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(PHOENIX) — Arizona Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem revealed during Thursday’s debate that he has been interviewed by both the Justice Department and Jan. 6 committee about his alleged involvement in the Capitol attack.

This was the first time Finchem has publicly confirmed speaking on the matter with federal officials.

“They asked me, why was I there? I said, ‘Well, I think you already know. I was there to deliver an evidence package to Representative Paul Gosar,'” Finchem, who was subpoenaed by the committee earlier this year, told reporters after the debate.

The four-term, far-right Arizona lawmaker, who continues to espouse the “Big Lie” and is running to be the state’s chief election officer, revealed the Jan. 6 interview and Justice Department involvement in a back-and-forth on the debate stage with his opponent, Democrat Adrian Fontes.

“I was interviewed by the DOJ and the J-6 commission as a witness,” Finchem said. “So for him to assert that I was part of a criminal uprising is absurd. And frankly, it is a lie.” Finchem told reporters after the debate that the meeting was “a couple of months ago.”

Fontes, the former Maricopa County elections recorder during the 2020 election, prompted the comment by bringing up Finchem’s efforts to decertify President Joe Biden’s win, Finchem’s presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and affiliation with the Oath Keepers militia group.

“Good,” Fontes told reporters after the debate regarding the revelation that Finchem sat for investigators. “I hope they investigate, and if he did something wrong, I hope that they prosecute and convict him.”

ABC News has asked Finchem’s campaign whether he sat for more than one interview with federal investigators and whether he traveled to Washington for the sit-down.

Finchem, leaving the Arizona PBS studio immediately after the debate while reporters chased after him, said he was not asked by investigators about “Stop the Steal” coalition organizer Ali Alexander specifically, and when asked about Alexander’s characterization of him as a “close friend,” Finchem distanced himself, saying, “That’s probably an exaggeration.”

But on the debate stage, Fontes repeatedly tied Finchem to the insurrection.

“He’s part of an organization that has called for the violent overthrow of our government. He has supporters and he himself has called for a civil war in this country, the stockpiling of ammunition for this very war,” Fontes said. “It is an unhinged and violent aspect of Mr. Finchem that he’d rather not discuss.”

“Last time I checked, to be at a place when something is happening is not illegal,” Finchem countered. “I’ve been treated as a witness, not a subject.”

Finchem claimed he was in Washington, D.C., at the time of the attack to deliver a book of information to Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., which he said contained evidence of irregularities in the 2020 election.

“I was there to develop — or to deliver — an evidence book to two congressional members of my constitutionally elected congressional caucus, so that they had the information that they needed to have in the well of the Senate, when they went to argue for a question in controversy,” he said.

While maintaining that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, Finchem said he has “no idea” if there were irregularities in the August primary, which he won, adding, “It is what it is.”

When asked what changed from 2020 to 2022, Finchem said, “The candidates.”

“Not the process, not the people running things, not the rules,” Fontes replied, calling Finchem’s comment “most telling.”

On mail-in voting, Finchem said he doesn’t support every Arizonan getting a mail-in ballot, like Fontes tried to have enacted in Maricopa County in 2020, and dismissed concerns he would try to restrict mail-in voting. He said, “I don’t care for mail-in voting. That’s why I go to the poll.”

Fontes, who supports early and mail-in voting — an option the vast majority of Arizonans use to cast ballots — said, “Mr. Finchem wants to strip Arizonans of their capacity to vote by mail. That’s dangerous.”

Finchem has also previously said he supports getting rid of electronic voting machines in favor of a full hand-count of ballots.

When asked about the role of the federal government in Arizona’s elections, Finchem said, “I think the federal government needs to butt out of states’ rights. It is the legislature who names the time, place and manner of election, not the federal government.”

Fontes interrupted to say, “I think Article One, Section Four of the Constitution of the United States of America would disagree with Mr. Finchem’s assertion about who is charged with the time, place and manner of elections that clearly Congress plays a significant role and that happens to be the federal government, for your information, sir.”

Fontes, who lost his reelection as Maricopa County elections recorder to Republican Stephen Richer, has used his 2020 loss to defend Arizona’s election process.

“This could be the last election in our lifetime,” Fontes told ABC News in a recent interview, expressing concern about the number of candidates on his ballot who deny the validity of the last election. “We can’t depend on the legislature. We can’t depend on the courts. We have to depend on the American people and Arizona’s voters.”

Voting starts in Arizona on Oct. 12.

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(WASHINGTON) — British pop legend Elton John is set to rock the White House on Friday night, playing for President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a South Lawn performance the White House says “will celebrate the unifying and healing power of music.”

Biden has said his songs hold deep meaning for him and John, CNN reported, asked the White House if he could perform.

The event, dubbed “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” is part of a collaboration with A&E Networks and The History Channel, according to the White House. The title of the event is a quote from Irish poet Seamus Heaney that Biden frequently uses in speeches and remarks, including when he accepted the Democratic nomination in 2020.

The event, before Cabinet secretaries and 2,000 invited guests, is to honor John’s life and work, according to the White House, as well as to commemorate “the everyday history-makers in the audience, including teachers, nurses, frontline workers, mental health advocates, students, LGBTQ+ advocates and more.”

Biden and his wife will make remarks.

John has a concert scheduled Saturday night at nearby Nationals Park, part of his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.” The 300-plus world tour dates are a farewell to his fans all over the world, according to the “Crocodile Rock” singer, part of a nearly 50-year career in music.

It’s not the first time the singer has been at the White House. In 1998, President Bill Clinton invited him to play at a state dinner for then-U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, along with Stevie Wonder.

Biden has said that John’s music has comforted his family at its most painful moments.

In his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, Biden recounted visiting his son Beau in the hospital one night shortly before Beau died of brain cancer. John had been at the White House earlier that day, Biden wrote.

When he reached Beau’s bedside that night, Biden said, he sang “Crocodile Rock” to Beau — just as he had to Beau and his other son, Hunter, many years before, after Biden’s wife and daughter were killed in a car accident.

“The words came back like it was yesterday, but after the first few lines I started to get emotional and wasn’t sure if I could go on,” Biden wrote. “Beau didn’t open his eyes, but I could see through my own tears that he was smiling. So I gathered myself and kept at it, for as much of the song as I could remember.”

In addition to his music, John has also been lauded for his work as an AIDS activist, having testified numerous times on Capitol Hill in support of AIDS funding. To date, according to its website, the Elton John AIDS foundation has raised over $600 million since its inception in 1992.

John also has another presidential fan — former President Donald Trump who reportedly wanted the Grammy award winner to play at his inauguration, but John declined.

Trump frequently plays John’s music at his rallies and infamously reacted to the news of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as “Tiny Dancer” blared in the background.

Trump even dubbed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” in what appears to be a reference to John’s song, “Rocket Man.” The singer also performed at Trump’s wedding in 2005 to his curreent wife, Melania.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Thursday rolled out an agenda that he says the House GOP would follow should it retake control of the chamber after this year’s midterms.

The plan, dubbed the “Commitment to America,” marks McCarthy’s most concrete attempt to outline a policy agenda to try to persuade voters ahead of November’s races, in which the GOP is favored — but not guaranteed — to flip the House. The proposal seeks to replicate former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” an agenda released in 1994 when Republicans won control of the House for the first time in decades.

McCarthy’s blueprint contains four overarching goals: creating “an economy that’s strong,” “a nation that’s safe,” “a future that’s built on freedom” and “a government that’s accountable.”

In a video, the minority leader cast the plan as a panacea for the country’s struggles, arguing the proposal would fix inflation, lower crime and other issues he lays at the feet of the Democratic majority in Washington.

“Violent crime is at record highs in our streets and neighborhoods. The border has become a national security crisis, with fentanyl killing our fellow citizens. Soaring inflation has shrunk paychecks and sent us into a recession. And our kids have fallen further behind thanks to school closures and lockdowns,” McCarthy says in the clip, seemingly filmed in a grocery store.

“The White House and the Democrat majority in Congress control Washington. They’re in charge. This is their record,” he says. “And yet, they want you to give them two more years in power. But Republicans have a plan for a new direction — one that’ll get our country back on track.”

McCarthy will formally roll out the plan at an event in Pennsylvania on Friday with a broad cross-section of House members, including moderates like retiring John Katko, N.Y., who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a prominent bomb-thrower.

The proposals largely lean on issues that Republicans believe are advantageous for them this cycle, including stubbornly high inflation, concerns over crime and increases in southern border crossings.

While intended to detail what an agenda could look like in a GOP House majority, the plan is light on specifics. Included in the “commitment” are platitudes like “support[ing] our troops,” “exercis[ing] peace through strength with our allies to counter increasing global threats,” “recover[ing] lost learning from school closures” and “uphold[ing] free speech.”

The proposal also boasts of “rigorous oversight,” though no specific investigatory efforts are laid out.

Among the more specific policy suggestions are “support[ing] 200,000 more police officers through recruiting bonuses” and “repealing proxy voting,” which House members of both parties have relied on during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Republicans in Congress praised the plan on Thursday, saying it hits on the right policies.

“This is a guide a map to what we’ll do to a majority and I think the future speaker is handling it exactly the way it should be,” said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “We’ve got the best candidates we’ve ever had, we’ve got the right message. It’s about cost of living, it’s about crime. It’s about the border.

When asked if the plan was specific enough, Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon said, “More of this is what we believe in, and this is what we are going to fight for. And I think they are good and I embrace them.”

The commitment was notably circumspect on one issue that has roiled the midterms: abortion.

“This election is about kitchen-table issues … inflation,” Emmer maintained. “You’ve got to have a position [on abortion], but [kitchen-table issues] are going to decide the election,” he said.

The release of McCarthy’s vision for his caucus comes amid what strategists and lawmakers of both parties have suggested is a turning of the midterm tide away from what was expected to be a red tsunami earlier this year.

The Supreme Court’s June decision eliminating constitutional protections for abortion and a Democratic legislative hot streak this summer — including passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — have helped level the playing field as generic ballot polling shows Democrats closing the gap with the GOP.

The changed landscape has thrown into question control of the Senate, currently split 50/50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties, though Republicans are still favored by analysts to flip the House.

McCarthy’s decision to release a plan runs counter to the strategy of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has said he will unveil an agenda only if the Senate is controlled by Republicans next year.

“If we’re fortunate enough to have the majority … I’ll be the majority leader. I’ll decide, in consultation with my members, what to put on the floor,” he said earlier this year.

Democrats, for their part, came out swinging Thursday against McCarthy’s agenda, arguing that House Republicans are stoking divisions while President Joe Biden’s plans are the ones that would actually tackle the nation’s issues.

“Republicans are mistaken if they think their political stunt less than 7 weeks before the election will be enough to distract voters from their toxic record. While Democrats deliver critical investments, bring jobs back home from China, and fight to lower costs, Republicans stoke fear for power, obstruct popular legislation that will help everyday families, defend MAGA extremism, and push to ban abortion nationwide,” said Chris Taylor, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Democrats on Thursday managed to chalk up another major legislative win before the midterm elections, approving a long-delayed package of changes to policing and public safety.

Moderate and progressive Democrats hammered out a deal on Wednesday after frenetic negotiations — and on one of the House’s last working days before entering a recess that will stretch past the November races.

This new package of bills would fund recruitment and training for police departments across the country and includes new language on police accountability.

The House narrowly cleared a procedural vote on Thursday after a standstill on the floor after some progressive Democrats objected to terms of the deal. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., voted “present” so her vote wouldn’t count against Democrats in a planned move, which resulted in a 216-215-1 vote.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of of the key negotiators of the package, told reporters they had to make some last-minute updates to one of the pieces of legislation.

“There’s a lot of process, conversations that had to be had to be engaged in,” Omar said. “But we were ultimately hopefully successful. And I’m really proud of everyone for devoting as much energy to making sure our colleagues are able to pass their legislation.”

The four bills passed by slightly wider margins later Thursday afternoon. The package now heads to the Senate, where its fate is unclear.

To address mental health crises, one of the bills, sponsored by California Rep. Katie Porter, would create a grant program for departments to hire and dispatch mental health professionals — not law enforcement officers — in instances involving individuals with behavioral health needs.

The package also includes a bill from Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford that would direct the Justice Department to establish a grant program for local agencies to hire detectives and victim services personnel to investigate shootings.

The legislation targets funding to smaller police departments with fewer than 200 officers; gives the DOJ the ability to preference applicants that use the funds for officer training to improve community safety and accountability; and allows the funding to not only go to officer pay and training but also be used for data collection regarding police and community safety.

Progressives have said they were particularly concerned about providing more grants and funds to police departments without including requirements on accountability for officers’ actions.

Moderates have long insisted on bringing forth public safety bills as a way to fire back at Republican attacks that blame Democrats for rising crime. Polls show some key Senate races tightening, with GOP candidates pressing their opponents on the issue — often citing advocates’ “defund the police” slogan, despite Democratic leaders rejecting such messages.

While Republicans seek to paint Democrats as soft on crime, President Joe Biden has slammed members of the GOP both for denouncing federal law enforcement after an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s residence last month and for expressing support for those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Biden and Democrats pushed in the 2020 cycle for broader policing reform, including changes to the standard to prosecute police misconduct and qualified immunity, after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

But Senate Democrats ultimately failed to overcome Republican opposition to a major piece of legislation named after Floyd. Instead, Biden signed two smaller executive orders on policing earlier this year, on the second anniversary of Floyd’s death.

Omar, who represents the district in Minnesota where Floyd was killed, was one of the harshest critics of the ongoing police reform efforts but gave her approval on Wednesday.

The package, she said, is “evidence-based, holistic legislation that addresses public safety and unifies the Democratic Caucus.”

“After significant, deliberate negotiations, we are pleased to share that … the bill will include a number of reforms to ensure funds are used to support smaller police departments, to invest in de-escalation and other important training, and for data collection and mental health,” Omar and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said in a joint statement.

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