(NEW YORK) — Mysterious cases of dead, mutilated cattle along a Texas highway has left local authorities puzzled.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office said last week that its deputies were investigating the death of a 6-year-old longhorn-cross cow on a ranch when “five other similar occurrences” were reported along the area of Texas State Highway OSR, near the eastern city of College Station, spanning Madison, Brazos and Robertson counties.
“Each incident occurred in different locations, pastures, and herds,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post on April 19. “Multiple similar incidents have been reported across the United States and we are actively coordinating with other agencies to find answers.”
The 6-year-old cow was found dead lying on one side with a “straight, clean cut, with apparent precision,” removing the hide around the exposed side of its mouth, according to the sheriff’s office. The animal’s “tongue was also completely removed,” the sheriff’s office said.
Five other cows — four adults and a yearling — were found in the same condition, except two also had circular cuts “made with the same precision” to remove additional external organs, according to the sheriff’s office.
In all six cases, the sheriff’s office said there were no blood spills or signs of struggle. The grass around the deceased animals was also undisturbed and there were no noticeable footprints or tire tracks in the area, authorities said. Neither predators nor birds scavenged the remains, leaving the bodies to “decay untouched for several weeks,” according to the sheriff’s office.
The cause of death of all six cows remains unknown and under investigation. The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Monday.
Anyone with information on the cases or who observes any similar occurrences is asked to contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at 936-348-2755.
(WASHINGTON) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to launch a 2024 presidential campaign in the coming months, will travel overseas this week on an international trade mission.
DeSantis will lead a Florida delegation to Israel, Japan, South Korea and the U.K. to meet with government and business leaders.
The trip is seen by some allies as an effort to expand his foreign policy chops ahead of a likely presidential campaign launch by this summer.
The governor’s office said in a news release on Thursday that the trip would focus on building upon Florida’s current economic relationships with each country.
In Japan, DeSantis will meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. In South Korea, the governor will meet with the Gyeonggi Province governor, Kim Dong-yeon, and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
While in Israel, DeSantis will deliver the keynote address at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the country’s founding, on Thursday. He’ll also meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Netanyahu said on CBS’ Face the Nation.
And in the U.K., DeSantis will meet with Foreign Minister James Cleverly.
He will be joined on the trip by his wife, Casey, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Florida Secretary of Commerce Laura DiBella.
John Thomas, a GOP political strategist and the founder of the pro-DeSantis super PAC Ron to the Rescue, told ABC News that he believes the travel will burnish DeSantis’ foreign policy bona fides.
“[DeSantis] does have a biographical background in foreign policy as a naval officer, but there is no replacement for shaking hands, having the photo-op, being on the ground and being able to name drop that you have relationships with certain world leaders,” Thomas said.
“Any major candidate for the Oval Office needs to check that [foreign policy] box and improve their credentials so that they have credibility when they’re delivering their eventual foreign policy message on the campaign trail and on the debate stage, and this is the first step for Gov. DeSantis to do just that,” Thomas said.
DeSantis, a popular if controversial leader in the GOP, has drawn scrutiny for some of his recent remarks about international issues.
His travel abroad will come just over a month after he initially called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute” and said the war was not of national interest for the United States.
Those comments received backlash from other leading members of the GOP.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted a veiled rebuke: “To those who believe that Russia’s unprovoked and barbaric invasion of Ukraine is not a priority for the United States – you are missing a lot.”
And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also criticized the governor of his state, saying in a radio interview, “Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as governor.”
DeSantis later said that his words were “mischaracterized” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal.”
(WASHINGTON) — The “Tennessee three” are going to the White House on Monday to meet with President Joe Biden weeks after facing historic expulsion efforts that sparked national outrage.
Biden personally extended the invitation to Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson, thanking them for their leadership in leading a gun reform protest that resulted in the expulsion of Jones and Pearson and near-ouster of Johnson, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“What you’ll see is the president sitting down with these three legislators, having a conversation on how to move forward with commonsense gun reform; how to move forward on protecting our communities, our kids, our churches,” she told reporters on Friday.
Other administration officials have previously demonstrated support for the trio. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville to meet the three lawmakers earlier this month, echoing their calls for reform.
“They understood the importance, these three, of standing to say that people will not be silenced; to say that a democracy hears the cries, hears the pleas, who hears the demands of its people who say that children should be able to live and be safe and go to school and not be in fear,” Harris said.
Thousands of people demonstrated at the Tennessee Capitol in the wake of a school shooting in Nashville on March 27 that left three children and three staff members dead. Jones, Pearson and Johnson faced expulsion votes after they led a gun reform protest in the state Capitol that most lawmakers found breached the chamber’s rules of decorum.
Johnson, who is white, was the only one to survive her expulsion vote. Jones and Pearson, both Black, were ousted and later reinstated by local councils. All were accused of “bringing disorder and dishonor” to the state legislature for their protest.
Jones, Justin and Johnson told GMA 3 similarly said they were simply listening to the people when they joined calls to address gun violence.
“This was a tragedy that happened at the Covenant School in Nashville, but instead of addressing the tragedy the Republican supermajority in Tennessee decided that our using our First Amendment right to listen to the thousands of protesters deserved expulsion,” Pearson said.
Tennessee’s state legislature adjourned Friday without any action on gun reform, but Republican Gov. Bill Lee announced he will call a special session so lawmakers can return to the capitol and discuss the issue. Lee has proposed an “order of protection” law aimed at taking firearms away from those deemed a risk to those around them.
“There is broad agreement that dangerous, unstable individuals who intend to harm themselves or others should not have access to weapons,” Lee said in a statement. “We also share a strong commitment to preserving Second Amendment rights, ensuring due process and addressing the heart of the problem with strengthened mental health resources.”
(ST. PAUL, Minn.) — Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center police officer convicted of killing Daunte Wright — a 20-year-old Black man shot during a traffic stop — was released from a Minnesota Correctional facility Monday.
Potter was released at 5 a.m. ET, Andy Skoogman, spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, said in a press release Monday.
She was released early this morning “out of an abundance of caution for the safety of Ms. Potter, DOC staff and the security of the correctional facility,” according to Skoogman.
Potter was convicted of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11, 2021, incident. She had pleaded not-guilty to both charges. She was sentenced last year to 24 months in prison and a fine of $1,000, far below what the prosecution had asked for.
Wright was pulled over for an expired registration tab and a hanging air freshener in the rearview mirror, according to police.
Potter then determined Wright had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge and tried to detain him, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon, who resigned after the incident.
As officers were arresting Wright, he escaped the officers’ grip and was scuffling with them when he was shot by Potter, police said. Her attorneys said she meant to grab her stun gun but accidentally shot her firearm instead.
Wright — who was in the driver seat when he was shot — then drove away before crashing into another car.
A judge ordered Potter to serve 16 months in prison and eight months on supervised release. She already had a credit of 58 days served in jail while awaiting sentencing.
“I recognize there will be those who disagree with the sentence. That I granted a significant downward departure does not in any way diminish Daunte Wright’s life. His life mattered. And to those who disagree and feel a longer prison sentence is appropriate, as difficult as it may be, please try to empathize with Ms. Potter’s situation,” Judge Regina Chu said during the sentencing hearing.
Chu called the case “one of the saddest cases I have had in my 20 years on the bench.”
The maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years and a $30,000 fine and for second-degree manslaughter — 10 years and a $20,000 fine.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — An eager bench of Democrats will spend heavily to stake out positions as early supporters of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign ahead of his expected announcement, which could come as soon as this week.
On Monday, a national Democratic committee tasked with electing lieutenant governors nationwide announced plans to spend nearly $1 million to mobilize the country’s 25 Democratic occupants of that office, shoring up votes in key states for the Biden-Harris ticket.
The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association’s “2024 Mobilization Project” — shared exclusively with ABC News — will deploy these lieutenant governors across the country and specifically maximize voter turnout for the incumbent administration, something the DGLA says it’s uniquely positioned to do as an organization cultivating some of the party’s up-and-coming talent.
“The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association is ready to mobilize across the country ahead of a monumental presidential election — As Democratic LGs, we stand strong in our commitment to partnering with the Biden administration to deliver on our shared agenda for the American people,” said Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, chair of the DLGA.
The DLGA’s efforts are one of the first early organizational moves in support of Biden’s bid.
“The DLGA is committed to serving as the liaison and facilitator for Democratic Lieutenant Governors to aid the DNC and the Biden-Harris campaign in 2024, ensuring Democratic victory up and down the ballot,” a statement from the organization said.
The organization touted its experience energizing the base in blue states and in key getting voters to turn out in battleground ones — steps it said are “crucial” to getting Biden reelected in 2024.
“As the Lieutenant Governor of one of the most critical swing states in the country, I am proud to stand with President Biden and am eager to share all that he has accomplished — and all that we will continue to accomplish together — throughout Wisconsin and beyond,” said Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, adding that Biden is “the leader our country needs.”
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis said that he has “no doubt” that a Biden victory might come down to the Commonwealth again in 2024 after the Keystone State’s critical role in securing the presidency for Biden in 2020.
“Pennsylvanians also know that the choice between President Biden and an extreme Republican could not be clearer, and Democratic Lieutenant Governors are eager to deliver that message,” said Davis.
The DLGA has been pushing for more visibility in the election process. In March, the organization announced plans to raise $15 million by 2026 and commit $2 million to every high-stakes lieutenant governor race in 2024 and 2025 — a notable use of its substantial war chest.
Democratic lieutenant governors have been stressing to donors the importance of their roles as the future of the party, highlighting the selection of high-profile lieutenant governors such as Mandela Barnes and now-Sen. John Fetterman to run in competitive races throughout the country.
Tuesday is seen as a likely target for Biden to announce his 2024 reelection campaign. The president, who has faced little pressure to announce his bid and faces only unlikely primary challenges from Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long said he was planning to run, telling ABC News’ David Muir in February it’s his “intention” to run for a second term.
Biden has already seen support from all flanks of the party, from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats and who challenged him for the party’s 2020 nomination, to establishment figures like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
(LONDON) — Fighting in Sudan between forces loyal to two rival generals has triggered a mass exodus of foreigners, while locals struggle to escape.
A number of countries — including the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Germany, France and Canada — airlifted and evacuated diplomats, embassy staff and others from Sudan’s war-torn capital over the weekend. Both the U.S. and Canadian governments also announced temporary suspensions of operations at their embassies in Khartoum.
An estimated 16,000 Americans — most of whom are dual U.S.-Sudanese citizens — remain in Sudan, according to John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council in the White House.
“These are people that grew up in Sudan, work in Sudan, families are in Sudan and they want to stay in Sudan, so it’s a number that is difficult to plan to specifically,” Kirby told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on Good Morning America.
There are also several dozen Americans currently making their way to Sudan’s main seaport via a United Nations-led convoy, which the U.S. is monitoring via “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to ensure their safety,” according to Kirby.
“We still have military forces prepositioned in the region ready to respond if need be. But right now, it’s not very safe to try to run some larger evacuation either out of the nearby air base or even just through rotary lift like we did the other night because the fighting is so intense,” he added. “The safest thing for Americans to do — those who have decided to stay in Sudan despite the warnings to leave — is to shelter in place and to not move around too much in the city of Khartoum.”
Meanwhile, many Sudanese civilians are trapped in the crossfire or are risking their lives attempting to flee by car to neighboring countries. Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala, who lives in Egypt’s capital, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that his family is “on the road from Sudan to Cairo through Aswan.” But he said his uncle’s wife, who has been in a coma since before the conflict, still needs help getting out.
Abu Alala also posted photos that his family had shared showing stray bullets on the balcony and in the exterior walls of their home in Khartoum. He wrote in an earlier Facebook post that he was “very worried about what is happening” in his home country but that “we all saw it coming.”
The violence erupted in Sudan on April 15 in a culmination of weeks of tensions between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful Sudanese paramilitary group. The two men were once allies who had jointly orchestrated a military coup in 2021 that dissolved Sudan’s power-sharing government and derailed its short-lived transition to democracy, following the ousting of a long-time dictator in 2019. Now, they are battling for control of the resource-rich North African nation and neither has shown any real indication of backing down, as proposed cease-fires have persistently collapsed.
The clashes started in Khartoum and quickly spread to other Sudanese cities, though “the heaviest concentration of fighting” remains centered in the densely populated capital, according to the World Health Organization, the global health arm of the U.N. The international community has repeatedly called on Sudan’s warring parties to immediately lay down their arms and engage in dialogue.
More than 420 people have been killed and over 3,700 others have been wounded in the conflict, according to the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office. At least 273 civilians are among the dead and 1,579 among the injured, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, a pro-democracy group monitoring casualties. At least one American citizen has been killed in Sudan since the violence broke out, according to the U.S. Department of State.
The widespread clashes have left dozens of hospitals across Sudan either damaged or destroyed, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which called the issue “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.” As of Sunday, about two-thirds of hospitals in and around the conflict zones were out of service after being bombed, while others were under threat of closure due to a lack power, staffing, medical supplies, food and water.
The U.S. is concerned that Sudan’s conflict could spread further and has been in contact with the rival sides “every single day … trying to get them to put down their arms, to abide by the cease-fires that they themselves say they want and to return to some sort of civilian authority,” according to Kirby.
“We’re doing everything we can to get this fighting stopped,” he told ABC News. “This is a centrally located, very important, very large African country. We are concerned that other partners, other nations will be affected by this — not just in the region, but beyond — so that’s why we’re working so hard to get this violence stopped.”
ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawi, Shannon Crawford, Ellie Kaufman, Luis Martinez, Joe Simonetti and Edward Szekeres contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — New York City police are no longer asking for help finding a woman who was seen being carried into a minivan, now announcing that the woman was not kidnapped and knew the man she was with.
“The male and female depicted in the video were both found,” the NYPD said. “Both parties were known to each other and it was deemed to have not been a crime.”
Police said earlier that the unknown woman was kidnapped around 1:45 a.m. Friday in Brooklyn.
“The unknown male placed the victim into a minivan before fleeing northbound on Stillwell Avenue,” the NYPD said in its earlier statement.
(CLIVE, Iowa) — Multiple 2024 Republican presidential candidates and those continuing to mull a bid for the White House pitched their platforms on Saturday to hundreds of Christian conservatives at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual spring kickoff in Clive.
The back-to-back candidate forum allowed speakers to court a vital voting bloc in Iowa, which will host the first nominating contest for Republican hopefuls next February.
The topic of abortion took center stage as GOP politicians continue to stake out their own stances on the issue.
Saturday’s event was held one day after the Supreme Court paused a lower court’s ruling to restrict access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone while legal battles over the FDA’s approval of the drug play out in court.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and other Republicans emphasized their backing for limits on abortion access, opposition to transgender rights and the importance of school choice.
Also speaking on Saturday were lesser-known presidential candidates Larry Elder, Perry Johnson and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Former President Donald Trump addressed the crowd virtually. Below are highlights from the forum.
Donald Trump
Facing criticism from some abortion opponents over his position that abortion access should be decided at the state level, Trump defended his stance on restrictions by focusing on his judicial appointments while in office — including successfully naming three Supreme Court justices, all of whom helped reverse the Roe v. Wade decision last year.
“Nobody thought it was gonna happen, they thought it would be another 50 years. Because Republicans had been trying to do it for that period of time,” Trump said in his pre-taped remarks.
“I appointed over 300 judges to fill the federal bench with constitutional warriors who interpret the laws as written. I faced down vile attacks to confirm our three Supreme Court justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett,” Trump said.
He said he would continue to “stand in defense of life” and, if elected to a second term, he promised to work to curb transgender rights — which conservatives claim harm society, drawing fierce outcry from LGBTQ advocates — while attacking the U.S. Department of Education.
“We will reassert the Judeo-Christian values of our nation’s founding. We will protect our heritage and traditions,” he said.
Mike Pence
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision on mifepristone on Friday, Pence said he wanted to see the justices ban chemical abortions, labeling the FDA-approved drug as “a dangerous medication,” though doctors and the U.S. government say it is safe.
“I think that chemical abortions, mail-order abortions that the Biden administration has now allowed should be banned,” Pence told ABC News after his speech.
He broke with the former president, his former boss, saying he disagreed with Trump’s view that abortion is a state-level matter even though “I do think it’s more likely that this issue is resolved at the state level.”
“We’ve been given a new beginning for life in this country,” Pence said. I think we have an opportunity to advance the sanctity of life.”
Asa Hutchinson
Hutchinson, Arkansas’ most recent former governor, centered his speech around faith, arguing that “our leadership in the public arena should reflect our as well.” Like others, he stressed his opposition to abortion while addressing Iowans.
“As governor I was proud of the fact that we were the most pro-life state. I signed 30 pro-life bills over my eight years as governor,” he said.
Asked about his presidential priorities, Hutchinson discussed eliminating “wokeness” in schools, which Republicans describe as a left-wing movement wrongly emphasizing identity politics, and advocating for parental rights.
“The most important way to push back is by parents being engaged in our schools,” he said.
Tim Scott
Scott discussed the topic of life — not solely by focusing on abortion but through his view of American exceptionalism as it relates to race.
“We have the ultimate responsibility to protect the future of this nation not for ourselves but for Americans unborn. I would simply say, the lies of the left have been disproven by my life,” he said, reiterating what has been a key part of his persona on the political stage.
Scott said that while “the radical left are selling a drug of victimhood,” he advocated that people could achieve whatever they work toward despite their racial identity or upbringing.
“We have to tell them the whole story, the story of truth and redemption, that America is the freest, fairest land in the history of the world,” Scott said. “I will say this: With a praying mama, all things are possible.”
Vivek Ramaswamy
Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur, also focused on race during his remarks, stating he would end affirmative action and shut down the U.S. Department of Education if he were elected. “Do you know what it means to be an American? It means you believe in the ideals that set this country into motion,” he said.
Ramaswamy told ABC News before he spoke that he was “unapologetically pro-life” in response to being asked about the legal battles surrounding access to mifepristone.
“The scope of the administrative state has reached far too broad we need to constrain it,” he said.
Elder, a popular commentator, and businessman Johnson, who recently announced their own long shot presidential bids, also took the stage Saturday.
“The reason I ran for office is because I felt like I had an obligation, a moral obligation and a religious obligation. Our family, our country, is moving away from the Judeo-Christian values that founded this country,” said Elder, who unsuccessfully challenged California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall race in 2021.
Johnson opened his remarks by saying he was probably “too conservative” for the Iowa group before criticizing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s decision to repeal the state’s abortion ban.
“I say, let’s stop all of this and go on the offensive on the subject,” he said.
One notable politician missing in Iowa was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was at the Utah GOP’s state convention on Saturday.
Some locals remain undecided on 2024 pick
Several Iowans attending Saturday’s event told ABC News they were largely undecided about their candidate choice, emphasizing the importance of forums ahead of the 2024 nominating process.
“We take our job seriously and I love it. And we’ve been living in Iowa a long time. And we get out and see the candidates,” said George Wood, a retired businessman.
“You listen and ask questions. This is the only place in the country you can do that,” he said.
Becky McKibben, a retired school nurse, said she was “not yet 100%” on her choice.
“I think it’s good to hear what other people have to say and hear lots of different ideas and what their thoughts are on what they see as the vision for our country,” she said.
Others said they already know who they want and are using every opportunity to see their candidate speak.
“I would like Trump to be the president again,” Juanita Blonigan, an IT worker said. “That’s what I want. But I don’t know if the country is going to allow that.”
Blonigan said Trump’s recent indictment in New York related to hush money payments made her feel “frustrated and annoyed” but her support of the former president has only strengthened since his recent court appearance, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“You know, I’m hoping that whatever it takes, people will swing his way and make America great again,” she said.
(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — Under pitch black conditions and amid fighting, U.S. military forces swooped into war-torn Sudan in two Chinook helicopters and evacuated the American embassy in a “fast and clean” operation, military officials said late Saturday evening.
President Joe Biden confirmed the evacuation of U.S. government personnel from Khartoum under his orders and said the administration would continue to assist Americans in Sudan. Biden praised embassy staff, saying ina statement they “embodied America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan.”
“I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety,” he said. “And I thank Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were critical to the success of our operation.”
Biden said the embassy had been temporarily closed but “our commitment to the Sudanese people and the future they want for themselves is unending.”
Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described evacuation operation as being “fast and clean.”
Sims said at a briefing that the mission got underway at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday, when two MH-47 Chinook helicopters took off from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, refueled in Ethiopia and flew into the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to evacuate the U.S. embassy. He said the special forces team was on the ground in Khartoum for less than an hour.
Sims said that “under” 100 people, including Americans from the embassy and other personnel from unidentified embassies, were evacuated, including all U.S. Marines who were providing security at the embassy.
Overall, the rescue helicopters flew 1,600 miles from Djibouti to Khartoum and back.
Sims said that for much of their transit, the helicopters flew in at 100 knots and low to the ground in pitch black conditions. He said the helicopters did not take any ground fire on their way in and out of Khartoum.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the suspensions of operations at the embassy in Khartoum were due to the growing security risk and ensuring the safety of personnel.
“The widespread fighting has caused significant numbers of civilian deaths and injuries and damage to essential infrastructure and posed an unacceptable risk to our Embassy personnel,” Blinken said in a statement.
The State Department updated its travel advisory for Sudan to reflect that the U.S. embassy in Khartoum had suspended operations. The department’s advisory for Sudan remains at its highest warning level — where it has been since August of 2021.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted the successful evacuation operation was conducted at Biden’s direction. He also highlighted the countries that assisted the operation.
“We also thank our allies and partners, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were critical to the success of this operation,” Austin said in a statement.
The Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group battling Sudan’s army, issued a statement claiming to have aided in the U.S. evacuation.
“Today, Sunday, the Rapid Support Forces, in coordination with the US forces mission consisting of 6 planes for the purpose of evacuating diplomats and their families, supervised the necessary arrangements that preceded the evacuation process,” the statement read.
State Department Under Secretary for Management John Bass refuted those claims.
“That was not the case. They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation,” he said. “I would submit that was as much in their self-interest as anything else.”
The Sudanese army said Saturday that evacuations of foreign diplomatic staff from the U.S., U.K., France and China will begin in the coming hours on military airplanes, as fighting persisted in the capital, including at its main airport. Their evacuation will be by air in military transport aircrafts belonging to their armed forces, the army said.
The Saudi Arabian mission was earlier evacuated by land to Port Sudan then by air to Saudi Arabia, Sudan’s army said. A similar evacuation plan will be secured for the Jordanian mission at a later time.
The rescue mission is the product of days of preparation across the administration and comes as the violent power struggle for control of Sudan that has already claimed almost 100 lives enters its second week.
On Friday, Austin told reporters U.S. forces had deployed to Africa to assist with a possible evacuation of U.S. embassy personnel.
“We’ve deployed some forces into theater to ensure that we provide as many options as possible if we are called on to do something,” he said during a news conference in Ramstein, Germany.
Austin and other senior administration officials said at that time that no final call had been made to evacuate the embassy.
Speaking late Saturday, Bass said the quickly deteriorating situation in recent days left the administration with no other option other than to turn to the military to rescue embassy personnel. But he said private U.S. citizens in the country should not expect similar assistance
“We certainly continue to be in close touch with many American citizen residents in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan to give them our best assessment of the security environment and to encourage them to take appropriate precautions to the best of their ability in and around that environment,” he said.
National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby emphasized the challenges in conducting even a limited military operation in Sudan during a press briefing on Friday, remarking that it was “not as simple as jumping in a taxicab” and that at the time, all U.S. government personnel had not yet been consolidated in a single location.
Despite a 72-hour ceasefire agreed upon to coincide with the religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, deadly clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group continued through the weekend.
In a statement on Friday, Blinken urged both sides to uphold the truce.
“I reiterate my call on both sides to pause the fighting to allow civilians to take care of themselves and their families, to permit full and unimpeded humanitarian access, and to enable all civilians, including diplomatic personnel, to reach safety,” he said.
But both sides show little interest in laying down arms, and the violence seems poised to continue. An estimated 16,000 Americans are still in Sudan, but despite the ongoing danger, the Biden administration has repeatedly declared they should not expect a government-led mass evacuation.
“It is not our standard procedure to evacuate American citizens living abroad,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a White House press briefing on Friday.
The U.S. Embassy in Sudan reiterated this saying, “Due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens,” in a statement Saturday.
Principal Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that officials had been in touch with several hundred U.S. citizens in Sudan concerning “security measures and other precautions they can take on their own.”
But during the press briefing Saturday night on the evacuation operation, Chris Maier, assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, said the U.S. military is working on ways to help American citizens who make it to Port Sudan via an overland route get out of the country.
“In the coming days, we will continue to work with the State Department to help American citizens who may want to leave Sudan,” said Maier, adding that one way was to make the overland route out of Sudan “potentially more viable.”
“So DoD is at present considering actions that may include use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to be able to observe routes and detect threats,” Maier said. “Secondly, the employment of Naval assets outside the Port of Sudan to potentially help Americans who arrive at the port.”
The State Department has confirmed that one American citizen has been killed through the course of the conflict, but the limited information flow in Sudan could mean there are other victims not yet accounted for.
At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis called for the resumption of talks to end the fighting in Sudan and offered a special prayer for “our Sudanese brothers and sisters.”
“Unfortunately, the situation in Sudan remains grave,” Francis told worshipers gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “Thus, I am renewing my appeal so that violence ceases as soon as possible and that the path of dialogue resumes.”
ABC News’ Morgan Windsor, Matt Seyler, Josh Margolin and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner on Sunday said the online leaks of classified U.S. military and intelligence documents — allegedly by an airman working in IT at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts — weren’t completely unexpected but underscored how the process for secret-keeping needs to be reformed.
“This is a problem that we shouldn’t be totally surprised at,” Warner, D-Va., told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“We’ve known this has been a problem. We actually have to have, I believe, Congress intervene,” Warner went on to say. “And we have to do a better job.”
He said there were multiple larger issues, including the over-classification of documents; the lack of a single authority overseeing the system who could enforce uniform regulations such as restrictions on how many copies someone can make; and the ability of too many people with clearances to access documents unnecessarily.
“We way over-classify documents. … Once we get to that highest level of classification, we maybe have too many folks taking a look at them. Over 4 million people with clearances. So, let’s classify less,” Warner said, while still calling for less access to the “most-classified documents.”
Another solution he suggested was oversight: “I believe we need somebody fully in charge of the classification process.”
The Air National Guardsman who is suspected in the leaks, 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, was arrested on April 13 and has been charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and willful retention of classified documents.
Teixeira has not yet entered a plea. Reports have indicated he was driven by a desire to impress friends online.
“This individual was literally just an IT tech. There’s no reason that that person should be able to see the full document,” Warner said on Sunday. “You may have to see the header, but the actual contents — there’s ways to make this safer.”
If Teixeira is “proven to be … the leader, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Warner said.
He urged “continuous vetting” of those with clearances, which he indicated could include review of ongoing social media activity. The more troubling complication in these leaks, he said, was the apparent use of the digital platform Discord, which is used for popular but private chat rooms.
“That raises a whole series of other questions I don’t think we’ve sorted through enough,” he said.
Raddatz also pressed Warner about the prolonged absence on Capitol Hill of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is currently recovering at home after she was diagnosed with shingles in February and briefly hospitalized.
Feinstein, the oldest member in Congress, serves with Warner on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is a key vote for Democrats on the Judiciary Committee as well. Some lawmakers have called on her to step down in recent weeks, given that her absence has stalled the process to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.
“Should she resign?” Raddatz asked Warner.
“I’m hopeful that Dianne will return as soon as possible,” he responded. “She’s been a great senator, but my hope is she’ll get back to work as soon as possible.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
