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American Catholic voters present complex opportunities for Trump, Harris: Academics

October 27, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Catholic voters have always been a key voting bloc in every presidential election, with candidates vying hard for their support.

And this year, the battle for their votes has gotten aggressive as former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Vice President Kamala Harris has been anti-Catholic.

While Harris has not said the same about Trump, she has sent a message to Catholic voters that her policies are in line with their social and political views and priorities. But in reality, academics who have been studying religion’s role in politics tell ABC News that it’s not easy to pin a single label on the nation’s Catholics.

“It’s really interesting that the Catholic Church is probably one of the few places where you find people with different perspectives sitting together at Sunday Mass,” Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, told ABC News.

Thompson and others said that if past election results are any indication, Catholic turnout and the choices they make at the polls will depend on a variety of factors.

Changing demographics show schism in voting patterns

Thompson, who has been researching Catholic vote trends, said that, as a whole, Catholics have been voting more Republican in the last 44 years after abortion became a major campaign issue for the Christians as a whole.

But over those decades, she noted that the makeup of American Catholics has also changed as the number of non-white Catholics has grown.

Since 2007, the share of American Catholics who are white has dropped by 8 percentage points, while the share who are Hispanic has increased by 4 points, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

“It has changed the map a lot,” Thompson said. “Latino Catholics have risen in numbers in the South and in swing states like Arizona and have brought their own perspectives on their faith and their beliefs.”

Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, who has compiled data on the voting patterns of the county’s religious groups, agreed.

“The Catholic vote is full of contradictions,” Burge said. “There is a lot of cross-pressures that they face. They may be white, but also a union member. They may be against LGTBQ rights but want better immigration rights.”

Burge told ABC News that the increased diversity among Catholics has also reflected a shift in the presidential races.

In 2020, 56% of Catholic voters voted Republican, according to data he compiled from Harvard University’s Cooperative Election Study. However, when the community was broken down into race, 59% of white Catholics voted Republican last election while it was only 31% of non-white Catholics voted for the GOP.

“We see the same racial trends for most religious groups,” he explained.

Not in communion with the Catholic Church’s teaching

Thompson said the diversity also extends to Catholics’ political leanings.

For example, Pew found that 61% of all Catholics find abortion should be legal in all or most cases. An ABC News/Ipsos poll found 55% of Catholics would rather the federal government restore abortion access as it was before the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade.

“Just because the hierarchy says ‘this is right, this is wrong’ doesn’t mean that every Catholic is going to follow their lead,” she said.

Burge also noted that cultural ties outside of one’s religion have factored in individual leanings of certain Catholic groups.

For example, he noted that data has shown that Latino Catholics are less in favor of promoting LGBTQ rights and socialism ideals than their white and Black counterparts.

“I think they are pulled in two directions,” he said of Latino Catholics. “Traditionally they’ve been Democratic and we’ve seen them in a majority still vote Democratic but they’ve always been culturally conservative. I think that’s where you’re seeing the shift in some Latino circles voting Republican because of the party’s messaging on those issues.”

A recent ABCNews/Ipsos poll found that Catholic likely voters are closely divided in vote preference, 51-48% Trump-Harris.

“I think they seem to be a more moderate voting bloc. I don’t think they can be taken for granted,” Burge said.

Trump slams Harris over Catholic vote on the campaign trail

Since the start of the election season, the Trump, Biden and Harris campaigns have been trying to court various religious groups.

Trump, in particular, has been sounding off in rallies, social media and interviews against Harris, calling her anti-Catholic. He’s claimed in a Truth Social post that she lost the Catholic vote due to her stance on reproductive rights and that she was “persecuting” the group.

“Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined,” he said in a Truth Social post in September.

Harris has rarely made direct comments about the Catholic vote during the campaign and did not attend the annual Al Smith Dinner hosted by the Archdiocese of New York, saying it was due to schedule conflicts.

Even though she was the first presidential candidate not to attend the dinner in 40 years, she provided a video speech that included a skit with “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon.

“The Gospel of Luke tells us that faith has the power to shine a light on those living in darkness and to guide our feet in the path of peace. In the spirit of tonight’s dinner, let us recommit to reaching across divides, to seek understanding and common ground,” she said.

Trump, in breaking with the dinner’s soft-hearted roasting, continued his attacks on Harris at the dinner.

“You can’t do what I just saw on that screen, but my opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and in particular to our great Catholic community. Very disrespectful,” he said.

Rhetoric does little to sway Catholic voters

Despite the media attention, the experts said that Trump’s rhetoric and back-and-forth with Harris over the Catholic vote isn’t going to move the needle.

Thompson said that there are very few undecided voters left and most voters’ preferences are locked in at this point.

She also noted Trump’s attacks and messaging are no different from the language he’s used for other religious groups, such as Jewish voters, Latino voters and Black voters.

“It’s his go-to phrase: ‘They should have their head checked,'” she said.

Thompson also noted that the sentiment applies to the Vatican.

Pope Francis weighed in on the election in September and appeared to take a middle ground, claiming “One must choose the lesser of two evils.”

“Who is the lesser of two evils? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know,” he told reporters during a news conference.

Francis did not directly name Trump or Harris or either political party, but even while noting the church’s opposition to abortion, he also emphasized a more moderate stance on social issues.

“To send migrants away, to leave them wherever you want, to leave them … it’s something terrible, there is evil there. To send away a child from the womb of the mother is an assassination, because there is life. We must speak about these things clearly,” he said.

Thompson said that the pope has contributed to a major schism among Catholics, with more conservative members dismissing his progressive stances on LGBTQ rights and the environment and more liberal members calling him out for not shifting the church’s stance on reproductive rights.

“There is selective listening to the pope by everyone,” she said. “I don’t think that his non-endorsement is really going to change people’s minds, either.”

Burge said that, at the end of the day, the moments that are going to affect the Catholic vote are in the rhetoric and actions of the candidates in the final days.

“Politicians have always had a problem speaking about religion without sounding pandering,” he said. “The public just cares about where they stand and how they are going to tackle the issues they feel are important.”

Trump pushes false election claims, ‘weaves’ from topics during Joe Rogan interview

October 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump used his appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” to push false claims about the 2020 election, bash his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and attack his former White House staff.

The episode, which went live Friday night, likely reached one of the biggest podcast audiences in the country, with over 15.7 million followers on Spotify. Trump’s interview caused a three-hour delay at a planned rally in Michigan Friday night.

With just over a week to go until November’s election, Trump continued to spread doubts about the election results, slammed secure voting practices, such as mail-in voting and voting machines, and doubled down on his false beliefs that he won the 2020 presidential election.

“You had old-fashioned ballot screwing,” Trump told Joe Rogan, making unfounded claims about unsigned ballots and “phony votes.”

Rogan compared the label of election denialist to the labeling of anti-vaxxer, with Trump railing against mail-in voting despite telling his supporters to go out and vote however they want.

When Rogan asked Trump why he didn’t publish comprehensive evidence of alleged voter fraud in 2020, the former president got combative, falsely claiming he did and argued he lost the election because judges “didn’t have what it took.”

When Rogan brought up Democrats and Harris labeling him a fascist, Trump shot back.

“Kamala is a very low IQ person. She’s a very low IQ,” the former president said.

Trump, who has come under fire after former Chief of Staff John Kelly said in interviews that Trump praised Nazi generals, told Rogan he had an affinity for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. “He took a war that should have been over in a few days, and it was, you know, years of hell of vicious war,” Trump said.

The unedited episode was more of a conversation than an interview as Rogan asked Trump to reminisce on his political arch and let him ramble about various topics from the environment to the economy to health care.

However, in the freeform format, even Rogan got lost at times.

“Your weave is getting wide. I wanna get back to tariffs,” Rogan said at one point.

Trump referenced his style of talking at a rally in August, calling it “the weave.”

“I’ll talk about like, nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together,” he said at the time.

On the Rogan podcast, Trump defended his own age and cognitive acuity while attacking President Joe Biden’s cognitive ability.

“Biden gives people a bad name because that’s not an old – that’s not an age. I think they say it because I’m three or four years younger, you know? I think that’s why they say it. They say his age. It’s not his age. He’s got a problem,” Trump said.

While talking about the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden, Rogan floated a disproven conspiracy theory that Democrats wanted the debate to happen earlier than usual to get Biden out of the race.

Trump acknowledged it but disagreed, saying, “I don’t think anybody thought he was going to get out,” referring to Biden.

Toward the end of the podcast, Rogan asked Trump about extraterrestrial life and if Trump believed in aliens to which the former president went on to say there may be life on Mars.

“Mars, we’ve had probes there and rovers, and I don’t think there’s any life there,” Rogan pushed back.

“Maybe it’s life that we don’t know about,” Trump retorted.

NASA astronaut who had ‘medical issue’ released from hospital

October 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(PENSACOLA, Fla.) — A NASA astronaut who experienced a “medical issue” following the successful Space X Crew-8 mission has been released from the hospital, NASA officials said Saturday.

“After an overnight stay at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida, the NASA astronaut was released and returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Saturday. The crew member is in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members,” NASA said in a statement.

NASA has not publicly named the astronaut.

NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Russian astronaut Alexander Grebenkin were in the SpaceX Dragon capsule when it splashed down on Earth on Friday, NASA said.

After a medical evaluation, three of the crew members departed from the facility and arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, NASA said.

One remaining astronaut remained in the hospital and is in stable condition and is under observation as a precautionary measure, NASA said.

Recovery of the crew and spacecraft went without incident, according to NASA.

An additional medical evaluation of the astronauts was requested out of an abundance of caution, NASA said.

The crew completed a 235-day mission into space.

Elon Musk is in ‘regular contact’ with Vladimir Putin, new report alleges

October 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who owns Tesla and SpaceX, has allegedly been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022, a new report claims.

The allegations arose in an article published Thursday night in The Wall Street Journal, which said “several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials” had confirmed that the discussions between Musk and Putin touched on everything from business and geopolitics to personal topics.

“At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping,” according to the report from the Journal. It is not known if Musk agreed to the request, the report said.

The report arrived on the same day that Musk announced he would be resuming his America PAC town halls, where he has previously handed out awards for his controversial $1 million sweepstakes giveaway for registered voters who sign his political action committee’s petition pledging to uphold free speech and the right to bear arms in swing states.

The appearances had paused briefly this week, with some speculation that the timing was tied to a warning letter that was sent to the PAC this week from the Justice Department.

Trump stated earlier this month, that he would tap Musk to lead a government efficiency commission if elected.

Trump’s team previously denied that the former president continued speaking with Putin after he left office, refuting an account in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “War,” that Trump had sent Russia’s president a COVID-19 testing kit during the height of the pandemic.

When interviewed by Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait at the Chicago Economic Club, Trump said that if he had talked to Putin, it would have been a “smart thing.”

“While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine,” The Wall Street Journal wrote.

The Journal reported that Musk did not comment for their story. Musk did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Through SpaceX, Musk has earned a national security clearance that gives him access to certain classified information. The Journal cited a person who was reportedly aware of the conversations between Musk and Putin who said no alerts have been raised by the administration about any possible security breaches by Musk.

At a campaign appearance last week, Musk commented, “I do have a top-secret clearance, but, I’d have to say, like most of the stuff that I’m aware of…the reason they keep it top secret is because it’s so boring.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the report that the only communication the Kremlin has had with Musk was one telephone call in which he and Putin discussed “space as well as current and future technologies.”

Peskov denied the claims that Musk and Putin were in regular contact, saying after the report was published, “This is absolutely false information published in The Wall Street Journal newspaper.”

On Musk’s part, he said in 2022, in a post on X, that he had spoken to Putin only once. In the post, he claimed that the conversation took place in 2021 and was about “space.”

He did, however, give Putin airtime through his social media platform, X, which aired the Russian president’s interview with Tucker Carlson in February 2024. In the interview, Putin called Musk a “smart person.”

In the same interview, Putin said, “There’s no stopping Elon Musk. He’s going to do what he thinks he needs to do.”

According to The Wall Street Journal report, Musk was having regular conversations with “high-level Russians” by late 2022, a person familiar with the interactions told the paper. That source told the Journal that there was pressure from the Kremlin on Musk’s businesses and “implicit threats against [Musk].”

The Journal suggested the impetus for these alleged threats were months of Musk’s public proclamations of support for Ukraine, as well as granting Ukrainians access to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet.

In October 2022, even as his followers on X began to question where his allegiances lie in the conflict, Musk posted a poll on X inquiring as to how Ukraine and Russia could resolve their conflict, echoing some propositions that Russia had put forth to Ukraine at the time.

That month, Ian Bremmer, the founder of political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, wrote in a newsletter to subscribers that he spoke to Musk two weeks prior about his conversation with Putin.

According to Bremmer’s Oct. 10 newsletter obtained by ABC News, Musk told him he had a direct conversation with Putin about how Russia was “prepared to negotiate” and had outlined the minimum Putin would require to end the war. Putin told Musk that this would include: Crimea remaining Russian; Ukraine accepting a formal status of neutrality; and recognition of Russia’s annexations of Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson control for the water supply to Crimea and Zaporizhzhia for the land bridge “no matter what – the alternative being major escalation.”

Putin also told Musk that if Zelenskyy invaded Crimea, Russia would retaliate with a nuclear strike on Ukraine, the newsletter said.

Musk told Bremmer that the Ukrainians asked him to activate Starlink in Crimea and that he refused given the potential for escalation.

“Musk also appeared concerned about more direct threats from Putin. While he didn’t surface anything explicit with me, he did talk about Russian cyber capabilities and Russia’s potential to disrupt his satellites,” Bremmer wrote. “My response was to not take Putin at face value and that there was zero chance Ukraine could or the west would go for Putin’s “deal.”

Yet shortly after Musk’s conversation with both Putin and Bremmer, Musk posted on X essentially the same points that Putin had allegedly spoken to Musk about, labeling the points as “Ukraine-Russia Peace.”

At the time, Musk publicly denied in a tweet that he said any of this to Bremmer.

The Wall Street Journal reports, “One current and one former intelligence source said that Musk and Putin have continued to have contact since then, and into this year, as Musk began stepping up his criticism of the U.S. military aid to Ukraine and became involved in Trump’s election campaign.”

In a statement to ABC News on Friday, U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson Sue Gough said, “We have seen the reporting from Wall Street Journal but cannot corroborate the veracity of those reports and would refer you to Mr. Musk to speak to his private communications.”

“We expect everyone who has been granted a security clearance, including contractors, to follow the prescribed procedures for reporting foreign contacts,” Gough added.

-ABC News’ Will Steakin and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

Trump to rally in iconic Madison Square Garden

October 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In the final week of his campaign, former President Donald Trump will cross off a campaign bucket-list item on Sunday: a rally in the iconic Madison Square Garden. The avid Broadway enthusiast will deliver a matinee performance, complete with musical guests and a host of Republican allies.

It’s a moment Trump has long said he wanted to have in the state where he has faced criminal and civil trials, becoming a convicted felon and mounted a business empire.

“I think it’ll be a great time, and it’s going to be really a celebration of the whole thing, you know, because it’s coming to an end a few days after that. The campaigning; I won’t campaign anymore. Then I’ll be campaigning to make America great,” Trump said about the upcoming Madison Square Garden rally during a local radio interview with Cats & Cosby on Thursday.

During his civil fraud trial, Trump decided to voluntarily attend his court hearings, splitting time between the courtroom and the campaign trail as he used his prosecutions to rally his supporters around what he argued was a weaponization of government, charges prosecutors have vehemently denied.

He made multiple smaller campaign stops during his seven-week criminal trial earlier this year, and held a rally in the Bronx and on Long Island in an attempt to court the Hispanic and Black voters that make up a majority of the area’s population.

Throughout the former president’s travels through the deep-blue Democratic state, he has long quipped he could flip New York, a state Democrats have won in the last nine elections.

In an arena format symbolizing confidence and celebrity status, Trump’s appearance will serve as his closing argument. In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris makes hers on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The former president, reminiscent of the last nine years campaigning for the highest office in the land, has coined the event as a “celebration of the whole thing.”

“Well, it’s New York, but it’s also sort of, it’s the end of my campaigning. When you think, I mean, I’ve done it now for nine years, we’ve had two great elections. One was better than the other,” Trump said.

On Sunday, Trump will be joined by several surrogates who have appeared with him on the campaign trail — including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy. House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik will also be in attendance as well as several family members and donors.

Trump’s close friend and donor Steve Witkoff, who was golfing with Trump during the second attempt on his life in West Palm Beach last month, is also scheduled to speak at the rally.

Trump’s rally in New York, while not a battleground state, will provide an opportunity to capture a vast national audience given the area’s media market and location.

It’s a strategy that campaign officials have been deploying in the last stretch of Trump’s campaign, seeing benefits in visiting venues outside of battleground states to help emphasize a message.

For example on Friday, Trump visited Texas to highlight immigration, creating a campaign split screen to Harris who was rallying in Houston later in the day for an event focused on abortion rights.

Georgia’s jailed ex-president says Putin’s Russia is not ready for a new ‘hot’ war

October 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Georgia’s Saturday parliamentary elections have been cast by all parties as an era-defining moment for the country’s 3.8 million people.

For one of the country’s best known men, the results of the election could mean the difference between incarceration and freedom.

Former President Mikheil Saakashvili, 56, has been jailed since 2021 on charges of abuse of power and organizing an assault on an opposition lawmaker — charges he contends are politically motivated.

“My imprisonment is purely political and everyone knows that,” Saakashvili told ABC News in an interview conducted from his prison cell via intermediaries. “Once the politics changes, it will be finished.”

Saturday’s election will pit the Moscow-leaning Georgian Dream government against several pro-Western opposition parties, among them the United National Movement party founded by Saakashvili in 2001.

Among the UNM’s priorities, if it wins power as part of a pro-Western coalition, will be to free Saakashvili.

The campaign has been fraught with allegations of meddling and political violence on behalf of GD. The opposition is hoping to mobilize a historic turnout to defeat what they say are GD efforts to undermine the contest.

“The only recipe for tackling election meddling is erecting the wall of mass turnout at the ballot box,” Saakashvili said.

People power has proved a serious problem for GD in recent years. Mass protests defeated the government’s first effort to introduce a foreign agents registration law — which critics say was modeled on Russian legislation used to criminalize Western-leaning politicians, activists and academics — in 2023.

The government pushed the legislation through again in 2024 despite renewed and intense demonstrations.

Opponents credit GD founder, former prime minister and Georgia’s richest man — Bidzina Ivanishvili — as the mastermind behind what they say is the government’s authoritarian and pro-Moscow pivot, though the billionaire does not hold an official position.

Saakashvili said Ivanishvili — who made his fortune in Russia after the Soviet collapse — and the GD party “will go as far as it takes” to retain power this weekend, “but the question will be once they lose the elections if the government structures follow the orders from the oligarch,” he added, referring to Ivanishvili.

Ivanishvili and his party are framing the vote as a choice between war and peace. A new Western-led government, they say, will put Tbilisi back on the path to conflict with Russia, reviving the bloodshed of the 2008 war that saw Moscow cement its occupation of 20% of Georgian territory.

“It is straight from the Russian playbook,” Saakashvili said of the GD warnings. “Blaming victims for aggression against them. As far as we are concerned, real security and peace is associated with being part of Euro-Atlantic structures, and European Union membership is within reach.” Georgia received EU candidate status in 2023.

The latest polls suggest that GD will emerge as the largest party, but will fall significantly short of a parliamentary majority. A grand alliance of pro-EU and pro-NATO opposition parties, though, could get past the 50% threshold to form a new governing coalition.

“Polls are a very treacherous thing in authoritarian systems,” Saakashvili said. “Moldova’s recent example shows that polls get compromised by mass vote buying, and surely that will be the case in Georgia.”

“On the other hand, those that say to pollsters that they are voting for the government very often don’t say the truth,” he added.

Saakashvili’s 2021 imprisonment marked the nadir of a 20-year political rollercoaster. Saakashvili went from the much-loved leader of Georgia’s pro-Western Rose Revolution in 2003 to being vanquished by President Vladimir Putin’s Russian military machine by 2008.

By 2011, Saakashvili’s government was itself accused of violently suppressing protests, with the president soon also embroiled in human rights and corruption scandals.

Constitutionally barred from serving three consecutive terms, Saakashvili left Georgia after the 2013 presidential election and in 2018 was convicted in absentia on abuse of power and other charges.

A Ukrainian citizen — his citizenship was revoked by President Petro Poroshenko in 2017 before being restored by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 — Saakashvili went on to serve as governor of the Odessa region from 2015 to 2016. Zelenskyy appointed Saakashvili as the head of the executive committee of the National Council of Reforms in 2020.

Saakashvili returned to Georgia in October 2021 as the country prepared for local elections. He was arrested and detained by police.

His domestic and international allies have repeatedly condemned his imprisonment, raising concerns of his ill treatment and subsequent ill health. U.S. and European Union officials have also urged Tbilisi to do more to ensure Saakashvili’s fair treatment.

He has been hospitalized while in prison — once due to a hunger strike — and his gaunt appearance during a 2023 video conference court hearing prompted Zelenskyy to summon the Georgian ambassador in Kyiv to complain.

Saakashvili broadly blames Putin for his current situation. But he believes Moscow is not necessarily in a position to prevent a pro-Western pivot in Tbilisi.

“In 2008, the war happened after the West had sent a clear sign of weakness by refusing the NATO accession for Georgia and Ukraine,” Saakashvili said.

“If there is no hesitation this time, Russia is so stuck in Ukraine that it has no motivation to create a new hot war elsewhere.”

“We have no other choice,” he responded, when asked about the risks of perturbing the Kremlin. “The only other alternative is going back,” he said, “living in the Russian sphere of influence.”

As to his own plans if indeed he is freed, Saakashvili described himself as “a regional rather than purely Georgian leader.”

“I will help any next non-oligarch government with transition by advice,” he added, but said he will not seek any official position of power.

“And of course, I am a Ukrainian national and it is my duty to stand by Ukraine.”

Gun violence still a big issue despite flurry of election topics, advocates say

October 26, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — From the June 28 debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, at least 134 people were killed in 148 mass shootings across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

But during those roughly three months and since, the issue of gun violence prevention, according to some advocates, has been overshadowed by a flurry of hot-button campaign topics: The state of the economy, abortion rights, wars raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, two assassination attempts on Trump and the shifting political landscape in which Vice President Kamala Harris succeeded Biden as the Democratic nominee.

“Gun violence is still one of the most important issues facing our country. We still have an ongoing epidemic,” said Nicole Hockley, the CEO of Sandy Hook Promise — a gun violence prevention group she co-founded following the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children, including her son, and six adult staff members dead.

In an interview this week with ABC News, Hockley cited a Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions report that said for three straight years gun violence has been the leading cause of death in the United States for adolescents under the age of 19.

In an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released in August, gun violence was ranked eighth in importance among voters after the economy, inflation, health care, protecting democracy, crime and safety, immigration and the Supreme Court.

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 61% of Americans say it’s too easy to legally obtain a gun in this country and 58% believe U.S. gun-control laws should be stricter.

“I do appreciate that there are many other large issues and hot topics like the economy, like abortion, like foreign wars that are of interest to voters as well,” said Hockley, whose nonpartisan group does not endorse candidates nor donate to campaigns.

She added, “Perhaps there is an assumption, rightly or wrongly, that everyone already knows what each candidate’s opinion is and what they are likely to do in terms of gun violence prevention, whereas they might not be as clear on things like policies around the economy.”

Debates over gun violence
During the three national debates in the presidential campaign, the subject of gun violence prevention appears to have received less discussion compared to the other contentious topics, some advocates said.

In the Sept. 10 debate between Harris and Trump, hosted by ABC News, gun violence came up when Trump — who was shot in the ear during a July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one campaign rallygoer dead and two others wounded — alleged, “She wants to confiscate your guns.”

The accusation prompted Harris, who oversees the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, to respond, “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”

Harris, the former California Attorney General, also said, “I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings.”

Ten days after debating Trump, Harris reiterated that she is a gun owner during a televised sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey, adding, “If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot.”

The most extensive conversation on guns during the debates came during the vice presidential debate when Walz touted his record in Minnesota on combating gun violence, saying his administration had passed an assault weapons ban and enhanced red-flag gun laws to keep weapons out of the hands of people poised to harm themselves or others.

“These are reasonable things that we can do to make a difference,” Walz said about gun violence prevention during the debate.

Vance and Trump oppose most gun-control laws, including an assault weapons ban and national red-flag laws proposed by Harris. The National Rifle Association has endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket.

“Now, more than ever, freedom and liberty need courageous and virtuous defenders,” Doug Hamlin, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, said in a statement in July. “President Trump and Senator Vance have the guts and the grit to stand steadfast for the Second Amendment.”

During the debate, Vance said on gun violence prevention measures, “Governor Walz and I actually probably agree that we need to do better on this.”

Addressing school shootings, Vance said at the debate, “I, unfortunately, think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the doors stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger. And of course, we’ve got to increase school resource officers because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, it just doesn’t fit with recent experience.”

‘The lockdown generation’

Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures, said that despite the myriad issues in this campaign cycle, gun violence prevention still resonates with voters nationwide.

“First and foremost, I get to travel all across this country and meet with our volunteers and partners and candidates running up and down the ballot, and there are so many people that are not running away from this issue but running on it and actually winning,” Ferrell-Zabala told ABC News. “This is a priority for many folks.”

She said that from her experience, young people, who have grown up in the era of school lockdowns and active shooter drills, are particularly energized over the issue of gun violence prevention and plan to vote their conscience.

“This is a big issue. This is a top three for all voters and for young people, this is particularly hitting them because they are the lockdown generation. Many of them are survivors of gun violence themselves,” said Ferrell-Zabala, whose group has endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket.

According to the 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 88% of respondents also favored preventing mentally ill people from buying guns and 79% wanted the minimum age for buying guns raised to 21.

Ferrell-Zabala said most aspects of gun violence prevention should not be considered political, including requiring gun owners to secure their weapons to prevent them from falling into the hands of children or people intent on harming others or themselves.

“They are being used as political issues, but they are not. The majority of people, polls show time and time again, are for common sense gun laws because they know they are going to save lives in this country,” Ferrell-Zabala said. “And what you’re seeing is a product of a gun industry and extremist politicians that are trying to back this guns-everywhere culture, where guns are everywhere for anyone anytime. That’s unacceptable, frankly.”

Hockley said that many of the children who survived the Sandy Hook massacre that claimed the life of her 6-year-old son, Dylan, have now reached the age of 18 and will be voting in their first presidential election.

“I believe that they will be very much voting to stop this epidemic,” Hockley told ABC News. “I’m sure they’ll have other concerns as well, women’s rights, human rights. Gun violence prevention is also a human right, the right to live to your full potential. These students have seen the worst of what our country can offer in terms of school violence and I very much believe and hope that they will be voting that as one of their main issues.”

Voter van makes casting a ballot easy for some Pennsylvania residents

October 25, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa.) — With less than two weeks to Election Day, one Pennsylvania county has unveiled a new mobile voter services van that aims to make voting more accessible for residents.

The van, the first one ever for the Keystone State, offers a convenient space where individuals can register to vote, apply for a mail-in ballot, or even fill out and submit their mail-in ballots right on the spot.

Neil Makhija, Montgomery County Commissioner and Chair of the Board of Elections, said the county wanted people to recognize that voting is something to celebrate.

“We have been showing up at fall festivals, community centers, senior centers, and letting people know that their voice matters,” Makhija said.

Makhija says local residents have been excited about the convenience of the van, stating they were thrilled to be able to vote before November.

The van represents a new approach by officials in Pennsylvania to gather votes. Instead of making voters deal with complicated procedures, officials are going out to meet voters and simplifying the voting process.

Pennsylvania will once again be crucial in the upcoming presidential election in November, as the state holds a significant number of electoral votes.

“We are witnessing what could be the closest presidential election in our lifetime,” Makhija said. “In Pennsylvania, it’s all that much more important because we can be the state that decides it all. I would love to come away from election night seeing everyone who was eligible cast their ballot.”

Pennsylvania is one of seven key swing states that will determine this year’s election. Both presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, are looking to garner the state’s 19 Electoral College votes.

Voters in Pennsylvania can vote by mail. Montgomery County officials recommend applying online. According to the Montgomery County government website, you can return your ballot by mail, at a drop box, or in person at a satellite office.

Voters with an illness or disability who cannot pick up or drop off their mail-in ballot must fill out the Designated Agent form to allow someone else to handle it.

Ex-model who accused Trump of groping her in 1990s says Epstein mentioned Trump ‘every time we spoke’

October 25, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model who has accused former President Donald Trump of groping her in front of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 1990s is offering more details about what she claims she observed about Epstein’s relationship with the current presidential candidate and what she says Epstein told her.

“I would say that he talked about having just seen Donald or having just done something, I mean, every time we spoke,” Stacey Williams, who worked as a professional model in the 1990s, told ABC News in an interview.

Williams went public this week with an allegation that Trump groped her in front of Epstein after she said Epstein, who would later be known as a serial sex offender, brought her to Trump Tower in the early 1990s.

‘I felt so humiliated’

In her interview with ABC News, Williams said that during her several-month relationship with Epstein, who she said she met in 1992, Trump was among three people who Epstein talked to her about the most, with one of the other two being Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who has since been sentenced to prison for 20 years for recruiting and grooming the underage girls who Epstein sexually abused.

The third person, Williams said, was Leslie Wexner, the billionaire retail magnate who once employed Epstein to manage his fortune.

“The people he spoke about the most were his boss, or whatever that person was, Les Wexner, hard to understand that role. And then Ghislaine, again, a little ambiguous weird relationship. And then Donald Trump,” Williams told ABC News. “Those are the people he spoke about the most.”

The details come after Williams first publicly discussed the alleged incident in detail on a public “Survivors for Kamala” Zoom call last Monday night in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is not officially affiliated with Harris’ presidential campaign.

In a statement to ABC News, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt denied Williams’ allegations, stating in part, “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false.”

Asked about the claim that Epstein spoke frequently about Trump, a Trump campaign spokesperson said, “It is widely known that President Trump banned Jeffrey Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago Club when revelations about his sex trafficking became public.”

On the Zoom call, which ABC News obtained a video of, Williams, who first began speaking publicly about the alleged incident with Trump and Epstein in Facebook posts dating back to 2020, said she felt like the alleged groping incident was a “twisted game” between Trump and Epstein.

“I felt so humiliated and so sick to my stomach and was so upset, and as I absorbed what happened a few minutes later, I felt like that was some sort of sick bet or game between the two of them,” Williams said. “I was rolled in there like a piece of meat for some kind of challenge or twisted game, and I felt horrendous.”

“I figured it was time to share this and I’m ready to win this election,” Williams, a longtime Democrat who has been active in politics, said on the Zoom call. “The thought of that monster being back in the White House is my absolute worst nightmare.”

‘It was orchestrated’

Williams told ABC News the alleged encounter, when she was 24, lasted no more than ten minutes. “I was in shock and I was frozen,” Williams said.

“He just put his arms out and pulled me towards him and his hands on some part of my body the entire time,” Williams claimed in the interview. “His hands would touch the sides of my breasts, not the front, but the sides of my breasts, my waist, and then slid down to my butt and just kept kind of running up and down my body while the two of them were carrying on a conversation.”

Speaking with ABC News, Williams explained that shortly after the alleged incident, she began to suspect that the encounter with Trump and Epstein had been “orchestrated,” but went into denial about it because of the shame it made her feel.

“Now there’s no doubt in my mind it was orchestrated,” Williams said.

Not long after the alleged incident, Williams said Trump sent her a handwritten postcard featuring his Mar-a-Lago estate that read, “Stacey — Your home away from home. Love Donald.” A photo of the postcard was shared with ABC News.

Two friends confirmed to ABC News in interviews that Williams told them years ago about the alleged incident with the former president. Longtime friend Allison Gutwillinger told ABC News in an interview that in 2015 Williams invited her over to her home to tell her about the alleged incident after Trump had announced his run for office.

“I came over to her house. There was a postcard on the kitchen counter, with what looked like Mar-a-Lago on the cover. I turned it over, and there was a handwritten note signed ‘Love Donald,'” Gutwillinger said. “She then told me he groped her in Trump Tower.”

‘Not a fan of his’

Trump eventually distanced himself from Epstein, who in 2019 died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Authorities say that, in the early 2000s, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in New York and Florida, among other locations.

In 2002, Trump told New York magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.”

“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said at the time.

Epstein was questioned about his relationship with Trump during a March 2010 deposition in a civil suit against Epstein filed by some of Epstein’s victims.

Epstein answered, “Yes, sir,” when asked if he had socialized with Trump. When asked if he “ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18” Epstein replied, “Though I’d like to answer that question, at least today I’m going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendment right, sir.”

By the time Epstein was charged in 2019, then-President Trump told reporters at the White House he was “not a fan of his, that I can tell you” and that he hadn’t “spoken to him in 15 years.”

A year later, Trump wished Ghislaine Maxwell “well” after being asked by a reporter if the longtime Epstein associate should reveal the names of powerful people who were associated with the serial sex offender.

“I don’t know,” Trump said. “I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly.”

In 2021, Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

During Maxwell’s trial, flight logs released as evidence showed that Trump was listed as a passenger on Epstein’s private jets at least seven times: four times in 1993, once in 1994 and 1995, and a previously known time 1997.

At least 18 women have accused Trump of varying degrees of inappropriate behavior, including allegations of sexual harassment or sexual assault. During Trump’s first run for the White House, a 2005 video surfaced where he discussed groping women, in which Trump can be heard telling former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, “When you’re a star they let you do it.”

“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women, I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump said, including “grab ’em by the p—-.”

Trump apologized at the time after the comments were made public, saying in a video, “Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am,” adding, “I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”

Trump has long vehemently denied all of the women’s accusations. In some cases, he and his team members have specifically denied individual accusations, but they have also repeatedly issued blanket denials against all the allegations, calling the women liars.

2024 election updates: Harris rips Trump over ‘garbage can’ comment on migrants

October 25, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The race for the White House remained essentially a dead heat on Friday — with 11 days to go until Election Day.

Kamala Harris was headed to Texas to highlight abortion access and Donald Trump was set to appear on Joe Rogan’s highly-popular podcast.

More than 31 million have voted as of Friday morning

As of Friday morning, more than 31 million Americans had voted early, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

Of the total early votes numbering 31,402,309, in-person early votes accounted for 13,687,197 ballots and mail-in ballots numbered 17,715,831.

This means that more than 16 million people have voted since Monday.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang

Harris to hit Trump for not releasing medical records at Texas rally on abortion rights

Harris will go after Trump in her speech in Houston, Texas, on Friday night that will focus on reproductive rights.

“The Attorney General of Texas is suing the United States Government so that Texas prosecutors can get their hands on the private medical records of women who leave the state to get care,” Harris will say, according to released excerpts of her speech.

“So, see what is happening: Donald Trump won’t let anyone see his medical records. But these guys want to get their hands on yours? Simply put: They are out of their minds,” she will say.

The vice president will reiterate her campaign pledge to push Congress to pass a bill restoring Roe v. Wade if elected.

“We are fighting for an America where, no matter who you are, or where you live, you can make that decision based on what is right for you and your family,” Harris will say.

ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

Harris rips Trump over his ‘garbage can’ comments

Speaking to reporters before her event later today in Houston, Harris said she wanted to address Trump’s comment that America has become a “garbage can” and “dumping ground” for migrants from around the world.

“You know, it’s just another example of how he really belittles our country,” Harris said. “This is someone who is a former president of the United States, who has a bully pulpit, and this is how he uses it, to tell the rest of the world that somehow the United States of America is trash.”

“And I think, again, the president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are and invest in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who is constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” the vice president added.

Trump’s comments are the latest example of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

-ABC News’ Will McDuffie

Walz says it’s time to ‘execute’ at fundraiser

In what could have been his final financial event of the campaign, Tim Walz, at a fundraiser in Pennsylvania, said it was now time to use all that money to focus on the ground game.

“Now it’s time to execute … Never in my lifetime, would I have believed that the choice would be so stark,” he said.

The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee entered the final three weeks of the election with a clear cash advantage over the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, latest FEC records show.

As of Oct. 16, the Harris campaign, the DNC and their joint fundraising committees reported having nearly $270 million in cash on hand compared to $202 million the Trump campaign, the RNC and their joint fundraising committees had in the bank, the new filings show.

The Trump campaign committee, in particular, had $36 million in the bank as of Oct. 16 compared to the Harris campaign committee having $119 million in cash on hand.

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Soorin Kim

Trump repeats threat to jail election officials

Trump on Friday reposted his earlier message promising, before any evidence of fraud, to prosecute and deliver long prison sentences for election workers and others who he deems to have cheated during November’s election.

“Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

Election officials had called such a threat “dangerous” given the heightened threat environment.

“It makes me concerned that this will set other people off. I think the one thing that we’ve seen before is that words have consequences and meaning,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told ABC News last month.

“And while we are concerned, we are also prepared. Elections officials across the country have been working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to monitor and track threats, to make sure we’re keeping our voters safe and make sure we’re keeping our elections officials safe,” Fontes said.

Harris says she hasn’t voted yet but it’s on ‘priority list’

Harris, taking reporter questions on Friday, was asked if she’s cast her ballot yet.

Her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, voted with his wife and son in Minnesota earlier this week.

Harris said she hasn’t voted but “it’s on my priority list for these next few days.”

Trump to call into Virginia rally after voter purge program halted
Trump is attempting to place doubt about voter rolls in Virginia after a judge ordered voters purged from election rolls as a result of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s directive to be reinstated.

A federal judge said on Friday Youngkin’s program violated the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.

“This is a totally unacceptable travesty, and Governor Youngkin is absolutely right to appeal this ILLEGAL ORDER, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully fix it! Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote. Keep fighting, Glenn – AND REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA, KEEP VOTING EARLY!” Trump posted on his social media platform.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump is set to rally with Youngkin on Saturday. Trump said he plans to call into the rally to highlight the issue.

“I will be calling in to Glenn’s Rally with Lara Trump tomorrow morning to talk about this crazy Ruling, and announce my final stop in Virginia before Election Day.”

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Pennsylvania county says it stopped thousands of voter registration fraud incidents

Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County Board of Elections said that approximately 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration applications were dropped off at the election office in two batches around the deadline to register.

The deadline to register in the swing state was Oct. 21.

The board said “concerns were raised” during the normal review process and law enforcement was alerted.

Notably, the board says in its statement that the fraud was “identified and contained” and lauded this incident as one that shows that the election “system is secure.”

“Our system worked,” the board declared. “We will continue to operate with the highest levels of veracity, integrity, and transparency so that Lancaster County voters can be confident in our election.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

The Washington Post won’t endorse a presidential candidate

The Washington Post announced Friday it will not issue an endorsement in this year’s election — a first for the legacy newspaper in more than three decades.

“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” publisher William Lewis wrote in a note explaining the decision.

The Post follows the Los Angeles Times in not backing a candidate.

Both newspapers had endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020 against Trump.

McConnell, Johnson rebuke Harris for calling Trump ‘fascist’

In a rare joint statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly condemned Harris calling Trump a “fascist” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

The two Republican leaders say Harris’ remarks have “only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus. Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over. The Vice President’s words more closely resemble those of President Trump’s second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility.”

McConnell and Johnson say they have been briefed on the “ongoing and persistent threats to former President Donald Trump.”

Harris quickly seized on John Kelly’s comments to The New York Times this week that he believed Trump fit the description of a fascist. Kelly served as Trump’s chief of staff and is a retired general.

Trump has claimed for months that Harris is a “fascist” or “communist” or “Marxist.”

-ABC News’ Lauren Peller

Virginia judge strikes down voter purge that impacted 1,600 people

A federal judge issued a partial ruling finding that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order to conduct a daily voter purge process violated the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.

A total of 1,600 voters removed from the rolls since August must be added back within the next five days.

The judge said the process left no room for individualized inquiry, which violated the act’s requirement that “when in the 90-day provisional, it must be done on an individualized basis.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Trump zeroes in on ‘blue wall’ states

Trump will embark on a rigorous schedule making his final pitch to voters. The former president is focusing on the “blue wall” states this weekend and early next week, specifically targeting Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

After stops in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump will culminate his weekend campaigning with a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, in which the former president has coined as a “celebration of the whole thing” with his nine years of campaigning coming to close.

-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soorin Kim

Americans accused of noncitizen voter fraud face doxxing

Eliud Bonilla, a Brooklyn-born NASA engineer born to Puerto Rican parents, was abruptly purged from the voter rolls as a “noncitizen.”

Bonilla later voted without issue, but the nuisance soon became a nightmare after a conservative watchdog group published his personal information online after obtaining a list of the state’s suspected noncitizen voters.

“I became worried because of safety,” he told ABC News, “because, unfortunately, we’ve seen too many examples in this country when one person wants to right a perceived wrong and goes through with an act of violence.”

Bonilla’s story highlights a real-world impact of aggressive efforts to purge state voter rolls of thousands of potential noncitizens who have illegally registered. Many of the names end up being newly naturalized citizens, victims of an inadvertent paperwork mistake or the result of a clerical error, experts say. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

Read more about Bonilla’s story and a fact check of noncitizen voting claims here.

Half of Americans see Trump as fascist, Harris viewed as pandering: POLL

A new poll from ABC News and Ipsos found half of Americans (49%) see Trump as a fascist, or “a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents.”

A majority of voters (65%) also said Trump often says things that are not true.

But Harris also faces perception headwinds, though far fewer Americans (22%) said they viewed her as a fascist.

Fifty-seven percent of registered voters said Harris is making proposals “that just are intended to get people to vote for her,” not that she intends to carry out. Just more than half (52%) said the same about Trump.