(WASHINGTON) — The father of Trevor Reed, the American freed from Russia in a prisoner exchange last week, on Wednesday demonstrated outside the White House, calling for the Biden administration to help other Americans held hostage overseas, including two U.S. citizens still detained in Russia, Paul Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Trevor Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine, was released last week after nearly three years in detention in Russia, where he was imprisoned on charges that his family and the U.S. government said were trumped up.
He arrived home in Texas last Thursday after being traded for a Russian pilot who had been serving a lengthy sentence in the U.S. for a drug-smuggling conviction. Reed is currently at a military base in San Antonio, receiving counseling and support as part of a reintegration program.
Despite reuniting with his son less than a week ago, Reed’s father Joey Reed and his daughter, Taylor Reed, travelled to Washington, D.C., Wednesday to join the demonstration with families of Americans detained in several countries, including Venezuela, Iran, China, Rwanda.
Joey Reed said he had come to urge the Biden administration to repeat what it had done for his son and to put a spotlight on the cases of the families of other detainees.
“We think there’s at least 16 cases of detainees and hostages where an exchange would bring them home tomorrow,” Reed told ABC News.
He also called on President Joe Biden to meet with the families of other hostages as he did with the Reeds, saying he felt that had been pivotal in persuading the administration to go ahead with the exchange that freed his son.
“We believe that was the complete tipping point was when we met with him,” he told ABC News. “He’s a personable guy. You know, he’s compassionate, kind. Meet with these families like they met with us.”
Joey Reed said he had come at the insistence of his son, who is passionate about freeing Whelan, the other former U.S. Marine still held in Russia and who was not part of last week’s prisoner exchange.
Reed’s release has renewed focus on the cases of Whelan and Griner, who the U.S. government believes were seized by Russia as bargaining chips.
Whelan has been detained in Russia since 2018 and is currently in a prison camp, sentenced to 16 years on espionage charges that the U.S. government and his family say were fabricated.
Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February when Russian police alleged they found vape cartridges in her luggage containing hashish oil, a substance illegal in Russia. This week, the State Department reclassified Griner as “wrongfully detained,” a designation that allows it to begin negotiating for her release and disregards the Russian criminal case against her.
Reed was freed in an exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian cargo plane pilot who was jailed in the U.S. in 2011, after he was seized in a DEA sting operation and convicted of plotting to smuggle large quantities of cocaine.
Since 2018, Russia had repeatedly floated Yaroshenko as a possible candidate for a prisoner trade for Reed and Whelan. But Russia has also pressed for Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer dubbed “the Merchant of Death,” who is currently serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. on drugs and terrorism charges.
Most experts believe Bout — one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers — is a more difficult trade for the U.S. to accept.
The U.S. is generally reluctant to make prisoner exchanges in hostage case out of a fear of encouraging hostile governments to seize more Americans.
But Joey Reed said his son’s case showed the U.S. could be more open to making exchanges if it can get Americans home.
“We just want a trade so they can bring Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner home tomorrow. And we hope that they’re working, towards that and that Trevor was just the beginning of a lot of Americans being repatriated with their country and their families,” Joey Reed said.
Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, was also at Wednesday’s demonstration and said it was “wonderful” Reed had been released and gave her hope for her brother.
“I do think Trevor Reed’s release showed that sort of trade was possible. But I think mostly to us it signaled that tools are available,” she said. “So, we’re just asking the White House, the administration to do whatever is [possible], use whatever tools are at their disposal to bring Paul home. And the same goes for everyone.
She said she had met with national security adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House before the demonstration and that the meeting had been encouraging.
Asked about the efforts to free detained Americans, State Department spokesman Ned Price on Wednesday said, “What I can say is that we are doing everything we can — almost all of it unseen, almost all of it unsaid in public — to do everything we can to advance the commitment that President Biden has to see these Americans who were wrongfully or unjustly detained around the world — or in some cases held hostage around the world — brought home.”
Among the families represented the event were several whose relatives are held in Venezuela, including Alirio and Jose Luis Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Matthew Heath, Jose Angel Pereira, Airan Berry and Luke Denman.
Relatives of Siamak and Baquer Namazi, and Morad Tahbaz, also called for help in freeing them from Iran.
One by one the families stood at a microphone and described the pain of struggling to free their loved ones and pleaded with the Biden administration to act urgently. Several said, Reed’s release had given them hope.
Neda Shargi, whose brother, Emad, is serving a 10-year sentence in Iran, addressed Reed directly, saying: “If Trevor is watching this we are so grateful to you for being strong enough to come back. And for having your parents here. Trevor, it’s because of you that we have hope.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Abortion-rights advocates are responding to the leaked draft opinion of the Supreme Court majority opinion on the pending Mississippi abortion case that was first reported by Politico on Monday.
According to the copy of the draft opinion, which the court has confirmed is authentic but not final, a majority of justices appear to side with the Mississippi state legislature and will vote to effectively overturn the landmark abortion precedent set by Roe v. Wade.
Amid the reports, a recent ABC News/Washington Poll found that a majority of Americans support upholding Roe v. Wade. Since Monday, many are calling on Congress to act. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that “a whole range of rights are in question.”
Some abortion providers, like Shannon Brewer, said they weren’t surprised by the draft opinion. Brewer is the director of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health. She spoke with ABC News’ podcast Start Here on Wednesday morning.
“This is what we’ve been expecting,” said Brewer. “It didn’t come as a shock to a lot of us here.”
Currently, in the state of Mississippi, abortion is legal up until 20 weeks into the pregnancy.
In October, the Mississippi state legislature passed a law that would reduce the legal number to 15 weeks. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, an estimated 54,000 to 63,000 abortions in the U.S. occur annually at 15 weeks and later into the pregnancy.
After the Supreme Court heard arguments in December, the case remains pending.
Chief Justice John Roberts and the court released a statement Tuesday in response to the leaked draft, saying that it “does not represent a by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”
Despite this statement, Brewer said she expects the final verdict will not change that much.
“I expect them fully to overturn. I expect these states to start banning abortions immediately. I expect us to have to stop seeing patients immediately,” said Brewer. “That’s what we’re expecting and that’s what it’s looking like… It’s going to happen.”
While the Mississippi’s law remains under review by the Supreme Court, 26 states have already set so-called “trigger laws” that would immediately prohibit abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Brewer said that she is working across state lines to open other facilities, one called the Pink House West, to continue to help patients.
“This is not something that is going to just affect Mississippi within the year. This is going to affect upwards of 25 to 26 states, which is half of the United States,” said Brewer, who added that her clinic is seeing patients travel from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma in order to receive care. “We’re still busy every single day.”
She added that the group is already seeking to open a new location in New Mexico, which is less likely to enact sweeping bans.
She said their clinic isn’t the only one – clinics across the country are overrun with patients. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, Brewer said she predicts a “catastrophe.”
“I predict a lot of unwanted pregnancies. That’ll cause unwanted births. I predict an uptick in women showing up at the hospital, bleeding out and having issues due to unsafe things that they’ve been doing out of being desperate and can’t get to a facility,” said Brewer.
Brewer said her message to women who may have just found out that they are pregnant is to “pay attention every day.”
“We don’t know from one day to the next what’s going to go on in each state,” said Brewer. “People don’t pay attention to issues going on with abortion until it affects them, until they need the service they don’t think it’s as important.”
Overall, Brewer said that women who can’t afford to travel to other states to get abortions will be affected most by banning or prohibiting abortions.
“It’s going to be the women who need it the most,” she said. “They’re going to be the ones that can’t get out.”
(WASHINGTON) — As Dr. Mehmet Oz embarks on a bid for the U.S. Senate, the television star has largely shied away from discussing his ties to Turkey, where he maintains citizenship, and dismissed criticism from political opponents that he harbors any so-called “dual loyalties.”
But a photograph of Oz casting a ballot in Turkey’s 2018 presidential election is rankling some national security experts — particularly after recently saying he has “never been politically involved in Turkey in any capacity.”
“The decision to vote in a foreign country’s election is problematic from a security clearance perspective,” according to John V. Berry, a former government lawyer with expertise in federal security clearances.
After a rocky start to his campaign, Oz recently earned a coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump, bolstering his chances of capturing the Republican nod. But political opponents have continued to target his connections to Turkey — a strategy the Oz campaign and others have called xenophobic smears. If elected, Oz has said he would renounce his Turkish citizenship.
When asked about the photograph, which appeared in June 2018 on the Facebook page of Turkey’s consulate in Manhattan, Brittany Yanick, an Oz campaign spokesperson, confirmed its authenticity to ABC News and confirmed that Oz did vote in the 2018 election. According to Yanick, Oz voted for opposition candidate Muharrem Ince in his unsuccessful campaign against Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan. She denied that Oz’s vote amounted to “political involvement.”
“Voting in an election is far different from being actively engaged in the political work of the Turkish government, which Dr. Oz has never been involved with,” Yanick told ABC News. “There is no security issue whatsoever.”
Elected officials are not subjected to the same level of scrutiny as civilians who seek security clearances for sensitive government work; once sworn-in, lawmakers are granted access to classified information, unless the executive branch denies them certain information.
But the background check process for civilians can also “provide a framework for analyzing whether someone is trustworthy or not,” according to Kel McClanahan, the executive director of National Security Counselors, a nonprofit public interest law firm. And for McClanahan, voting in another country’s election would set off a “giant, flashing red light.”
Born and raised in Ohio, Oz has said that he maintains dual U.S.-Turkey citizenship to care for his mother in Turkey, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. He also served in the Turkish army for 60 days in the early 1980s — reportedly to retain his Turkish citizenship — and maintains real estate holdings in Turkey, plus has an endorsement deal the country’s national airline, Turkish Airlines.
“Any single one of those would be enough to torpedo a [security] clearance,” McClanahan said. “Taken together, I would not put good odds on that person getting a clearance anywhere.”
Turkish voting records indicate that the 2018 presidential election was the first in which Oz participated. Prior to the 2014 election, Turks living abroad could only vote by returning home or by visiting polling stations set up on Turkey’s borders.
Yanick, the campaign spokesperson, said Oz did not plan to vote in the 2018 election, but decided to cast a ballot while at the consulate discussing his “humanitarian work on behalf of Syrian refugees in Turkey.”
“It was during an election season, so he voted,” Yanick said.
Other security experts ABC News spoke with expressed less concern with Oz’s 2018 vote. Steve Aftergood, a senior analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, said that because Oz has been transparent about his ties to Turkey, his dual citizenship alone is more of a political concern for him than a risk to national security.
“The fact that [Oz] has made no effort to conceal his dual citizenship counts in his favor,” Aftergood said. “Voters will have an opportunity to decide whether or not it is of concern to them.”
Security experts that ABC News consulted emphasized that the country in question matters when considering potential foreign influence risks. A person’s ties to Turkey, a NATO member and strategic ally to the U.S., present far less of a threat than China or Russia.
But in recent years, Turkish President Erdogan has demonstrated increasingly authoritarian behavior, jailing journalists and summarily silencing opposition voices. Erdogan has also strained ties with the U.S. by purchasing Russian weapons systems.
Richard Grenell, the former Director of National Intelligence under President Trump, characterized Oz’s understanding of Turkey an asset in the fight against authoritarianism.
“It is frankly un-American to suggest that first- and second-generation Americans are unworthy or suspect to work as a U.S. official,” Grenell said. “They’ve seen fascism and totalitarianism and are actually more clear-eyed about what is at stake.”
Background check investigators consider “the totality of circumstances” when investigating those seeking security clearances, said Sean Bigley, a national security lawyer and former Trump-appointee to the National Security Education Board. Bigley said Oz’s portfolio of risk would likely include his existing financial ties to Turkey.
According to financial disclosures submitted in April, Oz owns several hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate property in Turkey, including a building he has leased out to the Turkish Ministry of Education for free. The building is being used as a student dormitory, according to his disclosure form, and “is subject to pending trust and estate litigation.”
The disclosure form also shows Oz scored a lucrative endorsement contract with Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s national flag-carrying airline. Experts say the air carrier has grown increasingly close to Erdogan since 2018, when he named himself chairman of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which holds a 49% stake.
In 2018, Oz appeared in a Super Bowl advertisement for Turkish Airlines, and in 2021, he appeared in a four-minute informational discussing the airline’s COVID-19 safety protocols as a brand ambassador.
Any wealth Oz has accumulated from his interests in Turkey, including the airline deal, would reflect only a small amount of his full financial picture. In all, Oz’s disclosure shows that he and his spouse together own between $104 and $422 million in various assets and holdings.
Even so, Bigley said, “if I were advising [Oz], I would suggest divesting from any assets or … financial ties with any entity of the Turkish government.”
Oz has faced criticism for not using his celebrity prominence as a platform for denouncing Erdogan’s clampdowns on opposition and other democratic backsliding. Some suggest that Oz’s continuing financial interests in Turkey create a disincentive for him to criticize its leadership, as doing so could put Oz at risk of having his Turkish assets seized.
“It is the nature of the Turkish system and authoritarian systems more generally that folks who do not want to be targeted by the state kowtow to leaders or keep their mouth shut,” said Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “There are many examples of people who have dared to criticize Erdogan who have been forcibly divested.”
Nicholas Danforth, a non-resident fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, an Athens-based think tank, agreed.
“If you wanted to have a lucrative career as a spokesman for Turkish Airlines, you certainly couldn’t say anything negative about Erdogan,” Danforth said.
According to several news reports published since launching his campaign, Oz has met with Erdogan on at least two occasions, in 2014 and 2018, and attended events with officials in Erdogan’s party. Oz has said that attending these functions was normal for a Turkish-American of his stature.
Asked whether Oz had taken a public stance against Erdogan, Yanick provided ABC News with comments Oz made at a January 2022 campaign event in which he said he “would be the harshest critic of Erdogan” in the Senate.
“The country that I respected when I was growing up — Turkey, the country my father left — was a secular country where there was no significant Islamic rule elements, period,” he said. “And it was not a dictatorship.”
Hailed in the West as a charismatic leader with the potential to return Turkey to its secular roots, Muharrem Ince fell to Erdogan in the 2018 election by a substantial margin — 52 percent to 30. Ince attracted support from a broad coalition of anti-Erdogan parties, but also expressed some controversial opinions — including an interest in rebuilding ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Ince was hardly a paragon of democracy, human rights, and tolerance,” said Cook.
As one of Turkey’s most recognizable figures in the West, Oz is not the first high-profile candidate to face accusations of a so-called “dual loyalty,” a claim reminiscent of attacks against Catholics, Jews and members of other religious and ethnic groups in previous generations.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump accused Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, of maintaining dual loyalties to Canada, his country of birth, even though Cruz had renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014. Trump has not expressed any similar concern for Oz’s arrangement.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys with the Department of Justice recently clashed behind closed doors with staff members for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
In a roughly five-hour interview last month that House investigators conducted with former Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin, attorneys from the DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs repeatedly objected to questions that they argued could impact the DOJ’s ongoing work prosecuting accused Jan. 6 rioters.
Sherwin had been tasked with leading the early stages of the DOJ’s criminal investigation into the attack, and sources told ABC News that during the interview, DOJ attorneys were highly sensitive to questions posed by House investigators that were related to the early stages of the probe.
At one point, interactions between Jan. 6 staffers and DOJ attorneys grew so contentious that Sherwin stepped out of the room so the discussion could continue in private, sources said.
The episode reflects a rare instance of tensions surfacing between the committee and the Justice Department, which over the past year have quietly been working together to ensure their parallel investigations don’t compromise sensitive matters involving the DOJ’s criminal prosecutions.
Sherwin is not the first former DOJ official authorized by the department to testify before the Jan. 6 select committee, and other witnesses — including former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen — were subject to similar limitations on their testimony in front of Congress.
“The Department has a longstanding policy not to provide congressional testimony concerning prosecutorial deliberations,” said a DOJ letter sent to Rosen authorizing his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. “Discussion of pending criminal cases and possible charges also could violate court rules and potentially implicate rules of professional conduct governing extra-judicial statements.”
But Jan. 6 investigators, according to sources, believed the limitations on Sherwin’s testimony were overly restrictive in prohibiting him from discussing any information starting from the time the Capitol was under assault.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the Jan. 6 select committee declined to comment to ABC News regarding the interview, and Sherwin himself also declined to comment.
Sherwin, who served as acting U.S. attorney through the end of Donald Trump’s administration and stayed on into the Biden administration, resigned from the Justice Department in April of 2021 after he sat for an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that was not authorized by senior DOJ officials. Sherwin told 60 Minutes that evidence potentially supported charges of sedition against some of those who participated in the attack.
Soon after the 60 Minutes interview, a federal judge admonished DOJ prosecutors over Sherwin’s comments, which the judge said could potentially taint the government’s case against members of the Oath Keepers militia group charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility launched an investigation into Sherwin over the 60 Minutes report, but it’s unclear whether that probe continued after Sherwin left the department and joined a private law firm. Nearly a year after the 60 Minutes interview, in January of this year, 11 members of the Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, were charged by the DOJ with seditious conspiracy.
As a result of the limitations asserted by DOJ attorneys, Sherwin’s answers to the Jan. 6 committee’s questions last month were largely limited to discussing his concerns about failures in intelligence-sharing prior to the Jan. 6 attack, sources said. Sherwin was critical of how FBI officials have defended their intelligence gathering in the period leading up to Jan. 6, noting that some individuals on social media had publicly expressed a desire to disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 vote, per sources.
Jan. 6 committee staffers also questioned Sherwin about whether any officials in the Trump White House or elsewhere had sought to influence any of the early decisions made by prosecutors in their cases against rioters who stormed the Capitol. Sherwin denied that any such overtures took place, sources said.
By the time Sherwin left his post as acting U.S. attorney in March of 2021, the office had brought charges against more than 300 individuals in connection with the assault on the Capitol.
According to the latest ABC News tally, that number has since grown to nearly 800 people, including members of groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who are accused of coordinating among each other in advance of the attack.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump Jr., former President Donald Trump’s eldest son, appeared before the Jan. 6 select committee on Tuesday for a voluntary interview, multiple sources familiar with his appearance confirmed to ABC News.
ABC News first reported last month that Trump Jr. was expected to appear before the committee, as it wraps up its investigatory phase and prepares for at least eight public hearings next month.
The committee declined to comment.
Trump Jr.’s text messages are among those that former chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the committee, sources have said.
The president’s son was the latest member of the Trump family to meet with the committee after Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, both of whom served as senior White House advisers to former President Donald Trump, were also interviewed in recent weeks.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump Jr.’s fiance, has also met with the committee twice. Sources said the second interview was at times contentions and focused in part on the fundraising efforts around Trump’s “Save America” rally on Jan. 6, 2021.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive for COVID-19 via a PCR test Wednesday afternoon, the State Department said.
Blinken, who is vaccinated and boosted, is experiencing mild symptoms.
Blinken attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, where President Joe Biden was in attendance.
The State Department said Blinken hasn’t seen Biden “in person for several days, and the President is not considered a close contact according to guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Three alleged gang members have been charged with multiple counts of murder stemming from a mass shooting last month in downtown Sacramento, California, that left six people dead and a dozen wounded, authorities said.
Two of the suspected gunmen are in custody, while the third suspect is still being sought by police, officials said.
“What we know is that this was clearly gang related. There was a gunfight between multiple gang rivals,” Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert identified the murder suspects as Smiley Martin, 27, his 26-year-old brother, Dandrae Martin, and 27-year-old Mtula Payton.
Smiley and Dandrae Martin have been in custody since the shooting occurred.
Payton remains on the run and Lester said a team of police officers is doing everything they can to locate him and bring him to justice.
Schubert said the three suspects are each charged with three counts of murder stemming from the killings of “innocent bystanders” — Melinda Davis, 57, Johntaya Alexander, 21, and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21.
Schubert said the three other people killed in the shooting — Sergio Harris, 38, Devazia Turner, 29, and Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32 — participated in the gun battle.
“The evidence shows and will show that these individuals armed themselves with guns,” Schubert said.
Citing California law, Schubert said if “individuals are involved in a gun battle and they kill innocent bystanders, all participants in that gun battle are responsible for the deaths of those innocent bystanders.”
“It doesn’t matter whose bullet killed who. What matters is that this was a gun battle between rival gang members who came armed to this scene in downtown Sacramento and innocent bystanders died,” Schubert said.
Schubert said the investigation is ongoing and more charges will likely be filed, including attempted murder charges.
On April 3, the shooting broke out around 2 a.m. at the corner of 10th and K Streets in a popular nightlife area of Sacramento, just blocks from the State Capital Building. Lester said 70 to 80 people were in the vicinity of the gunfire and many were caught in the cross fire.
Harris, Turner or Hoye-Lucchesi were identified as having weapons when they were shot dead, Schubert said.
Lester said investigators believe there were a total of five shooters.
Schubert declined to say if Harris, Turner and Hoye-Lucchesi were among those identified as having opened fire.
She said more than 100 shell casings were collected at the crime scene.
Schubert said Smiley Payton faces an enhancement charge of being in possession of a fully-automatic 9mm firearm with an extended magazine.
In addition to murder, the Martin brothers and Payton are also charged with being convicted felons in possession of weapons. Because they are each charged with multiple slayings, they all face capital murder enhancements that could make them eligible for the death penalty, Schubert said.
MORE: 3rd shooting near youth sports field in 7 days leaves several hurt
At the time of the shooting, Payton was free on $50,000 bail, stemming from a January 2020 arrest for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm, Schubert said.
Lester said more than 40 detectives were involved in the investigation, 12 of them full-time. The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive are assisting in the investigation.
“This act of violence devastated families and made members of our community concerned for their safety,” Lester said. “And as I said the day this happened, we are resolved to find those responsible and to secure justice for those victimized.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that the federal government will pay down the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years.
His remarks on economic growth came ahead of the Federal Reserve announcing a hike in interest rates Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to manage soaring inflation.
“Bringing down the deficit is one way to ease inflationary pressures in an economy, where a consequence of a war and gas prices and oil, food, and it all — it’s just a different world right this moment because of Ukraine and Russia,” Biden said.
Inflation is a big political problem for him and fellow Democrats ahead of the midterm elections as Republicans try to capitalize on soaring energy prices.
“For all the talk the Republicans make about deficits, it didn’t happen a single quarter under my predecessor, not once,” Biden said. “The bottom line is the deficit went up every year under my predecessor, before the pandemic and during the pandemic, snd it’s gone down both years since I have been here. Period. There are the facts.”
Biden’s remarks from the White House come after the Treasury Department updated estimates this week to project that the U.S. deficit will fall by over $1.5 trillion this year, a revision from the $1.3 trillion projected in Biden’s budget.
He credited the American Rescue Plan for growing the economy, though that relief bill has also been criticized for contributing to current inflation problems.
“Looking ahead, I plan to reduce the deficit even more which will help reduce inflationary measures and lower the cost for everyone’s families,” Biden said, as he tries to revive a stalled legislative agenda in Congress.
A White House official said, “This deficit reduction is occurring because the robust economic recovery means earnings and incomes are higher, which is increasing revenue, and because the Administration is winding down emergency spending.”
“There is no reason why a billionaire should be paid a lower tax rate than a teacher or firefighter,” Biden said Wednesday. “That is a sharp contrast to what’s today’s Republican Party is offering.”
Raising a plan released by Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott, Biden blasted what he called “this ultra-MAGA agenda,” which he said would raise costs for Americans families.
The budget deficit fell by more than $350 billion in Biden’s first year, according to the White House, but with inflation at a 40-year high, Republicans are hitting Biden on the economy as the 2022 midterm election cycle kicks off and Americans are still paying more at the pump.
In an effort to manage inflation, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise the short-term interest rate by a half-percentage point Wednesday — double the usual amount and the sharpest rate hike since 2000, meaning it will soon cost Americans more to buy big-ticket items like cars and homes.
The annual deficit has expanded to around $3 trillion due to the pandemic’s blow on the economy, with the gross national debt surpassing $30 trillion for the first time earlier this year. Former President Donald Trump’s massive tax cut in 2017 has added more than $1 trillion to the debt by some estimates — a point Biden hit head on.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 04, 12:26 pm
Ukraine claims Russia plans to hold WWII Victory Day parade in Mariupol
Ukraine’s military intelligence claims Russia is planning to hold a World War II Victory Day parade in Mariupol on May 9. The military intelligence said streets are being cleared of bodies and debris.
Russia claimed Wednesday that its military has taken complete control of Mauripol, a strategic port city in Ukraine’s war-torn east.
May 9 is a major holiday in Russia known as Victory Day, commemorating the country’s victory over the Nazis. It’s usually celebrated with a military parade in Moscow and a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace told LBC Radio that Putin will “probably” use the occasion to declare war. Russia has maintained that it’s carrying out “special military operations” in Ukraine and hasn’t declared war. In a call with reporters Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said claims Russia will declare a general mobilization are “absurd.”
-ABC News’ Yuriy Zaliznyak
May 04, 11:41 am
Russia claims to have taken full control of Mariupol, ‘securely blocked’ steel plant
Russia claimed Wednesday that its military has taken complete control of Mauripol, a strategic port city in Ukraine’s war-torn east.
“Peaceful life is being established in the territories of the LPR and DPR and Ukraine liberated from nationalists, including Mariupol, the largest industrial and transport hub on the Sea of Azov,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a teleconference. “It is under the control of the Russian army.”
According to Shoigu, Russian forces have “securely blocked” remaining Ukrainian fighters on the grounds of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol. The sprawling industrial site, which includes a maze of underground tunnels and bunkers, is the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
“In accordance with the instructions of the supreme commander, the remnants of the militants located in the industrial zone of the Azovstal plant are securely blocked around the entire perimeter of this territory,” Shoigu told reporters. “Repeated proposals to the nationalists to release civilians and lay down their arms with a guarantee of saving lives and decent treatment in accordance with international law, they have ignored. We continue these attempts.”
During a daily briefing call later Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the situation at the blockaded plant hadn’t changed and denied reports that Russian forces had begun storming the bombed-out territory, but said they have seen sporadic attempts by Ukrainian fighters to open fire.
“The supreme commander-in-chief has publicly ordered that the storm be canceled. There is no storm,” Peksov told reporters. “We can see that escalations happen as the fighters come to firing positions. These attempts are suppressed quite rapidly.”
ABC News recently spoke with Denys Prokopenko, a commander of the Azov Regiment, a far-right group now part of the Ukrainian military that was among the units defending Mariupol and is holed up inside the Azovstal plant with others. He said the fighters inside have tried to initiate a cease-fire to create conditions to allow people to flee but have yet to surrender, despite the odds. There are a number of people wounded and dead inside the plant, with some out of reach after sections of a bunker collapsed from Russian bombardment, according to Prokopenko.
“We are in full blockade, full circle of surrounding and we are under fire and the city is under fire,” Prokopenko told ABC News.
Earlier this week, a humanitarian convoy evacuated more than 100 civilians from the Azovstal plant and escorted them safely to Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian government-controlled city located about 140 miles northwest of Mariupol. Hundreds more civilians remain trapped inside the plant and Russian forces have resumed shelling of the area, according to Ukrainian officials.
-ABC News’ Clark Bentson, Dragana Jovanovic and Ian Pannell
May 04, 5:19 am
EU leader proposes import ban on Russian oil
The European Union’s top official called on the 27-nation bloc on Wednesday to gradually ban oil imports from Russia as part of a sixth set of sanctions against Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed that member nations “phase out” imports of Russian crude oil within six months and refined oil products from Russia by the end of the year. She also recommended sanctions targeting Russia’s biggest bank and major broadcasters.
“We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, in a way that allows us and our partners to secure alternative supply routes and minimizes the impact on global markets,” von der Leyen said. “Thus, we maximise pressure on Russia, while at the same time minimising collateral damage to us and our partners around the globe. Because to help Ukraine, our own economy has to remain strong.”
The proposals must be unanimously approved to take effect. Von der Leyen admitted that getting all 27 member countries to agree on oil sanctions “will not be easy.” Hungary and Slovakia, both of which are highly dependent on Russian energy, have already demanded exemptions.
“Some member states are strongly dependent on Russian oil. But we simply have to work on it,” she said. “We now propose a ban on Russian oil. This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil, seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined.”
(WASHINGTON) — It was a cold, sunny morning in late January when Sen. Ben Ray Lujan awoke on his farm in New Mexico. His girlfriend was leaving early for a visit with friends, and he had set the alarm for 5:45 a.m.
Lujan got up, made coffee, and helped out with packing the car. After seeing his girlfriend off, he headed back to bed for a bit more shut-eye.
“I got up at 6:15 a.m. So, half hour went by, I felt completely normal. Nothing was wrong,” the 49-year-old New Mexico Democrat recounted to ABC News in an exclusive interview for Good Morning America.
The freshman senator would soon learn that he had suffered a stroke in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. Extreme dizziness hitting him to such a degree that he would find himself crawling on his hands and knees. This ambitious former longtime House member once on a track potentially to the speakership, would have his life turned upside-down by a potentially deadly medical event, a moment that has sparked new meaning and new focus for the rising political star.
“I just, when I wake up and when I sit in the bed, the world’s spinning, but not spinning such that I don’t have my legs. I could still get up, but it was spinning so I was moving around a little bit right? The only thing I can compare it to is when you’re on a merry-go-round or something. You get off and you’re trying to catch those legs,” Lujan explained to ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott. “Went to the restroom, came back, closed my eyes for another 35 to 45 minutes and woke up because something felt funny. When I sat up that time, the room was like on its side, it felt like. It was topsy-turvy, and I was feeling the weakness.”
The harrowing account — the senator’s first — comes as the U.S. marks National Stroke Awareness month in May. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every 40 seconds someone in the U.S. has a stroke, and every three and a half minutes someone dies from it. While the senator is relatively young and in good health, an avid mountain biker, the CDC states that strokes can occur at any age, though the chance of having one increases as we grow older. And though death rates have been declining for most races and ethnicities over the years, Hispanics — like Lujan — have seen an increase in death rates since 2013.
Still, Lujan’s medical team does not know why he had the stroke.
As the senator’s world was spinning that Thursday morning and he was quickly losing strength, Lujan placed a crucial call to his chief of staff, Carlos Sanchez, who told his boss to contact his doctor immediately, a move that was likely life-saving. Lujan’s doctor, in turn, told him to get to an emergency room immediately, a critical decision.
“I called my sister, told her what was going on and by the time she got there — which wasn’t long thereafter — I went from being able to move around the house, wobbly and hitting walls, to crawling,” Lujan recounted as he moved to the edge of his seat, his hands at times clenched as the memories flooded back.
When the senator opened the door for his sister, Jackie, that morning, the fear in her eyes said it all.
“She had a lot of panic in her eyes, which I still remember the way she looked at me, and I said we got to go, but I need your help,” as the senator was unable to walk.
“She’s a little, she’s shorter than I am, but she was able to prop me on her shoulder and then as we went out the door, I told her, ‘I can’t walk,’ and she grabbed a broom, I think, or a stick that was on my front porch, and she said to use this on your other hand. ‘We’ll get you there.'”
On the way to the hospital, the senator’s sister spotted some firefighters outside their building. She pulled into the station and asked one of them to come and look at her ailing brother. Not liking what they saw, Lujan was quickly loaded into a nearby ambulance and rushed to the emergency room at Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Santa Fe where the doctors would have him quickly transferred to the state’s only comprehensive stroke center at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque for further evaluation.
All of the swift action decisive in his ultimate recovery.
Dr. Diana Greene-Chandos, Lujan’s neurologist, would later explain in a video tweeted out by the senator that the team discovered the cause of the stroke, a tear in Lujan’s vertebral artery, adding, “We did determine that medication would not be enough, and Senator Luhan underwent decompressive surgery to relieve the pressure in his brain.”
That diagnosis of a stroke for the 49-year-old New Mexican was a total shock.
“I never thought it was a stroke. Even as I was going to the hospital, I just thought I wasn’t feeling well. And a stroke hitting me, that wasn’t on my mind at all,” Lujan said.
To date, Lujan said, doctors are still not sure what ultimately caused the tear in his arteries.
“I had gone for a long mountain bike ride a few days before we had a freak snowstorm so I was shoveling snow for myself and mom for a couple hours. Two days before you know just normal weightlifting with kettlebells. I was working doing interviews and constituent meetings the day before. So they could not pinpoint something that this is what caused it. This is what triggered it,” Lujan remembered.
Over that late January weekend, surgeons removed a silver dollar size portion of the senator’s skull to allow the brain to swell and then heal.
“I don’t remember much coming out of the recovery, because they put me under to do this, but as I came out, you know, I was fortunate. My sister, Jackie, who took me to the hospital and she’s been with me a lot and then my partner, Dawn, she’s been with me as well. She came in a few days later. But it was that comfort, as well. And it was frightening, right?” said Lujan, feeling gingerly for the still-visible scar at the nape of his neck.
While a stroke can often be associated with a loss of motion or facial muscles, Lujan stressed to ABC News that he never lost motor movement or his voice throughout his entire ordeal. “I was a little weak on the left. I was wobbly. I didn’t have that balance,” the senator noted, which made physical therapy a challenge.
His most difficult day, he recalled, was that day he emerged from the life-saving surgery.
“I think that’s where it really set into me, like, this is serious. You know, granted, you’re there in a hospital room in an ICU. You’re connected to IVs. You got folks checking on you. But coming out of that surgery, I had staples on the back over here,” Lujan said, again touching his scar through his buzzed hair now growing out in the weeks after surgery. “Wasn’t allowed to touch it, right? Because you don’t want to mess with anything. And that’s when it set in, like, no, this is serious. Like, you got to fight on your hands. And it was tough.”
But Lujan gave his therapists a set of goals from the outset.
“I said I want to walk, I want to dance, and I want to ride my mountain bike again, and they said ‘well, we’re gonna help you hit all those goals,'” the senator said.
Therapists had Lujan performing balancing techniques, doing squats, riding the stationary bike, and even jogging, something that was painful, at first.
“Jogging was tough, because every time I would jolt, it would hurt back here where they did the work on me. But now that’s all gone,” said Lujan, who is still completing his therapy and has yet to get on his mountain bike. “They have me doing, you know, shoulder shrugs and pull ups, and they’re working on all that upper body strength. And it’s just, it’s special, but the best part of it is the people you’re working with.”
One nurse, in particular, pushed Lujan through the difficult moments in therapy. When Lujan did not feel like pushing, the nurse — named Tyler — told him, ‘You can be your own worst enemy and just stay here and not get better, or you can be positive. And you can take every day in that positive light and be positive with everything going on and get better,’ and it just stuck with me,” Lujan remembered, the emotion palpable in his voice.
The senator said the positive thinking made a true difference, but Lujan, a devout Catholic, also drew on his faith, telling ABC News he prayed daily, something that also helped with the intense feelings of loneliness that can permeate a sterile intensive care unit.
“It’s tough. People go through tough times during this, and there were people around me that passed away while they were trying to get care when the therapists were walking me around. I was often the only person walking around. Others were there behind closed doors. Some I don’t know if they had visitors and my family and my faith.”
It is that feeling of wanting to help others that aides say has Lujan and his team now looking for legislative and advocacy options. Lujan also said he plans to speak out to educate others about the risks of stroke and the importance of early detection.
The American Stroke Association uses the acronym, FAST, which stands for Face drooping; Arm weakness; Speech difficulty; and Time to call 9-1-1, emergency services, if these symptoms are observed.
As dramatic as the medical events were that played out far from Washington in January, the public and political world was none the wiser. It would take five days before Lujan’s condition was made public. The freshman senator’s chief of staff released a brief statement breaking the news, sending a seismic political jolt through the nation’s capital and an evenly-split Senate where Democratic leaders often say they are merely ‘a heartbeat away from the minority.’
Addressing the delay for the first time, Lujan told ABC News exclusively, “We put a press release out, I think it was the fifth day after I had the signs of that stroke on the 27th, and the reason for that was the docs told me you need a few days for us to give you an accurate portrayal of what your future may be like or what’s the outcome here. We don’t know where you’re going to do surgery yet, either. So, on the fifth day, they gave me and Carlos and my comms team an assessment. So we put a statement out to make sure everyone knew what was going on.”
But Lujan said the pressure from Washington, and the political machinations over how a Democratic absence might shift the balance of power in the Senate, never affected him and his recovery, this despite an historic Supreme Court nomination that would soon be announced for which Lujan’s vote might have proved decisive.
“Everyone knew that the Supreme Court nomination was on its way, and so one of the motivations for me even was you need to get better because you can’t miss that vote. And you need to get there, that’s your obligation,” said Lujan.
Lujan, a rising political star, manages to be both a fierce political strategist while also a humble man from humble roots, a member, along with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., of the self-described “Head Start Caucus” — a reference to having been poor and in need of government assistance as children.
The senator is so beloved by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, that they flooded his inbox with messages of support, something that the senator says was invaluable to his recovery.
One Senate colleague, in particular, Cory Booker of New Jersey, stood out, taking it upon himself to send daily, uplifting selfie videos to Lujan, sometimes corralling his Senate colleagues to join in, a generosity that brought the freshman senator to tears.
“I looked forward to them, and the first time I saw them, I was bawling,” Lujan recalled.
“Senator Booker has an incredible way about him and for someone of his stature to stop what they’re doing,” Lujan said, choking back tears. “Sorry. For someone of Cory’s stature to stop what they’re doing and tell you a story. And he was even getting, you know, Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the way to votes to say hello and whatnot…I think that’s an example of the kind of humanity and generosity that you see from other people. And this way with people that are busy, and they took time to truly check in on me and see how I was doing, and it was genuine.”
In one video, shared exclusively with ABC News by Booker’s office, prayers and words of encouragement were offered by Lujan’s “Head Start caucus” colleague, Raphael Warnock, who is also a pastor at the storied Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, featured in another, sending well wishes and prayers, with a smiling Booker adding of his Mormon colleague, “And I can say he’s got powerful prayers.”
“Hey, Ben Ray. Get better soon,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a third video, flashing a thumbs up as Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., photo bombed the moment.
It’s a generosity and selflessness that Sen. Lujan said he’s anxious to share with others, a profound lesson from his stroke, among many that he said would stay with him.
“How many people do we see on the street that need help or elsewhere in the world? And we people are so busy. We just walked by them and you ignore them? Even if you can’t help them, smile. Say, ‘Good morning. Good afternoon.’ Right?” Lujan asked rhetorically, passion rising in his voice. “Because that humanity might save their lives. They know that they’re being seen. They know they’re worth something. And it’s just one of those reminders to me of how much more patient we can be as a society, how much more caring we can be. And something that we can give away for free, which is the smile or gesture to change everything.”
He has also been especially touched by people who have had strokes but never made them public, willing to share their experience to help him, or others who have offered advice along the way on what to expect.
“Take time to get better, right? Sleep matters. Listen to your therapists. Do what they tell you to do. Take your medicine. A lot of people have told me that one,” recalled Lujan. “But since that stroke, and since I’ve come back, I’m able to be even more present than I’ve been. I’m able to appreciate where I am or the people that I’m meeting more.”
Perhaps difficult for an ambitious politician, Lujan said he’s trying to be more patient, though having nearly recovered fully from the stroke, he is anxious “to push, because you have so much to deliver and a short time to get it done. But you treat more people with that respect and dignity, and I hope people thought that I did that already, but I’m more aware of it, and you just be good, right? Trying to make a difference. Be positive.”
He has clearly learned a lot from the life-changing experience, but as he has shared his experience with others, including with other stroke victims, one thing has also solidified in his mind — that on that cold January day, something bigger than Lujan saved him.
“A lot of them told me that they waited too long, that they tried to get better for a couple of days. And for whatever reason, even though I think that’s my natural inclination, I didn’t do that this time. Someone was looking out for me, something motivated me. And, you know, a lot of people saved my life and, you know, God is watching over me. God is good.”
The senator returned to his job in Washington full time just five weeks after his stroke, his colleagues greeting him with a standing ovation as he walked into a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. He joked with reporters afterward about his new “buzz cut” hairdo, later voting on the Senate floor for the first time in more than a month, his colleagues warmly embracing him.
The senator, who has kept a low profile since the, is not quite back to 100%, but he says he is close and has passed major milestones, including an annual, 9-mile pilgrimage in his home state he recently conquered just before Easter.
“For me, that was a big milestone, because I have a lot to be grateful for, a lot to pray for. And while I didn’t walk as far as I normally do, I did it from my home. So just under 9 miles, but nonetheless a lot of folks said we didn’t know if you can do it, and that’s just one of those times that are important to me, that I was able to still meet it, and it just begins to describe the recovery,” Lujan said.
And while Lujan is not yet back on his mountain bike, something he says he plans to do soon, he told ABC News that he is feeling stronger every day.
“I won’t say I’m 100 percent yet, because I haven’t gotten on my mountain bike once I do that, and I think that I’m there I can tell you that I’m stronger. I feel stronger every day that goes by. I feel better. You know, you can see that I’ve not lost my speech, although some of my friends maybe had hoped that that might be the case. But I’m able to engage in debate and thought and conversation and do that work. And I feel physically stronger as well. So I’ve been blessed that I’m getting better and that I’m almost there. So keep praying for me.”
