(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden began what he has said would be a bipartisan process to pick his Supreme Court nominee, hosting meetings at the White House on Tuesday amid Republican criticism of his history-making move to nominate the first Black woman to the bench.
Biden met with Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and the committee’s top Republican Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Tuesday afternoon to consult with them on the nomination and confirmation process. Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden has said will advise him on his selection, was also on hand for the Oval Office event.
“The Constitution says ‘advise and consent, advise and consent,’ and I’m serious when I say I want the advice of the Senate as well as the consent,” Biden told reporters at the top of the meeting.
“I’m looking for a candidate with character, with the qualities of … a judge in terms of being courteous to the folks before them and treating people with respect. As well as a judicial philosophy that is more one that suggests that there are unenumerated rights to the Constitution and all new members mean something including the Ninth Amendment,” Biden said.
He also reiterated his intention to announce his nominee by the end of the month.
“I think I’ll be courteous to the president and try to answer his questions,” Grassley told reporters on the Hill earlier Tuesday morning. “I don’t know what those questions are going to be, but I’m going to take the approach that we need somebody that’s going to interpret the law and not make a law because that’s Congress’s job.”
While some in the GOP have criticized Biden’s campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the court, arguing all nominees should be considered for their qualifications, Grassley said he wouldn’t enter that debate until he sees the nominee.
“The president makes a nomination. That’s his privilege,” Grassley said.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, meanwhile, doubled down on his belief to reporters that Biden’s pledge is “offensive” to Black women and claimed Tuesday that Democrats are “very comfortable discriminating based on race.”
“When Joe Biden throws out a quota that the only people he will consider for this nomination are African American women. He is number one rejecting regardless of merits everybody else, whether they are white or Black or Hispanic or Native American,” Cruz said.
Despite some Republican opposition, the White House has dug into the commitment, pushing back on the idea of Biden choosing a candidate just to get bipartisan support.
“The president is going to select a woman, a Black woman, who is qualified, who is prepared, who has impeccable experience to serve on the court,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. He’s going to do that based on her credentials, of course having a discussion with her and not through gaming out the system.”
Psaki said Biden will also begin consulting with legal experts and scholars on the decision this week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer applauded the president for his commitment to nominating a Black woman to the high court in an earlier floor speech and called on members from both sides of the aisle to embrace his efforts to diversify the court.
“Every single member of this chamber regardless of party should embrace the president’s commitment to make sure that our courts and especially the Supreme Court better reflect our countries diversity. And nominating a Black woman as justice is a long-overdue step to achieving that goal,” Schumer said.
“The more our judges reflect our nation’s vibrancy and diversity, the more effectively they will be able to administer equal justice,” he added.
Biden has not yet named a nominee but said he anticipates making a formal nomination before the end of February. Supreme Court nominees only require a simple majority of senators to vote for confirmation, which means there is little Republicans can do to block a Biden nominee if all Democrats — holding 50 seats in the Senate, and Vice President Kamala Harris acting as a tie-breaking vote — stick together.
No Black woman has ever been nominated or served on the U.S. Supreme Court. Two Black men and five women, in total, have served on the bench. There have been 115 justices.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 886,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 01, 3:24 pm
Unvaccinated 23 times more likely to be hospitalized with omicron than those vaccinated, boosted
A new study from Los Angeles County’s health department estimates that during the city’s omicron surge, people who were unvaccinated were 3.6 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 23 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated and boosted.
The unvaccinated were 2 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated but not yet boosted, according to the study, which was published in the CDC’s weekly journal, MMWR.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Feb 01, 2:55 pm
US daily case rate drops below 500,000 for 1st time in weeks
The U.S. daily case rate has dropped below 500,000 for the first time in nearly one month, falling by 37.4% in the last two weeks to an average of 497,000 cases per day, according to federal data.
However, experts continue to caution that case levels remain much higher than previous surges, with the U.S. still reporting millions of new cases every week.
Alaska now leads the nation in new cases per capita followed by Kentucky, Washington, Oklahoma, Minnesota, California and North Dakota.
The number of COVID-19-positive Americans requiring hospitalization continues to steadily fall, with now under 129,000 virus-positive Americans currently receiving care — down by about 31,000 patients from 12 days ago, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 01, 1:21 pm
FDA advisory committee to review Pfizer vaccines for kids under 5 on Feb. 15
The FDA’s advisory committee will meet on Feb. 15 to review the Pfizer vaccine for use in children under the age of 5. The advisory committee is an independent group whose vote is non-binding, but the FDA takes it into consideration when making a final decision.
The vaccine would still need to go through several other approvals before it can be used on children under the age of 5. It would need to be authorized by the FDA, then the CDC advisory committee would need to meet for recommendations and it would need to be approved by the CDC.
Feb 01, 11:35 am
WHO: ‘Worrying’ increase in COVID deaths in most regions
Since omicron was first identified 10 weeks ago, nearly 90 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world — more than all the COVID-19 cases reported in 2020, according to the World Health Organization.
Now most regions of the world are “starting to see a very worrying increase in deaths,” WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Tuesday.
“This virus will continue to evolve, which is why we call on countries to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing. We can’t fight this virus if we don’t know what it’s doing. And we must continue to work to ensure all people have access to vaccines,” he said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Feb 01, 10:18 am
Vaccines for kids under 5 might come this month: Report
Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to ask the FDA to authorize their vaccine for kids under 5 as soon as Tuesday. If the FDA grants authorization, the vaccine may be available for children ages 6 months to 5 years by the end of February, The Washington Post reported.
Pfizer is expected to ask for authorization with two doses as the company continues to wait for data on three doses, the report said.
Vaccines are currently authorized for people 5 and older.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss and Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 01, 6:19 am
American bobsled star Elana Meyers Taylor tests positive for COVID-19
American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Taylor, 37, announced her positive test in a statement posted on social media Tuesday. The three-time Olympic medalist and mother to a 1-year-old son revealed that she tested positive on Saturday, just two days after arriving in the Chinese capital.
“I am asymptomatic and currently at an isolation hotel — and yes I am completely isolated,” Taylor said. “Getting to the Olympics is never easy, and this time, as a new mom, it has been the most challenging, but also, incredibly rewarding, to be able to show that it can still be done.”
“So many people, especially other moms from all walks of life, have been so supportive of my efforts to get back to the Olympics,” she continued. “It’s been an incredible wave of positivity that I’ve been riding to a while so I’m going to continue to do that. This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
The Winter Games kick off Friday with the opening ceremony. Bobsled competition doesn’t start until Feb. 13.
Feb 01, 6:19 am
American bobsled star Elana Meyers Taylor tests positive for COVID-19
American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Taylor, 37, announced her positive test in a statement posted on social media Tuesday. The three-time Olympic medalist and mother to a 1-year-old son revealed that she tested positive on Saturday, just two days after arriving in the Chinese capital.
“I am asymptomatic and currently at an isolation hotel — and yes I am completely isolated,” Taylor said. “Getting to the Olympics is never easy, and this time, as a new mom, it has been the most challenging, but also, incredibly rewarding, to be able to show that it can still be done.”
“So many people, especially other moms from all walks of life, have been so supportive of my efforts to get back to the Olympics,” she continued. “It’s been an incredible wave of positivity that I’ve been riding to a while so I’m going to continue to do that. This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
The Winter Games kick off Friday with the opening ceremony. Bobsled competition doesn’t start until Feb. 13.
Jan 31, 5:00 pm
Pediatric cases drop for 1st time since Thanksgiving
New COVID-19 cases among children dropped last week for the first time since Thanksgiving, according to a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. About 808,000 children tested positive last week, down from a peak of 1,150,000 cases reported the week ending Jan. 20.
However, the organizations warn that pediatric cases remain “extremely high,” still triple the peak level of the delta surge in the summer of 2021.
AAP and CHA noted there is an “urgent” need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects. The two organizations note in their report that a small percentage of pediatric cases have resulted in hospitalization and death.
More than 28 million eligible children remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal and census data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 31, 3:30 pm
Novavax asks FDA for emergency use authorization for its vaccine
Novavax on Monday submitted a request to the FDA for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Novavax uses a more traditional protein-based vaccine platform, which is different from Pfizer and Modena’s mRNA technology and Johnson & Johnson’s viral vector technology.
Novavax’s vaccine exposes a person to a lab-based piece of coronavirus to build immunity.
Novavax’s studies — conducted before the omicron variant — showed an approximately 90% efficacy.
Novavax was one of the early contenders for a COVID-19 vaccine; Operation Warp Speed allocated $1.6 billion for 100 million doses if the vaccine was authorized by the FDA.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Jan 31, 12:00 pm
Only 5 states reporting jump in cases
After weeks of surging cases, many U.S. states continue to see impressive declines in their national case averages.
The U.S. is reporting an average of about 543,000 new cases per day, down by about 32.2% in the last two weeks, according to federal data. Two weeks ago the nation was reporting more than 800,000 new cases every day.
Only five states are seeing at least a 10% increase in new cases: Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Washington.
But case levels still remain much higher than the nation’s previous surges. Experts point out that many Americans who are taking at-home tests are not submitting their results, and thus, case totals may be higher than reported.
Alaska now leads the nation in new cases per capita followed by Washington state, Kentucky and Oklahoma, according to federal data.
(BRIDGEWATER, Va.) — At least one law enforcement officer has been shot in a gun-related incident at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Deputies from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office are responding to reports of an active shooter at the college, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
The shooter is in custody, according to a tweet from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
“I have been briefed on the situation at Bridgewater College. The shooter is in custody and state and local police are on the scene. I will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement,” Youngkin said.
The Harrisonburg Police Department has also responded to the scene. The FBI is also sending agents to the scene, according to a spokesperson.
The is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Jury selection has been rescheduled to Thursday in the trial of a former Kentucky police officer who was involved in the botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor.
Brett Hankison’s trial was initially scheduled to begin Aug. 31, 2021, but was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Now Hankison’s trial is being delayed due to an unscheduled recent surgery.
Hankison is charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into a neighboring apartment while serving a “no-knock” warrant on Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020.
He and Louisville Metro Police Department officers Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly fired 32 shots into Taylor’s apartment.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has called Taylor’s death a “tragedy” but defended the officers’ decision to shoot. None have been charged with Taylor’s killing.
“Our investigation found that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker,” Cameron said. “This justification bars us from pursuing charges in Ms. Breonna Taylor’s death.”
Hankison fired 10 of the shots into Taylor’s apartment. Errant bullets penetrated a wall of the residence and entered a neighboring apartment that was occupied by a child, a man and a pregnant woman, according to Cameron.
Taylor, a Black 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was fatally shot multiple times during the raid. No drugs were found in her apartment.
Cameron said none of Hankison’s shots struck Taylor.
Hankison has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
“Our hope is that we can pick an impartial jury,” Hankison’s lawyer Stew Mathews told ABC News. “We’re going to both defend [against] the charges in the courtroom.”
The fatal shooting sparked protests nationwide, as demonstrators demanded action against police brutality and racism in policing.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. and Russia are moving ahead with their diplomatic engagements over Russia menacing Ukraine, according to senior State Department officials, after the two countries’ top diplomats spoke Tuesday.
But as talks continue to proceed, there have been no results yet — with more than 100,000 Russian troops still massed on Ukraine’s borders, including increasingly in its northern neighbor Belarus.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said the U.S. has “ignored” Russia’s key demands that NATO bar Ukraine from joining and pull back allied troops from Eastern European countries — his first comments on the crisis in over a month.
But his government is still analyzing the U.S. response to Russia, laid out in a formal proposal hand-delivered by the U.S. ambassador in Moscow last week, he said.
During a critical call, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “did agree that the ideas on both sides that have been exchanged did form the basis for the potential for serious discussion on a range of issues,” said a senior State Department official.
Those ideas include issues like arms control and greater transparency in military exercises, they added, expressing some hope that Russia’s continued engagement could lay the groundwork for real negotiations.
But for now, Russia is still formulating its response to those U.S. ideas, senior State Department officials said Lavrov told Blinken. Once they are finalized, they will be sent to Putin for approval and then sent to the U.S. After that, Blinken and Lavrov will speak again, the senior officials said.
“I do think they agree that ideas in that non-paper could be the basis for a constructive conversation about how he enhance security in Europe,” said a second senior State Department official. The “non-paper” is what U.S. officials have called the U.S. response to Russia’s original demands.
But Lavrov didn’t outright say that during the call, they conceded. Later on Tuesday, Putin seemed more dismissive of the U.S. proposal, saying, “It is already clear that Russia’s fundamental concerns have been ignored.”
Pressed on whether the Russians may be buying time or stalling before a renewed attack on Ukraine, the second senior State Department official said, “Because we don’t President Putin has made a decision [on whether to further invade Ukraine], we think it’s important to keep the diplomatic option on the table — so to the extent that Russia wants to engage in that diplomatic track, we are also open to having that continued diplomatic engagement.”
Blinken and Lavrov didn’t agree on when or how those talks would continue, but the U.S. has called for them to include one-on-one meetings, as well as negotiations between NATO and Russia and dialogue at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a Cold War-era forum that includes the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine.
On Monday, Moscow sent the U.S., as well as several NATO allies and OSCE members, a similar letter seeking clarification about security principles enshrined in one of the OSCE’s key documents, the Helsinki Final Act, according to U.S. and Russian officials. The letter was not Russia’s response to the U.S. proposal, but seems to be part of its effort to formulate one.
“NATO refers to the right of countries to choose freely, but you can not strengthen someone’s security at the expense of others,” Putin said Tuesday during a press conference with Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
As the U.S. and NATO wait for that formal response, Blinken again urged Russia to deescalate tensions by pulling back troops, heavy weaponry, and equipment from Ukraine’s borders. But Lavrov gave no indication during the call that Russia would do so, the senior officials said.
“All of the actions that we are seeing on the ground do not suggest escalation. We continue to see in fact more Russian troops coming not only to Russia’s border with Ukraine, but as you know, also to Belarus for these supposed exercises,” the second senior State Department official said.
Russia and Belarus have said those forces are preparing for military exercises to improve their readiness. But the U.S. said Monday it has evidence that more than 30,000 Russian troops will mass in Belarus in the coming days, citing declassified U.S. intelligence — a concerning move that puts them within two hours of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
(STOCKTON, Calif.) — Firefighters in Stockton, California, are mourning one of their own, 47-year-old Fire Captain Vidal “Max” Fortuna, who was gunned down while putting out a fire on Monday.
The suspect, Robert Somerville, 67, was arrested Monday and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on homicide and weapons charges, the Stockton Police Department said.
Fortuna was shot while at the scene of a dumpster fire, which was reported to 911 around 4:45 a.m. Monday, officials said.
Officers arrived at the scene and detained Somerville, officials said, adding that police found a .380 caliber handgun at the scene.
Police are still looking into a possible motive, a Stockton police spokesman told ABC News.
Fortuna, a 21-year veteran of the Stockton Fire Department, leaves behind a wife and two children, Stockton Fire Chief Richard Edwards said.
Somerville is due in court Wednesday.
As Stockton’s firefighters grieve, fire departments from neighboring communities are staffing Stockton’s fire stations and responding to calls, according to the city.
“We are extremely grateful that our partners have come together to provide mutual aid to our community while we, as individuals and a department, are grieving and healing from this horrific and tragic event,” Chief Edwards said. “While the engine or truck may have a different name on the side, we want to let the community know that you are in good hands with professional firefighters who will be protecting and serving our community.”
(NEW YORK) — Over the past decade, the Black Lives Matter movement has brought attention to racism and injustice in America through the stories of hundreds of Black men, women and children, but it all started with a hashtag that went viral in the wake of the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012.
Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, has been unyielding in her fight for social justice, becoming one of the most prominent activists nationwide and a leader in the “Mothers of the Movement” — a group of women whose Black children have been killed by police officers or gun violence.
Ten years after her son’s death, Fulton reflected on the fight for social justice and how she is keeping her son’s legacy alive in an exclusive interview with Good Morning America.
“My chest still hurts. I still have a hole in my heart,” Fulton said.
Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman, who deemed him “suspicious” as he walked back from a convenience store to his father’s fiancée’s home in Sanford, Florida, wearing a hoodie and carrying a bag of Skittles candy, according to police.
The hoodie and the Skittles became symbols of the fight for social justice as the Black Lives Matter movement grew to an international movement.
“I never lose sight that that was my baby,” Fulton said when asked how she reconciles her memory of her son with the symbol for justice that his name has become.
“By the same token, I know that Trayvon Martin is a symbol for other Trayvon Martins that you don’t know, that you have not said their name … He was just a vessel that represents so many others.”
In “Trayvon: Ten Years Later: A Mother’s Essay,” which was published by Amazon Original Stories on Feb. 1, Fulton reflects on love, loss and shares lessons with a new generation from her fight for social justice over the past 10 years.
“I absolutely think that change is happening; it’s just going a little slow,” Fulton said when asked if she feels that we are at a turning point in the fight for social justice.
Martin was shot and killed by Zimmerman, who called 911 from his vehicle and was told by a police dispatcher not to follow the teenager.
Soon after, a physical altercation between Martin and Zimmerman ensued, and Martin was shot and killed, according to investigators.
Zimmerman claimed the shooting took place in self-defense. He was eventually arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He was found not guilty by a jury in July 2013.
Martin would have turned 27 this year on Feb. 5.
“You can’t help but to wonder what he would have become [and] what he would have achieved in the last 10 years,” Fulton said.
She said that when she sees his younger brother, Jahvaris Fulton, attend college, she always thinks about the path Trayvon would have taken. She often reflects on this when she visits an airport because of Trayvon’s interest in aviation.
“The airport also reminds me of Trayvon,” she said. “I always think about if he was going to fix the plane, [or] fly the planes because he wasn’t really sure.”
Fulton said that she wants her son’s story to be a reminder of the lack of accountability in America’s criminal justice system.
“I want the world to know that my son was unarmed and he was 17 years old,” Fulton said. “He wasn’t committing any crime. Trayvon’s only crime was the color of his skin … which is not a crime.”
Fulton said that while guilty verdicts in the cases of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery are a sign of progress, the killings of those unarmed Black men are also an indication that “we take two steps forward and two steps back.”
“When I look at the case of George Floyd and I look at the case of Ahmaud Arbery and the people that killed them all were convicted and that they are going to be going to jail for the rest of their lives,” she said. “But by the same token, we had to lose lives in order to get to that point … why did we have to lose those lives in order for us to move the country forward?”
Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died in May 2020 after police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck for more than 9 minutes. Chauvin was convicted in Floyd’s death and was sentenced in June 2021 to 22 and a half years in prison.
Arbery, an unarmed Black, was chased and gunned down while jogging in February 2020. Three men who were convicted in Arbery’s shooting were found guilty in November 2021 and were each sentenced last month to life in prison.
Both cases gained national attention and became rallying cries in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Fulton said that she is hopeful that the next generation of activists will bring about lasting change and while she “can’t change the world,” by herself, she wants to do her part to “make a difference in this world.”
“My purpose is to continue to bring awareness to senseless gun violence. My purpose is the circle of mothers — helping other mothers to cope with the loss of a child,” she said. “My purpose is to try to change laws.”
In her essay, “Trayvon: Ten Years Later,” Fulton reflects on how the past 10 years have changed her and how racism has shaped the fight for justice in her son’s name:
“How am I different today? If I am not picking myself up and becoming more than I was last year, then I am no good to anyone. There is a part of me that died along with my son, so I became who I had to become in that moment. I didn’t pray to become the mother of a movement. I was happy being the mother of Trayvon Martin and Jahvaris Fulton. I became the mother of a movement out of necessity. Sometimes you have to step into roles you did not ask for and that you do not want. You can find the strength from within if you are willing to live in your purpose. Believe in your strength from within. That’s a Word,” she writes in the essay.
“While nothing compares emotionally to the loss of a child due to senseless, racially tinged violence, the on- and offline smear campaign was its own sort of shock. It wasn’t enough that it took law enforcement far too long to take Trayvon’s killer into custody, right-wing conservatives and members of law enforcement started to attack my son’s character, as if any mistakes he made as a child could justify his untimely death. I had never seen such a negative frenzy with the media weaponized against the actual victim. We, my family and I, strove to channel our energy in a positive and productive way, but there were times back then when I felt like it was all in vain. It was shameful and undue to see a victim slandered in such a public way. The words’ Trayvon Martin’ had become clickbait and a hot topic, with celebrities, influencers, and politicians all taking part. While many seized the moment to speak truth to power and take a stand for Black lives, others were far less altruistic and merely saw it as an opportunity to garner attention and increase the reach of their brand in the most toxic of ways. According to an article in the Miami Herald, my son’s name was tweeted over two million times in the short period of thirty days.”
ABC News’ Amanda McMaster and Taylor Rhodes contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump announced Monday night that his political committees raised more than $51 million over the second half of last year, to buttress what is now a massive $122 million war chest.
Trump’s latest fundraising haul is a drop from the first half of last year, when his various committees together raised a total of $82 million from January through June of 2021.
It is possible that the $82 million sum Trump’s team announced for the first half of last year included transferred money raised in the final weeks of 2020, though the exact amount transferred from the previous year is unclear.
Trump’s war chest puts him in a uniquely strong position heading into the 2022 midterms and ahead of a potential 2024 presidential run.
The Republican National Committee also reported having $56.3 million cash in hand at the end of December 2021.
In a press release Monday, Trump’s Save America political action committee said that the $51 million was raised by the former president’s multiple committees from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2021.
The average donation Trump received between his committees was $31, with a total of 1,631,648 donations, the release said.
Notably, Trump doesn’t appear to be sharing many of his donations yet. With over $122 million in cash on hand, Trump says his PACs have only donated $1.35 million to “to like-minded causes and endorsed candidates.”
Save America’s filing shows that $1 million of that contribution went to the nonprofit Conservative Partnership Institute, which is led by a slew of Trump’s close allies, including Mark Meadows, Jim DeMint and Ed Corrigan.
Much of Save America’s money in the latter half of 2021 was spent on Facebook ads, payroll, and consulting fees for various firms, including $1.5 million paid to Tim Unes’ firm Event Strategies and $60,000 paid to former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale’s firm Parscale Strategy, according to the filing. More than $240,000 also went to legal spending, the filing shows.
Over the past year, Trump has been fundraising with numerous allies through various vehicles, including his Save America PAC and his presidential campaign committee-turned PAC, Make America Great Again PAC.
Save America, in particular, was set up as a leadership PAC, which is designed to allow former and current lawmakers or prominent political figures to raise money and boost their allies, often with the purpose of advancing their political influence.
Last year, Save America raised $700,000 in a joint fundraising operation with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. More recently, the PAC raised roughly $202,000 with Trump-endorsed Florida House hopeful Anna Paulina Luna, new disclosure filings show.
Save America had also raised massive sums with the Republican National Committee in the weeks following the 2020 election, but the two have since stopped officially fundraising together. The RNC and other GOP party committees, however, continue to frequently appeal to donors by using Trump’s name in fundraising emails and messages.
The RNC has also continued to help cover Trump’s legal bills over the past few months. As previously reported by ABC News, the national party committee has paid at least $720,000 to law firms representing the former president in various legal challenges, including criminal investigations into his businesses in New York, according to campaign finance records.
In the past few months the RNC’s fundraising has dipped in comparison to the substantially larger amounts it used to report every month while it was fundraising with Trump during the 2020 election cycle. However, the RNC’s fundraising still topped the DNC’s in the second half of 2021.
Between July and December 2021, the GOP national committee reported raising a total of $74 million, while the Democratic National Committee reported raising $65 million during the same period, disclosure filings show.
In all of 2021, the RNC raised $159 million while the DNC raised $151 million.
Jonathan Karl, Benjamin Siegel and Will Steakin, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany turned over text messages to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the investigation — the latest indication of the extensive level of cooperation the committee has received from many witnesses.
McEnany, who was at work in the White House and around then-President Donald Trump before and during the Capitol attack, was subpoenaed by the panel for records and testimony in November, and turned over text messages to committee investigators.
A source familiar with her interactions with the committee has told ABC News that text messages from McEnany’s phone were quoted in a recent letter the committee sent to Ivanka Trump. The texts came directly from documents turned over by McEnany, said the source.
“1 – no more stolen election talk,” Fox News host Sean Hannity texted McEnany, according to the records. “2- Yes, impeachment and the 25th amendment are real and many people will quit.”
“Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook. I will help reinforce….,” McEnany replied, per the documents.
McEnany did not respond to calls and messages from ABC News seeking comment or to an email sent to a spokesperson for Fox News, where McEnany currently co-hosts the show “Outnumbered.”
A committee spokesman declined to comment and would not provide details on other text messages and documents turned over by McEnany.
McEnany appeared virtually before investigators for several hours on Jan. 13, according to a source familiar with her testimony, and did not appear that day on her midday Fox News program.
The committee was interested in her repeated false claims of widespread voter fraud from the White House Briefing Room podium, and in her interactions with Trump on Jan. 6, according to a letter the committee sent to McEnany along with the subpoena.
In addition to text messages and any other materials McEnany turned over to the committee, investigators are expected to receive her White House files from the National Archives, some of the many White House records Trump unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Archives from sharing with Congress.
The House select committee has interviewed more than 400 people as part of its investigation, and committee leaders say that most witnesses have cooperated with the panel’s requests and subpoenas.
“In general, people have been extremely cooperative. The closer we get to Trump, the more difficult it becomes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., recently told ABC News about the panel’s progress.
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who worked closely with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to seek out evidence of voter fraud, recently complied with the panel’s subpoena for records and testimony, as did former Trump campaign spokesperson Jason Miller.
However Trump ally Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows have openly challenged the committee’s subpoenas, leading Congress to hold both men in contempt and issue criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
The department has not acted on the Meadows referral, but Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress in November. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is set to begin in July.
Meadows challenged the committee’s requests only after voluntarily turning over thousands of documents to the panel, a tranche that included emails and text messages that committee members say have helped them piece together conversations around Trump and the White House as the Jan. 6 attack unfolded.
(NEW YORK) — For many parents of unvaccinated toddlers in the U.S., a return to normalcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic seems out of reach.
Many have been forced to take time off work or change their schedules to provide care for their children due to school shutdowns. Rebecca Sanghvi, a public school teacher in Washington, D.C., has a 5-year-old daughter, who is vaccinated, in kindergarten and a 2-year-old son in daycare.
Working from home is not possible for her, so she juggles the house responsibilities with her husband, who’s able to shift remotely when needed. She said it’s been exhausting to cope with the pandemic while balancing her job and parenting responsibilities.
“I do think that there’s not enough attention on the difficulties that the families who can’t do that are facing with kids being quarantined, taking time off work, often unpaid,” Sanghvi said.
Mask mandates have been lifted in many parts of the country and in-person events have resumed, but many parents feel that until their kids are vaccinated, they can’t move on from the first stages of the pandemic.
Vaccines for kids under 5 are still unavailable — though Pfizer said approvals could come in the next few weeks — and currently, there are nearly 20 million kids under 5 years old in America, according to the Children’s Defense Fund.
“People don’t realize that if you have a young child, you’re still stuck in March 2020, and that we haven’t really evolved for these young children,” Deborah Schoenfeld, a mom of three in Maryland, said.
The recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant has taken an even bigger toll on parents of young children. Sanghavi said the reality others have been living in, where vaccinations are widely available and daily life is looking close to “normal” again, is drastically different to hers.
“We are living in this reality that I think a lot of people aren’t, and it makes these choices that we have to make with regards to risk, but also the sacrifices we have to make with regards to our work and our child care, that much more difficult, because it is really a situation that that not everybody is in anymore,” she said.
Some schools and daycares across the country have reopened despite the rise in cases, leaving young unvaccinated students with higher risks of getting contaminated, and consequently, bringing the virus home.
These surges in schools have left parents — like Anagha Phadkule — struggling to find ways to care for their children while working full-time jobs.
Phadkule is from Portland, Oregon, and works in a hospital, while her husband works from home. Their 3-year-old son, Aroosh, had to spend most of his time home after his daycare shut down twice in January due to COVID-19 outbreaks among the staff.
Her son’s unvaccinated status leaves Phadkule worried about his safety.
“It feels like a very reckless time to push your toddler into daycare and be like, ‘OK, whatever happens, happens,'” Phadkule said.
The frequent school shutdowns have led some parents to change their routines permanently. Schoenfeld, for example, made the decision to keep her son at home after his daycare was shut down several times over the past few weeks.
“My childcare situation has gotten increasingly hard. I almost feel like in 2021 it was easier. They were still figuring out what to do with COVID, but there weren’t so many cancellations and quarantines,” Schoenfeld said.
Other parents, who don’t have many options left, find themselves taking their kids to work in hopes to juggle both responsibilities. But the move has proven to be more stressful than expected.
“Sometimes, [my husband] was busy and I had to take even my kids to work for showings, for times that I had appointments with different clients … I had an issue with a client where she told me that it was unprofessional for me to show up with my kids,” Eddie Suarez, who has a 3-year-old, said.
Brigid Schulte, director of The Better Life Lab and Good Life Initiative at New America, said many parents are feeling “unheard” and “invisible,” as they don’t think their struggles are being considered.
“We’re talking about real existential threats to family survival right now — at a time when so many families thought that we had rounded the corner,” Schulte said. “This is hitting everybody. This is sort of an equal opportunity exhaustion, disruption, uncertainty and a disastrous situation for so many families.”
So what is the solution? Many parents believe the authorization of vaccines for children 5 and younger will change things for the better.
“I’d rather them take their time and … make it right, make it safe. I don’t want to feel like this push in this rush to get it done if it’s not ready yet,” Schoenfeld said. “But I don’t want to be like a hostage or prisoner waiting for the vaccine, like I need child care. That’s going to work for us right now … or something needs to, because this cannot continue. It’s too hard.”
