Politics

(MONTGOMERY, Ala.) — Setting the stage for another legal battle in their state, Alabama’s Republican-led Legislature on Friday passed a new congressional map with just one majority-Black district and a second district that has less than 50% Black residents — a move that state Democrats denounced as a shameless rejection of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Critics say the map, which was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Steve Livingston and quickly signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday evening, could defy the June ruling from the high court even as conservatives insist they acted responsibly.

Next month, the newly drawn districts will go back before a federal court to determine whether they comply with the Voting Rights Act.

If the map is deemed to be in violation of the VRA, a special master will be appointed to redraw it.

Plaintiffs have until Friday to file their objections ahead of the court’s hearing in mid-August.

The three-judge panel that originally struck down Alabama’s existing map in 2022 ordered the Legislature to then draw “two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”

Defenders of the new map argue that they’ve achieved “something quite close.”

Under the map passed Friday, Black voters comprise 39.93% of Alabama’s 2nd District, compared to about 30% currently, and 50.65% of the 7th District, a decrease from the about 55% now.

GOP lawmakers in the state House and Senate voted down attempts by Democratic lawmakers to propose alternative maps, including a plan with two majority-Black districts endorsed by the plaintiffs in Allen v. Milligan, the court case against the previous map.

Deuel Ross, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said Friday that his clients will challenge the new districts since they don’t “remedy the Voting Rights Act violation identified by the Supreme Court.”

“What we are dealing with is a group of lawmakers who are blatantly disregarding not just the Voting Rights Act, but a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court and a court order from the three-judge district court,” the plaintiffs said in a statement. “Even worse, they continue to ignore constituents’ pleas to ensure the map is fair and instead remain determined to rob Black voters of the representation we deserve. We won’t let that happen.”

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court last month sided with the lower court ruling and found that Alabama’s map violated Section 2 of the VRA by diluting Black voters’ ability to elect a representative of their choice.

Although Black people make up more than a quarter of Alabama’s population, only one of the state’s seven districts remains majority-Black and is represented by Democrat Terri Sewell, who is Black. The six other districts are represented by white Republicans.

The Legislature’s new map is drawn in a way that means none of the state’s Republican incumbents would have to compete against each other.

According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight — which examined a separate but similar map proposal advanced out of a House committee last week — the makeup of the 2nd District under Alabama’s new map would likely not meet the threshold for Black voters to be able to reliably elect the candidate of their preference.

Ahead of the state House’s vote to approve the map, Democratic Rep. Chris England criticized the new districts for being “a checklist of noncompliance” and accused his Republican colleagues of designing the map to “finish off the Voting Rights Act.”

In the state Senate, Democratic Minority Leader Bobby Singleton contended that conservatives were trying to “silence the voice of Black voters.”

Republicans have defended themselves.

“The Legislature knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups, and I am pleased that they answered the call, remained focused and produced new districts ahead of the court deadline,” Ivey, the governor, said in a statement.

State House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle, who serves as the co-chair of the redistricting committee, said throughout the five-day special session to redraw the map that he supported districts that were “compact and contiguous” but not “racial gerrymanders.”

“We’ve drawn a district that provides an opportunity for the minorities to elect a candidate of their choosing,” he said.

But while Pringle maintained that lawmakers had complied with the essence of the ruling, state Sen. Livingston, who sponsored the new map, said on Friday that “the court could have given us a little bit better directive on where we were headed. We would have wanted a better definition of opportunity. It would have helped all of us better.”

Alabama’s congressional map could sway the odds for control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024. Republicans currently hold the chamber by only five seats.

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, experts posited that the creation of a second majority-Black district could result in a one-seat pick up for Democrats, because Black voters in Alabama tend to vote for Democrats.

During a state House floor debate on Wednesday, Rep. Barbara Drummond, a Democrat, called Republicans’ support for a map with only one predominantly Black district an affront to both Black voters and to the judiciary.

“This is really a slap in the face, not only to Black Alabamians but to the Supreme Court,” she said.

Said state Rep. Prince Chestnut, another Democrat: “We’re fighting the same battles that they were fighting 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 40 years ago, right here today.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The record-high temperatures recorded around the world show “the climate change bomb has gone off” and Americans must push “further and faster” for solutions — including voting against “climate deniers” like former President Donald Trump — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Sunday.

“What the scientific community is telling us now is that the Earth is screaming at us,” Inslee said.

In an interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Inslee, one of the Democratic Party’s loudest voices on addressing climate, spoke gravely about the threat of a changing world: “The fuse has been burning for decades, and now the climate change bomb has gone off. The scientists are telling us that this is the new age. This is the age of consequences.”

Earth’s 20 hottest days ever recorded have all occurred this July, amid scorching heat impacting hundreds of millions of people around the world. In the United States, cities in the South and Southwest have experienced record streaks of high temperatures, including Phoenix, which has had 23 consecutive days when the temperature reached at least 110 degrees.

Despite this unprecedented heat wave, the “good news,” Inslee said on “This Week,” is “we can do this. We’re electrifying our transportation fleet. We’re electrifying our homes.”

MORE: Severe heat forecast: Where scorching temperatures will persist over the next week
“This is a solvable problem. But we need to stop using fossil fuels,” Inslee said. “That is the only solution to this massive assault on humanity.”

He touted Washington state’s record on the issue: “This is not just something for the federal government. States can act.” Embracing alternative fuels, battery production and more has financial as well as moral value, Inslee said, describing it as “inventing a new economy.”

But there is no time to waste, he contended. When pressed by Raddatz on how to persuade climate change skeptics like Trump and his supporters, who dismiss the scientific consensus about what’s happening, Inslee said the solution was simple.

“We can’t wait for Donald Trump to figure this out. We don’t have time to mess around to wait for this knucklehead to figure this out,” he said. “We just got to make sure he’s not in office. And the way we do this is vote against climate deniers. Vote against people who refuse to assist this moral and economic crisis that we have.”

Inslee also slammed Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who like Trump is running for president in 2024. Inslee referenced unusually high water temperatures off the coast of Florida, which could significantly affect marine life in coral reefs, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“When Ron DeSantis wants to go swim, he can’t because the water is like a sauna,” Inslee said.

Raddatz pressed him on how to get other countries, such as China — the No. 1 emitter of carbon dioxide — invested in climate change as a worldwide issue, given that officials have acknowledged any truly effective solution must be collective.

In a separate appearance on “This Week,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas agreed that the warming climate is concerning but said China must be pushed to do its fair share.

“Time is running out. … So what do you do? How do you bring others together?” Raddatz asked Inslee.

“We need to lead. And we need to lead not just from a moral standpoint but from our self-interest standpoint,” Inslee said. “We need to build these jobs here and build these economies here.”

Cities like Palm Springs, California, have been feeling the effects of the extremely high temperatures in the South and Southwest U.S.

In a “This Week” interview on Sunday, Palm Springs Mayor Grace Elena Garner said hot weather is not unusual for her desert city in the Coachella Valley.

But as a lifelong resident, Garner said the extended period of triple-digit days is less typical and more dangerous.

“We have workers who are outside every day doing gardening, working on A/C repair — and then, of course, our unhoused — and those populations are really getting the brunt of this impact,” she said.

Firefighters and the local hospital have also had to respond to more heat-related emergencies, she said.

“What I’m concerned about is the rest of the country, the rest of the world, who is experiencing this extreme heat for the very first time,” Garner said. “When your body isn’t used to these high temperatures, it can go into a shock.”

Her city is monitoring the potential stress on its electrical grid and is working to provide cooling centers and shelters for people without homes while creating more shaded public areas, Garner said.

Still, “we absolutely need more support,” she said, such as funding for electric vehicles, more shade construction and more housing.

“We need to reduce the impacts of climate change,” Garner said. “We are just going to see this get worse and worse.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul said Sunday that he’s concerned North Korea will demand concessions from the United States in exchange for releasing American Travis King, the soldier who last week fled across the border from South Korea.

“Is he defecting? I think he was running from his problems,” McCaul, R-Texas, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, referencing King’s pending discipline in the U.S. after being detained in South Korea for nearly two months following a local altercation.

“That was the wrong place to go. But we see this with Russia, China, Iran — when they take an American, particularly a soldier, captive, they exact a price for that,” McCaul said. “And that’s what I worry about.”

Officials have said that King, a 23-year-old Army private 2nd class, had been on his way back to the U.S. early last week when, instead, he left the airport in Seoul, joined a tour group visiting the border between North and South Korea — and then bolted across, entering North Korea on Tuesday.

He had been scheduled to fly to Texas to face a “pending administrative separation actions for foreign conviction” and had recently been released from 47 days in a South Korean detention facility.

Since King entered the country, North Korea — with whom the U.S. does not have formal relations — has not responded to inquiries about his status, as the Biden administration says it continues to push. In a statement via the Army, King’s family said, “We request privacy as we work toward our son’s safe return.”

It remains publicly unclear what exactly motivated King to flee, though an official said that last year he said he would not return to America.

“I’m sure that he’s not being treated very well,” McCaul said Sunday. “I think it was a serious mistake on his part, and I hope we can get him back.”

The King incident is unfolding as the U.S., for the first time in four decades, docks a nuclear ballistic missile submarine in South Korea. The presence of the USS Kentucky — which Raddatz exclusively toured — in Busan has drawn outcry from North Korea, which test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this month.

“Is that a good idea?” Raddatz pressed McCaul of the submarine’s presence. “Why now?”

“It’s a projection of strength that we need right now to deter aggression,” McCaul said. “We’re seeing a very aggressive — not only North Korea and the rockets fired in the Sea of Japan, but also the aggression we see from China [regarding Taiwan].”

“North Korea needs to know that we’re there and we have superiority with the submarines and nuclear subs. We need to get in their head and Chairman Xi’s head that if they do anything that’s aggressive militarily, there will be consequences to that,” McCaul added, referencing Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

When asked what the U.S. could do differently to blunt North Korea’s nuclear ambitions after decades of failed negotiation and pressure, McCaul acknowledged the cycle had not been successful. “That never seems to work … you’re right,” he told Raddatz.

“It’s a very complicated,” he said, suggesting an alternative would be “very creative diplomacy” while pointing to North Korea’s potential role in future military operations with China.

“I think the reason why you’re seeing the [Indo-]Pacific Command fleet there is to deter and bottleneck up North Korea in the event of a conflict with Taiwan,” he said.

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(NORTH CONWAY, N.H.) — An independent voter at a meet-and-greet in New Hampshire on Friday told former Vice President Mike Pence that he was concerned with his place in the polls — and with the fact that Pence is not taking on former President Donald Trump harder as he leads the field for the Republican nomination.

“I would love to see you be president of the United States. I’m just gonna give you an honest comment. I don’t believe you ever will be until the day you stand up to that man,” Tom Loughlin, a 77-year-old part-time New Hampshire, told Pence in reference to Trump. “Maybe you’re too good a Christian to ever do that.”

“Well, I don’t know about too good a Christian. Some people think we did a fair amount of standing up two and a half years ago,” Pence said, bringing some to applaud.

“I joined the ticket because there was a tacit commitment that we would govern as conservatives and we did, … but honestly, I think he makes no such promise today,” he continued, laying out their difference on foreign policy, entitlement reform, and abortion regulation at the federal level.

“I’m not interested in trading insults with my old friend. I’m not. And some people think that’s the way to win the presidency. I don’t. But laying out the choice for the American people. We’ve been doing it. We’ll keep doing it,” he said.

New Hampshire is one of the smallest states in the nation, with a population of roughly 1.4 million people and just two representatives in the House. But to win in the first-in-the-nation primary, candidates usually need to be willing to talk about national concerns, like Pence’s historic actions on Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol riot.

“It makes me ill that Mike Pence has 4% of the vote in this country at best right now in the Republican Party when he stood so tall and so strong on January 6. This man deserves better than that for the people of this country,” Loughlin said. “He has to talk about the future. And he has to talk about how dangerous that man is for our country.”

Loughlin, a retired attorney who lives in Florida but is spending the summer in New Hampshire, told ABC News he also doesn’t want to talk about the past, “but the future is Donald Trump is running for president of the United States,” he said.

While Pence does not always bring up Jan. 6 at campaign stops, several voters across New Hampshire delivered to him the same message during his three-day-swing in the first-in-the-nation primary state this week: “Thank you for what you did on Jan. 6.”

Nancy Ryan, a Democrat, stopped by Pence’s BBQ lunch at Goody Cole’s Smokehouse in Brentwood on Thursday with the intention to ask him to sign a pledge to support the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s cancer policy platform — but she also told him, “Thank you for what you did on Jan. 6.”

Pence shook her hand, and said, “By God’s grace.”

Again, on Friday morning a his town in Berlin, at least two women thanked Pence — not while he was up taking questions — but afterward when he was taking photos with attendees and chatting one on one.

“Thank you for what you did on Jan. 6,” said a woman named Lisa.

He once again answered, “By God’s grace.”

At a meet-and-greet in Hudson on Wednesday night, Pence didn’t mention Jan. 6 when he delivered his stump speech before a few dozen guests at the home of former Republican State Sen. Bob Clegg — but Clegg did.

“Jan. 6th, Mike did something that I found to be the most courageous thing anybody’s ever done. He was offered a chance to ignore the Constitution, take power that wasn’t the vice president and he chose not to,” Bob Clegg said. “Now I’m supporting Mike, supporting him because he’s the adult in the room. I really can’t take much more nicknames and the bantering back and forth.”

And on Thursday in Meredith, 15-year-old Quinn Mitchell, a regular attendee at political town halls across the state, also brought up Jan. 6 even though the former vice president didn’t.

“Given everything that has happened, Trump’s indictments Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, … do you think Christians should vote for Donald Trump?” Mitchell said.

“Well, look, I’m running for president in the United States because I think I should be the next president,” Pence said with a smile. “I would never presume about anyone, either on their conservative convictions or on their faith, to tell people how I think they ought to live.”

“Elections are about choices. And I want to say to you, I’m very humbled by your gracious comments. I really do believe that democracy depends on heavy doses of civility,” he added. “It’s a moment for leadership.”

As Pence pitches himself as a conservative, a Christian and Reagan-era Republican, the former vice president is struggling to qualify to make the debate stage. Neither Pence nor his campaign will say how close he is to reaching the 40,000 donors required to make the debate stage.

Campaign chair Chip Saltsman told ABC News Pence’s camp is focused now on intimate events like the ones held in New Hampshire this week.

“It’s nice to have lots of money on TV, but in Iowa, New Hampshire especially, they want to see you earn it. They want to see you go in a hot room on a Thursday night, answer any question, talk to every voter, and talk about the issues,” he said. “Because they’re gonna go to work tomorrow, they’re gonna go to church on Sunday, and talk to their friends about Mike Pence.”

And as Trump faces another potential indictment around Jan. 6, Pence seems to be more forgiving than some voters at his events.

“I’m not convinced it’s criminal,” Pence told reporters on Thursday, asked about the special counsel’s investigation. “And I hope with the possibility of another indictment coming against the president, I hope it doesn’t come to that. Truth is that the Department of Justice has lost credibility with tens of millions of Americans. I’d rather see questions about that fateful day left in the hands of the American people.”

But Carol Riehlam of Kingston, who also thanked Pence for his action on Jan. 6 at Wednesday’s meet-and-greet, said she hopes Trump is indicted and found guilty.

“It was an insurrection. I mean, there were crowds of people that were spurred on by president at the time Trump’s rhetoric. The only thing that would stop that crowd would be for Trump to stand up and say, ‘stand down, go home, peacefully,’ but he wouldn’t do that,” she said. “Pence stood his ground and did the constitutionally right thing.”

Hillary Seeger of Alexandria, an Air Force veteran and civil engineer who supported Trump in the past, also praised Pence for upholding a peaceful transfer of power but lamented that that should be the norm.

“Isn’t it crazy that he’s [Pence’s] a hero because he obeyed the Constitution? You would think that that would just be the normal for any elected official that they go by the Constitution,” she said. “I’m looking for a president who’s going to be the president of the entire United States, where people aren’t going to be hashtagging ‘not my president.'”

Trump received a letter from special counsel Jack Smith earlier this week saying that he is a target in his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Trump also confirmed the development in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“It bothers me,” the former president told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night at a town hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “I got the letter on Sunday night. Think of it, I don’t think they’ve ever sent a letter on Sunday night. And they’re in a rush because they want to interfere, it’s election interference, never been done like this in the history of our country and it’s a disgrace what’s happening to our country.”

If he is charged, those charges would mark the third indictment Trump has faced since leaving office. Trump was indicted last month on 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after Smith’s prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The former president has also pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment from the Manhattan district attorney charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, John Santucci, Alexander Mallin, and Luke Barr contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — With the 2024 presidential election heating up, debates over the role of third parties are beginning to simmer — and Democrats fear the Green Party could offer voters an enticing alternative who could hamper their chances in the general election.

At the center of those concerns is newcomer presidential candidate Cornel West, a philosopher and activist who announced his intent to run with the left-wing, populist People’s Party on June 5 before switching, saying on June 14 he would seek the Green Party nomination.

Bernard Tamas, a political science professor at Valdosta State University, told ABC News that American third-party candidates don’t need to win elections to be influential. Rather, they often “sting like a bee” and shock one of the two major parties to take up issues they’re passionate about.

Tamas believes that the best hope for Green Party members is that the Democratic Party will shift towards their preferred positions in an effort to neutralize the threat that they could siphon away voters.

“I don’t think anyone in the Green Party has any delusions that they’re going to win anything,” he said. “This is a way for the progressives, those on the left, to force the Democratic Party to take [seriously] issues that they take seriously.”

In other words, Tamas said, the possibility that West might cost Biden the election isn’t a coincidence: It’s a core part of third parties’ strategy.

“They’re between a rock and a hard place,” he said of the Green Party. “Stepping aside for this election, well, it would effectively end their impact at all.”

The stated priorities of the U.S. Green Party’s platform are decreasing the U.S. military budget, addressing global climate change through a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, social justice, and democratic reforms like the public financing of elections.

The U.S. Green Party has about 200,000 registered members as of July 2023, according to a party database, and 133 members of the Green Party hold elected office.

So far, the only candidate competing against West for the Green Party nomination is Randy Toler, a co-chair of Florida’s Green Party, who has filed to enter the race but has not yet formally begun his campaign. Toler is also running for Florida’s open Senate seat in 2024.

With the endorsement of Jill Stein, a two-time Green Party presidential nominee who is now West’s campaign manager, and as the only candidate who is actively campaigning so far, West is considered the clear frontrunner in the race.

Like the Democrat and Republican parties, the Green Party nomination will be decided through primaries or conventions across the country starting early next year, culminating in the 2024 Green National Convention. The date of the convention has not yet been announced.

No third party nominee has ever won a presidential election — but some famous third-party bids, such as that of businessman Ross Perot, may have shifted electoral outcomes, and campaigns from Teddy Roosevelt, Strom Thurmond and others even won a few states.

Who is Cornel West and why is he seeking the Green Party nomination?

According to his staff, West, who is a philosopher and former professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard University, switched to seeking the Green Party nomination because it is more widely listed on presidential ballots than his original selection of the People’s Party.

In order to appear on the ballot, presidential candidates need to meet state-by-state requirements – a fairly costly and labor-intensive endeavor. In the U.S., only a select few parties, like the Libertarian Party and the Green Party, have the organizational and grassroots support needed to meet those requirements across the country.

“It became clear that he needed a party that could actually get him on the ballot,” said Stein.

While the Democratic and Republican parties also have those resources, Stein argued, West sought a third party nomination because he believes neither party met the Green Party’s standards on the issues of climate change, the influence of corporations and wealthy donors in U.S. politics, and more.

“Dr. West is acting on the reality of the cards that we’ve been dealt,” said Stein. “If you know anything about the polls, you know that American voters have broken with the system. … People are hungry for more choices and more voices in this election and Dr. West is speaking to the deeply felt need.”

West’s candidacy has sparked fears and heated criticism from Democrats that the professor’s campaign could “spoil” the election for Biden, pulling votes away from the incumbent in vital swing states and tipping the election towards former President Donald Trump. In 2016, the number of people who voted for Stein, then the Green Party presidential nominee, exceeded Trump’s margin of victory in Michigan, though Stein has disputed that she cost Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton the election there, arguing that not all of her voters would have voted for Clinton otherwise.

“I think that Democrats have reason to worry,” Tamas said. “1% of the vote, 2% of the vote, could very well shift the election over to the Republican Party.”

Stein dismissed that possibility as “propaganda.”

“This is about the party elite protecting themselves,” she said. “To call that spoiling, when people like Dr. West stand up and offer people another way forward, instead of this pathway that has just been throwing working people, poor communities of color, under the bus, that’s just nonsense.”

West has also drawn backlash from progressives for a recent op-ed where he praised Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis for supporting a “classical education” oriented around the Western literary canon.

Which voters will West woo?

Given West’s background in racial justice, Tamas said the natural inclination would be to believe West could attract African American voters.

But history suggests that might not be the case, Tamas said. Historically, African-American voters have been a fairly risk-averse voting bloc, only voting for candidates that are thought to have good odds of winning.

“They are much less likely to jump on board to a challenge,” he said.

However, West’s left-wing platform could appeal to a certain base of progressive voters, said Melissa Deckman, a researcher and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute. This is especially true among younger voters for whom socialism is an appealing economic policy divorced from its negative Cold War-era connotations.

“Generally speaking, the term ‘socialism’ is not one that is necessarily embraced by the general public. However, younger Americans, especially young women, I found in my research, tend to be more open to the concept of socialism,” Deckman said.

“Many Americans would say that capitalism as a system isn’t working well for them,” she continued. “For example, many Americans are struggling to make ends meet, increasingly because the cost of living is too high.”

Deckman also named climate change as a factor shaping some voters’ perception of capitalism. West has made the issue a pillar of his campaign, frequently naming “ecological collapse” as one of his key priorities.

The first challenge: Getting on the ballot

The potency of West’s campaign could turn on a set of relatively obscure proceedings surrounding ballot access laws. Each state has different rules for who can qualify to appear on the ballot for a certain office. Most states require candidates to gather signatures or pay a filing fee.

But the Green Party argues these laws unfairly benefit well-funded candidates.

“There’s always been, even in the Constitution, a check on the people,” wrote Tony Ndege, a co-chair of the Ballot Access Committee for the Green Party, in an email to ABC News. “They spin the propaganda of, ‘Well, these are the serious candidates.’ Well, they’re the candidates serious about remaining beholden to big money interests.”

The swing state of Pennsylvania could become a key battleground. The Green Party gathered the sufficient number of signatures for ballot access in that state during the last presidential election cycle, but it was disqualified from the ballot due to technical issues with how the requisite signatures were gathered. The Green Party is already on the ballot in two other key swing states: Michigan and Wisconsin.

Taken together, Ndege said he is expecting an “interesting 2024.”

“There will always be pushback from those in power when you are doing the right thing. I think that will intensify dramatically as the months continue,” Ndege said.

The party has not announced a date or location for its convention.

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(WASHINGTON) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week refused to call the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol an “insurrection” and blamed the press for having “spun up” the attack to “get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and political aims.”

In Friday’s interview on the “Stay Free with Russell Brand” podcast, DeSantis declared the attack “was not an insurrection.”

“These were people that were there to attend a rally, and then they were there to protest,” he added.

“Now, it devolved into a riot, but the idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true and it’s something that the media had spun up to try to basically get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and political aims.”

The governor said he would be willing to label the attack an insurrection if offered proof.

“But all you’re showing me is that there were a lot of protestors there and it ended up devolving — in ways that were unfortunate, of course — but to say that they were seditionists is just wrong,” he continued.

During the Jan. 6 riot, at least 2,000 pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results, leading to over 1,000 arrests.

DeSantis also ripped the tens of millions of dollars Congress earmarked for the Capitol Police in the months after the insurrection, calling it “ridiculous how much money that they pumped in” for the force.

It was the third time this summer the governor has declined to forcefully condemn the attack the way he did when he called it “unacceptable” in a statement hours after it happened. Since that day, he has seldom discussed the insurrection, but since launching his presidential bid in May, he has been pressed by reporters and voters on the campaign trail to give his thoughts on the attack and the actions of former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican primary who is under investigation by a grand jury for his actions that day.

At a town hall in Hollis, New Hampshire, in June, the governor sought to distance himself from questions about Jan. 6, saying, “I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing what happened, but we’ve got to go forward on this stuff.”

And earlier this week in South Carolina, he acknowledged to reporters that Trump “should have come out more forcefully, of course,” but suggested the former president’s actions do not amount to criminality.

“I hope he doesn’t get charged,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview later that day.

In the hours after the insurrection, DeSantis took a tough line against protesters, declaring in a statement that “the perpetrators must face the full weight of the law.”

“It doesn’t matter what banner you’re flying under — the violence is wrong, the rioting and disorder is wrong,” he later told reporters.

In his statement the day of the attack, DeSantis complimented the Capitol Police, saying they “do an admirable job and I thank them for their hard work.”

But a year later, on the one-year mark of the insurrection, DeSantis mocked the media’s coverage of the attack, claiming it was “Christmas” for the “D.C. – New York media.”

Trump received a letter from special counsel Jack Smith earlier this week saying that he is a target in his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Trump also confirmed the development in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“It bothers me,” the former president told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night at a town hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “I got the letter on Sunday night. Think of it, I don’t think they’ve ever sent a letter on Sunday night. And they’re in a rush because they want to interfere, it’s election interference, never been done like this in the history of our country and it’s a disgrace what’s happening to our country.”

If he is charged, those charges would mark the third indictment Trump has faced since leaving office. Trump was indicted last month on 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after Smith’s prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The former president has also pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment from the Manhattan district attorney charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, John Santucci, Alexander Mallin, and Luke Barr contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The grand jury in Washington, D.C., investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election did not meet on Friday, according to sources.

Court security confirmed to ABC News Friday morning that the grand jury would not be convening.

Special counsel Jack Smith informed Trump by letter on Sunday that Trump is a target in his investigation. The letter indicates that an indictment of the former president could be imminent.

Multiple witnesses have appeared before the grand jury in recent weeks, including Trump’s son-in-law and former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Smith was appointed in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has dismissed the probe as a political witch hunt.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Friday warned Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott that his administration’s use of ballards — or buoys — in the Rio Grande river to stop migrants could bring legal action.

“The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” the letter obtained by ABC News says.

Earlier this week, Abbott had ballards installed in the river in an effort to deter migrants from crossing.

“Texas’s unauthorized construction of the floating barrier is a prima facie violation of the Rivers and Harbors Act. This floating barrier poses a risk to navigation, as well as public safety, in the Rio Grande River, and it presents humanitarian concerns,” the letter says. “Thus, we intend to seek appropriate legal remedies, which may include seeking injunctive relief requiring the removal of obstructions or other structures in the Rio Grande River.”

Abbot responded, “Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border, under the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Constitution. We have sent the Biden Administration numerous letters detailing our authority, including the one I hand-delivered to President Biden earlier this year.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The grand jury in Washington, D.C., investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election is not meeting Friday, according to sources.

Court security confirmed to ABC News that the jury will not convene Friday.

Special counsel Jack Smith informed Trump by letter on Sunday that Trump is a target in his investigation. The letter indicates that an indictment of the former president could be imminent.

Multiple witnesses have appeared before the grand jury in recent weeks, including Trump’s son-in-law and former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Smith was appointed in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has dismissed the probe as a political witch hunt.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Almost 72 hours after 23-year-old U.S. Army Private 2nd Class Travis King entered North Korea, American officials say they have not been able to gain clarity on his location or condition — and even the circumstances that led him to cross the border remain a mystery.

The Pentagon announced on Thursday that Army counterintelligence officials were investigating what prompted King to separate from a tour group visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing South and North Korea, where witnesses say he sprinted across the border sometime on Tuesday.

He was originally supposed to fly out of Seoul after being taken to the airport on Monday, officials have said. Back in Texas, he was set to face a “pending administrative separation actions for foreign conviction,” one U.S. official has said. He had been in detention for more than a month after an altercation with locals, according to an official.

So far, efforts to gather information have been hamstrung by Pyongyang’s stonewalling. Although various agencies and intermediaries have attempted to communicate with the North Korean government about King, none say they have received any response and the country’s state media has also remained uncharacteristically silent.

“We’re still doing everything we can to try to find out his whereabouts, his well-being and condition and making it clear that we want to see him safely and quickly returned to the United States and to his family,” White House spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.

“Not for lack of trying, we just don’t have anything,” he said.

One U.S. official said that after King entered North Korea, he was immediately taken away in a van. But the Pentagon says they see no reason to suspect the soldier pre-planned his crossing with the North Korean government.

Asked whether the State Department feared for King’s safety, its spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday that Pyongyang’s past treatment of American nationals held in its custody was cause for worry.

“Certainly, I think we would always have concern given the treatment by North Koreans of past detained individuals — we would have that concern and that’s why, one of the reasons why, we are reaching out to ask for more information about his well-being,” he said.

But those asks continue to go unanswered — illustrating just how much communication between the countries has deteriorated under the Biden administration.

Although the U.S. government has made multiple attempts to engage with Pyongyang on issues like nuclear proliferation, those efforts have yet to elicit any response from the hermit kingdom.

“There is no regular contact. I will say communications between our two countries are limited,” Miller said.

Anthony Ruggiero, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program and the former deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs, said North Korea may just be biding its time.

“They’re probably taking the time to speak with [King] and see what to do next,” Ruggiero said.

In prior cases involving Americans held in North Korea, Pyongyang has ignored outreach from the U.S. and Sweden — America’s diplomatic liaison in North Korea — for weeks on end.

Ruggiero said that Pyongyang could seek to turn the latest incident into “a benefit” if it senses having the American soldier in its custody is a source of diplomatic pull.

If that’s the case, Ruggiero explained, its reticence to engage with U.S. officials could evaporate.

“I think you’re likely to see that the North Koreans want to talk to an American official directly as possible,” he predicted.

Kim Jong Il, the former supreme leader of North Korea and father of its current ruler, Kim Jong Un, approved the release of American detainees after visits from former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

But even if there is direct contact between the U.S and North Korea, Ruggiero and other experts expect that the Biden administration will be reluctant to expend any significant political capital to secure the freedom of a soldier who fled while facing disciplinary action.

If that’s the case, North Korea may elect to release King, Ruggiero said, as they did with Bruce Byron Lowrance — a U.S. national who entered North Korea in 2018 and was freed a month later — a move that helped set the stage for the first summit between then-President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

“The North Koreans may believe that this is more headache than it’s worth,” Ruggiero said.

ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Luis Martinez, Martha Raddatz and Matt Seyler contributed to this report.

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