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(PHILADELPHIA) — Pennsylvania’s staking its claim as center of the political universe this weekend as presidents past and present campaign for their candidates ahead of midterms Election Day.
President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama teamed up Saturday to stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro and Senate candidate John Fetterman in Philadelphia.
“This crowd is so loud I think they can hear us in Latrobe,” Biden said in his opening remarks, taking a swing at former President Donald Trump’s rally there later Saturday night. “They’re going to hear us on Tuesday.”
“The power to shape that outcome is in your hands,” Biden said. “Two years ago, you used your power not only to make Trump a former president, but a defeated president.”
Trump held a rally at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, calling them both “great people.”
“You’re going to elect the incredible slate of true America-first Republicans up and down the ballot,” Trump said. On the Biden and Obama event at Temple University, Trump said, “I heard they had a little rally.”
“They don’t call it the Keystone State for nothing,” said David Dix, a Philadelphia-based political strategist who has worked on Republican and Democratic campaigns, about the 11th-hour attention from both sides. “Once again, Pennsylvania is the political epicenter of the country and the balance of the House and Senate weigh from here on Tuesday.”
“It’s just another indicator that we are a deep purple state that makes up our mind late and oftentimes does split the ticket among Democrats and Republicans,” Dix added.
Pennsylvania’s marquee Senate race could determine which party wins control of the chamber. Republicans need to gain just one seat to become the majority, as Democrats currently control the 50-50 Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tie-breaker.
“That race has been on the razor’s edge for a long time,” said Christopher Nicholas, a longtime Republican strategist in Pennsylvania.
The margin between Fetterman and Oz is getting tighter by the day, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, with the two candidates separated by just 0.4 percentage points.
“There’s no quit in John Fetterman,” Biden said Saturday. “There’s no quit in Pennsylvania. There’s no quit in America, we just have to remember who we are, we are the United States of America.”
Biden also took a shot at Oz, who was criticized for living in New Jersey until late 2020: “I’ve lived in Pennsylvania longer than Oz has lived in Pennsylvania, and I moved when I was 10 years old,” Biden said.
In a message to voters on Saturday, Fetterman pitched himself as a lifelong public servant while accusing Oz of trying to “use” Pennsylvania and attempting to buy the seat.
Oz, in a closing pitch at a rally in Elizabethtown earlier this week, described himself as an agent of change and encouraged attendees to tell neighbors about his message on the economy, crime and the border.
“There are three topics that I have spent my campaign dwelling on,” he said. “They are the kitchen table issues that every family in Pennsylvania has talked about.”
The gubernatorial race between Shapiro and Mastriano is another contentious race, and one of the biggest tests of Trump’s election denialism on the ballot this cycle.
Mastriano, a Republican state legislator, attended Trump’s Jan. 6 rally just before the Capitol attack and has continued to spread the former president’s lies about the 2020 election results.
FiveThirtyEight’s polling average shows Mastriano behind in the race by roughly 10 percentage points.
Biden’s campaigned heavily in Pennsylvania this year, and in this final stop in Philadelphia he and Obama aimed to boost Democratic enthusiasm in a key area of the state. Obama, citing his own midterm losses in 2010, told rally-goers to make sure their friends vote.
“Democrats view it as crucial to get as high a turnout as possible in the city, especially among the Black community” said Nicholas. “That’s always the target for them.”
Biden’s success in the Democratic strongholds Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and their neighboring suburbs, ultimately led to his win there in 2020 over Trump.
Trump last visited Pennsylvania in September, when he held a rally for Oz and Mastriano in Wilkes-Barre. The stakes are high for the former president, who is laying the groundwork for a 2024 campaign and could make an announcement as soon as the week of Nov. 14, according to sources.
“Latrobe is essentially the epicenter of Republican turnout,” Dix said, noting nearby Allegheny County probably has more registered Republicans “than anywhere else in the state.”
“I certainly understand the strategy and why the former president decided to rally there,” Dix said.
– ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — A white tent looms over the grounds of the Uvalde County Fairplex, a sparse multipurpose venue that previously hosted rodeos, quinceañeras and the annual firemen’s ball, now home to Texas’s newest trauma center and Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest self-declared success.
The Uvalde Together Resiliency Center was created in response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School, which left 19 children and two adults dead. The Republican governor authorized $5 million for its construction the same week, the symbolic centerpiece of his administration’s response to longstanding mental health care failings locally and statewide.
In the wake of the massacre, Abbott has repeatedly insisted the mass shooting – one of 574 across the country so far in 2022 and one of 42 in Texas alone – was not a symptom of the country’s (and his state’s) obsession with guns but rather the result of the country’s (and his state’s) failure to adequately invest in mental health care.
“We as a state, we as a society need to do a better job with mental health,” Abbott said in a news conference days after the shooting. “Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and to do something about it.”
Since then, Abbott, who is currently running for reelection, has appeared to make access to mental health care a political priority.
In response to questions from ABC News, his office pointed to Uvalde Resiliency as “a hub for community services … being run by the Uvalde community.” They pointed to a $105 million investment “to make schools safer and support the mental health of children, teachers, and families in Uvalde and across Texas.” And they claimed that his administration spent billions on mental health care services during his governorship.
“Throughout his time in office,” an administration spokesperson told ABC News, “Governor Abbott has worked closely with the Texas Legislature to appropriate over $25 billion to address mental and behavioral health issues and pass a variety of bills expanding access to mental health services.”
‘Lack of cooperation’
But local leaders and mental health care professionals told ABC News that the work of Uvalde Resiliency has been hampered by a lack of cooperation with existing institutions with established relationships in the community. And an ABC News review found that only a small fraction of the money touted by the governor’s office has actually gone to fund state mental health care programs.
Experts say the patchwork mental health care system leaves millions of rural Texans without access to medical care and that “stopgap” funding won’t fix the systemic issues plaguing the Lonestar State.
Immediately after the shooting, Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee applied for and received $5 million from the state-funded Texas Crime Victims Assistance Grant Program to build and run the Uvalde Together Resiliency Center.
Soon after, Abbott also allocated $1.25 million to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District to provide trauma-informed counseling to students and $5 million to the Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Center, an existing mental health care facility in the Uvalde area that, at the time of the tragedy, had a staff of just 13 people.
Taken together, the money represented an unprecedented investment in access to mental health care for the Uvalde community, but Busbee soon learned that it was hardly enough to address the complex challenge its citizens faced.
“Five million dollars sounds like a lot of money,” Busbee told ABC News, “but once you start trying to assist these agencies with recruiting counselors to come to Uvalde, you want to be able to pay them a decent salary to come here and plant roots in our community, it does not go very far.”
The center, with help from various partnering organizations, has offered a menu of services to the grieving town and its citizens, including “psychological first aid, crisis counseling, and behavioral health services for survivors, first responders, and those in the community experiencing vicarious trauma.”
According to the Resiliency Center’s interim executive director Mary Beth Fisk, the center has so far provided over 3,800 contacts in the community, with over 1,900 clinical visits serving more than 700 individuals.
“We have organizations that are bringing mental and behavioral health counseling and subspecialties,” Fisk told ABC News, “to include really intensive trauma therapies that are readily available at no cost to all community members.”
But Fisk did not respond to questions about whether these numbers include the pre-existing clients of the resiliency center’s private practice partners, and some community members say they won’t seek care at the center because of a longstanding distrust of their state government.
“It’s run by our state government, which they couldn’t give a s— less,” Brett Cross, guardian to 10-year-old victim Uziyah Garcia, told ABC News. “Everybody in this town has profited off our kids’ deaths. The resiliency center’s a joke and it’s been that way since day one.”
Local practitioners say they have received negative feedback from community members regarding the quality of care, the therapeutic environment, and the long wait times at the center, all exacerbated by cultural taboos stigmatizing mental health care and poor insurance coverage in the largely Latino community.
Jaclyn Gonzalez, a licensed professional counselor who has practiced in Uvalde since 2015, told ABC News the center’s leadership failed to seek advice and cooperation from local providers in Uvalde’s established mental health care network who could have shed light on the community’s unique needs.
“I think that was the hardest thing for me was that they wouldn’t allow me to help,” Gonzalez told ABC News. “Day one, they’re like, ‘We’ve got it covered. We don’t need anybody.'”
Alejandra Castro, director of rural services at Family Service Association, a Texas-based human service organization which has assisted the community for 22 years, says she was also turned away by the center’s leaders.
“I had hoped that being here in the community, the outsiders would want to partner with us and say, ‘How can we best support the community that you have been in, like your community for the last 20 something years?'” Castro told ABC News. “And it was the total opposite of that, unfortunately.”
When asked about frustrations some members of the Uvalde community have expressed about accessing various resources, Fisk defended the work of the Resiliency Center, emphasizing how quickly the center took over the role of its predecessor, the Family Assistance Center, to provide mental and behavioral health services, as well as the role it has served as a lending hand for victims and survivors seeking financial aid.
“I think we’ve been blessed to be able to bring a collective resources together along with other community partners that are willing to work with one another,” Fisk said. “We all have a common goal, and that is to walk alongside this journey of healing when so many of this community are currently finding themselves in a place of true despair.”
Fisk did not respond to requests for a follow-up interview about the work of the Resiliency Center.
At the state level, experts described a similar landscape regarding mental health care access.
Millions spent after Uvalde massacre
Abbott’s oft-cited $105.5M spending response to the mass shooting includes $5.8 million to fund the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine, $4.7 million for the Health and Human Services Commission to include multi-system therapy across the state and $950,000 to the HHSC to expand Coordinate Specialty Care, directives that have been widely celebrated by health care experts.
But it comes after a $210 million cut to the HHSC, which oversees mental health services in the state, over the past two years in order to finance Operation Lonestar, the border security initiative launched in March of 2021.
“Mental health stakeholders have seen positive improvement over the past few years,” Boleware said. “But we were already at such a deficit in our state that a lot more is needed to catch up.”
And a closer look at the governor’s published breakdown of the budget shows that only $16.5 million out of the $105.5 million — about 15% of the total that the Abbott administration has touted — went to expand statewide mental health resources, while the other 85% has been allocated toward police training, personnel travel, and security upgrades for classrooms, including $50 million for bullet-resistant shields.
During the only Texas gubernatorial debate in September, Abbott brought up a perplexing figure—$25 billion in mental health care spending—in response to the Uvalde shooting.
Several experts, Alison Mohr Boleware, Director of Policy at the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, a research and grantmaking institute out of the University of Texas at Austin, told ABC News they were unsure how the governor could have arrived at such a figure.
“I had never heard that before,” Boleware said of the governor’s accounting.
The governor’s office did not respond to ABC News’ request for information about this claim.
The most likely source for this figure is a $25 billion Medicaid expansion grant in 2017—$15 billion of which was federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services—a program established by the Obama administration and which Gov. Abbott actively fought against.
But this funding, known as the Texas Healthcare Transformation and Quality Improvement Program, went to expand statewide Medicaid under the 1115 Medicaid waiver authority and cannot be accurately described as funding for mental health services, considering that only 1 in 5 Texas psychiatrists accept Medicaid patients.
Boleware went on to say that even with proper funding, not all issues can be addressed by spending increases.
“There’s a big difference between mental health spending and mental health access,” Boleware said.”We’re a huge state and we may be spending a lot on mental health, but that doesn’t mean access is the same in every community.”
Some of the systemic issues troubling mental health care access include a worsening workforce shortage and lingering cultural stigmas surrounding mental health care.
Dr. Andy Keller, a licensed psychologist who sits on the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium and is president and chief executive officer of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, called the governor’s statewide spending plan in response to the Uvalde shooting a hurried “stopgap.”
“This is a really complicated issue,” Keller said, “and when the legislature and the governor and the lieutenant governor were trying to come up with a plan … I don’t think this really sunk in, how important this was.”
(WASHINGTON) — With just two days until the midterm elections, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin believes that voters will send a “wake-up call” to President Joe Biden, electing Republicans to regain full control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Youngkin was responding to ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, who asked him in an exclusive interview: “First order of business, if Republicans take over the House and Senate, how do they work with President Biden?”
“I think the statement on Tuesday is going to be pretty clear. And I think there will be a larger majority in the House than people may have thought a few months ago,” Youngkin answered, adding that he predicts there will be a clear majority in the Senate as well.
“I hope that President Biden sees what Americans are going to say to him on Tuesday, which is ‘we’re not happy’ and we need a different agenda.”
Youngkin has been out on the campaign trail alongside several Republicans running in gubernatorial, House and Senate races.
Back in October, Youngkin made several stops in the swing state of Arizona, most notably to stump for far-right gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
“Kari Lake talks a heck of a lot about the 2020 election, falsely saying it was rigged, stolen,” Karl said to Youngkin in the interview, asking, “You don’t agree with that, do you?”
“I’ve said that President Biden is our president. He was elected our president,” Youngkin answered. When Karl followed up asking if Biden’s win was legitimate, Youngkin said it was, but shifted to pointing out that the president has “done a bad job.”
Since President Biden took office, various GOP elected officials have publicly called for his impeachment, introducing more than a dozen resolutions against him and members of his cabinet. As Karl raised the possibility of impeachment, asking if it would be a mistake to do so, Youngkin said he believes strongly “that our democracy’s better when our Congress exercises its oversight functions.”
Karl pressed for an answer, asking if he felt an impeachment of Biden was what voters have in mind. “Because I’ve been hearing that a lot,” he said.
Refusing to speculate on what kind of action fellow members of his party would take, Youngkin argued that he was a governor, not a member of Congress, with a duty to “deliver for Virginians.”
“But what Republican governors have demonstrated is they have led so much better coming out of this pandemic,” Youngkin stated. “Economic recovery, safe communities, delivering in schools, and as I’ve said, I think every state deserves a Republican governor.”
The latest forecasts from FiveThirtyEight show that of the 36 governorships up for election Nov. 8, the Republican candidate is favored in over half of those races. Republicans also have a good chance of picking up Nevada and Wisconsin, two major battleground states, and also Oregon, which hasn’t elected a GOP governor since 1982.
About half of Americans said in the most recent ABC News/Ipsos poll that either the economy or inflation is the most important issue in their vote for Congress. Nearly three out of four Republicans point to the two economic concerns as a priority, while only 29% of Democrats say the same, per the poll.
Karl asked for his thoughts on a potential re-election bid from Donald Trump as advisers close to the former president have signaled that he may be preparing to run again.
“The only timeline that anybody should be focusing on right now is the one that leads through November 8th,” Youngkin replied, adding that he is “not supporting anybody” at this time.
He also declined to indicate if he will mount a presidential bid of his own.
“This is a November 8th moment. And the reality is, folks that are talking about things beyond November 8th I think are missing the priority of today’s moment,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said his party faces a difficult election on Tuesday amid stiff headwinds over the economy but insisted he still sees a “pathway” for Democrats to at least keep control of the Senate.
Booker noted to “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that the party in the White House typically loses seats in midterm elections but noted there are still Senate pickup opportunities for Democrats in places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
“Even though our economy is tough, people think about it and say, ‘wait a minute, this is the party trying to protect unions. This is the party that made sure we did things to lower prescription drug costs and lower health care costs. That this is the party at the end of the day that’s trying to protect fundamental freedoms like the right to control your own body,'” he said.
“So, I think that this is a tough election season. It’s a midterm election, but I still see a pathway for us to maintain control of the Senate.”
Democrats earlier this summer were favored to keep control of the Senate amid an uproar over the scrapping of constitutional protections for abortion and lower gas prices, but as the calendar turns closer to Election Day, the party has been rebuffed by stubbornly high inflation and an avalanche of attack ads over crime.
While the FiveThirtyEight Senate prediction model showed Democrats as more likely to win the Senate than Republicans, the forecast as it stands Sunday shows the GOP with a 55% chance of flipping the chamber, which is currently split 50-50.
Still, Booker predicted that voters would punish Republicans at the ballot box this Tuesday over ties to election deniers and backlash over last year’s insurrection.
“There’s a lot on the line. And we have to remember, after what we saw on January 6, Republican or Democrat, we should be electing people that believe in our democracy, that believe in our tradition, and ultimately want to unite people and not divide them,” he said.
Raddatz pressed Booker on whether Democrats have a focused enough economic message heading into Election Day, asking “did Democrats miscalculate just how important this issue is?”
“I’ve heard people show receipts of what we’ve accomplished in terms of helping to lower costs,” Booker said. “We were one vote shy … of the biggest middle class tax cut, one vote shy protecting fundamental rights. The individual people I see out there campaigning are speaking towards the pocketbooks of this country and reminding people about what Donald Trump’s agenda was when he had the reins, not just economic policies that favor the rich, but also things that undermine our very fundamental beliefs as a democracy.”
(NEW YORK) — When Nissan launched the all-new, seventh-generation Z sports car, company executives had a specific requirement: a manual transmission.
“In the more than 50 years of Nissan Z, we’ve never offered a Z without a manual transmission,” Brian Hoekstra, chief marketing manager of Z, told ABC News. “We recognize that for many Z and sports car enthusiasts, there is simply no alternative to a manual transmission.”
The coupe, which went on sale last summer, comes with a 3.0-liter V6 twin turbo engine that delivers 400 horsepower at 6,400 rpm and 350 lb-ft of torque. Drivers have a choice of a six-speed manual transmission or a nine-speed automatic. Hoekstra said sales are equally split between the manual and automatic, with younger owners preferring the “nostalgic experience” of three pedals.
“The manual transmission offers that classic sports car experience — it’s the ultimate driver-car connection, where you really feel like a part of the vehicle and can control it in ways you wouldn’t be able to with an automatic,” he said. “As long as there are still new internal combustion engine vehicles on the market, there will be an interest in manual transmissions.”
The car community has been decrying the death of the manual transmission for nearly two decades, said Henry Catchpole, a longtime automotive journalist who now hosts videos for Hagerty. As more automakers allocate resources to building electric vehicles, drivers are choosing engagement over pure performance, he argued.
“People are reassessing what they want and are going back to analog cars. It’s a big story in the industry,” he told ABC News. “There’s a shift in terms of how we look at performance cars. We don’t wax lyrical about paddle shifters as we do about manual gearboxes. Drivers are enjoying the manual again.”
Electric vehicles like the Porsche Taycan, Audi RS e-tron GT and Tesla Model S Plaid post performance numbers that few traditional supercars and sports cars can match. Straight-line acceleration and 0-60 mph times, however, may not matter to every motorist, said Bob Sorokanich, editor-in-chief of Jalopnik.
“Tesla has the quickest car on the market — just floor the accelerator and hang on,” he told ABC News. “It doesn’t take any driver skill.”
Automakers like Nissan, Toyota, Porsche and Honda are continuing to extol the manual transmission, he said, a “last hurrah” before the industry completely goes electric.
“It’s inevitable EVs are going to take over and people are getting misty-eyed that the manual won’t be around forever,” he said. “That’s why people are flocking to these specialty cars. Young people are interested in the opportunity to experience them as internal combustion engines come to a close.”
When Toyota released the Supra sports car in 2020, enthusiasts had one objection: there was no manual gearbox. The automaker listened and decided to offer the 2023 GR Supra with a newly developed six-speed manual transmission that was engineered and tuned specifically for the coupe’s straight-six engine. At least 25% of GR Supra sales are expected to be the manual, a company spokesperson said.
Then, to much acclaim, Toyota revealed the GR Corolla, a lightweight, vivacious hot hatch that meets every enthusiast’s requirements. It’s also built exclusively with a manual. Sorokanich expects Toyota to sell every one.
“The GR Corolla is meant for engagement,” he said.
Lindsay Lee, a senior manager in vehicle marketing and communications for Toyota, said demand has been unprecedented for the GR Corolla.
“There is excitement in the market for a vehicle of this size with this amount of performance,” she told ABC News.
Porsche takes driver engagement so seriously that it offers 25 models with a manual transmission at no cost. Certain 911 models, like the Carrera T and GT3 with Touring Package, come standard with a manual gearbox.
“We see the highest degree of interest in manual transmissions on particularly enthusiast-focused variants such as the 718 Cayman/Boxster T, 718 Cayman GT4 and 718 Spyder or 911 GT3, where the manual take rate in the U.S. can reach 50% or more,” a Porsche spokesperson told ABC News. “We aim to offer the manual transmission as a choice as long as regulations permit.”
Stephanie Brinley, an associate director at S&P Global Mobility, said recent market conditions have dictated what automakers build, leading to less investment in manual transmission technology.
“Automakers are faced with difficult choices and manuals are things that have been sacrificed in the last two years,” she told ABC News.
Pleasing a dedicated group of owners who are willing to pay above MSRP for a niche product can, however, outweigh the costs, she noted.
“It’s a niche space but sometimes customer loyalty is a reason to keep it going,” she said. “EVs are here and growing. They do have a different feel and level of engagement. For people who want that manual transmission connection, now is the time to grab one before they go away.”
BMW’s head of M products confirmed that the German automaker would keep manuals around until the end of the decade. The S58 engine in the company’s new M2 coupe can be paired with either a six-speed manual gearbox or a dynamic eight-speed M Steptronic transmission.
At the unveiling of the seventh-generation Ford Mustang in September, company executives touted the Blue Oval’s commitment to the clutch pedal.
“Ford has saved the manual transmission for a new generation and the 5.0-liter V8 continues to offer a standard six-speed manual transmission for customers who want an uncompromised connection to eight-cylinder power,” according to a company press release.
The Dearborn automaker has also seen sizable interest among manual buyers in its Ford Bronco 4X4, with the take rate topping 20%, according to Brinley.
Honda’s latest Type R hatch is visually different from its predecessor, with an aggressive front bumper design, lower stance and a redesigned rear spoiler. What hasn’t changed? A manual transmission. Honda’s Civic Si, like the Type R, has been manual-only since its inception and the company sees “consistent interest from enthusiasts who want the engaging driving experience that can only be had by shifting your own gears,” according to a spokesperson. When Honda’s Acura brand premiered the fifth-generation Integra in March, enthusiasts lauded the return of the manual.
“At launch, nearly 70% of the Integra preorders were for the manual transmission,” the spokesperson said. “Since then, the mix rate has leveled out, but we’re still seeing high demand for the manual transmission, more than enough to justify its development.”
Catchpole said the unrelenting pressure on automakers to keep the manual alive has benefited an industry that’s rapidly closing the door on gas-powered vehicles.
“Some people see manuals as a chore but they’re not. They bring more color to life,” he said. “Porsche listened to enthusiasts and brought back the manual in the GT3. I hope other manufacturers will listen too.”
(NEW YORK) — With Election Day around the corner, some national Jewish advocacy organizations are calling on the Republican Party to take a harder line on condemning antisemitism from several GOP candidates or their supporters.
Their calls come on the heels of several high-profile controversies over remarks made by celebrities and political candidates vying to win their midterm races.
Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, for example, has made headlines with his statements about his Jewish opponent, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
He accused Shapiro in September of having “disdain for people like us,” because Shapiro attended and sent his children to a “privileged, exclusive, elite” Jewish institution. His comments have been widely condemned as evoking common antisemitic tropes.
At a campaign event last month, Mastriano doubled down on his statements.
“Apparently now it’s some kind of racist thing if I talk about the school,” he said reiterating that “it’s a very expensive, elite school.”
Mastriano’s campaign did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Ohio GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance has also been accused of echoing antisemitic tropes after suggesting in January that if Ohio prohibited abortion, “then every day, George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California.”
“Hopefully we get to a point where Ohio bans abortion and California and the Soroses of the world respect it,” he continued.
The Anti-Defamation League has reported that references to Soros — a Hungarian Jewish billionaire, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor known for funding progressive causes — have become a right-wing dog whistle for conspiracy theories about wealthy Jewish people controlling and manipulating societies to further their own interests.
Vance’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
GOP party leaders have strongly condemned antisemitism in several cases.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who attended the America First Political Action Conference in March, run by Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist, saying, “There’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or antisemitism.”
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has also previously spoken out against antisemitism, stating that “white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech and bigotry are disgusting and do not have a home in the Republican Party.”
Politicians need to respond like businesses to antisemitism, some say
But some Jewish organization leaders say statements are not enough.
Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, said candidates must also face material repercussions for their comments, arguing the party should go as far as cutting off their support and funding.
“They need to make sure that these [candidates] are not accepted and not given good assignments, are not supported financially,” Rosen told ABC News.
As a model, he cited the example of Adidas severing ties with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, after he made a slew of incendiary comments attacking Jewish people in recent weeks, including a tweet threatening he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
“We’ve learned that when a powerful force like the business community comes out and stops doing business with you and boycotts your lines, that does have an impact,” Rosen said.
Jacob Isaacson, the American Jewish Committee’s chief policy and political affairs officer, said the party and its candidates also have a responsibility to repudiate supporters and associates who have expressed antisemitic sentiments.
Mastriano came under fire after paying $5,000 for campaign consulting to the far-right site Gab — where a man allegedly made antisemitic posts before killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Gab chief executive Andrew Torba said both he and Mastriano have a policy of speaking only to Christian journalists, the Jerusalem Post reported.
After significant public pressure, Mastriano put out a statement saying Torba does not “speak for me or my campaign” and that “I reject antisemitism in any form.” But in July, Mastriano still accepted a $500 donation from Torba, according to a September campaign finance report.
In Georgia, Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has also faced criticism for not publicly refusing a show of support from Ye on Instagram.
“What I would like to see is the rejection of endorsement from blatant antisemites and that needs to be kind of a universal principle,” Isaacson told ABC News.
Walker’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Economic uncertainty, culture wars give rise to antisemitic conspiracies
With the issue of inflation driving many voters this midterm election, several Jewish organization leaders said Americans’ economic anxieties have also provided a platform for antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the scapegoating of Jewish people has historically peaked during periods of economic stress, such as the country’s current “recessionary environment.”
“When systems fail, when markets fail, when policy fails, people look for someone to blame,” he told ABC News.
For example, the ADL reported a spike in antisemitic internet activity during the Great Recession in 2008, including articles and posts blaming Jewish people for the financial crisis.
Some candidates have also used antisemitic tropes to appeal to voters’ concerns about ongoing culture wars over abortion, critical race theory and LGBTQ rights, for example.
Arizona GOP House candidate Eli Crane has said repeatedly that he would fight critical race theory, alleging its roots in “Cultural Marxism,” which has been described as a baseless conspiracy theory with antisemitic origins.
Crane’s campaign did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Antisemitism reaches all-time high in U.S.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said the alleged normalization and amplification of antisemitic rhetoric within the Republican Party has emboldened its supporters, including white supremacist and right-wing extremist groups, to perpetrate violence against Jewish people.
The ADL reported that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached an all-time high in the U.S. in 2021.
Soifer said the upsurge of white nationalism during the Trump administration remains a problem in the midterms.
“We saw this during Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2016, throughout his presidency, and in 2020, when he echoed antisemitic conspiracy theory and other hateful views shared by white supremacists and refused to condemn white supremacy,” Soifer told ABC News. “Now it has proliferated, and it is viewed as accepted among candidates, and some of them may even get elected in a week.”
As recently as last month, Trump shared a post on his Truth social media platform telling American Jews to “get their act together” by expressing more support for Israel.
Some Democratic candidates and lawmakers have also faced allegations of antisemitism, primarily for their comments criticizing Israel and promoting the boycott, divest, sanctions movement.
Responding to a request for comment, an RNC spokesperson referred ABC News to several of these statements — for example, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2012 tweet saying Israel “has hypnotized the world,” which was widely denounced as antisemitic.
Omar has since expressed regret for the comment but maintains it was directed at the country’s government and military action, not “people of a particular faith.”
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., have also been consistently criticized, often by Republicans, for their support of the BDS movement.
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 06, 1:57 PM EST
Biden, German chancellor call Russian nuclear threats ‘irresponsible’
President Joe Biden spoke to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday and both agreed Russia’s nuclear threats stemming the war in Ukraine are “irresponsible,” according to the White House.
Both leaders said they would continue to “provide Ukraine with the economic, humanitarian, and security support it needs to defend against Russia,” the White House said in a statement.
Biden and Scholz also spoke of the chancellor’s recent trip to the People’s Republic of China and, according to White House officials “affirmed their shared commitment to upholding the rules-based international order, human rights, and fair trade practices.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Nov 03, 12:02 PM EDT
Western officials believe Russia is planning ‘orderly, well-planned and deliberate’ military withdrawal from Kherson
Western officials are “confident” Russia’s military is “setting the conditions” for withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, the only regional capital that has been occupied by Russian forces since the February.
The Russian military is preparing to make a “strategic” withdrawal and move its forces east across the Dnipro river, officials said.
“It looks like an orderly, well-planned and deliberate military process is taking place,” a Western official told ABC News.
The officials would not put a timeframe on when the withdrawal would happen and added that it is not guaranteed to take place. They downplayed, however, any speculation that the Russians are using the withdrawal to mask a more “nefarious” action in that area.
The officials said their assessment was that the Russians believe Kherson “is not worth fighting for.”
The advance of Ukrainian forces in Kherson has slowed over the past three weeks.
In mid-October, the newly appointed commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, General Surovikin, said “difficult decisions” may be necessary in Kherson.
Senior Ukrainian officials have suggested more recently that Russian forces are preparing to fight for Kherson and a source on the ground told ABC News that the Russian military is still moving in and out of the city.
-ABC News’ Tom Burridge
Nov 02, 12:14 PM EDT
North Korea covertly shipping ammunition to Russia for war in Ukraine, US says
North Korea was secreting sending ammunition to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine and is disguising the shipments as appearing to be destined to the Middle East or North Africa, the White House said Wednesday.
“Our information indicates that [North Korea] is covertly supplying Russia’s war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they’re being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby said North Korea was sending “a significant number of artillery shells.” He did not specify an exact number but said it was more than “dozens.”
“But we don’t believe that they are in such a quantity that they would tangibly change the direction of this war or tangibly change the momentum either in the east or in the south” of Ukraine, he said.
Kirby added, “We’re gonna continue to monitor whether these shipments are received.”
In September, the U.S. had said Russia is looking to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, saying at the time that this indicated the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Nov 02, 12:01 PM EDT
Russia waives veiled threat on use of nuclear weapons
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning to nations with nuclear capabilities, calling on them to abandon attempts to infringe on each other’s vital interests, warning that direct armed conflict and provocations with weapons of mass destruction can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Russia claimed it believes there can be no winners of nuclear war and said it refarrims its commitment to the prevention of nuclear warm.
“A reaction with the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically allowed by Russia only in response to aggression using weapons of mass destruction or aggression using conventional weapons, when the existence of the state is threatened,” the ministry said in a statement.
The White House has said it will not confirm or deny New York Times reporting that senior Russian military officials had recently discussed when and how Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The intelligence about the conversations was reportedly circulated inside the U.S. government in mid-October.
But, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a part of these alleged conversations, according to the New York Times.
The White House on Wednesday said it still sees “no indications that Russia is making preparations” to use nuclear weapons.
-ABC News’ Natalia Shumskaia and Ben Gittleson
Nov 02, 12:14 PM EDT
North Korea covertly shipping ammunition to Russia for war in Ukraine, US says
North Korea was secretly sending ammunition to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine and is disguising the shipments as appearing to be destined to the Middle East or North Africa, the White House said Wednesday.
“Our information indicates that [North Korea] is covertly supplying Russia’s war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they’re being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby said North Korea was sending “a significant number of artillery shells.” He did not specify an exact number but said it was more than “dozens.”
“But we don’t believe that they are in such a quantity that they would tangibly change the direction of this war or tangibly change the momentum either in the east or in the south” of Ukraine, he said.
Kirby added, “We’re gonna continue to monitor whether these shipments are received.”
In September, the U.S. had said Russia is looking to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, saying at the time that this indicated the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine.
Nov 02, 12:01 PM EDT
Russia waives veiled threat on use of nuclear weapons
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning to nations with nuclear capabilities, calling on them to abandon attempts to infringe on each other’s vital interests, warning that direct armed conflict and provocations with weapons of mass destruction can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Russia claimed it believes there can be no winners of nuclear war and said it reaffirms its commitment to the prevention of nuclear warm.
“A reaction with the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically allowed by Russia only in response to aggression using weapons of mass destruction or aggression using conventional weapons, when the existence of the state is threatened,” the ministry said in a statement.
The White House has said it will not confirm or deny New York Times reporting that senior Russian military officials had recently discussed when and how Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The intelligence about the conversations was reportedly circulated inside the U.S. government in mid-October.
But, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a part of these alleged conversations, according to the New York Times.
The White House on Wednesday said it still sees “no indications that Russia is making preparations” to use nuclear weapons.
Nov 02, 8:40 AM EDT
Russia rejoins wartime deal on Ukrainian grain exports
Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that Russia has agreed to resume its participation in a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to keep grain and other commodities shipping out of Ukraine’s ports amid the ongoing war.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, that the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative would “continue in the same way as before” as of noon Wednesday, according to Erdogan.
The renewed agreement, first reached over the summer, will prioritize shipments to African countries, including drought-ravaged Somalia, after Russia expressed concerns that most of the grain was ending up in richer nations.
Moscow agreed to return to the deal after receiving written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not use the safe shipping corridors through the Black Sea for military actions against Russian forces, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russia had suspended its role in the deal over the weekend, after accusing Ukrainian forces of carrying out a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea fleet on Saturday.
Turkey and the U.N. brokered separate deals with Russia and Ukraine in July to allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and for Russia to export grain and fertilizers.
Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but a Russian blockade in the Black Sea combined with Ukrainian naval mines have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs virtually impossible. As a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Ukraine does not have effective defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles, air force official claims
Iranian ballistic missiles, which Russia plans to purchase from Iran, will probably be placed on the northern border of Ukraine, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces Yuri Ignat said Tuesday.
Ignat claimed the ballistic missiles’ range was 300 km for one and 700 km for another.
“We have no effective defense against these missiles. It is theoretically possible to shoot them down, but in fact it is very difficult to do it with the means we have at our disposal. We have air defense, not missile defense,” he said.
-ABC News’ Yulia Drozd
Nov 01, 3:01 PM EDT
Russia announces wider evacuation of occupied southern Ukraine
As Ukrainian forces advance to capture the city of Kherson, Russian forces are ordering civilians out of parts of the now-occupied city. Some 70,000 people along a 15 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of the left bank of the Dnipro River will be evacuated deeper into the Kherson region or to Russia, according to the Russian-installed leader of the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo.
Russia had previously ordered civilians out of an area it controls on the west bank of the river.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Oct 31, 7:07 PM EDT
Russia’s withdrawal from grain deal ‘collective punishment’ for world: State Department
State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday lambasted Russia’s recent decision to withdraw from the U.N.-brokered deal that allowed for grain to be exported through the Black Sea — likely to be a chief focus of this week’s G-7 ministerial meeting and potentially the G-20 Leaders’ Summit next month.
“We deeply regret Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is having immediate, harmful impacts on global food security,” Price said during a press briefing. “Russia should return to full participation in the initiative, and we urge all parties to swiftly agree to sustain this crucial program through the months to come.”
“Any disruption to the initiative risks spiking food prices, lowering the confidence of insurers and commercial shippers who have returned to Black Sea routes, and further imposing hardships on low-income countries already reeling from dire humanitarian crises and global food insecurity,” he added.
Price said Russia’s reneging had already caused future contracts for foodstuff to rise, even though some ships appear to have been allowed to pass through the water routes with their cargo following Moscow’s announcement.
“We’ve seen Russia engage in what appears to be collective punishment for the people of Ukraine,” he said. “But Moscow’s suspension of the initiative would be tantamount to collective punishment for the rest of the world — but especially lower- and middle-income countries that so desperately needed this grain.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 31, 3:32 PM EDT
Ukraine energy company warns about attacks on energy infrastructure
Following a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine this Monday morning, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK says it’s running out of equipment and spare parts needed for repairs of the damaged infrastructure facilities.
“Unfortunately, we have already used up the stock of equipment that we had in our warehouses after the first two waves of attacks that have been taking place since Oct. 10,” said DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk. “We were able to purchase some equipment. But unfortunately, the cost of the equipment is now measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Most parts have been already used for repairs following previous Russian strikes, he added.
Oct 31, 4:54 AM EDT
Russia launches waves of missiles at energy targets
Russia on Monday morning again launched a series of coordinated strikes across Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure, including in the Kyiv region.
Ukraine’s military said it shot down 44 cruise missiles as the Russians launched “several waves of missile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities” across the country.
About five distant booms could be heard in central Kyiv at about 8 a.m. local time.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed that a power plant has been hit, meaning mid-morning around 350,000 homes in the capital were left without power. Kyiv’s water supply has also been compromised, according to a water company.
A local official said “critical infrastructure” had also been hit in the Chernivtsi region in southwestern Ukraine.
Critical infrastructure has also been hit and damaged in Zaporizhzhia in the south, according to another local official.
Other regions of Ukraine appear to have been targeted, including Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Poltava and Lviv.
There are currently no reports of significant casualties.
ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Oct 30, 10:02 AM EDT
Blinken accuses Russia of ‘weaponizing food’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as a statement from the Kremlin that “people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry.”
Russia announced it is withdrawing from the U.N.-brokered grain deal in response to a drone attack Saturday in the waters of the Sevastopol Bay, in the Black Sea near Crimea.
Russia’s decision, Blinken said, is jeopardizing grain shipments he described as “life-saving.”
“In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting low- and middle-income countries and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity,” Blinken said in a statement released Saturday night.
He said 9 million metric tons of food has been shipped under the agreement, which was signed and launched in July. He said the shipments have reduced food prices around the world.
“We urge the Government of Russia to resume its participation in the Initiative, fully comply with the arrangement, and work to ensure that people around the world continue to be able to receive the benefits facilitated by the Initiative,” Blinken said.
Blinken’s statement echoed what President Joe Biden said earlier Saturday, calling Russia’s withdrawal from the initiative, “purely outrageous.”
“It’s going to increase starvation. There’s no reason for them to do that, but they’re always looking for some rationale to be able to say the reason they’re doing something outrageous is because the West made them do it. And it’s just not,” Biden said. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”
(NEW YORK) — The “fall back” from daylight saving is linked to an uptick in car accidents and poor mood, but doctors say careful attention to sleep hygiene and a gradual adjustment of your bedtime may help.
As clocks across America “fall back” an hour at 2 a.m. on Nov. 6, internal clocks may lag behind.
“Changes, even small ones, in your sleep can impact almost every area of your body from your skin to your cardiovascular system,” said Dr. Marri Horvat of the Cleveland Sleep Disorders Clinic.
Daylight saving time is less aligned with our natural circadian rhythm. The sun rises later and light lasts longer in the evening, but our bodies are more attuned to light in the mornings and darkness in the evenings. Each switch changes sleep patterns abruptly.
The good news, doctors say, is that the upcoming change from daylight saving to standard time is less harmful for your health than the spring switch, largely because you gain an hour of sleep. The bad news is that either switch can have negative impacts on your health.
Researchers estimate that the switch to and from daylight saving time contributes to thousands of car accidents and 300 deaths each year. Meanwhile, researchers who have studied the fall switch specifically say it’s linked with an 11% increase in depressive episodes. Interestingly, doctors report that while the spring switch was linked with a 24% increase in heart attacks the day after, the fall switch has been linked with a 21% decrease in heart attacks. The benefit may lie in the extra hour of sleep gained with the fall switch.
What can you do to get better sleep?
Sleep specialists say it’s a good idea to establish a nighttime routine leading up to and following the switch. Horvat recommends “making the shift slowly over several days” by “going to bed and waking up 10 to 15 minutes later each day.” Ideally, this routine would include a “winding down” period of at least an hour before bedtime when you stop screen time, turn down the thermostat (between 60-75 degrees), and do a relaxing activity. The greatest relaxation technique before bedtime is listening to soothing music.
Another tip is to exercise outdoors. Moderate intensity aerobic exercise during the day, as long as it’s at least two to four hours before bedtime, increases sleep quality and duration. Also, exercising outdoors is recommended since natural sunlight during the day can help with the switch.
According to doctors, avoiding caffeine and alcohol in the evenings can also help and it’s best to avoid snacks close to bedtime.
Although napping can’t replace a good night’s sleep, it can help supplement it. Even a five-minute nap shows improved attention and short-term memory.
“Healthy sleep begins with attitude and awareness,” said Dr. Emerson Wickwire, director of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “Set aside 7.5 or 8 hours for sleep and enjoy it!”
Alicia Zellmer, MD, and Joy Liu, MD, are resident physicians in Internal Medicine, and members of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — Dozens of people were injured in a fire at a residential building in New York City on Saturday morning, authorities said.
The three-alarm fire broke out on the 20th floor of a midtown Manhattan high-rise, with a “heavy fire condition,” according to the New York City Fire Department.
Thirty-eight people were hospitalized due to the fire, including two critically due to smoke inhalation, officials said. Five were in serious condition and the rest were minor injuries, according to FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
Five members of the FDNY are among the patients, officials said.
“There’s likely to be an increase in the number of patients as more and more families come down and are evaluated by EMS,” EMS Academy Chief Joseph Pataky told reporters.
The fire was reported around 10:30 a.m. and was under control within an hour, the FDNY said.
Bystander footage captured a dramatic rescue, as a firefighter rappelled with a woman down to a floor below and went safely inside the building while smoke billowed out of windows above.
“Fire EMS and dispatch did an extraordinary job rescuing a number of civilians,” Kavanagh said during a press briefing, referencing that rescue in particular. “I cannot emphasize enough the extraordinary work of our members this morning in unbelievably dangerous conditions.”
Two people were rescued from the apartment where the fire originated via life-saving rope, according to FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Frank Leeb.
The cause of the fire was determined to be a lithium-ion battery “connected to a micro-mobility device,” Kavanagh said.
“The lithium-ion battery adds a different degree when we talk about the fire dynamics of it,” Leeb said. “These rooms flash over in just a mere matter of seconds.”
There have been nearly 200 fires so far this year in NYC caused by lithium-ion batteries for a micro-mobility device, such as an electric bike or scooter, according to Chief Fire Marshal Dan Flynn.
Authorities believe an occupant was repairing electric bikes and the fire originated directly behind the front door, he said. FDNY has recovered at least five bikes from the apartment, he said.
Kavanagh emphasized the “rising cause of fires” from e-bikes and urged people to follow the “safest possible way to use these,” including not charging them overnight when they are asleep and making sure they are certified and the batteries are not damaged.
In August, a fire in a Harlem apartment sparked by a lithium-ion battery from an e-bike or scooter killed two people, including a 5-year-old girl.
(MCCURTAIN COUNTY, Okla.) — One person died in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, and several others were injured after tornadoes impacted the state Friday, an official confirmed to ABC News.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he was “praying for Oklahomans impacted by today’s tornadoes,” in a tweet Friday night.
He added that search and rescue teams and generators were being sent to the area.
Praying for Oklahomans impacted by today’s tornadoes.
Storms hit in Bryan, Choctaw, and Le Flore counties, among others. Additional flash flooding in some areas.
Search & rescue teams and generators forwarded to the Idabel area.
In the Dallas/Fort Worth region, multiple tornado warnings had been in effect on Friday, with people advised to seek shelter immediately due to life-threatening conditions.
“Atmospheric conditions are favorable for severe storms,” the National Weather Service for Fort Worth, said.
At least 10 people were injured after a confirmed tornado swept through Lamar County, Texas, the sheriff’s office said. They were being treated at a local hospital. Two people were in critical condition as of Friday night.
At least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed in the county, according to the sheriff’s office. A disaster has been declared in the county.
“If you do not live in the storm affected areas of Lamar County, please stay away. If you don’t have to leave home, please stay home,” the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office advised residents on social media Friday night.
A tornado was also observed near Sulphur Springs in Hopkins County, Texas.
The Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office said four homes were damaged following reports of a tornado in the southwestern region of the county. No injuries have been reported at this time.
