(LONDON) — After four days of celebrations, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee ended with a surprise appearance by the queen on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
The 96-year-old queen, dressed in a green coat and hat, white gloves and her signature pearls, stood on the balcony alongside her oldest son and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Directly to their left were the future heirs, Prince William and his son, Prince George, 8, and the rest of the Cambridge family, including Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4.
The queen was absent from many of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations but traveled from Windsor Castle to Buckingham Palace Sunday to be there for the finale.
As members of her family and the thousands of people gathered outside of the palace sang “God Save the Queen,” Elizabeth stood and watched, appearing to take it all in.
Before she and her family left the balcony, the queen gave her famous royal wave.
It was the same wave she gave 70 years ago at her coronation on June 2, 1953.
On that day, the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II stood on the palace balcony alongside her husband, Prince Philip, who died last year at age 99, and their two children at the time, Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
The queen was 27-years-old when she became queen following the death of her father, King George VI, on Feb. 6, 1952.
Elizabeth — who now has four children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren — is the first British monarch in history to reach a Platinum Jubilee.
On Sunday, the queen shared a written thank you message to mark the end of her jubilee celebrations.
“When it comes to how to mark seventy years as your Queen, there is no guidebook to follow. It really is a first. But I have been humbled and deeply touched that so many people have taken to the streets to celebrate my Platinum Jubilee,” she wrote. “While I may not have attended every event in person, my heart has been with you all; and I remain committed to serving you to the best of my ability, supported by my family.”
“I have been inspired by the kindness, joy and kinship that has been so evident in recent days, and I hope this renewed sense of togetherness will be felt for many years to come,” the queen continued. “I thank you most sincerely for your good wishes and for the part you have all played in these happy celebrations.”
The queen signed her message with her first name, Elizabeth, followed by the letter R, which stands for Regina, the Latin word for queen.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s administration is working to fortify the economy amid steep inflation with efforts to shore up the supply chain and “invest in the capacity, both physical and human, of our economy to keep up with demand,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday.
“The president has made clear inflation is his top economic priority, and he’s laid out a very clear strategy for doing that,” Buttigieg told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Buttigieg said the administration will “continue to take the steps that are both on the price side and on the growth side to keep our economy strong.”
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows the economy and inflation are top of mind for voters ahead of the 2022 midterms. Only 37% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economic recovery, according to the poll.
The current inflation rate is at 8.3%, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An updated number will be released on Friday.
Buttigieg said on “This Week” that the president has proposed “a number of things” to help improve the economy that could be passed by Congress, including lowering the costs of insulin, child care and housing.
These measures “would make a difference no matter what’s happening macroeconomically,” Buttigieg argued. “We would make life easier for Americans who are facing these economic question marks.”
Gas prices — at a record-high after increasing for months — are also a concern. Heading into the summer travel season, the current nationwide average is about $4.84 per gallon.
About two months ago, Biden announced plans to release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the strategic petroleum reserve, saying at the time that he expected this to bring down gas prices.
But Stephanopoulos on Sunday pressed Buttigieg, saying the move “hasn’t made any difference at all.” He asked: “Was that a failure?”
“I don’t think it’s correct to say it hasn’t made any difference at all,” Buttigieg responded. “This is an action that helped to stabilize global oil prices.”
“The action the president took around ethanol, introducing additional flexibility there, that’s having an effect on prices in the Midwest,” he continued. “But we also know that the price of gasoline is not set by a dial in the Oval Office. And when an oil company is deciding, hour by hour, how much to charge you for a gallon of gas, they’re not calling the administration to ask what they should do. They’re doing it based on their goal of maximizing their profits.”
In early April, oil executives testified before Congress, disputing the argument that they are price gouging consumers. They claimed the situation is complex and that in the near term, increasing the supply of oil and natural gas could help.
Amid an increase in gun violence and several recent mass shootings, the president has also renewed his call for new gun control legislation, which has long been resisted by congressional Republicans who say it would violate gun rights. In remarks delivered Thursday night, Biden urged raising the age to buy assault weapons to 21, strengthening background checks, banning high-capacity magazines and other measures.
Stephanopoulos asked Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, “If you were still mayor of South Bend right now, what would you be doing?”
“We have a horrific scourge of gun violence in this country,” Buttigieg said.
As mayor, he explained, he would do what he could on the local level. “But you’re also looking at Washington to say, ‘Will anything be different this time?'”
“Will we actually acknowledge the reasons why we are the only country, the only developed country where this happens on a routine basis?” Buttigieg said. “And the idea that us being the only developed country where this happens routinely — especially in terms of the mass shootings — is somehow a result of the design of the doorways on our school buildings is the definition of insanity, if not the definition of denial.”
(COLUMBIA, S.C.) — South Carolina’s Tom Rice was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Now, as Rice fights an uphill battle for his political life in the heart of Trump country, he is standing by that choice — calling it “the conservative vote” in an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday on “This Week.”
“I did it then. And I would do it again tomorrow,” Rice said.
Rice said Trump deserved to be impeached for potentially endangering former Vice President Mike Pence and his family at the Capitol and not acting more quickly to stop the deadly riot as it unfolded last year.
“When he watched the Capitol, the ‘People’s House,’ being sacked, when he watched the Capitol Police officers being beaten for three or four hours and lifted not one thing or to stop it — I was livid then and I’m livid today about it,” Rice recalled. “And it was very clear to me I took an oath to protect the Constitution.”
Rice said Trump deserved to be impeached for potentially endangering former Vice President Mike Pence and his family at the Capitol and not acting more quickly to stop the deadly riot as it unfolded last year.
“When he watched the Capitol, the ‘People’s House,’ being sacked, when he watched the Capitol Police officers being beaten for three or four hours and lifted not one thing or to stop it — I was livid then and I’m livid today about it,” Rice recalled. “And it was very clear to me I took an oath to protect the Constitution.”
He also warned his party against rallying around the former president if Trump seeks the Oval Office again, as Trump has often hinted.
“I think it will hurt us,” Rice said. “We’ll get painted more in the corner of extremism, they’ll try to label us as extremist. And he’ll feed that.”
Rice criticized Republicans, including GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, for quickly embracing Trump in the weeks after the Capitol attack.
He declined to say whether McCarthy should be speaker if Republicans win back the House in November.
“I’m not gonna answer that one right now,” he told ABC’s Karl. “We’ll see what happens.”
Rice praised Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who also voted to impeach Trump and now serves as the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, calling her a “real Republican.” Like Rice, Cheney drew Trump’s wrath for criticizing him and is contending with her own primary challenge.
“She’d be a great speaker,” Rice said. “She is very conservative and I think she’s a fearless leader.”
But before November, Rice needs to defend his seat in Congress on June 14, when he’ll face off against six other candidates — including Trump-endorsed state Rep. Russell Fry — for the Republican nomination.
The crowded field makes it unlikely that any of the candidates will win more than 50% of the vote and avoid a runoff later this month between the top two finishers, Jerry Rovner, the Republican party chairman in Rice’s district, told ABC News.
Rovner, who is officially neutral in the primary but critical of Rice’s position on impeachment, said Rice’s vote could be a “major problem with a lot of constituents” given Trump’s popularity in the area.
“He could vote 800 times the way they [want him to] vote, but the one thing he voted on that got the press, they were very upset about,” Rovner said of Rice. “And that’s really what it comes down to.”
Rice’s balancing act was on full display at a recent forum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where some voters who had previously supported him walked out when he defended his impeachment vote.
“He’s a traitor, and I just don’t trust him,” Lyne Vail told ABC News. “If you can’t back your party, he’s not going to back you or me.”
Billy Zevgolis, a Myrtle Beach businessman and undecided voter, said he also disagreed with Rice’s impeachment vote.
“Right now, Trump is our guy,” he told ABC News. “I don’t like his personality, but his politics are right on the money. His values are aligned with mine.”
Rice hopes he can convince enough voters to overlook his stance on Trump’s impeachment even if they don’t agree with it. He could also benefit from the state’s open primaries, which allow Democrats and independents to vote in the GOP race.
Even if he loses, Rice has “absolutely” no regrets, he said.
“You know that, like your obituary, the first sentence is going to be ‘Tom Rice, who was a Republican member of Congress, voted to impeach Donald Trump,’” Karl told him.
“So be it,” he said. “I’ll wear it like a badge. So be it.”
(PHILADELPHIA) — Three people were killed and 12 others were injured when “several active shooters” opened fire at a crowded intersection in Philadelphia’s South Street entertainment district late Saturday night — one of a string of mass shootings that erupted across the country over the weekend, officials said.
The Philadelphia shooting was one of at least five across the nation involving four or more victims in a violent 27-hour span, including one that left three people dead and 11 injured in Chattanooga, Tennessee, another in which three people were killed at a graduation party in Socorro, Texas, and yet another that left a 14-year-old girl dead and eight people injured at a strip mall in Phoenix, Arizona, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks shootings across the nation.
In total, nine people were killed and 38 injured in the five shootings.
The Philadelphia shooting erupted just before midnight at the busy intersection of Third and South streets.
Inspector D.F. Pace of the Philadelphia Police Department said hundreds of people were milling about the area when the shooting caused a panic and sent people running in all directions, some diving behind cars for cover.
“There were hundreds of individuals just enjoying South Street, as they do every single weekend, when the shooting broke out,” Pace told reporters.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a press conference Sunday afternoon that a police officer responding to gunshots in the area witnessed a man firing a gun into a crowd and attempted to detain him. Outlaw said the officer fired at the armed man three times before losing the assailant in the crowd.
Outlaw said investigators believe the officer shot the gunman, who is still being sought.
No arrests have been announced. Investigators are combing through security video in hopes of identifying the suspects and determining a motive for the shooting.
Outlaw the shooting apparently started during a physical confrontation between two people, including one of the people killed in the incident.
“These individuals eventually began firing at one another with both being struck, one fatally,” Outlaw said.
The names of the three people killed in the episode — a 34-year-old man, a 27-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man — were not immediately released. Outlaw said two of the slain victims were innocent bystanders as well as many of those who were wounded.
Police recovered two guns from the scene, including one with an extended magazine, Pace said.
Seven of the 12 wounded victims were taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, overwhelming the emergency room staff and prompting 911 dispatchers to direct first responders to take additional victims to two other area hospitals.
Outlaw said the injured victims are 17 to 69 years old and their conditions ranged from stable to critical.
“This is beyond unacceptable,” said Outlaw, who asked any witnesses of the shooting to contact police.
The mass shooting came on the heels of a deadly Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia, in which more than 40 people were shot in separate incidents across the city, including a 9-year-old boy and his father returning to their home from a holiday cookout, police said.
As of midnight Saturday, Philadelphia had recorded 211 homicides this year, 14 fewer than this time in 2021, a year that saw a record 562 homicides, according to Philadelphia Police Department crime statistics.
2nd mass shooting in Chattanooga in the last week
Chattanooga, Tennessee, police are investigating the city’s second mass shooting for the second weekend in a row after a barrage of shots from multiple gunmen early Sunday left three people dead and 11 injured, officials said.
The shooting occurred around 3 a.m. outside a bar downtown Chattanooga.
Chattanooga police Chief Celeste Murphy said multiple gunmen are suspected in the shooting. She said of the three people killed, two were shot to death and one was struck by a car fleeing the scene.
No arrests have been announced.
The incident follows a mass shooting that occurred in downtown Chattanooga on May 28 in which six teenagers were shot, including two who were critically injured.
14-year-old shot dead in Phoenix
The Phoenix shooting broke out around 1 a.m. local time Saturday at a strip mall in the northern part of the city where more than 100 people were attending a party, according to the Phoenix Police Department. A 14-year-old girl was fatally shot in the incident, two women suffered life-threatening injuries and another six victims, including a teenager, sustained non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
“I heard over a hundred gunshots going off,” a woman who witnessed the shooting told ABC affiliate station KNXV-TV in Phoenix.
She said that prior to the shooting, she heard cars doing burnouts and donuts in the street. Once the gunfire erupted, the witness said she saw people screaming and running in all directions.
“I, myself, was like hiding behind cars as the shots kept getting closer and closer,” the witness said.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego took to Twitter to voice her frustration over the surge in gun violence in her city and across the country, writing, “Seems we can’t go a day without another mass shooting.”
“Time has run out,” Gallego tweeted. “Change must happen now.”
4 shot, 2 fatally, in Mesa, Arizona
Two men were killed and two people were wounded in a shooting that occurred early Sunday outside a bar in Mesa, Arizona.
Sgt. Chuck Trapani of the Mesa Police Department said the shooting occurred around 2:30 a.m. outside The Lounge Soho. He said police went to the scene to investigate a report of gunshots and found two men shot in the parking lot. The victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
Trapani said officers searched the area and found two more wounded people, who were taken to area hospitals.
Trapani told KNXV that officers arriving on the scene saw a silver car speeding away and chased it. Police stopped the car and detained three occupants.
He said that while no guns were found in the car, a weapon was found along the path the vehicle fled.
No arrests have been announced.
5 teens shot at graduation party
Five teenagers were shot and wounded Saturday night at a graduation party in Socorro, Texas, a suburb of El Paso, according to police.
Socorro Police Chief David Burton said at a news conference that two teenagers were in critical condition.
Burton said that about 100 teenagers and young adults were attending a graduation party at a home when an individual began firing into the crowd.
He said the wounded victims ranged in age from 16 to 18.
Burton said different caliber shell casings were found at the scene, but police have not confirmed whether more than one shooter was involved.
“The initial investigation indicates this was a targeted attack,” Burton said. “There is no immediate threat to the public.”
No arrests have been announced.
The mass shootings followed President Joe Biden’s prime-time speech Thursday addressing the surge in gun violence across the nation, including the rampage at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school on May 24 that left 19 students and two teachers dead, a racially-motivated massacre at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that left 10 dead and three wounded, and a shooting Wednesday at a medical office in Tulsa, Oklahoma that in which a doctor and three other people were fatally shot.
Biden called for a federal ban on assault weapons and implored Congress act, saying, “We can’t fail the American people again.”
(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — Hedge fund manager David McCormick conceded the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania to celebrity TV Dr. Mehmet Oz.
McCormick announced the decision on Friday, cutting short a recount process of the May 17 contest.
“I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished this campaign,” McCormick said. “We saw a historic turnout in the Republican primary and I’m proud to say 419,000 or so Republican voters who put their faith in my campaign.”
The Pennsylvania primary was one of the most competitive races to watch so far this midterm election cycle. McCormick and Oz were separated by less than 1,000 votes on Election Day, triggering Pennsylvania law that a recount be conducted if a candidate’s margin of victory is 0.5% or less.
The recount began last week and needed to be completed by June 7. The final results were expected to be announced on June 8.
“We spent the last 17 days making sure that every Republican vote was counted in a way that would result in the will of Pennsylvania voters being fulfilled,” McCormick said as he conceded. “That’s what it’s all about, that is what this process is all about.”
“But it’s not clear to me, with the recount largely complete, that we have a nominee,” McCormick continued, “and today I called Mehmet Oz to congratulate him on his victory.”
McCormick said he’ll work to unite Republicans and Pennsylvania behind Oz ahead of the general election.
Oz said he is “tremendously grateful” for McCormick’s promise to help his campaign.
(INSERT TWEET)
Oz shook up the race in late 2021 with the announcement that he was joining the primary field. He then garnered the coveted endorsement of former President Donald Trump in April. Trump had urged Oz to declare victory over McCormick just the day after the May 17 primary, when it was too close to call.
Oz will face off against Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who easily won the Democratic nomination last month after suffering a stroke just days before the election.
The Pennsylvania seat, held by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, is viewed as one of the Democratic Party’s best chances to flip a seat in the 50-50 divided Senate.
Fetterman revealed Friday that he nearly died from the health episode, stating he ignored warning signs for years and “should have taken my health more seriously.” Fetterman underwent surgery on the same day as the Senate primary.
“It’s not something I’m proud of, but it is something I hope that others can learn from,” Fetterman said. “So please: listen to your body, and be aware of the signs. Because ignoring them — and avoiding the doctor because you might not like what they have to tell you — could cost you your life.”
Fetterman said it may take him some time before he’s back on the campaign trail, but that he’ll be “ready” for the November general election.
Oz said Friday, “Now that our primary is over, we will make sure that this U.S. Senate seat does not fall into the hands of the radical left, led by John Fetterman.”
(STURGIS, Mich.) — Abbott Nutrition’s baby formula plant in Michigan has officially reopened its doors and restarted production after shuttering nearly four months ago.
Hundreds of workers returned to their posts Saturday morning for the first time since the Sturgis facility closed amid contamination concerns in February following the discovery of a deadly bacteria inside.
The closure and a voluntary recall were among several factors that contributed to a nationwide formula shortage crisis.
It will be roughly another six to eight weeks before the Sturgis plant is back to full capacity, according to Abbott, and product returns to shelves with a real impact on families.
“We understand the urgent need for formula and our top priority is getting high-quality, safe formula into the hands of families across America,” the company, one of the largest makers of formula in the U.S., said in a statement. “We will ramp production as quickly as we can while meeting all requirements. We’re committed to safety and quality and will do everything we can to re-earn the trust parents, caregivers and health care providers have placed in us for 130 years.”
The plant’s reopening comes nearly three weeks after it reached an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on a plan to reopen safely.
Abbott said it will first prioritize the production of its specialty and metabolic formulas, like its hypoallergenic EleCare, since those formulas are especially critical for medically vulnerable babies who can’t switch to different brands as easily.
The company said it expects to start releasing some EleCare product “on or about June 20,” adding that it is “working hard to fulfill the steps necessary to restart production of Similac and other formulas and will do so as soon as we can.”
Last month, Abbott CEO Robert Ford expressed remorse at his company’s role in the nationwide shortage in an op-ed published in the Washington Post.
“The past few months have distressed us as they have you, and so I want to say: We’re sorry to every family we’ve let down since our voluntary recall exacerbated our nation’s baby formula shortage,” Ford wrote. “I have high expectations of this company, and we fell short of them.”
While families wait for formula to hit shelves, Ford announced in his op-ed that Abbott is establishing a $5 million fund “to help these families with medical and living expenses as they weather this storm.”
Amid the shortage, the White House also has been working to bring formula in from abroad as part of President Joe Biden’s “Operation Fly Formula.” A third round of baby formula shipments is set to make its way to U.S. shores by way of United Airlines beginning next Thursday, administration officials said.
Biden also invoked the Defense Production Act last month to help speed up formula production in the U.S.
(NEW LISBON, Wis.) — A suspect who allegedly shot and killed a retired Wisconsin judge Friday in a targeted act had a hit list that included U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
Law enforcement responded to a home in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, Friday morning after a 911 caller reported there was an armed person in the residence who had fired two shots, according to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.
The caller had exited the home and contacted law enforcement from a nearby home.
The Juneau County Special Tactics and Response Team responded and attempted to negotiate with the alleged shooter before entering the home. Inside, they found the homeowner, a 68-year-old man, dead, and a 56-year-old man in the basement suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Kaul said.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition, Kaul said. A firearm was recovered at the scene, he said.
“This does appear to be a targeted act,” Kaul told reporters Friday. “The individual who is the suspect appears to have had other targets as well. It appears to be related to the judicial system.”
Kaul did not provide further details on the man killed and the other targets, beyond that they appear to be targeted “based on some sort of court case or court cases.”
The law enforcement official confirmed to ABC News that the victim was retired Juneau County Judge John Roemer. When SWAT entered the home, they found Roemer zip-tied to a chair and fatally shot, according to the source.
A hit list with over a dozen names found inside the suspect’s car at the scene included Roemer’s, McConnell’s and Whitmer’s, as well as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’, the source said.
The information is preliminary and could change as the investigation continues.
Kaul said authorities have contacted those believed to be targets and that they have determined there is no threat to the public at this time. Investigators are also working to determine any link between this incident and others, he said.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation is leading this investigation.
The investigation is being handled as both a homicide and a possible case of domestic terrorism, the law enforcement official told ABC News.
Roemer was first elected to the Juneau County Circuit Court in 2004 and was reelected in 2010 and 2016 before retiring in 2017. He had previously served as an assistant district attorney for Juneau County and an assistant state public defender. He also was a lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Army Reserves.
Threats against judges have increased in recent years. By one measure, there were over 4,500 threats and “inappropriate communications” against protected people, which includes federal judges, last year, according to the U.S. Marshals.
“Typically security for judges is based on threats,” ABC News crime and terrorism analyst Brad Garrett told “Good Morning America.” “It’s all going to be driven by known threats because there isn’t enough manpower obviously to guard every judge at every level in this country.”
Garrett said more should be learned in the coming days about how much law enforcement knew about the alleged shooter.
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas is fighting to get a federal bill passed that would limit access of public officials’ private information after her son was murdered in a targeted attack at their New Jersey home in 2020. A similar bill was passed in New Jersey in 2020. Daniel’s Law, named after Salas’ son, shields the home addresses and telephone numbers of any active or retired judge, prosecutor and law enforcement officer from public disclosure.
ABC News’ Will McDuffie and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The Connecticut lawyers who successfully sued the maker of the rifle used in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, shooting filed a letter Friday seeking documents and records from Daniel Defense, maker of the rifle used in the Uvalde, Texas, shooting May 24.
This petition was filed on behalf of the father of Amerie Jo Garza, one of the 19 children killed in the rampage by the alleged gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Alfred Garza, Amerie Jo’s father, is being represented by attorneys Josh Koskoff, who obtained a $73 million settlement to nine families of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims, and Texas-based attorneys Mikal Watts and Charla Aldous, according to a press release.
“We have to honor her and make sure we do good. From this day forward, I want to live my life for my daughter,” Garza told David Muir in a recent “World News Tonight” interview.
“My purpose for being now is to honor Amerie Jo’s memory,” Garza also said in the statement. “She would want to me to do everything I can so this will never happen again to any other child. I have to fight her fight.”
“Daniel Defense has said that they are praying for the Uvalde families. They should back up those prayers with meaningful action,” said Josh Koskoff of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. “If they really are sincere in their desire to support these families, they will provide the information that Mr. Garza has requested without delay or excuse. Either way, we will do a complete and thorough investigation, leaving no stone unturned.”
The petition letter is a precursor to a lawsuit that could seek to hold the gunmaker liable despite a federal shield for gunmakers that President Joe Biden asked the nation to repeal in his Thursday night speech.
A similar petition was filed Friday by Robb Elementary teacher Emilia Marin, whose lawyer spoke this week to ABC News.
In February, the families of five children and four adults killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School announced a landmark victory in their long-running case against Remington, the company that made and marketed the AR-15 weapon used in the Newton massacre.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice will not be prosecuting former Trump officials, chief of staff Mark Meadows and social media director Dan Scavino, for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee, according to sources familiar with the correspondence.
The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol previously voted in December 2021 to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress for not appearing before the committee and a criminal referral was sent to the Department of Justice. Meadows provided the committee with over 9,000 records and emails in regards to his activities and communications with former President Trump surrounding the riot but then refused to cooperate further and give a deposition.
The House voted to hold Scavino and former Trump adviser Peter Navarro in contempt in April after they refused to comply with a subpoena to testify before the Jan. 6 committee.
Navarro was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on two counts of contempt to Congress.
The New York Times first reported that the DOJ would not be pursuing charges against Meadows and Scavino.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), the chairman of the House Select committee investigating the attack, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) released the following statement on Friday evening. They declared that the indictment of Navarro was the “correct decision,” by the DOJ but did not agree with not pursuing charges against Meadows and Scavino.
“We find the decision to reward Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for their continued attack on the rule of law puzzling. Mr. Meadows and Mr. Scavino unquestionably have relevant knowledge about President Trump’s role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the events of January 6th. We hope the Department provides greater clarity on this matter,” the statement read.
“If the Department’s position is that either or both of these men have absolute immunity from appearing before Congress because of their former positions in the Trump Administration, that question is the focus of pending litigation. As the Select Committee has argued in District Court, Mark Meadows’s claim that he is entitled to absolute immunity is not correct or justified based on the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel Memoranda. No one is above the law.”
Kremlin Press Office/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — One hundred days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the unexpectedly prolonged conflict has created a political headache for President Joe Biden with no end in sight.
Historic inflation and sky-high prices at the gas pump in the U.S. have driven Biden’s popularity down ahead of midterm elections this fall.
He has to a large degree risked his political fortunes on the outcome of a war that he has pledged he will not send U.S. troops to fight — and which shows no signs of abating.
Russia has made recent gains on the battlefield. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russian forces now control 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Biden said Friday that “it appears” there will have to be “a negotiated settlement” to end the war.
“What that entails, I don’t know,” the president said, speaking to reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. “I don’t think anybody knows at this time.”
But Biden would not say if he thought Ukraine had to cede territory to Russia to achieve peace.
“Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he said. “It’s their territory. I’m not going to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do.”
The president has succeeded in largely keeping Western allies united, strengthening the NATO alliance in the face of Russia attempts to split it.
But as Russia continues to block Ukrainian food exports and sanctions drive up energy prices worldwide, Biden has found himself in the increasingly difficult position of balancing his desire to stop what he has called Russia’s threat to democracy, with Americans’ rising economic uncertainty.
Russia has also sought to present the conflict as a fight in which the United States is directly involved.
But while Biden insists he will not send American troops to Ukraine, as long as the war continues — and while the U.S. sends Ukraine increasingly sophisticated weaponry — the risk remains that the president could find himself more deeply involved than he wants.
The United States has sent billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Ukraine. Last month, Biden signed legislation providing $40 billion more over the coming months.
And it has provided intelligence that the Ukrainians have used to target Russian forces.
The U.S. military assistance — combined with aid from other Western nations — have contributed to Ukraine’s successes in fending off the Russian invasion.
The level of weapons systems the U.S. has provided has become more and more advanced over time.
This week, Biden committed to sending even more powerful, longer-range missile systems useful for the battle in eastern Ukraine.
After Russia’s failures early in the war — not taking any major cities and finding itself forced to narrow its aims — it has now made steady progress in the east.
What Vladimir Putin thought might just take a matter of days — conquering all of Ukraine — didn’t happen due to Ukrainian resolve and increasing American help.
But his aggression continues, despite unprecedented heavy sanctions that Biden said would change his behavior — sanctions now in effect for months.
One hundred days in, how Biden’s face-off with Putin ends — and when — is still an open question.
