between 1% and 3%. His family owns and operates Rulli Brothers, a small chain of two grocery stores in the Youngstown, Ohio, area. "My brothers run that store, our family store…they have gone between [1.25%] and 1.7 net in the last five to six years," Rulli said. And while the pilot program only calls for five stores now, the Ohio Republican argued the idea could affect businesses both large and small if widened. "Say you're going to Cleveland, Ohio. And the mayor opens up ten government-run stores, half the cost of all the other different stores," Rulli posed. "Whether it's a mom-and-pop or…a Kroger, or you can have a Harris Teeter, all these different players – all of them would go out of business, and you'd only have the government-run business. So once you have only government-run business, there's no incentive for there to be creativity, competition, variety." He said costs could eventually go up as well if competition was muted. And Rulli argued that would affect working-class Americans the most with a loss of affordable variety, as well as the small corner stores in New York City colloquially known as "bodegas." Rulli referenced a famous photo of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin making an unscheduled stop at a Texas grocery store while in the U.S. and marveling at the selection of products. "You have the options on different size, amounts…There's so many different things. And you're going to have 15 or 20 kinds of varieties. That makes for a good quality of life," Rulli said. Then, directed at Mamdani, he said, "You want to limit the amount of things that they could buy at the grocery store? One of the few things that the blue-collar American, the populist American, can actually take comfort in is the variety of [items] at the grocery store." Mamdani is a 33-year-old member of the New York State Assembly whose success in the New York City Democratic primary stunned politicos who expected at least an initially strong showing by former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo. His far-left ideas and support from national-level Democrat firebrands like Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have made Mamdani an effective boogeyman for Republicans. Several Republicans from the Empire State told Fox News Digital last month that Mamdani winning the race in November could be politically beneficial for the GOP, though they also maintained that they would work against that outcome. Mamdani is running against Republican Curtis Sliwa and current Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who is running as an independent candidate in the race. Cuomo is rumored to be eyeing his own bid as an independent as well. Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani's campaign for a response to Rulli.
Fox News
25-06-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Republicans move to revive Trump's 'beautiful clean coal industry' after Biden shut it down
EXCLUSIVE: The House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to revive the National Coal Council and "reinvigorate America's beautiful clean coal industry," as President Donald Trump put it. Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital the National Coal Council legislation will successfully pass out of his committee Wednesday and have a good chance of passing the full House. Reps. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, and Riley Moore, R-W.V., are leading the legislation to reestablish the council, effectively canceled by former President Joe Biden, and support the clean coal industry for a multitude of reasons, including energy security at a time of Middle East uncertainty. Rulli told Fox News Digital the Biden administration's endeavors against the council and the coal industry writ-large were a "deliberate" effort to "wipe out coal, kill jobs, and make America dependent on foreign energy." The National Coal Council was key to improving lower-emissions technology and a crucial piece of the Energy Department's toolkit. It was disbanded in 2021 after the Biden administration allowed its charter to lapse. Originally formed in the 1980s as a 50-member advisory committee, it has guided government on the coal market and coal-sector technologies through five administrations. The Biden administration let the council's charter lapse during his term. Then-Rep. David McKinley, R-W.V., also confirmed such at the time. "Time and time again, we see that energy security is national security," Guthrie told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "In order to protect American families and businesses and insulate ourselves from adversarial nations, it's time to take action to secure our grid and promote the production of baseload American energy." Guthrie added the Iran situation is another reminder of why Congress must act to "unleash American energy and ensure that we can produce domestically the power our communities rely on." Domestically, coal power supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, including in Guthrie's Kentucky, Rulli's Ohio and Moore's West Virginia. "President Trump knows that coal is the key to unleashing American energy dominance, reindustrializing the heartland, and winning the AI arms race. The National Coal Council will play a vital role in those efforts," Moore told Fox News Digital. "With our global competitors constantly bringing new coal plants online to power their economies, we can't afford to fall behind," he added. The bill further acts on Trump's Executive Order 14241 focusing on clean coal and will help meet the rise in electricity demand needed for the exponential projected growth in AI data centers around the country. Proponents also hope it will bolster coal as the power source needed to onshore manufacturing and supply chains; another goal of the political right. Rulli said the original council was a "pillar" of U.S. energy policy and a "voice for an industry whose workers built this nation and powered our economy. Its elimination was no accident." "The left wants to shut it all down for good," he said. "This bill won't let that happen … We must restore the National Coal Council and defend the energy backbone of this country—before it's too late." Rulli said just as in West Virginia and Kentucky, where his colleagues hail from, Ohio's coal industry drove its manufacturing sector for decades, providing thousands of good-paying jobs in his Youngstown district.
Fox News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
House rep eyes border 'safety net' fund as DHS urges Congress for more money
FIRST ON FOX: A new House GOP bill would create a "safety net" of federal funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help in emergency situations. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital he's introducing a bill to create a Border Enforcement Trust Fund using federal revenues from excise taxes on gambling. The legislation would reroute roughly $300 million per year that's currently going into the U.S. Treasury's general fund through taxes on gambling operations. He said it would be of use to the Trump administration in situations like it has faced this week, with federal authorities facing off against anti-immigration enforcement rioters in Los Angeles. "In the last 48 hours, we've seen this summer of hate, which we saw several years ago, happening again in Los Angeles, where you have complete anarchy and the burning down of the city itself," Rulli told Fox News Digital in an interview. He argued it could also meet emergency needs for immigration authorities while Congress weighs President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," which includes billions for ICE that the Department of Homeland Security said are sorely needed. "It'd be a shame to take all that money and put it in the general fund, and it would just be lost when we could use it just for our border [needs], which we all saw in this last election is the No. 1 issue in the country," Rulli said. The bill would have long odds of succeeding in the Senate, where at least several Democrats would be needed to reach the upper chamber's 60-vote threshold. It's not likely that Democrats would want to give Trump that kind of power over emergency funding. Rulli said he has not encountered any significant opposition among his House colleagues, however. The bill is one of several introduced by House Republicans this week after the riots in Los Angeles and wider anti-ICE protests around the country.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Valley congressman demands congressional investigation
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WKBN) — Valley Congressman Michael Rulli is hoping his colleagues in Washington will do more to look into the federal response to the East Palestine train derailment two-and-a-half years ago. Recently, a federal watchdog group discovered what it claims are emails and other messages among leaders within the Biden Administration to withhold information about the potential for cancer clusters developing in the East Palestine area because of chemical contamination from the train wreck. Rulli says he wants to know what administrators know and when they knew it. 'I think an investigation needs to be opened today,' Rulli said. 'What we discovered with the Biden administration and the way the FEMA Program handled this is unacceptable in any civilized society.' The congressman is calling the federal response a cover-up. Rulli says he wants to see long-term monitoring of residents to check for signs of cancer — perhaps for the next 20 years. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Trump surprises 104-year-old WWII veteran with birthday message after viral TikTok invite
President Donald Trump helped a World War II veteran make his birthday wish come true on Thursday. Ohio resident Denver Moore, who just turned 104, is a longtime supporter of the president. He went viral in March after inviting Trump to his upcoming birthday party in a TikTok video that has since amassed over 890,000 views. "President Trump… I'm gonna be 104 in May, and I'm inviting you to my birthday party in Canal Fulton," he said in the video. "I got to vote for you again, and I hope I can vote for you some more." On Thursday, Moore found out he had received a video message from the president delivered by his congressman, Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio. "Hi, Denver!" Trump says in the video message. "I want to wish you a very happy 104th birthday from your all-time favorite president. That's me, Donald Trump," he continues. "And I'm sorry we weren't able to get to your party. I would love to get to your party, but I'm working on Russia, Ukraine, China, and all sorts of other places, and I know you want us to do well." "But I want just to thank you for your incredible service to our nation and for your support for making America great again. A very, very special man you are, and happy birthday," he continued. Trump is currently wrapping up a whirlwind historic tour to the Middle East. On Thursday he arrived in the United Arab Emirates, the first U.S. president to travel to the nation in nearly 20 years. Moore, who lives at Danbury Senior Living facility in Massillon, a town just south of Cleveland, reacted to the message in a report by WEWS News 5 Cleveland reporter Rob Powers. After watching the video, Moore joked about Trump fulfilling his birthday wish, "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy." Moore spoke to Fox News Digital in April about his birthday request to his "favorite president" going viral. After the video was posted in March, people from all over the country – and even as far away as Africa – reached out to him to cheer him on, sending messages and birthday cards to the veteran. "It's been quite a ride," Moore said. Congressman Rulli told Fox News Digital that when he saw the viral video of Moore, he was "struck not only by the incredible milestone of his life but also by his deep sense of patriotism and service." "I was even more surprised to learn that this remarkable WWII veteran was a resident at a facility right in my district," he said. The congressman said he reached out to the White House to see if President Trump could honor Moore's "heartfelt request." "President Trump and his team went above and beyond, recording a special video message just for him. I am incredibly grateful to the compassionate team at Danbury Senior Living, who worked hand in hand with my office to ensure Mr. Moore's birthday was truly unforgettable," Rulli said. "His life and service are a testament to the spirit of our nation, and I'm proud we could celebrate him in such a meaningful way," he added. Moore has been a longtime supporter of Trump and says he agrees with most of the actions he's taken. "He may make a mistake or two, but he's doing most everything right," he previously told Fox News Digital. Moore served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII before working for the U.S. Postal Service. He raised three children with his late wife Thelma Lee, to whom he was married for 75 years before she died in 2022 at age 95. Moore's family and friends say he is still mentally sharp and stays physically active, despite his advanced age. That could be his secret to living a long healthy life. "I was always active, doing something. I carried mail for 20 years, walking, and that was good. I grew up on a farm. We did everything. And if we didn't have anything to do, we created something. So it's just this: stay active," he said about his advice for living a long life. He added, "Marry the right woman and live with her all of her life."
