(LONDON) — Actor Kevin Spacey will face an additional seven sexual assault charges in the United Kingdom, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
The charges to be filed stem from alleged incidents in 2001 and 2004, with one victim, prosecutors said. Spacey will face three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, prosecutors said.
“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Spacey, 63, has faced allegations and charges of sexual assault in both the United Kingdom and United States.
He was found not liable in October in a civil sexual assault suit brought by fellow actor Anthony Rapp in New York City.
Spacey appeared in a London court in July to plead not guilty after Metropolitan Police formally charged him with several sexual assault charges. The previously announced charges included four charges of sexual assaults against three men and one charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, prosecutors said.
Spacey in May told ABC News’ Good Morning America that he would “voluntarily” appear in court in London.
“I very much appreciate the Crown Prosecution Service’s statement in which they carefully reminded the media and the public that I am entitled to a fair trial, and innocent until proven otherwise,” Spacey told GMA at the time. “While I am disappointed with their decision to move forward, I will voluntarily appear in the U.K. as soon as can be arranged and defend myself against these charges, which I am confident will prove my innocence.”
(NEW YORK) — Newly released research suggests four gun safety policies supported by gun owners and non-gun owners that could reduce overall gun-related homicides by 28% and gun-related suicides by 6.7%. One of the proposals alone, called closing the misdemeanor loophole, has the potential to reduce overall gun-related homicide rates by as much as 19% according to research.
Closing the misdemeanor loophole entails lowering the threshold of what crimes can disqualify someone from being able to legally purchase or possess a gun, such as violent misdemeanor crimes including assault, battery and stalking, which are currently excluded. According to the report, current federal law allows convicted criminals to purchase and possess guns as long as their crime did not rise to the level of a felony.
This policy would prohibit the gun purchase or possession of anyone who committed a crime involving violence or threatened violence, regardless of the level of the crime, according to the report. As of this year, only four states have violent misdemeanor laws in place.
While the misdemeanor loophole proposal could largely reduce violence, researchers told ABC News the four proposals are meant to work together and rely on one another to reduce gun violence deaths.
This policy could have been effective in preventing the recent shooting at the University of Virginia which left three football players dead, Dr. Michael Siegel, a researcher at Tufts University School of Medicine who authored the report, told ABC News in an interview.
The accused gunman had committed a misdemeanor gun violation in 2021 and made comments about possessing a gun in September and the university said it was aware of these incidents.
“If Virginia had a violent misdemeanor law in place like the one that we’re proposing, he would have been automatically disqualified from purchasing a gun or from from having a gun,” Siegel said.
The research — conduced by Tufts University School of Medicine and 97percent, a bipartisan group that conducts research with the goal of reducing gun deaths in America — aimed to find common ground between gun owners and non-gun owners. The research aimed to propose gun safety policies that would keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals, while still protecting law-abiding gun owners’ Second Amendment rights, according to lead researcher Dr. Michael Siegel and Matt Litman, the president of 97percent.
“It’s based on an extensive research process in which we carefully analyze the effectiveness of state firearm laws but in addition, we consulted with gun owners, which was very unique in trying to find out what their perspectives are,” Siegel said.
The policy proposals came together based on the analysis of gun owner and non-owner perspectives through surveys and focus groups.
The other proposals are creating a state-level permit system, implementing a revamped universal background check system, and creating a red flag law with due process protections.
Research suggests that creating a state-level gun-permitting system with two permits, a general one and a concealed carry one, could reduce gun violence. The report suggests that permits should be periodically checked using a universal background check system and only be valid for a set number of years.
Obtaining a state-issued permit to purchase or possess a gun would require state and local background checks, focusing on any history of violence, and a gun safety training course.
Currently, only 12 states currently require permits to purchase a gun, six of which are only for long guns.
By simplifying universal background checks, law enforcement can utilize state and federal databases to ensure a potential permit holder has not been convicted of a violent misdemeanor or felony.
Currently, only 11 states search state and local records and background checks are only conducted at points of purchase by federally licensed sellers. Private sellers can sell guns without a background check. The proposal suggests that background checks should be conducted at the federal, state and local levels as part of the process for obtaining a license.
The research also shows there is broad support for red flag laws that implement strong due process protections. These laws allow family members or law enforcement to petition a court to remove firearms from a person who is a threat.
Only 19 states have red flag laws, while only 12 states allow family members to petition a court for a protective order.
Research suggests that family members are the most capable of seeing and identifying warning signs, and they should therefore be able to utilize red flag laws for them to be most effectively used.
Research has shown that lawmakers who signed on to bipartisan gun control legislation, that passed earlier this year, are not paying the price for voting yes on that legislation because the legislation was very popular, Litman said in an interview with ABC News.
Litman further stated that the same stands true for these four proposals, which research shows are very popular with gun owners.
“With so many different laws possible and so many states going in different directions, there’s really no uniformity and it’s hard to set priorities. We feel that if we can get all the states working together on a smaller set of policies, that the chances of pushing this forward are greater,” Siegel said.
(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — As classes resume at the University of Virginia on Wednesday, a 22-year-old student is due in court for allegedly gunning down three classmates in a mass shooting on campus.
Two other students were injured in the shooting that unfolded on a bus as it returned to Charlottesville on Sunday night from a field trip in Washington, D.C.
The suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., was taken into custody Monday morning following an overnight manhunt. His arraignment is set for Wednesday morning at Albemarle General District Court.
The three slain students, Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, were all members of the football team, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan said.
Jones was a running back for the football team in 2018, though he never played in a game. Virginia Athletics Director Carla Williams said Jones was a student beginning in 2018 and was a walk-on for one semester. She said “there was no overlap” on the team between Jones and the victims, adding that she doesn’t “know if there was any interaction outside of the class.”
A motive is not clear, Ryan said Monday.
Jones is facing three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, according to UVA Police Chief Timothy Longo. Charges could change, he said.
Albemarle County Commonwealth Attorney James Hingeley confirmed to ABC News that Jones also faces two counts of malicious wounding of the two other students.
As UVA students mourn, classes are resuming on Wednesday. But undergraduates aren’t required to finish any graded assignments or take exams before Thanksgiving break, Ryan said.
As of Tuesday, the football team had not decided if it’ll play this Saturday’s scheduled game against Coastal Carolina.
(UVALDE, Texas) — For months since the May 24 school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, attention and blame have been focused on the chief of the tiny school district’s police force. That man, Pete Arredondo, was first suspended and then fired as investigators pointed to him as the incident commander who failed the students and their teachers by failing to act to stop the carnage.
But records that are still being kept confidential and interviews with officials familiar with the most sensitive aspects of the investigations shed new light on the events of that day and raise questions about another ranking law enforcement official who has, thus far, avoided nearly all scrutiny.
That official is Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco.
“We’re looking at him,” one law enforcement official said of Nolasco.
Officials briefed on the investigation said Nolasco and his role on the day of the massacre have been a focus as detectives work to unravel both the events that led up to the shooting and the bungled and delayed response of law enforcement to what was an “active shooter” situation.
Determining just who was in charge that day is a focal point as investigators try to make sense of a series of poor law enforcement decisions and delays in the police response that could well have cost lives.
Nolasco, who insists he was not the incident commander when an 18-year-old former student of Robb Elementary School killed 19 children and two of their teachers, has been on the radar of investigators from the start. He initially refused to cooperate with a special investigative committee empaneled by the Texas House of Representatives, agreeing to appear only when he was threatened with civil penalties after being summoned, the committee announced at the time.
Families of the victims, meanwhile, want to know more about his role on the day catastrophe struck Uvalde.
“We feel he should have done more to save children,” said Berlinda Arreola, step-grandmother of Amerie Jo Garza who was killed in the rampage. “We feel like he’s hiding something. There is a reason he hasn’t spoken to anyone.”
In his first interview with a news organization since the shooting, Nolasco defended himself and said he was not and could not have been in command as the massacre played out.
“All I can say is I was not the incident commander that day,” Nolasco told ABC News. “Honestly, I mean, there’s just a lot of finger-pointing that’s going on right now … I think they want to point fingers to me and point fingers at me.”
He said he had given interviews to state and federal investigators leading the official probes into the massacre.
A spokesman for Texas DPS declined to comment for this story.
Soon after radio calls for assistance went out on May 24, scores of police from an array of different agencies poured into the neighborhood around the Robb campus on Old Carrizo Road while the massacre was unfolding inside two adjoining classrooms.
According to investigators, Arredondo had assumed control inside the school building. But official reports say it was a different story outside. There, Nolasco “had operational control,” according to one of the highest-ranking state troopers to report to the site that day.
In a June 2 interview with the Texas Rangers leading the investigation, Capt. Joel Betancourt of the Texas Department of Public Safety said he “initially understood that Sheriff Nolasco was the scene commander.” That statement was included in two synopses of investigator interviews with Betancourt reviewed by ABC News.
That report says Betancourt told Ranger Lt. Randy Garcia that, when Betancourt arrived at Robb, he “met with Uvalde County Sheriff Nolasco and started setting up a command post.” Betancourt went on to explain that he and Nolasco discussed the situation inside the school and the law enforcement resources that were on their way. Betancourt said the sheriff told him the original “active shooter” emergency had settled into one in which an individual was behind closed doors and holding police at bay — what is called a “barricaded subject” in police parlance.
It would go down as the same bad call made inside the school’s hallway by Arredondo.
Betancourt described to the investigator a scene of confusion and poor communication.
“Captain Betancourt said he was getting his information from Uvalde County Sheriff Nolasco because he had operational control,” Garcia wrote in his report. “Captain Betancourt said he did not know if anyone was in charge inside the building. Captain Betancourt relayed a story where at one point he started towards the door to the school and the Sheriff stated there were too many people inside there already, insinuating for Captain Betancourt not to go inside the building. Captain Betancourt took that statement to mean the Sheriff was in operational control.”
Betancourt told the investigator that it was only after the shooter had been killed by a special assault team from U.S. Border Patrol that he “realized that Chief Arredondo was the incident commander.”
Nolasco said he believes it was clear that Arredondo was in charge that day.
“You have a chief of police that works for the school,” Nolasco said. “And he coauthored (the school district active shooter) policy that put him in charge. The incident is at school and I’ll let you do the math.”
Nolasco, a Republican, was elected sheriff in 2020 after nearly three decades in law enforcement. He first joined the Uvalde sheriff’s department in 2005 and has done everything from 911 dispatch to emergency medical response to undercover narcotics operations.
The sheriff said any attempt to make him look responsible for incident command shows “they’re just looking for a scapegoat.”
Arredondo and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment for this story. In his only news interview after the shooting, Arredondo said he did not view himself as the incident commander.
“I didn’t issue any orders,” he told the Texas Tribune.
In a statement issued just before being fired from the school district in August, Arredondo’s attorney also made it a point to remind the public that the school attack first began as a shooting at the Diaz Street home of gunman Salvador Ramos where Ramos shot his grandmother in the face. Nolasco personally responded to that scene.
“That would have been the first incident to establish incident command,” Arredondo’s lawyer, George Hyde, wrote, referring to the Diaz Street location.
In his comments to ABC News, Nolasco took issue with that, saying, at the time, “I didn’t know the connection to that other scene over there” on Diaz Street.
The connection between the Robb school shooting and the earlier gunshots on Diaz Street was a prime focus of the special legislative committee that Nolasco was reluctant to cooperate with. The committee reported that there were differing accounts of when Nolasco arrived on Diaz Street and when he later learned of the Robb shooting.
“In a desire to put this issue to rest, and to foreclose the suggestion that earlier reporting of the attacker’s assault on his grandmother could have led to an earlier law enforcement intervention, the committee has requested records from Sheriff Nolasco’s mobile phones to confirm that he was not contacted directly for assistance on Diaz Street,” the committee wrote in a footnote to its July 17 report. “The committee has not yet received these records. The issue is important if a more timely report of the Diaz Street shooting could have prompted an earlier call from dispatch for law enforcement response to the area or an earlier … alert at the school.”
The committee still has not received those records, said former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, who served as one of three members of the legislative panel.
“Sheriff Nolasco had a key role, and transparency around his actions that day would serve the people of Uvalde well,” Guzman told ABC News.
In an interview with Ranger investigator Garcia on June 3, Nolasco insisted “he was in his office when he heard radio traffic of a traffic crash near Robb Elementary School,” according to a synopsis reviewed by ABC News. “Soon thereafter, the radio traffic advised of a shooting related to the crash, and Sheriff Nolasco responded to the area. While traveling on Garden Street, he was contacted by the Ramos family as he passed.”
Nolasco also told the investigator, according to the synopsis, that he and DPS Capt. Betancourt “planned the establishment of a command post” but did not proceed once they learned the gunman had been killed by officers inside the school.
As for his reluctance to cooperate with the legislative probe, Nolasco said the reason was simple: “There is an investigation going on. And I participated while cooperating with the Rangers and the FBI. I told them my part of what happened on that day, my understanding, and I was instructed not to talk to anybody else because of the ongoing investigation … It put me in a bad spot. I’m here to cooperate and try to help as much as I can.”
“But, you know, when you have an investigation that’s going on, you wait till it’s investigated before you talk to anybody that’s going to review, I guess, anything,” he said.
(LOS ANGELES) — A homeless man has been shot and killed by a security guard after he reportedly walked into a Target store and allegedly stabbed two people, including a 7-year-old boy, with a large butcher knife he grabbed off of a shelf, police said.
The incident occurred at approximately 6:20 p.m. on Tuesday at a Target near Figueroa and 7th Streets in Los Angeles, California, when police say the man entered the store and grabbed a butcher knife with a 9-inch blade off of a shelf before confronting the 7-year-old boy, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told the media following the incident.
“(He) confronted him and told the young boy he was going to stab him and kill him,” Moore said. “He repeated that more than once. The young child attempted to flee and leave, ignore him, move away. The suspect without any further provocation suddenly attacked and stabbed this child in the back.”
Following the initial stabbing, the suspect subsequently encountered a a group of women and stabbed a 25-year-old woman “brutally” in the chest, according to Moore.
The boy suffered a deep wound to his back and shoulder area and fell to the floor after being stabbed, officials said. The 25-year-old woman was tended to by good Samaritans who reportedly came to her rescue by pulling her into the store’s pharmacy area and closing the gate behind them, according to ABC’s Los Angeles station KABC-TV.
The suspect then moved to the front of the store but was confronted by an armed Target security guard who reportedly tried to defuse the situation with his baton before switching to his gun when the suspected allegedly continued to approach him with the 9-inch blade, according to KABC.
The security guard shot the man at least once in the torso before Los Angeles Police Department officers who happened to be in the nearby shopping complex next to Target responded to the scene and took the stabbing suspect into custody, according to KABC.
The incident reportedly caused mass panic in the store as customers fled the scene of the crime and one woman was trampled in the stampede and bruised in her face, authorities said.
“Out of nowhere, we heard people screaming,” Kevin Zaragoza, who was shopping at Target with his brother at the time of the stabbings, told KABC following the incident. “We rushed to the front. Right there by the exit we see a girl on the floor, blood all over her. After that, we see the whole LAPD swarming in there with shotguns, all types of stuff. It was crazy.”
The 7-year-old boy who was stabbed underwent surgery after the attack and is currently listed in stable condition, though he may have suffered potential neurological damage in the stabbing, officials said. The 25-year-old woman was also taken to the hospital and underwent surgery for the deep stab wound to her chest. Authorities have not yet given an update on her condition but did confirm that the suspect had no relation to either of the victims involved in the stabbing.
The suspect who was shot by the security guard during the altercation was also taken to the hospital but died from the gunshot wound he sustained following the stabbings, police said.
(WASHINGTON) — Ivanka Trump said Tuesday that she does not plan to join dad Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign to return to the White House.
In a statement, Ivanka Trump cited a desire to spend time with the three kids she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.
“I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics,” she said in her statement (first reported by Fox News).
She and Kushner worked as senior White House advisers to President Donald Trump during his four years in office, and both assisted his campaigns in 2016 and 2020. Ivanka Trump also introduced her father in 2015 at his kickoff event for his first Republican presidential campaign.
Since Donald Trump left office, however, Ivanka Trump and Kushner have maintained relatively low profiles in the Miami area, where they relocated after living in Washington, D.C.
Kushner attended Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign announcement, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday night. Ivanka Trump did not.
“While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena,” she said in her statement. “I am grateful to have had the honor of serving the American people and I will always be proud of many of our administration’s accomplishments.”
Donald Trump Jr., who was a major outside adviser to his father in 2016 and 2020 while helping run the eponymous Trump Organization, also was not present at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.
A source close to Donald Trump Jr. told ABC News that he was hunting out west and could not get a flight back due to “bad weather.”
Eric Trump, the third of Donald Trump’s adult children, was in attendance at the speech and was singled out by his father, receiving applause from the crowd.
The former president had long teased another run for office before announcing it on Tuesday.
In the wake of last week’s midterm results, however, in which major Donald Trump-backed candidates were defeated despite Republican predictions of a “red wave,” some in the party have said it is time to move beyond him.
(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — The Artemis I rocket launched early Wednesday morning, the latest attempt to send an unmanned capsule near the moon after a series of postponements due to weather and mechanical issues.
NASA pushed back a takeoff scheduled for Monday after Hurricane Nicole made landfall about 85 miles south of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The launch marks the first step in an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon for scientific discovery and economic development. Eventually, the Artemis expedition could lead to the first crewed space trip to Mars, according to NASA.
Nov 16, 1:50 AM EST
Artemis moon rocket launches from Cape Canaveral
The unmanned mission is headed back to the moon after liftoff was achieved at 1:47am ET.
Nov 16, 1:43 AM EST
Artemis cleared for 1:47 a.m. launch
NASA conducted a “Go-No Go Poll” resulting in a “GO” for launch in 10 minutes, at 1:47 a.m. ET.
Nov 16, 12:03 AM EST
Technicians need to replace ethernet cable
NASA said the “red crew” team has fixed the hydrogen leak problem.
However, a radar on the range is not operational until technicians replace an ethernet cable, which NASA says will take about an hour.
The launch window opens at 1:04 a.m. and runs until 3:04 a.m.
Nov 15, 10:38 PM EST
NASA begins live broadcast ahead of launch
NASA has begun its live broadcast ahead of the anticipated Artemis launch.
Nov 15, 9:46 PM EST
Leak reported ahead of launch
NASA has reported a “small leak” ahead of the Artemis launch.
“Engineers have paused flowing liquid hydrogen into the core stage because of a small leak on a hydrogen valve inside of the mobile launcher,” NASA said. “A team of personnel called a red crew is being assembled to go to the pad to make sure all of the connections and valves remain tight. The valve is located within the base of the mobile launcher.”
-ABC News’ Gio Benitez
Nov 15, 9:28 PM EST
How to watch the Artemis launch
The Artemis launch will take place early Wednesday morning, unless NASA postpones the takeoff due to weather or other concerns.
If Artemis is declared ready, a two-hour window will open at 1:04 a.m. ET. If needed, the back-up windows are Saturday, Nov. 19, and Friday, Nov. 25.
NASA will broadcast the launch on NASA TV.
Nov 15, 9:24 PM EST
Weather 90% favorable for launch
The weather is currently at 90% favorable for the Artemis launch early Wednesday morning, according to NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems.
Nov 15, 9:02 PM EST
Artemis mission aims to send astronauts to the moon
The Artemis launch on Wednesday kicks off a yearslong expedition that aims to put astronauts on the moon and enable a future trip to Mars.
The Artemis expedition includes four missions, each of which will cost roughly $4.1 billion. In all, the project will cost up to $93 billion by 2025, according to an audit from the NASA Office of the Inspector General.
If Artemis I is successful, Artemis II will take four astronauts near the moon in 2024. After that, Artemis III will take a crewed spacecraft for a moon landing. Finally, Artemis IV will fly to a space station near the moon.
Over the course of the Artemis missions, NASA plans to eventually send the first female astronaut and the first astronaut of color to the moon.
Nov 15, 9:01 PM EST
Artemis mission has suffered months of delays
The Artemis mission has suffered a series of setbacks since an original launch date in late August that was expected to feature Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance among about 100,000 spectators.
NASA called off that initial takeoff, set for Aug. 29, after a defective sensor prevented one of the rocket’s engines from cooling down to a temperature required before ignition.
Days later, a second launch attempt on Sept. 3 was scrubbed after the space agency identified a liquid hydrogen leak.
A third planned launch attempt, on Sept. 27, faced postponement due to Hurricane Ian. The rocket was moved off the launchpad to protect it, as Ian wrought destruction along its path northward from Florida to the Carolinas.
(CHICAGO) — Dozens of headstones at a Jewish cemetery have been defaced with swastikas and offensive graffiti in bright red paint, and police are urgently looking for the culprits responsible.
The incident occurred Monday morning when police were called to the Congregation Am Echod Jewish Cemetery in Waukegan, Illinois, after 16 large headstones were found with bright red swastikas painted on them along with 23 more headstones that had been defaced with other offensive graffiti, according to ABC’s Chicago station WLS-TV.
“In the immediate aftermath of the continued escalation of antisemitic incidents, this one hits hard,” David Goldenberg, the Anti-Defamation League’s Midwest regional director, told WLS in an interview following the incident. “What it really represents is this normalization of antisemitism, and that is what we find to be incredibly concerning. We have to remember that this is a fringe element of our society and we far outnumber them. So we got to be smarter than them. We have to be just as aggressive as them and we got to be louder than that. And that’s how you fight back.”
A total of 2,717 incidents of assault, harassment or vandalism were reported nationally to the Anti-Defamation League in 2021 — a historical high against American Jews since the ADL began tracking such data 43 years ago in 1979, the ADL said.
Antisemitic incidents have increased by 430% in Illinois from 2016, when there were 10 incidents reported, to 2021, when there were a total of 53, according to the ADL. There was also a 15% increase in the state from 2020 to 2021 — 46 reported incidents in 2020 compared to 53 in 2021.
“ADL Midwest reported a total of 175 anti-Semitic incidents in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, combined,” the ADL said in a statement published in April detailing the crimes. “This was a 62% increase from the 108 combined incidents reported in 2020 – and 202% higher than the total number of incidents reported just five years ago for 2016.”
This is all part of a disturbing trend happening on a “near daily basis,” said Goldenberg.
Waukegan Mayor Ann B. Taylor issued a statement in the aftermath of the cemetery’s defacement, both offering her support as well as urging accountability for the vandalism.
“I am deeply disturbed and angered by the hateful imagery found spray-painted on headstones this morning in Am Echod Jewish Cemetery,” Taylor said. “Hate does not have a home in Waukegan; when such incidents occur, our marginalized neighbors are victimized, and our entire community suffers. I hope our officers promptly locate the perpetrators of this despicable act and hold them accountable, and I offer my full support to those directly impacted by this vandalism.”
The Waukegan Police Department is urging anyone with information regarding this case to contact them immediately on the Waukegan Police Department tip line at 847-360-9001.
(WASHINGTON) — House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday clinched the Republican nomination for speaker in the next Congress, multiple sources told ABC News, as the California lawmaker succeeded in a key early vote on the path to holding the gavel.
The sources said McCarthy received 188 votes in the GOP’s leadership elections, conducted behind closed doors via secret ballot from the incoming class of lawmakers. That compares to 31 for Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. (Representatives who lost in the midterms couldn’t vote in Tuesday’s leadership elections, but those in still-uncalled races could vote.)
Biggs challenged McCarthy amid frustration from some conservatives over a disappointing midterm cycle for the party.
Top Republicans including McCarthy had boasted of delivering sprawling House and Senate majorities in last week’s midterm elections, but Republicans are instead looking at razor-thin control of the House, while Democrats retained the Senate.
McCarthy only needed a majority of his conference to vote for him to secure the nomination on Tuesday. He will need 218 votes in the whole chamber on Jan. 3 to be elected speaker of the House if Republicans take the majority.
In the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote, some members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus threw their support behind McCarthy despite a former chair of their group, Biggs, mounting a long-shot bid against him.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., backed McCarthy on Steve Bannon’s podcast on Monday, saying she thought it was “bad strategy” for the Freedom Caucus to mount a challenge to McCarthy since Republicans are likely to have a thin majority.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, also told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s vote that he supported McCarthy and is eyeing the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee.
While Biggs drew nearly three dozen votes of his own, McCarthy’s margin in Tuesday’s vote indicates he is headed for the speakership — though he will have to win back those defections by January’s vote in the House.
“Every five people is essentially a veto now. That means that it’s probably not going to be Kevin McCarthy as speaker, because there are five of us would not want to see him,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said on Charlie Kirk’s show prior to the vote. “It is probably not going to be somebody like Jim Jordan, who I would prefer, because there are probably five people who don’t like him. So, we’ve got to go down the list of the Republicans and see who could actually unite a conference.”
Republicans on Tuesday also rounded out their top three leadership positions during a closed-door vote should they clinch the House majority.
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the current House minority whip, was elected via a voice vote as Republican majority leader should the GOP take control of the House.
Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, who served as the National Republican Congressional Committee chair for the midterms, won a hotly contested whip race despite Republicans having a lackluster showing this cycle, beating Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Drew Ferguson of Georgia.
(WASHINGTON) — Control of the Senate will no longer hinge on Georgia.
Nevada incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt, giving Democrats at least 50 seats and control of the upper chamber.
Now, the results of Georgia’s runoff election between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will determine whether Democrats have a one-seat cushion in the Senate — which would ease Democrats’ control of committees and processes like confirming judges that currently require extra steps to overcome the 50-50 split — or if it’ll be another term of relying on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
Both sides of the aisle agree that Georgia’s Senate runoff still remains important even if the majority no longer hangs in the balance.
“Congratulations to my colleagues, but our message is the same,” Warnock said at campaign stop on Sunday.
“This election is about who’s ready and who’s fit to serve the people of Georgia in the United States Senate. It’s a race about competence and about character and on both of those scores, there’s a world of difference between me and Herschel Walker,” he said. “And so I look forward to prosecuting that case over the next few weeks.”
At a campaign stop in Peachtree City on Sunday, Walker made no mention of the balance of the Senate, focusing squarely on his battle against Warnock and his personal choice to launch a campaign.
“The Lord prepared me to get in his way right now because as I started looking, I said that I’m not — I wasn’t supposed to be running on no politics. You think that I wanted to be a senator? Guys, I was doing OK,” he said. “I was doing alright but I said ‘no, no, no, no, you’re not gonna hurt my family.’ And all of you are my family I don’t care what color your skin is.”
Democrats celebrated their victories over the weekend even though many quickly shifted back to emphasizing Georgia’s runoff, highlighting the party’s legislative struggles this term with a split chamber.
Should Warnock win reelection, it would offer Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., flexibility in the moments that he loses the votes of either Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., or Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., two centrists who have at times disrupted Democrats’ agenda in the upper chamber. And with a full-fledged majority, rather than a 50-50 split, Democrats would be able to move beyond equally balanced committees and take control of major panels, smoothing the party’s path to passing legislation and acting on President Joe Biden’s nominees.
“We will still have a Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin problem. And if Democrats want to continue on our winning streak, we must deliver for Americans — all Americans. We need Sen. Warnock in the senate,” said Hillary Holley, executive director of Care in Action, a nonpartisan group advocating for domestic workers.
Republicans, meanwhile, are working to highlight how a divided Congress has at times worked to their advantage. Walker would only boost that advantage, they said.
“There are senators who have, in certain instances, voted with the GOP on key pieces of legislation. With a victory for Herschel Walker, it takes away that extra vote cushion from the Democrats and makes consensus building and compromise more likely,” Republican strategist Julianne Thompson said.
Warnock, Walker’s runoff campaigns take shape
Operatives are also cautioning voters not be complacent, reminding them of what happened last time Georgia’s Senate race went into a runoff, in 2021 — after the GOP candidates won in the first round — and Republican voters were apathetic, leading to two flips.
“While the majority of the Senate is no longer in question, Georgia Republicans are still salty from losing the two U.S. Senate seats in 2021 and want to regain the seat,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a former chief of staff to Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Heading into another runoff, Warnock’s campaign manager Quentin Fulks said the senator will continue to grow his coalition of support, touting Warnock’s performance in urban and suburban counties where he performed better than Biden did in 2020.
“Reverend Warnock will win the runoff by continuing the strategic investments in paid communication and field organizing, continuing to hold the diverse coalition that has driven Reverend Warnock’s success, and emphasizing that this race is about who is able to represent our state,” Fulks said.
Warnock, on the campaign trail, has distanced himself from the national party, trying to emphasize bipartisanship instead. He often dodges questions about a possible Biden 2024 run, talks about working with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in his stump speeches and only appeared with a couple of surrogates on the campaign trail, mainly his Georgia counterpart Sen. Jon Ossoff.
On the other hand, Walker has garnered support from multiple leading Republican senators who have sought to make the case for a Republican majority, arguing that the road led through Georgia.
Though now unable to frame the election as a fight to retake control of the Senate, Walker will now have to focus on why he is the better person to represent Georgia as his personal history remains at center stage.
“He definitely needs to focus on exactly what he’s going to do if he gets elected. Instead of knocking the opponent, bringing any kind of campaign like that, focus on exactly what his plan is, what his policies would be so people can know what he would do,” Melissa, a Georgia voter who supports Walker, told ABC News when asked how he could appeal to apprehensive Georgians.
Walker will also need to improve his performance in rural and urban communities. In last week’s midterms, he underperformed compared to the rest of the Republican statewide ticket, drawing 200,000 fewer votes than Gov. Brian Kemp, according to the secretary of state’s election results.
Kemp, who won reelection over Democrat Stacey Abrams, is lending his support to Walker’s runoff bid. Kemp’s ground data and analytics operation — including paid door knocking, phones, modeling, absentee ballot program, and tracking — will partner with the Mitch McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), which will fund the operation at a level of “over two million dollars,” SLF spox Jack Pandol told ABC News.
Though runoffs have become a well-known scenario for Georgia, candidates and voters will have to navigate new rules, questions around voter apathy and a political environment that could already be looking ahead to 2024.
New voting rules add a wrinkle
Both candidates kicked off their runoff campaigns on Thursday, hoping to sustain an energized base.
Standing in front of the John Lewis Mural, Warnock continued to frame his battle against Walker as one centered more around morality rather than policy.
“This is not a race about Democrat and Republican. It’s not a race of right versus the left. Fundamentally, this is a race about right and wrong. Who’s right for Georgia and who’s clearly wrong for Georgia,” he said.
“And when it comes to that, the choice could not be more clear between me and Herschel Walker. Some things in life are complicated. This ain’t one of them,” he said.
Walker started his runoff campaign before a crowd of thousands in Canton, where he was joined by Texas Sen. Cruz. He invoked his famed college and professional football career.
“We’re in overtime, that means we got a runoff. Hey, I was built for this,” he said to cheers. “He hung around and got into this runoff and he’s thinking he’s gonna win. We need to prove him wrong.”
Both candidates will have to make the case to their base to turnout despite Senate control being decided, battling the Thanksgiving holiday in the middle of the runoff cycle. Warnock will also have to split his time between campaigning on the trail in Georgia and fulfilling his duties in Washington.
New voters won’t be able to vote in the runoff; they must have registered by Nov. 7.
In 2020, thousands of voters were able to register for the runoff after the general election, leading to a surge in voters who didn’t vote in November but turned out for Democrats the following January. (State Republicans subsequently changed the rules for runoff elections, including by shortening the window when one is scheduled after a general election.)
Walker already stumbled on the voting rules while speaking with voters Sunday.
“I want you to go out and — because you can only vote if you voted in the last time, that’s what they told me. So I want you, if you voted last time, go vote for me again,” Walker said.
The shorter early voting period became even shorter due to the holidays as voters also won’t be able to cast their ballots on the last Saturday of the month. Georgia state law bars early voting within two days of a holiday, and Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday this year.
Warnock and Democratic party officials have now sued to try and require that Saturday of early voting, arguing that the rule about the holiday cutoff doesn’t apply to runoffs.
Counties may choose to have early voting the Sunday after Thanksgiving and potentially the Tuesday and Wednesday before if preparations are completed by then.
In 2020, when Democrats secured two major victories in the state and flipped control of the U.S. Senate, candidates were forced into a nine-week runoff cycle; however, under Georgia’s new voting law, this election will be held four weeks after Election Day on Dec. 6.
“Well there’s no question that they looked at our victory the last time in the runoff, and sought to make it harder. But the people of Georgia pushed through those barriers during the general election. I’m calling on them to do the same thing again,” Warnock told reporters Sunday.
Former President Donald Trump also looms large over the runoff after some Republicans notably blamed his vociferous claims of election fraud in 2020 for a depressed GOP base that cost the GOP two Georgia Senate seats in 2021 runoffs.
Now, Trump is expected to launch a third presidential campaign Tuesday evening, more deeply inserting himself into the national conversation shortly before Georgia voters head to the polls for a second time and sparking handwringing even among allies and voters.
“You know, I’d rather see DeSantis at this point. I love Trump. I appreciate him. But I’ve got some mixed feelings about him coming in. I definitely would prefer that he wait to announce until this until this election is over,” Steve Bolen, a Walker supporter, told ABC News. “I think that would take away attention. We got to put all of our focus on getting Herschel elected.”
Given comments like that, Republican allies and critics alike are suggesting a presidential campaign launch could impede efforts to defeat Warnock.
“Of course, President Trump had said he’d be making an announcement on Nov. 15, next Tuesday. I’m advising the president to hold off until after the Georgia race,” Jason Miller, a former adviser on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, said on Newsmax. “Priorities A, B and C need to be about Herschel [Walker] right now.”
“[I]f Pres. Trump announces his run next week, Sen. Warnock raises twice as much money for the Georgia runoff,” tweeted Michael Caputo, a former Trump administration official.
Still, runoffs are historically unpredictable, and Democrats say with such a narrow window to organize before Dec. 6, anything can happen.
Democrats who worked on the 2021 runoffs said the fact that Senate control is already decided could depress turnout on both sides, possibly exacerbating an already anticipated dropoff in turnout.
“If we’re in a world where we already have control of the Senate and this is just icing on the cake, I think that you have to question, is that going to be enough of a motivating factor to get Democrats back out to vote on Dec. 6? I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion to assume that they would,” one senior adviser on Warnock’s 2020 campaign said in an interview before Nevada’s Senate race was called, adding that losing the Senate could be an “energizer” for Republicans.
“I’d say this one is even more unpredictable than the last one,” said a second Democrat who worked on the 2021 runoffs. “A shorter [early vote] period is a challenge for Dems especially. Warnock will need a massive turnout and education game to make sure people vote that week.”
