(NEW YORK) — Officers with the Transportation Security Administration found 6,737 guns — a record high — at airport security checkpoints across the U.S. last year, the agency said Wednesday.
About 93% of the guns found were loaded, the TSA said.
This marks the third year in a row that a record number of guns were confiscated by airport security.
The total of 6,737 guns surpasses the previous record of 6,542 guns that were discovered at TSA checkpoints in 2022. That 2022 record broke the previous record of 5,972 guns recovered in 2021, according to TSA.
Flyers caught trying to bring firearms in their carry-on baggage can face arrest or citations from local law enforcement.
Passengers can also face civil penalties from the TSA up to almost $15,000 and risk losing their TSA PreCheck eligibility for five years.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — More than three years into the pandemic, hundreds of Americans are still dying from COVID-19 every week.
For the week ending Dec. 9, the last week of complete data, there were 1,614 deaths from COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The last four weeks of complete data show an average of 1,488 weekly deaths.
By comparison, there were 163 weekly deaths from the flu for the week ending Dec. 9, according to CDC data.
While high, these COVID death figures are still lower than the high of 25,974 deaths recorded the week ending Jan. 9, 2021, as well as weekly deaths seen in previous winters, CDC data shows.
The current “weekly rate of COVID mortality is similar to what we were getting per day at [the worst] parts of the pandemic. So, proportionally, we’re in a completely different place than where we were, thankfully,” Dr. Cameron Wolfe, a professor of infectious diseases at Duke University in North Carolina, told ABC News. “But there’s still a pretty significant mortality; 1,500 patients dying every week is unacceptable, frankly.”
Experts said there are several reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including not enough people accessing treatments or getting vaccinated as well as waning immunity.
Additionally, if more people get sick, even if in lesser numbers than in previous waves, it will naturally lead to more people becoming hospitalized and, in turn, dying.
“We do have very good vaccines that [researchers] have been able to adjust as the variants have changed and very good treatment options that have been shown to decrease the risk of hospitalization as well as deaths,” Dr. Shivanjali Shankaran, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told ABC News.
“However, if we’re not accessing those particular tools, then having them doesn’t sort of make any difference,” Shankaran added.
Too few people getting vaccinated
As of Jan. 5, just 19.4% of adults aged 18 and older and 8% of children have received the updated COVID vaccine, CDC data shows. Additionally, just 38% of adults aged 65 and older, who are at higher risk of severe illness, have been vaccinated.
The updated vaccine is targeted against variants that are related to XBB, an offshoot of the omicron variant.
Currently, JN.1, a descendant of BA.2.86 — which is itself descended from XBB — makes up an estimated 61.6% of U.S. COVID cases, CDC data shows.
Although the CDC has suggested JN.1 may be more transmissible or better at evading the immune system than other variants, there is no evidence that available vaccines don’t work.
“The longer someone has gone since their last vaccine, or their most recent infection for that matter, the more likely their COVID breakthrough would occur and the more likely it’s going to be severe enough that they land in hospital” and potentially die, Wolfe said.
Experts said there may a level of vaccine fatigue and complacency in the population with people not getting the updated vaccine because they don’t feel like they need it after getting the original vaccine and then subsequent boosters. This, however, doesn’t account for waning immunity.
“[Vaccines] don’t retain their memory as effectively as we might like, so if you were vaccinated short of more than 12 months ago, your chances of maintaining really good memory again from that vaccine is probably pretty poor at this point,” Wolfe said.
For a high-risk person, this increases their chance of severe illness if they get infected. For lower risk people, this increases the risk of them spreading the virus to more at-risk groups, he added.
Americans not accessing treatments
COVID-19 treatments have evolved since the early days of the pandemic with antiviral pills available, particularly Paxlovid from Pfizer.
Paxlovid is three pills given twice daily for five days for those at high risk of severe illness. Initial clinical trial data showed Pfizer’s pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for unvaccinated patients at risk of severe illness who began treatment within three days of symptoms by nearly 90%. More recent studies including omicron strains of the virus and vaccinated patients have upheld similar results showing the treatment cut the risk of hospitalization and death in half.
It’s been a relatively underused treatment with some reports suggesting that in some states it’s prescribed in less than 25% of cases — and it may be another reason why deaths have increased.
Experts said there may be several factors at play.
“It’s a combination of misunderstanding about who’s eligible for Paxlovid, a misunderstanding about whether Paxlovid works and then sometimes trouble getting prescriptions,” Dr. Megan Rainey, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told ABC News. “Because we know, for example, that Paxlovid use is much lower in rural areas, as well as among those who have lower educational levels, so I suspect for Paxlovid that there is this kind of element of access as well.”
Physicians may also feel hesitant to prescribe Paxlovid due to concerns about how the medication interacts with other prescription drugs or even due to instance of people experiencing a Paxlovid rebound, which is a recurrence of COVID symptoms.
“The data on rebound is still being figured out, but what’s clear is that whether or not you get a rebound with Paxlovid, it absolutely decreases risk of hospitalization and death,” Rainey said.
More infections mean more severe illnesses
Another reason for the increase is the sheer fact that more people getting sick naturally means more hospitalizations and more deaths, according to experts.
“It’s nothing obviously like the omicron wave where we had just millions and millions of people getting sick, and because of that many more people going to the hospital and dying, but yeah, as the total number of people who are infected increases, then you are going to have a similar increase in the number of people who need hospitalization,” Shankaran said.
For those who may be elderly or immunocompromised, even a case of mild COVID-19 can result in severe illness and even death.
Experts said the messaging to the public is the same as in earlier phases of the pandemic and advise that Americans remain diligent.
“The message is to be aware of your own risk factors, be aware of your own symptoms, recognize that vaccines provide protection, not only against getting sick but severity of sickness,” Wolfe said. “That’s the same message that we try and send for flu and RSV each year, it’s no different.”
(NEW YORK) — Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance Wednesday on Capitol Hill, defiantly walking into a House committee hearing centered on whether to hold him in contempt.
The move sparked outrage from Republicans, who’ve issued a congressional subpoena for him to sit for a closed-door deposition in their ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The president’s son has said he would testify only in a public forum, and has previously castigated the probe as “illegitimate.”
“You’re the epitome of white privilege, coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of?” Republican Rep. Nancy Mace said just after he entered the room. She went on to say the younger Biden should be arrested and go “straight to jail.”
Mace was interrupted by another lawmaker, Democrat Jared Moskowitz, who said they could “hear from Hunter Biden right now” and called for a vote to have him speak.
Hunter Biden made his way into the hearing amid opening statements and took a seat in the front row. He was accompanied by his lawyer Abbe Lowell.
Hunter Biden left a short time after, when the chairman called on Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to speak.
“Excuse me, Hunter, apparently you’re afraid of my words,” Greene said.
Lowell then spoke to the press outside the hearing room, though Hunter Biden ignored shouted questions.
“Hunter Biden was and is a private citizen. Despite this, Republicans have sought to use him as a surrogate to attack his father,” Lowell said.
Lowell accused Republicans of caring “little about the truth” and trying to “hold someone in contempt, who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, the Oversight Committee released a 19-page report recommending he be held in contempt of Congress, as well as the text of the proposed resolution.
“Mr. Biden’s flagrant defiance of the Committees’ deposition subpoenas — while choosing to appear nearby on the Capitol grounds to read a prepared statement on the same matters — is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions,” the report stated.
Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News he has the votes to get the resolution out of committee.
A full vote on the House floor would be held at a later date. Comer said it could happen early next week.
Hunter Biden was subpoenaed to sit for the closed-door interview on Dec. 13 but instead held a defiant news conference just outside the U.S. Capitol.
“I am here to testify at a public hearing, today, to answer any of the committees’ legitimate questions,” he said. “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say. What are they afraid of? I am here.”
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat, also criticized Comer for “denying Hunter Biden the opportunity to answer all the Committee’s questions in front of the American people and the world.”
“Chairman Comer does not want Hunter Biden to testify in public, just as he has refused to publicly release over a dozen interview transcripts, because he wants to keep up the carefully curated distortions, blatant lies, and laughable conspiracy theories that have marked this investigation,” Raskin said in a statement.
Committee Republicans have countered that they are open to public testimony at an unspecified “future date” but “need not and will not accede to Mr. Biden’s demand for special treatment with respect to how he provides testimony.”
The Biden impeachment inquiry, launched unilaterally by ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy and then formalized months later by the House in a party-line vote, has yet to yield any concrete evidence to support GOP claims that Biden participated in and profited from his son and family’s foreign business dealings.
The House Oversight Committee report recommending a contempt charge stated Hunter Biden’s testimony is “necessary” to determine whether there are “sufficient grounds” for impeachment.
The committee has also subpoenaed President Biden’s brother, James Biden, and former Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker. It also requested transcribed interviews with other members of the Biden family and Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden.
ABC News’ Selina Wang and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
(MEMPHIS) — Memphis Police Chief Chief C.J. Davis could be voted out of her position, one year after the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis Police Department officers.
In a 7-6 vote, the Memphis City Council on Tuesday recommended that Davis not remain in her position, and that a full city council vote be held on Jan. 23 to make the ultimate determination of whether she will continue to be the police chief, according to the city council office.
In what was the first meeting between the newly-elected city council and Davis, the police chief was heavily criticized regarding her actions in the wake of Nichols’ death in January 2023.
Some council members claimed that Davis failed to order the Memphis Police Department to follow city ordinances passed following Nichols’ death, which were enacted to stop pretextual traffic stops. Nichols was stopped by police the night of Jan. 7, 2023, when he was beaten for reasons that were not observable on the officers’ body camera footage.
“I’m not a liar, I don’t have to be a liar,” Davis declared at the city council meeting. “I went to work for this council [after the ordinances were passed], I navigated the politics, I navigated the state law, the federal law, and the position of our officers receiving mixed messages.”
Newly-elected Memphis Mayor Paul Young, who was not in office during the police encounter with Nichols last year, urged the city council to give him the opportunity to work with Davis and allow her to stay at her post.
“I understand that there was a little tension between the administration and the prior city council,” Young said at the council meeting Tuesday. “And what I want to say to you is that this is a new slate. You all have never worked with me as mayor before and I want to have a collaborative relationship to agree collectively on those results.”
Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after his violent confrontation with police following the Jan. 7 traffic stop.
A subsequent federal indictment alleges that the five officers involved in the incident – Desmond Mills Jr., Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, and Emmitt Martin III – deprived Nichols of numerous rights under color of law during the confrontation.
Mills pleaded guilty to federal civil rights and conspiracy offenses. The other four defendants pleaded not guilty to the federal charges. They still face a federal trial scheduled for May 6, 2024, according to the Department of Justice.
The Memphis Police Department fired the five officers, who were part of the department’s since-disbanded SCORPION unit, following an investigation into Nichols’ death.
ABC News’ Stephanie Wash and Meredith Deliso contributed to this story.
An Ecuadorean police squad approach the premises of Ecuador’s TC television channel after unidentified gunmen burst into the state-owned television studio live on air on Jan. 9, 2024, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (Marcos Pin/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Armed and masked gunmen stormed a television station in Ecuador during a live broadcast on Tuesday, taking the hosts hostage and calling for President Daniel Noboa to end his crackdown on organized crime.
The incident at TC Televisión, a state-owned network in Guayaquil, came amid widespread chaos and violence after Noboa declared a countrywide state of emergency on Monday.
The men who stormed the television station were arrested after a standoff with police.
Noboa called the unrest an “internal armed conflict,” saying the alleged perpetrators were “terrorists.” He deployed armed forces throughout the country to “establish control,” his office said in a post on X.
Noboa, who was elected last fall, had promised the public he’d make security and economic issues his priorities.
The state of emergency followed reports of a prison escape by José Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as “Fito,” an alleged leader of the Los Choneros gang, which is alleged to have ties to the Sinaloa cartel.
He had been convicted on charges including drug trafficking and homicide in 2011 and was being held in a high-security prison in Guyaquil.
More than 3,000 police officers have been mobilized to arrest him, officials said.
At least 29 buildings were attacked Tuesday in Guayaquil, officials told ABC News. Eight people were killed in the city and three others were injured, officials said.
A total of 10 people were killed Tuesday, including the eight in Guyaquil, according to authorities. Seven police officers who were kidnapped have not been released, officials said.
Police have set up checkpoints in Quito and Guayaquil to identify and detain possible gang members, officials told ABC News.
The chaos throughout the country has been the work of organized criminal networks, Adm. Jaime Vela Erazo, head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, said in a news conference late Tuesday.
“But despite his brutal evil, this attempt will fail,” he said.
Erazo said the government had no plans to “back down” by negotiating with the gangs behind the unrest.
In one incident at the University of Guayaquil, crowds of people who were not believed to be gang members entered the university. There were no major injuries from the incident, and there is no longer an ongoing hostage situation at the university, officials said.
Classes are suspended at the university until further notice, the mayor of Guayaquil told ABC News.
A curfew was put in place Tuesday night, beginning at 11 p.m. and lifting at 5 a.m.
Neighoring Peru also declared a state of emergency along its border with Ecuador. Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said the army, national police and members of the Intelligence community would be active along the border.
(NEW YORK) — After a high-flying performance last year, the stock market has dropped at the outset of 2024. The turnabout has sent some investors looking for alternatives, including certificates of deposit, or CDs.
A CD is a type of savings account that offers a fixed interest rate over a given period of time. If depositors remove their funds before their agreed-upon end date, however, they incur a penalty.
Investor returns for CDs have soared over the past year in response to a near-historic series of interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve.
That trend has made this lesser-known financial instrument more attractive than it has been in years, experts told ABC News. Since the Fed expects to cut interest rates this year, they added, interested investors should move quickly before potential gains diminish.
“Now is definitely a good time to look at getting into a CD,” Cassandra Happe, an analyst at personal finance firm WalletHub, told ABC News. “Because rates are so high.”
“Investors should definitely keep a potential rate cut in mind,” Happe added, noting that some forecasters expect the Fed to slash rates within the next few months.
CDs do carry downsides, however, experts added. The fixed interest rate promised by a CD means it lacks the possibility of enormous gains, unlike a riskier instrument such as the stock market.
The best interest rate available for a one-year CD stands at 5.66%, according to a list of rates compiled by WalletHub. The shortest term length available, three months, still returns interest of up to 5.55%, WalletHub found.
Interest rate hikes at the Fed improve returns for CDs because the adjustments allow banks to charge borrowers higher costs to take out loans, Reena Aggarwal, professor of finance and director of the Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy, told ABC News.
“When interest rates are high, banks can make a loan — for example, a mortgage — at a higher rate,” Aggarwal said. “So they can afford to pay their depositors more.”
When banks raise interest rates for savings accounts, such as CDs, the financial firms entice customers to deposit money with them instead of a rival, which in turn bolsters the capital a bank holds on hand to generate profits through additional loans, Aggarwal added.
“It’s all about competition,” she said.
A major benefit of CDs stems from the iron-clad certainty of their returns, Yiming Ma, a finance professor at Columbia University Business School, told ABC News.
“You’re guaranteed your money,” Ma said.
Typically, long-term CDs spanning three or five years deliver higher interest rates than short-term CDs, since a wider time horizon requires investors to part with their funds for a longer period.
However, the market currently offers higher returns for short-term CDs rather than long-term ones, in part because forecasters expect interest rates to fall steadily over the coming years, experts said. That dynamic offers investors a relatively rare opportunity to generate elevated gains without waiting a long time, they added.
“This adds to the attractiveness of a short-term CD,” Ken Tumin, a senior industry analyst for savings at online loan company LendingTree, told ABC News.
Still, he added, a long-term CD may also be an attractive option right now for investors seeking gains over an extended period, since the returns on offer for these instruments could come down significantly if the Fed cuts rates.
“A long-term CD would be beneficial if rates do fall,” Tumin said, noting that investors who took action beforehand would be locked into the elevated fixed rates for several years.
While CDs carry advantages, investors should be aware of key trade-offs, experts said.
The fixed rate of CDs promises stability but precludes the chance of stellar returns. A one-year CD delivers a return of more than 5%. By contrast, the S&P 500 — the index that most people’s 401(k)s track — climbed 24% last year. Of course, the stock market risks significant losses, as well.
Meanwhile, since CDs impose a penalty for the early withdrawal of money, they pose a problem for investors who may need to call upon the funds before a selected end date.
“CDs are good as a safe and higher-return investment for funds that you don’t need to use immediately,” said Ma, of Columbia.
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane is parked on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 8, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Passengers who were on board an Alaska Airlines plane say that they thought “we were going to die” after a door plug flew off of the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet at an altitude of 16,000 feet last Friday.
Sieysoar Un and her 12-year-old son Josaih McCaul were sitting in the row right behind the door plug when it flew off the plane, taking Josiah’s phone and stuffed animal with it, the passengers said during an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America Wednesday morning.
“I reached over and held his hand. We literally thought that we were going to die,” Un said in the GMA interview.
“You just hear a big boom,” said McCaul. “It was silent for like one second, and then you would just feel and hear a lot of air blowing around, freezing cold air.”
The part fell off the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 9, around 5:11 p.m. local time Friday as the aircraft with 171 passengers, including three babies and four unaccompanied minors, had climbed to 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland International Airport, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Another passenger, a mother of a 15-year-old boy who lost his shirt, said that as the cabin began to depressurize, she saw her son’s seat being pulled toward the hole in the plane’s fuselage.
“I reached over and grabbed his body and pulled him towards me over the armrest,” she said. “I did not realize until after the flight that his clothing had been torn off of his upper body,” adding that the noise of the door plug coming off sounded like a “bomb exploding.”
Meanwhile, Boeing says the company is now working with that National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration to make sure this never happens again.
“We’re going to approach this number one acknowledging our mistake,” said Boeing’s president and CEO, Dave Calhoun. “We’re going to approach it with 100% complete transparency every step of the way.”
The FAA has said the planes will remain grounded for now and that “the safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning the Boeing 737-9 Max to service.”
(NEW YORK) — The focus of the investigation into last Friday’s midair emergency on an Alaska Airlines flight is focused on the single aircraft, but could be broadened as the National Transportation Safety Board learns more, board Chief Jennifer Homendy said.
“However, at some point, we may need to go broader. But right now we have to figure out how this occurred with this aircraft,” Homendy said Tuesday on ABC News’ Good Morning America.
The door plug fell off the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 9, around 5:11 p.m. local time last Friday as the aircraft with 171 passengers, including three babies and four unaccompanied minors, had climbed to 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland International Airport, according to the NTSB.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday, “Every Boeing 737-9 Max with a plug door will remain grounded until the FAA finds each can safely return to operation.”
“The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning the Boeing 737-9 Max to service,” the FAA said.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told employees on Tuesday that the company is “going to approach” the situation starting by “acknowledging our mistake.”
“We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way,” Calhoun said during a meeting with employees at the 737 production facility in Renton, Washington. “We are going to work with the NTSB who is investigating the accident itself to find out what the cause is.”
Boeing said it continues to be in “close contact” with its customers and the FAA about required inspections of certain 737 Max 9 planes.
“As part of the process, we are making updates based on their feedback and requirements,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
The fittings at the top of the door plug fractured, Homendy said. The NTSB examination has shown that those fittings were fractured, allowing the plug door to move upward and outward, she said.
“We don’t know if the bolts were loose. We don’t know if bolts were in there fractured or possibly the bolts weren’t there at all,” she said. “We have to determine that back in our laboratory.”
On Monday, United Airlines said it had found loose bolts on its 737 Max 9 fleet during inspections ordered after Friday’s incident involving an Alaska Airlines flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday it was temporarily grounding certain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory until they were inspected. The FAA said the pause would affect about 171 planes worldwide.
Homendy said Tuesday she would feel safe flying on a 737 Max 9 now.
“I would feel safe flying right now,” Homendy said. “Our aviation system is the safest in the world.”
The White House also said Americans should “feel safe flying” following the incident.
“FAA’s number one priority is the safety of Americans,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday. “The fact that these Boeing aircraft are going to be grounded is important, right? That is taking the safety of Americans first.”
Asked if the White House primarily sees this as a Boeing or FAA issue, she said, “We don’t know yet.”
“We have to do an investigation to see exactly what occurred here,” she said.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas holds a press conference at a U.S. Border Patrol station on Jan. 8, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are moving ahead with impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as they continue to make immigration a key 2024 campaign issue.
The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday will hold its first hearing after a yearlong probe to examine what they are calling the secretary’s “failed leadership” as the southwest border experienced a surge of migrants.
Chairman Mark Green, R-Ga., during a GOP visit to a Texas port of entry last week, accused Mayorkas of having “broken his oath to defend this country” and called him a threat to national security.
Mayorkas defended the administration’s work in his own visit to the Eagle Pass, Texas, entry point on Monday. He said the department’s taken “bold, necessary steps” while Congress has yet to pass legislation.
“Some have accused DHS of not enforcing our nation’s laws,” he said. “This could not be further from the truth.”
Witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing will include attorneys general of Montana, Oklahoma and Missouri. The three Republican state officials have voiced criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the border.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson blasted the hearing as a “political exercise” at taxpayers’ expense.
“There is no valid basis to impeach Secretary Mayorkas, as senior members of the House majority have attested, and this extreme impeachment push is a harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities,” the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
Migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border reached a record high in December. Sources told ABC News preliminary data showed there were 302,000 encounters last month.
Border Patrol apprehensions have decreased from the historic level, with agents apprehending about 3,244 migrants daily over the past week, according to internal data obtained and verified by ABC News. This past Sunday, agents recorded 2,729 apprehensions, a sharp decline from the two-decade record of nearly 11,000 in a single day last month.
House Republicans used a trip to the border last week to double down on their demands for tougher immigration restrictions as negotiations continue on a supplemental aid package focused on national security.
President Joe Biden last year laid out a package that included nearly $14 billion for the border to hire more agents and immigration judge teams, while also providing aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. But Republicans are tying the foreign aid to more sweeping legislative changes when it comes to immigration, such as more restrictive asylum guidelines.
“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America’s national security,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
A group of senators have been working for weeks on finding compromise, and Congress returned to Washington this week after holiday recess. But disagreements over parole provisions has led to increasing pessimism that a deal can be struck by week’s end.
I just don’t see any way to be able to get that done this week,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said late Monday. “There’s a lot more that needs to get done. It starts speeding up, and they you hit a point that you realize now this is going a whole lot slower.”
Mayorkas has been involved in the negotiations, and said Monday the department needs more Border Patrol agents, case prosecutors, asylum officers and technology to combat the flow of fentanyl.
“We now need Congress to do their part and act,” he said. “Our immigration system is outdated and broken and has been in need of reform for literally decades. On this, everyone agrees.”
Mayorkas has long been a target of Republican ire over the border. The House GOP effort to oust him would be the first potential impeachment of a Cabinet official since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, though it’s unlikely Mayorkas would be convicted in a trial in the Democrat-led Senate.
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden talks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol, Dec.13, 2023 in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A House panel will vote Wednesday on whether to hold Hunter Biden in contempt over his refusal to sit for a closed-door deposition with lawmakers in their ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden has said he would testify only in a public forum, castigating the Republican-led probe as “illegitimate.”
The House Oversight Committee on Monday released a 19-page report recommending he be held in contempt of Congress, as well as the text of the proposed resolution.
“Mr. Biden’s flagrant defiance of the Committees’ deposition subpoenas — while choosing to appear nearby on the Capitol grounds to read a prepared statement on the same matters — is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions,” the report stated.
Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News he has the votes to get the resolution out of committee.
A full vote on the House floor would be held at a later date. Comer said it could happen early next week.
Hunter Biden was subpoenaed to sit for the closed-door interview on Dec. 13 but instead held a defiant news conference just outside the U.S. Capitol.
“I am here to testify at a public hearing, today, to answer any of the committees’ legitimate questions,” he said. “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say. What are they afraid of? I am here.”
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat, also criticized Comer for “denying Hunter Biden the opportunity to answer all the Committee’s questions in front of the American people and the world.”
“Chairman Comer does not want Hunter Biden to testify in public, just as he has refused to publicly release over a dozen interview transcripts, because he wants to keep up the carefully curated distortions, blatant lies, and laughable conspiracy theories that have marked this investigation,” Raskin said in a statement.
Committee Republicans have countered that they are open to public testimony at an unspecified “future date” but “need not and will not accede to Mr. Biden’s demand for special treatment with respect to how he provides testimony.”
The Biden impeachment inquiry, launched unilaterally by ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy and then formalized months later by the House in a party-line vote, has yet to yield any concrete evidence to support GOP claims that President Joe Biden participated in and profited from his son and family’s foreign business dealings.
The House Oversight Committee report recommending a contempt charge stated Hunter Biden’s testimony is “necessary” to determine whether there are “sufficient grounds” for impeachment.
The committee has also subpoenaed President Biden’s brother, James Biden, and former Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker. It also requested transcribed interviews with other members of the Biden family and Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden.
