After an onslaught of criticism toward the insurance industry following the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., expressed sympathy for the victim, but acknowledged the debate it sparked over inequities in the health care system.
“There is no justification for violence,” Khanna told ABC “This Week” anchor Martha Raddatz. “But the outpouring afterwards has not surprised me.”
Thompson’s killing led to an ongoing massive manhunt for the suspected killer and sparked rampant discussion online about the cost of health care and the insurance industry in the United States.
Khanna said he agrees with the assessment of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who wrote: “We waste hundreds of billions a year on health care administrative expenses that make insurance CEOs and wealthy stockholders incredibly rich while 85 million Americans go uninsured or underinsured. Health care is a human right. We need Medicare for All.”
Khanna said that the U.S. should be moving toward Medicare for all.
“After years, Sanders is winning this debate,” Khanna said.
Khanna has said he supports Trump’s efforts to create a “Department of Government Efficiency” to cut wasteful federal spending. The president-elect appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramawamy to lead the effort and the pair was on Capitol Hill this week to discuss their plans.
Khanna told Raddatz that “they should look at the extraordinary waste,” examining Medicare and private health costs, as well as defense spending.
“I think when it comes to defense, getting better defense for value and cutting costs, there can be huge bipartisan cooperation,” said Khanna.
The congressman emphasized that cuts to Social Security, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Medicare should not be on the table.
Despite bipartisan calls to address federal spending, the United States’ debt stands at more than $36 trillion.
Khanna said he has communicated with Musk regarding his cost-cutting efforts and praised the SpaceX founder’s work with the Obama administration for the private sector to engage in space exploration.
Khanna was also asked about his thoughts on the looming possibility of a ban of TikTok in the U.S. unless it finds a new owner following a Federal Appeals Court ruling on Friday that rejected TikTok’s bid to overturn the law.
In previous interviews on “This Week,” Khanna spoke about his opposition to a bill that would require TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company or face a ban.
“I don’t think it’s going to pass First Amendment scrutiny because I think there are less restrictive alternatives,” he told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in April.
On Sunday, Khanna said he still believes that TikTok won’t face a ban, noting how many politicians themselves are on the platform.
“Let’s see where it goes with the Supreme Court,” he said.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a prominent ally of Donald Trump, downplayed the prospects of the military having a major role in what the president-elect has previewed as a massive deportation effort once he takes office.
Speaking with “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Donalds said that local and federal law enforcement like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will take the lead on deportations, which he said would focus on immigrants convicted of crimes and those who have already been given legal deportation orders but remain in the country.
“When you’re talking about military assets being used, that’s only in an extreme last resort. There are more than 6,000 officers who have who have dedicated their lives to having to remove illegal aliens from our country, people who already have a legal deportation order, but it hasn’t been effectuated by Joe Biden,” Donalds said.
“I think if you’re going to use military assets, that’s in the last resorts, but that’s only for logistical purposes, Martha. And so, I think that what we have to be very careful of is not to try to throw out this idea that you’re going to have troops in the United States going door to door. That is not going to happen.”
Trump made immigration a cornerstone of his campaign, panning President Joe Biden for the record numbers of unauthorized border crossings that occurred in the earlier years of his term.
The president-elect has vowed to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally but also to scrap certain programs that offer legal status, including Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and other groups of immigrants.
Trump deported about 1.5 million immigrants during his first term, according to a Migrant Policy Institute analysis, but Donalds predicted that number will be topped during Trump’s second term.
“Just speaking with you anecdotally, it’s at a minimum going to be 2 million, but it’s going to be more, because the amount of people who already have a deportation order, people who are in our country who have committed crimes, people who have already been convicted of murder, they need to go and go immediately,” Donalds told Raddatz.
Donalds also predicted that stricter border enforcement and ramped-up deportation efforts will lead some undocumented immigrants to leave the country on their own, rather than get kicked out by law enforcement, which prohibits them from coming back to the country for 10 years.
“When you have an active deportation process, we do know that there are aliens who are going to want to go back to their home country. They’re not going to want to be caught up in the process of dealing with ICE, because if you’re deported through that process, then you will actually be barred from returning to the United States for a period of 10 years,” Donalds said.
“When you turn off the spigots of opening our borders, when you turn off the spigots of all this aid going to illegal aliens in the United States, and then you have a president of the United States and a government who is serious about repatriating people back to their home country, you will see that the enticement of coming to America is not going to be what it was under Joe Biden,” Donalds added.
(PARIS) — In a rare moment of unity, world leaders convened on Saturday to attend the ceremonial reopening of the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in France.
Five years after flames engulfed the historic site in the center of Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “gratitude” to those who saved, helped and rebuilt Notre Dame.
The ceremony was attended by 1,500 dignitaries, including first lady Jill Biden, President-elect Donald Trump, Prince William and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The first lady was the official U.S. representative after President Joe Biden declined an invitation to attend the ceremony, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, citing a scheduling conflict.
Trump kicked off his first foreign trip since his reelection and met with Macron at the Elysee Palace before the ceremony.
The meeting comes at a time when Macron’s government is undergoing a political crisis after his prime minister, Michel Barnier, resigned after facing a no-confidence vote. Macron, who became president in 2017, has vowed he will serve until the end of his term in 2027 despite facing calls from some to resign.
The cathedral, a landmark of Gothic architecture in the heart of France’s capital, was built around 1260 AD and stood for 850 years, seeing more visitors than the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre. Notre Dame attracted more than 13 million global tourists yearly prior to the fire.
Macron delivered on the famed promise he made while standing outside the scorched landmark days after the fire that it would be rebuilt in five years.
The rebuilding took 1,200 oak trees felled from forests across France to replace the framework of the roof and 1,000 construction workers.
Though Notre Dame is set to reopen to the public on Sunday with its first public mass, much of the construction is set to continue for years.
A criminal investigation into what started the fire is about to be completed, but so far no cause has been cited and an indictment hasn’t been issued from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the Pentagon will send nearly $1 billion to Ukraine, bringing the total the United States has committed to Ukraine to more than $62 billion since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
The package dedicated an additional $988 million to Ukraine and will provide the country with more drones, rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and support for maintenance and sustainment.
Since the package was made through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the assistance will be for contracts to deliver these systems to Ukraine after they are manufactured. This is different from the program the U.S. routinely gives Ukraine assistance through in which existing weapons from U.S. military stockpiles are provided to Ukraine quickly and the dollar amounts replenish U.S. supplies with new weapons.
“Together, we have helped Ukraine survive an all-out assault by the largest military in Europe,” said Austin, who noted he has convened the Ukraine Defense Contract Group of allies to Ukraine 24 times to coordinate aid. “Meanwhile, Russia has paid a staggering price.”
Austin said that since Russia launched its offensive, it has suffered at least 700,000 casualties and lost more than $200 billion.
This aid package is part of the effort to try to get Ukraine as much military aid as possible before the Trump administration takes over on Jan. 20 and is the 22nd aid package the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine under the USAI. It is likely the Biden administration is not going to be able to use up the almost $8 billion in Ukraine military aid funding still available that it had hoped to give Ukraine before the start of the Trump administration, according to a U.S. official. That opens up the possibility that it will be up to the Trump administration to decide what to do with the remaining congressionally approved funds.
Austin was delivering the keynote address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, on Saturday as he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell each accepted the Reagan Peace Through Strength Award.
“There is no such thing as a safe retreat from today’s interwoven world,” he said. “We are seeing a sneak preview of a world built by tyrants and thugs, a chaotic world, violent world, far into spheres of influence.”
“This administration has made its choice, and so has a bipartisan coalition in Congress,” Austin added. “The next administration must make its own choice. From this library, from this podium, I am confident that President Reagan would have stood on the side of Ukraine, American security, and human freedom.”
His remarks followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with President-elect Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris earlier Saturday ahead of the reopening ceremony for the Notre Dame Cathedral. Foreign leaders have been attempting to pressure Trump to continue sending aid to Ukraine once he takes office.
Trump has reportedly been in communication with the Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times since leaving office in 2021 and has vowed he will end the war in Ukraine in “24 hours.”
“The baton will soon be passed,” Austin concluded. “Others will decide the course ahead. And I hope they will build on the strength that we have forged over the past four years.”
The remarks come as Trump’s pick to lead the DOD, Pete Hegseth, has faced increased scrutiny amid allegations of sexual misconduct and claims he has been drunk in public.
Trump has stood by his choice of Hegseth, saying in a preview of his interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “Pete is doing well now. I mean, people were a little bit concerned. He’s a young guy with a tremendous track record. … He loves the military, and I think people are starting to see it. So we’ll be working on his nomination, along with a lot of others.”
(WESTFORD, Mass.) — A Democratic member of Congress has become the latest victim of increased threats against federal lawmakers in the last two weeks.
Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts said Saturday that her family and home received a bomb threat. No one was harmed and the Westford Police Department, U.S. Capitol Police and the Massachusetts State Police are all investigating the threat, she said.
“It’s a good time to say the obvious: threats of violence and intimidation have no place in our country,” Trahan said in a statement.
The threat against Trahan came a week after several Democratic members received similar threats against their families.
Reps. Joe Courtney, Jahana Hayes, Jim Himes and John Larson, who all represent districts in Connecticut, said their homes were targeted on Thanksgiving. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Seth Magaziner, also of Rhode Island, said they were targets of bomb threats last week
No bombs were found and none of the elected officials nor their families were hurt, authorities said.
The investigations into the threats are ongoing.
Some of President-elect Trump’s cabinet selections were also targeted with threats last week.
Investigators are looking into bomb threats sent to Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick for agriculture secretary; Lee Zeldin, the former congressman Trump has tapped to lead the EPA; and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and President Joe Biden condemned last week’s threats.
“House Democrats will not be deterred or intimidated from serving the people by violent threats,” Jeffries said in a statement last week.
(PARIS) — President-elect Donald Trump kicked off his first foreign trip since his reelection with a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.
Ahead of the meeting, Macron welcomed Trump, saying, “It’s a great honor for the French people to welcome you five years later.”
Macron thanked Trump for his “solidarity” and “immediate action” during his first presidency: “You were at the time the president, the first time, and I remember the solidarity and your immediate action. Welcome back again. Thank you. We are very happy to have you here.”
Trump in return celebrated the “great success” the United States and France had together on “defense and offense” during his first term and said they will talk about how the world is “going a little crazy right now.”
“Thank you very much. Very great honor. And we had a great relationship. As everyone knows, we accomplished a lot together,” he said. “And the people of France are spectacular. I guess it’s one of our largest groups in the United States, French people, and we respect them and we love them. Very talented people, extremely energetic people, as you know very well, yeah, and it’s an honor to be here.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined Macron and Trump at about 11:34 a.m. Eastern time. However, he did not offer remarks ahead of the meeting.
Trump is in France to partake in the reopening ceremonies for Notre Dame more than five years after a fire severely damaged the cathedral. First lady Jill Biden is also among the representatives from around the world attending the ceremonies.
The meeting comes at a time when Macron’s government is undergoing a political crisis after his prime minister, Michel Barnier, resigned after facing a no-confidence vote. Macron, who became president in 2017, has vowed he will serve until the end of his term in 2027 despite facing calls from some to resign.
“We had a good time together, and we had a lot of lot of success, really great success, working together on defense and offense too,” Trump said of the U.S.-French relationship in his first administration. “And it certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now, and we’ll be talking about that.”
Trump arrived at the Elysee Palace around 10:41 a.m. and met with Macron outside before walking into the building around 10:43 a.m. Eastern time. He was also set to meet with Prince William, the Prince of Wales, for the first time since 2019, but their meeting before the Notre Dame ceremony was canceled.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump this week vowed to block the purchase of U.S. Steel by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp., promising to bolster the domestic steel industry with tariffs.
“I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, Trump said in a post on Truth Social, pledging to make U.S. Steel “Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST!”
Trump has proposed a tax as high as 20% on every product imported from all U.S. trading partners, as well as a tax of between 60% and 100% on all goods from China, the world’s leading steel producer.
Those policies could modestly improve the outlook for domestic steelmakers by hiking prices, boosting revenue and increasing employment, though the benefits would not lift the sector to the heights attained in its heyday, experts told ABC News.
The experts warned, however, that a potential rekindling of consumer price increases as a result of the wide-ranging tariffs could damage the steel industry as part of a wider economic slowdown.
The policies also risk harming the nation’s manufacturing sector as a whole, since the tariffs would hike costs for factories that rely on raw steel as an input, making those firms less competitive with their international counterparts, the experts said.
“We have tried to help the steel industry many, many times before,” Kyle Handley, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, told ABC News, pointing to steel tariffs established during Trump’s first term and retained under President Joe Biden.
“Yet, here we are and the industry still needs more help,” Handley added.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump transition team touted the tariffs imposed during his first term in office.
“In his first term, President Trump instituted tariffs against China that created jobs, spurred investment, and resulted in no inflation. President Trump will work quickly to fix and restore an economy that puts American workers [first] by re-shoring American jobs, lowering inflation, raising real wages, lowering taxes, cutting regulations, and unshackling American energy,” Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Tariffs remain popular with steel industry leaders. The Steel Manufacturers Association, or SMA, the largest U.S. trade association representing steelmakers, has urged the incoming Trump administration to strengthen steel tariffs.
“We are under constant threat from nonmarket economies who evade our trade laws to dump cheap, heavily subsidized, high-emissions steel and other products into the American market, making it hard for domestic manufacturers to compete,” SMA President Philip Bell said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Fortunately, President-elect Trump has vowed to use every tool he can to end unfair trade while stimulating growth in jobs and productivity,” Bell added.
In 2018, Trump slapped tariffs on aluminum and steel from a host of countries, including Mexico, Canada and the European Union.
Over the ensuing years, U.S. steel prices soared and output climbed.
The average price of a ton of hot-rolled steel — a common metric used for steel prices — soared from about $700 to $1,850 between 2017 and 2021, according to a study last year by the United States International Trade Commission, a government agency.
However, prices also spiked in non-U.S. steel markets over that period amid a global rise in demand, leaving only a modest impact from the tariffs, the study found. Steel production showed a similarly incremental advance, ticking upward by nearly 2% per year on average due to the tariffs, the study showed.
“It was a good thing for the steel industries because they were getting higher prices for steel and producing more,” Handley said.
The tariffs did not cause a sustained increase in employment for the steel industry, however, according to some data. Nationwide employment at steel and iron mills stood at 80,600 in 2017 — and registered the exact same number of workers last year, government data showed.
Technological advances in steel production have made the work less labor intensive, reducing the need for employees, Katheryn Russ, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, told ABC News.
The proposed across-the-board tariffs could amplify the benefits for the steel industry that resulted from tariffs initiated during Trump’s first term, Russ said. But, she added, “It is unclear how it would affect employment in steel plants.”
Trump’s proposals would also intensify the negative effects that resulted from the first round of tariffs, including cost increases for a range of manufacturers that use raw steel as inputs, experts said. Those higher costs would hurt the competitiveness of such U.S. producers, risking lost revenue and potential layoffs, they added.
“Everybody who buys steel would now have higher costs,” Handley said. “We can have a debate about who should win or lose from that, but you can’t have everybody win.”
Economists widely forecast that tariffs of the magnitude proposed by Trump would also increase prices paid by U.S. shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers.
A potential price spike risks slashing consumer purchases and slowing the economy, which would hurt a wide swath of businesses, including steel producers, Gordon Johnson, whose firm, GLJ Research, analyzes the steel industry, told ABC News.
“People will buy less of everything,” Johnson said. “That would be very bad for all U.S. businesses — steel companies as well.”
Still, Johnson said he understands the enduring cultural resonance of the steel industry, citing the phenomenon as a reason for why the sector receives attention from policymakers.
“When you say ‘steelworkers,’ you think of some guy who gets up at 6 a.m., gets McDonald’s coffee, puts on overalls and a big flannel and goes to work in the mill,” Johnson said. “He’s a hard worker and a quintessential U.S. citizen.”
He added, “Steel was a historic and traditional American staple. That’s why people care so much.”
(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — A federal judge paused the child sexual abuse case involving President-elect Donald Trump’s education secretary pick Linda McMahon, her husband Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
The Maryland lawsuit, filed in October by five John Does who worked as the ringside crew when they were teens, alleges WWE co-founders Linda and Vince McMahon turned a blind eye to years of sexual abuse of the underaged “ring boys” by an announcer and executives at the company. The McMahons have denied the claims.
The stay in the case is a major development for the businesswoman and former Small Business Administration head — Linda McMahon’s cabinet role is tasked with investigating sexual misconduct in education programs.
Linda McMahon has been meeting with senators who will determine whether she’ll be confirmed for the position in Trump’s second administration while her apparent lack of experience in schools is being debated.
U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar granted a stay in the case pending a ruling by the Supreme Court of Maryland in the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023 (CVA). The CVA could repeal the statute of limitations in certain civil actions relating to child sexual abuse, according to Maryland House Bill 1. This includes sexual abuse and any other sexual conduct that is a crime.
Earlier this week, the defendants, WWE, it’s parent company TKO, and the McMahons, sought a stay in the case until the Maryland Supreme Court rules on CVA’s constitutionality. The defendants argued a motion to stay was key in the case involving alleged abuse from roughly forty years ago. A decision by the high court is expected Aug. 31, 2025.
The scathing lawsuit came just weeks before Linda McMahon’s nomination for education secretary. The decades-old sexual abuse allegations were slammed by her attorney, Laura Brevetti. In November, Brevetti told ABC News the FBI investigated the allegations at the time and found no grounds to further investigate the claims, calling the most recent lawsuit “baseless.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment. However, the allegations could impact McMahon’s confirmation for the cabinet position.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told ABC News if there’s evidence proving Linda McMahon concealed the alleged sexual abuse scandal then it would be a “pretty big concern.”
(NEWARK, N.J.) — Six people who were traveling in a vehicle in Newark, New Jersey, were killed after the car crashed off an elevated roadway Friday night, the authorities said.
The incident took place around 10:47 p.m. at the intersection of Raymond Boulevard and Blanchard Street, where the vehicle was traveling on a southbound on-ramp, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s office.
“While on the ramp, the vehicle somehow went off the roadway, became airborne, and struck a support column for the Pulaski Skyway before landing on the ground. Upon landing, the vehicle caught fire,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The six people who were killed were not immediately identified.
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(SEOUL and LONDON) — As lawmakers debated a motion to impeach South Korea’s embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol over his declaration of martial law on Tuesday, all but two members of Yoon’s own People Power Party walked out of the National Assembly session even before voting began Saturday evening.
This means the motion, jointly proposed by the opposition parties that control 192 of the South Korean legislature’s 300 seats, will likely not reach the required 200 votes — including at least eight votes from the ruling party — to pass, as the numbers don’t seem to be there for the motion to pass.
Opposition leaders have said that if the bill fails, they plan to revisit it again on Wednesday.
Voting is underway and the National Assembly has until 12:30 a.m. local time Sunday, 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, to close the polls.
Opposition lawmakers seated at the session are waiting for ruling party members to return to the chamber, as they need five more votes from them to pass the impeachment bill.
Thousands of protesters calling for Yoon’s impeachment, as well as those who are against the effort, are gathered in two different locations in Seoul. These rallies, filled with chants, music and group dances, are so far going peacefully.
Earlier Saturday, Yoon apologized to the nation in a brief televised address, saying his declaration of martial law was made out of “depression.” He “sincerely apologized” for the “anxiety and inconvenience” that it may have caused and promised not to make another attempt to impose martial law.
