Rep. Nancy Mace; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Rep. Nancy Mace said Tuesday that the bill she introduced to ban transgender women from using biological women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol was “absolutely” in response to Rep.-elect Sarah McBride’s entering Congress.
“Yes, and absolutely. And then some,” Mace told reporters at the Capitol.
“I’m not going to stand for a man, you know, someone with a penis, in the women’s locker room,” she said.
McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, didn’t respond to questions on the topic as she entered the House Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday morning.
Monday night, she responded to Mace in a post on X, saying, “This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.”
Outside the Republican conference meeting, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called McBride a “biological man” and said she had confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson at during the House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday morning about what “men in leadership” would do to address their concerns.
“You know, Sarah McBride, as he calls himself, formerly Tim McBride, is a biological man, and he should not be using any of our restrooms in the Capitols, in the in our office buildings. But Nancy Mace’s resolution doesn’t go far enough,” Greene said.
“A resolution is just a statement by Congress saying that Congress disagrees with something we need, something more binding. And that’s what I just brought up at the microphones there — in our conference, I directly asked Speaker Johnson what the men in our leadership are going to do about this, because this this has to be stopped,” Greene added.
Mace invoked her own experiences as a victim of rape as part of the reason she introduced the measure.
“That’s not okay. And I’m a victim of abuse myself. I’m a rape survivor,” Mace said. “I have PTSD from the abuse I’ve suffered at the hands of a man, and I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces, so I’m absolutely 100% going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms. I will be there fighting you every step of the way,” she said.
Mace told ABC’s John Parkinson that she wanted to expand her efforts and push a measure that would ban transgender women from using biological women’s bathrooms on all federal property.
“Number one, I want to see this in the House Rules package. I want to make sure that no men are in women’s private spaces. And it’s not going to end here. This shouldn’t be going on any federal property. If you’re a school or an institution that gets government funding, this kind of thing should be banned. I think it’s sick. It’s twisted,” Mace said.
Mace said that her position was a feminist one.
“I have fought like hell for women’s rights. I mean, 25 years ago, this year, I became the first woman to break the glass ceiling and graduate from a military college that was formerly all male, and to see the way that I’ve been attacked today and last night for fighting to protect women and girls — it’s ridiculous. So, if that — being a feminist makes me an extremist, I’m totally here for it,” she said.
“And if McBride wants to go to the gym, she can go to Planet Fitness, where they allow biological men to be around in a room in a private space with underage girls like no thank you. It’s not going to happen, not on my watch,” Mace said.
During his weekly news conference Tuesday morning, Johnson declined to speak about McBride’s gender when asked by a reporter whether she is a man or woman. Johnson also would not say if he’d support Mace’s proposal to ban transgender women from women bathrooms in the Capitol.
Asked whether McBride is a man or a woman, he responded, “Look, I’m not going to get into this. We welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people. I believe it’s a it’s a command we treat all persons with dignity and respect. We will. And I’m not going to engage in silly debates about this. There’s a concern about uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms and all that. This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before. We’re going to do that in deliberate fashion with every consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person.”
Then asked whether he would respond to Mace’s measure, he answered, “I’m not going to address plans on any of that. I just told you what I’m going to say about the issue. I’m not going to engage in this. We don’t look down upon anyone. We treat everybody. That’s a principle that would have pursued my whole life issue, a first impression for Congress, as we will any other thing. We’ll provide appropriate accommodation for every member of Congress.”
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead. Via Flickr
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump continues to announce his picks for top jobs inside his administration, most recently naming nominees for energy secretary and to helm the Federal Communications Commission.
Meanwhile, fallout continues for former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s choice to serve as attorney general. The House Ethics Committee was investigating Gaetz for alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Calls are growing for the panel to release its report on Gaetz, who resigned from the House last week.
Speaker Johnson denies discussing Gaetz draft report with House Ethics chairman
House Speaker Mike Johnson denied that he has discussed the details of the draft ethics report on Matt Gaetz with House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, and further denied that President-elect Donald Trump or Gaetz have pressured him to bury the report.
“I haven’t talked to Michael Guest about the report. I talk to all my colleagues but I know where the lines are. I have no idea about the contents of the report,” Johnson told reporters as he walked back to his office after his news conference this morning.
Despite persistent questions, Johnson maintained his position that Gaetz’s resignation from the House last week should put an end to the ethics inquiry.
“My job is to protect the institution and I have made very clear that I think it’s an important guardrail for our institution that we not use the House Ethics Committee to investigate and report on persons who are not members of this body,” Johnson declared. “Matt Gaetz is not a member of the body anymore.”
Johnson denied that Gaetz or Trump had pressured him to block release of the draft report, repeating that the speaker “has no involvement” in the ethics report and “can’t direct the ethics committee to do anything.”
“I’ve simply responded to the questions that have been asked of me about my opinion on whether that should be released. Matt Gaetz is no longer a member of Congress and so we don’t issue ethics reports on non-members,” he said. “I think it’s an important guardrail for us to maintain for the interest of the institution so that’s my position.”
“I wouldn’t have that conversation with [Gaetz]. Because that’s not appropriate for us to do that,” Johnson continued. “President Trump respects the guardrails of our institution as well, and I’m very guarded about those things. So neither of those gentlemen would breach that.”
-ABC News’ Jay O’Brien, John Parkinson, Lauren Peller, Isabella Murray
Musk backs Gaetz for AG amid allegations: ‘Gaetz will be our Hammer of Justice’
Billionaire Elon Musk is throwing his support behind Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, as allegations continue to surface surrounding what witnesses told the House Ethics Committee regarding the former congressman.
“Matt Gaetz has 3 critical assets that are needed for the AG role: a big brain, a spine of steel and an axe to grind,” Musk wrote on X. “He is the Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison.”
“Gaetz will be our Hammer of Justice,” he added.
Musk also directly addressed the allegations against Gaetz, stating that he considers them “worth less than nothing.”
Musk’s public support for Gaetz comes as the billionaire continues to play a large role in Trump’s transition, as ABC News has previously reported.
Speaker Johnson says he hasn’t discussed Gaetz ethics drama with Trump
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday he has not talked to Trump about a draft report on the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz — as members on both sides of the aisle call on the speaker to release the draft despite Gaetz’s resignation and the committee’s lack of jurisdiction over former members.
“I have not discussed the ethics report with President Trump. And as you know, I’ve spent a lot of time with him,” Johnson, R-La., said. “He respects the House and the parameters, and he knows that I would not violate any of those rules or principles, and so it has not been discussed.”
The speaker also said he hasn’t discussed the report with Trump’s advisers.
“They’re busy filling the Cabinet,” he said. “This has not been a subject of our discussion.”
Johnson reiterated his position against the release of the draft report. He also brushed off the fact that there is some precedent for its release following a member’s exit from Congress, saying the House is now in a “different era.”
“I’ve made this really clear. There’s a very important principle that underlies this, and that is the House Ethics Committee has jurisdiction over members of Congress — not former members, not private citizens, not someone who’s left the institution,” he said. “I think that’s a really important parameter for us to maintain. I think it’s important for the institution itself.”
Johnson said that he would not support a private viewing of the report for senators under the “same principle.”
-ABC News’ John Parkinson, Isabella Murray and Lauren Peller
Top Dem on House Ethics Committee says Gaetz report should be released
The top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee — Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild — told reporters Monday that she believes the committee’s report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz should be disclosed to the public.
“You either are going to disclose it or you’re not going to disclose it. So, and there’s plenty of precedents in the Ethics Committee to disclose the report even after a member has resigned,” Wild said.
Wild, who is leaving office at the end of this session, said it’ll take “one or more” Republicans to join Democrats on the committee to achieve a majority vote to release the report.
Asked if that’s a possibility, Wild said she hasn’t talked to all of the members and doesn’t know, but she stressed that all eight members of the ethics panel now have access to the draft report.
“I believe there will be a unanimous Democratic consensus that it should be released,” she added.
Wild said there is a scheduled committee meeting on Wednesday, but said it “remains to be seen” what the chairman’s agenda is.
“But I believe we should vote on whether we are to disclose it [Gaetz report] or not, and we’ll see what happens after that,” she said.
House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters Monday that he has read the Gaetz report but declined to comment further due to the confidentiality of the committee.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller, John Parkinson and Isabella Murray
Trump nominates Sean Duffy as transportation secretary
Trump announced Monday he is nominating former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy for transportation secretary.
The position requires Senate confirmation.
“He will prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness and Beauty when rebuilding America’s highways, tunnels, bridges and airports,” Trump said in a statement. “He will ensure our ports and dams serve our Economy without compromising our National Security, and he will make our skies safe again by eliminating DEI for pilots and air traffic controllers.”
Duffy co-hosts “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business and is a Fox News contributor.
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
Trump to attend SpaceX launch on Tuesday: Sources
Trump is expected to attend Tuesday’s SpaceX launch in Texas, multiple sources told ABC News.
SpaceX said it is planning to hold the sixth integrated flight test of its Starship megarocket from its Starbase in Cameron County, Texas, on Tuesday afternoon.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, has rarely left Trump’s side since the election — appearing in family photos with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and even traveling with him to New York for Saturday’s UFC fight.
Trump frequently marveled at the intricacies of the SpaceX rocket launch while on the campaign trail.
“It was so exciting, so I’m watching it, and this monstrous thing is going down, right and it’s coming down, it’s first of all, doing all sorts of flips up in the air,” Trump said at his last campaign rally of the cycle in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Katherine Faulders
How Democrats could force the Ethics Committee to release the Gaetz report
All eyes will be on the House Ethics Committee’s expected closed-door meeting this Wednesday — but it’s possible that Congress can go around the committee entirely to release the panel’s findings on former Rep. Matt Gaetz.
According to House rules, any member of Congress can go to the floor and tee up a vote on a “privileged resolution” that would force the Ethics Committee to release its report on Gaetz, within two legislative days.
The member would only have to argue that not releasing the report impacts the “dignity” or “integrity” of the House or “reputation” of its members.
The action would be unusual, but not unprecedented. In the 1990s, Democrats repeatedly tried to force the Ethics Committee to divulge information about investigations into then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Those efforts came up short because Republicans closed ranks around Gingrich and the majority. But Gaetz is incredibly unpopular on Capitol Hill, and it would only take a handful of Republicans — along with all Democrats — to pass the resolution.
“If you’re a member of Congress, do you really want to be in the business of defending Matt Gaetz?” former Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pennsylvania, who led the Ethics Committee, said to ABC News on Monday.
The Ethics Committee was investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use against Gaetz, who resigned last week after being named Trump’s pick for attorney general.
If the Ethics Committee doesn’t vote to release its findings on Wednesday, expect more Democrats to raise the possibility of forcing a floor vote — one that would force Republicans on the record about Gaetz.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel
Hegseth flagged as potential ‘insider threat’ by Guardsman who was ‘disturbed’ by ‘Deus Vult’ tattoo
The National Guardsman who in 2021 pegged Pete Hegseth as a potential “insider threat” clarified in an interview with ABC News that his complaint targeted a “Deus Vult” tattoo on the Fox News host’s arm, not a cross on his chest, as Hegseth has repeatedly claimed.
As Reuters and The Associated Press first reported, Sgt. DeRicko Gaither sent an image of the “Deus Vult” tattoo to Maj. Gen. William Walker shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The phrase, which translates to “God wills it,” has since been co-opted by white nationalist groups.
“This information is quite disturbing, sir,” Gaither wrote in the email to Walker, who has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. “This falls along the lines of (an) Insider Threat.”
Hegseth — Trump’s pick for defense secretary — claimed in his book, “The War on Warriors,” that he was removed from service ahead of Biden’s inauguration because fellow servicemembers had flagged a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross on his chest as a white nationalist symbol.
But Gaither clarified in a text message to ABC News that his complaint targeted the “Deus Vult” tattoo, despite “the narrative that has been out there.”
“Just so we are clear. This has NOTHING to do with the Jerusalem Cross tattoo on his chest,” Gaither said. “This has everything to do with the ‘DEUS VULT’ Tattoo on his inner bicep.”
Gaither, who confirmed the contents of his complaint to ABC News, emphasized that “this wasn’t then and isn’t now a personal attack towards Pete Hegseth.”
“The information received and [the] email sent on January 14th was the protocol that had to be followed because of the position assignment that I was assigned to,” explained Gaither, who was at the time assigned as the Guards’ head of security. “The protocol was followed and would be followed again if this issue involved any other service member, myself included.”
Hegseth fired back at the initial coverage of this matter in the AP by claiming it was “Anti-Christian bigotry.”
“They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD,” Hegseth wrote on social media on Friday.
-ABC News’ Nathan Luna and Lucien Bruggeman
Homan says he’s headed to Mar-a-Lago to put ‘final touches’ on deportation plan
Incoming “border czar” Tom Homan said Monday that Trump’s new administration is already working on a plan to deport undocumented immigrants and that he’s headed to Mar-a-Lago this week “to put the final touches” on it.
Speaking on Fox News’ America Reports, Homan reiterated his plan to “take the handcuffs of ICE” and ramp up arrests.
“ICE knows what they’re looking for. They just never go arrest them, because Secretary Mayorkas has told them [to] tone down the arrests,” Homan said.
Homan also repeated his claim that ICE will “arrest the bad guys first.” He said that under the Biden administration, the removal of “criminal aliens” has decreased 74%. ABC News has not independently verified the accuracy of that claim.
Homan acknowledged during the interview that a mass deportation plan will require significant resources and that he doesn’t know what the current ICE and Customs and Border Protection budgets are, though added that Trump is “committed” to getting the funding for his plan.
-ABC News’ Armando García
‘Dangerous’: Caroline Kennedy weighs in on RFK’s views on vaccines
Caroline Kennedy weighed in on her cousin Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s views on vaccines during remarks on Monday after he was announced as the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.
“I think Bobby Kennedy’s views on vaccines are dangerous, but I don’t think that most Americans share them. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” she said at the National Press Club of Australia.
“You know, I grew up with him,” she added. “So, I have known all this for a long time and others are just getting to know him.”
Kennedy added that her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, had fought for affordable health care, and that her family was proud of President Barack Obama signing the Affordable Care Act, which she said was built on Sen. Kennedy’s work.
“I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure and has greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country, and Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views,” Caroline Kennedy said.
–ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
Trump transition live updates: Ethics Committee expected to meet on Gaetz: Sources
President-elect Donald Trump continues to announce his picks for top jobs inside his administration, most recently naming nominees for energy secretary and to helm the Federal Communications Commission.
Meanwhile, fallout continues for former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s choice to serve as attorney general. The House Ethics Committee was investigating Gaetz for alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Calls are growing for the panel to release its report on Gaetz, who resigned from the House last week.
‘Dangerous’: Caroline Kennedy weighs in on RFK’s views on vaccines
Caroline Kennedy weighed in on her cousin Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s views on vaccines during remarks on Monday after he was announced as the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.
“I think Bobby Kennedy’s views on vaccines are dangerous, but I don’t think that most Americans share them. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” she said at the National Press Club of Australia.
“You know, I grew up with him,” she added. “So, I have known all this for a long time and others are just getting to know him.”
Kennedy added that her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, had fought for affordable health care, and that her family was proud of President Barack Obama signing the Affordable Care Act, which she said was built on Sen. Kennedy’s work.
“I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure and has greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country, and Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views,” Caroline Kennedy said.
–ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
House Ethics Committee expected to meet to discuss Gaetz report
The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet on Wednesday and discuss its report of Rep. Matt Gaetz, multiple sources tell ABC News.
While the meeting can still be cancelled, sources said the committee could potentially take a vote on whether to release the report.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott and Will Steakin
‘Morning Joe’ co-hosts say they met with Trump on Friday
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski said on Monday morning that they had met with President-elect Donald Trump on Friday at Mar-a-Lago.
The goal of the meeting, they said, was to “restart communications” among the liberal-leaning morning show hosts and the incoming administration.
“Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast, and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself. On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that. Joe and I went to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally with President-elect Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years,” Brzezinski said.
Scarborough said the hosts and Trump did not “see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so.”
“What we did agree on was to restart communications,” Brzezinski added, noting that Trump seemed “cheerful” and “upbeat.”
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a plan to eliminate the Department of Education to “send all education work and needs back to the states,” according to his Agenda47 policy platform.
According to education experts, an end to the Department of Education could leave billions of funds, scholarships, grants and more hanging in the balance for the millions of K-12 and college students attending schools in the U.S.
The DOE was established as a Cabinet-level agency in 1979 under then-President Jimmy Carter, but was initially created in the late 1800s to collect data on what is working effectively in education for policymakers and educators.
The education agency facilitated the expansion of federal support for schooling over the years. After World War II, the GI Bill expanded education assistance for war veterans. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space, the agency led to the expansion of science, math and foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools and supported vocational-technical training.
In the 1960s and 1970s, anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts shaped the Department of Education’s mission to provide equal access to education nationwide. This led to the founding of Title I funding to reduce educational achievement gaps between low-income and rural students and non-low-income schools.
The DOE also holds schools accountable for enforcing non-discrimination laws like Title IX based on gender, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with Disabilities Act based on disability and Title VI based on race.
Federal Student Aid, awarding more than $120 billion a year in grants, work-study funds, and low-interest loans to approximately 13 million students, is also backed by the Department of Education.
The Department also holds schools accountable under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires each state to provide data on subject performance, graduation rates, suspensions, absenteeism, teacher qualifications, and more.
The department states on its website that it does not develop school curricula, set requirements for enrollment and graduation, or establish or accredit schools or universities.
However, it has played a major role in school funding for decades, particularly as state investment in K-12 schools worsened amid the 2008 Great Recession.
According to the Education Law Center, U.S. students lost almost $600 billion from states’ disinvestment in their public schools in the decade following the Great Recession.
The complicated nature of a department closure includes administering the billions of DOE funds directly to the individual states, according to higher education expert Clare McCann. McCann said doling out the money is something skilled employees at the DOE would be equipped to do.
“There’s a reason the Department of Education was created and it was to have this kind of in-house expertise and policy background on these [education] issues,” McCann told ABC News, adding, “The civil servants who work at the Department of Education are true experts in the field.”
Education Analyst Neal McCluskey at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argues that dismantling the department could be as simple as giving states the funding, but allowing them to decide how it’s administered.
“What I’ve seen most often, and I’ve written about myself, is you could, for instance, take all the K-12 money, Title One, IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] etc. — You would, of course, have to change the law, but one of the things you could do is block grant it; You’d say, ‘we’re going to fund these things, but we’re going to give it to the state so they can decide how it’s administered,'” he told ABC News.
Some education experts like Wendy A. Paterson, a professor and dean at Buffalo State University’s School of Education, told ABC News in an interview that she “could not see how serving families and children under the offices of the Department of Education could continue” without a federal department.
Paterson said that if funding itself is changed, it will likely worsen the national teacher shortage and impact the targeted communities the Department of Education specializes in — including low-income, disabled or FAFSA-seeking students.
“There’s an intimate relationship between our schools and the society that we create and that we pass along to our children, and it’s that important,” said Paterson. “So if we don’t have a federal organization that acknowledges the importance of schools and post-secondary education and the right of all children to have access to education, what are we saying about democracy?”
Why does Trump want to get rid of the Department of Education?
In a 2023 statement on his plans for schools, Donald Trump said that “one thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states.”
“We want them to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it,” said Trump.
Trump’s Agenda47 does not state how the dismantling of the department would impact the programs the Department of Education runs.
However, on the campaign trail, in interviews with Elon Musk and on “Fox & Friends,” Trump has repeatedly said he wants to shutter the agency and instead choose one education department official for his Cabinet, aligning with Trump’s goals of dismantling “government bureaucracy” and restructuring the government agencies for more efficiency.
Several prominent conservatives and Republican figures have similarly proposed department closures over the years, including Ronald Reagan, Vivek Ramaswamy, and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
McCluskey said in a recent essay that the department is “unconstitutional,” arguing that it exerts too much power over schools above local and state entities.
House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx has also argued that it’s not a constitutional requirement to have such a department: “I can’t find the word education in there [the Constitution] as one of the duties and responsibilities of Congress or the federal government,” Rep. Foxx, R-North Carolina, told ABC News.
Is it possible to eliminate it?
While possible in theory, education policy experts who spoke with ABC News suggest that would be an extremely chaotic – and unrealistic — task on Jan. 20, 2025, Inauguration Day.
The bold initiative won’t happen immediately, but McCluskey told ABC News it could be done through Congress.
“The Department of Education was created through legislation,” McCluskey told ABC News. “Legislation comes through Congress. If you want to take the Department of Education apart, you have to do that through legislation,” McCluskey added.
At this point, without congressional approval, McCluskey said the campaign trail messaging by the president-elect has no standing.
“I think that what is said on the campaigns and what actually is done have to often be two different things because, in campaigns, politicians say a lot of things that make it seem like it’s easy to do what they want to do,” McCluskey said.
“No president can just fire everybody in the Department of Education and have one person administer those programs,” he added.
Trump’s education policy
Trump, however, does list several federal policies he hopes to implement in schools nationwide. This includes instructing a future education department to cease programs that he claims “promote the concept of sex and gender transition, at any age” as well as punish teachers or schools who do so.
He hopes to create a credentialing body to certify teachers “who embrace patriotic values and support the American way of life,” though he does not further elaborate on what that consists of.
He also would prevent Title IX from allowing transgender women to compete in sports. He said he will create funding preferences and favorable treatment for states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure and adopt merit pay for educators for grades K-12 and allow parents to vote for principals.
(LINCOLN, NE) — Dan Osborn, a former union president and Navy veteran who ran an unusually competitive U.S. Senate campaign in deep-red Nebraska as an independent, is launching a new political action committee meant to help working class candidates like himself run for office.
“At least the idea is to help other people like me, who are teachers, nurses, plumbers, carpenters, bus drivers, to be able to run for office in their particular counties, states, areas, and we can help them accomplish that,” Osborn told ABC News in an interview by phone on Monday.
“You know, we’ve created something pretty special here in Nebraska. And I just want to continue that.”
The organization, the Working Class Heroes Fund, is a new hybrid political action committee (PAC) that will support working-class candidates and mobilize working class voters, according to an announcement and a PAC spokesperson. The group will also advocate for labor unions, including supporting strike funds, which help union workers cover expenses if they go on strike.
Osborn hopes the PAC’s work will help bring more workers’ perspectives to government, about how “people don’t want handouts from their government… they just want to know when you go and you put in your time, you put in your eight hours work for eight hours pay, that your paycheck matters, right?” Osborn said. “And going to be able to afford your mortgage and your cars and hopefully set aside money for college and some Christmases.”
The PAC is a new organization and not a conversion of Osborn’s campaign committee, according to a spokesperson. It will vet and consider which working-class candidates to support on a case-by-case basis, and will support candidates across political parties.
Could supporting candidates across party lines lead to pushback? Osborn, who eschewed party labels or support during his Senate bid, feels that doesn’t matter.
“I’ve never really understood why, if you’re a part of a party, that you have to have a specific set of beliefs, and you have to reject the other set of beliefs, and vice versa,” he said.
Osborn had campaigned explicitly on his labor bonafides, including his work as a steamfitter and mechanic, as well as his insistence that he’d be a truly independent voice in the Senate.
On Election Day, Osborn lost to Fischer by 8 percentage points — not as thin of a margin as some polls had predicted, but well ahead of the margin between President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris; Harris lost statewide to Trump by 21 points. (Harris did lead Trump in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, netting her one Electoral College vote.)
Asked if he was surprised by the margin between him and Fischer, Osborn said, “Yes, I was, actually — and it sucked. I suppose if I had to describe it in one word, it sucked.
“You know, I really thought that the people in Nebraska saw the value in electing a working-class person,” he said, but a late influx of money into the race supporting his opponent made a difference. “Does it hurt a little bit? Sure, but again, I think we created something here.”
His family is “not taking [the loss] as good as I am,” Osborn said later with a chuckle. “Everybody goes back to school and we go back — I’m going back to work tomorrow, and my wife, she was working the whole entire time to help pay for the endeavor. But, you know, we were all hoping for different results, and we didn’t see it.”
Osborn said he was not surprised by the larger margin between Trump and Harris, given Nebraska’s deep Republican lean.
One of the trickier dynamics in the race was that as Osborn tried to maintain an independent image, some national Democrats or Democratic groups indicated that if he was elected to the Senate, he would caucus with Democrats. (Throughout his campaign, Osborn emphasized he would not plan to caucus with either party.)
Did that hurt his campaign? Osborn thinks it made a difference.
“I can’t consult with those people. I don’t even know who they are. They’re making money off of my name, which is completely ridiculous,” he said, adding that he wants independent expenditures out of politics more generally.
His own organization, however, is allowed to make independent expenditures, as a hybrid PAC. Asked about that, Osborn acknowledged the irony but said the PAC will support candidates who support campaign finance reform and want an end to how money influences politics.
“The independent expenditure is part of the problem, and I would love nothing more than our elected officials to get rid of my PAC because it shouldn’t exist. You know what I mean? None of this should exist.”
Even as he launches the PAC, however, Osborn said he is also heading back to work as a steamfitter.
“The debt collectors do not care that I ran the closest Senate race in the country, unfortunately,” he told ABC News. (Pre-Election Day polling had found the race among the closest Senate races in the country, although the final results have been closer in other Senate races, such as in Michigan and Pennsylvania.) “So I got to pay my bills. So yes, I’m going back to work.”
Would he run again for public office? Osborn said he wouldn’t rule it out: “I’m open to everything that’s going to be on the table.”
“In my neighborhood, there’s a position open: the dogcatcher’s open,” he added, “So I should probably start there,” he said, although he immediately clarified, “That’s a joke.”
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd, Will McDuffie, Isabella Murray, and Kate Walter contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid mounting frustration from centrist voters and shifting party coalitions, one group thinks it has the solution to making parties and political candidates: comprehensive election reform.
Unite America, a philanthropic venture fund, is in the middle of a yearslong effort to support ballot initiatives that would fundamentally alter the way candidates are elected. Rather than hold party primaries, some of which independent voters can’t partake in, states would hold one large primary for all candidates for a race. Then, general election voters would be able to sift through winners in some form, including a ranked choice system or a competition between the top two vote getters.
In an interview with ABC News, Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano said the system is intended to make the general election the race of consequence rather than low-turnout primaries in safe red or blue areas, making candidates accountable to voters of all stripes.
“If you’re a candidate, the advantage is you’re no longer only having to appeal to one side. You can talk to all the voters, and then all the voters can vote for whomever they want,” Troiano said.
“It’s really about trying to make the general election the election of consequence, meaning the primary, everybody can vote, everybody can run, but it winnows down to just a few candidates in a general election, when most people vote, should really be when the decision is made.”
The reform movement is ramping up at a time of transformation for both parties. Democrats, smarting from Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss, are looking to make a brand more palatable to working-class voters. And Republicans are expected to be tied even closer to President-elect Donald Trump after his win this month.
But the election reform efforts are coming off a rough election cycle.
Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and South Dakota shot down ballot initiatives that would have instituted all-party primaries rather than contests grouping candidates of one party together. The effort marked a setback given rising conversations around other democracy-related issues like gerrymandering.
Troiano conceded the defeats, noting spending from both parties against the ballot initiatives and insisting that progress is not anticipated to be “linear.” Unite America’s advisors include those who worked on the marriage equality movement, which saw several states ban the practice in the 2004 election cycle but only to see same-sex marriage become federally legalized in 2015.
“Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back. But that’s how any movement that has made meaningful change in our country has worked. And so, we’re disappointed but not deterred from this mission,” Troiano said.
Some states already have versions of what Unite America is proposing.
Voters in 2022 implemented all-party primaries followed by ranked-choice general elections. Maine already has ranked choice voting. And other states like California and Louisiana institute so-called jungle primaries, which hold all-party primaries and then send the top two candidates to the general election if no contender hits 50%.
Rising independent voter registrations give Troiano hope that momentum will build for the reforms Unite America is pushing.
In the meantime, the group will conduct more research, link up with interest groups and push more ballot measures, Troiano said.
And, Unite America insists, both parties can benefit.
Democratic strategists have theorized that Harris lost this year’s presidential race because of a brand that was viewed as too far to the left — a reputation that could be confirmed by party primaries fueled by the most liberal voters. And Republicans have ceded ground in the suburbs, historically GOP power bases, with a reputation too firmly tied to Trump.
Democratic senators-elect who scored victories in Trump-won states were able to establish brands detached from that of the national party, and the only two Republican House members who impeached Trump left standing — California Rep. David Valadao and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse — use all party primaries.
“I think both parties have a medium to long-term advantage in these reforms because it will help them nominate more mainstream candidates,” Troiano said. “Both parties have a declining market share of the electorate as independents continue to grow, so it is to their advantage to think about ways to broaden their appeal.”
(WASHINGTON) — During his campaign for president, Donald Trump and his advisers worked to vehemently distance themselves from Project 2025, the controversial plan to overhaul the federal government proposed by a closely aligned conservative group. But several individuals connected to the plan have already received posts in the new administration, and one of the plan’s top architects is under consideration for a top position, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.
Russ Vought, who authored a chapter on “Executive Office of the President” for Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” which Project 2025 describes as “a comprehensive policy guide for the next conservative U.S. president,” is under consideration for a cabinet-level position in the next administration and has been vetted by Trump’s transition team, sources said.
Vought not only authored a chapter in the 922-page Project 2025 plan, but he was also deeply involved in drafting Project 2025’s playbook for the first 180 days of a new Trump administration. His Center for Renewing American is also listed as a member of Project 2025’s advisory board, according to the plan’s website.
Vought — who has been seen at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in recent days meeting with Trump’s top advisers — served in Trump’s first administration as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and has been in active discussions to return to the next administration, sources familiar with the matter said.
It’s not clear what position Vought could ultimately get, but he’s been discussed as a candidate for his previous job or for a top White House post that focuses on economic policy, the sources said.
When asked for comment, the Trump transition team pointed to President Trump’s comments in his debate with Kamala Harris where he stated, “This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do [with it].”
During his run for the White House, Trump claimed he knew “nothing” about Project 2025 and his campaign advisers fiercely worked to distance the campaign from it.
Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told the Financial Times last month that Project 2025 “is an absolute zero for the Trump-Vance transition.”
“You can use another term — radioactive,” Lutnick said.
While personnel decisions are not final until Trump announces them, sources told ABC News that Trump’s transition team has considered several other individuals with ties to the plan, including Project 2025 authors as well as several contributors to the document.
Gene Hamilton, the author of the Department of Justice chapter, is among those being considered for a top legal role in Trump’s administration, according to sources. In his Project 2025 chapter, Hamilton criticizes the DOJ, claiming it has been “captured by an unaccountable bureaucratic managerial class and radical Left ideologues who have embedded themselves throughout its offices and components.”
Hamilton calls for a sweeping “top-to-bottom overhaul” of the Justice Department, as well as an internal review of “all major active FBI investigations,” recommending the termination of any that are deemed unlawful or contrary to national interests.
Another name that has been floated for a potential position in the Trump administration is Reed Rubinstein, who contributed to Project 2025 and is under consideration for the next general counsel for the Department of Treasury, according to one potential personnel list reviewed by ABC News.
In recent days, Trump has announced other selections to fill out the coming administration who also have ties to Project 2025, marking a stark reversal from how he campaigned.
On Sunday, Trump’s team said that Brendan Carr will serve as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission — a selection that places one of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s active defenders in charge of regulating the nation’s airwaves. Carr, who has used his position to defend Musk’s companies, authored the chapter of Project 2025 that detailed how he intended to run the agency.
Former ICE Director Tom Homan has been picked to serve as “border czar” for the incoming administration, overseeing the mass deportations that have been promised by Trump throughout his 2024 campaign, and immigration hard-liner and top adviser Stephen Miller will serve as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy. Both Homan and Miller have ties to Project 2025.
Homan is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, the Trump-aligned group behind the controversial plan, and is also listed as a contributor to the Project 2025 document. Miller’s organization, America First Legal, originally appeared on the list of advisory board members to Project 2025.
ABC News reported in July that Miller asked for his group to be removed from the Project 2025 website’s list of advisory board members amid ongoing attacks from Democrats about the plan on the campaign trail.
A major part of Project 2025’s agenda is to expand presidential power and drastically cut federal agencies like the Department of Education — moves that Trump, on the campaign trail, has supported.
The proposal also calls for a reversal of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone and calls for health agencies to promote “fertility awareness” as an “unsurpassed” method of contraception.
(WASHINGTON) — The National Guardsman who in 2021 pegged Pete Hegseth as a potential “insider threat” clarified in an interview with ABC News that his complaint targeted a “Deus Vult” tattoo on the former Fox News host’s arm — not a cross on his chest, as Hegseth has repeatedly claimed.
President-elect Donald Trump last week tapped Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense. He listed Hegseth’s experience as a veteran and his media experience as his reasons for the choice.
As Reuters and The Associated Press first reported, Sgt. DeRicko Gaither sent an image of the “Deus Vult” tattoo to Maj. Gen. William Walker shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The phrase, which translates from Latin to “God wills it,” has been co-opted by white nationalist groups, experts have said.
“This information is quite disturbing, sir,” Gaither wrote in the email to Walker, who has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. “This falls along the lines of (an) Insider Threat.”
Hegseth claimed in his book “The War on Warriors” that his “orders were revoked” ahead of Biden’s inauguration because fellow service members had flagged a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross on his chest as a white nationalist symbol. As a result, Hegseth wrote, he resigned from the military.
But Gaither clarified in a text message to ABC News that his complaint targeted the “Deus Vult” tattoo, despite “the narrative that has been out there.”
“Just so we are clear. This has NOTHING to do with the Jerusalem Cross tattoo on his chest,” Gaither wrote in the text. “This has everything to do with the ‘DEUS VULT’ Tattoo on his inner bicep.”
Gaither’s sensitivity to what he described as the “disturbing” imagery in Hegseth’s tattoos came at a time when the military was grappling with the fact that dozens of active and former service members had participated in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Gaither, who confirmed to ABC News the contents of his complaint — which he wrote just one week after Jan. 6, emphasized that “this wasn’t then and isn’t now a personal attack towards Pete Hegseth.”
“The information received and [the] email sent on January 14th was the protocol that had to be followed because of the position assignment that I was assigned to,” explained Gaither, who was at the time assigned as the Guards’ head of security. “The protocol was followed and would be followed again if this issue involved any other service member, myself included.”
As ABC News has reported, Hegseth fired back at the initial coverage of this matter in The Associated Press by claiming it was “Anti-Christian bigotry.”
“They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD,” Hegseth wrote on X.
(WASHINGTON) — Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde on Monday conceded in his race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and said he would not challenge the election results by requesting a recount.
Hovde, who last week said he was weighing whether to request a recount due to “voting inconsistencies,” maintained in his statement that the ballots may lack “integrity” and “legitimacy.”
“I have heard from numerous supporters urging me to challenge the election results. However, without a detailed review of all the ballots and their legitimacy, which will be difficult to obtain in the courts, a request for a recount would serve no purpose, because you will just be recounting the same ballots, regardless of their integrity,” Hovde said in a video posted on X. “As a result, and my desire to not add to political strife, through a contentious recount, I’ve decided to concede the election.”
As of noon on Monday, with 99% of the vote counted, Baldwin led Hovde by .9%, or about 27,000 votes of the 3.3 million cast.
But Hovde on Monday also doubled down on claims of voting inconsistencies he made last week, saying there were inaccurate absentee ballot totals in the city of Milwaukee and that Democrats engaged in voter deception.
“The results from election night were disappointing, particularly in light of the last minute absentee ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m. flipping the outcome. There are many troubles around these absentee ballots and their timing, which I addressed in my last statement,” he said on Monday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Immigration advocacy groups and Democratic leaders are seeking to disrupt President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants by pre-drafting lawsuits that could be filed as soon as he takes office.
Trump has vowed carry out what he calls “the largest deportation operation” in the country’s history, and has pledged to reinstate and expand his controversial ban on people coming into the U.S. from certain majority-Muslim countries as part of his immigration policy.
On Monday, he re-emphasized on Truth Social that he is prepared to declare a national emergency and use military assets to carry out his promise of mass deportation.
Several immigration advocates and Democratic leaders told ABC News they have spent months preparing for the prospect of another Trump presidency and the expected crackdown on immigrants that Trump and his newly tapped border czar Tom Homan have promised.
Homan, who has embraced Trump’s pledge to undertake mass deportations on “Day 1” of the new administration, oversaw the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) during the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” enforcement that separated parents from their children at the border.
“In California, we’ve been thinking about the possibility of this day for months and in some cases, years, and been preparing and getting ready by looking at all of the actions Trump said he will take,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told ABC News.
Bonta said his team has prepared briefs on several immigration issues that Trump mentioned on the campaign trail. including mass deportations, birthright citizenship, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and sanctuary cities.
“There will be pain and harm inflicted by him. It is not all avoidable, but to get to our immigrant communities in ways that are in violation of the law, they’re going to have to go through me, and we will stop them in courts using our legal tools given to us,” Bonta said.
The California attorney general claims that 80% of the state’s legal challenges against the immigration executive orders and policies from Trump’s first term were successful.
“We’re very confident that we will block major efforts by the federal administration, that we will be able to blunt some of the worst of it,” Bonta said.
The 24 Democratic state attorneys general across the United States hope to present a unified front to block the Trump administration’s immigration policy by using his first term as a blueprint, according to Sean Rankin, the president of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
“When we look at immigration, we know that that is something that the president has talked about over and over and over again,” Rankin told ABC News. “At this point, we’re not connecting dots. We’re following flashing arrows. It’s very easy to see where they’re going to go.”
One of Homan’s targets in his mass deportation plan are sanctuary states and cities — places that have enacted laws designed at protecting undocumented immigrants. The policies, which vary by state, generally prohibit city officials from cooperating with the federal immigration authorities.
“They better get the hell out of the way,” Homan said last week, regarding the governors of sanctuary states. “Either you help us or get the hell out of the way, because ICE is going to do their job.”
Leaders in several sanctuary cities have said they are going to fight back using all the tools legally available to protect immigrant communities.
“We have been doing the work in this office to prepare for a lot of different hypotheticals and we will be prepared to face those with every tool that we have,” said Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson at a press conference last week.
Ferguson told reporters that between 2017 and 2021, his legal team defeated 55 “illegal actions” and policies from the Trump administration. But while his office has been preparing litigation for months, Ferguson said he believes the second Trump administration will also be better prepared than the first one.
“One of many reasons why we were successful with our litigation against the Trump administration was they were often sloppy in the way they rolled out and that provided openings to us to prevail,” Ferguson told reporters. “In court this time around, I anticipate that we will see less of that, and that is an important difference.”
In addition to considering the use of the military to carry out deportations, Trump and his allies have suggested using an obscure section of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts — a set of 18th century wartime laws — to immediately deport some migrants without a hearing.
Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told ABC News that they have been preparing for the potential use of the military to conduct deportations.
“They’re going to try and use the military, under the alien enemies act, to summarily deport people,” Gelernt said. “We will try and challenge it immediately.”
Gelernt, who led the ACLU’s legal response to family separations in Trump’s first term, said he expects the upcoming Trump administration to be “worse for immigrants” than the first.
“The Trump team has apparently been preparing for four years to implement anti-immigrant policies, and the rhetoric in the country has gotten so much more polarized than it was in 2016,” Gelernt said.
During Trump’s first term, Gelernt said groups like the ACLU were caught off-guard with some of his executive orders like the travel ban — but this time around, the organization has been preparing litigation for almost a year. In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s controversial ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, which the Biden administration later eliminated. Since then, Trump has appointed two Supreme Court justices.
“We are plotting out our challenges with much more advanced preparation, and we are doing our best to coordinate among all the various NGOs [non-governmental organizations] around the country,” Gelernt said.
“As litigators, we’ve been convening, we’ve been preparing, we’ve been trying to anticipate the unimaginable as we walk into the next four years,” said Alina Das, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the New York University School of Law.
(WASHINGTON) — An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an exclusive interview former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adults clients for sex.
Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News’ Juju Chang that one of his clients also witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman — who was then 17 years old — at a house party in Florida.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Representative Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.
The Justice Department spent years probing the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing related to the allegations investigated during Justice Department probe.
“Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The only people who went to prison over these allegations were those lying about Matt Gaetz,” Alex Pfeiffer, Trump transition spokesman said.
Leppard, who has called for the House Ethics Committee to release its report amid Gaetz’s nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, told ABC News that the former congressman paid both of his clients for sex using Venmo.
“Just to be clear, both of your clients testified that they were paid by Representative Gaetz to have sex?” Chang asked.
“That’s correct. The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,'” Leppard said.
Leppard’s interview with ABC News comes days after he publicly called for the House Ethics Committee to be released.
“As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers,” Leppard said. “What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?”
The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet on Wednesday and discuss its report of Rep. Matt Gaetz and potentially vote on its release despite the fact that the investigation ended when Gaetz resigned from the House, multiple sources tell ABC News.
The news comes after the attorney on Friday first told ABC News that one of his clients had witnessed Gaetz have sex with a minor amid mounting pressure on the House Ethics Committee to release its report on its probe into the Florida congressman.
The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the congressman and testified in both the federal and House Ethics investigations.
Gaetz’s one-time friend Joel Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with prosecutors in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes including sex trafficking of a woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage
Attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor at the center of the probe, called for the release of the Ethics Committee’s report on Thursday.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” Clune said in a statement.
The woman, who is now in her 20s, according to sources, testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old and he was in Congress, ABC News previously reported.
Gaetz faces an increasingly uphill nomination process in the Senate, with at least five Republican senators signaling skepticism that he could get enough support to be confirmed. President-elect Trump has repeatedly urged GOP leadership to bypass the traditional confirmation process through recess appointments, where Trump could appoint his cabinet while Congress is out of session.
