Fox News has broken its silence about Laura Ingraham's latest controversy.

Ingraham sparked outrage on her Thursday show when she bemoaned white supremacist Paul Nehlen's social media ban, putting a photo of him on screen with a group of people she labeled as "prominent voices censored by social media."

Although Ingraham didn't mention Nehlen by name, she said in reference to the graphic he was included on, "these are some of the people [Facebook has] shunned ... it's people who believe in border enforcement, people who believe in national sovereignty." Nehlen has been condemned by Democrats and Republicans for his racist and anti-Semitic statements, with even Breitbart News cutting ties with him. Other extremists like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos were included on the graphic.

Fox News in a statement on Friday stood behind Ingraham, insisting she was not actually defending Nehlen.

“It is obscene to suggest that Laura Ingraham was defending Paul Nehlen's despicable actions especially when some of the names on the graphic were pulled from an Associated Press report on best known political extremists banned from Facebook,” Fox News said in a statement, Variety reports. “Anyone who watches Laura’s show knows that she is a fierce protector of freedom of speech and the intent of the segment was to highlight the growing trend of unilateral censorship in America."

Fox News seems to be referencing an Associated Press report about Facebook banning several "dangerous individuals," including Nehlen, although a number of people mentioned in the report were not included on Ingraham's graphic.

Ingraham had been slammed on Friday for promoting Nehlen and seeming to come to his defense with the segment, with the Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeting that Fox News must "do better."

With a unanimous vote, the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday passed a bill to extend the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.

The move came one day after former Daily Show host Jon Stewart testified before the committee, criticizing lawmakers for their failure to reauthorize the fund. The 9/11 first responders "did their jobs with courage, grace, tenacity, humility," he said. "Eighteen years later, do yours."

The fund was established in 2011, and assists first responders who are now sick because of the toxic substances they were exposed to, as well as the families of those who have died. The $7.3 billion fund has already paid out $5 billion to 21,000 claimants, and with thousands of unpaid claims left to process. While Congress reauthorized the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act in 2015 for 90 years, the fund was only extended through 2020.

The Never Forget the Heroes Act of 2019 reauthorizes the fund through 2090, and is expected to pass when the full House of Representatives votes on it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday said he has been "imploring, pleading, even begging" Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to hold a vote on the bill as soon as the House passes it. Catherine Garcia

President Trump's statement that he would accept "oppo research" on a political opponent from a foreign government and would "maybe" tell the FBI was jarring to most observers, even if they found it in character for Trump. Longtime presidential adviser David Gergen told CNN's Anderson Cooper eh was "shocked but not surprised" by Trump's comments, adding that legally, Trump or anyone else in the government with a top security clearance, has "an affirmative obligation to call the FBI" if a foreign government, especially an adversarial one, "approaches you with information like this." In fact, he added, "it would be breaking the law not to call them."

Resident Trump supporter Rick Santorum pointed out that Trump said he would both "listen" to the opposition research from a foreign government and call the FBI, and when Gergen and Cooper noted that Trump said "maybe" and contradicted his FBI director's directive to alert authorities, Santorum called "maybe" just one of Trump's "filler words," said Trump's language is often "imprecise," and said he doesn't "think there's a crime in looking at the information as long as you refer it to the proper authorities."

Laura Coates, a former federal prosecutor and current CNN legal analyst, wasn't having it. Watch below. Peter Weber

President Trump's confession that he would accept political dirt on his opponents from foreign powers set off a firestorm of tweets from the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Trump is "once again welcoming foreign interference in our elections. ... It is a threat to our national security. An American President should not seek their aid and abet those who seek to undermine democracy." Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted that Trump thinks "he is above the law," while Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) called Trump's remarks "disgraceful," and the fact that he made them from the Oval Office "proves you're unfit for the office you hold."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has already called for Trump's impeachment, rang that bell again, saying Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report made it clear "a foreign government attacked our 2016 elections to support Trump, Trump welcomed that help, and Trump obstructed the investigation. Now, he said he'd do it all over again. It's time to impeach Donald Trump." Beto O'Rourke agreed, and said by openly welcoming "foreign help to win an election," Trump "threatens the very core of our democracy. If we are to secure justice and ensure this never happens again, we must impeach him."

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) warned that China, Russia, and North Korea are all listening to Trump, and it's time to "speak the truth: this president is a national security threat." Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) chimed in, calling Trump's words "inexcusable" and "disgraceful," while Julian Castro shared his concern that Trump is "now essentially calling for an open season on our 2020 elections. Once again, he's putting his interests above our nation's, and risking the integrity of our elections." Catherine Garcia

The St. Louis Blues defeated the Boston Bruins 4-1 Wednesday night in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, winning the team's first NHL championship.

The Blues went 51 seasons before capturing the title, and held the record for playing the most games in NHL history without winning the Stanley Cup, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The Blues made a magnificent comeback over the last several months; on Jan. 3, they had the fewest points in the league.

Ryan O'Reilly — who won the Conn Smythe Trophy for being the MVP of the playoffs — and Alex Pietrangelo scored in the first period, followed by Brayden Schenn in the third and Zach Sanford in the fourth. Their teammate Jordan Binnington stopped the first 32 shots that came his way, and he is now the first rookie goalie to win 16 playoff games in a season. Catherine Garcia

A new study has found that the Pentagon emits more greenhouse gasses in one year than several industrialized countries, including Sweden and Portugal.

The Defense Department is the world's single largest consumer of oil, and in 2017, the Pentagon released 59 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the study states. "If it were a country, it would have been the world's 55th largest greenhouse gas emitter," writes study author Neta Crawford, a political scientist at Boston University.

Most of the Pentagon's energy consumption is related to maintaining 560,000 buildings at 500 military installations and the jet and diesel fuel used to move soldiers and weapons. Crawford said the military has been using more efficient vehicles, and it would make a huge difference if the Pentagon started rethinking certain missions and whether they are necessary. "There is a lot of room here to reduce emissions," Crawford said. Catherine Garcia

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) was astonished by President Trump's public admission on Wednesday that if a foreigner offered information on a political opponent, he would take it.

"What Donald Trump said is un-American, unpatriotic, and unbelievable," Lieu told MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "The issue is not oppo research. You can take oppo research, you cannot take it from a foreign power. There is actually a law against this — the Federal Election Campaign Act says that candidates cannot knowingly take anything of material value from a foreign power."

Trump told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that he'd "maybe" go to the FBI with political dirt shared by a foreign government, but later said this wasn't something that warranted a phone called to the agency. All of this is proof, Lieu said, that "Donald Trump is selling America down for his own personal benefit." Catherine Garcia