(UVALDE, Texas) — More than one month since the massacre at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, families of victims demanded answers from city leaders during a special council meeting on Thursday.
Frustrated by the lack of information from the ongoing state investigation, families turned to the council for answers — but they got none.
“We’re not trying to hide anything from you,” said Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Thursday. “We don’t have anything.”
After returning from discussing the shooting behind closed doors, McLaughlin told the assembled family members and media that they had no more information to share than they did two hours earlier when they went behind closed doors.
But families pressed the mayor for details and complained about the lack of transparency.
“We’re looking for some answers that nobody seems to be getting and it’s just making Uvalde PD and everybody else look even more guilty,” said Berlinda Arreola, grandmother of Amerie Jo Garza, one of the students who died.
“Look at this as a dad, as a parent,” said Garza’s dad who was also at the meeting. “What if it was your kid?”
“You’re in charge of this city,” one parent yelled.
During the meeting, the sister of Irma Garcia, one of the fourth-grade teachers who died, demanded answers from the mayor and blamed the Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee for how the investigation has been handled.
The families complained the district attorney has dodged their questions and has refused to release evidence including 911 calls and surveillance footage.
“No one should have much power,” Irma Garcia’s sister, Velma Lisa Duran, said of the district attorney.
“My sister was obliterated,” Duran added before breaking down in tears. “I couldn’t hug her. I couldn’t say my last goodbye.”
In response to the family’s complains and demands for more information, McLaughlin showed the room two letters he says he received in response to his requests for information. One, from Busbee, said, “any release of records to that incident at this time would interfere with said ongoing investigation” referring to the school shooting.
The other letter McLaughlin showed during the meeting was from the Texas Department of Public Safety saying, “release of records related to that incident at this time would interfere with the ongoing investigation.”
The anger in the room was met with frustration from the mayor as well. He told the parents that the issue was beyond his reach, and that he has tried to get answers.
McLaughlin added that if they didn’t have confidence in him, he would step down.
Notably, embattled Police Chief Pete Arredondo was a no-show — his third absence at a meeting since he was sworn in as councilman last month.
Last week, Arredondo was placed on administrative leave by the school district.
Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.
(NEW YORK) — The Fourth of July rings in the peak of summer quite literally as fireworks fly into the sky from cities to backyards alike.
While the celebration is often colorful and exciting, it is also a time that can be very loud and frightening for dogs around the country, causing it to be the weekend more pets go missing than any other time of the year, according to the American Kennel Club.
It is common for dogs to suffer from noise phobia and fireworks are usually a big trigger. The noise of fireworks causes dogs to enter survival mode, according to Kitty Block, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. This can leave dogs feeling panicked, and can even cause “dogs considered to be very laid-back” to bolt from their owners and destruct their home.
“It is a logical response if you think of it from the dog’s perspective,” Block explains. “They hear extremely loud noises that often make the ground vibrate and see bright flashing lights. They don’t know it’s a holiday or a celebration, often they don’t even know where the sound is coming from, so their desire to get away or hide is understandable.”
There are some overt signs that your dog could be getting anxious, such as whining, pacing, and running away. However, dogs can also show more subtle signs of anxiousness, which can look like presenting “a general restlessness when the fireworks are happening,” explains Nick Hof, chair of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
The anxiety dogs have from fireworks can also be acquired over time or after a traumatic incident, which Hof’s dog, Lanie, experienced after losing her canine brother.
“One of my dogs a few years ago lost her brother and actually gained an anxiety for the Fourth of July when we no longer had her brother here as well,” Hof shares. “It took me by surprise because she had previously been totally fine.”
“When the Fourth of July came the year after, she became very panicked, would cry and whine, completely unable to settle down or relax,” Hof added.
Hof said he did everything he could to try and help her in that difficult situation, such as “turning on relaxing music to mitigate the sounds of fireworks” and “offering tasty, high-value treats” in an effort to make the experience less scary for her, which are a few of the many useful ways to ease your dog’s anxiety.
However, something unique and hopeful about this time of the year is that there is always a definite day these particular fireworks are planned to go off, which means we can prepare for it. Experts believe we have improved over time as a society with how we handle our dogs with care on the Fourth of July.
From anti-anxiety sweaters known as “Thunder Shirts” to desensitization CDs that help utilize the sound of thunderstorms, there are many different ways of dealing with anxiety in animals, said Dr. Klein, chief veterinary officer at the American Kennel Club.
There has also been an improvement in veterinary medicine with the types of medications that are offered for dogs with anxiety and noise phobia.
“We are moving away from medications that were just purely sedative and moving more towards ones that have anti-anxiety components that can help reduce the actual anxiety that the dogs are feeling,” said Hof.
Here are 6 ways to treat your dog with care on July 4 to lessen anxiety and panicking:
1. Create a sense of calmness and compete with the noise by turning on a radio or television.
2. Place a cotton ball in their ears while the fireworks go on (just remember to take them out!)
3. Stay with your pet or have a family member or friend dog-sit for the day to give them a sense of security.
4. Take your dog out on a leash when they need to use the bathroom so they are not alone and cannot run away at the noise of fireworks.
5. Play fetch with them, put on some relaxing music, and reward them with treats.
6. Most importantly, keep them far away from the fireworks show!
(WASHINGTON) — A former White House aide’s stunning testimony before the House panel investigating the Capitol attack indicated that the U.S. Secret Service may have had advanced warning of the potential for violence at the Capitol, raising new questions about the agency’s planning ahead of the riot and actions taken by agents on Jan. 6.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a top deputy to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the security team guarding then-President Donald Trump and senior White House officials were aware there was a serious threat posed by some descending on Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, when Trump was planning to address a rally to support his baseless accusations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
In Hutchinson’s telling, the agency famous for its teams of bodyguards, sharpshooters and hyper-skilled drivers was aware that among the throngs headed to Washington were some who were planning to carry a variety of weapons and military gear, and were seeking to target members of Congress and breach the Capitol building.
If so, the Secret Service apparently failed to coordinate effectively with law enforcement partners, the public, or congressional leaders to strengthen the security posture — and instead ferried a number of people under their protection to the Capitol complex with little more than their personal security details.
The Secret Service declined to answer questions from ABC News.
If true, the lapse in security — laid out on national television during a committee session Tuesday — represents perhaps the most glaring evidence to date that the Secret Service, responsible for guarding key political figures and their families, failed at its most basic responsibilities in how it dealt with Trump’s rally and the meetings of the House and Senate on Jan. 6, according to John Cohen, a former ranking Department of Homeland Security official who is now an ABC News contributor.
“It appears that senior officials at the White House were not only aware of plans to march on the U.S. Capitol, but also appeared to be planning for the president to join,” Cohen said, citing another of Hutchinson’s allegations. “This testimony raises highly disconcerting questions about what the Secret Service knew about this event and why more wasn’t done to prepare.”
Notoriously tight-lipped about their job and how they do it, the Secret Service is under renewed focus this week after Hutchison, 26, alleged shocking new details about the president’s interactions with his security agents on Jan. 6 and how they were so concerned about possible violence at the Capitol that they refused Trump’s directive to drive him there.
“The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now’ — to which Bobby [Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail], responded, ‘Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing,'” Hutchinson testified she was told by Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was at the time White House deputy chief of staff for operations.
Trump, responding to Hutchinson’s testimony, said, “I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and ‘leaker’).”
Hutchinson also testified that in the days leading up to Jan. 6, Meadows at one point said, “Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”
And on the morning of Trump’s planned speech at the Ellipse, just south of the White House grounds, Hutchinson said, Trump was made aware of individuals with weapons seeking to attend his rally and that many of them declined to pass through security checkpoints because they would have needed to surrender their weapons. Frustrated that those requirements were suppressing the size of the crowd, Trump suggested that the metal detectors be removed, Hutchinson testified.
Cohen said that, as concerned as he was about those developments, he was most troubled by the picture Hutchinson’s testimony painted of possible failures on the part of the Secret Service, an agency Cohen has worked closely with since it was folded in to DHS after the 9/11 terror attacks.
“Hutchinson’s testimony raises serious questions regarding security planning by the Secret Service on Jan 6. that will need to be answered,” Cohen said. “Did the Service leadership have advanced notice of the planned march on the Capitol? Did they have advanced notice of the president’s intent to join the crowd?”
Hutchinson said that Ornato, whom she described as “the conduit for security protocol between White House staff and the United States Secret Service,” was aware of possible violence planned for Jan. 6 in the preceding days — and alerted Meadows and Trump on the morning of Jan. 6.
Even with this information allegedly circulating among senior White House staff, the Secret Service ferried at least three of its protectees to travel to the Capitol — Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris, who was still a senator from California — without supplementing their details with additional agents or coordinating with other agencies to shore up protection.
Ornato, a longtime Secret Service employee, currently serves as a senior official in the agency’s training branch. The Jan. 6 committee has expressed interest in interviewing him, and the Secret Service has said he is available to testify under oath, but did not provide further details.
Law enforcement officials have broadly characterized Jan. 6 as an intelligence failure, claiming that Washington’s myriad of law enforcement agencies did not fully grasp the threat landscape — despite warnings that appeared on social media in the weeks leading up the rally.
Secret Service officials have also said that local officials did not ask DHS to establish a special national security designation for the Jan. 6 sessions of Congress, so their hands were tied — though Cohen said DHS and the Secret Service don’t have to wait for local officials to reach out if they are aware of active threats.
Hutchinson’s testimony indicated that the Secret Service either had advanced warning of the threats and failed to notify others and formulate an appropriate response plan — or they were misled by White House officials who had a clearer understanding of the potential for violence and neglected to alert the appropriate agencies, Cohen said.
“These security lapses may not have been a result of incompetence, but instead due to deliberate actions taken by senior White House officials,” Cohen said. “If this information was not provided to the Secret Service, or if it was and the Secret Service failed to expand security operations, that would be highly disconcerting.”
Don Mihalek, a former senior Secret Service agent who is now an ABC News contributor, said the “interplay of information” among senior White House staff and protective agents about possible threats happens regularly — but that agents are limited in how they can implement plans if senior officials fail to heed warnings or cooperate with them.
Mihalek said he believes the breakdown in communication between agencies handicapped the Secret Service’s planning and response as protesters marched on the Capitol building. He defended agents’ decision to allow Pence, his wife, and Harris travel freely to the Capitol, despite possibly knowing the risk in advance.
“Nobody has a crystal ball,” Mihalek said. “There’s always a threat environment, and the Secret Service’s job is to mitigate threats as much as possible — and they don’t have the authority to override a protectee’s movement, outside of citing a credible and specific threat.”
In the wake of her appearance on Capitol Hill, Hutchinson has faced a deluge of criticism from Trump associates and supporters who have questioned her credibility. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview that she has full faith and confidence in Hutchinson’s word.
“I am absolutely confident in her testimony,” Cheney told Karl in a wide-ranging interview set to air in full on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” this Sunday. “The Committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources, and by men who are claiming executive privilege.”
(SILVER SPRING, Md.) — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it had advised COVID-19 vaccine companies to produce an updated vaccine for this fall, an aim to give people broader and stronger immunity in an upcoming booster campaign ahead of the winter.
It’s the latest step in the FDA’s strategy to better keep up with the virus, moving quicker to address variants and working to make booster doses more effective.
The announcement comes after the FDA’s advisers met earlier this week to discuss the various options for updated vaccine designs. In keeping with the advisers’ recommendations, the FDA selected a vaccine that will include two strains of COVID, the original Wuhan strain and the most recent omicron sub variants, BA.4 and BA.5, which is currently making up the majority of cases.
“The COVID-19 vaccines that the FDA has approved and authorized for emergency use have made a tremendous difference to public health and have saved countless lives in the U.S. and globally,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s vaccine chief, in a statement Thursday.
But the virus has “evolved significantly,” Marks said, making it necessary to better match the vaccines to the variants.
“As we move into the fall and winter, it is critical that we have safe and effective vaccine boosters that can provide protection against circulating and emerging variants to prevent the most severe consequences of COVID-19,” Marks said.
The hope is that updating the vaccines to more closely match the current variants will give people stronger protection for a longer period of time, and that including multiple strains of virus in the vaccine could give broader protection against new variants that are likely to arise in the future.
Still, the next few months will carry a lot of uncertainty, as manufacturers race to produce hundreds of millions of doses and the virus likely continues to mutate.
As the chair of the FDA’s advisory committee noted on Tuesday, planning vaccines ahead of time to try to protect against unknown COVID-19 variants is “unchartered territory.”
“Unfortunately — looking in the past doesn’t help us a great deal to look in the future for this virus, which has baffled a lot of us and made predictions almost irrelevant,” said Arnold Monto, the committee chair.
But experts are hopeful that updating the vaccines to bring them closer to the latest variants will still be beneficial, even if it won’t be a perfect match by fall.
The government has already purchased $3.2 billion worth of vaccines from Pfizer, which amounts to 105 million doses. The order includes doses for adults, adolescents and children.
The contract came with an option to order an additional 195 million doses, bringing the total to 300 million, which would nearly cover the U.S. population.
But for now, the White House has run into funding troubles.
After months of Congressional gridlock over a request for $22.5 billion for COVID preparedness, the White House pulled $10 billion from other COVID efforts, including testing, to buy $5 billion worth of vaccines and another $5 billion of therapeutics.
The government is likely to also contract with Moderna, which could increase the available doses, but in the meantime the White House has so far only secured enough doses to boost the country’s most vulnerable people, White House COVID coordinator Ashish Jha said Wednesday.
There are around 118 million Americans over the age of 50, 55 million of whom are 65 and older — the highest risk group for the virus. The Pfizer order alone could cover this group, if manufacturing all goes to plan.
But there are over 258 million Americans over the age of 18, and the White House said it’s committed to securing doses for everyone “who may benefit.”
“As we warned Congress months ago, our fall vaccine order will not be sufficient to make a vaccination available to every adult who may benefit from these new booster shots and comes with trade-offs,” Jha said, calling on Congress to act.
“We lack funding to purchase enough vaccines to cover all Americans who may want this protection.”
Of course, it remains to be seen how many Americans that will be. Only 105 million Americans have gotten their first booster dose, about half of the people who got their initial series, which could be a sign that demand for boosters will continue to be low this fall.
Both Pfizer and Moderna plan to have doses available by October and November.
Before that happens, the companies will submit their data on these vaccines to the FDA, which will issue an authorization if it finds them to be safe and effective.
The FDA has not asked the companies to alter their designs for primary doses — the initial two shots for mRNA vaccines — calling this year a “transitional period” and saying that the primary series still gives good protection against hospitalization.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A 71-year-old woman was gored by a bull bison at Yellowstone National Park, making her the third person attacked by a bison at the park this year.
A park official said that the Pennsylvania woman and her daughter were headed back to their vehicle at Storm Point at Yellowstone Lake on Wednesday when they inadvertently approached the bison, causing it to charge at them.
The woman sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was sent to West Park Hospital in Cody, Wyoming.
Earlier this week, a 34-year-old Colorado man was walking with his family near Giant Geyser at Old Faithful in Yellowstone when a bull bison attacked him.
On May 30, a 25-year-old woman was gored by a bison after approaching the animal near a boardwalk at Black Sand Basin.
Yellowstone officials warned that people should stay over 25 yards away from bison and other large animals at the park and give them space near campsites, trails and boardwalks.
“Though bison are generally more intent on grazing, mother bison are extremely protective of their calves in spring and bulls can be more aggressive in July and August during the rut when they are competing for the attention of females,” Dennis Jorgensen, the bison program manager at World Wildlife Fund, told ABC News in a statement.
Bison are threatened when approached and may issue warnings, such as head bobbing, pawing and snorting, when you’re too close. Officials add that people should not hold their ground and should run away from bison immediately.
“Bison have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal,” the park says on its website. “Bison are unpredictable and can run three times faster than humans.”
Yellowstone National Park is reopening part of its north loop on Saturday, weeks after severe flooding forced people to flee, left some stranded and damaged roads and bridges, forcing the park to shut down.
“We’re pleased to reopen the north loop of Yellowstone to the visiting public less than three weeks after this major flood event,” Cam Sholly, the park’s superintendent, said in a press release Thursday.
(WASHINGTON) — White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s dramatic testimony this week has provided not only a new account of the actions of then-President Donald Trump and chief of staff Mark Meadows before and on Jan. 6, 2021, but it’s also raised questions about where the House select committee’s investigation will go next, including concerning Trump’s potential legal liability.
In a nearly two-hour hearing Tuesday, Hutchinson painted a picture of Trump, who, after speaking at his “Save America” rally on the Ellipse, insisted on being taken to the Capitol as Congress met to certify electoral votes, demanding to join his supporters, she said, despite having been told some were armed with weapons.
“I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, “I don’t effing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson. “They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in.”
Trump rushed to attack her credibility — but appeared to mostly dispute — not whether he knew the mob attacking the Capitol was armed — but whether, in a rage, he had grabbed the steering wheel of his presidential SUV or in anger had thrown his lunch against the White House dining room wall.
In a statement Wednesday, her lawyer said Hutchinson stands by all the testimony she gave under oath Tuesday.
The committee followed up Wednesday on Hutchinson’s account of what Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone said at the time, to her and to others, with a subpoena — and his team is negotiating the ultimate scope of the order for future testimony, sources told ABC News.
Addressing the last-minute nature of the Hutchinson hearing, Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Wednesday it was “critical” for the American public to hear her testimony “immediately,” adding that threats of witness intimidation, as well as the potential for her story to inspire others to come forward, were “an important part of our calculus.”
“We want to let people know that may be signaling or trying to influence witness testimony that we take that very seriously, that we will confront that, and if necessary, we will refer any kind of intimidation to the Justice Department,” Schiff said on “GMA3.” “We also want to be able to use this information to encourage other witnesses to come forward.”
Sources tell ABC News that Hutchinson was one of the witnesses who told the Jan. 6 committee she was pressured by allies of Donald Trump to protect the former president.
The committee and Hutchinson herself have not publicly confirmed this reporting.
How will Trump counsel Cipollone testify?
Cipollone is evaluating the subpoena and his team is negotiating with the committee on the parameters surrounding an eventual closed-door deposition, sources close to him told ABC News. They say they have an expectation that he and the committee will reach an agreement on the terms by the requested deposition date of next Wednesday, July 6, though sources emphasize the fluid nature of the talks.
Committee investigators are expected to ask Cipollone will be asked about his interactions with Trump on Jan. 6, knowledge of attempts from former top DOJ official Jeffrey Clark — whom Trump wanted to install as attorney general — to use the powers of the Justice Department to attempt to overturn the election, and interactions with former Trump election lawyer John Eastman and members of Congress after the election.
The information shared with the committee could be impacted by a number of factors, sources familiar with the deliberations said. That includes whether Trump’s presence in any of the past meetings could result in potential claims of executive privilege, or whether Cipollone could invoke attorney-client privilege on certain matters as the top lawyer in the White House.
A lawyer familiar with Cipollone’s deliberations told ABC News Wednesday, in response to the committee’s announcement: “Of course a subpoena was necessary before the former White House counsel could even consider transcribed testimony before the committee,” and that now it will “be evaluated as to matters of privilege that might be appropriate.”
Cipollone and former deputy White House counsel, Pat Philbin, who was also part of a Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting, during which Trump insisted on replacing then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Clark, sat for an informal interview with committee investigators in April — but members are eager to speak with Cipollone again after Hutchinson described firsthand accounts of what she said were his warnings.
Hutchinson told the committee that on the morning of Jan. 6, before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Cipollone was adamant that Trump shouldn’t go to the Capitol after his speech at the rally on the Ellipse.
“We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen,” she said Cipollone warned her at the time.
She also recalled Cipollone rushing into Meadows’ office in the West Wing as rioters breached the building.
“I remember Pat saying something to the effect of ‘Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice president to be f—— hung,'” Hutchinson said in taped testimony.
She said that Meadows replied, “You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” to which Cipollone said, according to Hutchinson, “Mark, something needs to be done, or people are going to die and the blood’s gonna be on your f—— hands.”
Chairman Bennie Thompson said the committee has also requested to speak with Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who took back her apparent offer to speak with the committee this week when her attorney sent a letter to the committee saying he wants “a better justification for why Mrs. Thomas’s testimony is relevant.”
Thomas urged Arizona lawmakers in emails obtained by ABC News to help reverse Biden’s victory — suggesting that the conservative activist played a larger role in pushing to overturn the election than was previously publicly known.
What happened inside Trump’s SUV?
A secondhand account Hutchinson gave Tuesday was a shocking story about how Trump allegedly reached for the steering wheel in trying to get to the Capitol after his Ellipse speech — and prompted immediate pushback.
Hutchinson recalled being told how Trump turned “irate” as he was driven away from the Ellipse after being told by his security that he could not go to the Capitol with his supporters.
Though she was not in the SUV at the time, she said she heard the account from Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was at the time White House deputy chief of staff for operations, when everyone was back at the White House. Also in the room was Bobby Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail who was in the SUV with Trump and, according to Hutchinson, did not speak up to dispute any of Ornato’s account.
“The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now’ — to which Bobby responded, ‘Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing,'” she testified she was told. “The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’
“Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted this story to me, he motioned toward his clavicles,” she said.
In a rare statement after her testimony, the Secret Service reiterated that it had been cooperating with the House committee and intended to keep doing so, “including by responding on the record” to Hutchinson’s testimony. The agency issued another statement Wednesday saying that agents are prepared to give sworn testimony.
Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that Trump had indeed requested to go to Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the Secret Service refused due to security concerns. One of those sources said that when the former president returned to his vehicle after his speech at the Ellipse and asked Engel if he could go to the Capitol, Engel responded by saying, essentially, that it was unwise. But sources pushed back against any allegation that Trump reached for the steering wheel or assaulted an agent.
A Jan. 6 committee aide told ABC News Wednesday, “The committee welcomes anyone who wishes to provide additional information under oath.”
How is Hutchinson’s boss Mark Meadows responding?
Cheney also asked Hutchinson whether Meadows himself ever indicated he was interested in a pardon, after she previously ticked off several GOP lawmakers in a taped deposition who Hutchinson said were in contact with the White House about “blanket pardons” after Jan. 6.
Each lawmaker named has denied the allegation.
“Mr. Meadows did seek that pardon,” she testified under Cheney’s questioning.
A Meadows spokesperson said he “never sought a pardon and never planned to,” but did not make clear in the short statement whether Meadows raised the possibility with colleagues or even informally entertained the idea of such an ask.
Cheney told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview that she is “absolutely confident” in Hutchinson’s testimony and credibility.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, John Santucci and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
(SAN ANTONIO) — Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar has written a letter to President Joe Biden, asking to meet with him to address migration issues “as the humanitarian crisis it truly is.”
“We just don’t see it slowing down,” Salazar told ABC News’ Linsey Davis Wednesday during an interview for “ABC News Live Prime.”
“I attribute that to what I would call a perceived lack of action on the part of the federal government that’s allowing the state of Texas to do what they’re doing, which is quite frankly, causing a whole lot of heartache for other agencies, and I don’t see a whole lot of benefit from it… we’re dealing with big rescues of groups of undocumented immigrants every day.”
Salazar has called for action from the federal government in his most recent letter to Biden stating how “angry he is.”
“I’m angry that I could not stop this massive loss of life in my county. I’m angry that despite my best efforts to appeal to your administration, I have not received a response. I’m disappointed that a perceived lack of action on the part of the US government has allowed the governor of my state to use this issue as one big campaigns done,” Salazar wrote and also alleged that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott used the situation “as some sort of enemy invasion.”
This comes after 53 people lost their lives during a suspected migrant smuggling operation Monday, and and increasing migration at the border.
This is, however, not the first time he has reached out to Biden asking for assistance as a spokesperson for Salazar told ABC News he has written three letters to Biden and has also reached out to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
While he is hoping to have resources from the federal government and meet with Biden, Salazar who is a Democrat, also puts blame on Abbott’s migrant arrest program. Under this program, state law enforcement agencies are authorized to arrest migrants on criminal charges. This is something Salazar said he is not going to enforce, that he has not seen to be beneficial, and referred to as a “campaign stunt.”
“We have not experienced any change. In fact, it seems to be picking up steam. To me, it just seems like a big campaigns stunt, that billions of billions of dollars are being poured into it, And for what?…We’re sleeping out here in the in the desert, watching for this enemy invasion that never truly seems to come,” Salazar said.
Abbott’s program has faced severe backlash including from members of the Texas National Guard who have been tasked with enforcing the measure.
Salazar’s most recent letter, he said, has received “some response” from the White House, but he still hopes to meet to discuss solutions.
“I’m not just going to come to the table and present problems. I’m hoping to present some solutions. I’ve been in talks with other urban county sheriff’s in the state of Texas…so we’re prepared to come present some possible solutions as we see it. But we just need the audience,” Salazar said.
And is hopeful of a solution.
“We may not have all the answers, but I think between those of us that are here, with eyes on the problem every day, and those in D.C. that are the top decision makers, I think we can reach some sort of an understanding to try to truly make a difference in this issue,” Salazar said.
ABC News Victoria Moll-Ramirez contributed to this report
(LOS ANGELES) — A 93-year-old suburban Los Angeles homeowner, who a relative said was frustrated over being the victim of numerous home break-ins, shot and critically wounded a burglar and scared off the would-be thief’s accomplices, according to authorities.
The retired plumber, identified as Joe Howard Teague by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, turned the tables on the group of home invaders early Wednesday when he grabbed his gun and confronted them inside his house in Moreno Valley, the sheriff’s office said.
“I approached them to put them under citizen’s arrest. They wouldn’t adhere to that and then one of them came at me with a fishing pole,” Teague told reporters outside his home Thursday.
He said the suspects, who entered his home after kicking open his door, began throwing things at him as he tried to hold them at gunpoint.
“It was just like somebody comes to a gunfight with a pocketknife, you know,” Teague said.
Teague called 911 at about 12:30 p.m. and reported a burglary in progress at his home, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. As deputies responded, Teague told a dispatcher he was holding several suspects, according to the sheriff’s department.
Teague said the suspects included at least one woman.
When deputies arrived at Teague’s home, they found one of the suspected burglars suffering from a gunshot wound.
A witness told deputies that several people were seen fleeing Teague’s home on foot prior to the arrival of deputies.
The wounded suspect, identified as Joseph A. Ortega, 33, of Moreno Valley, was hospitalized in critical condition, according to the sheriff’s department.
“Investigators have established that several individuals, including Ortega, were inside Teague’s property when a shooting occurred,” the sheriff’s department said.
93-year-old homeowner takes matters into his own hands and shoots suspect who authorities say broke into home in Moreno Valley https://t.co/IkpQrbOowu
Teague was not injured. He was taken to a sheriff’s department station, questioned and released, authorities said.
Sheriff’s department officials said it appears the shooting was justified, but added that the investigation is ongoing.
“Based on the severity of Ortega’s medical condition, the Central Homicide Unit responded to the scene and assumed the investigation,” the sheriff’s department said.
Investigators are working to identify the other assailants. No arrests have been announced.
Oscar Malma, whose wife is related to Teague, told ABC station KABC in Los Angeles that Teague had been the victim of a string of recent break-ins, including one that occurred on Friday.
Malma said the elderly man had grown increasingly frustrated over his home being targeted by thieves and the response from local police.
“He was tired because every time he calls the police, the police were taking forever to come and assist him,” Malma said.
He said a burglary Friday at the man’s home occurred in broad daylight.
“And now this happened in the middle of the night,” Malma said. “He was defending his property. That happened inside of his home. So, I don’t think there would be any reason for him to be arrested.”
(NEW YORK) — In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, nearly crippling its economy and isolating it from all but a few allies.
President Joe Biden and other government officials have said sanctions from the U.S. and its allies will make Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, pariahs on the world stage.
However, one expert who spoke with ABC News says that casting Russia out of the international community, making it a pariah state, may not be so easy.
“Russia is a member of the UN security council, it has veto power there. It is just a major actor on the world stage in so many ways. So isolating Russia, shaming it, making it a pariah is a huge challenge,” said Daniel Hamilton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute.
Yet, “Russia has not done too well with allies,” Hamilton also said.
“Today, its real allies are … sort of also pariah states. It’s Assad’s Syria, it’s Venezuela, it’s Cuba and that’s about it. Others tolerate Russia. They figure out ways to deal with it, in the former Soviet space. But they’re not really allies,” Hamilton said.
China has also kept a relationship with Russia, which Hamilton called “pro-Russian neutrality,” with China falling short of giving Russia its full support, he said
An analysis of American policymakers found that the U.S. punishes pariah states committing one of five acts: the development of weapons of mass destruction, involvement in terrorism, posing a military threat, challenging international norms and, most recently, cyberthreats.
The U.S. currently designates Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism, according to the Department of State.
Russia’s gross domestic product, a metric used to gauge the size of an economy by quantifying all the goods and services it produced, will be hard hit, according to Andrew Lohsen, a fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Russian GDP, by their own estimates, is expected to to fall by between eight and 12%. This is the sharpest contraction since 1994,” said Lohsen.
“Other former finance officials in Russia put that number close to 30%,” Lohsen said.
Lohsen also told ABC News the way Russia has conducted its war warrants a strong response from the international community.
“I think the images of civilians with their hands tied behind their back or shot execution style is an indication that Russia simply cannot be treated the way it has before, that this is a war crime,” Lohsen said.
“The way that Russia has fought this war in a way that is so obviously meant to terrorize and inflict pain and suffering on civilian noncombatants,” Lohsen added.
Putin considers Ukraine not as a sovereign country, but rather, a lost tribe of Russia, Hamilton said.
“He really is determined to either cripple it or to absorb it, if possible. He’s having some trouble doing that,” Hamilton said.
As it moves to isolate Russia, the U.S. is softening relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, despite Biden’s campaign promise to make Saudi Arabia a pariah for its killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
While the U.S. has been able to cut out Russian oil, the European Union still relies on Russia for 25% of its oil and 40% of its natural gas.
(WASHINGTON) – The Supreme Court announced Thursday it will hear a case this fall that could upend state election laws across the country.
Moore v. Harper focuses on a new North Carolina voting map created by court-appointed experts after earlier maps proposed by the Republican-led state legislature were struck down.
The North Carolina Supreme Court in February ruled that the maps offered by the state general assembly were partisan gerrymanders, violating free speech, free assembly and equal protection provisions of the state constitution.
But the state legislature appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has agreed to take up the issue of redistricting and possibly restore the Republican-drawn map.
Central to the petitioners’ argument is the so-called “independent state legislature” theory — a fringe legal concept pushed by a small group of conservative advocates that would give state legislatures broad authority to run federal elections without the traditional oversight from a state constitution or judiciary, whom these advocates argue have no right to intrude on elected representatives.
Observers say there could be major ramifications from the Supreme Court’s eventual decision.
“This has the potential to change the rules of the game in far-reaching ways in time for the next presidential election,” ABC News Political Director Rick Klein said. “Depending on how far the Supreme Court goes, it could virtually invite Republican-controlled legislatures to rewrite centuries-old laws ensuring that the candidate who gets the most votes in a state gets its electoral votes — and it even could free legislatures to pick electors on their own.”
“It could wind up making it far easier for a future state legislature to actually do what Trump allies so desperately wanted done in the messy aftermath of the 2020 election,” Klein added.
The “independent state legislature” theory argues that under the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause and Electors Clause, state legislators can determine how elections are conducted without checks and balances from the other governmental actors such as state constitutions, courts or gubernatorial vetoes.
The Elections Clause reads, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [choosing] Senators.”
The Electors Clause states that “each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.”
The Electors Clause was central to the unsuccessful plot by former President Donald Trump and his allies to use “fake electors” to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
Thomas Wolf, deputy director with the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, said the theory contradicts the intent of the Constitution’s framers.
“It’s contrary to 200-plus years of practice, the way we actually run elections, and it’s contrary to over a century’s worth of Supreme Court precedent,” Wolf told ABC News. “It’s also just disastrous as a policy matter.”
Wolf warned that the argument, if accepted by the high court, could lead to the elimination of protections against discrimination for voting and strip election administrators of their ability to efficiently run and regulate elections.
The North Carolina Supreme Court said back in February that the theory would “produce absurd and dangerous consequences.”
North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case, stating on Thursday that he was “confident” the justices would agree with their view that the U.S. Constitution “explicitly gives the General Assembly authority to draw districts.”
“This case is not only critical to election integrity in North Carolina, but has implications for the security of elections nationwide,” Moore argued.
The Supreme Court first confronted the case in March, when North Carolina’s state legislature sought emergency relief. The justices ultimately denied that request, but three conservative on the bench said they would have granted a stay of the North Carolina Supreme Court’s order.
“This case presents an exceptionally important and recurring question of constitutional law, namely, the extent of a state court’s authority to reject rules adopted by a state legislature for use in conducting federal elections,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the dissent. He was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.
Helen White, counsel at the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy, in a press call Thursday noted the Supreme Court ruled on the matter of partisan gerrymandering just three years ago.
In Rucho v. Common Cause, the court said while it wouldn’t step in to police partisan gerrymandering, state courts and constitutions were a means of regulating gerrymandering in congressional elections.
White said if the court were now to adopt the “independent state legislature” theory, it would be a “radical pivot from what they themselves have said about the issues in this case.”
Moore v. Harper will be argued before the nine justices in the term beginning this October, with a decision handed down in time for the 2024 campaign.
