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(NEW YORK) — The economic recovery from a pandemic-induced downturn has prompted a surge in worker pay, especially in some low-wage sectors like leisure and hospitality, leading to pronouncements of a shift in leverage between workers and management.
Despite a pandemic-era boom for low-wage workers, the hike in pay last year for a typical worker at the nation’s lowest-paying companies failed to keep up with the raises enjoyed by the chief executives at their firms, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank.
Moreover, at more than a third of the lowest-paying companies, the pay hike last year for a typical worker fell short of inflation, effectively amounting to a pay cut, the report said.
The 30-page report — which examines the 300 U.S. corporations that provided the lowest median pay in 2020, including large corporations such as Amazon and Starbucks — found that the CEO-to-worker pay gap at those companies grew wider last year compared with the year prior.
The average gap between CEO and median worker pay among those 300 low-paying companies rose last year to 670-to-1, up from 604-to-1 in 2020, the report said. Forty-nine firms had ratios above 1,000-to-1 last year, the study showed.
“Instead of using 2021 as an opportunity to reward low-wage workers, many of whom did work to keep the economy going during the crisis, we saw gaps further widening and companies focusing on keeping their CEOs happy,” Sarah Anderson, the director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and a co-author of the report, told ABC News.
Andy Jassy, the Amazon CEO, received compensation totaling $213 million last year, resulting in a pay ratio of 6,474 to 1, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, who retired in March, received total compensation of $20.4 million last year, which amounted to 1,579 times the pay of a typical worker at the company, a SEC filing showed.
The increased wage gap between CEOs and median workers at Amazon and Starbucks last year coincided with a surge in unionization at the companies. A nationwide labor campaign at Starbucks, which began with a victory at a store in Buffalo, New York, in December, has achieved union representation at 72 stores, the National Labor Relations Board said last Tuesday.
“We’re seeing more and more workers turning to unionization and other ways to try to stand up and demand their fair share,” Anderson said.
But the increased gap between CEOs and median workers may reflect the heightened need for capable leadership during the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic, said Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
“It could’ve made sense for companies to increase compensation to keep people they had on board or to attract people to get them through difficult times,” Greszler said.
In addition to Amazon and Starbucks, the report examined major corporations such as McDonald’s, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Nike and The Home Depot, among many other companies.
(NEW YORK) — A mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas last week — which left 19 children and two teachers dead — has prompted outcry from figures across public life.
President Joe Biden and Sen. Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., usually political opponents, both expressed horror at the shooting and McConnell okayed negotiations with Democrats on potential legislation to address the issue.
Actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey described the incident as “devastating.”
Some of the nation’s most prominent chief executives have joined the chorus, such as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
But many CEOs at the largest U.S. companies — which wield significant influence and can often change the direction of political debate — have remained silent on the tragedy and what should be done about it.
ABC News contacted the top 20 companies on the Fortune 500 list for comment on the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde as well as on the larger issue of gun violence. Nearly all of the companies did not respond, except Microsoft and Walgreens Boots Alliance, which responded but declined comment.
Disney, the parent company of ABC News, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Some experts believe the business leaders have not directly addressed the recent shootings or potential gun violence solutions for fear of the potential backlash from employees, shareholders, business partners and customers, who may hold opposing views.
The companies and executives that have spoken out are predominantly those with a track record of having done so before or those with amenable stakeholders, the experts said.
“At the moment, most chief executives are deer in the headlights,” said James O’Rourke, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “They see the risk of taking a position as exceeding the return.”
Speaking out in the past
A number of leading companies on the Fortune 500, including companies contacted by ABC News for this story, have spoken out or taken action on gun violence in prior years.
In September 2019, weeks after two shootings at Walmart stores, company CEO Doug McMillan issued a public memo discontinuing the sale of handguns in Alaska, the last state where the company carried the firearms, as well as some forms of ammunition. He also called on national leaders to strengthen background checks.
Walmart, one of the companies that did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News, still sells some types of guns and ammunition at many of its stores.
Also in 2019, Walmart, CVS Health, and Walgreens asked customers to no longer openly carry firearms in their stores. “We support the efforts of individuals and groups working to prevent gun violence,” CVS Health, another one of the companies contacted by ABC News, said in a statement at the time.
And Dick’s Sporting Goods, which was not one of the companies contacted by ABC News, in recent years has taken a series of steps to remove guns from its stores. In February 2018, days after a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the company announced that it would stop selling semi-automatic weapons similar to the one used in the incident.
“We were so disturbed and saddened, we felt we really needed to do something,” CEO Edward Stack told Good Morning America at the time. Since then, Dick’s has discontinued the sale of guns entirely at hundreds of stores as part of a multi-year reduction.
Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling, who runs the largest healthcare provider in New York state (but not part of the Fortune 500), in an interview with ABC News condemned gun violence and called for policy solutions such as universal background checks.
Dowling acknowledged to ABC that the pro-gun control political landscape in New York makes it easier for him to speak out, and encouraged his peers to do likewise.
“I know a lot of CEOs around the country. I’ve had discussions with them,” he said. “I know many of them are nervous about going public because of the political circumstances they’re in.”
“When I ask them if they think it’s okay that there are so many mass shootings, especially with kids. They’ll say, ‘It’s horrific.’ They’ll admit that. Then I say, ‘Say something about it — be courageous.’”
Contrast with other activism
The corporate silence on gun violence in the wake of the recent mass shootings stands in stark contrast with the recent widespread exit of U.S. companies from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, O’Rourke, the business management professor, said.
“Executives decided the reputational risk of staying in Russia is far greater than any revenue I could extract,” O’Rourke said. “In domestic issues it’s complicated because lawmaking is mostly done at the local and state level, and executives must operate across state lines. If they take a position on every issue, it is likely key stake holders will abandon them.”
One notable example is Disney, which first remained silent and then came out strongly against what many perceive to be anti-LGBTQ legislation.
In recent months, Disney sparked ire from prominent national voices and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when the company publicly opposed the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” which prohibits public school teachers from providing instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for some of the youngest students and what opponents say is age-inappropriate material. In April, the state moved to dissolve a special tax district enjoyed by Disney. The special district is a private government run by Disney World that allows it to offer services such as zoning and fire protection.
In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, speaking out was a gamble some top companies decided to take nonetheless.
“All of us at Goldman Sachs express our deepest sorrow over the recent tragic and senseless acts of violence in America, which have resulted in the deaths of friends, neighbors, co-workers, children, and other loved ones,” Solomon, the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, told ABC News in a statement.
Solomon met last Wednesday with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other private sector leaders to discuss the issue, he said in the statement. “I urge our elected officials to come together to enact policy initiatives to make our communities safer,” he added.
Jassy, the Amazon CEO, expressed similar sentiment a day after the mass shooting in Uvalde last week.
“Deeply sad about the shootings in Texas yesterday and Buffalo 11 days ago. My heart breaks for those families,” Jassy tweeted. “This endless cycle is maddening…terrible pain and suffering. I can only hope that we come together as a country to find a way to stop this kind of tragic violence.”
AT&T, one of the Fortune 500 companies that did not respond to a request for comment, donated $50,000 to support the Robb School Memorial Fund, a collection of resources for the families and communities impacted by the Uvalde shooting.
Notable corporate activism has emerged in professional sports. In baseball, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays coordinated recently with a series of social media posts that offered statements and information on gun violence
The advocacy continues a trend of rising activism among professional sports leagues, teams, and players in recent years on issues like police brutality and racial justice.
Divergent responses and possible action
The divergent response among major companies after recent mass shootings marks the latest moment of decision making for corporations as a political response embroiled the country. Similarly, large companies have remained mostly quiet in response to the leak last month of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
Three years ago, the CEOs at 145 companies — including Airbnb and Yelp — sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate calling for new gun safety laws that would require background checks for all gun sales.
In the days following the death of George Floyd, in May 2020, companies across corporate America put out statements in support of racial justice and made donations to advocacy organizations that fight racial inequality.
Last April, as state legislatures pursued restrictive voting laws, hundreds of companies and executives signed a letter opposing “any discriminatory legislation” that limits access to the ballot box.
Carol Bevins, a professor of business communication at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, said that most major companies will ultimately address the issue of gun violence.
“Eventually, it’ll be inevitable that companies have to respond,” she said. “You cannot not communicate.”
(NEW YORK) — There is evidence of Russian vessels departing “from near Ukraine with their cargo holds full of grain,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson told ABC News on Monday night.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that Russia seized at least 400,000 to 500,000 tons of grain worth over $100 million, according to the State Department spokesperson.
“Ukraine’s MFA also has numerous testimonies from Ukrainian farmers and documentary evidence showing Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain,” the spokesperson said.
The news of Ukrainian grain aboard Russian ships partly confirms a recent report by The New York Times that Moscow is seeking to profit off of grain plundered from Ukraine by selling the product while subverting sanctions. Ukraine has already accused Russia of shipping the stolen grain to buyers in Syria and Turkey.
Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but Kyiv has been unable to ship exports due to Moscow’s offensive. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian Grain Association warned that Ukraine’s wheat harvest is expected to plummet by 40%.
In recent weeks, there has been an all-out push from the United States and the United Nations to facilitate exports from war-torn Ukraine, desperate to offset what they foretell is a looming global food crisis with the potential to devastate the developing world. A Russian blockade in the Black Sea, along with Ukrainian naval mines, have made exporting siloed grain virtually impossible and, as a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
As part of ongoing efforts to assist food exports, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to meet with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara this week. But State Department spokesperson Ned Price has set low expectations for the meeting.
“I don’t know if we should expect breakthroughs,” Price told reporters during a press briefing on Monday afternoon. “Of course, we’ll be watching closely. We’ll be talking with our Turkish allies in the aftermath of that visit.”
Price underscored the pain the world is feeling because of Russia’s crunch on its food supply.
“This is a war that not only has brutalized — and, in many ways, terrorized — the people of Ukraine, but it has put at risk food security around the world,” he said.
Currently, there are approximately 84 merchant ships and 450 seafarers trapped at Ukrainian ports, according to Price.
“Not only is there grain aboard these vessels, but there are about 22 million tons of grain sitting in silos near the ports that also needs to move out to make room for the newly harvested grain,” he said. “In addition, Russia has actually taken aim at ships at sea. They have taken aim at grain silos. They are continuing to effectively implement what amounts to a blockade of Ukraine’s ports.”
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday to personally update him on ongoing gun negotiations in the Senate as lawmakers try to reach a deal this week, which he outlined to ABC’s The View beforehand.
Murphy said negotiators hope to announce a framework by the end of the week, allowing a package to advance for votes thereafter, adding that the pressure on lawmakers, this time, feels unprecedented with constituents reaching out to offices “at a rate that I’ve never seen before.”
Murphy told the co-hosts ofThe View that he and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the lead Republican on negotiations, were part of talks Monday “that went into the wee hours of last night” and that an increasing number of Republicans are supporting the efforts.
“While we are very different in our views, we do both agree that we are not willing to do anything that compromises people’s Second Amendment rights. We are focusing on keeping weapons out of the hands of dangerous people,” Murphy said. “We can’t find agreement right now on an issue like an outright ban on assault weapons, but we can find an agreement that saves lives around making sure that only law-abiding citizens get access to really powerful firearms.”
In a prime-time address last week, Biden called for an assault weapons ban, and if not, he said, then to raise the age to buy assault weapons from 18 to 21. Instead, lawmakers are considering measures like expanded background checks, incentives for states and localities to institute red flag laws, and increased funding for school security and mental health programs.
“I’ve failed so many times before in these talks that I’m sober-minded about our chances, but you normally as time goes on after one of these cataclysmic mass shootings the momentum fades. The opposite seems to be happening this time,” Murphy added. “There are more Republicans every single day, who want to help us get to a product.”
Murphy said most Republicans realize there’s a “public urgency” to act.
“But I also think Republicans understand that this is good politics — that it’s going to be really hard to go back to their constituencies and say that they rejected a pretty reasonable offer to tighten up our nation’s firearms laws that are completely compliant with the Second Amendment,” he added.
However, without the support of 10 Senate Republicans to gain the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, Congress could soon enter its third decade without having passed major gun safety reforms.
Pressed on the prospect of an assault weapons ban or raising the age to buy assault weapons, Murphy said, “I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
“Right now, we don’t have 10 Republican votes to ban these AR-15 assault-style weapons,” Murphy said. “Of course, I support banning assault weapons. I support universal background checks, but I don’t think that we can stand by and let our politics stop us from finding a compromise.”
“It won’t be everything I want. But I think it’ll give parents and kids in this country, a sense that we are taking seriously this epidemic and that we’re willing to make progress,” he added.
Throughout negotiations, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been on the defensive on Biden’s involvement as some have questioned whether the president should be taking a larger role in talks. She has argued Biden has been involved for decades and is giving senators “a little space” to work. Murphy has spoken with the White House every single day since the negotiations began, she said, but that can be on the staff level, not directly with Biden.
(WASHINGTON) — A son of the oldest victim in the Buffalo supermarket shooting, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday in a hearing on domestic terrorism, called on lawmakers to “yield your positions” if they’re unwilling to meet “the urgency of the moment” in the wake of the apparent racially-motivated attack that left 10 Black people dead, including his 86-year-old mother.
“You expect us to continue to just forgive and forget over and over again. And what are you doing?” Garnell Whitfield Jr., the oldest son of Ruth Whitfield, a victim of the Buffalo shooting, asked the Senate panel. “You’re elected to protect us, to protect our way of life.”
“I ask every one of you to imagine the faces of your mothers as you look at mine, and ask yourself, ‘Is there nothing that we can do?’ Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism that inspires?” he continued, maintaining his composure but holding back tears. “Because if there is nothing, then respectfully senators, you should yield your positions of authority and influence the others that are willing to lead on this issue. The urgency of the moment demands, no less.”
“My mother’s life mattered — and your actions here today would tell us how much it matters to you,” he added.
The hearing, which kicked off at 10 a.m., is titled, “Examining the ‘Metastasizing’ Domestic Terrorism Threat After the Buffalo Attack” and examines “the continued threat posed by violent white supremacists and other extremists, including those who have embraced the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory, as well as the federal government’s response to this threat,” according to a committee release. It comes amid a national reckoning over gun violence as lawmakers consider solutions this week.
Opening the hearing, Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called the Buffalo mass shooting “one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks in recent memory” and read the victims’ names into the record.
“Every one of these victims left behind loved ones who are grieving that loss — and several of those loved ones are in the room with us today. I think there are no words that fill the empty chairs at your dinner table or the empty spaces in your heart,” Durbin said. “But your willingness to sit in this room to honor the memory of those lost is a lesson in courage and love.”
“Please know that you are not alone,” he added. “We offer our deepest condolences, and most importantly, our commitment to do something.”
Ruth Whitfield was mourned by her family, including her son Garnell, a former Buffalo fire commissioner, in an emotional press conference last month. He said she was returning home from visiting her husband in a nursing home, what her son called “a daily ritual” for eight years of their 68-year marriage, when she stopped by the Tops grocery store to pick up groceries, and the gunman opened fire.
“For her to be taken from us and taken from this world by someone that’s just full of hate for no reason … it is very hard for us to handle right now,” Garnell said at the time. “We need help. We’re asking you to help us, help us change this. This can’t keep happening,” he added.
At the same press conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump slammed what he called the “accomplices to this mass murder” and the cause of the indoctrination of hate among young people, referring, in part, to far-right-wing websites, politicians and cable news pundits.
“Even though they didn’t pull the trigger, they did load the gun for this young white supremacist,” Crump said. “Black America is suffering right now and we need to know that our top leader in America reacts and responds when we are hurt.”
To that end, Durbin, in his opening statement, played a video clip of conservative news hosts echoing rhetoric espoused by the shooter to illustrate what he called “the role of the media and the role that they played in dragging hateful rhetoric into mainstream America, and sadly, how it’s inspiring acts of racist violence.”
“More than 400 episodes of Tucker Carlson’s show have amplified the so-called “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, the guiding principle of modern white supremacist movement,” Durbin added. “As lawmakers, we must speak in one voice and repeat repudiating this incendiary rhetoric, along with any individual or extremist group that resorts to violence.”
Other witnesses on Tuesday’s panel include Michael German, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent and fellow at the Brennan Center For Justice; Robert Pape, professor and director of The Chicago Project on Security and Threats at The University of Chicago; Justin Herdman, a former U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, and legal scholar Jonathan Turley, a professor at the George Washington University Law School and a frequent witness called by Republicans on the committee.
The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday morning warned of a “heightened” threat environment for “domestic violent extremists,” a term which the department uses to label those from a broad swath of the ideological spectrum from racially motivated extremists to white supremacists.
“Individuals in online forums that routinely promulgate domestic violent extremist and conspiracy theory-related content have praised the May 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and encouraged copycat attacks,” The National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin said — marking the sixth time DHS has issued the NTAS bulletin since Biden took office.
ABC News previously reported on evidence indicating the Buffalo shooting was a calculated, racially-motivated execution by the suspect, an 18-year-old white male, according to multiple sources and a review of FBI cases and testimony. The gunman, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and is being held without bail, allegedly wanted a race war and live-streamed his attack in an apparent effort to spur others to kill minorities, sources said.
Included in a 180-page document posted online by the shooter was a far-right conspiracy idea called the “great replacement theory,” which baselessly claims that white populations are being intentionally replaced by minorities and immigrants. Democrats have slammed the theory and moved to fund new programs to target domestic terrorism, while some Republicans have faced backlash for echoing notions of the theory in their talking points.
Tuesday’s hearing comes as the Democrats on Capitol Hill ramp up efforts to push for legislation that would require stronger background checks for gun buyers and incentivize state red flag laws following the recent mass shootings. Twenty-one people, including 19 children, were killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, just 10 days after the mass shooting in Buffalo. Another mass shooting on June 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, claimed four lives after a gunman stormed a medical facility with an AR-15-style rifle that police say he bought hours before the massacre.
Zeneta Everhart, who says her 21-year-old son, Zaire Goodman, is still recovering from gunshot wounds in the Buffalo shooting, one of three others injured there, as well as Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader who survived the shooting in Uvalde, are both expected to testify at another hearing on gun violence on Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Last month, Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block a bill designed to combat domestic terrorism from advancing to a key vote. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, D-Ill., was the only Republican in either chamber of Congress to vote for the measure, which would have created new offices within the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security and FBI to “monitor, analyze, investigate, and prosecute domestic terrorism.”
Tuesday also marks the third in a series of hearings this committee has held on domestic terrorism.
(LONDON) — Some of the gunmen who attacked a church full of worshippers in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday were disguised as congregants, police said.
Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed in the late-morning attack at St. Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo in Ondo state, more than 200 miles northwest of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, and over 200 miles southwest of Abuja, the Nigerian capital. The church was holding a service for Pentecost Sunday, a Christian holiday celebrated on the 50th day after Easter, when suddenly explosives detonated and gunshots rang out at around 11:30 a.m. local time, according to Olumuyiwa Adejobi, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force’s headquarters in Abuja.
“Further investigations revealed that some of the gunmen disguised as congregants, while other armed men who had positioned themselves around the church premises from different directions fired into the church,” Adejobi said in a statement on Monday night.
An unknown number of gunmen had approached the church during the service and began shooting at worshippers as they tried to flee, according to Funmilayo Ibukun Odunlami, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force’s command in Ondo state, adding that several gunmen were firing from inside the building.
A motive for the massacre was not immediately clear, as no group has claimed responsibility. Police have yet to identify the perpetrators or release the number of casualties.
“Some lives were lost and some sustained varying degrees of injuries,” Odunlami said in a statement on Sunday evening, later telling ABC News that police do not yet have an estimate.
Health workers at the Federal Medical Center in Owo told ABC News on Monday that at least 35 bodies had been transported to the hospital from the scene of Sunday’s attack. They said there was also an urgent need for blood donations for the wounded.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria said in a statement on Monday that “more than 50 parishioners” had died and the gunmen were “suspected to be bandits.”
The suspects fled the scene in a stolen Nissan and remain at large. The vehicle has since been recovered by police, according to Adejobi.
Police have also recovered three undetonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from the scene, along with fragments of detonated IEDs and pellets of expended AK-47 ammunition, Adejobi said.
Nigerian Inspector-General of Police Usman Alkali Baba has ordered a “full-scale” and “comprehensive” investigation into the incident and has deployed specialized police units to help track down the assailants, according to Adejobi.
“He equally assures that the heartless killers of the harmless victims, particularly innocent children, would be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Adejobi said.
(WASHINGTON) — After extremists praised last month’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and called for at least one copycat attack, the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday warned of a “heightened” threat environment.
Law enforcement uses the term “domestic violent extremist” to label those from a broad swath of the ideological spectrum from racially motivated extremists to white supremacists.
The bulletin, which is the sixth bulletin DHS has issued since the beginning of the Biden administration, said domestic violent extremists are propagating disinformation.
“Others have seized on the event to attempt to spread disinformation and incite grievances, including claims it was a government-staged event meant to advance gun control measures,” the bulletin said, referring to the Uvalde school shooting.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the threat environment “heightened.”
“As recent acts of violence in communities across the country have so tragically demonstrated, the nation remains in a heightened threat environment, and we expect that environment will become more dynamic in the coming months,” Mayorkas said.
Public gatherings, faith-based institutions, racial and religious minorities, government facilities and critical infrastructure may be targets of domestic violent extremists, a DHS official told reporters on a conference call.
“We do expect that the threat environment is likely to become more dynamic as several high-profile events could be exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets,” the official said.
The official said DHS is seeing threats from the “ideological spectrum” of actors, but did not offer more specifics.
Officials also said they are concerned about the midterm elections, because some could still be holding onto grievances from the 2020 presidential election. Officials say they are also concerned about possible fallout from an expected Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade, as ABC News has previously reported.
“Given a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court case about abortion rights, individuals who advocate both for and against abortion have, on public forums, encouraged violence, including against government, religious, and reproductive healthcare personnel and facilities, as well as those with opposing ideologies,” DHS officials wrote.
The bulletin said issues along the southern border could also present a trigger point for extremists.
“Some domestic violent extremists have expressed grievances related to their perception that the U.S. government is unwilling or unable to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and have called for violence to stem the flow of undocumented migrants to the United States,” the bulletin said. “We assess that there is increased risk of domestic violent extremists using changes in border security-related policies and/or enforcement mechanisms to justify violence against individuals, such as minorities and law enforcement officials involved in the enforcement of border security.”
The Department also hasn’t taken their eye off of foreign terrorists.
“Foreign terrorist organizations will likely continue to use online platforms to attempt to inspire U.S.-based individuals to engage in violent activity,” it said.
John Cohen, the former acting undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis at DHS, told ABC News this isn’t new.
“This bulletin reinforces what DHS and FBI have been telling the American people over the past year and a half,” Cohen, who is now an ABC News contributor, said.
He added, “The Nation faces a terrorism threat environment that is volatile, complex and dangerous. Lone offenders continue to engage in targeted acts of violence inspired by extremist or other content posted online. The tempo of these attacks are increasing. And these ideologically motivated attacks are occurring at the same time that localities across the nation are experiencing increased levels of violent crime. These are incredible challenging times for law enforcement and communities across the Nation.”
(WASHINGTON) — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who took over as the President Joe Biden’s chief spokesperson just over three weeks ago, told ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday that Biden is “very encouraged” by gun safety negotiations in Congress as lawmakers urgently try to reach a deal in principle this week in the wake of recent shootings.
“This is a priority for and this is a very serious issue for this president, but right now, we’re watching what Congress is doing, because we can’t do this alone, he cannot do this alone, and we’re very encouraged,” Jean-Pierre told GMA Anchor Robin Roberts, who pressed her on whether Biden was personally lobbying senators after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in which 19 children and two teachers were killed.
“So, I’ll say this, the president has been very clear,” Jean-Pierre continued. “He made his speech on Thursday. He spoke directly to the American public to continue to lay out the importance of dealing with gun violence, how this is destroying schools clearly and communities and how we have to act now and we cannot wait any longer.”
“But he wants to give the Senate and Congress on the Hill some space to have the conversation,” she added. “It sounds very promising. We are encouraged by it.”
Jean-Pierre said the White House Office of Legislative Affairs has had direct communication with the negotiators “dozens of times.”
“So, that is that is how we have been really dealing with this — making sure that we can do whatever it is that we can do on our end and getting updates from them as well,” she added.
The exclusive interview comes as Biden has called for lawmakers to act on gun safety legislation, but as Senate negotiators are considering a package much more narrow than what he asked for.
Biden called for an assault weapons ban, and if not, he said, then to raise the age to buy assault weapons from 18 to 21. Instead, lawmakers are considering measures like expanded background checks, incentives for states and localities to institute red flag laws, and increased funding for school security and mental health programs.
Throughout negotiations, Jean-Pierre has been on the defensive on Biden’s involvement as some have questioned whether the president should be taking a larger role in talks. She has argued Biden has been involved for decades and is giving senators “a little space” to work.
At Monday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre indicated that even if the senators ultimately propose a package that falls far short of the wish list Biden outlined in prime-time remarks last week, incremental changes would be acceptable to Biden. When reporters pressed her on the president’s lack of personal involvement in the talks, she confirmed Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy’s assertion that he has spoken with the White House every single day since the negotiations began — but that can be on the staff level, not directly with Biden.
Jean-Pierre made history when she took over from Jen Psaki on May 13, becoming the first Black woman and first openly gay person to hold the position of White House press secretary.
When Jean-Pierre anchored her first White House briefing last year, as she was filling in for Psaki, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked her about making history at the podium.
“It’s a real honor to be standing here today,” Jean-Pierre said. “I appreciate the historic nature, I really do, but I believe that being behind this podium, being in this room, being in this building, is not about one person. It’s about what we do on behalf of the American people.”
Previously, Jean-Pierre was principal deputy White House press secretary, and during the 2020 presidential campaign, she was then-candidate Kamala Harris’ chief of staff. She also served in the Obama White House as the regional director in the Office of Political Affairs for the northeast. Before joining the Biden campaign, she was a senior executive at MoveOn.org and an MSNBC analyst.
Jean-Pierre was born in Fort-de-France, Martinique, to Haitian parents, who later moved briefly to France and then immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Queens when she was 5. They later moved to Hempstead, Long Island, where her father worked as a cab driver, and her mother as a home health care aide. Though Jean-Pierre wasn’t born in Haiti, she calls herself a “proud Haitian-American.”
(NEW YORK) — Ramon Benavides, 2022’s Texas Teacher of the Year, choked up, clutching his infant son as his mind raced with thoughts of the recent mass shootings in his home state.
From the attack at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 to the Uvalde school massacre, the tragedies conjure up unimaginable fears felt not only by parents — but by teachers.
“I can’t even find the words to really explain how I’m feeling,” Benavides said. “I held him [his son] super tight because many parents, teachers involved, you know, they’re, they’re not coming back to their families and their families aren’t aren’t going to be able to embrace their loved ones as I did with my little boy last night. And it’s painful, it’s hurtful, and like I said, it’s just so many emotions just going on.”
The El Paso educator said he is devastated by the killing of 19 children and two of their teachers at Robb Elementary School. The shocking news struck his “soul,” he said, and he is having trouble making sense of it.
“I’ve lived across Texas, so this is something that just hits us all,” he told ABC News. “It kind of leaves you breathless, it’s like a punch to the gut.”
Teachers’ mental health
Having to deal with school shootings is just one of the factors taking a toll on teachers’ mental health.
Educators cite a range of emotions, including anxiety and sadness during a pandemic — now in its third year — as reasons more than half of them plan to leave their chosen profession, according to a survey from the National Education Association. While burnout is a primary cause teachers want out of the classroom, now some are haunted by fears that they, their families and their students now won’t be safe — even at school.
In the almost 10 years since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, there have been more than 900 school shootings, according to the gun violence prevention organization Sandy Hook Promise and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. The attack in Uvalde is the latest in a long series of acts of gun violence terrorizing students and teachers alike. Last year, there were 42 acts of campus gun violence at K-12 schools in the U.S.
“Mental health in this country is already bad with the pandemic,” Lee Perez, Nebraska’s 2022 Teacher of the Year, told ABC News. The Uvalde shooting, he said, “is only going to make it worse.”
He knows how the pressures can push teachers to their limits. Perez dealt with anxiety and depression due to stress from the pandemic and how the spread of COVID-19 disproportionately affected marginalized minority communities.
Teachers’ job-related stress levels and symptoms of depression were higher than most employed adults, according to Rand Corporation’s 2021 State of the U.S. Teacher Survey. A recent poll of over 3,000 National Education Association (NEA) members emphasized over 90% of educators believe stress is a serious issue.
Dr. Christine Crawford, associate medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said that exposure to horrific events like the Uvalde shooting “can elicit symptoms that are consistent with a trauma response, almost.”
She explained that after hearing or reading about events like a mass shooting, people may notice they are more on edge or irritable and may experience other symptoms such as difficulty sleeping or concentrating. These symptoms, Crawford said, may present after repeated exposure to similar events, even if someone didn’t experience the trauma firsthand.
“We do know that there is this phenomenon known as vicarious trauma,” Crawford explained. “So, just hearing about a traumatic event, you can almost imagine yourself in that sort of scenario and that can further kind of exacerbate some of the symptoms that I just described.”
It highlights, she said, that even in a small community, “you don’t fully know each and every person and what it is that they’re capable of. And so this kind of sense of safety within the community can certainly be threatened.”
Benavides says he’s taking it “day-by-day.” But Perez, his state’s first Latinx and English as a Second Language (ESL) recipient of the top teacher honor, said the shooting in Uvalde also hit close to home.
“These beautiful brown babies [were] just murdered in cold blood,” he said, adding, “it puts people of color … puts us on pins and needles.”
Perez had his first child at the beginning of this month. He tearfully discussed “strategizing” to protect his baby girl, Natalia, if Congress doesn’t pass universal background checks or mental health red flag laws.
“It really adds to that anxiety that has been brought on by all the stuff that’s happened two years ago,” Perez said. “As educators, we always tell families, communities and our students, ‘you are safe at school,’ but then this happens, and then the question becomes, well, ‘are students safe at school? Is anybody safe at school?'”
‘It scares you,’ one teacher said
Teachers have faced mental health struggles throughout the pandemic that initially shuttered schools and has upended education over the last two years. Their fears of contracting a deadly virus, combating a nationwide staffing and substitute shortage and increasing demands on their time have made a tough profession — even harder.
“Teachers are doing amazing work, and they are providing work during a very challenging time. They already had to provide support – to teach kids during a pandemic, and then to have these events happen, can be further traumatizing for some of our teachers,” Crawford said. “And so we certainly do need to have compassion for these teachers, empathy for these teachers, because they really have been faced with a tremendous amount of stress and trauma over the last few years.”
Experts have been monitoring the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of Americans over the last two years. Since April 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been documenting self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, using Household Pulse Surveys. These metrics, compared with similar data collected in 2019, show a dramatic increase in symptoms.
Colorado’s Autumn Rivera was a 2022 finalist for the national teacher of the year award who says she considered seeking mental health counseling at her school after the Uvalde shooting. With the school year ending, Rivera is taking time to process her feelings because she can’t accept the fact that many of those slain were Latinx.
“Those are my students,” Rivera said, comparing the population she teaches to the students at Robb Elementary. “That is me and those two teachers, you know, very similar backgrounds, very similar situations, and it just broke my heart.”
For now, Perez struggles with the notion of when this might happen again, advocating for Congress to enact sweeping gun reform that could prevent future attacks on schools. Ultimately, he hopes his daughter has a safer future than today’s students who do lockdown and active shooting drills.
“It scares you,” he said. “Where is it safe? The fact that you have to ask that question scares, not just teachers, but everybody.”
The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine offers resources and support to people experiencing mental health struggles. The HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or helpline@nami.org. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available toll-free, 24/7, to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress at 1-800-273-8255.
(WASHINGTON) — The son of the oldest victim in the Buffalo, New York supermarket shooting is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday in a hearing on domestic terrorism in the wake of the apparent racially-motivated attack that left 10 Black people dead, including his 86-year-old mother, and a national reckoning over gun violence as lawmakers consider gun safety legislation this week.
The hearing, which kicks off at 10 a.m., is titled, “Examining the ‘Metastasizing’ Domestic Terrorism Threat After the Buffalo Attack” and will examine “the continued threat posed by violent white supremacists and other extremists, including those who have embraced the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory, as well as the federal government’s response to this threat,” according to a committee release.
Lawmakers on the, at times, divisive committee will hear from Garnell Whitfield Jr., the son of Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim in the Buffalo shooting, who was mourned by her family in an emotional press conference last month. Whitfield was returning home from visiting her husband in a nursing home, what her son called “a daily ritual” for eight years of their 68-year marriage, when she stopped by the Tops grocery store to pick up groceries, and the gunman opened fire.
“For her to be taken from us and taken from this world by someone that’s just full of hate for no reason … it is very hard for us to handle right now,” Garnell said at the time.
“We need help. We’re asking you to help us, help us change this. This can’t keep happening,” he added.
At the same press conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump slammed what he called the “accomplices to this mass murder” and the cause of the indoctrination of hate among young people, referring, in part, to far-right-wing websites, politicians and cable news pundits.
“Even though they didn’t pull the trigger, they did load the gun for this young white supremacist,” Crump said. “Black America is suffering right now and we need to know that our top leader in America reacts and responds when we are hurt.”
Other witnesses on Tuesday’s panel include Michael German, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent and fellow at the Brennan Center For Justice; Robert Pape, professor and director of The Chicago Project on Security and Threats at The University of Chicago; Justin Herdman, a former U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, and legal scholar Jonathan Turley, a professor at the George Washington University Law School and a frequent witness called by Republicans on the committee.
ABC News previously reported on evidence indicating the Buffalo shooting was a calculated, racially-motivated execution by the suspect, an 18-year-old white male, according to multiple sources and a review of FBI cases and testimony. The gunman, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and is being held without bail, allegedly wanted a race war and live-streamed his attack in an apparent effort to spur others to kill minorities, sources said.
Included in a 180-page document posted online by the shooter was a far-right conspiracy idea called the “great replacement theory,” which baselessly claims that white populations are being intentionally replaced by minorities and immigrants. Democrats have slammed the theory and moved to fund new programs to target domestic terrorism, while some Republicans have faced backlash for echoing notions of the theory in their talking points.
The hearing comes as the Democrats on Capitol Hill ramp up efforts to push for legislation that would require stronger background checks for gun buyers and incentivize state red flag laws following the recent mass shootings. Twenty-one people, including 19 children, were killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, just 10 days after the mass shooting in Buffalo. Another mass shooting on June 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, claimed four lives after a gunman stormed a medical facility with an AR-15-style rifle that police say he bought hours before the massacre.
Zeneta Everhart, who says her 21-year-old son, Zaire Goodman, is still recovering from gunshot wounds in the Buffalo shooting, one of three others injured there, as well as Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader who survived the shooting in Uvalde, are both expected to testify at another hearing on gun violence on Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The FBI announced it was investigating the Buffalo mass shooting as a hate crime and case of “racially motivated violent extremism” after Erie County Sheriff John Garcia described the attack as a “straight-up racially motivated hate crime.”
Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block a bill last month designed to combat domestic terrorism from advancing to a key vote. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, D-Ill., was the only Republican in either chamber of Congress to vote for the measure, which would have created new offices within the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security and FBI to “monitor, analyze, investigate, and prosecute domestic terrorism.”
Tuesday marks the third in a series of hearings this committee has held on domestic terrorism.
