(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Virginia Breedlove, a guest at the Republican National Convention, teared up recounting the moment she witnessed Donald Trump enter the Fiserv Forum just 48 hours after being shot.
“I was holding it together,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “But when he turned his head and I saw the bandage on his ear, I just — I lost it, because that’s a physical scar that he has.”
“But he has many years of other scars of attack from Americans that don’t want him in office,” she continued. “But he’s done everything he said he would do. He’s done everything and he’s helped keep our country safe.”
This week, thousands of Trump’s biggest supporters are gathered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to see him accept the party’s nomination for president.
In their eyes, Trump hasn’t done — and likely can’t do — any wrong.
Heading into the convention, an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found 59% of Americans said he was rightfully convicted of 34 felonies in his New York hush money trial and many fewer, 38%, accepted Trump’s claim that the convictions were unjust.
But two dozen RNC attendees who spoke with ABC News Digital, including delegates and guests, said Trump being found guilty of 34 felony counts gave them no reservations about backing him this election cycle. Many said their support has only grown, waving off entirely the criminal cases (totaling 88 counts) against the former president.
“Do the two words ‘weaponized DOJ’ ring a bell?” said one Illinois delegate.
“We have 54 in our delegation, and we have T-shirts that we’re all going to be wearing that’s like, ‘The year of the felon.’ We’re good. We’re voting for the felon,” said Barbara Jernigan, an alternate delegate from Missouri.
“No pause about him at all,” said Francine Gargano, a delegate from New Jersey. “Not at all. Not even a little bit. I mean, I wish I could say even a tiny bit, but no. Every day, I think we love him more and more and more.”
Others blamed a “kangaroo court” or said that the guilty verdict by a jury of Trump’s peers was “engineered.”
Just one person said Trump being a convicted felon concerned him “a little bit.”
“Everyone makes mistakes,” said Jim Walsh, an alternate delegate from Connecticut. “I personally feel some of it is a little bit trumped up. I think he’ll be okay. You prefer that none of that did happen, but it did. So, you just got to hopefully go with it.”
If this week here has shown one thing, it’s that Trump’s grip on the party is more ironclad than ever before.
His bitter rivals in the Republican primary all spoke on stage and offered their support. Even Nikki Haley, who once said there was “no way” the American people would vote for a convicted felon, gave her “strong endorsement.” JD Vance — previously a so-called “Never Trumper” — is now his running mate.
(NEW YORK) — Hyundai is recalling up to 54,647 vehicles due to loss of drive power from fuel pump failure, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The recall impacts certain 2019-2023 models of Genesis G70, Veloster N, Elantra N, and Kona N, the federal agency said.
According to NHTSA, premature wearing of the fuel control valve in the high-pressure fuel pump “could allow excess fuel to enter the fuel pump and the air and fuel mixture can result in a reduction or loss of motive power at low speeds, increasing the risk of a crash.”
Indications that there might be an issue include, “MIL illumination, lack of power, rough idle or misfire,” according to NHTSA recall documents.
Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed out by Sept. 9, 2024. To remedy the issue, Hyundai dealers will install an updated fuel control valve (FCV) plunger design and revised engine ECM software logic, the agency’s recall notice states.
“To ensure the safety of its customers, Hyundai Motor North America and Genesis Motor North America has filed recall campaign 262/023G to address a condition involving the high-pressure fuel pump assemblies in certain Hyundai and Genesis vehicles produced for sale in the U.S. and Canada,” Hyundai said in a statement to ABC News on Thursday.
The company added: “There are no confirmed crashes or injuries related to this condition in the U.S. or Canada.”
In an undated photo, Cullen Tiernan, left, poses for a photo with J.D. Vance in Washington. Courtesy of Cullen Tiernan
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Freshman Sen. JD Vance stepped onto the national stage at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night to deliver the evening’s closing address, letting America get to know the man former President Donald Trump has selected as his vice presidential running mate.
It’s a sight that makes his longtime friend Cullen Tiernan proud.
“I always knew that he was smart enough to do whatever he wanted. We’ve always been attracted to public service, so I really wasn’t surprised,” Tiernan, a friend of Vance’s for more than two decades, told ABC News of his bid to join forces with Trump.
Over the years, Tiernan has had a front-row seat to many of Vance’s biggest personal and career milestones, from his wedding to his wife Usha, to his swearing-in as a freshman senator. He says he isn’t surprised that his friend is making history as the first post-9/11 veteran on a major party’s presidential ticket — something Tiernan believes will serve Vance well as VP if the Trump/Vance ticket is elected.
“Having a veteran voice like that, somebody who understands what it’s like to be an enlisted Marine kind of goes back to his whole ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ in his story,” Tiernan said, referring to Vance’s best-selling memoir, which was turned into a film by director Ron Howard. “I think that’s going to be really powerful.”
Tiernan and Vance’s bond began in 2004 when both men were in Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, both training to become public affairs correspondents in the Marines. The day after they finished training, they were sent to the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina. The two wandered the base together, getting lost but building a budding friendship.
Tiernan remembers watching Vance taking classes for Ohio State while in the barracks, juggling life as a college student and as a Marine. The pair would work together over three years, and their friendship would later be cemented on the battlefields of Iraq.
Tiernan would keep Vance’s family updated while Vance went outside the wire in Iraq. When the pair returned to America, Tiernan spent the Fourth of July weekend with Vance’s family in Ohio and attended an Ohio State football game.
Vance, if elected in November, would also make history by becoming the first Marine as vice president. Tiernan believes that his friend could convince other left-leaning voters like himself to consider the joint ticket of Trump-Vance in November, especially among military families and working-class voters.
Tiernan, a labor leader in New Hampshire, noted the keynote speech by Teamster’s President Sean O’Brien on the first night of the GOP was a good-faith effort to include labor in political discussions. The speech was the first time a Teamsters leader had spoken at the Republican National Convention. Although the union announced it would not be endorsing a presidential candidate in 2024, he believes Vance will continue the outreach to working-class voters in this election.
“In the world of labor politics, I kind of recognize that if you want to accomplish things for working people, it has to be a bipartisan solution for most of the problems and things that we want to improve in people’s lives,” the New Hampshire labor leader said.
“The good faith effort of including the Teamsters and labor more and more in the conversation and trying to really have a majority of people in Congress who are going to work for working people is my hope, that that’s the direction that they’re headed in, and then they can bring a lot of people with them.”
Tiernan describes his friend as quick-witted, funny, and personable. They would watch “Anchorman” together and the TV series “Arrested Development.”
Tiernan says Vance would remain personable despite the difficult challenges of serving in a war zone. The Ohio Senator is the first veteran on a presidential ticket since the late Senator John McCain’s White House bid in 2008. He believes the experiences in Iraq “will serve him well, as he is on the campaign trail and whatever else happens next to him.”
After Vance’s swearing-in ceremony for the Senate, Tiernan, who had spent the day with his friend in Washington, noticed that Vance surrounded himself with old friends from Ohio. Vance told his closest allies that they “were going to help him remember who he is and not to let it get to his head and to stay grounded,” Tiernan told ABC News.
“To be a beat away from the White House is another thing, and it’s not going to be easy to stay grounded, but I think he’s capable of doing it,” Tiernan added.
(CHICAGO) — An Illinois Sheriff’s deputy has been charged in the shooting death of Sonya Massey, a Springfield woman who called authorities to report a possible intruder.
The deputy, Sean Grayson, is facing three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct, according to a statement from Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser, who filed the charges.
Grayson has also been fired from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s department, according to a statement from Sheriff Jack Campbell, posted to the department’s Facebook page.
“It is clear that the deputy did not act as trained or in accordance with our standards,” Campbell’s statement says. “The actions taken by Deputy Grayson do not reflect the values and training of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office or law enforcement as a whole.”
Two sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a Springfield, Illinois, residence at about 12:50 a.m. on July 6 to investigate a possible prowler, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office obtained by ABC News.
“At approximately 1:21 a.m., the Deputies reported that shots had been fired, resulting in a female being struck by gunfire,” according to the sheriff’s statement. “Deputies immediately administered first aid until EMS arrived. The woman was transported to St. John’s Hospital, where she was later pronounced deceased. No deputies were injured during the incident.”
The shooting was investigated for use of deadly force by the Illinois State Police (ISP) at the request of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s office. According to Milhiser, a review of the investigation and the body-worn camera footage found that Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force.
Investigators have not said if the other deputy will face charges in connection with the shooting.
The Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s Office has not yet released the body camera footage of the incident.
Jim Allmon, Sangamon County Coroner, told ABC News that an autopsy found that Massey died from a gunshot wound.
Massey’s family’s attorney, Ben Crump, called the news of Grayson’s indictment a step forward in gaining justice for Sonya’s loved ones.
“While nothing can undo the heinous actions of this officer, we hope the scales of justice will continue to hold him accountable and we will demand transparency at every step,” Crump said in a statement.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker released a statement saying that Massey deserved the protection that she called law enforcement to provide.
“My heart breaks for Sonya’s children, for her family and friends and for all who knew and loved her, and I am enraged that another innocent black woman had her life taken from her at the hands of a police officer,” Pritzker’s statement says.
Grayson is currently in custody. He is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday afternoon when he will be arraigned on the charges.
An attorney for Grayson did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
ABC News’ Emily Chang and Tesfaye Negussie contributed to this report.
(BUTLER, P.A.) — In the days since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the pieces have begun to come together about what the suspected shooter was doing in the lead-up to the attack.
The day before the shooting, Thomas Matthew Crooks went to a local shooting club and practiced on the rifle range, counsel for the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club confirmed to ABC News.
The 20-year-old purchased ammunition shortly before the incident, both online and in-person, according to law enforcement sources.
He asked his employer — a nursing home where he worked as a dietary aide — to take the day off on the day of the shooting, but said he would be back as soon as the next day, sources said.
Sometime before the shooting, Crooks searched the internet for both Trump and President Joe Biden, as well as the dates of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and for those of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Sources said he also left a message on the gaming platform Steam, in which he said that “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.”
On the day of the assassination attempt, he asked if he could borrow his father’s AR-15-style rifle, saying he planned to go to a shooting range, sources said. Because Crooks’ father had previously let him use the gun for target shooting, he was not suspicious that his son was planning anything of concern.
Crooks went to a local gun shop that day, where he bought 50 rounds of 5.56 mm ammo. He also stopped at a Home Depot to buy a 5-foot ladder, though it was not found at the scene and is not believed to have been used to access the roof.
He then drove to the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, parking about a third of a mile away at a gas station.
For at least an hour before the shooting, Crooks was seen walking around near the rally area. Crooks was seen in video obtained by Pittsburgh ABC affiliate WTAE pacing just beyond the boundaries of the Trump rally at 5:06 p.m., around one hour and five minutes before shots were first fired.
He was also seen walking around near the magnetometers minutes before the shooting, according to law enforcement sources. Some witnesses reported him as a suspicious person, law enforcement sources said.
He then made his way to a nearby building, climbing up air conditioner units until he was able to get on the roof of an adjacent building, according to sources. From there, he moved onto a taller building next to it.
Just before Crooks opened fire, rallygoers spotted him on the roof and tried to alert the Secret Service.
In an unclassified briefing Wednesday, law enforcement officials said 20 minutes passed between when Secret Service snipers first spotted Crooks on the roof and when he opened fire on Trump. He was identified as a person of interest 62 minutes before the shooting, they said.
A Butler Township police officer attempted to stop the shooter, climbing up the roof to approach him, but Crooks pointed his gun at the officer, prompting the officer to retreat, according to Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe.
It was at this point that Crooks began firing his weapon toward Trump, who at that moment turned to look at a Jumbotron, possibly saving his life.
A Secret Service sniper shot back at Crooks, fatally shooting him in the head 26 seconds later, according to law enforcement officials.
Editors Note: This story has been updated to correct the suspected shooter’s name to Thomas Matthew Crooks.
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — The fourth and final day of the Republican National Convention is a buildup to tonight’s highly anticipated prime-time address from Donald Trump.
It will be the former president’s first public speech since he narrowly escaped an attempt on his life Saturday at his rally in Pennsylvania.
He has said the attack changed his thinking about what he would say and now plans to stress “unity” in his speech.
Vance shares faith journey at Faith and Freedom breakfast
Speaking at the Faith and Freedom breakfast Thursday morning, vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance shared his faith journey with the attendees, saying his faith was “shallow” when he was a child and evolved into more over time.
“I was raised, as I mentioned last night, by my mamaw who, despite the fact that she loved the F word, was a woman a very deep Christian faith. And you know, she was in some ways what you might call ‘unchurched,'” Vance said.
“We went to church maybe once or twice a month, sometimes less, sometimes more. But she read the Bible every single day. She prayed every single day. She loved to watch Billy Graham whenever he was on the TV and that was really my introduction to the Christian faith,” Vance continued.
When Vance went on to higher education, he began calling himself an atheist. However, Vance said he decided to learn more about his Christian faith when he met his wife at Yale Law School, who does not share his faith.
“But to me, what really brought me back to Christ was finding a wife and falling in love and thinking about my thinking about what was required of me as a husband and as a father,” Vance said.
“And the more that I thought about those deeper questions, the more that I thought that there was wisdom in the Christian faith that I had completely discarded and completely ignored but was most relevant to the questions that were presented in my life as a husband and father.”
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ continues to climb Netflix’s charts
Netflix’s movie “Hillbilly Elegy,” based on Sen. JD Vance’s memoir, continues to climb the charts following Vance being named Donald Trump’s running mate.
It’s now ranked No. 2 on Netflix. On Wednesday, it was ranked No. 4; on Tuesday, it was ranked No. 6.
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
In RNC keynote, Trump says he’ll stress ‘unity’ after assassination attempt
Trump will formally accept the GOP presidential nomination Thursday night and deliver his first speech since Saturday’s assassination attempt, capping off an ebullient Republican convention at a time of heightened political uncertainty — and now he says he will push for a more unifying message.
Such a tone would mark a departure both for Trump individually and for American politics writ large, though operatives and conventiongoers alike predicted a more subdued speech focused on uniting the country, with the nation captivated by news of the attempt on the former president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I think he’s a changed man. Anytime you come within millimeters of your life, that has an effect,” said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign official who remains in touch with his current team. “I think, from his standpoint, he doesn’t want to be a divisive figure. He wants to be a unifying figure at a time that the country is desperately seeking unity and needs unity.”
-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler and Tal Axelrod
Trump, joined by family at RNC, to deliver speech tonight
On Day 4 of the Republican National Convention, former first lady Melania Trump is scheduled to arrive at the arena around the 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET hour, publicly joining Trump on a major campaign event for the first time this election cycle. Other members of the Trump family are also expected to attend RNC events this evening.
Trump is scheduled to take the stage at 9:02 p.m. CT/10:02 p.m. ET, the first time we’ll be seeing him speak publicly after his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
Thursday’s theme is “Make America Great Once Again” and will feature speakers including Trump’s son, Eric Trump; Montana Sen. Steve Daines; former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and UFC President Dana White.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh.
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Former President Donald Trump will formally accept the GOP presidential nomination Thursday night and deliver his first speech since Saturday’s assassination attempt, capping off an ebullient Republican convention at a time of heightened political uncertainty.
Trump will give the keynote remarks at a time when he is pushing for a more unifying message after last weekend’s shooting and as he rides political tailwinds into the summer and fall, fueled in part by President Joe Biden’s calamitous June debate and subsequent Democratic angst.
Such a tone would mark a departure both for Trump individually and for American politics writ large, though operatives and conventiongoers alike predicted a more subdued speech focused on uniting the country, with the nation captivated by news of the attempt on the former president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I think he’s a changed man. Anytime you come within millimeters of your life, that has an effect. I think, from his standpoint, he doesn’t want to be a divisive figure. He wants to be a unifying figure at a time that the country is desperately seeking unity and needs unity,” said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign official who remains in touch with his current team.
“It’s just not a moment for him, and it’s just not a moment for the Republican Party. It’s a moment for the country,” he added. “We experienced a shock. We could literally be at a funeral today.”
Trump said he revised his remarks after Saturday’s shooting, saying it initially was set to be a “humdinger” but that now it will be “more of a unity speech.”
In an era when few thinks punch through the political noise, particularly in a race between a current and former president with virtually universal name recognition, the speech marks a rare moment where Trump can hold the stage at a pivot point in the race, even as it’s unclear precisely how much the election’s dynamics have changed.
“When you’re at this level, there’s just certain speeches that the world stops and listens to, and your nominating speech is one,” said veteran GOP strategist Chip Saltsman.
“Unity” has been the buzz word since Saturday, with leaders of both parties lamenting the violence and urging renewed civility in the country’s politics.
However, such a tone could also help Trump politically, operatives predicted.
While in office, Trump bled support from centrist, suburban voters — enough to cost him reelection in 2020. Their defection was widely attributed more to tone than to policy disagreements, and now, with polls showing Biden with hefty disapproval ratings, a more leveled approach from Trump could help win some voters back to his side, including by detailing the immediate aftermath of the shooting, strategists said.
“How do you get the Republicans that don’t particularly like you? How do you get the true undecideds and independents? And how do you get the Democrats that aren’t happy with Joe Biden? Obviously, those are typically issue-type conversations, but I think in this case he can do it with his emotion,” Saltsman said.
To be certain, Trump is still widely anticipated to go after Biden’s record, prosecuting the kind of contrast on policies that he’s been putting forth since the election began.
“I expect to hear about Afghanistan withdrawal and the economy and the border and these big picture issues that have formed around this campaign,” said one former senior Trump administration official. “A lot of the things that I think he covers on a regular basis in his rallies, but it’ll be more surgical, if Trump’s capable of surgical.”
“I do think you’ll see him add Kamala in a good amount to the Biden criticisms. I think that news today makes it clear that they’re still pushing on that, and President Trump’s pretty keen to this as an option for them,” the person added, referencing growing chatter around Democrats’ calls for Biden to drop out of the race.
And it’s still unclear precisely how long the veneer of unity can last. Politics has morphed into a blood sport in the U.S., and those working for both candidates may be more willing to push the envelope when going after their opponents.
“I’ll be honest, it’s not gonna be the tone you hear from the rest of us, we’re seasoned operatives. We fight, and that’s how you gain position is by fighting,” Lanza said.
Interviews with conventiongoers showed an appetite for both unity and Trump’s typical punchiness.
“Peace and unity because it’s a very divided country right now,” Awet Gebremariam, a delegate from California, said when asked what she wants to hear from Trump. “He almost lost his life. And I think he’s very subdued and he’s very reserved and he’s very grounded now. And I think he’s going to give a great, great speech, maybe very different from the speeches before he used to give before.”
Others, like Daniel Bobay, an alternate delegate from Texas, wanted more of a mix, arguing that “you can fight nicely.”
“I’m hoping,” Elizabeth Hines-Ferrick, a delegate from Massachusetts said, when asked if she wanted the rhetoric toned down. “But at least I still expect him to be a fighter, because he speaks straight from the heart.”
Politically, Democrats concede a more unifying tone from Trump could make it harder to knock him as a threat to democracy, especially after the shooting, even if they’re skeptical he can keep it up long after the GOP convention.
“I think there’s an initial concern that if Trump can play this the right way that he can look like a unifier and get outside of his brand,” one battleground Democratic strategist said. “But then also at the same time, I would tell you that no one has any confidence that he can continue to play the straight man.”
As far as Thursday goes, however, Trump is virtually guaranteed a hero’s welcome, no matter what he says.
“I think it’s gonna be pretty epic,” the former senior administration official said. “Everyone in that hall loves the man, and him speaking to them for the first time since Saturday is going to have a pretty raucous atmosphere. I imagine it’s gonna be emotional. You’re gonna see delegates teary-eyed and hooting and hollering.”
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — In the tumultuous weeks since President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance, the 81-year-old commander-in-chief has resisted calls from within his own party to end his reelection campaign, often relying on assurances from his medical staff to rebuff those who question his fitness for office.
This week, in an interview with BET, Biden suggested for the first time that he would consider dropping out of the presidential race if there was “some medical condition that emerged … if the doctors came to me, said, ‘You got this problem and that problem.'”
The person who would carry that heavy burden is a media-shy physician who Biden warmly refers to as “Doc”: the 58-year-old head of the White House medical unit, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.
A retired Army surgeon who served tours with special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, O’Connor has spent more than a decade caring for Biden. One former White House aide described the osteopath as being “like family” to the Bidens.
And now, with the aging president’s health front and center in the 2024 race — and with him facing a second COVID-19 diagnosis since taking office — O’Connor seems poised to remain in the spotlight.
In nearly a dozen interviews, current and former colleagues praised O’Connor as a top-tier clinician and an “honest doctor” whose deep bond with his high-profile patient makes him uniquely qualified to deliver unwelcome prognoses, if warranted.
“If [O’Connor] felt there was a problem for the country, he would tell the president and he would tell the American people,” said Retired Army Colonel Dr. John Holcomb, a longtime friend. “That would be a hard decision. But it would be the right thing to do, and [O’Connor] would do it.”
But as the president’s public gaffes continue, a chorus of critics, allies and medical professionals have questioned his mental acuity — and his medical staff’s reluctance to divulge more information about his health.
Dr. Lawrence Mohr, the White House physician to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, told ABC News that based on what he has seen publicly, “I don’t think there’s any question that the president should undergo a test of cognitive function, and he should do it very quickly.”
House Republicans have also suggested that O’Connor’s “connections with the Biden family” compromise his ability to “provide accurate and independent reviews of the president’s fitness to serve.”
O’Connor did not respond to a request to be interviewed. But several people close to him said he has grown irritated in recent weeks amid scrutiny of his clinical decisions and character. One person who recently spoke with O’Connor said the newfound attention is “bugging him.”
O’Connor rarely makes public appearances, preferring instead to communicate news about the president’s health in written statements. But in a podcast interview earlier this year, the physician described himself as “apolitical.”
“We don’t serve the president; we serve the presidency. That is sacrosanct,” he said on the podcast WarDocs. “We’re not here for a man, we’re here for the office … [President Biden] knows that. He wants it that way.”
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, described O’Connor as “a world class medical professional” whose “unique expertise is sought across the medical community, in which he is respected for his candor, attention to detail, and work ethic.”
‘Brotherly trust’
A New Jersey-bred high school wrestler, O’Connor served for 22 years in the Army, where he cut his teeth jumping out of airplanes with the 82nd Airborne Division and later as a medic with special operations units. He was “one of the very first Americans to go into Afghanistan” during the early days of the War on Terror, according to Dr. Frank Butler, a retired Navy surgeon.
As he rose through the ranks, O’Connor played a “pioneering role” in overhauling the U.S. military’s battlefield trauma care, known as the Tactical Combat Casualty Care, and was an early advocate of the use of ketamine to treat severe depression in servicemembers and veterans, Butler said.
In 2006, during his time as a hospital administrator at Fort Carson in Colorado, O’Connor was asked to consult about a patient suffering from back pain. The patient, O’Connor later learned, was President George W. Bush — and his treatment set the course for a career pivot to the White House.
“I beat him up pretty good,” O’Connor recalled in the podcast interview, regarding his treatment of Bush’s back issue. After that initial treatment, “[Bush] started calling me ‘bone-crusher’ … and over the course of time that morphed into ‘bone-cracker'” and later, simply to “‘cracker,’ which was unfortunate,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor joined the White House medical unit full-time later that year. When the Obama administration swept into office in 2009, O’Connor said he “fell into” the role of primary physician for then-Vice President Biden.
The two men grew close when Biden asked O’Connor to consult on end-of-life care for his mother, who passed away in 2010. Their bond deepened, friends said, when Biden’s son Beau Biden was later diagnosed with cancer.
Through those trying moments, the two men forged a “brotherly trust” that remains in place today, according to a current administration official who worked for Biden during the Obama administration.
In an October 2016 email inviting several members of the Biden family to a party Biden hosted for O’Connor’s retirement from the Army, O’Connor wrote that “a retirement ceremony really has little to do with the retiree — it’s for their family.”
“I can never imagine a day when any of you call and I don’t pick up the phone with a smile,” he wrote, before signing the message, “Love, Kevin.”
After Biden left office in 2017, O’Connor remained his physician — the only difference being “that [Biden] got a bill and he drove himself [to appointments],” O’Connor said on the WarDocs podcast.
O’Connor also continued to treat and provide consultations for members of Biden’s family, including his son, Hunter Biden, and Hunter Biden’s daughters, according to emails leaked online from Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive.
When Biden was elected president in 2020, O’Connor was summoned back to the White House as the physician to the oldest president in American history. In the intervening years, O’Connor has penned extensive annual reports on the president’s health — most recently in February, when he declared that Biden “continues to be fit for duty.”
But many Americans disagree. In last week’s ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, Trump leads Biden by 30 percentage points, 44% to 14%, in being seen as having the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president.
Even so, O’Connor has committed to being forthright with the president about any troubling medical observations.
“You’ve got to tell them what they need to hear,” O’Connor said on the WarDocs podcast in January. “We don’t candy-coat things in medicine.”
‘I would love to live in anonymity’
Despite his high-profile role, O’Connor has made a concerted effort to stay under the radar. Where past White House physicians have, under certain circumstances, taken questions from the media, O’Connor said on the WarDocs podcast that he laments “the press stuff.”
“I like to not deal with that more than I have to,” he said. “I’m very thorough and very honest and very forthcoming in writing every time [Biden has] been sick … but still they want more.”
Republicans in Congress have suggested that O’Connor’s close ties with Biden might undermine his objectivity in delivering updates on the president’s health. In a letter to O’Connor last week, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer highlighted O’Connor’s apparent involvement with James Biden, the president’s brother, in an ill-fated business endeavor dating back to 2017.
James Biden, in an interview with committee investigators earlier this year, said O’Connor introduced him to a group of individuals with expertise in providing PTSD care to servicemembers as part of his role in Americore, a hospital system looking to expand access to healthcare access in rural areas.
“The Oversight Committee is concerned your medical assessments have been influenced by your private business endeavors with the Biden family,” Comer wrote in the letter.
Paul Fishman, an attorney for James Biden, acknowledged in a statement that “Jim sought his advice on best practices” — but insisted that “O’Connor was not in business with Jim” and that O’Connor was not paid for brokering the meeting.
Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson, called Comer’s overture “absolutely ridiculous and insulting.”
Republicans’ scrutiny of O’Connor and the broader discourse about Biden’s mental health has drawn the behind-the-scenes West Wing fixture into the open, despite his protestations.
“My goal right now in this job is [that] I hope nobody has any memory of me whatsoever,” he said on the WarDocs podcast in January. “I would love to live in anonymity.”
But few people have more access to the president, and fewer still have the training to evaluate his fitness for duty — a point O’Connor himself has acknowledged as a crucial part of his role. His office sits on the ground floor of the executive residence, directly across from the president’s personal elevator.
“[The president] literally has to pass me at least twice a day, usually more than that, to and from his way to the Oval Office,” he told a group of medical students earlier this year. “I have always viewed the most important part of my day as, ‘Good morning, Mr. President.'”
Experts point out that O’Connor is limited in what he can say publicly about Biden’s health. The same doctor-patient confidentiality that applies to every American, through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, also applies to the president.
“It’s not the doctor’s responsibility — or even the doctor’s authority — to make statements about the medical conditions about the president,” said Dr. Mohr, the former physician to Reagan and George H.W. Bush. “That’s the president’s responsibility.”
“It’s never the doctor’s prerogative to make statements without the president’s permission,” Mohr said.
Dr. Philip Volpe, a retired major general and O’Connor’s longtime mentor, told ABC News that he shared this advice with the president’s physician last week: “Be a good doc, do the right thing, and tell the truth.”
(LONDON) — The espionage trial of The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich resumed on Thursday, proceeding behind closed doors in a remote Russian courtroom after Washington and Moscow officials each raised the potential for the journalist to be part of an international prisoner exchange.
Gershkovich’s court date had been moved forward from August 13 after a request from his defense team, Grainne McCarthy, an international editor at the Journal, told staff in an email on Wednesday.
“The process remains opaque but what we do know is that the sooner this is over, the better,” McCarthy wrote in the email, which was shared with ABC News. “Evan cannot be freed soon enough.”
The trial of Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American, began in June behind closed doors in Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city hundreds of miles from Moscow. A second closed-door hearing began Thursday morning. U.S. officials accused the Kremlin of using the case “to achieve its political objectives.”
Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while reporting in the Sverdlovsk region, where Russian officials claimed he was collecting secrets on the “production and repair of military equipment” for the CIA. The indictment against Gershkovich was approved by prosecutors in June, sending the case to the regional court for trial.
Prosecutors began at the June 26 hearing to lay out their evidence against the journalist. Whatever evidence Russia has against the journalist hasn’t been publicly released, according to U.S. officials. The trial amounted to “a performance put on by Russian authorities to justify their repression of journalists and independent voices,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in June.
“Russia should stop using individuals like Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan as bargaining chips,” Miller said, referring to a Marine veteran separately detained in Russia. “They should both be released immediately.”
During a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield addressed Gershkovich’s detention, telling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Americans wrongfully detained in Russia should be released.
“We will not rest until Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich come home, and Russia has ceased this barbaric practice of holding human pawns once and for all,” she said on social media afterward.
Lavrov following the meeting said that using journalists for intelligence gathering was “absolutely natural,” adding that Russia has “irrefutable evidence that Gershkovich was engaged in espionage.” But he also said an international prisoner exchange may be possible, echoing what Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said.
“The intelligence services of the two countries, by agreement between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden back in June 2021, have been in contact to see if someone can be exchanged for someone else,” Lavrov said.
Russia and the United States carried out similar high-profile swaps in 2022 when WNBA star Brittney Griner was exchanged for Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker, and a former U.S. Marine, Trevor Reed, was traded for a pilot convicted of drug smuggling.
Russia has maintained that discussions about trades for Gershkovich can only start in earnest after the trial is over, Brian D. Taylor, a Syracuse University political science professor who serves as director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, told ABC News.
“So the quicker the trial and the inevitable verdict, the quicker they can offer Evan as a piece in a possible trade,” Taylor said.
Miller, of the State Department, said in June that the U.S. continued to negotiate for Whelan’s and Gershkovich’s releases in private discussions, including putting a “significant” offer on the table months earlier.
“We shouldn’t have to do that. They should both be released immediately, but we will continue our efforts,” he said. “Those have been happening before Evan’s trial, they will continue during the trial. And should he be convicted — which, of course, he will be, it’s not a free trial — they will continue after the trial. But we want to see him returned home immediately.”
ABC News’ Mike Levine, Will Gretsky, Joe Simonetti and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(BUTLER, P.A.) — Investigators working to determine a motive behind the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump found a message posted to the gaming platform Steam that they believe was authored by the suspect, in which he said that “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds,” according to three law enforcement sources briefed on the probe.
Investigators also found internet searches for both Trump and President Joe Biden on the phone belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Crooks, 20, had searched for the dates of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and for those of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the sources said.
The suspect’s phone was one of several devices that law enforcement investigators had collected as they worked to piece together a timeline of the assassination attempt against the former president during a Saturday rally.
“What is beginning to emerge is a portrait of a troubled young person who turned to violence,” said John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former head of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security.
Cohen, who specializes in the phenomenon of mass shooters, added that investigators may never determine a single or precise motive for the attack. Sources familiar with the investigation have told ABC News that a search of the suspect’s phone history has revealed no indication of Crooks’ political views or his motive for the shooting. Investigators have also found no digital footprint from the suspect suggesting any affiliations with international or domestic terrorist groups. They have also been unable to identify any ideological nexus to Trump and/or Biden, according to sources.
“Likely, it was a combination of mental health issues, ideological beliefs and a sense of personal grievance, the same combination of factors present in almost every school shooting and mass casualty attack over the past several years. As with those incidents, the warning signs were there, they were just not recognized,” Cohen said. “The threat was real but people around him did not understand what they were witnessing or how it would play out last Saturday.”
The FBI early on Sunday had identified Crooks as the suspect. The U.S. Secret Service said snipers had killed Crooks at the scene. Firefighter Corey Comperatore, a dad who was attending the rally, was killed, and two other bystanders injured, officials said.
The searches compounded the questions that were swirling as investigators searched for a reason for the shooting, including a possible political motive. Crooks had been registered as a Republican voter, according to state records. But a $15 donation to a progressive group was also recorded under “Thomas Crooks” in January 2021, according to FEC records.
As investigators analyzed the suspect’s phone, they looked at his search history, which included the queries for Trump and Biden. But that search history didn’t immediately appear to reveal Crooks’ political views, sources told ABC News.
Law enforcement officials investigating the assassination attempt told lawmakers on Wednesday that 20 minutes had passed between the time Secret Service snipers first spotted Crooks on a rooftop and the time the first shots were fired, according to several law enforcement officials and lawmakers briefed on the matter.
