(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security has delayed the deadline for air travelers to have a REAL ID another two years, the agency announced Monday.
The program, which was to begin in May 2023, will now not go into effect until May 7, 2025.
This is the third time the deadline has been extended.
Story developing…
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(WASHINGTON) — Paul Pelosi, alongside his wife, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, made his first public appearance on Sunday since being attacked with a hammer in his home in October, receiving a warm welcome at the high-profile Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.
Pelosi, 82, who is still recovering from his injuries to his head and hands, wore a black hat and a single black glove at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he rose to his feet several times to applaud the event. President Joe Biden, seated near him and Vice President Kamala Harris in the mezzanine, threw a fist pump in the air toward Pelosi when he saw him present.
Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein also shouted out the Pelosis’ presence, prompting thunderous applause, a standing ovation, and the couple to raise their clasped hands up together.
“I would like to single out one member of Congress who has been, for more than several decades, really devoted to the Kennedy Center — and her husband of 60 years who’s here with us as well — Nancy Pelosi,” Rubenstein said.
The public appearance comes about five weeks after Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer when an intruder broke into the couple’s San Francisco home on Oct. 28, looking for the speaker, sources said. He underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and “serious injuries” to his right arm and hands, according to the speaker’s spokesperson, and stayed in the hospital for six days.
David DePape, the man accused of assaulting Pelosi, pleaded not guilty to all charges, including attempted murder and attempted kidnapping of a federal official, last month in federal court.
Nancy Pelosi has said the attack affected her thinking on whether to run for Democratic leadership. She announced last month that she would not seek reelection to leadership, as Republicans narrowly took the House majority in midterm elections.
“For my dear husband, Paul, who has been my beloved partner in life and my pillar of support, thank you,” she said in her farewell speech on the House floor. “We’re all grateful for all the prayers and well wishes as he continues his recovery. Thank you so much.”
Earlier Sunday, Biden recognized the 45th class of Kennedy Center Honors — including the band U2, singers Amy Grant and Gladys Knight, composer Tania León and actor George Clooney — in a reception at the White House. Actress Julia Roberts even donned a dress covered in photos of Clooney to support her friend.
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(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The two University of Idaho roommates who survived a mysterious quadruple homicide in their off-campus house are speaking out for the first time.
Roommates Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in the girls’ off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13. No suspects have been identified.
“They all lit up any room they walked into and were gifts to this world. I wish every day that I could give them all one last hug and say how much I loved them,” one of the roommates said in a statement read by a pastor at a memorial service over the weekend.
She said Mogen, who was her “big sister” in the Pi Beta Phi sorority, was the older sister she “always wanted.”
“You always gave me the best advice,” she said.
The second surviving roommate said “Maddie and Kaylee were like second moms to me” and “changed the way I look at life.”
Goncalves and Mogen were “the inseparable duo,” she said, describing Mogen as compassionate and happy-go-lucky and Goncalves as strong and driven.
Chapin and Kernodle were the “perfect pair” who had an “unstoppable, loving relationship,” she said.
“They both would look at each other with so much love,” she said.
She added, “I know somewhere Xana and Ethan are together keeping each other company watching us and telling us it’s OK.”
The two surviving roommates — who police said are not suspects — likely slept through the attacks, according to authorities. They were on the ground floor while the four students killed were on the second and third floors. Police have not identified the surviving roommates.
The murders likely took place around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., according to officials. In the morning, the two roommates called friends over because they thought one of the victims on the second floor had passed out and wasn’t waking up, police said.
At 11:58 a.m., a 911 call from one of the roommate’s phones requested help for an unconscious person, police said. The 911 caller’s identity has not been released but police said “multiple people talked with the 911 dispatcher.”
Responding officers found the four victims on the second and third floors, police said.
Police said they do not believe anyone at the house at the time of the 911 call was involved.
Police urge anyone with information to upload digital media to fbi.gov/moscowidaho or contact the tip line at tipline@ci.moscow.id.us or 208-883-7180.
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(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Between 2000 and 2020, reports to poison centers for child and teen marijuana use increased by 245%, according to a new study from the Oregon Health and Science University.
The researchers analyzed more than 330,000 reports in the National Poison Data System over the last 20 years and found the increase in marijuana rates was the most of any substance, with the largest increase between 2017 and 2020.
Alok Patel, ABC News medical contributor and pediatrician at Stanford Children’s Health, said he’s not surprised. “Marijuana is readily accessible, in multiple forms, whether at a store, from a friend or relative, or online,” he told ABC News.
Alcohol use reports slowly decreased across the same time frame and were surpassed by marijuana in 2014, according to the study.
Edible marijuana preparations accounted for the highest increase in calls to poison centers, while dextromethorphan, used in cough medicine, had the highest number of cases across the 20-year period, accounting for 15% of reports. This was followed by benzodiazepines, such as Valium and Xanax, which made up 7.5% of cases.
Marijuana had the highest number of calls from 2018 to 2020. Older male teens ages 16 to 18 were the most likely to be involved with the reported cases, regardless of the substance, the study found.
The reports to poison centers were calls from health professionals, public health agencies or the public for exposures to any substance where there was a health concern and intentional misuse. The calls may have come in because people used the drug improperly, took it to achieve a high or overdosed. Deaths from any substance were rare (0.1%) and most deadly ingestions were in older adolescents.
Overall, between 2000 and 2020, the substances most commonly responsible for calls to poison centers were over-the-counter medications, household products, or common childhood prescriptions, like Benadryl, Tylenol or anti-depressant medications.
In the study, the authors wrote that they suspected the rapid increase in reports of child marijuana use, particularly between 2017 and 2020, may be related to the recent legalization of marijuana across the nation. However, this will require more research to clarify.
“These are important conversations that need to happen alongside conversations about legalizing marijuana,” Patel said. “While it is true that other substances are far more dangerous when ingested, this doesn’t mean marijuana is harmless… We still have a lot to learn about the long-term effects of marijuana use in the developing adolescent brain.”
Surya Manickam, MD MSc, is a resident physician in pediatrics at Columbia University/New York-Presbyterian Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
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(LOS ANGELES) — Jury selection in the trial of Tory Lanez is set to begin on Monday as the rapper faces charges for allegedly shooting and injuring hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion on July 12, 2020 in the Hollywood Hills.
Opening statements and testimony are expected to begin on Dec. 12, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told ABC News.
According to prosecutors, Lanez “personally inflicted great bodily injury” upon Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, after the two got into an argument while riding in an SUV in the Hollywood Hills, resulting in an injury in her foot for which she received medical treatment.
Lanez, a popular rapper whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was charged in Oct. 2020 with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm (personal use of a firearm), and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, according to charging documents obtained by ABC News. “Personal use of a firearm” is not a separate charge but a sentencing enhancement linked to the first count that increases Lanez’ possible sentence.
Lanez pleaded not guilty on both counts. If he is convicted as charged, he faces up to 22 years and 8 months in prison, according to prosecutors. ABC News has reached out to his attorney Shawn Holley for additional comment.
Megan Thee Stallion, a Grammy-winning rapper who is known for chart-topping hits like “Savage” and “WAP” with Cardi B, first spoke out about the shooting in a since-deleted July 15, 2020 Instagram post, but she did not name Lanez as her alleged shooter until months later and said that she had initially tried to protect him.
At the time, news of Lanez’s arrest sparked rumors about his involvement in the incident. Although Megan received an outpouring of support, she was also subjected to a barrage of attacks on social media from fans jumping to his defense and casting doubt about her injury.
Megan named Lanez as her alleged shooter in an emotional Instagram Live post on Aug. 21, 2022, saying she initially “tried to spare” him.
“Yes … Tory shot me. You shot me and you got your publicist and your people going to these blogs lying,” she said in the emotional video. “Stop lying. Why lie? I don’t understand.”
‘Protect Black women’: How Megan Thee Stallion’s story became part of a movement
Before he was charged, Lanez denied shooting Megan in a lyric on his album, “Daystar,” released on Sept. 25, 2020.
“I ain’t do it,” he claims on the the album’s opening song, “Money Over Fallouts,” and claims, “Megan people tryna frame me for a shootin’.”
Megan had said in the Instagram Live video that she initially didn’t report getting shot to police or that they had a gun in the car — which became a part of the defense’s line of questioning during pretrial hearings — because amid a string of police-involved shootings of unarmed Black men and women in the U.S., she had a fear and mistrust of police.
Los Angeles Police Detective Ryan Stogner testified during pretrial hearings that Megan was initially hesitant to report the incident to police because as a Black woman, she feared the police and was worried of the force they could use against Lanez, who is a Black man, according to court transcripts obtained by ABC News.
“She was afraid that there had been recent police shootings, and she described her concern for the police possibly shooting the defendant since he had just committed a shooting,” Stogner said, according to the transcripts.
Since sharing her story Megan has faced intense public vitriol and attacks on social media, with fans questioning her account, accusing her of lying and even making jokes about her injury.
“Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment,” Megan wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times published on Oct. 13, 2020. “…There’s not much room for passionate advocacy if you are a Black woman.”
This case has sparked intense debates over society’s treatment of women and Megan’s account of the incident — and the intense public vitriol she faced after sharing her story — has spotlighted the Protect Black Women movement, which addresses the two-front battle of sexism and racism that Black women experience in their own communities and in society at large.
Most recently, hip-hop star Drake prompted backlash when he appeared to target Megan and cast doubt on her account of the shooting in a controversial lyric on his latest album, “Her Loss.”
“This b—- lie about getting shots, but she still a stallion / She don’t even get the joke but she still smiling,” Drake raps in the song, “Circo Loco,” featuring 21 Savage, which appears on his newest album, “Her Loss.”
While some fans have suggested on social media that the lyric could be referencing plastic surgery, others have accused Drake of questioning Megan’s allegation that she was shot in the feet by Lanez.
“Despite the irrefutable evidence that Megan was a victim of gun violence, the ignorant continue to support her attacker,” Megan’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told ABC News in a statement amid backlash over Drake’s lyric.
Drake has not addressed the backlash in connection to his lyric publicly and his representatives declined to comment for this story.
Megan, who has used her platform to spotlight the stories of Black women, has become one of the most visible voices in the movement.
“… it’s ridiculous that some people think the simple phrase ‘Protect Black Women’ is controversial. We deserve to be protected as human beings,” she wrote in her October 2020 op-ed.
“We are entitled to our anger about a laundry list of mistreatment and neglect that we suffer,” she also wrote.
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(KYIV, Ukraine) — At one school in Kyiv, students and teachers are continuing to go to class, even in the dark, doing their schoolwork with the help of flashlights.
“We don’t care, if it takes months and years without light — we still continue,” said 16-year-old Egor Egorenko.
While large parts of Ukraine are plunged into darkness amid rolling blackouts following Russian attacks on its energy grid, Ukrainian defiance appears to be shining as brightly as ever.
Power crews are continuing to work overtime on the new frontlines in an effort to keep the lights on.
“There were emergencies before. But before they were rare and for brief periods of time, now we have emergencies every day,” said Oleksandr Danilyuk, an employee with Ukraine’s main energy company. “I just worry that [Russia will] finish destroying all our infrastructure, so that people are left completely without power.”
Just going about their daily lives has become an act of resistance, some Ukrainians told ABC News.
“Our soldiers they are fighting in the terrible trenches, and our idea is to fight here, with the help of maybe a piece of chalk, but we are fighting,” said Volodymir Dmytriev, school principal and history teacher.
“We know that spring will come, and we will be the winners,” he1 added. “As for our students, they have only one duty: to study to rebuild and build free independent Ukraine.”
Shops are also powering through — at one pharmacy, staffers continued to work with headlamps, undeterred. And there were no empty seats at a classical music concert in downtown Kyiv, where the stage was lit only by candles.
“In my opinion, these concerts are exceptionally important right now,” concert organizer Oleksandr Pescherytsia said. “They’re for people who are afraid, who had their safety and peace of mind torn away from them, so it’s important to keep the light and warmth in people’s hearts alive. Nothing does it better than music.”
Kyiv resident Maksym Kondratovych has gone to great lengths to brace for a worst-case scenario, telling ABC News he’s basically camping in his own apartment. He stocked up on everything from equipment to filter and boil water, camping food — including dried borscht — glowsticks, flashlights and dry showers. And he has a sleeping bag at the ready for when it gets too cold.
And 10-year-old Ruth Gorshkova is determined to continue attending her guitar lessons no matter what happens next, even if that means playing in near total darkness. She told ABC News it’s her way of standing up to the Russians, that it helps her forget about the war and that when she plays, “with no lights, I have a light in my heart.”
ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic, Natalia Kushnir, Yulia Drozd and Yuriy Boyko contributed to this report.
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(DENVER) — Four years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled narrowly in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, the justices are preparing to take up a potentially more sweeping and consequential question: whether public accommodation laws that require business owners to offer all customers their goods and services infringe on freedom of speech.
Denver wedding website designer Lorie Smith, who opposes same-sex marriage, is asking the high court to strike down Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act, which would require her to serve LGBTQ couples or face fines. She says the law, which has no exemptions, forces her to implicitly express support for something that violates her religious beliefs.
“While I’m happy to serve everyone, and I have served everyone, including those who identify as LGBT, there are certain messages I am unable to promote through my business,” Smith told ABC News.
The case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, pits the free speech clause of the First Amendment against legislative efforts to stamp out discrimination against minority groups, particularly the LGBTQ community. Lower federal courts sided with Colorado, saying it has an overriding interest in ensuring equal access to publicly available goods and services.
“If you’re open to the public, you need to accommodate everybody. That’s a core of our civil rights law, and it has deep roots in American law,” said Colorado Attorney General Phillip Weiser.
If the justices were to allow a “free speech exemption” from anti-discrimination protections, Weiser said, the impact could extend far beyond sexual orientation to potentially allow discrimination based on someone’s religion, race or ethnicity.
“If a wedding website designer says I will sell Christian websites that have Biblical verses on it, they can choose to design their websites, design their product as they want,” Weiser said. “What they can’t do is say if you’re a same-sex couple, you can’t have this website.”
In 2018, the Supreme Court sided with Colorado baker Jack Phillips after he was fined by state officials for declining to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple; but the 7-2 decision focused only on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s conduct in the matter, saying the panel had shown undue hostility to Phillips’ religious views during the investigation.
The court at the time did not address the broader question of denying service to certain customers on First Amendment grounds, which it will now consider. Until Smith’s case is resolved, Phillips said he continues to stay out of the lucrative wedding cake business. Smith has also refrained from marketing wedding website services.
“The state doesn’t have a right to tell American citizens what to believe and what to speak and what they cannot speak,” Phillips said in an interview at his Masterpiece Cakeshop. “Lorie Smith’s concern is what the state did to me; it could happen to her, or it could happen to anybody.”
Phillips argues that he and Smith are artists and that each custom-made cake and website are acts of personal expression. “The cake itself is a message,” he said. “If it’s not something I would say, then it’s not something I’ll write on a cake.”
LGBTQ advocates see things differently. Since the Court has recognized marriage as a civil right, regardless of sexual orientation, the nature of the couple seeking wedding services shouldn’t be a basis to discriminate, they say.
“And it’s not just cakes and flowers: Think about haircuts, think about clothing design, think about landscape design. Any kind of custom good or service can be thought of as having creative or artistic qualities,” said Jennifer Pizer, acting chief legal officer of Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
“This case has the potential to blow an enormous hole in our nation’s civil rights laws, and the stakes really could not be higher for LGBTQ people,” Pizer said.
Research published last year by the Journal of Legal Studies found that religious exemptions under civil rights law “can have a significant and robust, even if inadvertent, impact” on customers, estimating a 61% to 85% chance that same-sex couples will experience discrimination when planning a wedding.
“I think that what’s really important is that if somebody decides that they do need to speak up about unfair treatment that we have laws that protect them,” said Rex Fuller, CEO of The Center on Colfax, an LGBTQ community center in downtown Denver.
Twenty-six years ago, in the Supreme Court case Romer v. Evans, a 6-3 majority struck down a Colorado amendment that prohibited protections for LGBTQ people. The years since have seen significant expansion of rights and equality, but some fear the Smith case could mark a turn.
“There’s anxiety. We’re watching situations in other states, a lot of sort of more conservative states, like actively legislating against transgender folks and transgender acceptance,” said Sable Schultz, The Center’s manager of transgender programs.
Transgender discrimination is at the heart of Phillips’ latest legal battle involving Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act. Autumn Scardina, a transgender Denver woman, is currently suing the baker in state civil court for allegedly refusing to design her a pink and blue cake because of her gender identity.
“As soon as I told him who I was, then it became, I won’t sell it to you,” Scaridna told ABC News. “What I asked for was a pink and blue cake, and he freely admits he makes pink and blue cakes. Even though I was guarded, even though I expected that result and was hoping for the other, it still stung, stung tremendously.”
Phillips maintains he is unable to design a cake celebrating a gender transition because of his religious beliefs. “We told this person, you know, we serve everybody; will gladly serve you — will make other custom cakes for you. You’re welcome to come in and shop, buy cookies, brownies, anything that I have,” he said, “but I can’t create that cake because it is a message that I couldn’t create.”
The state civil case, which is still pending on appeal, highlights the stakes in the higher-profile showdown playing out in Lorie Smith’s case at the nation’s highest court.
“I’m hoping the U.S. Supreme Court justices will stand for free speech because no one should live in fear of government punishment simply because the government doesn’t agree with their views on a certain topic,” Smith said.
Attorney General Weiser said he’s optimistic the justices will hold the line. “The regulation of conduct to prohibit discrimination is protected activity, and it is really critical that we not break from that,” he said.
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(WASHINGTON) — Vandals are suspected of causing a major power outage across a North Carolina county that plunged about 45,000 customers into darkness amid freezing temperatures, according to authorities.
Evidence of sabotage was found at multiple electrical substations following the massive blackout Saturday night, prompting the Moore County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the incident as a “criminal occurrence.”
The power outages began at about 7 p.m. Saturday, and thousands of Duke Energy customers remained without electricity on Sunday after enduring freezing temperatures overnight.
“As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
No arrests have been announced.
Duke Energy officials said utility crews are working to restore power by 10 p.m. Sunday. Several law enforcement agencies in Moore County were providing security as crews worked to repair the damage.
A spokesperson for Duke Energy told ABC News the outages are likely to extend beyond Sunday as crews work to fix what were described as “indications of public interference and vandalism.”
The sheriff’s office has scheduled a news conference for Sunday afternoon to update the public.
Mike Cameron, Southern Pines’ assistant town manager and fire chief, told the Raleigh News and Observer that Duke Energy officials informed him that two substations were hit with gunfire.
“Everything that I’m understanding is that it’s not an accidental cause,” Cameron told the newspaper.
Cameron said several vehicle accidents were being blamed on the power outage, including a multiple car crash that injured several people at an intersection in Southern Pines.
“The car wreck was totally because the stop lights were out,” Cameron told the News and Observer.
Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, North Carolina, also lost power and was forced to switch to its backup generator, officials said.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in a Twitter post that he has spoken with Duke Energy and state law enforcement officials about the crisis.
“They are investigating and working to return electricity to those impacted. The state is providing support as needed,” Cooper said.
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(WASHINGTON) — Joe and Jill Biden are set to attend the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday evening in Washington to celebrate five individuals and groups for their artistic accomplishments.
The president and the first lady first went to the annual event in their current offices in 2021, donning masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Donald and Melania Trump, the Bidens’ predecessors, skipped the celebration, which is customarily attended by the president.)
This year, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will honor actor and human rights activist George Clooney, singer Amy Grant, performer Gladys Knight, composer and conductor Tania León and Irish band U2.
“Growing up in a small town in Kentucky I could never have imagined that someday I’d be the one sitting in the balcony at the Kennedy Center Honors. To be mentioned in the same breath with the rest of these incredible artists is an honor. This is a genuinely exciting surprise for the whole Clooney family,” Clooney said in a statement on the Kennedy Center’s website.
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are also slated to attend Sunday night’s event.
The Bidens’ appearance will come after the couple welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron for a state visit last week. The president also traveled to Boston to greet Prince William at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
The center each year honors artists for their impact on American culture. Honorees celebrated in 2021 included “Saturday Night Live” showrunner Lorne Michaels, singer and actress Bette Midler and singer Joni Mitchell.
The celebration often serves as a magnet for Washington politicos and Hollywood mainstays, drawing them to the Kennedy Center, situated on the Potomac River in the nation’s capital.
The recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors were announced in July.
Besides recognizing honorees’ artistic talents and contributions, the ceremony is also intended to raise money for the Kennedy Center, which puts on an array of shows throughout the year.
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(WASHINGTON) — Republican Ohio Rep. Dave Joyce said Sunday that he didn’t want to be drawn into commenting on Donald Trump’s recent call to suspend the Constitution over baseless claims of 2020 election fraud.
Joyce, the chair of the Republican Governance Group, a centrist group in the House, was asked by ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos to respond to Trump’s post on Saturday on his Truth Social platform. The former president wrongly asserted that the “massive fraud” — which did not occur — “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Joyce initially declined to respond, saying he didn’t know what Trump said on social media and that the public wasn’t “interested in looking backwards.” But Stephanopoulos pressed further, and Joyce ultimately said that Trump’s comment should be taken “in context” but that it wouldn’t prevent him from supporting Trump if he ends up winning the nomination.
“It’s early. I think there’s going to be a lot of people in the primary … [but] I will support whoever the Republican nominee is,” Joyce said while noting he didn’t think Trump would manage to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination because there are “a lot of other good quality candidates out there.”
“That’s a remarkable statement,” Stephanopoulos said. “You just said you’d support a candidate who’s come out for suspending the Constitution.”
“Well, you know, he says a lot of things,” Joyce said, adding, “I can’t be really chasing every one of these crazy statements that come from any of these candidates.”
“You can’t come out against someone who’s for suspending the Constitution?” Stephanopoulos pushed back once again.
“He says a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ever going to happen. So you got to [separate] fact from fantasy — and fantasy is that we’re going to suspend the Constitution and go backwards. We’re moving forward,” Joyce said.
Elsewhere in the interview, he told Stephanopoulos that with a newly-won Republican majority in the House, the group that he leads will focus on kitchen-table issues.
In July, Joyce was unanimously elected chair of the Republican Governance Group, which he has said is “hellbent on breaking through Washington’s dysfunction.”
“Our group is basically focused on making government work,” Joyce told Stephanopoulos when asked about how much leverage his group holds and how they plan to use it in a divided government. “We’re not the people who you see on TV every week talking about issues that aren’t germane to what the people are feeling at home.”
Joyce cited the education system, gas prices and how inflation was driving up the cost of living — all similar to what incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries mentioned in his own appearance on “This Week” on Sunday.
“What are the specific pieces of legislation you can work on together?” Stephanopoulos asked Joyce.
“We have to set a budget … and then we have to do the appropriations process,” he said. “You all talk about different things but at the end of the day, we’re going to do our job and put 12 appropriations bills out there.”
Joyce sits on a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee responsible for funding the federal government. He said the spending bills in a Republican House will be “lower than what’s happened in the last four years.”
Shifting to Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker, Stephanopoulos noted that he may not have the necessary support next month with five Republicans in the 222-seat majority having said publicly they won’t back him.
“Does he have the votes? How will he get there?” Stephanopoulos asked.
Joyce, like other leading Republicans, said McCarthy proved he “deserves the opportunity” and “has done the hard work that was necessary to bring together the majority.”
“You can’t beat somebody with nobody. And right now, you hear that we’re just not going to vote for Kevin. Well, then who?” he said.
He said compromise would have to prevail among centrists and hardliners in order to accomplish things.
“What these people got to get used to is that if a majority of our conference agree to something, then that’s how you move the ball forward. And just because five or six people don’t like it doesn’t mean that we should hold up the whole thing,” Joyce said.
Echoing Jeffries, he played down the possibility that some Democrats would join Republicans in backing an alternative to McCarthy.
“I think the Democrats are going to vote for Democrats, Republicans will vote for Republicans,” Joyce said. “And I think, at the end of the day, Kevin will be the next speaker of the House.”
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