(FORT GORDON, Ga.) — Ten soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserve were injured after a lightning bolt strike while on a range at Fort Gordon, Georgia, according to the Army base.
“We know there were injuries, but we don’t know the extent of those injuries,” base spokesperson Anne Bowman told ABC News.
Bowman said the incident occurred at approximately 11:10 a.m. at Training Area 26 when there was bad weather in the area, and that the soldiers “sustained injuries associated with a lightning strike at one of their training areas.”
Fort Gordon’s Department of Emergency Services and EMS responded to the scene immediately, according to Augusta ABC affiliate WJBF.
The soldiers were taken to the Dwight David Eisenhower Medical Center at the base for treatment, according to Bowman.
(WASHINGTON) — Steve Bannon, who served as former President Donald Trump’s chief strategist before departing the White House in August 2017, is on trial for defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel for records and testimony in September of last year, with the committee telling him it had “reason to believe that you have information relevant to understanding activities that led to and informed the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
After the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt for defying the subpoena, the Justice Department in November charged Bannon with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, setting up this week’s trial.
Here is how the news is developing. All times are Eastern:
Jul 20, 6:18 PM EDT
Bannon again rails at Thompson as he leaves courthouse
For the second day in a row, Bannon blasted Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson on his way out of court at the end of the day.
“Does he really have COVID?” said Bannon of the chairman, who announced Tuesday that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
“What are the odds that a guy that is vaxxed, boosted and double boosted, following Dr. Fauci’s recommendation — what are the odds, on the very day this trial starts, he comes up with COVID?” Bannon said of Thompson’s absence as a witness in his trial.
“Why is Bennie Thompson not here?” Bannon repeated.
-Laura Romero and Soo Rin Kim
Jul 20, 5:55 PM EDT
FBI agent details Bannon’s social posts about subpoena before government rests its case
After just two witnesses, the government rested its case against Steve Bannon.
FBI agent Stephen Hart, the prosecution’s second witness, spent less than an hour on the stand.
Hart spent much of time testifying about Bannon’s page on the social media platform Gettr, which Hart described as “similar to Twitter.”
Prosecutor Molly Gaston showed that on Sept. 24, 2021, the day that Bannon’s subpoena was received by his then-attorney, Robert Costello, Bannon’s Gettr page posted a link to a Rolling Stone article with the words, “The Bannon Subpoena Is Just the Beginning. Congress’s Jan. 6 Investigation is Going Big.” Then on Oct. 8, 2021, the day after he was supposed to produce records to the Jan. 6 committee, Bannon’s Gettr page posted a link to a Daily Mail article with the words, “Steve Bannon tells the January 6 select committee that he will NOT comply with their subpoena.”
The Gettr post included images of Bannon, Trump, and a letter from Costello.
The materials prompted a debate over whether the posts were made by Bannon himself or by someone with access to his account, and whether those were Bannon’s own words or the media outlets’ words.
Gaston then had Hart read from the Daily Mail article, which quoted Bannon as telling the Daily Mail, “I stand with Trump and the Constitution.”
“Those are his words,” Gaston said of Bannon.
Hart also testified about a November 2021 videoconference he and prosecutors had with Costello after Costello requested the meeting to try to convince prosecutors not to pursue the contempt case against Bannon.
Hart testified that during that meeting, Costello told them that by Oct. 7, 2021, the deadline to produce documents, “they had not gathered any documents by that point.” Costello also had no other reason for Bannon’s refusal to comply other than executive privilege, Hart said.
Hart also testified that Costello, in the meeting, did not suggest they thought the deadlines were flexible, or that they were negotiating for a different date, or that Bannon would comply if the committee set different deadlines.
At one point, Corcoran tried to remind jurors that many lawmakers didn’t support the resolution to find Bannon in contempt of Congress. On cross examination, he asked Hart about the investigative steps Hart took in this case, asking him, “Did you interview … the 200-plus members of Congress who voted not to refer Steven Bannon to the U.S. Attorney’s office for contempt of Congress?”
Gaston objected, and the judge agreed, so Corcoran moved on.
Prosecutor Amanda Vaughn subsequently stood up and told the judge, “Your honor, the government rests.”
Court will reconvene on Thursday morning.
Jul 20, 4:39 PM EDT
Defense says Bannon was in ongoing negotiations with committee
As his cross-examination of Jan. 6 committee staffer Kirstin Amerling wrapped up, defense attorney Evan Corcoran continued to frame Bannon’s noncompliance with the subpoena as happening at a time when Bannon’s attorney was still in negotiations with the committee.
Amerling, however, testified that Bannon wasn’t in negotiations because there was nothing to negotiate — Trump hadn’t actually asserted executive privilege, Amerling said, so there was no outstanding issue to resolve. And she said that the committee had made clear to Bannon repeatedly that there were no legal grounds for his refusal to turn over documents and testify before the committee.
Corcoran showed the jury the letter that Trump sent to Bannon on July 9, 2022 — just two weeks ago — in which Trump said he would waive executive privilege so Bannon could testify before the committee. He also displayed the letter that Bannon’s former attorney, Robert Costello, sent the committee on the same day saying that Bannon was now willing to testify in a public hearing.
But Amerling then read aloud from the letter that the committee sent to Costello in response, noting that Bannon’s latest offer “does not change the fact that Mr. Bannon failed to follow [proper] process and failed to comply with the Select Committee’s subpoena prior to the House referral of the contempt resolution concerning Mr. Bannon’s defiance of the subpoena.”
Prosecutor Amanda Vaughn noted that before two weeks ago, Bannon never offered to comply with the subpoena, even after being told repeatedly by the committee last year that his claims had no basis in law and that he could face prosecution; even after he was found in contempt of Congress in October last year; even after he was criminally charged a month later for contempt of Congress; and even after a lawsuit related to executive privilege had been resolved by the Supreme Court six months ago.
Amerling testified that had Bannon complied with the subpoena in time, the committee would have had “at least nine months of additional time” to review the information, and now there are “five or so months” left of the committee.
“So as opposed to having 14 in total, the committee only now has five?” Corcoran asked.
“That’s correct,” said Amerling.
Jul 20, 3:48 PM EDT
Defense argues Bannon was constrained by questions over executive privilege
In the defense’s ongoing cross examination of Jan. 6 committee staffer Kirstin Amerling, attorney Evan Corcoran continued to stress how Bannon was prevented from testifying due to the right of executive privilege that protects confidential communication with members of the executive branch.
But Amerling testified that there are two main issues with such a claim.
First, she said, some of what the subpoena requested “had nothing to do with communication with the former president” and “could not possibly be reached by executive privilege” — especially Bannon’s communications with campaign advisers, members of Congress and other private parties, as well as information related to Bannon’s podcast, she testified.
In addition, despite what others may have said, “The president had not formally or informally invoked executive privilege,” Amerling said. “It hadn’t been invoked.”
Yet Bannon still refused to comply with the subpoena, despite having no legal grounds to do so, she said.
Amerling reiterated that by the time the committee met to decide whether to pursue contempt charges, “there had been extensive back-and-forth already between the select committee and the defendant’s attorney about the issue of executive privilege, and the select committee had made its position clear.”
Corcoran also argued that Bannon didn’t comply with the subpoena right away because he expected the deadline would ultimately change, due to the fact that it’s common for subpoena deadlines to shift.
Amerling, however, testified that Bannon’s situation was different.
“When witnesses are cooperating with the committee and indicate they are willing to provide testimony, it is not unusual to have some back-and-forth about the dates that they will appear,” she said. However, she said, “it is very unusual for witnesses who receive a subpoena to say outright they will not comply.”
In his questions, Corcoran also suggested that Amerling might be a biased witness, noting that she had donated to Democratic causes in the past, and that she is a member of the same book club as one of the prosecutors in the case, Molly Gaston.
“So you’re in a book club with the prosecutor in this case?” Corcoran asked.
“We are,” Amerling replied.
Amerling said that it had been some time — perhaps as much as a year or more — since she and Gaston both attended a meeting of the club. But she conceded that, with the types of people who are in the book club, it was “not unusual that we would talk about politics in some way or another.”
Jul 20, 12:55 PM EDT
Defense attorney presses Jan. 6 staffer on timing of subpoena deadline
Under cross-examination from Bannon defense attorney Evan Corcoran, House Jan. 6 committee senior staffer Kristin Amerling was pressed on why the committee set the deadlines it did for Bannon to comply with the subpoena — especially since “the select committee is still receiving and reviewing documents” now, Corcoran said.
Corcoran pressed Amerling over who specifically decided that Bannon should have to produce documents by 10 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2021, and who specifically decided that Bannon should have to appear for a deposition on Oct. 14, 2021.
Amerling said that the “process” of drafting the subpoena involved many people, including senior staff like herself, but it was all ultimately approved by committee Chairman Bennie Thompson.
“To the best of my recollection, because of the multiple roles that we understood Mr. Bannon potentially had with respect to the events of Jan. 6, at the time that we put the subpoena together, there was a general interest in obtaining information from him expeditiously, because we believed this information could potentially lead us to other relevant witnesses or other relevant documents,” Amerling said. “There was general interest in including deadlines that required expeditious response.”
“The committee authorization is just through the end of this year,” so it is operating under “a very tight timeframe,” she said.
Corcoran also said he wanted to made clear to the jury that, as he put it, “in this case, there is no allegation that Steve Bannon was involved in the attack” on the Capitol.
Earlier, Amerling testified that the committee tried to give Bannon “an opportunity” to explain his “misconduct” in ignoring the subpoena and to provide “information that might shed light on his misconduct, such as he might have been confused” about the subpoena — but Bannon never presented any such explanation or information before he was found in contempt, she said.
Jul 20, 11:17 AM EDT
Jan. 6 staffer says panel ‘rejected the basis’ for Bannon’s privilege claim
Kristin Amerling, a senior staffer on the House Jan. 6 committee, returned to the stand to continue her testimony from Tuesday. She testified that Bannon was clearly informed that any claims of privilege were rejected by the committee, and that his non-compliance “would force” the committee to refer the matter to the Justice Department for prosecution.
She said the subpoena issued to Bannon indicated he was “required to produce” records encompassing 17 specific categories, including records related to the Jan. 6 rally near the White House, his communications with Trump allies and several right-wing groups, his communications with Republican lawmakers, and information related to his “War Room” podcast.
The committee was seeking to understand “the relationships or potential relationships between different individuals and organizations that played a role in Jan. 6,” Amerling said. “We wanted to ask him what he knew.”
Asked by prosecutor Amanda Vaughn if Bannon provided any records to the committee by the deadline of 10 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2021, Amerling replied, “He did not.”
“Did the committee get anything more than radio silence by 10 a.m. on Oct. 7?” Vaughn asked.
“No,” said Amerling.
Amerling said that in a correspondence she received that day at about 5 p.m. — after the deadline had passed — Bannon’s attorney at the time, Robert Costello, claimed that Trump had “announced his intention to assert” executive privilege, which Costello said at the time rendered Bannon “unable to respond” to the subpoena “until these issues are resolved.”
But the next day, Amerling recalled on the stand, she sent Costello a letter from Jan. 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson, “explaining that the committee rejected the basis that he had offered for refusing to comply.”
“Did the letter also tell the defendant he still had to comply?” Vaughn asked Amerling.
“Yes, it did.” Amerling said.
“Did the letter warn the defendant what might happen if he failed to comply with the subpoena?” Vaughn asked.
“Yes, it did,” said Amerling.
The letter was “establishing a clear record of the committee’s views, making sure the defendant was aware of that,” Amerling testified.
Jul 20, 10:06 AM EDT
Judge won’t let trial become ‘political circus,’ he says
Federal prosecutors in Steve Bannon’s contempt trial raised concerns with the judge that Bannon’s team has been suggesting to the jury that this is a “politically motivated prosecution” before the second day of testimony got underway Wednesday morning.
Before the jury was brought in, prosecutor Amanda Vaughn asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to make sure the jury “doesn’t hear one more word about this case being” politically motivated, after she said the defense’s opening statement Tuesday had “clear implications” that the defense was making that claim.
Nichols had barred such arguments from the trial.
In response, defense attorney Evan Corcoran defended his opening statement, saying it “was clearly on the line.”
Nichols then made it clear that during trial, the defense team may ask witnesses questions about whether they themselves may be biased — “but may not ask questions about whether someone else was biased in an action they took outside this courtroom.”
“I do not intend for this to become a political case, a political circus,” Nichols said.
Speaking to reporters after the first full day in court, Bannon blasted members of the Jan. 6 committee and House Democrats for not showing up as witnesses in his trial.
“Where is Bennie Thompson?” asked Bannon regarding the Jan. 6 committee chairman. “He’s made it a crime, not a civil charge … have the guts and the courage to show up here and say exactly why it’s a crime.”
“I will promise you one thing when the Republicans that are sweeping to victory on Nov. 8 — starting in January, you’re going to get a real committee,” Bannon said. “We’re going to get a real committee with a ranking member who will be a Democrat … and this will be run
appropriately and the American people will get the full story.”
The first witness for the prosecution, Kristin Amerling of the Jan. 6 committee, testified that a subpoena is not voluntary.
Amerling, the Jan. 6 panel’s deputy staff director and chief counsel, read aloud the congressional resolution creating the committee and explained that the committee’s role is to recommend “corrective measures” to prevent future attacks like the one on Jan. 6.
“Is a subpoena voluntary in any way?” asked prosecutor Amanda Vaughn.
“No,” Amerling replied.
Amerling also discussed how important it is to get information in a timely manner because the committee’s authority runs out at the end of the year. “There is an urgency to the focus of the Select Committee’s work … we have a limited amount of time in which to gather information,” she said.
Amerling noted that Bannon was subpoenaed pretty early on in the committee’s investigation.
She said the committee subpoenaed Bannon in particular because public accounts indicated that Bannon tried to persuade the public that the 2020 election was “illegitimate”; that on his podcast the day before Jan. 6 he made statements “including that all hell was going to break loose, that suggested he might have some advance knowledge of the events of Jan. 6”; that he was involved in discussions with White House officials, including Trump himself, relating to “strategies surrounding the events of Jan. 6”; and that he had been involved in discussions in the days leading up to Jan. 6 with “private parties who had gathered in the Willard hotel in Washington, D.C., reportedly to discuss strategies around efforts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power or overturning the election results.”
“Is that something that would have been relevant to the committee’s investigation?” Vaughn asked.
“Yes, because the Select Committee was tasked with trying to understand what happened on Jan. 6, and why,” Amerling replied.
Amerling will be back on the stand Wednesday morning when the trial resumes.
Jul 19, 3:55 PM EDT
Defense tells jury ‘there was no ignoring the subpoena’
Bannon’s defense attorney Matt “Evan” Corcoran said in his opening statement that “no one ignored the subpoena” issued to Bannon, and that “there was direct engagement by Bob Costello,” Bannon’s attorney, with the House committee, specifically committee staffer Kristin Amerling.
He said Costello “immediately” communicated to the committee that there was an objection to the subpoena, “and that Steve Bannon could not appear and that he could not provide documents.”
“So there was no ignoring the subpoena,” Corcoran said. What followed was “a considerable back and forth” between Amerling and Costello — “they did what two lawyers do, they negotiated.”
Corcoran said, “the government wants you to believe … that Mr. Bannon committed a crime by not showing up to a congressional hearing room … but the evidence is going to be crystal clear no one, no one believed Mr. Bannon was going to appear on Oct. 14, 2021,” and the reasons he couldn’t appear had been articulated to the committee.
Corcoran told the jury that the government has to prove beyond a reasonable that Steve Bannon willfully defaulted when he didn’t appear for the deposition on Oct. 14, 2021 — “but you’ll find from the evidence that that date on the subpoena was the subject of ongoing discussions” and it was not “fixed.”
In addition, Corcoran told jurors, you will hear that “almost every single one” of the witnesses subpoenaed led to negotiations between committee staff and lawyers, and often the appearance would be at a later date than what was on the subpoena.
Corcoran also argued that the prosecution may have been infected by politics, telling the jury that with each document or each statement provided at trial, they should ask themselves: “Is this piece of evidence affected by politics?”
Jul 19, 3:31 PM EDT
Prosecutors say Bannon’s failure to comply was deliberate
Continuing her opening statement, federal prosecutor Amanda Vaughn told the jury that the subpoena to Bannon directed him to provide documents by the morning of Oct. 7, 2021, and to appear for a deposition the morning of Oct. 14, 2021 — but instead he had an attorney, Robert Costello, send a letter to the committee informing the committee that he would not comply “in any way,” she said.
“The excuse the defendant gave for not complying” was the claim that “a privilege” meant he didn’t have to turn over certain information, Vaughn said. “[But] it’s not up to the defendant or anyone else to decide if he can ignore the [request] based on a privilege, it’s up to the committee.”
And, said Vaughn, the committee clearly told Bannon that “your privilege does not get you out of this one, you have to provide documents, and you have to come to your deposition.” And importantly, she said, the committee told Bannon that “a refusal to comply” could result in criminal prosecution.
“You will see, the defendant’s failure to comply was deliberate here,” Vaughn told the jury. “The only verdict that is supported by the evidence here: that the defendant showed his contempt for the U.S. Congress, and that he’s guilty.”
Federal prosecutor Amanda Vaughn began opening statements by saying, “In September of last year, Congress needed information from the defendant, Steve Bannon. … Congress needed to know what the defendant knew about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. … Congress had gotten information that the defendant might have some details about the events leading up to that day and what occurred that day.”
So, Vaughn told the jury, Congress gave Bannon a subpoena “that mandated” he provide any information he might have.
“Congress was entitled to the information it sought, it wasn’t optional,” Vaughn said. “But as you will learn in this trial, the defendant refused to hand over the information he might have.”
Vaughn said Bannon ignored “multiple warnings” that he could face criminal prosecution for refusing to comply with the subpoena and for preventing the government from getting “important information.”
“The defendant decided he was above the law and decided he didn’t need to follow the government’s orders,” she said.
Jul 19, 2:51 PM EDT
Judge instructs jury of the burden of proof
Prior to opening statements, the judge made clear to the jury that the Justice Department has the burden to prove four distinct elements “beyond a reasonable doubt”:
(1) that Bannon was in fact subpoenaed for testimony and/or documents;
(2) that the testimony and/or documents were “pertinent” to the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation;
(3) that Bannon “failed to comply or refused to comply” with the subpoena;
(4) that the “failure or refusal to comply was willful.”
Jul 19, 2:44 PM EDT
Jury sworn in after judge denies continuance
A 14-member jury has been sworn in for the contempt trial of ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Of the 14 jurors, nine are men and five are women.
The swearing-in of the jury comes after U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols denied the defense’s request for a one-month delay of the trial, which attorneys for Bannon argued was necessary due to a “seismic shift in the understanding of the parties” of what the government’s evidence will be.
“We have a jury that is just about picked,” Nichols said in denying the request for a one-month continuance.
One of the jurors, a man who works for an appliance company, said Monday during jury selection that he watched the first Jan. 6 committee hearing and believes the committee is “trying to find the truth about what happened” on Jan. 6.
Another juror, a man who works as a maintenance manager for the Washington, D.C., Parks and Recreation department, said he believes what happened on Jan. 6 “doesn’t make sense.”
Another juror, a woman who works as a photographer for NASA, said “a lot” of her “photographer friends were at the Capitol” on Jan. 6, and she has watched some of the Jan. 6 hearings on the news.
(FULTON COUNTY, Ga.) — The Georgia district attorney probing former President Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state has notified 16 people identified as “fake electors” that they have been targeted in the ongoing criminal investigation, prosecutors revealed in court documents filed on Tuesday.
Those 16 individuals, who allegedly participated in a scheme to overturn the state’s election results, received letters “alerting that person both that [their] testimony was required by the special purpose grand jury and that [they were] target of the investigation” the filing said.
The Fulton County district attorney has been probing the effort to overturn the 2020 election results since last February, including the so-called “fake elector” plan — which has gained increased scrutiny and come under focus in other investigations around the country probing efforts to overturn the 2020 election around the country.
The target notification came after the Georgia investigation “matured and new evidence came to light,” prosecutors said, according to a separate filing by a defense attorney for 11 of the 16 individuals.
The attorney said the purported electors “did not and could not have had any involvement in or knowledge of” the alleged larger scheme by former President Trump’s allies to put for the alternate slate of electors to overturn the election.
He said in the filing that the actions of the “nominee electors” were “proper, and even necessary.”
The Jan. 6 committee has described the plan, which appeared to have multiple iterations, as being set up by the Trump campaign in multiple swing states to assemble “groups of individuals in key battleground states and got them to call themselves electors, created phony certificates associated with these fake electors and then transmitted these certificates to Washington, and to the Congress, to be counted during the joint session of Congress on January 6th.”
The Department of Justice is also examining the issue of fake electors as part of its own separate investigation, sources tell ABC News. Last month, DOJ subpoenaed Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer for information related to the effort to send a fraudulent slate of electors to Congress, according to sources familiar with the matter.
A lawyer representing Shafer declined to comment at the time.
Shafer sat for a deposition with the Jan. 6 committee as well, and his transcript is among those DOJ wants the committee to turn over.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the Jan. 6 committee that Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, his associates and “several” lawmakers discussed the plan around Thanksgiving — and that she heard the White House counsel office say it was potentially illegal.
Giuliani has repeatedly downplayed his involvement with the Jan. 6 riot.
“My only involvement on January 6th was being invited to speak there,” he said in a radio appearance last month in response to Hutchinson’s testimony. “I had nothing else to do with it.”
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Katherine Faulders and Ben Siegel contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As grocery prices continue to rise on everything from grains to greens, customers are struggling to find ways to keep costs down.
Consumer prices on food experienced the largest annual increase in over four decades since February 1981, with costs skyrocketing 10.4% in the 12-month period ending June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Within the “food at home” category — grocery store food products purchased for cooking or eating at home — prices rose 12.2% over the last year, the largest increase since 1979.
Since June, food at home prices have risen another full percentage point, marking the sixth consecutive month of increases.
With prices ballooning constantly, it can be hard to plan out a weekly grocery list. Figuring out which items are consistently the most expensive and which prices have climbed steeply in recent months, however, might at least allow shoppers to craft a backup plan or estimate an approximate budget.
Below is the current breakdown in cost changes across various food categories from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the change in prices paid by consumers for goods and services.
Everyday items like meat and dairy see an uptick at grocery store checkouts
Fruits and Vegetables: This group saw an 8.1% increase in price between June 2021 and June 2022 and a 0.7% increase between May and June this year.
Meats, Poultry, Fish and Eggs: Between June 2021 and June 2022, prices rose 11.7%. Prices fell 0.4% between May and June, however, as the cost of pork and beef declined.
Nonalcoholic Beverages: This includes everything from seltzer water to soda. Prices in this category rose 11.9% between June 2021 and June 2022. They increased 0.8% between May and June.
Other food at home
The BLS report also showed sharp increases in the costs of butter (21.3% increase over the past year), sugar and sugar substitutes (11.4% over the past year) and “other sweets” (15.7% over the past year), with cereals and bakery product prices rising 13.8% over the past 12 months.
The cost of flour, meanwhile, rose 19.4% over the past year. Between May and June, prices rose 5.3%.
For those who have time and resources to shop around, similar products can cost different prices at different stores, since every retailer has different pricing variables.
Phil Lempert of supermarketguru.com explained that, due to supply chain issues, some grocery stores aren’t sure when certain items will arrive, so coupons aren’t as common as they used to be either.
In order to find special prices or deals, customers can download their favorite grocery store apps to get the latest savings directly at their fingertips.
(NEW YORK) — The funeral for the late Ivana Trump, first wife of former President Donald Trump, was held on Wednesday at New York City’s St. Vincent Ferrer Church.
Ivana Trump died Thursday after suffering injuries sustained from a fall in her Upper East Side home, New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said. She was 73.
She was married to the ex-president from 1977 to 1992, and they had three children together: Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka.
“Our mother was an incredible woman — a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend,” the Trump family said in a statement at the time of her passing.
In a statement on his Truth Social platform, former President Trump called her a “wonderful, beautiful and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life.”
He attended the funeral service, alongside former first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron.
Ivana Trump was found unconscious and unresponsive at the bottom of a set of stairs in her apartment, police sources said. Her death was ruled an accident, according to the medical examiner.
Known for her glamour, Ivana Trump created her own clothing line and helped design the interior for the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Trump Tower. She was also a bestselling author and worked for her former husband’s business empire as a senior executive, where she served as the CEO of Trump’s Castle, a hotel-casino in Atlantic City.
Instead of flowers, her family is asking people to donate to the Florida nonprofit Big Dog Ranch Rescue, the organization said on its website.
(WASHINGTON) — On Tuesday, House Democrats passed a bill which would protect same-sex and interracial marriages, in response to the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and fear among lawmakers that other legal protections might be at risk.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department announced inflation has reached its highest rate in 40 years, a fact that is being blamed on the White House and Democratic lawmakers, with a recent ABC-Ipsos poll showing that more than 80% of Americans think the economy is either an important or very important issue affecting how they will vote in the midterm elections this November.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune spoke with GMA3 about the House vote on Tuesday, his perspective on what’s causing inflation and what he thinks is the biggest concern for voters.
GMA3: Let me bring in now Senate Minority Whip John Thune. Senator, thank you so much for being with us. I think a lot of people wouldn’t be surprised that a Republican is blaming Democrats maybe for inflation. We’re going to get to that in just a second. But I do want to ask you about the news we saw overnight, what happened in the House, the kind of a bipartisan bill came out of there to protect same-sex marriage. This, of course, in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision with, some say, other things like same-sex marriage could be at risk. I want to ask, are you ready in the Senate to support that bill as well to somewhat codify same-sex marriage in this country?
THUNE: Well, thanks, TJ. Amy, good afternoon. We don’t know if that bill is coming to the Senate. They did pass a bill in the House last night. And if and when Senator Schumer decides to bring it up in the Senate, then we’ll consider it at that time. But as you saw, there was a fairly significant vote, bipartisan vote last night. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case in the Senate. But I will go across that bridge if and when we come to it.
GMA3: But would you say we do in this country? Maybe that’s something we do need to codify? Do we need to make it clear — same-sex marriage — so it doesn’t end up in the Supreme Court’s decision again?
THUNE: Well, I don’t think it’s an issue. It’s not an issue. Anybody, certainly in my state of South Dakota, for that matter, across the country is talking about right now. They’re talking about inflation and gas prices and all the other things. I don’t — I think it’s an issue that right now, at least the Democrats here in Washington are talking about, because they’re trying to create an issue going into the election because they don’t want to talk about the economic issues. So, it’s not — it’s just not something the court is considering.
They made it very clear, actually, in their opinion on Dobbs that they were not dealing with anything but the precedent on abortion, that it wouldn’t affect other precedents. So, I think you had a very strong majority of people point out that Justice Thomas had a dissenting view. That’s true. But if you look at the six-person Justice majority on that opinion, they made it abundantly clear that this issue addressed specifically the issue of abortion and not other precedents.
GMA3: Senator Thune, let’s move on to the economy and inflation specifically. I’ll directly let everyone know your tweet that we know TJ was referring to. You said or you tweeted, “this level of inflation is a direct result of Dems spending since they’ve taken control in D.C.” Where do you believe costs should be and could be cut right now to rollback that tide of inflation?
THUNE: Well, I think if you look at it, Amy, when President Biden took office, the inflation rate was 1.4%, well within the Fed’s range of 2%. Now, as you said, it’s a 40-year high, 9.1% last month, year over year. What that represents, according to the Joint Economic Committee in a study they did recently, is about 700 additional dollars per month per family in this country, or about $9,000 a year in higher costs.
So, I think it comes back to the bill they passed, which we tried to discourage them from passing. And even liberal Democrat economists from the Obama administration also suggested this was a really bad idea to flood the zone with a lot of spending, which they did with the $2 trillion bill last year. That overstimulated the economy. You know, the textbook definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods. So, it started with the spending.
I think the other issue, honestly, is lack of a coherent energy policy in this country. A lot of what drives inflation is gas prices. And if you look at the price of gas, it’s doubled since the president took office. And I think a lot of that has to do, which is not having the supply. They shut down a lot of oil and gas production in this country. I think there are things you can do that, you know, one, stop the wasteful spending, unnecessary spending.
Don’t talk about raising taxes. That would be a horrible idea right now, which is on their agenda and then come up with a coherent energy policy that emphasizes American energy production so that we’re not dependent upon other countries around the world.
GMA3: What would you like to do right now given that — and again, you listed many things, and I again, somewhat said it jokingly, nobody surprised to hear a Republican put the blame at the feet of Democrats. But we had the pandemic and there were a lot of things that did happen that was kind of out of a lot of people’s control with the supply-chain issues. A lot of people came right back to the market. The demand went up really quickly. And I know you talked about the 2 trillion in spending, but a lot of that was to put money back in Americans’ pockets who were struggling coming out of the pandemic. So it was a lot of things going on there. But what can you do? What can Congress do right now — do you feel?
THUNE: Well, and honestly, TJ, to your point, there was $5 trillion in spending in 2020, all done on a bipartisan basis. The $2 trillion came last year after the president took office. And there are things we can do. I worked on a bipartisan way with Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota on a supply chain issue, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which is designed to get at some of those bottlenecks that we’re experiencing at the ports.
And I think, again, as I said before, focusing on and getting the administration to work with us on an energy policy that is American energy, all, you know, it should be all of the above strategy. But we ought to try to achieve energy independence in this country. I think that will drive gas prices down, which I think would have a pretty profound impact on inflation. And I just think, again, it would be a mistake right now, which the Dems are talking about, to increase taxes and come up with yet another pretty big spending bill.
They’re talking about another trillion dollars. I think that would be a huge mistake. But it shouldn’t come as any surprise to you or anybody else. It’s an even numbered year. This is an election year. So obviously we’re going to be talking about issues that we think impact people’s pocketbooks in this country. And certainly inflation represents that.
I just came from a weekend back in South Dakota, out in the western part of the state, and it is having a profound impact on the economy in a state like South Dakota, which in the summer months depends on the travel industry and that, you know, gas prices has a very consequential impact on that.
GMA3: Senator Thune, it is an election year, as you point out. And according to the latest Pew Research poll, 62% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all, or at least most cases. Obviously, we saw the sweeping reversal of Roe versus Wade. I’m curious, how do you see women losing their reproductive rights that they’ve had for nearly five decades? How do you see that impacting Republicans? I know you’re up for reelection as well in these midterms.
THUNE: Right. Well, and I think it’s an issue that it will in certain areas of the country, act probably as a motivator for people to vote. I think in the end, Amy, it does get trumped by these other economic issues. It’s an issue that people care — certainly intensity behind it on both sides, which is the reason, I think for the past 50 years, there’s been so much tumult in the country and why the court decided to take it up.
But, you know, again, remember, it doesn’t do away with abortion. It simply returns that power to the states and their elected representatives. And it’s, I think, one of those issues you have to find political consensus around. And I think each state, at least right now, will probably do that slightly differently in how it plays out in the election. I don’t think it’s anybody’s guess. I think it’s an issue and I think in certain places it will be more prominent than it is in other places.
But I think in most areas of the country, people are going to be focusing on these pocketbook economic issues. I think that’s ultimately going to be what they vote on.
(CHICAGO) — Just 16 days after a man wielding an AR-15-style rifle allegedly killed seven people and injured more than 40 at a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, the town’s mayor pleaded with Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban, saying, “today is the day to start saving lives.”
But Mayor Nancy Rotering quickly learned during her testimony Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that enacting such a law will be a major challenge. Republican committee members — including two from Texas, where on May 24 a gunman firing an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 students and two teachers — argued that such a ban will not stop massacres and only infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens.
Rotering testified about being in the middle of the Independence Day shooting rampage. She graphically detailed the chaos, panic and bloodied bodies lying on the street of “an All-American Midwestern town,” telling the committee, “I will be haunted forever.”
“Less than a minute is all it took for a person with an assault weapon to shoot 83 rounds into a crowd, forever changing so many lives,” Rotering told the panel. “And the most disturbing part, this is the norm in our country.”
She began her statement by describing a “perfect summer day” with 3,000 people lining the parade route, waving American flags and cheering the marching bands and colorful floats of her city’s first post-pandemic Fourth of July Parade in two years.
“Music and cheering were all we could hear as we headed down the street,” Rotering testified. “I looked left and waved to my husband in the crowd. What I didn’t know at that moment was that just to my right on a one-story rooftop, a 21-year-old was preparing to traumatize my hometown forever with an assault weapon.”
She said that as she and her city council colleagues headed down the parade route, she noticed that a marching band had gone silent and she heard a “tat, tat, tat” sound she initially mistook for a drum cadence.
“I then saw a sea of marching band members sprinting down the sidewalk, some with tubas entwined around their bodies,” Rotering told the committee. “I realized later that the sound I heard wasn’t drum cadence. It was the sound of an assault weapon.”
She said she and her colleagues immediately started an emergency evacuation, screaming at paradegoers to run, repeatedly shouting, “shooter.”
“Adults stared back, not comprehending,” she said. “But the kids knew immediately this wasn’t a drill and they yelled to everybody, ‘run, hide.’ They knew what was happening.”
She said among those killed were Kevin and Irina McCarthy, who were at the parade with their 2-year-old son, Aiden. She said good Samaritans found the boy under his father’s body.
Rotering also told the horrific story of 22-year-old Cassie Goldstein, who she says was forced to leave her mortally wounded mother, Katherine, behind as bullets rained down on the crowd.
“When the shooting stopped, Cassie returned to find her mother lifeless,” said Rotering, as a group of Highland Park residents attending the hearing sat behind her.
She told the committee of hot shrapnel melting into the arms and legs of the victims.
“Highland Park had the uniquely American experience of a Fourth of July parade turned into what had now become a uniquely American experience of a mass shooting,” Rotering said. “How do we call this freedom?”
She noted that in 2013 following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Middle School in Newtown, Connecticut, Highland Park passed a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines, but lamented that local laws have little effect as long as such weapons are still being legally sold in neighboring Illinois towns.
“Local government cannot do this alone,” Rotering said. “Congress must take action. You must federally ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines. Today is the day to save lives.”
But Rotering’s plea was met with stiff resistance from Republican members of the committee, who uniformly agreed that renewing the federal assault weapons ban that was enacted in 1994 and expired in 2004, is not the answer to curbing mass shootings.
“These bans would be ineffective and not consistent with the right to self-defense,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. “We also know restrictive gun control will hurt vulnerable communities that need to defend themselves against the horrible spike in violence.”
Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of Texas, agreed with Grassley, saying they support tougher laws that go after the perpetrators of the violence instead of the guns, which Cornyn described as “inanimate objects.”
Cruz cited a shooting that occurred Sunday at a shopping mall in Greenwood, Indiana, in which three people were killed before an armed good Samaritan shot and killed the suspect who was firing an AR-15-style weapon.
“If the objective is to stop mass murderers, gun control doesn’t work,” Cruz said. “The state of Illinois has the strictest gun control laws of any state in the country, Highland Park has even stricter gun control laws than the state of Illinois. Consistently, if you look across the country with the jurisdictions with the strictest gun control laws, almost without exception, they have the highest crime rates and the highest murder rates.”
In June, Congress a passed a bipartisan gun safety law, the first major piece of federal gun reform in almost 30 years, that was signed into law by President Joe Biden. The legislation — which followed back-to-back mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York — expands federal background checks for buyers under the age of 21, provides financial incentives for states to pass “red flag” laws and other intervention programs and closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” denying people convicted of domestic violence access to firearms.
But Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, a retired military veteran, testified before the committee that banning AR-15-style rifles needs to be made a priority for Congress. She called the rifles “weapons of war” designed to kill and critically maim people far more efficiently than conventional semi-automatic firearms.
“The leading cause of death of Americans under the age of 16 in this country isn’t cancer, isn’t car accidents, it’s gun violence. Only in America,” Duckworth said. “I’m urging this committee to demonstrate courage in supporting a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines.”
Duckworth said that since the assault weapons ban expired, mass shootings in the United States have tripled. Mayor Rotering noted that Highland Park was the 309th mass shooting in the United States this year.
Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ended the hearing by acknowledging the divisiveness of the debate over gun control.
“You saw a good illustration today of the political aspects of this issue involving guns, why we do so little,” Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said. “Once every 30 years, we’re going to do a gun safety bill? God forbid if that is what happens.”
(ATLANTA) — Georgia’s so-called “heartbeat law” can go into effect, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday, making the state the latest to institute a six-week ban on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
The court additionally allowed the ban to take effect immediately — instead of later this summer, as was initially expected — in an unusual move abortion rights advocates criticized as “horrific.”
The bill, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law in 2019, had been blocked from going into effect since a lower court ruled it unconstitutional.
Under the legislation, abortions in the state are banned after about 6 weeks. There are exceptions for medical emergencies, “medically futile” pregnancies and rape and incest — if a police report has been filed. The law also redefines “natural person” under Georgia law to mean “any human being including an unborn child” — including an embryo or fetus at any stage of development.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit lifted an injunction on the law on Wednesday, citing precedent from the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last month in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe.
The appeals court also vacated an order blocking the expanded definition of natural person, ruling that the redefinition “is not vague on its face,” as abortion-rights advocacy groups had argued. The decision does allow for challenges to specific Georgia statutes amended by the redefinition, according to the plaintiffs in the case.
The court’s ruling typically wouldn’t have taken effect until it issued an official mandate — usually 28 days after a decision. But the court additionally issued a stay on the lower court’s injunction on Wednesday, allowing the abortion ban to immediately go into effect.
Previously, abortion up to 21 days and six days of pregnancy had been legal in Georgia.
Gov. Kemp, one of the defendants in the case, celebrated the court’s decision.
“We are overjoyed that the court has paved the way for the implementation of Georgia’s LIFE Act, and as mothers navigate pregnancy, birth, parenthood, or alternative options to parenthood — like adoption — Georgia’s public, private, and non-profit sectors stand ready to provide the resources they need to be safe, healthy, and informed,” he said in a statement.
The organizations that filed the lawsuit called the move by the court to stay the injunction “highly unorthodox” and “outside of the normal court procedures.”
“This is a highly unorthodox action that will immediately push essential abortion care out of reach for patients beyond the earliest stages of pregnancy,” the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Southeast and Planned Parenthood Federation of America said in a joint statement. “Across the state, providers are now being forced to turn away patients who thought they would be able to access abortion, immediately changing the course of their lives and futures. This is horrific.”
Abortion-rights advocates vowed to continue to preserve abortion access in Georgia following the decision.
“Soon, Georgians past the earliest stages of pregnancy will face that same barrier, and it will be insurmountable for some. People who can’t afford to leave the state will be forced to seek abortion outside the health care system or remain pregnant against their will,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.
“This is a grave human rights violation, and Planned Parenthood, along with its partners, will do everything in our power to fight back and ensure all people can get the health care they need, regardless of where they live,” Johnson’s statement added.
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate facing off against Kemp in the race for governor, called the law “draconian.”
“What has been done with this law is an assault on our liberties and we will fight back,” she said in a video message on Twitter.
Since Roe fell, several other states, including Tennessee, Ohio and South Carolina, have instituted bans on abortion at around 6 weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.
(WASHINGTON) — As midterm elections heat up, political campaigns are beginning to think differently and trying some unorthodox methods to win.
Recently, there have been efforts by Democratic PACs to steer Republican voters to specific candidates in primaries.
In Maryland, one Democratic PAC, DGA Action, ran ads promoting Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Other races are taking similar approaches.
ABC News Political Director Rick Klein spoke with “START HERE” Wednesday about this strategy and its effectiveness.
START HERE: Rick, why would Democrats try to help a Trump Republican win a primary?
KLEIN: Because they think that Trump Republican would be easier to beat. You know, in some ways, this is one of the oldest tricks in the book. You try to choose your own opponent because you think you can beat the other person.
And you do it in this case with the kind of false praise of saying, Oh, this person is 100% MAGA or 100% pro-life. Of course, that’s a badge of honor inside a Republican primary and the Democrats that are spending millions of dollars to boost those far-right opponents, they know that.
But what makes this different is we’re talking about individuals who are flat-out election deniers. In the case of Cox, the person that Democrats are boosting in the state of Maryland, this is someone who bused supporters into the Capitol on January 6, although he says he didn’t enter himself. And as the riot was ongoing, he tweeted and later deleted that [then-Vice President] Mike Pence is a traitor.
There’s a lot of history of screwing around and the other side’s primary, but the stakes this time could be different.
START HERE: Rick, what if it doesn’t work? Because I’m trying to think of the last really Trumpy candidate that was seen as a walkover. Oh, that’s right. His name was Donald Trump. A lot of people said Hillary Clinton got what she wished for. She still lost. So why should Democrats think that will not happen again?
KLEIN: Yeah, it’s a huge risk. And forget Maryland, because Maryland’s probably not a battleground state in 2024. But guess what is: Pennsylvania.
That’s where Democrats spent money to try to boost Doug Mastriano, a state senator who again was at the Capitol on January 6 and is one of the staunchest Trump supporters in the nation. He’d be in a position, if he’s governor, to name the next secretary of state to oversee the next election. That’s a dangerous place to have an election denier.
You also saw Democrats try to do this and succeed in Illinois. They failed in Colorado, another battleground state. But the other consequences of this misfiring are vast. And it’s why even some Democrats are saying, ‘wait a second, this is not a time to be playing politics as usual.’ You have to be careful about this. Already with the data that ABC has compiled, along with FiveThirtyEight, we’re talking about more than 120 Republican candidates on the ballot this fall for major offices like secretary of state or governor or for Congress who deny the legitimacy of the last election. That’s just different than we’ve seen in the past and underscores how risky this strategy really is.
START HERE: And there’s no reason to think that if another election came along featuring Donald Trump or not, that that wasn’t seen as favorable to Republicans, that these same people would not say no, that you should throw those results out. Rick, in the meantime, I’m trying to figure out what even this midterm election landscape looks like compared to a couple of months ago, because a lot of people figured Republicans were kind of a lock to take back the House and the Senate. President Biden’s approval hasn’t been so hot, but all that, of course, was before Roe v. Wade was overturned. Is there a different sense now of where each party stands?
KLEIN: Yeah, there’s an interesting trend that’s starting to emerge, Brad, where the president’s numbers are still pretty bad historically; about as bad as any president at this point in his term. And the numbers in the House kind of reflect that. The Democrats are almost certainly going to lose control of the House. But something different is happening in Senate races.
You’re seeing Democrats begin to do a little bit better on what we call the generic ballot. Do you support a Democrat or a Republican? And abortion rights and gun violence and all the other issues they may be adding into that. Despite the drag that inflation has. But the other thing that’s happening is that Republicans are putting up a lot of flawed candidates, some of whom, as we’ve been discussing, put up there because of Democrats meddling in primaries, other cases, just because Trump has been such a loud voice.
In places like Georgia [and] Ohio, [and] like Pennsylvania’s governor’s race and Senate race with Dr. Oz. You have a situation where the Republicans may not have their best choice on the playing field and it might boost Democrats’ chances. And it has a lot of Democrats thinking, ‘you know what, we’ve got a shot at keeping the Senate despite all of the headwinds we’re facing this year.’
(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 cases are continuing to surge in New York City and unvaccinated residents are bearing the brunt.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, as of Wednesday, the Big Apple has a seven-day case rate of 369.8 per 100,000, the second-highest rate in the United States, only behind California.
On July 17, New York City recorded a seven-day average of 4,380 cases, 14% higher than the average of 3,828 cases recorded two weeks ago, according to the city’s Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
Additionally, the test positivity rate hit 14.46%, the highest seen since January 2022, during the omicron surge.
Doctors say that more than a year-and-a-half into the vaccine rollout, the majority of those getting sick, hospitalized and dying are unvaccinated people.
DOHMH data shows that the average weekly rate of cases among the unvaccinated sits at 764.29 per 100,000.
This is nearly three times higher than the rate among those vaccinated and boosted at 278.93 per 100,000 and 3.5 times higher than the rate among those vaccinated and not boosted at 216.89 per 100,000.
COVID-19-related-hospitalizations are more than five times higher at 36.84 per 100,000 compared to 6.93 per 100,000 and 6.82 per 100,000 for the vaccinated without a booster and the vaccinated with a booster groups, respectively.
Deaths are also more than six times higher for the unvaccinated at 5.27 per 100,000 compared to 0.96 per 100,000 for the vaccinated but not boosted group and 0.77 per 100,000 for those vaccinated and boosted.
Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of the division of infectious diseases at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, told ABC News that even though the case rate is lower among those vaccinated without a booster compared to those vaccinated with a booster, the real measure of protection is the rate of hospitalizations and deaths, which is lower among the boosted group.
“What’s becoming apparent is that what we really want is to avoid severe disease and we define severe disease as requiring hospitalization or intensive care unit,” he said. “Even if the vaccines don’t prevent infection, if they protect against severe infection, then that’s a big positive.”
Gulick said that rising cases appear to be fueled by the highly infectious BA.5 variant.
BA.5, an offshoot of the original omicron variant, has become the dominant strain in New York City, making up more than 57% of cases as of July 2, according to the DOHMH.
“The BA. 5 variant is accounting for a significant number of infections,” Gulick said. “This almost all certainly due to BA.5.”
Evidence has shown that BA.5 is better at evading protection from both vaccines and previous infection including antibodies from BA.1 — the original omicron variant — and BA.2, the first subvariant.
The COVID situation in the city appears to be reflective of what’s going on in New York State. BA.5 currently accounts for an estimated two-thirds of COVID cases in the New York region as defined by the CDC.
Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference Wednesday as the state hit 15% test positivity rate for the first time since January.
“We’ve seen the past and the past can become the present if we don’t take the steps now,” she said of the rising number of cases.
Hochul said the mask mandate on public transit will remain in place until cases are “consistently lower” and issued several preparedness plans.
Among them include sending more than three million tests to schools ahead of the start of the fall semester and distributing at-home kits from the stockpile of 20 million.
Hochul said, at the moment, schools don’t have mask mandates, but she kept open the possibility “if things change.”
“I’m going to reserve the right to change this policy,” she said.
