U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said a ‘coward hiding behind a keyboard’ was arrested this week for allegedly sending a threatening letter to conservative influencer Benny Johnson in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. 

George Isbell Jr., 69, was taken into custody on Tuesday in San Diego, California. He will be federally charged with mailing a threatening communication, according to Bondi. On his website, Johnson said he resides in Tampa, Florida, where the announcement of the arrest was made Friday.

‘Benny is a well-known media personality, carrying a message very similar to Charlie’s. Grounded largely in faith and love of country. Just days after Charlie’s assassination, Benny received a letter at his home where he and Kate are raising their beautiful, beautiful young family,’ Bondi said. ‘The author of this letter made it very clear that he hated Benny because of his views, and he wanted Benny dead.’ 

‘This was a coward hiding behind a keyboard who thought he could get away with this. That’s why we’re standing up here today. You are not going to get away with threatening people in this way. And I’m proud to announce that we have arrested the author of this letter,’ Bondi added. 

She said earlier that, ‘we’ve been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country.’ 

‘We are going to catch you if you think you can do something like this,’ Bondi declared. ‘We don’t care if you’re across the country in California, we will find you. We will arrest you, we will extradite you, and we will bring you to justice. We cannot allow this political violence to continue any longer. This arrest will serve as a reminder to many — do not do this. We will find you.’ 

U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida told reporters Friday that Johnson ‘immediately contacted’ the Tampa Police Department after receiving the letter. The FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement assisted in the investigation, while the U.S. Postal Service determined the letter originated from San Diego, California, Kehoe added. 

Fingerprints that were obtained from the letter led investigators to Isbell, according to Kehoe. 

‘According to the complaint, on or about Sept. 18, Isbell mailed a letter from San Diego threatening to injure his victim, a media personality located in Tampa, Florida, and telling his victim that the victim needed ‘to be exterminated,’’ the Justice Department said in a statement Friday.

‘In the letter, he referenced one of the victim’s friends, Mr. Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist who had recently been killed during a public engagement on a college campus. After writing that he hoped that the American flag ‘strangles the life out of you,’ the letter went on to state: ‘Maybe someone will blow your head off!!! We can hope! Planning any public engagements? Love to see your head explode and your blood stain the concrete red. What a sight!’’ the Justice Department added.

If convicted, Isbell could face a maximum sentence of five years.

Johnson told Fox News Digital on Friday afternoon, ‘The major question here is, how many of us need to die? And, you know, until people take it seriously?’

Speaking alongside Bondi in Florida, Johnson said, ‘I don’t want political violence. I want peace in my nation.’ 

‘I love this country. I want to be able to debate like Charlie did. I want to be able to raise my family in peace. That is our birthright. But you cannot make peace with evil as a Christian. You cannot unite with people who want you dead. I want unity in this nation,’ he added. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declared the House of Representatives out of session for a third straight week in a bid to keep pressure on Senate Democrats in Washington.

The speaker appears to be raising the stakes on lawmakers across the aisle, who keep refusing the GOP’s plan to fund government agencies on a short-term basis in favor of making demands on healthcare that Republicans are calling unreasonable.

The government shutdown is poised to roll into a third week after Senate Democrats sunk the GOP’s federal funding bill seven times, most recently on Thursday.

The House passed the bill on Sept. 19 and has not been in session since. The measure, called a continuing resolution (CR), is aimed at keeping the government funded at current levels through Nov. 21, in order for congressional negotiators to have more time to strike a longer-term deal for fiscal year (FY) 2026.

Democrats, furious at being sidelined in federal funding discussions, have been withholding their support for any spending bill that does not also extend COVID-19 pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are due to expire at the end of this year.

Johnson’s decision was made public on Friday afternoon during a brief pro forma session in the House. Under rules dictated by the Constitution, the chamber must meet for brief periods every few days called ‘pro forma’ sessions to ensure continuity, even if there are no formal legislative matters at hand.

Pro forma sessions can also be opportunities for lawmakers to give brief speeches or introduce legislation that they otherwise would not have. 

Johnson’s decision comes after he canceled votes on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30 in an effort to press the Senate to take up the House’s CR. He canceled votes the following week as well.

The House GOP leader told fellow Republicans on a private call Thursday that he would give them 48 hours’ notice before they needed to return to Washington.

Johnson has suggested multiple times in public and in private that he would reopen the House when Senate Democrats relented on the CR.

In the meantime, he’s asking House Republicans to remain in their districts to drive home the effects of the government shutdown on everyday Americans.

The strategy has gotten pushback from some members of his conference, including those who are pushing for a standalone vote on legislation ensuring the military is paid during the shutdown.

Without action by Congress or the White House, active duty service members who are made to work during the shutdown — as well as others on the federal payroll — are set to miss paychecks on Oct. 15 if the standoff continues.

At least three House Republicans have also suggested they want the House to return to its business next week — Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., said so on the Thursday call, while Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., made his concerns public on X.

But tensions ran high among the few lawmakers who were in Washington this week, with two Senate Democrats confronting Johnson and Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., getting into a screaming match with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., over Obamacare subsidies.

Asked about the conflicts, Johnson suggested it was part of the reason House lawmakers should remain out of Washington until the shutdown ends.

‘I’m a very patient man. But I am very angry right now because this is dangerous stuff. And so, is it better for them to be physically separated right now? It probably is,’ he said on Thursday.

‘Frankly, I wish that weren’t the case. But we do have to turn the volume down. The best way to turn the volume down is to turn the lights back on and get the government open for the people.’

Venezuelan opposition leader and newly minted Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado dedicated the award on Friday to both President Donald Trump and the ‘suffering people of Venezuela.’

Machado, a leading figure in the resistance against Venezuela’s ruling party, took to X to acknowledge the honor and to praise Trump for his support.

‘This recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom,’ Machado said. ‘We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy. 

She added, ‘I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!’

Machado has previously been outspoken in her support for the Trump administration’s actions against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime and the country’s narco-trafficking network.

Last month, following reports that a U.S. strike killed 11 alleged Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists transporting drugs from Venezuela, Machado appeared on ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss Maduro’s leadership, saying it was time for him ‘to go.’

‘On behalf of the Venezuelan people, I want to tell you how grateful we are to President Trump and the administration for addressing the tragedy that Venezuela is going through,’ Machado said at the time. ‘ … Maduro has turned Venezuela into the biggest threat to the national security of the U.S. and the stability of the region.’

Trump has also been a vocal critic of Maduro, and the U.S. is among several countries that do not recognize Maduro’s government as legitimate, according to Reuters.

In last year’s election, Machado rallied millions of Venezuelans to reject Maduro. She was described as a ‘brave and committed champion of peace’ by Joergen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

‘She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,’ Frydnes said.

Trump was also among the contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, awarded annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to global peace, in the wake of his brokering a historic deal between Israel and Hamas. 

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to negotiate peace deals around the world, specifically citing his work brokering a truce between Israel and Hamas.

‘He’s really doing a lot to resolve such complex crises that have lasted for years and even decades,’ Putin said at a summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he met with leaders of nations once part of the former Soviet Union.

The remarks came in response to a question about whether he felt Trump had been passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The award was given Friday morning to Venezuelan opposition leader and democracy activist María Corina Machado.

‘There have been cases where the committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to people who have done nothing for peace,’ Putin said. ‘A person comes — good or bad — and [gets it] in a month, in two months — boom. For what? He didn’t do anything at all.

‘In my view, these decisions have done enormous damage to the prestige of this prize,’ he continued.

In September, Trump alluded to the likelihood that he would again be passed over for the Nobel Prize despite helping to end several conflicts.

‘If this works out, we’ll have eight — eight in eight months. That’s pretty good,’ Trump said during remarks to dozens of top generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia. ‘Nobody’s ever done that. Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not.

‘They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing,’ he continued. ‘They’ll give it to the guy who wrote a book about the mind of Donald Trump and what it took to solve the wars. The Nobel Prize will go to a writer.’

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday announced that the Department of War (DOW) is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the Caribbean Sea. 

Hegseth said the task force’s aim would be to ‘crush the cartels, stop the poison, and keep America safe. The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.’

The task force is launching at the direction of President Donald Trump, he said, in the SOUTHCOM area, which covers the Caribbean and Latin America. 

The U.S. Southern Command said in a release that the task force was being launched under the II Marine Expeditionary Force on Friday ‘to synchronize and augment counter-narcotics efforts across the Western Hemisphere.’

‘Transnational criminal organizations threaten the security, prosperity, and health of our hemisphere,’ Admiral Alvin Holsey, the commander of SOUTHCOM, said in a statement. ‘By forming a JTF around II MEF headquarters, we enhance our ability to detect, disrupt, and dismantle illicit trafficking networks faster and at greater depth – together with our U.S. and partner-nation counterparts.’

This comes as the administration has begun strikes against boats in the Caribbean it says are linked to drug trafficking networks.

The administration has conducted a series of fatal strikes against four small boats believed to be carrying drugs over the last few months.

It said 21 people were killed in the strikes.  

The attacks have alarmed Democratic lawmakers as the administration hasn’t detailed what evidence it had against the targeted boats or their passengers. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un displayed a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile at a military parade in Pyongyang that included foreign leaders on Friday. 

The yet-to-be-tested Hwasong-20 was described by the state-owned Korean Central News Agency as having the ‘most powerful nuclear strategic weapons system.’

The government also displayed shorter-range ballistic, cruise and supersonic missiles at the military parade, which marked 80 years since the founding of the Worker’s Party.

Kim said at the parade that the military ‘must continue to evolve into an invincible force that eliminates all threats.’

The foreign dignitaries at the parade included Chinese Premier Li Qiang, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and Vietnam’s Communist Party chief To Lam. 

Kim also met with Medvedev on Friday, who praised the sacrifice of North Korean soldiers fighting with Russia in Ukraine. 

Kim said he hoped to strengthen ties with Russia and work together toward common goals. 

Last summer, Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong warned the U.S. to not attempt to restart talks centered around denuclearization, adding that Pyongyang would view any attempt to pressure North Korea to denuclearize as ‘nothing but a mockery.’ 

‘If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK- U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,’ Kim Yo Jong said, referring to the nation by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump is in ‘excellent overall health,’ the president’s doctor said in a memorandum after a follow-up evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday. 

Earlier this week, the White House announced that Trump, 79, would undergo a ‘routine’ semiannual physical on Friday. 

The president also met with troops while at the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. 

‘President Donald J. Trump successfully completed a scheduled follow-up evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center,’ Navy Capt. Sean P. Barbabella, the physician to the president, wrote in a memorandum to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. 

Barbabella said that the visit was part of an ongoing health maintenance plan that included ‘advanced imaging, laboratory testing and preventative health assessments conducted by multidisciplinary team of specialists.’ 

He added, ‘Comprehensive laboratory studies performed in conjunction with the visit were exceptional, including stable metabolic, hematologic and cardiac parameters.’

In his summary, Barbabella said Trump, ‘remains in exceptional health, exhibiting strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, and physical performance.’ 

Barbabella also said Trump also received updated COVID-19 and flu shots in preparation for international travel. 

‘President Trump continues to demonstrate excellent overall health,’ he wrote, adding that his cardiac age was found to be ‘approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age. He continues to maintain a demanding daily schedule without restriction.’ 

The medical checkup will be Trump’s second this year. He had a similar exam in April, during which his physician stated that he ‘remains in excellent health.’

In July, the president was diagnosed with a vein condition known as chronic venous insufficiency. At the time, Leavitt said Trump had noticed ‘mild swelling’ in his lower legs and was evaluated by the White House medical unit.

Chronic venous insufficiency occurs when veins in the legs struggle to allow blood to flow back up to the heart.

Leavitt attributed the bruising on the president’s hand to ‘frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin.’