Demonstrators march through downtown Chicago, chanting and waving signs opposing ICE and troop deployment during an emergency protest on September 30, 2025 in Chicago. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(CHICAGO) — The state of Illinois and city of Chicago filed a lawsuit Monday morning seeking to block President Donald Trump’s federalization and deployment of the National Guard.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the complaint said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has declined to take up the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was contesting her prosecution and conviction on grounds that the government had violated a non-prosecution agreement made with Jeffrey Epstein before his death.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision.
Maxwell’s attorney, David O. Markus said he was “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” Markus said in a statement. “But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Mount Everest 8,848 m (29,029 ft) and the Himalayas, aerial photo, Nepal, Asia./(Bim/Getty)
(SEOUL, South Korea) — Scaling the world’s highest peak is a risky adventure. But even hanging around the base camp can be dangerous, as hundreds of holiday makers being trapped when the area was hit in an unexpected blizzard over the weekend.
Taking advantage of an eight-day National Day holiday in China, many visitors and tour groups flocked to Tibet, trekking through the remote Karama Valley, which leads to the eastern side of Mount Everest, known in Tibetan as Qomolangma.
Tour groups heading to Mount Everest during the holiday were fully booked months in advance. Usually, the weather on Mt. Everest is great at this time of year. But an unexpected blizzard trapped hundreds of trekkers in the mountain.
A local government release said that, as of Sunday, 350 trekkers had reached the small township of Qudang, while authorities had made contact with the remaining 200-plus trekkers.
Qu Zhengpu, a 27-year-old experienced hiker, told ABC news he believes that there are more trekkers on the mountain with no cellphone signal, so it’s almost impossible for the rescue teams to get contact with them. Some of his experienced hiking friends even chose to stay on the mountain and wait for the snow to stop.
“This scale of snow storm is very rare this time of the year for Mount Everest, even my local friends haven’t seen that for years,” he said.
There are two trails on the China side of Mount Everest. The northern part is mostly for mountain hikers, while the eastern side for trekkers.
After hiking up the northern side of Mount Everest, astronomy photographer and mountaineering enthusiast Geshuang Chen wanted to explore and film more on the mountain, so she joined a trekking tour group this holiday, and became one of the members trapped by the blizzard.
Chen got off the mountain safely.
She told ABC News that the heavy snow storm started on the night of Oct. 4.
“The snow was so heavy, the thunder and lighting made it terrifying,” Chen said. “On the morning of the 5th, the snow was more than 3 feet deep, already up to my thigh. I barely slept for the whole night, I was so worried.”
The local government has organized a rescue team of police and villagers with yaks to go into the mountain to help the trapped trekkers. Chen said she was extremely grateful to arrive in the nearby town safely, where she was greeted by the local villagers with warm milk tea and food.
(CHICAGO) — The Illinois National Guard has received an official notification from the Pentagon authorizing a mission in Chicago, according to an Illinois official.
The official confirmed the mission will involve 300 Guardsmen tasked with protecting federal property under Title 10 authorities.
The Guard has not received mobilization orders, which means it will take a number of days to process and muster soldiers — and train them for the mission, according to the official.
At the very earliest, Guardsmen would be deployed in Chicago at the end of this week, the official said.
“The Governor did not receive any calls from any federal officials. The Illinois National Guard communicated to the Department of War that the situation in Illinois does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the Governor opposes the deployment of the National Guard under any status,” a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.
The authorization comes amid escalating tensions in Chicago over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on Saturday shot and wounded a woman they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters that rammed their vehicles during an “ambush.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Border Patrol agents opened fire on the woman in self-defense, alleging she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and was driving one of three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed the CBP agents’ vehicles.
Describing the incident as “really strange,” Noem alleged that before the shooting, a caravan of 10 vehicles was following the CBP agents and officers through the streets of Chicago.
“They had followed them and gotten them cornered, pinned them down and then our agents, when getting out of their cars, they tried to run them over and had semiautomatic handguns on them to where our agents had to protect themselves and shots were fired and an individual ended up in the hospital that was attacking these officers,” Noem said in a statement on Sunday.
(NEW YORK) — Rite Aid has shuttered all of its stores after more than six decades in business.
The pharmacy chain made the announcement in a post on its website, stating, “All Rite Aid stores have now closed. We thank our loyal customers for their many years of support.”
ABC News has reached out to the company for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Despite its long history in the pharmacy industry, Rite Aid has faced mounting financial challenges in recent years. The company most recently filed for bankruptcy protection in May, just eight months after emerging from a previous Chapter 11 filing in September 2024.
At the time, Rite Aid — which operated more than 1,200 stores across 15 states from California to Vermont — said it planned to keep stores open while selling off assets to avoid disrupting customers’ prescription services.
The company also announced it had secured $1.94 billion in new financing from existing lenders to stay operational during bankruptcy proceedings.
Rite Aid had first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023, allowing it to reduce billions in debt and close hundreds of underperforming stores. Alongside declining sales, the company has also faced more than 1,000 federal, state, and local lawsuits alleging its pharmacies improperly filled prescriptions for painkillers, according to the New York Times.
In March 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint accusing Rite Aid of filling “unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances” that showed multiple red flags for misuse — allegations the company has denied.
As part of its first bankruptcy reorganization, Rite Aid reached a settlement with the Justice Department in June 2024 resolving those allegations under the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act. Under the settlement, the company agreed to pay the government $7.5 million and have a general unsecured claim in Rite Aid’s bankruptcy case, which are being handled through the court process. Rite Aid did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The company’s second bankruptcy filing in May 2025 paused most of the remaining opioid-related lawsuits including cases brought by state and local governments as well as individual plaintiffs which are now being handled through the bankruptcy’s claims process while Rite Aid works through its wind-down plan — a plan that remains under court review amid ongoing objections from the U.S. Trustee.
Rite Aid has denied the allegations in those lawsuits and in a statement in 2023 said it sought an “equitable” resolution of opioid claims through the Chapter 11 process.
Founded in 1962 as Thrift D Discount Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Rite Aid grew into the nation’s third-largest standalone pharmacy chain before its final closure.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said talks remain stalled on the fifth day of the government shutdown, with Democrats seeking to undo Medicaid cuts and restore Obamacare subsidies and Republicans demanding a clean funding bill to fund the government into November.
“It’s really a moment of health care crisis,” Booker told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Booker said he’s less concerned with which party is to blame for the shutdown and more focused on Americans’ health and personal finances that he said are at risk from the shutdown.
“I don’t care about the blame game. I care about Americans losing their health insurance, rates of death going up, hospitals being crushed, medical services ending in places in rural America. This is a tsunami of Donald Trump’s creation,” Booker said.
Here are more highlights from Booker’s interview:
On GOP criticism that Dems have supported past continuing resolutions They’re [GOP] not negotiating. Remember, the speaker of the House has kept the House out for the last two weeks. They’re not sitting down. And when he asks, “What’s different?” What is different is we are, for the first time in America ever, we’re on a moment where because of Donald Trump’s attacks on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, on the verge of tens of millions of Americans losing their health care and most of Americans experiencing a significant rise in their health care costs.
On whether he has any criticism of Democratic leadership
Raddatz: Do you have any disappointment in your party leadership?
Booker: You’ve seen Chuck Schumer go to the podium, negotiate with us, almost begging the president to bring the parties together, like he said, Donald Trump literally has said, it’s the president’s responsibility to bring the parties together and negotiate a way through.
Raddatz: So you’re fine, you’re fine with your leadership, with everything the Democrats have been doing?
Booker: I am proud of those people who are standing up right now and saying, we’re not doing business as usual in Washington with this many millions of Americans are literally going to be hurt because when they’re sick, they won’t be able to afford to go to a doctor, when they go to the emergency room, the lines will be two times as long we are in a crisis. We are in a crisis. We need a president to stand up and bring us together to help to solve the problems of American people.
(NEW YORK) — During a speech earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the implementation of new fitness standards for the military.
In addition to the newly proposed annual fitness exam, Hegseth’s speech emphasized “gender-neutral” testing with men and women required to meet the same minimum physical performance benchmarks.
Speaking to hundreds of high-ranking military officials in Quantico, Virginia, Hegseth said it was important that certain combat positions return “to the highest male standard,” acknowledging that it may lead to fewer women serving in combat roles.
The current training is not different for male and female servicemembers.
“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” he said on Tuesday. “If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”
“I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in [a] combat unit with females who can’t meet the same combat arms physical standards as men,” Hegseth added.
Before becoming secretary, Hegseth had spoken out against women in combat roles, but softened his stance during his confirmation hearings, saying he supports women serving in combat roles so long as they meet the same standards as men — an approach the military says has been in place for nearly a decade.
Some experts in exercise science and in the history of women’s service in the military told ABC News that while there is room for improvement in military fitness, they are concerned there’s a false narrative that female servicemembers are the only ones not meeting certain fitness standards.
“To me, Hegseth wants a military that looks a certain way … which [is] definitely male and muscular,” Jill Hasday, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School with expertise in sex discrimination in the military, told ABC News. “It seems like his expectation is that once they enforce more ‘rigorous standards,’ more women will be pushed out.”
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense said they did not “have anything to provide beyond Secretary Hegseth’s remarks.”
President Donald Trump also addressed officials at the Tuesday meeting, saying that “together, we’re reawakening the warrior spirit.”
Combat roles for women
In 2016, when the military opened certain high-intensity combat jobs to women, including the special operations forces, then-Secretary Ash Carter stated the importance of making sure female servicemembers “qualify and meet the standards.”
However, during his speech, Hegseth said the Department was issuing a directive that each military branch would ensure each requirement for “every designated combat arms position returns to the highest male standard only.”
In a follow-up memo from Hegseth, he stated the annual service test will require a passing grade of 70% and will be “sex-neutral” and “male standard.”
Additionally, beginning in 2026, the U.S. Army’s new fitness standards will require both male and female soldiers to meet the same minimum physical performance benchmarks for the demands of the battlefield.
Shawn Arent, a professor and chair in the department of exercise science at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, said there’s nothing wrong with enforcing standards, but that there is a contradiction in Hegseth saying the tests will be “sex-normed” and also “male standard for combat roles.”
“I think we need to get away from referencing ‘male standards,'” Arent told ABC News. “They’re either standards or they’re a sex-specific standard. … I think there’s one really important caveat to this: those standards then need to make sense. In other words, what are they based on? And, if they’re arbitrary standards, then that feels certainly discriminatory.”
Arent said the standards need to be evidence-based and that it is possible the current standards need to be lowered or raised.
“It makes it sound like there’s this dramatic change, and that everything’s based on what a male can accomplish,” he said. “It should be what a combat soldier, Marine, sailor, airman, whatever, what they can accomplish in that particular role, male or female.”
Stewart Smith, a former Navy SEAL and current fitness trainer, including for those looking to enter the military, agreed, saying gender-neutral doesn’t equate to male standards.
“I don’t want to singularly say women can’t do these because there will be women that can, but I don’t think it’s a necessary focus,” Smith told ABC News. “Should [all servicemembers] be in shape and healthy and look good in a uniform? 100%. But … statistically speaking, these [maximum] standards are at a level that most men aren’t getting.”
He went on, “Saying something is gender-neutral doesn’t mean it’s the maximum male standard, right? Because, once again, if that’s the case, most males aren’t reaching that maximum male standard.”
What it would take to improve standards, according to experts
Smith and Arent said they are in favor of improving fitness standards across the military, but that Hegseth’s speech did not take into account all of the additional steps it would take to improve physical performance.
For example, Smith said improving fitness standards needs to come with improving food quality and sleep quality in the military.
“There’s a lot more problems than just high fitness standards,” he said. “Nutrition and sleep are required for that level of physical performance. … Those are the two biggest components to optimal performance that we’re stressing is you need to sleep well, you need to eat well, and you need time to train. All three are not a current priority in the military.”
Arent said this change in standards presents an opportunity for the military to examine how it can train people up to the new standards it will set.
He added that there’s a plethora of information on human performance and human optimization compared to even a decade ago
“As somebody who works with a lot of female athletes, there are ways to absolutely train them to be beasts,” Arent said. “Women are incredibly resilient, cognitively capable, and I think if you start thinking about combat roles, tactical decision-making, the ability to handle stress under these pressure situations — yes, physical fitness is a component to that, but what else are we assessing that goes with these roles?”
“We have a real opportunity here, if they lean into it to rather than setting these standards, like, ‘If you can’t meet it, too bad you suck. You’re out,'” he continued. “What are we going to do to modify how we’re approaching this to actually get more people to hit those standards?”
Too much focus on physical fitness and not other skills
The experts told ABC News that Hegseth’s speech did not focus on the other components that make people qualified to take on military combat roles.
“There’s more to leadership and service than the highest of [physical training] scores,” Smith said. “There’s learning tactics and leadership, and there’s more to leadership than great fitness tests.”
“Obviously, physical fitness can be important for many military roles, but it’s not the only thing that’s important. You don’t win a war through push-ups,” Hasday added. “Even when women were officially barred from combat, there were a lot of female troops that were essentially co-located with the troops, and they would go around with the combat troops.”
Hasday explained that in some countries where troops have been stationed, female civilians are not allowed to speak to men who are not members of their family. Having female service members with the male combat troops allowed the military to speak to female civilians to get information or to provide help.
“So, the idea, again, that you’re going to win a war by going outside someone’s house and doing push-ups, it just doesn’t seem realistic,” she said.
Female veterans hit back at Hegseth
Hegseth’s comments drew criticism from female veterans, particularly those who held combat roles.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey and a former Navy helicopter pilot, released a statement saying there is “no evidence that women cannot ably serve in combat positions.”
“Eliminating the current highly rigorous standards for women in combat positions has nothing to do with increasing lethality and everything to do with forcing women out of the Armed Forces,” she said.
Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot and Democratic Senate candidate in Kentucky, posted a video on Facebook stating there is no male standard or female standard for roles, including flying a fighter jet or being an artillery officer.
“Since combat roles have been open for qualified women, there have always been one standard for those jobs,” she said. “It’s a slap in the face and offensive to suggest otherwise.”
Arent said he can understand why this would be upsetting to former female servicemembers who held combat roles, particularly in reference to Hegseth’s comments about not wanting his son to be in a combat unit with women who weren’t meeting the same physical standards as men.
“Because of the way it [was] said, it makes it sound like it’s the females that are deficient,” he said. “But I would argue, by the same token, if they are physically capable, what if they’re more cognitively capable, more tactically capable, you would want them alongside your son, if that’s the case.”
Arent went on, “It’s not just women that aren’t meeting these standards. We have a whole lot of men that can’t meet some of these standards.”
Police intervene the protesters, at least 56 demonstrators were arrested after blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge to end the Israeli attacks and establish a ceasefire in Gaza, following the Yom Kippur 2025 gathering at Brooklyn Borough Hall hosted by Rabbis for Ceasefire in New York City, United States, on October 2, 2025. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(BROOKLYN, N.Y.) — Almost 60 protestors were arrested on Yom Kippur after blocking traffic on New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge, authorities confirmed to ABC News.
The hundreds of people present at Thursday’s protest were members of the Rabbis for Ceasefire group that is comprised of Rabbis and Rabbinical students who support the free Palestine movement, according to the group.
The protest comes amidst the ongoing Israel-Hamas War in Gaza that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, as reported by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, sparking demonstrations and protests all over the world calling for a ceasefire.
After being called to the scene of the Brooklyn Bridge demonstration, NYPD officers arrested almost 60 protestors as they clapped and sang in Hebrew, according to social media videos shared by protesters.
NYPD could not confirm if all of the protestors have been released from custody yet, or if they will be criminally charged.
The protest began a few hours earlier at Brooklyn Borough Hall, according to the group’s social media, with a Yizkor service, which is a special Jewish ceremony for those who have died. Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, also known as the “Day of Atonement.”
NYPD told ABC News the protestors blocked all lanes of traffic on the bridge for one hour.
Rabbis for Ceasefire seeks to “collaborate with the broad Jewish Left ecosystem and multiracial, interfaith coalitions to practice a Judaism we can be proud of for future generations. R4C creates space for our communities to be with our horror, outrage, grief, shame, and fear while speaking spiritual and political truth,” according to their website.
The group sought to use the holiday to shine a spotlight on their activism, the website said.
“This Yom Kippur, though our grief, outrage, and despair, let us turn our most holy of holy days into a mass mourning, collective atonement, and dignified action,” the group wrote on their page about the protest.
The ongoing Gaza war erupted after Hamas led a surprise terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people there and taking 251 others hostage, according to figures from the Israeli government.
In this screen grab from a video released by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, 31-year-old Thomas Brown is shown after his arrest. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
(MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz.) — A suspect has now been arrested after two teenagers were found fatally shot in May on an isolated hiking trail in Arizona, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said Thomas Brown, 31, has been arrested on two counts of first-degree murder in the killings on Mount Ord, a popular remote hiking and camping area.
The victims had been identified as 18-year-old Pandora Kjolsrud and 17-year-old Evan Clark.
Both teens were shot multiple times, according to law enforcement.
“What a senseless, violent act, the murder of two young teenagers while out camping,” Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan said at a press conference Friday.
The suspect admitted to having an interaction with the two teens while they were hiking, but there is “no evidence” to suggest there was any association between the teens and the suspect.
“They were likely complete strangers,” Capt. David Lee said at the press conference.
“I can’t find the words to express how sorry we are for what they’ve gone through and for the continuing victimization that a crime like this causes those families,” Lee said.
The teens were first reported overdue on May 26 after a woman told law enforcement that her daughter was out camping with friends and her last known location was Mount Ord, between the cities of Mesa and Payson, Lee said.
A responding sergeant found a vehicle in the area — later identified as Clark’s — and tried to make contact with occupants but was unable to. The sergeant then requested backup, Lee said.
The additional deputies continued their search until they found a campground further up the mountain, Lee said.
“In that campsite, they noticed conditions that suggested there was evidence of something being dragged away from that camp area. They would then locate the bodies of Pandora Kjolsrud and Evan Clark, who were pronounced deceased on the scene,” Lee said.
The sheriff’s office at the time said the deaths were being treated as “suspicious.”
In the following days, detectives received many tips, including one that Brown was camping on Mount Ord on that day. Another tip from a different group of campers said they encountered an individual “acting very strangely,” Lee said.
“The tip from those campers detailed some very specific observations that caused our detectives to heighten our focus and focus our detective’s investigative efforts into Thomas Brown’s involvement,” Lee said.
Brown told law enforcement he was camping on Mount Ord from the May 23 to 26, saying his wife was with him, but that she left the morning of May 25 and he stayed behind, Lee said.
Police believe Brown acted alone, Lee said.
Brown provided law enforcement “false and misleading information” regarding his involvement with evidence and the comparison of his statements and physical evidence led to his apprehension, according to Lee.
Simone Schultz, Kjolsrud’s mother, spoke at the press conference, describing her daughter as a “beautiful, brilliant light in this world.”
“The light and love and beauty she gave us will be in our hearts forever, and the darkness that she encountered on that day when she met her killer will not define her life; his darkness will never overcome her light,” Schultz said.
“I have full faith in our judicial system to evaluate the evidence in this double homicide and find the perpetrator guilty of the violent murders he committed against two innocent teenagers,” she said. “My daughter’s life matters, and I look forward to the day the perpetrator is convicted and punished for his crimes.”
The two teens were students at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, according to a letter the principal wrote to parents at the time.
“This last week Evan was taken from me, and my level of grief feels insurmountable. I find myself at a complete loss to imagine a life without him,” Sandra Malibu Sweeney, Clark’s mother, said in a statement shortly after he was found dead. “It is a small comfort to share some things about this boy who was on his way to becoming a wonderful man.”
She continued, “Evan wasn’t a typical teenager. He was funny, bright, kind and entrepreneurial. He was an old soul who was sensitive and loving. Evan wrote me letters, the last of which he gave me on Mother’s Day that was so touching it made me both laugh and cry. He was special. He deserved a long life.”
The U.S. Capitol Visitors Center is closed to visitors during the federal government shut down on October 01, 2025 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The government shutdown is in its third day on Friday with senators set to vote for the fourth time on bills to fund the government. But with negotiations appearing stalled, it’s looking like the shutdown could extend through the weekend.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune stood firm Friday on the Senate floor — just hours before the chamber is set to take yet another vote on Republican’s clean seven-week government funding bill — and signaled his party’s unwillingness to negotiate with Democrats over their demands in order to open the government back up.
“This shutdown needs to end sooner rather than later, and there’s only one way out of it. Democrats need to vote for the clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sitting right there,” Thune said. “All it takes is one roll call, vote, the government’s back open.”
In addition to the GOP-backed seven-week stopgap funding measure, the Senate will also vote on the Democrat’s funding bill that includes health care provisions.
Thune criticized the Democrats’ bill, suggesting that any health care negotiations could begin after they pass the continuing resolution. But with both Republican and Democratic leaders at a stalemate, it seems as if neither bill will pass.
Both bills have failed during the three previous votes since the government shut down on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m.
Thune said he does not expect to hold votes over the weekend and the next chance to try again would be Monday. This shutdown could go on at least six days if that ends up being the case.
Thune, meanwhile, is continuing his effort to recruit more Democrats to join the GOP-backed funding bill. And Democrats met Friday afternoon to discuss their next moves.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that Republicans are to blame for the shutdown.
“The Republicans can reopen the government and make peoples’ healthcare more affordable at the same time,” Schumer wrote in a post on X. “Republicans are choosing to let healthcare costs go up for Americans across this country.”
Asked Friday afternoon if President Donald Trump is talking with Democrats to work to get them onboard, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Senate Republicans are speaking to moderate Democrats and that those conversations have “become very serious.”
Thune put pressure on Democrats during a press conference Friday morning.
“We have an opportunity to pick up a House-passed bill that if it passes the Senate, will be sent to the White House, the president will sign it and the government will reopen. It’s that simple and that straightforward. And that’s what we’re talking about. All we need is a handful more Democrats,” Thune said.
The majority leader said he hoped that Democrats “have a chance to think about” their stance over the weekend.
“I don’t know how many times you give them a chance to vote no, and hopefully over the weekend, they’ll have a chance to think about it. Maybe some of these conversations start to result in something to where we can start moving some votes and actually get this thing passed,” Thune said Friday. “But there’s nothing to be gained at this point by negotiating something that there’s nothing to negotiate.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also would not commit to negotiating with Democrats on their $400 billion demand to extend the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
“Some of the issues that they’re bringing to the table and they’re demanding immediate easy answers for, are not easy answers and they take a long time to deliberate. That is the process. This is a deliberative body, and a very large one,” Johnson said. “We can’t snap our fingers, and he and I and two other leaders in a room go, ‘Oh, well, this is the resolution.’ That’s not how it works.”
As the Senate works to chart a path forward, President Donald Trump is once again teasing to looming federal firings, which the White House said are “very real” and could result in “thousands” of federal workers losing their jobs during the shutdown.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
