(LONDON) — Magawa, a rat credited with finding over 100 landmines and explosives in Cambodia, is dead at age 8.
The African giant pouched male rat was the most successful landmine detecting rat for the nonprofit APOPO — a Tanzania-based group that trains the species to detect landmines and tuberculosis — dubbing them “HeroRATs.”
Magawa won a People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals Gold Medal — the highest honor given to heroic animals by the U.K.-based veterinary charity — for his work in Cambodia in 2020. According to APOPO, Magawa “passed away peacefully this weekend,” having recently celebrated his birthday.
Magawa retired last year after spending four years discovering explosives with his incredible sense of smell.
African giant pouched rats are larger than the average pet rat, but are not heavy enough to set off most landmines by walking over them.
With 60 million people in 59 countries affected by uncleared landmines, training animals like Magawa can improve efficiency and cut costs in a decades-long battle to clear landmines from past conflict zones, APOPO says.
“All of us at APOPO are feeling the loss of Magawa and we are grateful for the incredible work he’s done,” the nonprofit said on its website. “During his career, Magawa found over 100 landmines and other explosives, making him APOPO’s most successful HeroRAT to date. His contribution allows communities in Cambodia to live, work, and play; without fear of losing life or limb.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack issued three new subpoenas on Tuesday to former Trump White House aides and associates, including a speechwriter who helped craft former President Donald Trump’s speech to supporters ahead of the Capitol riot.
The panel has subpoenaed GOP operatives Arthur Schwartz and Andrew Surabian, along with Trump White House speechwriter Ross Worthington.
“The Select Committee is seeking information from individuals who were involved with the rally at the Ellipse. Protests on that day escalated into an attack on our democracy,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. “We have reason to believe the individuals we’ve subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to join the more than 340 individuals who have spoken with the Select Committee as we push ahead to investigate this attack on our democracy and ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”
Both Surabian and Schwartz, who have ties to Donald Trump Jr. and have been in the former president’s orbit since he first ran for president, communicated with organizers and speakers at the rally on the National Mall, the committee said, pointing to records obtained by the panel.
“While we plan on cooperating with the Committee within reason, we are bewildered as to why Mr. Surabian is being subpoenaed in the first place,” Surabian’s lawyer, Daniel Bean, told ABC News in a statement. “He had nothing at all to do with the events that took place at the Capital that day, zero involvement in organizing the rally that preceded it and was off the payroll of the Trump campaign as of November 15, 2020.”
Schwartz and Worthington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the committee, Worthington helped draft Trump’s speech that day to supporters — many of whom later marched across the National Mall to the Capitol after he encouraged them to do so.
Trump’s speech and intentions were a focus of debate during Trump’s second impeachment trial, when House Democrats charged him with inciting the riot.
His lawyers argued before the Senate that the president did not call for violence against lawmakers or Capitol Police.
The committee has asked all three witnesses to turn over records by Jan. 24 and appear for interviews at the end of the month, or early February.
To date, the panel has publicly disclosed 53 subpoenas, and investigators have obtained tens of thousands of pages of records, including some from the Trump White House, and text messages and emails provided by Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s last White House chief of staff.
The committee, which is prepared to hold public hearings in the coming weeks, has also sought to voluntarily question GOP lawmakers involved in efforts to challenge the election results.
Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Scott Perry, R-Pa., have refused to cooperate with the inquiry, and the panel has not ruled out trying to compel their testimony.
The committee is also engaging with aides and associates of former Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump and others tried to pressure to overturn the election results while he presided over the counting of the electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Longtime Pence aide Marc Short has been subpoenaed by the committee, and his attorney continues to engage with the panel regarding testimony and cooperation.
Thompson also suggested in a recent NPR interview that the committee could request to interview Pence in the coming weeks.
(NEW YORK) — Bank of America announced Tuesday that it will slash overdraft fees — the fines consumers pay when they make a purchase with their debit card but don’t have enough money in their account — from $35 to $10 starting this May.
The changes come in the wake of pressure from consumer advocacy groups that say these fees disproportionately impact vulnerable and low-income Americans.
A report released last month by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau found that overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees remain lucrative for banks, reaching an estimated $15.5 billion in 2019. The CFPB also said fewer than 9% of consumer accounts pay 10 or more overdrafts per year, accounting for close to 80% of all overdraft revenue.
Moreover, despite a drop in fees collected, the CFPB said “many of the fee harvesting practices persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In addition to reducing overdraft fees, Bank of America also announced Tuesday that it was entirely eliminating “non-sufficient funds fees,” or the charges for a rejected transaction or bounced check.
The bank, which has 66 million consumer and small business clients, said it will have reduced overdraft fees by 97% from 2009 levels with these new changes.
Other major financial institutions including JP Morgan Chase and Capital One have cut or eliminated these fees that can seemingly catch customers by surprise at times, when something they think they are purchasing for only a few dollars can end up being closer to $40.
“Rather than competing on quality service and attractive interest rates, many banks have become hooked on overdraft fees to feed their profit model” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement last month. “We will be taking action to restore meaningful competition to this market.”
Bank of America’s president of retail banking, Holly O’Neill, said the company has made significant changes to overdraft services over the last decade and now provides resources to help clients manage accounts.
“Throughout the process we have engaged our National Community Advisory Council (NCAC) for their guidance and feedback on our changes,” O’Neill said. “These latest steps will further support our clients and empower them to create long-term financial wellness.”
“We remain committed to taking actions that will further bring down overdraft fees in the future and continue to empower clients to drive positive changes to behavior pertaining to overdraft,” she added.
(ATLANTA) — With less than 10 months until the 2022 midterm elections, President Joe Biden headed to Georgia on Tuesday to make his biggest push yet for national voting rights bills and called for changes to the Senate filibuster rule in order to get them passed.
“We have no option but to change the Senate rules including getting rid of the filibuster for this,” Biden said.
Recalling the “violent mob” that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Biden characterized the attack, for the first time publicly, as an “attempted coup.”
“That’s why we’re here today to stand against the forces in America that value power over principle, forces that attempted a coup — a coup against the legally expressed will of the American people by sowing doubt and vending charges of fraud, seeking to steal the 2020 election from the people,” he said.
“Hear me plainly,” Biden told the group gathered in Atlanta. “The battle for the soul of America is not over.”
“We must make sure Jan. 6 marks not the end of democracy but the renaissance for our democracy,” he continued.
The president called out congressional Republicans, he said, for turning the will of the voters into a “mere suggestion” in the case of the 2020 presidential election.
Biden spoke Tuesday alongside Vice President Kamala Harris from the grounds of Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College.
“We will fight to secure our most fundamental freedom — the freedom to vote,” Harris said, opening for the president. “And that is why we have come to Atlanta today — to the cradle of the Civil Rights movement, to the district that was represented by the great Congressman John Lewis, on the eve of the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
Harris blasted Senate Republicans over what she characterized as exploiting “acane” Senate rules — in an apparent nod to the filibuster — to block Democrats’ election reform bills.
“We will fight to safeguard our democracy,” she added.
To that end, Biden announced he supported changing the Senate rules surrounding the filibuster in “whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights.”
Echoing his impassioned address on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection when he blamed former President Donald Trump and his supporters for holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy,” Biden’s remarks in Atlanta were expected to be a “forceful” call to action to protect voting rights.
“The president will forcefully advocate for protecting the most bedrock American rights: the right to vote and have your voice counted in a free, fair and secure election that is not tainted … by partisan manipulation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed in her press briefing Tuesday.
“He’ll make clear in the former district of the late Congressman John Lewis, that the only way to do that are (sic) for the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”
In excerpts of the speech released Tuesday morning, the White House said Biden would pressure the Senate to act.
“The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice?” he was expected to say. “I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic. And so the question is where will the institution of United States Senate stand?”
As he left the White House Tuesday morning, Biden told reporters asking about the political risk he’s taking given the Senate uncertainty, “I risk not saying what I believe. That’s what I risk. This is one of those defining moments. It really is. People are gonna be judged – where were they before and where were they after the vote. History is going to judge us, it’s that consequential. And so the risk is making sure people understand just how important this is just so important.”
Georgia is one of 19 states that have passed new restrictive voting laws since the 2020 election. There have been 34 such new laws in total across the country, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, and most of them in states controlled by Republicans.
Many of the new laws, fueled by false claims of widespread election fraud by the former president, take aim at mail-in voting, implement stricter voter ID requirements, allow fewer early voting days and limit ballot drop boxes.
The Brennan Center calculates that 13 more restrictive laws are in the works, including one in Georgia that would ban the use of ballot boxes altogether.
But Tuesday’s trip has been met with criticism from some voting groups that warned in a statement to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal that “anything less” than a finalized plan to pass voting rights in the House and Senate is insufficient and unwelcome.”
On Monday afternoon, The Asian American Advocacy Fund, Atlanta North Georgia Labor Council, Black Voters Matter Fund, GALEO Impact Fund and New Georgia Project Action Fund all said they won’t be attending the event and asked Biden and Harris to stay in Washington.
“We don’t need another speech,” said Cliff Albright, executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund. “What we need is action – what we need is a plan.”
Notably, also not attending Biden’s speech is Stacey Abrams, the Georgia voting rights activist.
Biden said he spoke with her Tuesday morning and blamed it on a scheduling issue.
“I spoke with Stacey this morning. We have a great relationship. We got our scheduling mixed up. I talked to her at length this morning. We’re all on the same page and everything is fine.”
Biden’s speech will be the third he has delivered focused on the issue of voting rights. It comes after the president signaled in an interview with ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir that he would be open to making a one-time Senate rule change to the filibuster that would allow a simple majority to pass new voting laws.
Psaki said the president would also directly address the issue of the filibuster.
“The president has spoken to this issue a number of times, as I’ve said before, including as recently as December where he said that, ‘if that is how we get this done, I’m open to that,'” Psaki said.
The president’s message, according to Psaki, will include a call to “ensure January 6 doesn’t mark the end of democracy, but the beginning of a renaissance for our democracy, where we stand up for the right to vote and have that vote counted fairly, not undermined by partisans.”
In her briefing, Psaki pushed back on criticism of the president, stressing that the speech Tuesday is focused on moving forward.
“We understand the frustration by many advocates that this is not passed into law yet. He would love to have signed this into law himself. But tomorrow’s an opportunity to speak about what the path forward looks like to advocate for – for this moving forward in the Senate.”
While Biden has signaled his openness to passing voting rights with a carveout to the filibuster, he would still need the support of all 50 Democratic senators to do so — which could prove challenging with holdout Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
“Look, I think that everyone is going to have to take a hard look at where they want to be at this moment in history as we’re looking at efforts across the country to to prevent people from being able to exercise their fundamental rights,” Psaki said when asked about Sinema’s opposition.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised a vote on voting rights legislation soon and warned that if Republicans filibuster the effort, he will force another vote by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The White House has insisted Biden will “work in lockstep” with Schumer to move a vote forward but are taking it “day by day.”
Republicans, meanwhile, oppose the proposed federal voting laws as what they deem a government overreach. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Democrats are promoting a “fake narrative,” “fake outrage” and “fake hysteria” on voting rights “ginned up by partisans.”
Harris was tasked in June by the president to lead the administration’s efforts on voting rights reforms. Psaki said the vice president has worked to “help build a groundswell of support” and has been meeting with a number of advocates on the issue.
ABC News’ Meg Cunningham contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A 57-year-old man who underwent a first-of-its-kind heart transplant involving a genetically-modified pig heart is in a “much happier place” after the transplant, according to his son.
David Bennett Sr., of Maryland, suffered from terminal heart disease and was deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant because of his severe condition, according to University of Maryland Medicine, where Bennett underwent the transplant.
On New Year’s Eve, University of Maryland Medicine doctors were granted emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration to try the pig heart transplantation with Bennett, who had been hospitalized and bedridden for several months.
Bennett said he saw the risky surgery as his last option.
“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” he said the day before the surgery, according to University of Maryland Medicine. “I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover.”
Bennett was so sick before the transplant that he was on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine — which pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body — and had also been deemed ineligible for an artificial heart pump, according to University of Maryland Medicine.
“His level of illness probably exceeded our standards for what would be safe for human heart transplantation,” said Dr. Bartley P. Griffith, a professor in transplant surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
It was Griffith who surgically transplanted the pig heart into Bennett. He and a team of researchers have spent the past five years studying and perfecting the transplantation of pig hearts, according to University of Maryland Medicine.
Pig hearts are similar in size to human hearts and have an anatomy that is similar, but not identical.
So far, Bennett’s body has not rejected the pig heart, which experts said is the biggest concern after a transplant.
Xenotransplantation, transplanting animal cells, tissues or organs into a human, carries the risk of triggering a dangerous immune response, which can cause a “potentially deadly outcome to the patient,” according to University of Maryland Medicine.
“It is a game-changer,” Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who oversaw the transplant procedure with Griffith, said. “We have modified 10 genes in this in this pig heart. Four genes were knocked out, three of them responsible for producing antibodies that causes rejection.”
Mohiuddin and Griffith said they are now closely monitoring Bennett to make sure his body continues to accept the new heart.
“He’s awake. He is recovering and speaking to his caregivers,” said Griffith. “And we hope that the recovery that he is having now will continue.”
Speaking of the possibility of rejection, Griffith added, “The pig heart will be attacked by different soldiers in our body, different immune players can take it out and we have designed a treatment plan, in addition to the humanized, genetically-edited heart, to try to account for that.”
Bennett’s son, David Bennett, Jr., told “Good Morning America” the transplant provided his father a “level of hope.”
“Hope that he could go home and hope that he could have the quality of life that he’s so much desired,” Bennett, Jr said. “He’s in a much better place and a much happier place right now following this transplant procedure. He is happy with where he is at. Happy with the potential to get out of the hospital.”
While the type of transplant Bennett received is groundbreaking, experts said it does not minimize the ongoing need for human organ donations.
Around 110,000 people in the United States are on the organ transplant waiting list, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting a transplant, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Whether it’s 3-D printing or growing organs in a lab setting or donations, we desperately need more organs,” said ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OBGYN.
(CHICAGO) — More than 350,000 public school students in Chicago are expected to resume in-person learning on Wednesday after a tentative agreement was reached between the school district and the Chicago Teachers Union to bolster classroom safety amid a wave of COVID-19 infections.
A deal was struck Monday night to end nearly a week of in-classroom cancellations and remote learning. Tuesday marked the fifth day students have been out of classrooms after a long holiday break.
The more than 25,000 teachers and staff in the nation’s third-largest school district are to return to their schools on Tuesday to prepare for reopening classrooms.
Negotiations between the CTU and the district focused on demands to expand student testing for the virus and to create a set of metrics designed to trigger closing schools and returning remote learning if coronavirus infections continue to soar. The talks grew contentious at times as union leaders accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot of “bullying” teachers back to the classrooms and school district officials accused the union of staging an “illegal walkout.”
Both sides filed complaints to a state labor board.
“Some will ask who won and who lost,” Lightfoot said Monday night. “No one wins when our students are out of the place where they can learn the best and where they’re safest. After being out of school for four days in a row, I’m sure many students will be excited to get back in the classroom with their teachers and peers. And their parents and guardians can now breathe a much deserved sigh of relief.”
Pedro Martinez, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said the district is committed to the safety of its students, teachers and staff, and said the negotiations forged “some really good things.”
CTU President Jesse Sharkey said Monday that the union fought to improve classroom safety for both students and teachers.
“I’m ultimately proud the Chicago Teachers Union took a stand,” Sharkey said at a news conference. “We’re going to keep doing what’s right as we navigate this. It’s not a perfect agreement but we’ll hold our heads up high, as it was hard to get.”
The agreement also includes new incentives to boost the number of substitute teachers in the district and establishes metrics that will prompt a return to remote learning, but for individual schools, not the districtwide protocols for which CTU had asked.
The district also offered to spend about $100 million to implement a safety plan that includes air purifiers for all classrooms. The district said it will provide KN95 masks for all teachers and students.
The union’s governing body, composed of 700 members, voted by nearly a 2-to-1 margin — 63% to 27% — to end remote teaching. Rank-and-file members have until later this week to vote on whether to ratify the agreement.
Like Chicago, school districts nationwide are reeling from a surge in COVID-19 cases sparked by the highly contagious omicron variant.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is planning to reopen schools for in-person learning on Tuesday, although some schools in the nation’s second-largest school district have opted to delay reopening due to an increase in reported COVID-19 cases.
LAUSD officials are requiring all students and staff to get tested for COVID-19 before the first day of classes. The district announced on Monday that at least 65,630 of those tests have come back positive.
The Philadelphia School District announced on Friday that 46 schools would switch to virtual learning as the omicron variant and a winter storm took a toll on staffing.
(KAZAKHSTAN) — Russian-led troops sent to help quell protests will begin leaving Kazakhstan in two days now that the government is back in control, the country’s president has said.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an address to Kazakhstan’s parliament Tuesday said the troops, deployed by the Moscow-dominated military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation at his request last week, would start a phased withdrawal that would finish in no more than 10 days.
“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed,” Tokayev told lawmakers. He said that the situation was now stable in all regions of Kazakhstan.
The Russian-led alliance sent troops late last week to Kazakhstan as violent protests saw Tokayev’s authoritarian government lose control over its biggest city, Almaty. Russia sent the largest contingent, deploying paratroopers units with armored vehicles, backed by several hundred soldiers from the other former Soviet countries in the alliance: Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Tokayev has said the force numbers around 2,300 troops.
In recent days, Tokayev’s security forces have forcibly regained control in Kazakhstan, using live fire to end the uprising in Almaty and arresting nearly 10,000 people. The unrest saw at least 164 people killed and over 2,000 injured, according to authorities.
The Russian-led troops have not been used in combat or in direct clashes with protesters, according to the authorities, who say instead they were used to guard key facilities, including Almaty’s airport which was overrun by protesters. Tokayev has said the arrival of the foreign forces freed up his security forces in the capital Nur-Sultan to help quash the unrest in other regions.
The Russian intervention had worried Western countries that have expressed fear the Kremlin’s forces might remain indefinitely and that Kazakhstan could find its independence eroded.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend told reporters, “I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.”
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin a day earlier has insisted his troops would “without question” leave as soon as their mission was complete.
Life was slowly returning to some normalcy in Almaty on Tuesday, although the city remained under heavy guard by security forces. Troops are posted at key buildings and checkpoints, stopping people and examining their phones for signs they may have taken part in the protests, according to an ABC reporter on the ground.
Tokayev on Tuesday announced his picks for a new government, including a new prime minister. The lower house of parliament quickly approved Tokayev’s acting prime minister, Alikhan Smailov, to the the post. In a special session of parliament, Tokayev also promised to launch broad reforms to overhaul Kazakhstan’s government and tackle economic problems in the country — addressing concerns that led to the protests. The unrest was triggered by a sudden hike in fuel prices, and came amid wide discontent with rising prices on basic goods and stagnant wages that have worsened with the pandemic.
Tokayev said his government would announce a new packet of measures within two months aimed at tackling inflation and raising incomes.
He also declared he would radically improve Kazakhstan’s security forces to prevent a repeat of last week’s unrest, promising to increase the number of special forces units in the police and create new ones in the national guard. He also promised to announce in September a packet of political reforms, saying Kazakhstan would “continue a course of political modernisation.”
(WASHINGTON) — Senators from both sides of the aisle grilled top health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, on the latest COVID-19 guidance during a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing Tuesday.
Democrats and Republicans both demanded better communication on rules for testing, isolation and quarantine.
“I’m not questioning the science… but I’m questioning your communication strategies. It’s no wonder that the American people are confused,” Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who is also the ranking HELP Republican, said.
Committee chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said: “I have heard from so many people who find the latest CDC isolation and quarantine guidance confusing and hard to interpret.”
Murray pressed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to provide not just “background” but a “straightforward” answer.
“If they are exposed to COVID-19 and they are completely boosted, they should — they do not need to stay home, but they should get a test at day five,” Walensky responded.
“If they have COVID, our guidance does not distinguish between your vaccination status. And our science has demonstrated that you’re maximally infectious two days before and two-to-three days after,” Walensky continued.
“By five days after your symptoms, if you’re feeling better, if your fever is better, if your cough and sore throat are better, then on day six you can go out,” Walensky said. “But you have to wear a mask — you have to wear a mask reliably and you should not go to places you can’t wear a mask. You probably shouldn’t go and visit grandma, you shouldn’t get on an airplane.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah asked for clarity on the latest definition of exposure.
“When you say what people have been exposed, please let us know what it means to be exposed. We’re in a room right now — I’m sure someone here has omicron. Are we all exposed? And therefore, need to get tested? What does it mean to be exposed? And when do we need to get tested?” Romney asked.
Fauci reiterated that the CDC guideline for exposure is if you are in close contact with someone with COVID-19 for “a period of 15 minutes at a time, or a total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period.”
CDC guidance is to test on day five if you are exposed.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., brought up the scarce availability of N95 masks.
“Americans still can’t go to a local pharmacy and purchase an American-made N95,” Baldwin said. “So President [Joe] Biden has now personally urged Americans to upgrade the quality of the masks they wear — I want to know when the American people will be able to buy an American-made N95 mask?”
Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee that the Biden administration plans to sign a contract with a supplier by next month to get 140 million N95 masks per month.
Some 737 million N95 masks are in the national stockpile that could be provided to hospitals that need them, and those masks come from a dozen domestic suppliers, she said.
O’Connell said the plan is to reach an agreement with a company to create “warm-based manufacturing,” meaning the factory would be able to expand in times of high demand.
“We are very invested in N95 masks being made available. And we’ll continue to look — and I appreciate your support in getting us the American rescue plan dollars that we’re currently investing — and we’ll continue to look at the right ways to invest,” she said.
This hearing also featured another contentious exchange between Fauci and Republican Sen. Rand Paul.
Paul asked Fauci about his email correspondence and accused Fauci of trying to “attack scientists who disagree with you.”
Fauci responded, “you keep distorting the truth.”
“I brought together a group of people to look at every possibility with an open mind … you’re completely turning it around,” Fauci said.
Fauci said the purpose of the committee is to help the American public, but he said Paul instead chooses to “keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance.”
Fauci said Paul’s attacks are “for political reasons” and inspire “the crazies out there.”
Dr. Fauci, in another contentious exchange with Sen. Rand Paul, says Paul’s attacks against him “kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children.”
Fauci referenced the December arrest of a California man who, at a traffic stop, was allegedly found with an AR-15 style rifle, loaded magazines, boxes of ammunition and body armor. Prosecutors said the driver downloaded TikTok videos, compiling a list of people he allegedly wanted to kill, including Fauci and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Fauci and Paul have butted heads repeatedly. At a hearing in July 2021, Paul and Fauci got in a shouting match over COVID-19’s origins.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — When U.S. Army veteran Brian Snow drove 12 hours from his home in Indiana to Washington for then-President Donald Trump’s rally on the Ellipse Jan. 6 — amid chants of “stop the steal” — he came prepared for a fight. Clad in body armor, the father or four feared he could be attacked just for attending the event.
Still, he said, he felt called to be there.
“The president asked for people to come himself. So, you know, that’s what we do,” Snow said on that day a year ago, standing just outside the White House grounds.
But as that protest escalated into an insurrection, it was Trump’s supporters who turned to violence, brutally overtaking security forces to breach the U.S. Capitol and temporarily derailing the certification of the 2020 election.
Among those rioters were dozens of former members of the armed forces, as well as a handful of current service members sworn to protect the country and the Constitution. Roughly 70 of the 800 people who faced criminal charges in the wake of the attack had a military background.
While Snow calls violence against police officers “appalling” and did not storm the Capitol himself, he says he understands the motivation driving the military men and women who did. Because despite the more than 60 unsuccessful lawsuits filed by the former president and his allies, thorough reviews across six critical swing states, and zero documented evidence of widespread voter fraud, he still insists the election was “tainted.”
“If you feel like liberty is being trampled on, then you have a responsibility,” Snow said.
To the Pentagon, the elevated number of military-trained rioters motivated by these false claims is not coincidental, but a sign of extremism in the ranks–an enduring, nocuous problem thrown under a new spotlight by the events of Jan. 6th and one in urgent need of attention.
In the weeks following the attack, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered an unprecedented stand down across the armed services to address extremism. And in the final weeks of 2021, the Pentagon issued a new definition of prohibited extremist activities intended to identify radicalized service members and updated guidelines on social media, warning that “liking” or reposting extremist content could result in disciplinary action.
“The new definition preserves a service members right of expression to the extent possible, while also balancing the need for good order and discipline to affect military combat and unit readiness,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon’s top spokesman.
Additionally, military recruiters are now required to ask candidates about any connections they may have to extremist groups, and service members transitioning to civilian life are warned that they might be approached by these organizations.
While the impact of these measures remain to be see, many — like David Smith, a former Navy medic who served in Afghanistan — fear that without further action, the issue will only intensify.
“I think when we talk about extremism, we should actually like focus in on what the actual extremism is, which is white nationalism,” Smith said. “The military doesn’t want to have to actively address it.”
Smith happened to be passing out hand-warmers to homeless people near the Capitol on Jan. 6, and witnessed some of the rioters’ brutality firsthand.
“It was gut-wrenching,” Smith said, noting especially his fellow veterans among the mob. “To see them storming the building and to do so as if they had the authority to do so — it goes against everything and we swore an oath to protect.”
Smith is the founder of Continue to Serve, a grassroots organization dedicated to engaging former members of the military in lawful activism and community service centered on social justice issues. But he says many veterans are still vulnerable to being swayed by extremists.
“When we talk about veterans and their willingness to serve, they have an undying patriotism. And when politicians can manipulate that, that’s going to give them a lot of power,” Smith said.
Inaction, he predicts, will invite history to repeat itself.
“We’ve got to ensure that we’re creating mechanisms so that when people are getting out of the military, they actually have a place to go,” he said. “And they’re not falling into these groups where they are being indoctrinated and they’re being radicalized and they’re, they’re doing what they did on January 6th.”
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal judge in New York to halt a civil investigation into his business practices by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accusing her in a new court filing of weaponizing her office to carry out a “targeted attack against a political adversary.”
Trump sued James last month in federal court to block her investigation into how the Trump Organization valued its real estate holdings. He is now asking for a preliminary injunction while the outcome of his lawsuit is decided and for James to recuse herself from the civil investigation.
“Letitia James has displayed a shocking irreverence for her prosecutorial ethics and has routinely exploited her position to malign the former president by turning an unfounded investigation into a public spectacle,” Trump’s motion said. “In doing so, she has exposed the vindictive and self-serving nature of her actions.”
In response, James said this was merely a delay tactic by the former president.
“The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings. To be clear, neither Donald Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions,” James said in a statement. “Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.”
James recently subpoenaed two of Trump’s children, eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, and indicated in a court filing neither would cooperate.
The Trump Organization sought to vacate the subpoenas, arguing they were improperly issued while the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, with assistance from James’ office, conducts a parallel criminal investigation.
“The all too familiar subject areas identified in the document subpoenas include requests for information about valuations and appraisals of properties and assets of Plaintiffs. These matters have long been the subject of Defendant’s joint criminal investigation with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Defendant’s civil investigation dating back to 2019,” Trump’s motion said.
