(NEW YORK) — As summer travel booms and prices for gas, hotel rooms and flights skyrocket, taking to the sea this summer season could save travelers big bucks.
Despite rising prices in most sectors, Chris Gray Faust, the managing editor of online industry publication The Cruise Critic, says prices for cruises “are some of the lowest that we’ve seen in a very long time.”
Right now, a five-day cruise around the Caribbean costs approximately $500 per person, Gray Faust said. Some experts says that’s a great way to get big bang for your buck.
“That works out to about $100 per day, including lodging, meals and entertainment,” Gray Faust told ABC News. “And with the way that land vacations have been … [with] airfares more expensive, you’re really hard pressed to find a vacation for a similar price on land.”
Some of the best deals right now include a three-day Carnival cruise from Miami to the Bahamas, for just $118 per person; a four-night Royal Caribbean cruise from Miami to the Bahamas starting at $198 per person; and a seven-day Holland America cruise in Alaska at $399 per person.
Gray Faust also recommended checking for additional deals that could make a cruise an even better buy.
“Not only are the fares low, but a lot of the cruise lines are putting in a lot of extra value type of things — like, they’re throwing in free gratuities, free Wi-Fi, free drink packages, things like that,” Gray Faust said.
Compared to skyrocketing prices for hotels and airfare, cruises are, for the time being, a steal. According to Hopper, an online travel booking platform, hotels are currently averaging $204 a night, up from $150 per night in 2021.
On top of that, Hopper estimates the average price of a round-trip domestic flight at around $397 and more than $1,000 for a round-trip international flight.
As pandemic-related restrictions relax, cruise lines are looking to fill their cabins and sail more of their ships, which lowers costs as well.
“What that means for [people] looking for a good vacation this summer is that there’s plenty of room on these cruise ships because there’s more ships back, there’s more rooms available and the prices are lower,” Gray Faust said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed its risk assessment of cruise ship travel in late March of 2022, but still advises travelers to be aware of a particular ship’s risk designations and stay up to date with their vaccinations. The agency has also recommended purchasing travel insurance before a trip and has advised travelers to continue masking up indoors.
Though pandemic protocols have eased on board most ships, passengers should still check with their cruise line ahead of time to see whether there are specific vaccine or testing requirements.
Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms, or those awaiting COVID-19 test results, should not travel, according to the CDC.
Travelers hoping to snag a good deal should move soon. According to Gray Faust, prices will begin to increase as the holiday season approaches this fall.
“Summer is a good time for a value vacation like this, partially because of hurricane season,” Gray Faust said, adding that “we should see these prices last until October” and that “now is that time to go.”
Libby March for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — The supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where a gunman opened fire killing 10 Black people last month, could reopen by the end of July, a representative for Tops Friendly Market confirmed to ABC News Thursday. Three people were also wounded in the shooting.
Reporters had asked Tops President John Persons what the timeline for reopening the Buffalo store is, and he told them the “hope is for the end of July,” Tops told ABC News.
New York authorities alleged the shooting was a “racially motivated hate crime,” carried out by a heavily armed white teenager.
According to a prosecutor, the alleged gunman is the first person in state history to be charged with domestic terrorism motivated by hate. He faces a total of 25 counts, including 10 counts of first-degree murder.
Persons told reporters the store was emptied out of its product and equipment, and when the store reopens, it will be completely remodeled with a different feel and look, according to ABC local affiliate WKBW-TV.
“Our effort has been towards trying to reopen the store as soon as possible and we will do it in a respectful way. We will do it properly,” Persons said at the event, according to WKBW.
Persons also told reporters supply chain issues have created problems with securing some equipment for the store, according to WKBW.
(NEW YORK) — This summer, Americans across the country are going to have to find new ways to beat the heat. A nationwide lifeguard shortage is expected to leave thousands of public pools closed and beaches under “Swim At Your Own Risk” rules.
“To start off, this is the worst I’ve ever seen it and I’ve been in the industry a long time,” said Bernard Fisher II, who has been the director of health and safety at the American Lifeguard Association for over 25 years.
According to data collected by the American Lifeguard Association, Fisher estimated that nearly half of all the pools in the U.S. will be affected this summer.
“Here we are this year, everybody wants to take a vacation, they want to go to their hotel with a garden pool. They want to go to their community pool. They wanted to go to the beach,” said Fisher. “But the problem is, we’re almost starting from ground zero.”
Although exacerbated by the pandemic, Fisher said that lifeguarding has been on the decline for decades. Some of this is in part to the decline in teenagers working summer jobs.
In 2000, more than half of the teenagers in the U.S. were working a summer job. In 2019, only 35.8% of teens worked over the summer. The number dropped even more during the pandemic and fewer than a third of U.S. teens worked in the summer of 2020, according to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center.
Fewer teenagers are entering the workforce, and, due to the pandemic, many lifeguard certification training sessions were postponed or canceled. Now entering the third summer of COVID-19, for those who may have already been certified, their two-year lifeguard certificates have expired, leading to an even larger deficit of working lifeguards.
“[Lifeguard] candidates come into the workforce at the age of 15, 16, 17 years of age, and usually stay with us until their junior or senior year of university,” said Fisher. “With the first year of the pandemic. We didn’t get the new recruits. We didn’t have the ability to renew the certifications that were expiring from two years prior.”
Fisher said that the pandemic also disrupted seasonal lifeguards who come to the U.S. through the J-1 visa program over the summer. The program was established In 2011 by the federal government for scholars, professors and visitors obtaining medical or business training within the United States.
Before the pandemic, the American Lifeguard Association would train about 300,000 new candidates every year, including nearly 50,000 lifeguards who were sponsored through the J-1 visa program.
“Because of the lack of training that we had over the past two years, and also the lack of the J-1 visa candidates coming in as strongly as they they were… We haven’t even reached pre pandemic enrollment times,” said Fisher. “So with that said, we have a very serious problem in enrollment now.”
Fisher said he worries that not only will there be a lack of lifeguard supervision in public places with water, but also fewer people learning how to swim.
“In order to be a swim instructor, you have to be a lifeguard,” said Fisher, who said that the few swim instructors may be pulled to sit as a lifeguard rather than teach classes this summer due to the shortage. “The first thing you want to do is teach a child how to swim to prevent drowning… Some of these kids have not been in the water for two years, or ever.”
Every year in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 4,000 people will die from unintentional drownings, meaning an average of 11 drowning deaths per day.
For kids who don’t know how to swim, Fisher suggested that family members designate a responsible adult during pool and beach days to watch the water and to get a properly fitted U.S. Coast Guard life jacket for novice swimmers.
“It’s very important, especially this year and the future years until we can overcome [the lifeguard shortage.] Life jackets save lives and of course proper supervision is always necessary,” said Fisher.
Ultimately, Fisher said that pool and beach closures are a loss to the community, but a larger loss for kids and summer joy.
“Our kids, our youth, the young ones that enjoy getting out to the neighborhood pools and having a great time with their parents. Some of my fondest memories are being at the pool, being at the beach with my parents. It’s true bonding,” said Fisher. “Also what better place to meet your neighbor than down at your community pool on a hot, hot summer day?”
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol held its first prime-time hearing on Thursday.
The hearing featured never-before-seen video footage and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they call a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Here is how the hearing unfolded:
Jun 09, 10:30 pm
‘He called me there’: Teasing next hearing, committee shows video of rioters voicing intent
Chairman Bennie Thompson wrapped up the hearing with a video compilation of rioters’ interviews with the committee, with more than half-a-dozen Capitol rioters explaining in their own words why they marched on the Capitol last Jan. 6.
“Trump only asked me for two things,” said Robert Schornack, who was arrested last March and pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor last December. “He asked me for my vote, and he asked me for January 6th.”
“He asked us to come to come to D.C. and said things are going to happen,” said Daniel Herendeen,” who pleaded guilty last year to illegally entering the Capitol.
Thompson closed by teasing the committee’s next hearing, scheduled for Monday, June 13, at 10 a.m.
“We’re going to examine the lies that convinced those men and others to storm the Capitol,” he said.
-ABC News Benjamin Siegel and Alex Mallin
Jun 09, 10:24 pm
Historic hearing gavels out
In a nearly two-hour hearing in prime time, the House select committee placed Trump at the center of an “attempted coup” and “multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election,” with the panel’s chairs emphasizing how Trump and his allies repeatedly tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Never-before-seen footage and graphic testimony from a Capitol Police officer, who described the crowd as an “absolute war zone,” brought some in the hearing room to tears, as the committee laid out how it will explain in subsequent hearings a “sophisticated seven-part plan” by Trump to steal the election.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the 11-month-long investigation with more than 1,000 interviews revealed that Trump was “well aware” of the violence at the Capitol and security risk to Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers but chose to do nothing.
“Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element to the United States government to instruct at the Capitol be defended,” she said. “The vice president — Pence — did each of those things.”
Jun 09, 10:02 pm
‘It was carnage’: Capitol Police officer recounts ‘slipping in people’s blood’
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after rioters knocked her to the ground, described in detail what she called a “an absolute war zone” as officers struggled to hold the line.
“I can just remember my — my breath catching in my throat, because I — what I saw was just — a war scene,” she said. “It was something like I had seen out of the movies.
WATCH: “What I saw was just a war scene,” Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testifies of Capitol attack.
“There were officers on the ground, they were bleeding, they were throwing up…I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood.” pic.twitter.com/xqll4Ww1GT
“I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing … I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood,” she continued.
“I was catching people as they fell … It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw,” she added. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think as as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”
Jun 09, 9:56 pm
Video shows Capitol Police officer getting knocked unconscious
The committee aired a video showing the moment Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards was knocked out as she tried to hold the line from a crowd of rioters pushing up against barricades and bike racks.
Edwards winced as the video began.
“I felt the bike rack come on top of my head and I was pushed backwards, and my foot caught the stair behind me, and my chin hit the handrail,” she said. “At that point I blacked out but the back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me.”
Edwards returned to duty after regaining consciousness, saying “adrenaline kicked in” as she went to the West Front of the Capitol to protect the Senate steps. There she helped people who had gotten pepper sprayed and others injured before she was hit herself with pepper spray and tear gas.
Jun 09, 9:54 pm
Documentarian notes Proud Boys went to Capitol before Trump spoke
Documentarian Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, noted in his testimony that the group headed to the Capitol long before Trump spoke on the Ellipse.
“The was a large contingent, more than I would expect, and I was confused to a certain extent while we were walking away from the president’s speech, because that’s when I felt we were there to cover,” Quested said.
Chairman Bennie Thompson emphasized that point to argue the Jan. 6 attack was not purely spontaneous but a “coordinated plan” and the “culmination of a months-long effort spearheaded by President Trump.”
“They were not there for President Trump’s speech,” Thompson said of the hundreds of Proud Boys who descended on Washington. “We know this because they left that area to march toward the Capitol before the speech began.”
NEW: Chair Bennie Thompson: “We’ve obtained substantial evidence showing that the president’s December 19 tweet calling his followers to Washington, D.C., on January 6 energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups.” https://t.co/W2f3oCDYwhpic.twitter.com/0SzTWNparj
Jun 09, 9:34 pm
Witness testimony begins, officer recounts insults hurled at her during attack
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards told lawmakers that her patriotism was called into question as she pushed back against rioters, sustaining a serious head injury in the process.
“I was called Nancy Pelosi’s dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain,” Edwards testified. “I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things.”
She continued, “I was an American standing face to face with other Americans asking myself how many times — many, many times — how we had gotten here.”
Edwards recounted her own grandfather’s experience fighting in the Korean war, telling lawmakers she will “gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come.”
Jun 09, 9:32 pm
Cheney slams Kushner for downplaying resignation threats by WH lawyers as ‘whining’
Among several clips of taped testimony with Trump aides, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., played one of Jared Kushner telling the committee that he dismissed White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s “multiple” threats to resign when asked if he was aware on any instances.
“Like I said, my interest at that time was on trying to get as many pardons done, and I know that he was always, him and the team, were always saying oh we are going to resign,” Kushner said. “‘We are not going to be here if this happens, if that happens’ … . So, I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you.”
Cheney slammed Kushner’s response.
Asked about White House Counsel Pat Cipollone threatening to resign in weeks before Jan. 6 attack, former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner tells House committee in taped interview, “I kind of took it up to just be whining.” https://t.co/lcaaCa2vg6pic.twitter.com/7vWGLL8pXs
“There is a reason why people serving in our government take an oath to the Constitution,” she said. “And that oath must mean something.”
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel
Jun 09, 9:16 pm
Powerful video compilation prompts short recess
The House select committee played a 10-minute video compilation including never-before-seen footage of rioters violently breaching the Capitol overlaid with law enforcement officers calling for backup, and Trump calling the crowd “loving.”
In chronological order, the video followed the timeline of the day: from Trump speaking at his “Save America” rally to the joint session of Congress being gaveled in — leading up to rioters clashing with police and storming the Capitol, prompting lawmakers to take cover.
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, one of several officers in the hearing room who defended the Capitol, was seen wiping away tears before Chairman Bennie Thompson called a short recess.
Some members of Congress watching in the public seats teared up, clearly rocked with emotion by the horrific memory.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., held tissues in her hands. Around the hearing room, people shook their heads yet intently watched the footage.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders
Jun 09, 9:05 pm
Committee says multiple Republicans sought presidential pardons after attack
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said for the first time publicly that multiple Republican members of Congress reached out to the Trump White House to ask for presidential pardons in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, including Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
“Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,” she added.
As with other House Republicans, Perry has refused to cooperate with the committee’s investigation through voluntary requests and a congressional subpoena.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders
Jun 09, 8:55 pm
Cheney issues warning to fellow Republicans
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., had a message for her colleagues who continue to defend Trump and his false election claims.
“Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” Cheney said.
Cheney also had a message for the American people as they watch these hearings unfold over the next several weeks.
“The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot.”
“Please remember what is at stake,” she said. “Remember the men and women who have fought and died so that we can live under the rule of law and not the rule of men.”
Jun 09, 8:52 pm
Trump ‘well aware’ of violence but ‘placed no call’ to defend Capitol: Cheney
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the select committee, shared snippets of what White House aides told the committee Trump said to them while the attack at the Capitol was ongoing, laying out what she called Trump’s “sophisticated, seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election.”
“You will hear testimony that ‘The president didn’t really want to put anything out’ calling off the riot or asking his supporters to leave. You will hear that President Trump was yelling and “really angry at advisers who told him he needed to do be doing something more.’
“And, aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the president responded with this sentiment: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence ‘deserves’ it,” she said.
She then added, in new detail, “Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element to the United States government to instruct at the Capitol be defended.”
Jun 09, 8:38 pm
With Ivanka Trump tape, panel argues Trump was aware he lost
Using taped testimony from Trump officials including Attorney General Bill Barr and campaign attorney Alex Cannon, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., argued that Trump and his team were well aware that he lost the election but still carried out a plot to stay in power.
“In our second hearing, you will see that Donald Trump and his advisers knew that he had in fact lost the election,” Cheney said, explaining how the committee will lay out its case. “But despite this, President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him.”
In a video clip from an interview with Barr, Trump’s attorney general said he “repeatedly told the president, in no uncertain terms, that I did not see evidence of fraud and — you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election.”
The committee also aired a taped interview with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump commenting on Barr’s statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election.
“It affected my perspective,” Ivanka said of Barr’s assessment. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
Jun 09, 8:35 pm
Cheney says Trump ‘lit the flame of this attack’
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said Americans will learn new details about what Trump was doing before, during and after the attack at the Capitol in his effort to remain in power despite his 2020 election loss.
“Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power,” she said.
The Wyoming Republican asserted Trump told his staff during the riot that it’s what people “should be doing” and that he agreed with protesters urging violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence.
After the dust settled, Cheney said, Trump continued to ignore the statements from the Department of Justice, election officials and his own staff telling him the election result was legitimate.
“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” she said in her opening statement.
Jun 09, 8:22 pm
Committee places Trump at ‘center of this conspiracy,’ deems attack ‘attempted coup’
In his opening statement, Chairman Bennie Thompson — looking directly at the camera — called Jan. 6 an “attempt to undermine the will of the people” and “only the beginning of what became a sprawling multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election.”
“Trump was at the center of this conspiracy, and ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down Capitol and subvert American democracy,” he said.
Thompson said the attack on the Capitol was “the culmination of an attempted coup” and a “brazen attempt … to overthrow the government”
“The violence was no accident,” he said. “It represents President Trump’s last stand, his most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power.”
Jun 09, 8:01 pm
Historic hearing underway
Chairman Bennie Thompson has gaveled in the committee’s first prime-time hearing intended to “remind you of the reality of what happened that day.”
“But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson will say in his opening statement, according to an excerpt released by the committee. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
Americans will hear live testimony from a Capitol Police officer and documentarian who were on the scene of the attack and watch never-before-seen video footage in a rare congressional hearing made for television.
Jun 09, 7:50 pm
Cheney arrives on Capitol Hill
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the select committee, was the first member to arrive on Capitol Hill through the member entrance, according to an NBC pool reporter.
Asked how she was feeling, Cheney said, “Good, thank you,” as she walked inside.
Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., the only other House Republican to accept a seat on the panel, have faced relentless attacks from within their caucus for their participation. Cheney was removed from her No. 3 House GOP leadership post last year, and both were formally censured by the Republican National Committee for choosing to investigate what it controversially called “legitimate political discourse.”
Jun 09, 7:49 pm
Demonstrators rally outside Capitol
Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday ahead of the House select committee’s first prime-time hearing of its Jan. 6 investigation.
Participants held signs reading, “Not above the law.”
The panel is looking to explain what it calls a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by Trump and his supporters to overturn his 2020 election loss.
From legal action to name-calling, Trump continues to try to discredit the House select committee as the panel prepares to go public with its findings in prime time.
“January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a string of posts hours ahead of the hearing on Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after Twitter permanently suspended him in the wake of the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Jun 09, 7:22 pm
Just before hearing, 3 Capitol rioters express regret in federal court
Three rioters convicted on federal charges for participating in the Capitol attack appeared in court just hours ahead of the prime-time event and asked for mercy before federal judges deciding their punishments.
“I made one mistake in my life and I have immediately took responsibility for it,” said Michael Daughtry, a gun store owner and former police officer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge this past March. “I apologize to the court for my indiscretion. But does a person not get to make at least one mistake in their entire life?”
The sentencing hearings just blocks away from the Capitol offer a noteworthy split-screen as lawmakers and their staff are in the midst of final preparations to put their investigation’s findings on full display for the American people. Click here for more.
-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin
Jun 09, 7:00 pm
‘Our democracy remains in danger’: Opening statement excerpt
Chairman Bennie Thompson will warn the American public of the ongoing threat from “those in this country who thirst for power” when the Jan. 6 committee soon kicks off a series of public hearings laying out its investigation, according to an opening statement released by the committee.
“So tonight, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson is expected to say. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here,” read the excerpt.
Jun 09, 6:57 pm
Officers and widows plan to attend hearing
Several police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and widows of law enforcement members who died in the aftermath will be present at the hearing.
Among them are Erin Smith, the widow of Metropolitan Police Department officer Jeffrey Smith; Serena Liebengood, the widow of Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood; Sandra Garza, partner of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick; Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn; Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell; and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges.
Dunn told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott the hearing will be “triggering.”
“I think about Jan. 6 daily and tonight we are going to find out stuff we didn’t know,” he said.
Garza told Scott she’s preparing to painfully “relive the nightmare of the day.” Her longtime partner, Officer Sicknick, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes one day after engaging with rioters.
“Everybody should watch the hearings because they need the truth of what happened that day,” Garza said. “These are the facts — it’s important for them not to only hear the witnesses but see it again.” She added, “There has to be some accountability, people are dead because of what happened.”
Jun 09, 5:45 pm
Capitol Police officer, documentarian to testify
One of the first officers injured on Jan. 6, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was thrown to the ground by rioters pushing bike racks, will deliver her firsthand account before the committee in a matter of hours.
Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, is also scheduled to testify live.
ABC News exclusively obtained some of Quested’s extraordinary material, showing how a group of Trump supporters at a presidential rally transformed into an angry mob that broke into the Capitol. Click here for more.
Jun 09, 5:22 pm
McCarthy dodges questions on legitimacy of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wouldn’t say Thursday if President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed McCarthy on the matter four times during a news conference where House Republicans preemptively slammed tonight’s hearing, calling the Jan. 6 panel “the most political and least legitimate committee in American history.”
McCarthy said Biden is the president, but declined to address the legitimacy aspect and declined to say Trump was wrong when he baselessly claimed the election was fraudulent.
Watch the full exchange here:
Ahead of the Jan. 6 committee’s presentation alleging former Pres. Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy dodges when pressed four times by @jonkarl on whether he believes Pres. Biden was the legitimate winner. https://t.co/7x9xFOiAeUpic.twitter.com/xqqDpFGoFU
The select committee has promised never-before-seen videotaped depositions from some of Trump’s closest aides and family members after Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. all sat for interviews earlier this year.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who turned over thousands of text messages to the committee — has been described by congressional sources as an “MVP” of the hearings, as his messages have provided somewhat of a roadmap for investigators.
Jun 09, 4:35 pm
Biden calls Jan. 6 ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’
President Joe Biden said a lot of Americans will learn new details about the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to reveal the findings of their 11-month investigation.
“One of the things that’s gonna occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th,” Biden said as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday afternoon.
“And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Biden continued. “I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there’s a lot of questions: who’s responsible, who’s involved?”
Jun 09, 4:11 pm
Hearing kicks off at 8 p.m.
Thursday’s hearing, the first of six scheduled in June, is the culmination of an 11-month-long investigation by the House select committee.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage.
(SILER CITY, N.C.) — The North Carolina Department of Public Safety released police dashcam footage of a traffic stop that turned deadly when a state trooper shot and killed a man who allegedly pulled out a gun.
The footage seems to show the trooper, Rodney Cook, stopping a white Ford pickup truck because the driver and passenger were not wearing seatbelts, according to police.
The incident happened May 30 in Siler City after the car was pulled over around 4:30 p.m., according to DPS.
A superior court judge allowed the release of the footage by signing a formal request submitted by State Highway Patrol.
Cook asked the driver, identified as 21-year-old Mark Anthony Diaz, for identification but Diaz allegedly said he didn’t have any, according to police.
The trooper then asked Diaz to get out of the car after saying he smelled marijuana, police said.
The footage shows Diaz pulling a gun out the window and the trooper attempting to back away as Diaz steps out of the vehicle with the weapon.
Moments later, Cook shoots Diaz, who falls to the ground. The car begins to roll down the street and the passenger is seen running away.
After the trooper removes the gun from Diaz’s hands, he radios for backup emergency assistance, the footage shows. He is then seen performing lifesaving measures on Diaz.
DPS said Diaz was transported from the scene, but was later pronounced dead. The passenger who fled the scene later returned to the scene, according to DPS.
No shots were fired at Cook, the video shows.
Investigators told Durham ABC station WTVD-TV that the passenger is a minor who is cooperating with the investigation.
Cook was placed on administrative duty pending an internal investigation as per protocol, DPS said. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is also conducting an independent probe of the shooting, according to DPS.
DPS declined to comment further, directing all inquiries to SBI. A representative for the bureau said the investigation is ongoing.
The North Carolina Troopers Association did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment regarding Cook’s involvement in the shooting.
(SMITHSBURG, Md.) — Three people are dead and one critically injured after a shooting at a factory in Smithsburg, Maryland, Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The alleged gunman was wounded in an ensuing shootout with state police, authorities said.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said it responded to reports of an active shooter at Columbia Machine at around 2:30 p.m. and found the victims.
The alleged shooter had fled the scene and was apprehended by Maryland State Police in nearby Hagerstown based on a description of the suspect, the sheriff’s office said.
The suspect and a state trooper exchanged gunfire, and both were injured and transported for medical treatment, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office said the weapon used at both scenes was a semi-automatic handgun.
The deceased victims were identified as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31, and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said.
The fourth victim who was injured was identified as 42-year-old Brandon Chase Michael.
The suspect, whom authorities said was a 23-year-old Hispanic man who lives in West Virginia, remains in custody, and his identity will not be released until charges are filed.
Maryland State Police said the injured trooper is a 25-year veteran of the department assigned to the Criminal Enforcement Division Western Region, and that he’s not being identified at this time. He was transported to Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, where he was treated and released, state police said.
“There is no confirmed active threat to the community in relation to this incident,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said.
The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation.
Washington County Sheriff spokesperson Sgt. Carly Hose said the alleged shooter is a man, though no additional information on the suspect or a possible motive was released.
Hose could not confirm the employment status of the suspect or victims.
Columbia Machine manufactures concrete products equipment. Smithsburg is about 70 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.
(NEW YORK) — The parents of a now 19-year-old New York woman are suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, alleging their daughter developed an Instagram addiction that led to an eating disorder and other mental health struggles.
In the personal injury lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Kathleen and Jeff Spence of Long Island allege that their daughter Alexis began using Instagram at age 11 — two years younger than Instagram’s required minimum age of 13 — without their knowledge.
They claim she then developed an addiction to the social media app, which allegedly caused injuries including “addiction, anxiety, depression, self-harm, eating disorders, and, ultimately, suicidal ideation,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the Social Media Victims Law Center, claims that as Alexis’ parents, the Spences were “were emotionally and financially harmed by Meta’s addictive design and continued and harmful distribution and/or provision of multiple Instagram accounts to their minor child.”
“The fact that Alexis is here is truly a miracle because we fought tooth-and-nail for her,” Kathleen Spence told ABC News. “We did everything we possibly could for her. We got her the help that she needed on multiple levels, and there were times when we were very concerned for her safety.”
Alexis Spence told ABC News she created her first Instagram account at age 11 in order to interact with a popular online kids game at the time. Using her own tablet and then later a smartphone, as well as friends’ devices, to access Instagram, Alexis said her feed quickly became inundated with content related to eating disorders and self-harm
“When I’m 11 years old, what am I to do but keep looking at this content?” she said. “And when you’re being told every day, ‘This is how [to] be pretty … this is what you’re supposed to look like,’ what am I to think? I was a child.”
Kathleen Spence, who also has a 13-year-old son, described the changes she and her husband claimed they saw in their daughter in the years that followed.
“When Alexis first started going on Instagram without our consent or knowledge at 11 years old, we didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “We just know that our daughter was disappearing. Slowly, piece by piece, we were losing our confident, loving child, and she was becoming depressed, angry, withdrawn.”
In the lawsuit, the Spences allege that even as they got Alexis professional mental health treatment, they were not initially aware of the full impact of their daughter’s Instagram use.
They claim they connected the dots in 2021, when thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents were released by Frances Haugen, a former product manager at the tech company.
The documents Haugen shared were published by the Wall Street Journal and several other outlets in October 2021, and are collectively known as The Facebook Papers.
As ABC News reported last year, the documents showed Facebook had reportedly commissioned studies about and knew of the potential harm that negative or inflammatory content on its platforms was causing — including researchers’ findings that Instagram had made body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teens — but did not act to stop it.
In testimony to Congress last October, Haugen alleged that Facebook had disregarded concerns about the harmful effects their platforms could have on children’s mental health.
Kathleen Spence said that after reading the documents Haugen shared, she came to believe that there was not much she and her husband could have done to help Alexis.
“We did all we could,” she said. “We would encourage her to come downstairs. We ate dinner together as a family every night. We would have family outings on the weekend. We would take her places, but the phone and the social media was always there and it didn’t matter.”
She continued, “At the end of the day, my husband and I are one loving set of parents who are trying to keep our daughter safe from a multi-billion dollar company who was meeting behind closed doors to come up with ways to keep our children addicted to their products because they want to make money.”
In a response to Haugen’s congressional testimony last October, Meta issued a statement that characterized Haugen as “a former product manager at Facebook who worked for the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives — and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question.”
“We don’t agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about,” the company said.
A spokesperson for Meta on Thursday declined to comment on the Spences’ lawsuit, citing it as “active litigation.”
The spokesperson highlighted general protections for kids they say are offered by Instagram, including age verification, parental controls, time control settings, default settings to provide more privacy, direct message restrictions between adults and teens, as well as in-app resources offering mental health support.
The Spences are being represented in the lawsuit by attorney Matthew Bergman, who in February filed a separate lawsuit against Meta and another social media company on behalf of a mother who claims the “defective design, negligence and unreasonable dangerous features” of the companies’ products allegedly led to her daughter’s death by suicide.
Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, told ABC News he believes social media companies, not individual parents, have the tools and the responsibility to make social media safer for kids.
“Phones are ubiquitous. Kids rely on their phones to get their homework assignments, to get their sports assignments and to get a ride home,” said Bergman. “To say that taking phones away is a realistic, viable solution, it’s not. Turn off the algorithms. Turn off the ability of kids to stay on all day and all night.”
In addition to calling on Instagram to make product changes to make the app safer for kids, the Spences’ lawsuit is asking for monetary damages, including Alexis’ “past and present” medical expenses and her “loss of future income and learning capacity.”
(CASPER, Wyo.) — A $5,000 reward has been offered after a women set fire to a planned abortion clinic in Wyoming on May 25, according to new police footage.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered the reward on Wednesday, as a woman was shown in security footage released by local police.
The Casper Police Department released the 30-second video, which shows the suspect in a hooded shirt and surgical mask carrying what appears to be a red fuel tank through an empty room within the clinic. The video shows the woman then crouching in a doorway with the tank.
According to a statement from police on Tuesday, the suspect in the video is a white woman, between 5 feet, 6 inches and 5 feet, 8 inches tall and of medium build. Police added that the suspect entered the building around 3:30 a.m. and that they believe the suspect acted alone.
The fire began early in the morning and firefighters arrived at the scene to find a broken window and smoke coming out of a corner of the building.
A witness who called police said they heard glass breaking and saw a person leaving the area carrying a gas can and a black bag, according to police.
“While this act of destruction is profoundly upsetting and presents new challenges, we remain unwavering in our commitment to ensuring that the people of Casper can access the reproductive health care they need,” Wellspring Health Access founder Julie Burkhart said in a statement.
According to organizers of the clinic, because of the damage from the fire, the clinic will not open for an additional six months after its planned opening. The building affected was being renovated and slated to open in mid-June as the only facility of its kind in the state.
“When the needed repairs have been completed, we will open our clinic with the goal of providing the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including OB-GYN care, family planning, gender-affirming care and abortion care,” Burkhart added.
The Wellspring Health Access clinic in Casper has faced regular anti-abortion protests.
The damage to the clinic means that women will have even more restrictions to care in the state. Wyoming is one of 13 states who pledged to ban all or nearly all abortions if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in an upcoming decision.
In March, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill into law that would prohibit most abortions, should Roe be overturned. The bill includes exceptions for abortion in cases of rape, incest or to protect the mother from death or serious medical harm not involving mental health.
Already, abortion is limited within the state, as there are no doctors performing abortions in Wyoming. The only access women have to abortions in the state is through a medication abortion, which there is also limited access to, and can only be performed within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first prime-time hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m.
The hearing will feature never-before-seen video footage and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they call a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
Jun 09, 9:05 pm
Committee says multiple Republicans sought presidential pardons after attack
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said for the first time publicly that multiple Republican members of Congress reached out to the Trump White House to ask for presidential pardons in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, including Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
“Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,” she added.
As with other House Republicans, Perry has refused to cooperate with the committee’s investigation through voluntary requests and a congressional subpoena.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders
Jun 09, 8:55 pm
Cheney issues warning to fellow Republicans
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., had a message for her colleagues who continue to defend Trump and his false election claims.
“Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” Cheney said.
Cheney also had a message for the American people as they watch these hearings unfold over the next several weeks.
“The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot.”
“Please remember what is at stake,” she said. “Remember the men and women who have fought and died so that we can live under the rule of law and not the rule of men.”
Jun 09, 8:52 pm
Trump ‘well aware’ of violence but ‘placed no call’ to defend Capitol: Cheney
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the select committee, shared snippets of what White House aides told the committee Trump said to them while the attack at the Capitol was ongoing, laying out what she called Trump’s “sophisticated, seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election.”
“You will hear testimony that ‘The president didn’t really want to put anything out’ calling off the riot or asking his supporters to leave. You will hear that President Trump was yelling and “really angry at advisers who told him he needed to do be doing something more.’
“And, aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the president responded with this sentiment: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence ‘deserves’ it,” she said.
She then added, in new detail, “Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element to the United States government to instruct at the Capitol be defended.”
Jun 09, 8:38 pm
With Ivanka Trump tape, panel argues Trump was aware he lost
Using taped testimony from Trump officials including Attorney General Bill Barr and campaign attorney Alex Cannon, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., argued that Trump and his team were well aware that he lost the election but still carried out a plot to stay in power.
“In our second hearing, you will see that Donald Trump and his advisers knew that he had in fact lost the election,” Cheney said, explaining how the committee will lay out its case. “But despite this, President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him.”
In a video clip from an interview with Barr, Trump’s attorney general said he “repeatedly told the president, in no uncertain terms, that I did not see evidence of fraud and — you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election.”
The committee also aired a taped interview with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump commenting on Barr’s statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election.
“It affected my perspective,” Ivanka said of Barr’s assessment. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
Jun 09, 8:35 pm
Cheney says Trump ‘lit the flame of this attack’
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said Americans will learn new details about what Trump was doing before, during and after the attack at the Capitol in his effort to remain in power despite his 2020 election loss.
“Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power,” she said.
The Wyoming Republican asserted Trump told his staff during the riot that it’s what people “should be doing” and that he agreed with protesters urging violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence.
After the dust settled, Cheney said, Trump continued to ignore the statements from the Department of Justice, election officials and his own staff telling him the election result was legitimate.
“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” she said in her opening statement.
Jun 09, 8:22 pm
Committee places Trump at ‘center of this conspiracy,’ deems attack ‘attempted coup’
In his opening statement, Chairman Bennie Thompson — looking directly at the camera — called Jan. 6 an “attempt to undermine the will of the people” and “only the beginning of what became a sprawling multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election.”
“Trump was at the center of this conspiracy, and ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down Capitol and subvert American democracy,” he said.
Thompson said the attack on the Capitol was “the culmination of an attempted coup” and a “brazen attempt … to overthrow the government”
“The violence was no accident,” he said. “It represents President Trump’s last stand, his most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power.”
Jun 09, 8:01 pm
Historic hearing underway
Chairman Bennie Thompson has gaveled in the committee’s first prime-time hearing intended to “remind you of the reality of what happened that day.”
“But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson will say in his opening statement, according to an excerpt released by the committee. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
Americans will hear live testimony from a Capitol Police officer and documentarian who were on the scene of the attack and watch never-before-seen video footage in a rare congressional hearing made for television.
Jun 09, 7:50 pm
Cheney arrives on Capitol Hill
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the select committee, was the first member to arrive on Capitol Hill through the member entrance, according to an NBC pool reporter.
Asked how she was feeling, Cheney said, “Good, thank you,” as she walked inside.
Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., the only other House Republican to accept a seat on the panel, have faced relentless attacks from within their caucus for their participation. Cheney was removed from her No. 3 House GOP leadership post last year, and both were formally censured by the Republican National Committee for choosing to investigate what it controversially called “legitimate political discourse.”
Jun 09, 7:49 pm
Demonstrators rally outside Capitol
Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday ahead of the House select committee’s first prime-time hearing of its Jan. 6 investigation.
Participants held signs reading, “Not above the law.”
The panel is looking to explain what it calls a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by Trump and his supporters to overturn his 2020 election loss.
From legal action to name-calling, Trump continues to try to discredit the House select committee as the panel prepares to go public with its findings in prime time.
“January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a string of posts hours ahead of the hearing on Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after Twitter permanently suspended him in the wake of the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Jun 09, 7:22 pm
Just before hearing, 3 Capitol rioters express regret in federal court
Three rioters convicted on federal charges for participating in the Capitol attack appeared in court just hours ahead of the prime-time event and asked for mercy before federal judges deciding their punishments.
“I made one mistake in my life and I have immediately took responsibility for it,” said Michael Daughtry, a gun store owner and former police officer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge this past March. “I apologize to the court for my indiscretion. But does a person not get to make at least one mistake in their entire life?”
The sentencing hearings just blocks away from the Capitol offer a noteworthy split-screen as lawmakers and their staff are in the midst of final preparations to put their investigation’s findings on full display for the American people. Click here for more.
-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin
Jun 09, 7:00 pm
‘Our democracy remains in danger’: Opening statement excerpt
Chairman Bennie Thompson will warn the American public of the ongoing threat from “those in this country who thirst for power” when the Jan. 6 committee soon kicks off a series of public hearings laying out its investigation, according to an opening statement released by the committee.
“So tonight, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson is expected to say. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here,” read the excerpt.
Jun 09, 6:57 pm
Officers and widows plan to attend hearing
Several police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and widows of law enforcement members who died in the aftermath will be present at the hearing.
Among them are Erin Smith, the widow of Metropolitan Police Department officer Jeffrey Smith; Serena Liebengood, the widow of Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood; Sandra Garza, partner of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick; Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn; Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell; and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges.
Dunn told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott the hearing will be “triggering.”
“I think about Jan. 6 daily and tonight we are going to find out stuff we didn’t know,” he said.
Garza told Scott she’s preparing to painfully “relive the nightmare of the day.” Her longtime partner, Officer Sicknick, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes one day after engaging with rioters.
“Everybody should watch the hearings because they need the truth of what happened that day,” Garza said. “These are the facts — it’s important for them not to only hear the witnesses but see it again.” She added, “There has to be some accountability, people are dead because of what happened.”
Jun 09, 5:45 pm
Capitol Police officer, documentarian to testify
One of the first officers injured on Jan. 6, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was thrown to the ground by rioters pushing bike racks, will deliver her firsthand account before the committee in a matter of hours.
Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, is also scheduled to testify live.
ABC News exclusively obtained some of Quested’s extraordinary material, showing how a group of Trump supporters at a presidential rally transformed into an angry mob that broke into the Capitol. Click here for more.
Jun 09, 5:22 pm
McCarthy dodges questions on legitimacy of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wouldn’t say Thursday if President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed McCarthy on the matter four times during a news conference where House Republicans preemptively slammed tonight’s hearing, calling the Jan. 6 panel “the most political and least legitimate committee in American history.”
McCarthy said Biden is the president, but declined to address the legitimacy aspect and declined to say Trump was wrong when he baselessly claimed the election was fraudulent.
Watch the full exchange here:
Ahead of the Jan. 6 committee’s presentation alleging former Pres. Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy dodges when pressed four times by @jonkarl on whether he believes Pres. Biden was the legitimate winner. https://t.co/7x9xFOiAeUpic.twitter.com/xqqDpFGoFU
The select committee has promised never-before-seen videotaped depositions from some of Trump’s closest aides and family members after Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. all sat for interviews earlier this year.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who turned over thousands of text messages to the committee — has been described by congressional sources as an “MVP” of the hearings, as his messages have provided somewhat of a roadmap for investigators.
Jun 09, 4:35 pm
Biden calls Jan. 6 ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’
President Joe Biden said a lot of Americans will learn new details about the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to reveal the findings of their 11-month investigation.
“One of the things that’s gonna occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th,” Biden said as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday afternoon.
“And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Biden continued. “I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there’s a lot of questions: who’s responsible, who’s involved?”
Jun 09, 4:11 pm
Hearing kicks off at 8 p.m.
Thursday’s hearing, the first of six scheduled in June, is the culmination of an 11-month-long investigation by the House select committee.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage.
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The Isabella County Sheriff’s Office is aiming to resolve non-emergency calls by phone after blowing through its fuel budget due to soaring gas prices.
MedStar Mobile Healthcare, an emergency medical services system in Fort Worth, Texas, has seen its gas expenses increase dramatically. During the month of May last year, MedStar spent $96,547.94 on fuel; this past May, it spent $223,582.55, according to Matt Zavadsky, chief transformation officer for MedStar.
The response volume only marginally increased while the fuel costs rose, he said.
“It’s a significant impact, on top of the other financial impacts adversely affecting EMS agencies,” Zavadsky told ABC News. “For rural EMS agencies that travel great distances, and have more challenging finances, the impact could be even greater.”
A travel boom that’s increasing the demand for gas also comes amid a shortage of crude oil supply due to sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, driving up prices at the pump in recent months, experts told ABC News.
The average price of a gallon of gas nationwide reached $5 on Thursday, according to GasBuddy. As of Thursday, AAA had the average price of a gallon of gas just under $5 — at $4.97, up from about $4.33 a month ago and $3.07 a year ago.
The increase has caused agencies like sheriff’s offices and fire departments to closely monitor their fuel budget and issue new policy directives to limit gas mileage — without impacting emergency response.
“Most sheriffs that I know will budget what their need is and maybe 10% more, but not 100% more,” Matthew Saxton, CEO and executive director of the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association, told ABC News.
This week, the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office in central Michigan announced that it has “exhausted” its fuel funds, with several months to go before a budget reset. As a result, it said it will be managing what non-emergency calls it can over the phone.
“Deputies will continue to provide patrols to all areas of the county, they will respond to those calls that need to be managed in person. Any call that is in progress with active suspects will involve a response by the deputies,” Sheriff Michael Main said in a Facebook post. “I want to assure the community that safety is our primary goal, and we will continue to respond to those types of calls.”
County officials told Flint, Michigan, ABC affiliate WJRT they plan to address the budget concerns in the coming weeks.
“I know that once we meet, we’re going to resolve this,” Isabella County Commissioner Jerry Jaloszynski told the station.
As director of the Franklin County Emergency Management Agency, Ryan Buckingham said he issued a policy directive regarding non-emergency activities a couple of months ago when gas prices in the southern Illinois county were approaching $4 per gallon.
“I have a small budget to work with. I have to look out for that pretty quick,” Buckingham told ABC News. “When it hits $5 a gallon, it gets even worse.”
Buckingham said the agency has used up 76% of its fuel budget so far this fiscal year, which started Dec. 1, 2021.
“We’re about 25% over the mark right now as far as where we should be budget-wise,” he said, noting that the agency typically doesn’t go over its allotted budget unless it’s had to respond to something like a major disaster.
To help curtail fuel costs, Buckingham said the agency is looking to limit travel for meetings and training. For instance, instead of driving an hour away for specialty dive training, personnel may train in a local pool.
Emergency response will not be affected “no matter what,” he said.
In rural Colorado, near Durango, Upper Pine River Fire Protection District Fire Chief Bruce Evans started noticing a “significant” increase in gas prices in January. In the last three months, fuel expenses have increased 36%, said Evans, cutting into the fuel budget.
“We’ve used 65% of that budget,” said Evans. “We should have only used 45%.”
The department has started exploring ways to reduce the number of vehicles that it has on the road outside an emergency response, including “no drive Friday,” where personnel work from home if they can, Evans said. They may need to look to reallocate more funds to their fuel budget.
“We know we’re going to have to put more money in, but we’re also trying to be conservative,” he said.
For EMS systems, the higher prices come as agencies have also increased wages to retain workers during the pandemic, Zavadsky said. Agencies will likely need to dip into their reserves or reallocate funds to cover the rising costs, he said.
Volunteer EMS personnel who use their personal vehicles to go to calls “may be less able to respond due to the high fuel prices,” he said.
“Those double-whammy cost increases, without any real mechanism to generate more revenue, is crippling most EMS agencies,” Zavadsky said.
