Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump participated in another town hall Wednesday where he took several shots at his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris’ record and continued to throw out falsehoods about her and his record in office in front of a friendly crowd in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Advisers point to events like this as how Trump is preparing for next week’s ABC News debate in Philadelphia against Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former president, who often downplays the need for formal debate preparations, did offer some insight into how he will approach sharing the debate stage with Harris, saying he would limit his outbursts during an audience Q&A portion of the event which will air later this week.

“When I had Biden, you and I had the same discussion. And I let him talk. I’m gonna let her talk,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity when asked how he will respond to Harris when she tries to get under his skin.

“There are those who say that Biden is smarter than she is. If that’s the case, we have a problem,” Trump said, attacking Harris’ intelligence earlier by claiming she has “no idea what the hell she’s doing.”

“You can go in with all the strategy you want but you have to sort of feel it out as the debate is taking place,” he said, going on to talk about his multiple debate appearances.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” Trump quipped, quoting former boxing champion Mike Tyson.

Trump zeroed in on what he characterized as Harris’ policy inconsistencies, something that advisers have encouraged him to focus on. He specifically highlighted her changed position on fracking in front of a crowd in one of the country’s top fossil fuel-producing states.

“She wants no fracking. In Pennsylvania, she wants no fracking. She said it 100 times, there will be no fracking. There will be no fracking. There will be no fracking. Then just recently, she said, ‘Yes, I could approve fracking.’” Trump continued, “Look, this is a woman who is dangerous. I don’t think it’s too smart, let’s see.”

“You can’t take the chance. You have no choice. You’ve got to vote for me, even if you don’t like me,” he said, arguing that Americans didn’t know enough about Harris.

Trump held a town hall in Wisconsin last week with former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard was recently named to Trump’s presidential transition team and has been advising him during his debate preparations.

Wednesday’s town hall, which was taped in the afternoon before airing during Hannity’s regular 9 p.m. ET time slot, comes in lieu of a debate that Fox was attempting to hold Thursday night. While debate invitations were sent to both candidates, only Trump accepted as Harris campaign officials said future debates are contingent on Trump showing up to the ABC News debate next week.

“I think he’s a nice guy,” Trump said, pointing to Hannity. “But I would have preferred a debate.”

The former president and Hannity repeatedly criticized Harris’ lack of interviews as reasons to argue she’s unfit for office, pushing unfounded claims about her interview with CNN last week. However, while Trump sat down with Hannity for longer than Harris’ CNN interview, it was a friendly hour with the conservative TV host who rarely pushed back or pressed Trump on a number of topics.

Trump was asked to detail the differences between his previous presidential campaigns.

“It’s not that different. It’s still about the forgotten man and the forgotten woman. People are being treated horribly in this country,” Trump said.

Trump continued to spread anti-immigrant rhetoric, accusing Venezuelans of “taking over the whole town” in Aurora, Colorado, as he again promised to oversee the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history.

“Take a look at Aurora. In Colorado, where Venezuelans are taking over the whole town. They’re taking over buildings, the whole town…They’re knocking down doors and occupying apartments of people. The people are petrified. And it’s getting worse and worse,” Trump said, referring to a viral video that appeared to show an armed mob roaming around an apartment complex in Aurora.

However, the Aurora Police Department vehemently denied accusations that the apartment complex is being run by a Venezuelan gang.

“We’ve been talking to the residents here and learning from them to find out what exactly is going on, and there’s definitely a different picture,” Interim Police Chief Interim Heather Morris said in a Facebook video the department posted last week, while adding, “I’m not saying that there’s not gang members that don’t live in this community.”

The City of Aurora also provided clarity on the situation in a post on X, saying while there was a concern about a “small” presence of the Venezuelan gang members in Aurora, the city is taking the situation seriously. The city stressed that Aurora is a “safe community” and that reports of gang members are “isolated to a handful of problem properties alone.”

Trump criticized Harris’ rhetoric after Hannity played a 2016 clip of Harris from a speech at a Los Angeles mosque, in which she urged the public not to use terms such as “radical Islamic terrorism” and “illegal alien.”

“She wants to be politically correct, and we can’t be politically correct,” Trump responded.

“You need a president that’s not going to be taking you into war. We won’t have World War III when I’m elected, but with these clowns, you’re going to end up having world war – it’s going to be a war like no other,” he said.

Hannity briefly mentioned at the top of his program the school shooting earlier in the day in Winder, Georgia, where two students and two teachers were killed and nine people were injured. Trump cited Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban to tout his record on crime and national security.

“Well, it’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons, and we’re going to make it better. We’re going to heal our world. We’re going to get rid of all these wars that are starting all over the place, and we’re going to make it better,” Trump said.

“You know, Victor Orban made a statement. They said, ‘Bring Trump back, and we won’t have any problems.’ He was very strong about that,” he added.

Trump also took time to defend himself and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, against Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walz’s argument that they’re “weird.” Trump fired back at that sentiment, poking fun at some of Walz’s quirks.

“Something’s weird with that guy. He’s a weird guy. JD is not weird. He’s a solid rock. I happen to be a very solid rock,” said Trump. “We’re not weird. We’re other things, perhaps, but we’re not weird. But he is a weird guy.”

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(WASHINGTON) — After months of delays, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday that could determine the trajectory of former President Donald Trump’s election interference case.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is expected to consider competing proposals for how the case should proceed following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling granting broad immunity for official acts taken by presidents.

Thursday’s hearing will mark the first time lawyers for Trump and special counsel Jack Smith set foot in Chutkan’s courtroom since last fall. Trump’s lawyers successfully delayed the case — which was originally set to go to trial in March — by appealing their claim of presidential immunity to the Supreme Court, whose ruling dramatically altered the legal landscape for the former president.

In a superseding indictment handed up last week, Smith attempted to revise his case against the former president by trimming out any allegations related to Trump’s official duties — which would be exempt from prosecution following the Supreme Court’s ruling — while keeping the same four criminal charges that Trump faced in his original indictment.

“The Defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the new indictment said.

Trump, who is not expected to appear at Thursday’s hearing in person, has directed his attorneys to plead not guilty on his behalf.

In addition to making minor changes to clarify Trump’s actions were undertaken in a private capacity, prosecutors removed the once-central allegation that Trump attempted to use the Department of Justice to support his false claims about election fraud. The indictment also removed details about Trump’s conduct while rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 — including refusing to call off the rioters — and some examples of advisers directly correcting Trump about his false claims of election fraud.

In a joint filing last week, prosecutors told Judge Chutkan that the revisions to the indictment ensured the Supreme Court’s protections for official acts would not apply to the new case, which distinguishes Trump’s “private electioneering activity” from “official action.”

Defense attorneys disagreed, arguing in the same filing that prosecutors wrongly included allegations that are subject to presidential immunity and that they misused a federal obstruction statute.

“We believe, and expect to demonstrate, that this case must end as a matter of law,” defense attorneys wrote.

While the Supreme Court’s decision broadly expanded the scope of presidential immunity — conferring absolute immunity for core presidential powers and a presumption of immunity for all other official acts — the court declined to fully apply its decision to the facts alleged in Trump’s indictment, and instead tasked Chutkan with conducting a “fact-specific analysis” to determine whether the former president’s conduct was official or unofficial.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys disagreed about the best way for Chutkan to proceed following the Supreme Court’s decision, with Smith urging Chutkan to address the immunity question “first and foremost” through a series of paper briefings, according to Friday’s joint filing.

Defense attorneys, in contrast, urged Chutkan to first consider whether the case should be thrown out on the grounds that Smith was illegally appointed — the same argument used by a federal judge in Florida to dismiss the former president’s classified documents case — before taking up the question of presidential immunity in a schedule that could stretch the proceedings into the new year.

Thursday’s hearing is likely to offer the first indication of how Chutkan plans to address the long-delayed case ahead of the November election and apply the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.

Addressing reporters Wednesday on the topic of election interference, Attorney General Merrick Garland defended Smith’s decision to bring a superseding indictment two months ahead of the November election, saying that he is “quite confident” that Smith observed DOJ policies related to elections.

“I stand by the actions of the special counsel,” Garland said. “The superseding indictment is an effort to respond to the direct instructions of the Supreme Court as to how to effectuate a new indictment in an ongoing case.”

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to defend his efforts to overturn the election results.

“Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it?” Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired this past Sunday.

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(WASHINGTON) — When Congress returns to Washington on Monday after summer recess, lawmakers will be staring down a looming government shutdown on Sept. 30 when funding is set to run out.

But before they get down to brass tacks, Republicans and Democrats will face off in an election-year partisan battle over voter eligibility.

During a private phone call with the House Republican Conference on Wednesday, sources told ABC News that House Speaker Mike Johnson outlined his plan to avert a government shutdown — rallying House Republicans around a short-term government funding bill that extends funding into March 2025 but includes a major policy proposal Democrats warn will kill the money bill.

Sources said Johnson told members that he wants to hold a vote on his short-term funding plan early next week — although next week’s floor schedule has not been officially announced.

House leaders regularly attach priority items to must-pass stopgap funding bills as a means of pushing through measures their members demand.

This will be no different, as Johnson told members. According to sources, he’ll attempt to attach the SAVE Act — a bill requiring individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote — to the funding bill.

Johnson’s opening salvo to address the looming funding deadline likely won’t be a winning solution. But with a narrow majority and conservatives clamoring for the SAVE Act, he will attempt to lay down a legislative marker in the House — and give GOP members legislation to point to on the campaign trail.

Senate Democrats have already said the SAVE Act is a non-starter for them, but Johnson’s move sets up a showdown between the chambers with just months remaining until Election Day.

What is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act?

The SAVE Act, which has the backing of former President Donald Trump and the far-right House Freedom Caucus, is a bill that seeks to expand proof of citizenship requirements to vote in federal elections. It bans states from accepting and processing an application to register to vote in a federal election unless the applicant presents documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.

The House passed the SAVE Act on July 10 by a bipartisan vote of 221-198, with five election-year vulnerable Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with all Republicans. It’s unclear whether that same support would carry over into Johnson’s planed showdown vote over funding the government.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus calls the bill “extreme and dangerous” and warns it would purge millions of legal voters from state rolls and make it much more difficult for Americans to reregister to vote.

“Let’s call it what it is — this is a direct attack on hard-working families, including Latino communities,” the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said in a statement following House passage of the bill.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called on Republicans to drop the SAVE Act from their funding bill and to instead advance a clean short-term version, called a continuing resolution, or CR.

“We want to see a clean CR,” Jean-Pierre told ABC’s Karen Travers. “That’s what we want to see.”

The administration “strongly opposes” the SAVE Act, Jean-Pierre said. “It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. It’s already illegal.”

Senate Democrats almost sure to oppose

Johnson’s proposal is likely to set off a fierce fight between the House and the Senate, as Senate Democrats will almost certainly reject the stopgap bill because of the inclusion of the SAVE Act.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray called it a “poison pill” and a “nonstarter.”

“We’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. Senate Democrats will continue to work in a bipartisan way to ensure we can keep the government funded and deliver responsible, bipartisan spending bills that can actually be signed into law before the end of the year,” Murray said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not yet outlined a plan for dealing with government funding, but he warned House colleagues against the inclusion of any partisan matters in a must-pass funding bill.

“As we have said each time we’ve had CR, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way and that is what has happened every time,” Schumer said in a statement to ABC News.

It’s also not yet clear whether the March 2025 extension date Johnson is proposing will sit well with Democrats, who may seek a much shorter stopgap that allows them to continue to debate and potentially lock in annual appropriations during the lame-duck session at the end of this year.

If it feels to you like we just did this, you’re not wrong.

Government funding expires annually at the end of the federal government’s fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Passing annual appropriations for 2024 was especially calamitous. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost his job over it. Johnson was installed because of it, but not without also facing threats to his position. Johnson ultimately implemented a never-before-seen two deadline system to help push the ball over the line.

Congress did not complete its work codifying current spending levels until mid-March, blowing months past the annual deadline. By the time all the bills were passed, they only funded the government for about six months.

Once again, the deadline is fast-approaching at the end of the month.

As of Wednesday, the House had passed five of the 12 individual government funding bills, including for Defense, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and State-Foreign Operations.

House GOP leaders hoped they would be able to clear all 12 bills, but the reality is that there is not enough time to do so.

Right after taking the gavel in October 2023, Johnson said in a letter obtained by ABC News to colleagues that he would not break for August recess until all 12 appropriations bills had passed the House.

“DO NOT break for district work period unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House,” Johnson wrote in his first letter as speaker.

That promise was not kept.

Meanwhile, to date, the Senate has not passed a single appropriations bill.

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(WASHINGTON) — With less than a week until the Sept. 10 presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump hosted by ABC News, the network on Wednesday released the set of rules that will govern the matchup.

The debate, which will be moderated by World News Tonight anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis, will mark the first in-person debate between Harris and Trump and will feature 90 minutes of debate time, with two commercial breaks.

The debate will be held in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center and will have no audience in the room.

Microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate. Only the moderators will be permitted to ask questions.

A coin flip was held virtually on Tuesday to determine the podium placement and the order of closing statements; former President Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. The former president will offer the last closing statement, and Vice President Harris selected the right podium position on screen, i.e., stage left.

There will be no opening statements, and closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.

Each candidate will be allotted two minutes to answer each question with a two-minute rebuttal, and an additional minute for a follow-up, clarification, or response.

Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate and no props or pre-written notes will be allowed on stage. Each candidate will be given a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water.

Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.

The debate will be produced in conjunction with ABC station WPVI-TV and will air live at 9 p.m. ET on the network and on the ABC News Live 24/7 streaming network, Disney+ and Hulu.

ABC News will also air a pre-debate special, “Race for the White House,” at 8 p.m. ET, anchored by chief global affairs correspondent and This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz, chief Washington correspondent and This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce and senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott.

As previously announced by ABC News, to formally qualify for the debate, the participants had to meet various qualification requirements, including polling thresholds and appearing on enough state ballots to theoretically be able to get a majority of electoral votes in the presidential election.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Wednesday unveiled a vastly expanded $50,000 tax benefit for new small businesses and a lower long-term capital gains tax than that was proposed by President Joe Biden in his budget blueprint, one of her clearest breaks yet with Biden.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Harris said, “And while we ensure that the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share, we will tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America’s innovators, founders, and small businesses,” before proposing a 28% long-term capital gains tax on people making $1 million a year or more.

Biden previously called for a 39.6% tax rate on capital gains. It is unclear where Harris stands on the additional 5% tax. While Harris’ presidential rival former President Donald Trump has not explicitly outlined a position this cycle, in 2016 he supported capping capital gains taxes at 20%, and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 calls for a 15% capital gains tax.

A source familiar with the plan told ABC News that Harris believes a more moderated approach toward capital gains taxes will balance with other measures she supports to crack down on billionaires and big corporations. Harris said on Wednesday that she supported a minimum tax rate on billionaires. The source said she also supports raising the corporate tax rate and quadrupling taxes on stock buybacks.

However, the move comes as Harris and Trump seek to sharpen their economic messages to voters before facing off in their first debate on ABC News in Philadelphia next week. Trump is scheduled to give his own economic policy address on Thursday.

Harris’ announcement is part of a broader effort to generate a record-breaking 25 million new small business applications in her first term if elected, and her tax plan would represent a tenfold expansion of a $5,000 deduction already available to entrepreneurs to help cover startup costs.

An official familiar with Harris’ plans said the $50,000 benefit would help offset the $40,000 it costs on average to start a small business. The terms of the proposal would also allow eligible enterprises operating at a loss to delay utilizing the benefit until they turn a profit.

Some profitable businesses could also defer the full benefit, opting to instead use it across multiple years by deducting only earnings from the first year of business and utilizing the remainder of the total $50,000 in future years, according to literature circulated to reporters from the Harris campaign.

Harris said her administration would also seek to develop a standard deduction for small businesses to reduce the burden and cost of filing taxes, and remove barriers around occupational licensing, which inhibits workers from working across state lines.

While the literature circulated to reporters did not estimate the program’s cost, Harris told the crowd that the the plan would provide access to venture capital, support “innovation hubs and business incubators,” and increase the number of federal contracts with small businesses.

Many aspects of Harris’ proposed tax program would likely require congressional approval. The current 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by Trump, is set to expire next year.

Harris also said that her administration would provide low- and no-interest loans to already existing small businesses. The campaign’s literature detailed a fund that would enable community banks and Community Development Financial Institutions to cover interest costs as small businesses expand in historically underinvested regions.

“We will have a particular focus on small businesses in rural communities, like right here in New Hampshire,” she said.

Both Trump and Harris have repeatedly sought to strike populist economic tones in their messaging, promising to provide relief to middle-class earners and even finding agreement on a proposed phase-out of federal income taxes on tipped wages.

Under pressure to define aspects of her policy agenda, Harris unveiled a slew of additional economic priorities last month that included, among other policies, restoring the American Rescue Plan’s expanded Child Tax Credit, proposing $25,000 in down payment assistance to qualifying first-time home buyers, capping prescription drug prices and a federal ban on price gouging in the food sector.

Meanwhile, Trump has advocated for broader reforms to U.S. economic policy, which have included tax cuts for businesses and wealthy individuals alongside an across-the-board tariff hike on imports to the U.S., generally, with tax rates as high as 60% to 100% on Chinese goods.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump, announced Wednesday that she will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, revealed her decision during a panel at Duke University and reiterated her warnings of the dangers of a second Trump term.

“As a conservative and as someone who cares and believes in the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said to a roaring crowd.

Harris is “proud” to get “patriot” Cheney’s endorsement, the Harris campaign said in a statement Wednesday night as it continues to court Republican voters ahead of the election.

“The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote. “As she noted in her powerful remarks, this election is a choice between the fundamental threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and a leader who will stand up for our freedoms and the rule of law in Vice President Harris.”

Answering questions from the audience at a campaign event in Mesa, Arizona, Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance blasted Cheney for backing Harris.

“A very good thing that I could say about the next Presidency of Donald J. Trump is that he’s going to make sure that people like Liz Cheney are laughed out of the Oval Office instead of rewarded,” Vance said.

Cheney voted to impeach Trump following what she has called the “insurrection” of Jan. 6, 2021, and was vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. She received backlash from Trump and other Republicans for her criticism of the former president and was censured by the Republican National Committee.

Trump said in March that Cheney and the entire Jan. 6 committee should be jailed.

Cheney lost her seat in the 2022 primary to Trump-backed Harriet Hageman by more than 60,000 votes, according to election results.

Since leaving Congress, Cheney has continued to criticize MAGA Republicans and Trump.

“I think we have to take everything that Donald Trump says literally and seriously,” Cheney said in an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl in December.

“And I think that we saw, frankly, what he was willing to do already after the 2020 election in the lead up to Jan. 6, after Jan 6,” she continued. “People need to remember that when Donald Trump woke up on the morning of Jan. 6, he thought he was going to remain as president. And we saw the extent to which he was willing to attempt to seize power when he lost an election.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination as the first Black and Asian woman nominee for U.S. president “gives a lot of people hope” that greater equality of opportunity is possible.

“I know a little bit about being a first,” said Jackson, the nation’s first Black woman justice on the high court who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022. “I think a lot of people were very happy about my appointment, in part, because they saw it as progress for the country.”

“Whenever we see someone moving into a position where no one has ever been, it gives a lot of people hope,” she said during an appearance on ABC’s “The View.”

The comments were Jackson’s first public acknowledgement on the historic Democratic ticket — Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“I’m a first, not because I’m the first person who could ever do this job, right? But because our times have changed. Our society has changed,” she said.

Jackson, 53, has been on a media blitz in conjunction with the release of her memoir “Lovely One,” which recounts personal stories from her childhood, education, family life and early career before arriving at the nation’s highest court.

Jackson has been careful to avoid speaking publicly on politics or policy issues, stressing her need to preserve the appearance of impartiality.

Asked whether she is confident the courts would uphold the will of voters if results of the 2024 election are challenged, she said: “I am confident that the courts will faithfully uphold the law, because that is our duty.”

Jackson also weighed in on the Supreme Court’s new, non-binding ethics code, saying she supports public debate over enforcement mechanisms and possible changes to the court’s structure.

“The question is, [how] is that going to play out? We’re still pretty early in the process,” she said, “but I guess I think about all of this as democracy at work, public engagement, these ideas of reforms, are the kinds of things that have been around since the beginning of our Republic.”

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(WASHINGTON) — A group of more than 30 current and former Republican officials filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday condemning a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming medical care for trans youth.

“States have no business overruling the decisions of fit parents who make an informed medical choice for their children that is supported by their doctors,” the filing reads.

The Supreme Court is preparing to take up a constitutional challenge to the law, which restricts access to puberty blockers, hormone therapies and surgeries specifically for the purpose of gender transitioning for people under the age of 18. The law does not restrict this care for non-transgender patients.

At least 25 states have passed similar bans on gender-affirming medical care.

The Republican signatories include representatives from state legislatures, the George W. Bush administration, as well as the John McCain and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns. It also includes Jordan Willow Evans, the nation’s first openly transgender elected Republican.

The signatories argue that the law is “nothing less than ‘a vast government overreach,’” quoting former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, who vetoed a gender-confirming medical care ban for transgender youths in his state.

Hutchinson’s veto was followed by a veto from Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine against his state’s own proposed gender-affirming care ban. Both Hutchinson’s and DeWine’s vetoes were overridden by their respective state legislature.

Republicans and political conservatives in opposition to the Tennessee law say they are against the law because of their values of limited government and respect for families – “in particular, the rights of parents to make weighty decisions about the upbringing and medical care of their own children.”

“Parents want their children to be safe, happy and healthy. Parents of transgender children are no different,” the filing reads. “Reasonable people can disagree about what is best for kids, but the question presented here is who makes that decision: their parents or government bureaucrats?”

The filing also quotes Republican former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – whose former staff is also represented among the amicus brief signatories.

On the presidential campaign trail in 2023, Christie said that “parents are the people who are best positioned to make these judgments” and “the government should [n]ever be stepping into the place of the parents.”

Tennessee Republican lawmakers in favor of trans care bans have defended the law in light of the impending Supreme Court case, often arguing that children should wait to receive care until they are adults.

“Tennessee is committed to protecting children from permanent, life-altering decisions,” Gov. Bill Lee said in an April 2023 post on the social media platform X after the Justice Department argued the law violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

In a statement on the Supreme Court case, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti also defended the law: “We fought hard to defend Tennessee’s law protecting kids from irreversible gender treatments and secured a thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion from the 6th Circuit.”

He continued, “I look forward to finishing the fight in the United States Supreme Court. This case will bring much-needed clarity to whether the Constitution contains special protections for gender identity.”

The filing notes people and medical professionals believe that it endangers children with gender dysphoria not to provide them with gender-affirming care.

Major national medical associations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and more than 20 others — agree that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, beneficial and medically necessary.

Research has found that hormone therapy can improve the mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, reducing depression and anxiety and increasing life satisfaction.

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(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a sweeping crackdown Wednesday on dueling efforts by the Russian government to influence the upcoming 2024 election through covert networks aimed at spreading disinformation to American voters.

For months, the Biden administration has been publicly warning of Russia’s efforts to influence Americans through disinformation and propaganda to sow distrust in the election.

In a meeting Wednesday at the Justice Department, Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray highlighted both foreign and domestic incidents of attempts to influence voters, as well as pervasive and growing threats against those who administer elections.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” Garland said.

The Justice Department alleged that two employees of Russia Today, or RT — a Russian state-controlled media outlet, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme “to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”

To carry this out, the attorney general said the two employees — 31-year-old Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27 — allegedly directed the company to contract with social media influencers to amplify Russian propaganda.

“The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government. Instead, the defendants and the company claimed that the company was sponsored by a private investor, but that private investor was a fictitious persona,” Garland said.

Russian entities also created fake websites to allegedly further influence the election, officials said.

“RT has used people living and working inside the U.S. to facilitate contracts with American media figures to create and disseminate Russian propaganda here. The content was pitched as legitimate independent news when, in fact, much of it was created in Russia by RT employees who work for the Russian government,” Wray said. “The second operation reveals even more malign activities by companies working under the direction and control of the Russian government, companies that created media websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda.”

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said they will continue to investigate election threats without fear or favor.

“Russia remains a predominant foreign threat to our elections, and as the intelligence community has publicly reported, and as I have previously warned, Iran also is accelerating its efforts to influence our elections, including the presidential election,” Monaco said.

Wray also delivered a blunt message for Iran and China when asked what the bureau’s response would be to those who intend to meddle in the presidential election: “Knock it off.”

The attorney general said Russia is using new techniques Russia such as artificial intelligence and other cyber techniques.

“They’re now using bot farms in a way that was not possible before, and therefore it’s a bigger threat than it ever was before. I would just say that [the] reality is that Russia has meddled in our society and tried to sow discord for decades,” Garland said.

The DOJ also announced that it’s targeting a Russian disinformation campaign referred to as “Doppelganger.”

The DOJ has seized 32 internet domains it claims have been used by the Russian government and government-sponsored actors to allegedly engage in the Doppelganger influence campaign by spreading propaganda intended to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster support for pro-Russian policies and influence American voters, according to newly unsealed court records.

Garland on Wednesday also highlighted domestic efforts to threaten election officials around the country.

Since March, the Election Threats Task Force has participated in more than 25 engagements, trainings and tabletop exercises, including both with law enforcement partners and partners in the election community, the attorney general said.

Over the next several weeks, task force representatives will be on the ground meeting with election workers and, in early November, both in advance of and after Election Day, the FBI will host federal partners at its headquarters command center to address events, issues and potential crimes related to the elections in real time, Garland said.

“Election officials and administrators do not need to navigate this threat environment alone,” he added.

CNN first reported news of the expected law enforcement actions.

In a statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined the steps the State Department said it’s taking to “counter Kremlin-backed media outlets’ malicious operations seeking to influence or interfere in the 2024 U.S. elections.”

The measures include introducing a new visa restriction policy to penalize adversaries, designating RT’s parent company and subsidiaries as entities controlled by a foreign government, and offering cash rewards for information on the Russian intelligence-linked hacking group RaHDit under its “Rewards for Justice” program.

“Today’s announcement highlights the lengths some foreign governments go to undermine American democratic institutions. But these foreign governments should also know that we will not tolerate foreign malign actors intentionally interfering and undermining free and fair elections,” Blinken said.

In addition, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Wednesday that it’s designating 10 individuals — including several RT employees — and two entities as part of the U.S. response to “Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election.”

The head of a “hacktivist” group RaHDit and two associates were also part of Wednesday’s sanctions, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last month he was suspending his struggling independent campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump, voters in many states are still likely to see him on their ballot this fall.

Announcing his decision in Phoenix, Arizona, Kennedy said that he would remove himself from the ballot in battleground states where he could act as a “spoiler” for Trump, but he encouraged voters in solidly Democratic or Republican states to vote for him.

Kennedy did not name the states from which he would withdraw, but ABC News has confirmed that he has successfully removed himself from several battleground state ballots.

However, in a hiccup for the campaign — and for Trump — Kennedy was unable to remove his name from the ballot in at least three states expected to be competitive: Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Here’s a look at where Kennedy has been taken off from the ballot — and where he’ll still be on them.

Where has Kennedy been removed from the ballot?

As of Wednesday, ABC News had confirmed that Kennedy has successfully withdrawn his name from the ballot in at least 10 states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina.

Many of those states are considered presidential battlegrounds, or at least contain some competitive congressional districts — such as Maine’s 2nd District, which Trump won in 2020, but is currently a seat held by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden.

Kennedy has moved quickly to scratch his name from ballots: in Arizona, his team scrambled to file withdrawal paperwork the night before he suspended his campaign. They were working to beat a crucial deadline: the Arizona secretary of state’s office was set to print ballots, which included Kennedy’s name, just hours later.

Then, in the hours after his announcement, Kennedy’s campaign successfully withdrew his name from the ballot in Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio, ABC News confirmed.

In the days since, officials in several other states have told ABC News that Kennedy has successfully removed his name from the ballot.

In Georgia, a key battleground, the secretary of state’s office received two letters from lawyers for Kennedy asking to remove him from the ballot, according to a spokesperson.

But the office never considered Kennedy to be “on the ballot” in the first place — as an administrative judge ruled that the independent candidate did not meet the qualifications.

A spokesman for the office told ABC News, “He won’t be on the ballot.”

Officials in Nevada confirmed to ABC News last week that Kennedy is now off the ballot in the state — in that case, because of a court order received by the office.

The Nevada Independent reported that the court order is due to an agreement between Kennedy’s lawyers and the Nevada Democratic Party, which had challenged his petition to get on the ballot in Nevada, to drop the lawsuit and to mutually agree that Kennedy should not be on the ballot.

In New Hampshire, the office of the secretary of state confirmed to ABC News that Kennedy’s campaign submitted signatures to get him on the ballot the morning he suspended his campaign. But days later, a spokesperson for the office told ABC News that the Kennedy campaign “withdrew the nomination petitions required to be a certified candidate on the general election ballot.”

Where is Kennedy still on the ballot?

As of Wednesday, ABC News had confirmed that Kennedy will likely be on the ballot in about 30 states, although this could shift with any further successful withdrawals, legal challenges or decisions by elections offices ahead of state ballot certifications.

That number includes battleground states whose ballots Kennedy tried in recent days to withdraw from, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 on Tuesday to certify Kennedy and some other independent candidates for the ballot. The board debated over whether to remove him given his withdrawal from the race, with commissioner Ann S. Jacobs, a Democratic Party appointee on the board, arguing that Kennedy could not withdraw due to state statutes.

“It literally says, ‘if you filed nomination papers you cannot withdraw unless you’re dead.’ I mean, all of this is just vibing to try to ignore a statute. And this statute’s clear — like this isn’t even equivocal,” Jacobs said during a meeting of the commission.

A lawyer for Kennedy had submitted a letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission requesting to withdraw him from the state’s ballot. But a spokesperson for the commission told ABC News recently that if a candidate files to get on the ballot in Wisconsin, “there is no mechanism to ‘take back’ the filing.”

ABC News has reached out to the Kennedy campaign to see if he plans to appeal the decision.

In Michigan, a judge ruled against Kennedy, who had sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for ordering his name to remain on the ballot.

Nominees of minor political parties may not remove themselves from the ballot, a representative for Benson’s office told ABC News.

The Natural Law Party, a two-member political party with ballot access in Michigan, nominated Kennedy to lead its ticket in April.

And in North Carolina, election officials voted to keep Kennedy’s name on the ballot since nearly two million ballots had already been printed across the state.

Reprinting them would be costly and leave most counties without ballots until at least mid-September (under state law, absentee ballots must go out by Sept. 6 to voters who have requested them).

On Friday, Kennedy sued the North Carolina Board of Elections to get his name removed from the ballot.

In an oddity, there are also some states where Kennedy’s campaign filed to get on the ballot even after he announced suspending his campaign.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams wrote on X on Monday afternoon that Kennedy filed to run in Kentucky (a state that his campaign had not discussed much or at all previously) that afternoon.

“Having just completed review of his submission of signatures, we are placing him on the ballot,” Adams wrote. The Kentucky secretary of state’s website also shows his filing.

And in Oregon, Kennedy achieved a spot on the ballot three days after announcing his suspension through the We the People Party and “at this time” will be on the ballot in the state, a spokesman for the Oregon secretary of state’s office said. The Oregon secretary of state’s website also has an entry for his filing.

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