(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s administration will announce on Friday another $4.28 billion dollars in student loan relief for nearly 55,000 public service workers.
The announcement will bring the total loan forgiveness by the Biden administration to “approximately $180 billion for nearly 5 million Americans,” according to a fact sheet from the Department of Education.
The forgiveness will be delivered to individuals enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), which allows for debt forgiveness for people in jobs like firefighting, nursing and teaching after 10 years of continuous payment.
The Biden administration has made fixes to this program that had failed to deliver student loan relief to many due to poor implementations and errors in the program, officials said.
“The public servants approved for debt cancellation today include teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities and who are finally earning the relief they are entitled to under the law,” Biden said in a statement.
Of the nearly 5 million borrowers who have had more than $180 billion in debt relieved by the administration, more than 1 million were through the PSLF. The relief for those PSLF borrowers totals about $78 billion, the administration said.
“From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” Biden said in the statement.
He added, “Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt.”
(LOS ANGELES) — The workers union representing Starbucks baristas across the country announced members in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle will go on strike in the days leading up to Christmas.
Workers United, which has unionized more than 525 U.S. Starbucks locations, said in a press release Thursday that unfair labor practices and stalled negotiations with the company are the catalyst behind the holiday season strike.
The union says five days of escalating strikes will begin Friday and continue until Dec. 24 in “three of the company’s priority markets” during what it called the company’s busiest days of the year.
During the strike period, the walkouts “are expected to spread each day and ultimately reach hundreds of stores from coast to coast by Christmas Eve” unless the company honors a February commitment made with the union.
In February 2024, Workers United and Starbucks announced they would work on a “foundational framework” to reach a collective bargaining agreement for stores, something the union says has not come to fruition.
In a statement on Thursday following the strike announcement Starbucks said Workers United delegates “prematurely ended” its bargaining session with the coffee giant this week.
Starbucks added that the company is “focused on enhancing” employee experiences by offering an average wage of $18 per hour and benefits including health care, free college tuition, paid family leave and company stock grants.
“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements,” Starbucks said, adding, “We need the union to return to the table.”
Workers United, however, said despite “repeatedly pledging publicly” that it intends to reach contracts by the end of the year, Starbucks has not yet presented workers with a “serious economic proposal.”
“Nobody wants to strike. It’s a last resort, but Starbucks has broken its promise to thousands of baristas and left us with no choice,” Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi, a five-year Starbucks barista and bargaining delegate, said in the release.
“In a year when Starbucks invested so many millions in top executive talent, it has failed to present the baristas who make its company run with a viable economic proposal. This is just the beginning. We will do whatever it takes to get the company to honor the commitment it made to us in February,” Alhadjaboodi added.
“The holiday season should be magical at Starbucks, but for too many of us, there’s a darker side to the peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes,” Arloa Fluhr, a bargaining delegate who has worked off and on at Starbucks for 18 years said in the release.
“I’m a mom of three, including my daughter who is diabetic. I know what it’s like to panic because my hours were slashed and I won’t be able to pay my bills and could lose access to healthcare, including my daughter’s insulin. That’s why we’re steadfast in our demands for Starbucks to invest in baristas like me,” Fluhr added.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — An event celebrating the top restaurants in Los Angeles left at least 80 people sickened with norovirus due to an outbreak linked to raw oysters, LA County’s Department of Public Health confirmed to ABC News.
The outbreak stemmed from an event at the Hollywood Palladium celebrating the Los Angeles Times’ list of the 101 best restaurants on Dec. 3, according to the agency.
Norovirus is a very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea and is commonly referred to as the “stomach flu” or the “stomach bug,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States. Other symptoms may include stomach pain, fever, headache, body aches, or dehydration. Proper handwashing, disinfecting contaminated surfaces, washing laundry in hot water, and staying home when sick are ways to prevent further spread, according to the CDC.
“At this time, over 80 attendees that consumed the oysters have reported illness,” a spokesperson with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement.
The oysters that were served and have since been recalled were Fanny Bay Select oysters and Fanny Bay XS oysters from Pacific Northwest Shellfish Co., according to the statement.
The pack date of the oysters was listed as Nov. 25 or later and the date of the recall notice was Dec. 13, the agency added.
Following the recall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning on Dec. 18 to restaurants, retailers and consumers not to sell or eat the oysters in question due to potential norovirus contamination.
The warning was directed at 15 states across the country from Hawaii, California and Arizona to Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York. The FDA said the outbreak is believed to have originated in British Columbia, Canada.
Santa Monica Seafood, which supplied the oysters for the event, said in a statement to ABC News the company is “aware of the ongoing investigation into the recent food illness outbreak linked to oysters served” and is cooperating with the Public Health Department.
The retailer added that while the investigation is ongoing, “There is no evidence to suggest mishandling at any point in the supply chain, including by Santa Monica Seafood or any of the restaurants participating in the LA Times event.”
Tickets to the Los Angeles Times’ restaurant event associated with the outbreak cost eventgoers anywhere from $264 for general admission to upwards of $600 for VIP.
ABC News has reached out to the L.A. Times for a comment.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. immigration authorities in 2024 removed the largest number of people in the country illegally in a decade, according to a new report.
In fiscal year 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 271,484 noncitizens — the highest number since 2014, according to the agency’s year-end report, released Thursday.
According to the report, of those removed from the country:
88,763 had charges or convictions for criminal activity;
3,706 were known or suspected gang members;
237 were known or suspected terrorists; and eight were human rights violators
The deportation numbers showed a 90% increase from the past two fiscal years, according to ICE data.
The 2024 fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
The numbers come as President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have been sharply critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policy and its handling of the southwest border. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to carry out “mass deportations” of people living in the country illegally.
In the last fiscal year, ICE also issued 149,764 immigration detainers for noncitizens with criminal histories — an increase of 19.5% from last fiscal year, when it issued 125,358 detainers.
A detainer is a request from ICE to state and local officials running jails and prisons to hold a noncitizen with removal orders.
Detainers will become a big part of how the incoming Trump administration will seek to deport people from the country, but the challenge is some cities and states don’t recognize the detainers, thus making the jurisdiction a “sanctuary” city or state.
ICE focused its efforts in 2024 on violent offenders, according to the report.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which falls under ICE, conducted 32,608 criminal arrests, seized over 1.6 million pounds of narcotics, identified and/or assisted 1,783 victims of child exploitation, and assisted 818 victims of human trafficking, according to the report.
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed a spending deal that House Republican leadership said it had reached to continue to fund the government through March and avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week.
“All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote “YES” for this Bill, TONIGHT!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
The House began debating the new bill Thursday evening before a vote later tonight.
Earlier Thursday, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole told reporters that House Republicans had reached an agreement among themselves. Asked if Trump is on board, Cole replied, “All I’ll tell you is we have an agreement.”
Cole refused to divulge any details of the deal, but he told ABC News that the text of the bill would be posted online shortly.
But in his post, Trump said the “newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes.”
He also said that the bill would push raising the debt ceiling to January 2027 from June of next year. Congress last raised the country’s borrowing limit in June 2023 and had suspended it until June 2025.
“A VERY important piece, VITAL to the America First Agenda, was added as well – The date of the very unnecessary Debt Ceiling will be pushed out two years, to January 30, 2027. Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish,” Trump wrote.
GOP House leaders and Vice-President-elect JD Vance were hoping to appease both Trump’s demands that any legislation to fund the government also deals with raising or eliminating the country’s debt ceiling, as well as House Republicans on the right who are traditionally against any spending deal or debt limit increase.
Meanwhile, Democrats have refused to budge from the deal they originally worked out with Republicans that Trump and Elon Musk demolished on Wednesday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the latest proposal “laughable” as Democrats gathered to strategize their next move.
“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It’s laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown,” he said.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said it was unclear who Democrats are negotiating with — Trump or Musk.
Asked about Republicans who say they have now done their part and that Democrats would own any shutdown, Raskin replied, “It’s an intolerable way of proceeding… Democrats are going to try to figure out how to salvage the public good out of the wreckage just foist upon us.”
That bipartisan deal called for extending government spending at current levels until March and added other provisions like relief for disaster victims and farmers and a pay raise for members of Congress.
Things changed Wednesday after Musk began a pressure campaign on X with multiple posts opposing the deal. Later that day Trump and Vance posted a statement calling on Congress to “pass a streamlined spending bill,” with the president-elect echoing Musk’s threats of primarying any GOP member who didn’t comply.
Trump told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Thursday morning that there will be a government shutdown unless Congress eliminates the debt ceiling or extends the limit on government borrowing before he takes office.
“We’re not going to fall into the debt ceiling quicksand,” he said. “There won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with.”
Under current law, the federal government would hit its borrowing limit sometime in the spring of 2025, during the first months of the second Trump presidency. Trump, however, said he wants it taken care of now, while Joe Biden is president.
“Shutdowns only inure to the person who’s president,” Trump said.
Some Senate Republicans, including John Kennedy and Mike Rounds, expressed displeasure with Johnson’s bill and praised Trump for stepping in.
But Sen. Thom Tillis, whose home state was devastated by Hurricane Helene, said he’d do everything in his power to slow down the passage of any government funding bill that doesn’t include disaster relief.
Congress faces a deadline of Friday night, when the current government funding extension expires, to pass a new one or non-essential agencies would shut down.
House Republicans of every stripe were seen rotating in and out of the speaker’s office on Thursday — including House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland.
Jeffries told reporters that raising the debt limit as part of the government funding bill is “premature at best.”
“We are going to continue to maintain an open line of communication to see if we can resolve this issue on terms that are favorable to the everyday Americans,” Jeffries said when asked if he was speaking to Johnson.
Behind closed doors during a caucus huddle Thursday morning, Jeffries delivered the same message to Democrats: Republicans backed out of a bipartisan deal and now have to figure out a way to get out.
“This kind of chaos and dysfunction has real-world impacts on hard-working people,” Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said.
Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., told ABC News that Jeffries quoted President John F. Kennedy to the caucus: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
“He said, look, we kept all our doors open during this negotiation. We made concessions. Most of us weren’t happy with the outcome of this, but you have to do your basic job. He’s saying that will continue. We’re open to everything, but we’re not open to the kind of bullying tactics that Elon Musk is doing,” Keating said.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., quipped, “We had a deal. We negotiated a deal, and then Musk decided to change the deal. Do I call him ‘President Musk?'”
Texas Rep. Greg Casar, the new chair of the progressive caucus was also critical of Musk.
“If Elon Musk is kind of cosplaying co-president here, I don’t know why Trump doesn’t just hand him the Oval Office, or Speaker Johnson should maybe just hand Elon Musk the gavel if they just want that billionaire to run the country,” Casar said.
While many Democrats support eliminating the debt limit in principle, members left their closed-door meeting opposed to striking it now as part of a spending deal, stressing it should be a separate matter.
ABC News’ Emily Chang and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(CARISBAD, Calif.) — A judge granted a gun violence protective order against a Carlsbad, California, man who authorities allege was communicating with the Abundant Life Christian School shooting suspect.
Carlsbad police filed the application for a gun violence emergency protective order against Alexander Charles Paffendorf in San Diego County Superior Court on Tuesday. FBI agents “stopped and detained” him after they allege “he was discovered plotting a mass shooting” with Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, the suspected school shooter in Madison, Wisconsin, according to court records obtained by ABC News.
Paffendorf allegedly admitted to authorities “that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building,” a Carlsbad police officer wrote on the protective order application form.
FBI agents saw messages from Paffendorf to Rupnow, the officer stated. Paffendorf has not been charged with a crime.
Rupnow, 15, allegedly opened fire with a handgun at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday morning, killing a fellow student and teacher. Six others were injured.
She died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
The restraining order requires Paffendorf to surrender all guns, ammunition and magazines to law enforcement or “sell them to or store them with a licensed firearms dealer” within 48 hours of receipt of the order.
The Carlsbad Police Department said in a statement Thursday, “Carlsbad is not the lead agency on this investigation, but we are in communication with our federal partners, and we do not believe there to be a threat to our city. Because this is an ongoing investigation being handled by another agency, there are no other details to share at the moment.”
The FBI said Thursday it is “not aware of any ongoing threats associated with this matter in Wisconsin or California.”
The agency added, “The Madison Police Department is leading the ongoing investigation into the school shooting in Wisconsin with the assistance of the Milwaukee and San Diego field offices of the FBI, the Carlsbad, California Police Department, and other law enforcement partners. As this is an ongoing investigation, we do not have any further comment.”
A hearing for Paffendorf is scheduled for Jan. 3. Attorney information for the California man was not immediately available.
A judge has denied a motion to dismiss charges in the Uvalde, Texas, criminal case stemming from the 2022 mass shooting and has set a tentative trial date.
Former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander at Robb Elementary School on the day of the shooting, and former school officer Adrian Gonzales appeared in court for a joint pretrial hearing on Thursday.
Arredondo faces 10 counts of child endangerment and abandonment on behalf of the injured and surviving children in classroom 112. Gonzales faces 29 counts: 10 counts for each surviving child and 19 for each deceased child. Arredondo and Gonzales have both pleaded not guilty.
Their charges stem from the May 24, 2022, mass shooting during which a gunman killed two teachers and 19 students at the elementary school. Law enforcement waited some 77 minutes at the scene before breaching a classroom and killing the gunman.
The judge on Thursday denied the motion to quash Arredondo’s indictment. The judge also set a tentative trial start date for October 2025.
Arredondo had filed a motion asking the court to declare his child endangerment indictment invalid, arguing the gunman was solely responsible for the shooting.
Arredondo has repeatedly defended his actions and told investigators he did not believe the gunman was an active shooter when he arrived. He also has insisted he was not in command of the police response.
The indictment alleges that despite having time to respond to the shooting, Gonzales failed to act to impede the gunman and failed to follow active shooter training by not advancing toward the gunfire.
Gonzales’ defense attorney, Nico LaHood, has said, “There was over 370 officers there. We have not seen or even heard of a theory of why Mr. Gonzales is being singled out.”
Families of victims and survivors who were in the courtroom Thursday said they were relieved the case is moving forward.
“It was hard being inside the courtroom while Pete was with his attorneys as we listened to their arguments about why he felt he wasn’t responsible for Jackie’s death,” said Gloria Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter, Jackie, was killed. “After two and half years, it finally feels like things are progressing.”
During the hearing, attorneys discussed their frustration with their inability to receive an unredacted copy of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report about the agency’s response to the Robb Elementary shooting.
To date, Arredondo and Gonzales are the only indicted law enforcement officers of the 376 officers who were among the police response to the shooting.
(NEW YORK) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has reached a settlement with Amazon over allegations of hazardous workplace conditions, ABC News first reported Thursday. The settlement requires that Amazon adopt “corporate-wide ergonomic measures” to reduce the risk of injuries to workers.
The 10 facilities cited in the settlement, located in New York, Florida, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Illinois and New Jersey, all had a high number of complaints of workplace injury. Amazon will have to pay a $145,000 penalty, adopt workplace safety measures and allow OSHA access to inspect those facilities for the next two years, according to the terms of the settlement.
Though the settlement only mandates oversight on those 10 facilities, all Amazon facilities will be required to adopt new safety measures and provide procedures for their employees to voice their concerns about workplace conditions.
A Department of Labor official said the settlement is the “largest of its kind” and “will resolve all outstanding ergonomic litigation” by the agency against Amazon. The official noted, however, that the settlement will not affect the investigation into the company by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York over allegations Amazon conspired to conceal injuries and risks to workers at its warehouses. Amazon has denied those allegations.
“Today’s agreement acknowledges our progress and notes that we should keep implementing and following our existing comprehensive ergonomics policies and procedures,” Amazon said in a statement following the announcement of the settlement. “There isn’t a claim of wrong-doing on Amazon’s part for the withdrawn citations, nor a directive to adopt new safety controls. We appreciate OSHA’s willingness to consider all the facts and reach today’s agreement with us, and we look forward to continuing to work with them going forward.”
ABC News reached out to Amazon for additional comment.
This settlement comes as Amazon workers have gone on strike at facilities across the country, citing low pay, lack of benefits and poor conditions.
(WASHINGTON) — GOP House leaders and Vice-President-elect JD Vance continue to meet behind closed doors in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday to craft a path forward and reach a budget deal — hoping to both appease President-elect Donald Trump’s evolving demands as well as rank and file members on the right who are traditionally against any spending deal or debt limit increase.
Across the aisle, Democrats maintain the best path forward is the defunct deal they struck with House Republicans that Trump and Elon Musk demolished on Wednesday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed disbelief that the bipartisan agreement had fallen apart — emphasizing that Republicans will own the consequences, including the impact of a potential government shutdown.
“This reckless Republican-driven shutdown can be avoided if House Republicans will simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated,” Jeffries said at a news conference Thursday.
That deal called for extending government spending at current levels until March and added other provisions like relief for disaster victims and farmers and a pay raise for members of Congress.
Things changed Wednesday after Musk began a pressure campaign on X with multiple posts opposing the deal. Later that day Trump and Vance posted a statement calling on Congress to “pass a streamlined spending bill,” with the president-elect echoing Musk’s threats of primarying any GOP member who didn’t comply.
Trump told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Thursday morning that there will be a government shutdown unless Congress eliminates the debt ceiling or extends the limit on government borrowing before he takes office.
“We’re not going to fall into the debt ceiling quicksand,” he said. “There won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with.”
Under current law, the federal government would hit its borrowing limit sometime in the spring of 2025, during the first months of the second Trump presidency. Trump, however, said he wants it taken care of now, while Joe Biden is president.
“Shutdowns only inure to the person who’s president,” Trump said.
With several alternative plans to avert a shutdown under Republican consideration, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told members to expect votes related to government funding Thursday, but the timing of any action was unclear as discussions continue.
Some Senate Republicans, including John Kennedy and Mike Rounds, expressed displeasure with Johnson’s bill and praised Trump for stepping in.
But Sen. Thom Tillis, whose home state was devastated by Hurricane Helene, said he’d do everything in his power to slow down the passage of any government funding bill that doesn’t include disaster relief.
Congress faces a deadline of Friday night, when the current government funding extension expires, to pass a new one or non-essential agencies would shut down.
House Republicans of every stripe were seen rotating in and out of the speaker’s office on Thursday — including House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland.
Jeffries told reporters that raising the debt limit as part of the government funding bill is “premature at best.”
“We are going to continue to maintain an open line of communication to see if we can resolve this issue on terms that are favorable to the everyday Americans,” Jeffries said when asked if he was speaking to Johnson.
Behind closed doors during a caucus huddle Thursday morning, Jeffries delivered the same message to Democrats: Republicans backed out of a bipartisan deal and now have to figure out a way to get out.
“This kind of chaos and dysfunction has real-world impacts on hard-working people,” Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said.
Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., told ABC News that Jeffries quoted President John F. Kennedy to the caucus: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
“He said, look, we kept all our doors open during this negotiation. We made concessions. Most of us weren’t happy with the outcome of this, but you have to do your basic job. He’s saying that will continue. We’re open to everything, but we’re not open to the kind of bullying tactics that Elon Musk is doing,” Keating said.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., quipped, “We had a deal. We negotiated a deal, and then Musk decided to change the deal. Do I call him ‘President Musk?'”
Texas Rep. Greg Casar, the new chair of the progressive caucus was also critical of Musk.
“If Elon Musk is kind of cosplaying co-president here, I don’t know why Trump doesn’t just hand him the Oval Office, or Speaker Johnson should maybe just hand Elon Musk the gavel if they just want that billionaire to run the country,” Casar said.
While many Democrats support eliminating the debt limit in principle, members left their closed-door meeting opposed to striking it now as part of a spending deal, stressing it should be a separate matter.
ABC News’ Emily Chang and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump, after rejecting House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to avoid a government shutdown, worked the phones on Thursday, showing wavering confidence in Johnson and claiming he is aligned with billionaire Elon Musk, who first posted multiple calls to kill the GOP-brokered spending deal.
“If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
In an separate interview, Trump suggested that Johnson’s proposed continuing resolution — which would keep spending going at current levels — was “unacceptable.”
“We’ll see. What they had yesterday was unacceptable,” Trump told NBC News. “In many ways it was unacceptable. It’s a Democrat trap.”
Trump also indicated that he had discussed his views on the bill with social media giant Musk and granted the billionaire permission to trash the government spending bill on his social media platform.
“I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” Trump said.
Musk then conducted an all-out pressure campaign flooding his platform with dozens of posts threatening members of Congress to block Johnson’s government funding bill.
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” Musk wrote.
Musk also called on his more than 200 million followers to call their representatives and urge them to block the bill. “Please call your elected representatives right away to tell them how you feel! They are trying to get this passed today while no one is paying attention.”
Trump’s own statement opposing the measure came hours after Musk put his thoughts on his social media platform.
Trump, too, argued against the bill and threatened to primary Republicans who vote to pass it.
“If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat “bells and whistles” that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration,” Trump said in a post on Wednesday.
“Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried. Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025.”
The next morning, Trump shared a similar sentiment with Fox News Digital, saying, “Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible.”
ABC News’ Soorin Kim and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
