(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday that while the House Jan. 6 committee was “anticipating” that former President Donald Trump would comply with the subpoena the panel issued to him last week, “He’s not going to turn this into a circus.”
That meant that committee members likely weren’t interested in Trump testifying live before the committee in a public setting, as some past witnesses have, Cheney, R-Wyo., said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
“The committee treats this matter with great seriousness,” she said. “And we are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath. It may take multiple days. And it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves.”
If and when Trump sits for questioning, Cheney said, the format wouldn’t be like “his first debate against Joe Biden and the circus and the food fight that that became. This is far too serious set of issues. And we’ve made clear exactly what his obligations are.”
Should Trump refuse to cooperate or fight the subpoena in court, Cheney said, “We have many, many alternatives that we will consider.” But she noted that Congress’ demands apply to everyone — not just Trump.
“We’ve made clear in the subpoena a number of things, including that if he intends to take the Fifth [Amendment against self-incrimination] that he ought to alert us of that ahead of time,” Cheney said.
The Jan. 6 committee last week formally issued its subpoena to Trump after earlier voting to approve such a move during the last public hearing. Subpoenaing a former president is a rare though not unprecedented step.
The subpoena requires Trump to turn over documents by Nov. 4 and to appear for one or several days of deposition under oath beginning on Nov. 14.
“We recognize that a subpoena to a former President is a significant and historic step,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney, the committee chair and vice-chair, respectively, wrote in a letter to Trump on Friday. “We do not take this action lightly.”
In response, an attorney for Trump claimed the committee was “flouting norms.”
“We understand that, once again, flouting norms and appropriate and customary process, the Committee has publicly released a copy of its subpoena. As with any similar matter, we will review and analyze it, and will respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action,” said David Warrington, a partner at Dhillon Law Group.
In a series of hearings this summer and fall, the Jan. 6 committee has cited extensive witness testimony, documents and other materials from Trump’s aides and advisers in building a case that he was aware he had lost to Joe Biden in 2020 but illegally tried to stay in power while urging his supporters — some of whom he knew were armed — to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, leading to the riot.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and accused the committee of politically persecuting him while not presenting his defense of his actions.
Only two Republicans sit on the panel: Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, both of whom are leaving Congress in January.
Kinzinger said last week on ABC’s This Week that potential live testimony from Trump would require “negotiation.”
“He’s made it clear he has nothing to hide, [that’s] what he said. So he should come in on the day we asked him to come in. If he pushes off beyond that, we’ll figure out what to do next,” Kinzinger said then.
The committee’s work is likely to be walked back and scrutinized should the GOP retake the House in November.
Cheney acknowledged that in her appearance on Meet the Press.
“If we were in a nation where our politics were operating the way they should, the investigation would proceed no matter what,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he opposes eliminating the debt ceiling, the financial limit on the federal government that could produce fierce clashes if the GOP wins back one or both chambers of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
“You have to increase the debt ceiling,” Sanders, I-Vt., said on CNN’s State of the Union.
“But you keep it?” anchor Jake Tapper asked him.
“Yes, yes,” Sanders said.
Those remarks come as Republicans forecast that they’ll use negotiations over the debt ceiling to extract concessions from Democrats to cut spending — a repeat of battles over the last decade starting with congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama.
Kevin McCarthy, the current House GOP leader who would likely become speaker if the party retakes the chamber, has been advocating for using the debt ceiling to win leverage over Joe Biden’s administration and Democratic lawmakers, with some House Republicans rallying to his side.
“I support that strategy because look, at the end of the day, when COVID-19 happened you had the federal government and state governments literally shut companies down. Businesses had to make tough decisions about how they were going to keep their doors open. The federal government just kept getting record revenue year over year and hasn’t had to make those tough decisions,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said on CNN on Sunday.
Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Republicans of potentially holding the debt ceiling hostage to win over their spending cuts. Forfeiting on the nation’s debts, they say, would amount to an economic calamity given that the government is already legally required to pay out spending that Congress authorizes — and so the debt ceiling should rise as that spending is passed.
President Joe Biden and others in the Democratic caucus have laid out red lines surrounding what they expect will be Republican offers to cut Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP votes to raise the debt ceiling.
“What Republicans are basically doing — and I hope everybody understands this — they are saying, ‘Look, we are prepared to let the United States default on its debt, not raise the debt ceiling, unless you talk about making cuts,'” Sanders said on CNN.
But he, like Biden, disagrees with calls to remove the debt ceiling. The president last week called such a move “irresponsible.”
Sanders used that word in criticizing conservatives.
“You know what they’re talking about? Cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Is that irresponsible? It is absolutely irresponsible,” he said on CNN. “You don’t use the debt ceiling to do that.”
He also argued that the party that has been hammering Democrats over inflation and the economy — as polls show voters trust the GOP more on both issues — has no real economic plan of its own.
“What do they want to do, other than complain?” he said.
McCarthy, the House minority leader, has touted a “Commitment to America,” including strengthening the economy. The platform, however, is light on specifics.
(CHICAGO) — At least five men were shot, three fatally, early Sunday when gunfire erupted at a Chicago intersection taken over by a drag-racing caravan of more than 100 cars, police said.
The shooting erupted about 4 a.m. at an intersection in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the city’s Southwest side, Cmdr. Don Jerome of the Chicago Police Department said at a news conference.
The gun violence in the nation’s third largest city erupted despite a 20% drop in shootings in Chicago through the end of summer, according to Chicago police crime statistics. Homicides have also plummeted 16% from last year.
Jerome said police officers were responding to complaints of a drag-racing caravan in the area with cars peeling rubber and doing doughnuts in the middle of an intersection.
“There was drifting in the middle of the street and approximately 100 cars had gained control of the intersection,” Jerome said.
He said officers at one of the police departments Strategic Decision Support Centers were monitoring the incident via a live video feed when they received a ShotSpotter gunshot detection alert of at least 13 shots at the intersection and “people hitting the ground.”
Upon arriving at the scene, officers learned that five people had been shot and were all taken to hospitals in private vehicles.
Jerome said four men with gunshot wounds were taken to Holy Cross Hospital and one was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.
He said three men were pronounced dead upon arriving at a hospital, and two other men were in serious condition, but expected to survive.
Two 20-year-old men were among those who died, police said. Authorities did not release the age of the third man fatally shot. Their names were not immediately released.
The two men who were wounded were described as a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old.
Investigators recovered multiple shell casings from the crime scene, suggesting that more than one gunman was involved, Jerome said.
No arrests were immediately announced. Jerome said police are investigating if some of the people who were wounded or killed were armed and fired shots during the incident.
“All three of the decedents did have a gang affiliation,” Jerome said.
He said police are searching for “one or two” people police suspect were involved in the shooting, adding, they “are not necessarily those in the hospital.”
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, who represents the area where the shooting occurred, called for a police crackdown on the roving drag-racing caravans.
“This is not just fun and games on the street,” Lopez said at Sunday’s news conference with Jerome. “We are seeing gangs and criminality join into the drifting and drag-racing.”
(WASHINGTON) — Americans trust that Republicans would do a better job on a key set of issues, with across-the-board, double-digit edges on inflation, the economy, gas prices and crime, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Inflation sees one of the larger gulfs — with 36% of Americans trusting the GOP and 21% trusting Democrats. Similar gaps exist around gas prices, with 36% of Americans trusting Republicans and 22% trusting Democrats, the poll shows.
Broadly considering the state of the economy, 36% of Americans trust Republicans to do a better job while 24% trust Democrats — a potentially grim tell for the left, who currently cling to razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate.
Regarding crime, a key closing issue for the GOP in the campaign cycle, Republicans also enjoy a solid advantage — with 35% of respondents trusting them over the 22% who put faith in the Democrats.
The public is much more evenly split on immigration, with Republicans trusted to do a better job by 35% of Americans compared to 32% who prefer the Democrats, the new poll shows. Americans are also relatively split on taxes, with 30% saying Republicans would do a better job versus 28% for the Democrats.
These leads for Republicans have numerically solidified somewhat since August, per the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, after both parties flooded the market with a barrage of ads, with the right painting President Joe Biden and his party as soft on crime, weak on immigration and squarely responsible for higher prices at the pump and at the grocery store.
Just last week at the White House, Biden acknowledged the price crunch, as he announced the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve in hopes to drive down the cost of gas.
“Families are hurting. You’ve heard me say it before, but I get it. I come from a family, if the price of gasoline went up at the gas station, we felt it. Gas prices hit almost every family in this country, and they squeezed their family budgets. When the price of gas goes up, other expenses get cut,” said Biden.
Democrats aren’t entirely underwater, however — seeing leads in voter trust concerning COVID-19, climate change, gun violence and abortion. Access to abortion services has been front-and-center of the Democratic messaging since the fall of Roe v. Wade, as the White House and other party leaders hope to build a blue wall to combat an anticipated “red wave” of Republican wins.
But recent polls including from Pew Research Center, suggest that the key issues their party champions are less likely to be prioritized as voting has begun in midterm races across the country. An overwhelming majority — 79% — told Pew that the economy is “very important” and 61% said violent crime is also “very important.”
One bright spot for Democrats on a different question in the ABC News/Ipsos poll is that 58% of independent voters say that if a candidate says they believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, they are less likely to vote for that candidate. Out of 522 Republican nominees for federal and statewide office around the country, 199 question the legitimacy of the last election, according to research compiled by FiveThirtyEight and ABC News.
Regardless of where they fall on the issues, voters seem hungry for new leadership at the top.
As substantial of a grip that Trump has on his own party, 44% of Republicans say that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis should have “a great deal” of influence on the future of the GOP, according to the ABC News/Ipsos poll. That’s more than Trump, with 34% of Republicans saying they want the former president to have “a great deal” of influence, the poll shows. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley are among other party leaders some Republicans want to be the voice of their party.
Democrats are shying away from their leader as well, and by even more eye-popping margins. A large plurality (42%) of Democrats would like President Barack Obama to have “a great deal” of influence on the future direction of their party outpacing the sitting president, with only 27% of Democrats wanting Biden to have “a great deal” of influence, the ABC News/Ipsos poll shows.
The sentiment of wanting someone other than Biden is not necessarily a new one, yet the support of Obama aligns with a week of the most substantial midterm campaigning the former president has done this cycle, planning to travel to Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin at the end of October.
Last week, Obama argued on the “Pod Save America” podcast that Democrats can deliver a winning message to voters: “Across the board what we’ve seen is, when Democrats have even a really slim majority in Congress they can make people’s lives better. If you combine the deep concerns about our democracy with the concrete accomplishments that this administration has been able to deliver – because we had a narrow majority in both the House and the Senate – that should be enough to inspire people to get out.”
That said, in the same interview, Obama also chided his fellow Democrats for being a “buzzkill” on many issues.
And while this election has been framed partly as a referendum on Biden or Trump, a plurality of voters, 48%, say their votes are not really about either.
This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted using Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® October 21-22, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 686 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.0 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 28-24-41 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.
(NEW YORK) — President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of martial law on Wednesday officially imposed it only in four occupied regions of Ukraine. But many experts said in reality Putin appeared to have laid the groundwork to apply a form of martial law across the whole of Russia, just under another name.
In his public address, Putin portrayed the martial law declaration as a technicality, limited to the Ukrainian regions he illegally annexed last month. But a second decree, published at the same time, also placed all of Russia’s other regions into various levels of increased “readiness.”
Under those readiness levels, powers were granted to local authorities that closely resemble some of those under martial law. It was still unclear how the powers will be applied in practice, but some experts said it meant Putin had imposed a form of martial law across all Russia.
“It creates legal basis to impose martial law across the country or parts of the country without actually declaring it,” Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace, told ABC News.
The most severe form outside the Ukrainian regions is in eight Russian regions neighboring Ukraine, where local administrations are granted powers to impose curfews, restrict movement, take over factories and transport, potentially apply censorship as well as order the temporary resettlement of people.
The regions are under a “form of martial lite,” Mark Galeotti, a veteran Russia analyst, wrote in the Spectator Magazine. “Vladimir Putin has just moved Russia one step closer to totalitarianism.”
Russia’s southern and central regions, including Moscow, have slightly fewer powers and the rest of the country marginally less.
The decrees grant governors the power to take any measures directed toward supporting Russia’s war effort, in theory giving them almost unlimited authority.
“What’s been declared is the right of the government to take any decision that seems to them necessary. Wherever, for whatever reason,” Gleb Pavlovsky, a former political advisor to Putin and now a political analyst, said in a recent interview.
For now, many regions have sought to reassure citizens the measures will not affect daily life. And most experts said it remained to be seen how they would be applied in practice.
But the move appeared to be an attempt by Putin to rescue his invasion in Ukraine after presenting it as a limited “Special Military Operation.”
The decrees’ primary goal, experts said, was to allow Russian authorities to mobilize resources needed to support the mass troop mobilization.
“I was waiting for this announcement. Their system can’t mobilize this many people without mobilizing state resources too. The state needs more resources directed to the military,” Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at RAND Corporation, wrote on Twitter.
The move also appeared to re-direct Russia’s economy toward supporting the war effort. It suggested the Kremlin is trying to ready Russia for a long war while also bracing for possible shocks to the political system coming from the battlefield, such as the likely loss of Kherson, Gabuev said.
“It looks like the Kremlin sees serious sources of worry,” he said. “Here the government really wants to be prepared.”
He added, “It’s significant and it shows the change in the estimate of how the war is going and what kind of mobilization internally first and foremost will be needed to kind of toughen it out and then ultimately win this war by the Kremlin’s definition.”
(KYIV, Ukraine) — The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces General Oleksandr Syrskiy, in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell, said the world should be worried about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons.
Late last month, Putin issued a thinly veiled threat that Russia would resort to using nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine following a series of setbacks for Moscow on the battlefield.
“We are and should be worried,” Syrskiy told ABC News.
You can watch more of Ian Pannell’s full interview with General Oleksandr Syrskiy on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday.
The Ukrainian general is confident that his country is winning the fight against Russia, despite the challenges of war.
“Of course, I think we are winning. Because first and foremost, we are winning the psychological battle,” Syrskiy said. “We have success on the battleground, but the war is difficult.”
Syrskiy, the commander of the Army of the Armed Forced of Ukraine, won the battle of Kyiv in the spring and the battle of Kharkiv in September. The successful surprise counteroffensive rapidly liberated thousands of square miles of occupied territory, forcing the Russians back towards their border.
Last month, Putin accused Ukraine of terrorism after an explosion destroyed parts of a bridge connecting occupied Crimea to Russia, a vital supply route for Russian forces.
“There hasn’t been any wars at that scale in Europe, or elsewhere in the world, since the Second World War. And we understand that this war is about the survival of our people and our state and this is why we have no other option but to win,” Syrskiy said.
(DALLAS) — A 30-year-old man recently paroled after serving a sentence for robbery, is facing capital murder charges stemming from a shooting at a Dallas medical center on Saturday that left two employees dead, including a nurse, officials said Sunday.
A suspect in the double homicide at Methodist Hospital in Dallas on Saturday was identified as Nestor Hernandez, law enforcement officials told ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas.
Hernandez was paroled on Oct. 20, 2021, after serving a prison sentence for aggravated robbery, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told ABC News.
“He was on parole with a special condition of electronic monitoring,” the spokesperson said.
Hernandez was granted permission to be at the hospital to be with his significant other during the delivery of their baby, the spokesperson said, adding that the state Office of Inspector General is working with Dallas Police as they investigate.
Police with the Methodist Health System and Dallas Police Department responded to reports of an active shooter at Methodist Dallas Medical Center around 11 a.m. Saturday.
A Methodist Health System police officer “confronted the suspect, and fired his weapon at the suspect, injuring him,” the hospital said in a statement. “The suspect was detained, stabilized, and taken to another local hospital.”
The names of the victims were not immediately released.
The shooting occurred near the medical center’s labor and delivery area, according to police.
A motive for the shooting has yet to be disclosed.
“The Methodist Health System family is heartbroken at the loss of two of our beloved team members,” Methodist Health System said in a statement. “Our entire organization is grieving this unimaginable tragedy.”
The investigation is ongoing, with Dallas police assisting the Methodist Health System police, the hospital confirmed.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia slammed the “broken” justice system for allowing the suspect out on the streets, where he could allegedly obtain a gun.
“I’m outraged along with our community, at the lack of accountability, and the travesty of the fact that under this broken system, we give violent criminals more chances than our victims.The pendulum has swung too far,” Garcia said in a statement he posted on Twitter.
Dr. Serena Bumpus, CEO of the Texas Nurses Association, issued a statement calling the shooting “unacceptable.”
“No person should fear for their life for merely going to work, especially a nurse or healthcare worker whose passion is to help others heal,” Bumpus said in statement. “We hope our legislators understand that we need to protect our healthcare workers.”
Bumpus also released statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing workplace violence has increased during the pandemic, and the risk to nurses was three times greater than “all other professions.”
ABC News’ Lisa Sivertsen contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake would not explicitly commit to accepting the outcome of her upcoming election if she loses to her Democratic opponent.
“Let me ask you why it is that you have not said — or maybe you’ll do it now — you have not said that you will accept the certified results of this election, even if you lose this election?” ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl asked Lake in the interview.
“I will accept the results of this election if we have a fair, honest and transparent election. Absolutely, 100%,” said Lake, a former TV anchor who has become one of the Republican Party’s most prominent election deniers this cycle. “As long as it’s fair, honest and transparent.”
In a previous interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Lake only said she would accept the results if she won, after being asked three times whether she would accept the election’s outcome.
“If you lose, will you accept that?” Bash ultimately asked, to which Lake replied again: “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result.”
Lake has frequently campaigned on the false claims that the 2020 presidential race was fraudulent — at times wielding a sledgehammer, claiming it’s for suspect electronic voting machines. She raised the subject of the 2020 race in her interview with Karl, wrongly alleging that “2,000 mail-in ballots were accepted by Maricopa County after Election Day in 2020, after Election Day.”
Maricopa County election officials told ABC News that no ballots were accepted after the deadline on Election Day in 2020. Some ballots that were scanned the next morning — giving them a post-election timestamp — were turned in to the office on Election Day, the officials said.
In her interview, Lake offered other unsubstantiated and disproven claims about Arizona’s 2020 race. At one point Lake said she wanted to discuss other topics, but Karl noted she was the one who raised the previous election.
“We’ve been talking about a whole bunch of other things,” Karl said, later adding: “I didn’t ask you about 2020, you brought it up.”
Despite the litany of allegations, no evidence of widespread fraud was found in the state that now-President Joe Biden won by 10,457 votes.
Biden’s national victory over Donald Trump was likewise confirmed by multiple audits and hand recounts; judges and local officials from both parties said they found no notable issues.
A comprehensive investigation by Maricopa County in Arizona found “100 potentially questionable ballots cast out 2.1 million” — hardly enough to change the results.
“Just to be clear, the Republicans on the Board of Supervisors, the Republican governor, now the Republican candidate for Senate running along with you [Blake Masters], the Republican attorney general under Donald Trump, Bill Barr, all said that … the election was not stolen,” Karl told Lake, who blamed baseless “corruption.”
He pressed her on her attacks on the past ballots, asking if she would take sweeping action to reject voters in her state.
“You said something last week, you said that there were 740,000 ballots with no chain of custody, those ballots shouldn’t have been counted,” Karl said to Lake, asking, “Are you really saying you would throw out the ballots of 740,000 — nearly three-quarter of a million Arizonans?”
“740,000 ballots violated chain of custody requirements in Maricopa County,” Lake answered, repeating a claim made in her interview with CNN.
Maricopa County election officials refuted Lake’s allegations and referred ABC News to a May statement where the office said the county always had control of the ballots, adding they “were sealed in envelopes that, in turn, were sealed in boxes that the couriers were prohibited from opening.”
As Lake has been particularly critical of early mail-in voting, Karl asked if she would seek to change the Arizona election laws, specifically early voting and mail-in voting, if she is elected governor over Democrat Katie Hobbs, who is currently the secretary of state.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told ABC News that 85% of voting in the August primary was by early voting and in 2020, it was 91%.
“I don’t know exactly how we’ll do it, but we will secure our elections, restore faith in our elections, make sure our elections are honest and transparent,” Lake answered.
Karl asked again if she would seek to limit early voting. “There’s a lot of it in this state,” he said.
“Going back to when I first started voting back in the ’80s, we had Election Day. Our Constitution says Election Day,” Lake replied. “It doesn’t say election season, election month … And the longer you drag that out, the more fraught with problems there are.”
Hobbs, Lake’s rival, revealed last week that a voter registration error caused up to 6,000 Arizona voters to get mail ballots with only federal races and not local races. In her interview on “This Week,” Lake pivoted to blaming Hobbs for that error, calling her “incompetent.”
“She was the one who pointed this out and said she’s correcting it,” Karl said.
Hobbs’ office is working to address the issue and released a statement Wednesday saying that the problem affected less than a quarter of 1% of voters.
Hobbs will be the one to certify the upcoming elections, given her role as secretary of state. She has not stepped aside from those duties, though Lake has said that she should.
In a separate interview this week, Karl spoke with Hobbs, pressing her on that: “Will you recuse yourself from the certification process?”
Hobbs wouldn’t answer the question directly but said she was “having these discussions right now” and didn’t “want to talk about a hypothetical” with the outcome of the election being unknown.
She diverted to attacking Lake’s election denialism. “What I think is really important here is that Kari Lake has based her whole campaign on these election lies, continues to say that Donald Trump won in 2020,” Hobbs said, adding that her office “is going to be up against a barrage of legal challenges” from Lake should she win the governorship.
Polls show Hobbs and Lake are locked in a tight race, with much of their messages focused on immigration and the southern border; abortion access and extremism; the economy and public safety.
Speaking with Lake, now a rising star in her party, Karl asked if she would consider joining Trump as the running mate on a 2024 presidential ticket. Calling herself “the fake news’ worst nightmare,” Lake vowed to serve two full terms if elected.
(WASHINGTON) — New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, insisted on Sunday that his party will buck both history and the current polling in November’s midterm elections.
In a lively interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Maloney pointed to special election wins in Alaska and New York, where Democrats won in tough areas, to suggest that the party remains well situated heading into Election Day.
“You guys have been writing us off for two years, and we just went to work fixing people’s problems,” he said. “We know it’s going to be hard,” he continued. “My mom used to say, ‘Everything good in life is hard. You’ve got to go work.’ That’s what we’re going to do.”
Despite that optimism, the GOP is favored to win control of the House this midterm cycle, according to FiveThirtyEight’s analysis, in part because of voter concerns on the economy, inflation and crime and the edge they give to Republicans on those issues. Also working against them is President Joe Biden’s low approval rating, hovering just above 41%.
But Maloney said on “This Week” that the election wins this summer, Democrats’ legislative successes on health care costs and other issues and the public’s backlash to the overturning of Roe v. Wade showed his party remained competitive.
“What do you say we let the voters speak? Because when they have spoken, it turns out they care that this MAGA crowd has taken away 50 years of reproductive freedom, all of the privacy rights we used to take for granted,” Maloney argued. “It turns out they care that we’re making progress on the problems, and we have a plan to bring down your costs to help our seniors, to help our veterans, to bring jobs back to the United States.”
Karl pressed Maloney on the extent to which Biden hasn’t campaigned for swing-state Democrats, compared to the numerous rallies and trail appearances made by Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump in past midterms.
Maloney noted that in those election cycles, in 2010 and 2018, their parties went on to lose dozens of seats in Congress.
“Is that what you’re worried [would] happen?” Karl followed up.
“I guess we’ve got a strategy that might work out better than those,” Maloney said.
Biden has made relatively few trips to battlegrounds this year, though he was in Pennsylvania for Senate nominee John Fetterman last week and will headline a rally with Democratic candidates in South Florida on Nov. 1.
Karl pointed back to Maloney’s vow, in late 2020, that Democrats would pick up seats this cycle. “We’re going to break that curse … Write it down,” Maloney said then.
“As you can see, we wrote it down. You still think you are going to win seats — pick up seats in the House?” Karl asked.
“Well, why not?” Maloney contended. He also projected confidence about his own chances for reelection despite a House GOP-leadership aligned super PAC pouring millions into the race.
“They’re gonna lose this seat and wish they had the $7 million in other races,” Maloney said.
But Democrats are facing serious political headwinds, with surveys repeatedly showing Republicans running ahead of them on some of the key issues that Americans say will decide their vote, such as high inflation.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll showed conservatives had solidified that advantage on being trusted more — by double digits — on the economy, gas prices and crime. The GOP has blamed Democrats’ control of Washington for such problems.
Maloney pushed back on Sunday.
“They have no plan to fix your economy,” he said. “They have no plan to make our streets safer. We know what they’re going to do to our reproductive freedoms and they look the other way when our democracy, our voting rights, our very Capitol is attacked.”
(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:
Oct 23, 4:11 PM EDT
Russian Defense Minister claims Ukrainians planning ‘dirty bomb’ attack
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu called the defense ministers of Turkey, France and the United Kingdom on Saturday, claiming Ukraine is preparing a provocation with the use of a “dirty bomb.”
The first mention of a possible Ukrainian “dirty bomb” attack appeared Sunday in a morning message of the RIA Novosti state-owned news agency. The article, citing “credible sources in various countries, including Ukraine,” stated that “the Kiev regime is preparing a provocation on the territory of its country related to the detonation of the so-called ‘dirty bomb’ or low-power nuclear munition.”
“The purpose of the provocation is to accuse Russia of using weapons of mass destruction in the Ukrainian theater of operations and thereby launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world aimed at undermining confidence in Moscow,” RIA Novosti reported.
Shoigu also had a telephone conversation with the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Sunday, during which they discussed the situation in Ukraine, according to a Pentagon official.
“Secretary Austin rejected any pretext for Russian escalation and reaffirmed the value of continued communication amid Russia’s unlawful and unjustified war against Ukraine,” said Pentagon press secretary, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.
Oct 23, 1:20 PM EDT
Russian military jet crashes into a residential building, 2nd time in a week
A Russian Sukhoi Su fighter jet crashed into a residential building in southern Siberia on Sunday during a an apparent test flight just six days after another Russian Sukhoi Su jet slammed into an apartment block in Yeysk, Russia, near the Ukrainian border.
Two pilots were killed in Sunday’s crash in the southern Siberia town of Irkutsk, Russian officials said. The crash ignited a giant fireball when the aircraft nosedived into a two-story house, Igor Kobzev, the regional governor, said in a post on Telegram.
Kobzev confirmed two pilots were killed and said no civilian residents were injured.
The Sukhoi Su-30 jet was on a test flight when the crash occurred, according to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The crash came about a week after a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 crashed into an apartment block in the southern Russian city of Yeysk, near Ukraine, killing at least 15 people.
Authorities said the initial investigation indicated a technical malfunction of the aircraft caused the crash and that the pilots eject from the jet and survived.
Oct 22, 4:39 PM EDT
33 missiles have been fired at Ukraine, air force says
Thirty-three missiles were fired at Ukraine on Saturday morning, 18 of which were shot down, the country’s air force claimed. Local officials in regions across Ukraine are reporting that the strikes were aimed at energy facilities.
More than a million people were without power as of Saturday afternoon, according to presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
In the southeastern city of Nikopol, local authorities warned that air raid sirens would be switched off as a result of power cuts. Instead, emergency vehicles driving around the city will warn resident of incoming aerial threats.
Oct 22, 1:45 PM EDT
Russian authorities tell civilians in annexed Kherson to leave immediately
Russian authorities in the Ukrainian city of Kherson told civilians to leave immediately on Saturday because of what they called a tense military situation as Ukrainian forces advance. Kherson was illegally annexed by Russia earlier this month.
“Take care of the safety of your family and friends! Do not forget documents, money, valuables and clothes,” Russian authorities said.
At Oleshky on the opposite bank of the Dnipro, the agencies caught up with people arriving by river boat from Kherson, loaded with boxes, bags and pets, according to an article in Russian News Agency Interfax.
One woman carried a toddler under one arm and a dog under the other. Some boats were loaded with vegetables and pallets of food. Staff from Russia’s emergency ministry carried elderly people and children in prams from the vessels. Families then waited to board buses to the Russian-annexed city of Crimea, according to Interfax.
Meanwhile, in a briefing on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had repelled a Ukrainian attempt to break through its line of control in the Kherson region.
Oct 21, 3:36 PM EDT
Ukraine accuses Russia of delaying passage of 150 grain ships
Russia is deliberately delaying the passage of ships carrying grain exports under a U.N.-brokered deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged in his evening address Friday.
Zelenskyy said the delay meant that Ukraine grain exports were short 3 million tons, which he said is enough to feed 10 million people.
“The enemy is doing everything to slow down our food exports … as of today, more than 150 ships are queuing to fulfill contractual obligations on the delivery of our agricultural products,” Zelenskyy said.
“This is an artificial queue. It only arose because Russia is deliberately delaying the passage of the ships,” he said.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Oct 21, 1:24 PM EDT
Russia has hit 30% to 40% of Ukraine’s overall power infrastructure, Ukrainian official tells Reuters
Russian attacks have hit 30% to 40% of Ukraine’s overall national power infrastructure, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told Reuters in an interview.
“We see that they targeted a number of new [facilities], but also they shelled [facilities] which had been already shelled before to destroy them absolutely,” Halushchenko said.
Asked about the scale of the damage, Halushchenko said Russian attacks have hit at least half of Ukraine’s thermal generation capacity and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.
Halushchenko said electricity imports could be one of the options Ukraine pursues to get through the crisis.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Oct 21, 11:03 AM EDT
Austin speaks with Russian defense minister about Ukraine
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Russian counterpart, Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu, for the second time since the invasion of Ukraine on Friday.
“Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine,” the Pentagon said in a brief statement.
The first call between the two was in May and lasted an hour. Officials did not say how long the Friday call was.
Oct 20, 4:33 PM EDT
US believes Iranians are on the ground assisting Russian drone attacks in Ukraine
The U.S. believes Iranians are “on the ground” in Ukraine to assist Russia with its drone operations, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday.
“We can confirm that Russian military personnel that are based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian [drones] and using them to conduct strikes across Ukraine, including strikes against Kiev in just recent days. We assess that Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations,” Kirby told reporters.
Kirby did not know how many Iranians are in Crimea, but said the U.S. knows it is “a relatively small number.”
Kirby specified that the Iranians “have put trainers and tech support in Crimea, but it’s the Russians who are doing the piloting.”
“We’re going to continue to vigorously enforce all U.S. sanctions on both the Russian and Iranian arms trade. We’re going to make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia. We’re going to help the Ukrainians have what they need to defend themselves against these threats.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Oct 20, 2:53 PM EDT
DOJ says it will continue to be “relentless” in efforts to hold people responsible for war crimes accountable
The Justice Department will “continue” to be “relentless” in its pursuit to hold those responsible for war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine accountable, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday, while sitting next to his German counterpart, Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht.
“We are committed to finding ways to expand our cooperation with our German partners in these efforts,” Garland said.
Garland also thanked Germany for its help in apprehending a suspect accused of getting sensitive technologies to Russia as part of an indictment announced Wednesday.
The Justice Department charged five individuals including Yury Orekhov, the alleged mastermind behind the plot. Orekhov was arrested in Germany as part of the Justice Department’s task force KleptoCapture, which is cracking down on Russian-related crimes as the war in Ukraine continues.
Asked if any U.S. intelligence was compromised after Germany replaced its head of cybersecurity over alleged ties to Russia, Garland didn’t answer, saying intelligence sharing is what makes the relationship with Germany so strong.
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
Oct 20, 6:56 AM EDT
US will ‘not hesitate’ to sanction Iran over drone sales, official says
The United States is committed to stopping Russia from obtaining foreign weapons, including Iran-made drones, a State Department official said.
Officials from the United States, United Kingdom and France on Thursday raised the issue during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
“The United States began warning in July that Iran was planning to transfer UAVs to Russia for use in Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, and we now have abundant evidence that these UAVs are being used to strike Ukrainian civilians and critical civilian infrastructure,” Price said. “As Iran continues to lie and deny providing weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, we are committed to working with allies and partners to prevent the transfer of dangerous weaponry to Russia.”
He added, “We will not hesitate to use our sanctions and other appropriate tools on all involved in these transfers.”
Oct 19, 8:08 PM EDT
Putin’s martial law declaration ‘speaks to his desperation’: Blinken
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News’ Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos in a new interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of martial law in illegally annexed parts of Ukraine “speaks to his desperation” as Ukrainian forces continue to make progress in rebuffing the invasion.
“Just in the last few weeks, he’s tried to mobilize more forces. He’s gone through with this sham annexation of Ukrainian territory,” Blinken said in a preview from the sit-down, which will air Thursday on Good Morning America.
Oct 19, 3:34 PM EDT
Ukraine to restrict electrical supply after Russia knocks out power plants
Ukraine will start restricting electricity supplies across the country on Thursday after Russia knocked out more power plants, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Wednesday.
“From 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., it is necessary to minimize the use of electricity … if this is not done, you should prepare for temporary blackouts,” Tymoshenko wrote in a Telegram post.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Oct 19, 2:26 PM EDT
Biden says Putin imposing martial law may be ‘his only tool available’ to brutalize Ukrainians
President Joe Biden reacted to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to impose martial law in illegally annexed Ukrainian areas, telling reporters it may be his only tool available.
“I think that Vladimir Putin finds himself in an incredibly difficult position. And what it reflects to me is it seems his only tool available to him is to brutalize individual citizens, in Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens to try to intimidate them into capitulating,” Biden said Wednesday.
“They’re not gonna do that,” he added
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Oct 19, 8:31 AM EDT
Putin announces he is imposing martial law in four occupied Ukrainian territories
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he will impose martial law in four Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian forces — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye. All four regions were illegally annexed by Putin last month.
Marital law grants Russia’s authorities huge powers over the civilian population in the regions it is imposed. Martial law is set to go into effect on Thursday.
The decree, which Putin announced during a televised meeting with his security council, will now be sent to be rubber stamped by Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, the Federation Council.
Putin has also granted new powers to governors in several regions bordering Ukraine.
Putin’s decree includes other points ordering the rest of Russia itself put into various levels of “readiness.”
The decree puts eight regions bordering Ukraine into a state of “moderate level of response,” but also imposes a “level of heightened readiness” in the southern and central regions that include Moscow. All other Russians regions are put on a “basic level of readiness.”
The decree says these statuses grant special powers to local authorities that are similar to martial law and includes points imposing increased security at key facilities, puts transport and communications into a special regime and also envisages the creation of “territorial defense headquarters” in some regions.
Oct 19, 7:35 AM EDT
Russian civilians to evacuate Kherson
Russia has announced the mass evacuation of civilians from the key city of Kherson, as well as all of its civilian occupation administration there.
Russia’s newly appointed overall commander for its war in Ukraine, Gen. Sergey Surovikin, said on Tuesday that “difficult decisions” may have to be made in the near future regarding Russia’s position in Kherson. In his first public remarks since his appointment, he said the situation around Kherson was already “extremely difficult.”
The evacuation combined with Surovikin’s comments has fueled speculation that Russia may be preparing to retreat from the city in the face of a Ukrainian offensive, in what would be a major defeat for President Vladimir Putin.
Other Russian officials though have suggested the evacuation is in preparation of Russian defense of the city. Kherson’s Russian-appointed governor on Wednesday denied Russia was planning to “give up” the city.
Another senior occupation official has said the battle for Kherson will begin in the “very near future.”
Kherson is the only regional capital Russia managed to seize in its invasion and is a capital of one of the regions Putin annexed last month.
The city is located on the western side of the Dnieper river and Russian forces’ position there has become increasingly difficult, after Ukraine succeeded in destroying the bridges needed to supply it.
With the bridges destroyed, thousands of Russian troops risk becoming surrounded in Kherson city and cut off from any supplies.
Russia has already begun evacuating civilians to the eastern side of the Dneipr river. Independent military researchers said Russia has quickly built a pontoon bridge near Kherson that could be used for evacuation or re-supplies.
The Russian-appointed governor said around 60,000 civilians will be evacuated, over the course of seven days.
Oct 18, 5:14 PM EDT
Russia trying to make Ukrainians ‘suffer,’ US officials say
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian power stations shows Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to make Ukrainians “suffer” with deliberate attacks, speaking of attacks on Ukrainian power stations.
“He is trying to make sure that the Ukrainian people suffer,” Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “He’s making it very difficult for them.”
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder echoed those comments, saying Russia is trying to “inflict pain” on Ukrainian civilians with its strikes on population centers and infrastructure.
“We do continue to see them target, among other things, civilian infrastructure, to include energy related targets — power grids, for example,” Ryder said.
He added, “In terms of why we think they’re targeting those areas, I think obviously trying to inflict pain on the civilian society as well as try to have an impact on Ukrainian forces.”
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Matt Seyler
Oct 18, 4:59 PM EDT
UN commission releases detailed report on war crimes in Ukraine
The United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has released its first in-depth, written report on what it calls “an array of war crimes, violations of human rights and international humanitarian law” committed in the country during the first weeks of Russia’s brutal invasion.
The report outlines what investigators say are “documented patterns of summary executions, unlawful confinement, torture, ill-treatment, rape and other sexual violence.”
The inquiry zeroed in on four regions of Ukraine– Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy–and focused on incidents that took place following Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 through the end of March.
Investigators traveled to 27 cities and towns, conducted nearly 200 interviews and “inspected sites of destruction, graves, places of detention and torture, as well as weapon remnants, and consulted a large number of documents and reports.”
Due to the sheer number of allegations, the commission could not investigate all the claims it received. The commission said it intends to “gradually devote more of its resources” to a broader investigation within the country, according to the report.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 18, 2:25 PM EDT
NATO to send Ukraine anti-drone systems: NATO Secretary General
Ukraine will receive anti-drone systems from NATO in the coming days according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“The most important thing we can do is deliver on what allies have promised, to step up and deliver even more air defense systems,” Stoltenberg said, according to Reuters.
He added, “NATO will in the coming days deliver counter-drone systems to counter the specific threat of drones, including those from Iran.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Oct 18, 7:00 AM EDT
30% of Ukraine’s power stations destroyed
About a third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed by Russian attacks in the last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.
“Since Oct. 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” he said on Twitter. “No space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime.”
