Politics

(WASHINGTON) — One of the most well-known names in science, Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” is pushing back on the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget cuts.

NYE, the CEO of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit founded by Carl Sagan in 1980, joined colleagues, space advocates and legislators on Capitol Hill Monday to make a case for keeping NASA’s funding intact and the benefits of space exploration.

The Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA’s budget by approximately 24% for the 2026 fiscal year. The agency’s total budget would decrease from around $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. Around $6 billion of the cuts would impact the agency’s planetary science, Earth science and astrophysics research funding, which all form part of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“We’re not talking about delays in scientific exploration, we’re talking about the end of it,” Nye said at a press conference Monday on the steps of Capitol Hill. “While we’re checking out, our competitors are checking in,” he added.

Under the proposed budget, NASA’s science research funding would be among the hardest hit by the cuts, with a 47% cut. In a statement, The Planetary Society called this cut an “extinction-level event for space exploration.”

ABC News has reached out to multiple NASA centers for comment, but the agency is currently being affected by the government shutdown.

“Cutting NASA science in half would end several missions that are spacecraft that are already flying and several missions that are scheduled to fly,” Nye told Diane Macedo on ABC News Live on Monday. “And why this matters is if you cut it in half, cut the science budget in half, you’ll probably turn the whole thing off.”

Casey Dreier, the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, says his organization has a simple goal: protecting existing programs.

“So, this is no new money, it’s no changes in policy, it’s just to continue these projects that we’ve already invested in, already paid for and are currently returning in fantastic science,” Dreier said.

At Monday’s press conference, Dreier explained that at this point, “Both House and Senate [are] a near-full rejection of the proposed cuts to NASA science and broadly around other areas of NASA as well.”

The Science Mission Directorate is responsible for sending satellites into space like the James Webb Space Telescope, the Perseverance Rover (the spacecraft that landed on Mars in 2021) and the Landsat 9 satellite, which work to collect vital data and “achieve scientific understanding of Earth, the solar system, and the universe.”

The White House’s proposal referred to several missions as “unaffordable.” More than 40 projects have already been flagged for defunding, including the Mars Sample Return, Mars orbiter MAVEN and the Juno mission.

“The Budget proposes termination of multiple unaffordable missions and reduces lower priority research, resulting in a leaner Science program that reflects a commitment to fiscal responsibility,” the proposal stated.

There was also a specific request within the proposal for the cancellation of climate-focused projects, as well as funding for the Office of STEM engagement.

ABC News has reached out to the Trump administration for a comment, but did not immediately hear back.

“The Budget eliminates climate-focused ‘green aviation’ spending while protecting the development of technologies with air traffic control and defense applications, producing savings,” NASA headquarters said in a statement.

Nye and Drier say they are speaking out to explain the dangers of cutting funding for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the National Science Foundation. Nye suggested that those cuts could ultimately have a direct impact on the United States’ position in the global race back to the moon’s surface.

“The China National Space Administration is going fast, doing a lot of extraordinary missions very similar, almost mission for mission, to what the United States is doing and I’m telling you there’s going to be a Sputnik moment when Taikonauts, China National Space Administration space travelers, are on the moon in the next five years,” Nye said.

U.S. Representative Glenn Ivey, D-Md., echoed those thoughts during the Capitol press conference.

“We’re falling behind with respect to China,” Rep. Ivey said. “They’re pushing money and engineers and scientists towards advancing science in China, competing against us, while we’re doing the exact opposite. The White House almost wants to zero out NASA science.”

More than 300 advocates joined the call to action on Capitol Hill Monday, along with 20 education, science and space partner organizations. Some of the groups represented at the press conference at the U.S. Capitol included the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

“Finish the job. So, both the Senate and House have bills that reject these cuts, pushing back against these cuts, but we want them to sign it into law,” Nye said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo told “The View” on Monday it would be a “gift” to President Donald Trump if Zohran Mamdani wins the election in November and becomes New York City’s next mayor.

Cuomo said he’s the “last person” Trump wants to see as mayor, citing their relationship while he was governor of New York. “We fought on a daily basis,” Cuomo said.

He alleged that a Mamdani win would lead to a federal takeover of New York City and then Trump would use Mamdani as an example during other elections about the dangers of electing a far-left politician.

Trump “will take a picture of Mamdani and run around the country and say, here’s what happened to the Democrats,” Cuomo said. “Mamdani is a gift for him … because it’s the excuse he needs to take over New York, which he said he will do.”

In a recent interview with “The View,” Mamdani said New York should be prepared to push back against Trump.

“This is just one of the many threats that Donald Trump makes. Every day he wakes up, he makes another threat, a lot of the times about the city that he actually comes from,” Mamdani said. “[Trump] wants to do a whole lot of things with this city, and we’re going to fight him every step of the way, as long as it is something that comes at the expense of this city.”

Cuomo denied allegations from Mamdani and other critics that he’s Trump’s pick in the race. Cuomo also denied reporting in the New York Times that he had recently discussed the race on a call with Trump.

New York City’s mayoral race is down to three candidates, including Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, after Mayor Eric Adams recently dropped out of the race. He said the race is down to a democratic socialist in Mamdani and himself, a true Democrat.

“What’s really happening is there’s a civil war within the Democratic Party going on, and the Democratic Party is looking for its identity. And there are two factions. You have the democratic socialists, and then you have the Democrats, they have a very extreme view that they’re pursuing, which is different than the Democratic Party,” Cuomo said Monday on “The View.”

After Adams announced he was dropping out of the mayor’s race, Cuomo gave him kudos and said his withdrawal indeed shakes up the race. He said that New Yorkers should be “afraid” of a win by Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“I believe Mayor Adams is 100% sincere. I applaud his selflessness. You know, we often wonder, is it about us, or is it about a greater calling? And I think what Mayor Adams said today speaks volumes,” Cuomo said at the time. “He said, I’m going to put my personal ambition aside for the good of the city, because he’s afraid of the result if Mr. Mamdani would have [sic] win the election, and we should all be afraid of the result.”

And Adams no longer campaigning makes a difference, Cuomo said: “It’s not just about the polling. You know, the mayor was – is the incumbent mayor, so he is a potent force in the campaign; if he is not actively campaigning, that changes the entire dynamic of the race.”

Even still, Cuomo is running an uphill campaign after Mamdani delivered an upset win during the June Democratic primary. The former governor has been trailing the Democratic nominee in most polls and Mamdani has racked up major endorsements, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Cuomo has faced scrutiny during his mayoral campaign following his exit from the governor’s office four years ago as he faced mounting sexual harassment allegations.

During his appearance on The View, Cuomo said he now acts much more cautiously due to the “very painful” allegations.

“I learned a lesson, a painful lesson, which is to be much more cautious about everything you say, any joke, any comment,” Cuomo said Monday. “I won’t kiss a person on the cheek unless they initiate a kiss. So they taught me a lesson, just to be super cautious, because there is a sensitivity that has evolved that is real. If people feel it, it’s true, and it has to be respected.”

Cuomo made apologies back in 2021 when the allegations surfaced, but has since insisted he did nothing wrong, despite a state attorney general probe alleging he harassed 11 women. He was never charged with any wrongdoing,

Mamdani and other opponents have contended that Cuomo is still unfit to serve in office.

The former governor lost the Democratic primary after three rounds of ranked choice voting by nearly 130,000 votes. Cuomo pressed on and announced shortly after the defeat that he would continue to run as an independent candidate.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo told “The View” on Monday it would be a “gift” to President Donald Trump if Zohran Mamdani wins the election in November and becomes New York City’s next mayor.

Cuomo said he’s the “last person” Trump wants to see as mayor, citing their relationship while he was governor of New York. “We fought on a daily basis,” Cuomo said.

He alleged that a Mamdani win would lead to a federal takeover of New York City and then Trump would use Mamdani as an example during other elections about the dangers of electing a far-left politician.

Trump “will take a picture of Mamdani and run around the country and say, here’s what happened to the Democrats,” Cuomo said. “Mamdani is a gift for him … because it’s the excuse he needs to take over New York, which he said he will do.”

In a recent interview with “The View,” Mamdani said New York should be prepared to push back against Trump.

“This is just one of the many threats that Donald Trump makes. Every day he wakes up, he makes another threat, a lot of the times about the city that he actually comes from,” Mamdani said. “[Trump] wants to do a whole lot of things with this city, and we’re going to fight him every step of the way, as long as it is something that comes at the expense of this city.”

Cuomo denied allegations from Mamdani and other critics that he’s Trump’s pick in the race. Cuomo also denied reporting in the New York Times that he had recently discussed the race on a call with Trump.

New York City’s mayoral race is down to three candidates, including Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, after Mayor Eric Adams recently dropped out of the race. He said the race is down to a democratic socialist in Mamdani and himself, a true Democrat.

“What’s really happening is there’s a civil war within the Democratic Party going on, and the Democratic Party is looking for its identity. And there are two factions. You have the democratic socialists, and then you have the Democrats, they have a very extreme view that they’re pursuing, which is different than the Democratic Party,” Cuomo said Monday on “The View.”

After Adams announced he was dropping out of the mayor’s race, Cuomo gave him kudos and said his withdrawal indeed shakes up the race. He said that New Yorkers should be “afraid” of a win by Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“I believe Mayor Adams is 100% sincere. I applaud his selflessness. You know, we often wonder, is it about us, or is it about a greater calling? And I think what Mayor Adams said today speaks volumes,” Cuomo said at the time. “He said, I’m going to put my personal ambition aside for the good of the city, because he’s afraid of the result if Mr. Mamdani would have [sic] win the election, and we should all be afraid of the result.”

And Adams no longer campaigning makes a difference, Cuomo said: “It’s not just about the polling. You know, the mayor was – is the incumbent mayor, so he is a potent force in the campaign; if he is not actively campaigning, that changes the entire dynamic of the race.”

Even still, Cuomo is running an uphill campaign after Mamdani delivered an upset win during the June Democratic primary. The former governor has been trailing the Democratic nominee in most polls and Mamdani has racked up major endorsements, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Cuomo has faced scrutiny during his mayoral campaign following his exit from the governor’s office four years ago as he faced mounting sexual harassment allegations.

During his appearance on The View, Cuomo said he now acts much more cautiously due to the “very painful” allegations.

“I learned a lesson, a painful lesson, which is to be much more cautious about everything you say, any joke, any comment,” Cuomo said Monday. “I won’t kiss a person on the cheek unless they initiate a kiss. So they taught me a lesson, just to be super cautious, because there is a sensitivity that has evolved that is real. If people feel it, it’s true, and it has to be respected.”

Cuomo made apologies back in 2021 when the allegations surfaced, but has since insisted he did nothing wrong, despite a state attorney general probe alleging he harassed 11 women. He was never charged with any wrongdoing,

Mamdani and other opponents have contended that Cuomo is still unfit to serve in office.

The former governor lost the Democratic primary after three rounds of ranked choice voting by nearly 130,000 votes. Cuomo pressed on and announced shortly after the defeat that he would continue to run as an independent candidate.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — Conversion therapy, or the attempt to change a patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity as a form of treatment, has been widely discredited by major American mental health and medical organizations for decades. Half the states have outlawed the practice as ineffective and harmful to minors, often on a bipartisan basis.

On Tuesday, a licensed therapist who offers “faith-informed” counseling services in Colorado will directly confront that consensus at the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to strike down the laws as infringements on free speech.

“I want to be able to speak genuinely, openly, have full conversations with my clients,” said Kaley Chiles, the plaintiff in the high court case, in an interview with ABC News, “without the state kind of peering into my office in these completely private conversations.”

“If someone comes into the office and they say, I am a biological male and I have been living and presenting as a female for a while now – those are the clients who I cannot have a full conversation with,” Chiles said.

The case pits the First Amendment against a state’s regulation of medical practices to comply with an established standard of care. It also implicates the rights of parents in search of help for children struggling during puberty and the mental health of LGBTQ young people in search of greater societal acceptance.

The Colorado Minor Conversion Therapy Law, enacted in 2019, says therapists licensed by the state are not allowed to try to “change behaviors or gender expressions” or try to “eliminate or reduce” same-sex attraction. Violators face up to a $5000 fine and potential loss of license.

The law does not apply to religious groups or faith-based ministries aimed at changing a person.

Therapists are allowed to provide “acceptance, support, and understanding” around areas of sexuality and gender identity as a child develops.

“Making you feel bad about who you are, or pressuring you to be someone else, that’s not legitimate therapy,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told ABC. “The medical consensus is clear. That’s why it’s banned here in Colorado on a bipartisan basis.”

“This law allows children to be their best authentic selves, whatever it is. It doesn’t put a thumb on the scale either way,” Weiser said.

One in four American high schoolers identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, according to a first-of-its-kind 2023 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three percent of teens identify as transgender and another 2 percent report questioning their gender, the survey found.

“What happens is that people do develop, their sexuality emerges, their gender emerges. Those changes happen naturally, but it’s not because some therapist has affected that change,” said Dr. Clinton Anderson, a trained psychologist who spent more than 30 years studying mental health care for LGBTQ people at the American Psychological Association (APA).

Citing scientific, ethical, and safety concerns, the APA, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and nine other mental health and medical organizations oppose efforts by a provider to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

“If you are trying to make them change, and they’re not going to be successful,” Anderson added, “then the distress they bring into the therapy gets compounded by their concern about being a failure, particularly in these religious contexts.”

Attorneys for Chiles dispute the consensus scientific conclusions about the ineffectiveness of using talk therapy for a goal of conversion and any harm that may come from it.

Chiles won’t say directly whether she wants to practice conversion therapy or whether she has successfully used the treatment in the past to help a client eliminate unwanted feelings of same-sex attraction or reach better alignment with sex assigned at birth.

She said the law has a chilling effect that prevents her from even approaching the topics.

“The statute is broad, overarching language and it prevents me from doing what I want to do with clients,” she said. “Minors who are coming to me voluntarily of their own free will, who might have values different from the state and who have goals that the state has forbidden – they can’t come and have the same conversation with me that they could before this law.”

Erin Lee, a mother of three in Wellington, Colorado, says her daughter Chloe was unable to find a counselor willing to help her resolve a struggle over gender identity during puberty because of Colorado’s law.

“She had already made up this, ‘I’m gonna go by Toby now’ and ‘I’m ready to cut my hair’ and ‘I don’t wanna wear girls’ clothes anymore’,” Erin said of her then 12-year-old daughter in an interview at the family home.

“We knew she was not a boy who was trapped in the wrong body,” she said. “We thought, we have to talk to a professional so we know what to say, because if in fact she’s just experiencing normal distress over her sex, we don’t wanna push her further into this trans identity.”

Lee claims a counselor who worked briefly with Chloe “was dodging the issue entirely” because of the law, which in turn pushed Chloe deeper into depression and contemplation of suicide.

“The law as I very clearly – it’s very clearly written and, as I interpret it, it prevents counselors from being able to help kids through their gender confusion. They can only help them into it,” Erin said. She founded a grassroots advocacy group, Protect Kids Colorado, to oppose the restrictions on therapists.

Chloe, now 16, said she has become more comfortable as a cisgender girl despite what her parents have lamented was a lack of resources to help her. “I felt a lot of shame and despair that seemed absolutely inexplicable,” she recently told a gathering of parent advocates. “I’m not a boy, and I was just really really confused.”

Still, many Americans who have experienced conversion therapy as minors – and therapists who once pushed the practice — now say it was dangerously destructive and rightfully banned.

An estimated 700,000 LGBT adults in the US have received conversion therapy –half were subjected to the practice as adolescents, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.

“The trauma of conversion therapy can last a lifetime,” said Matthew Shurka, 37, a self-described “survivor” of four conversion therapists over five years.

After sharing feelings of sexual attraction to other boys with his parents when he was 16, Shurka’s father sought out help from licensed therapists. Some said they could cure Matthew.

“They said that I was an easy case, that I should start to see my heterosexuality come back within six weeks,” he told ABC News in an interview. “My father made this situation life or death, and he really felt that he was saving my life.”

One therapist told Shurka that a key part of treatment would be no contact with female family members — his two sisters and his mother — which lasted 3 years. He was also coached as a teenager to use Viagra to help intimacy with women.

“Maybe I was able to perform on that specific evening, but the harm that I was doing to my mental self was starting – at times, it felt irreversible,” Shurka said. “That is when I knew that suicide may be an option for me, because I knew I wasn’t changing.”

In 2018, Shurka testified in Colorado about his experience, urging lawmakers to adopt the conversion therapy ban, which they later did.

“Any therapist can share their opinion on anything. That is their freedom of speech,” he said. “But when it comes to a course of treatment, that’s professional speech. I was given a treatment to cure my homosexuality that had no basis in any scientific finding.”

The Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Colorado’s law as a legitimate regulation of “professional conduct,” which incidentally restricted speech but was not viewpoint discrimination.

The Supreme Court will decide whether to affirm that conclusion and, in the process, wade into an impassioned national debate over how to best help developing teens.

“We know that young kids right now are hurting,” said Attorney General Weiser. “One of the ways we protect young people is we let them have autonomy about who they are.”

A decision in the case — Chiles v Salazar — is expected in spring 2026.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo told “The View” on Monday it would be a “gift” to President Donald Trump if Zohran Mamdani wins the election in November and becomes New York City’s next mayor.

Cuomo said he’s the “last person” Trump wants to see as mayor, citing their relationship while he was governor of New York. “We fought on a daily basis,” Cuomo said.

He alleged that a Mamdani win would lead to a federal takeover of New York City and then use Mamdani as an example during other elections about the dangers of electing a far-left politician.

New York City’s mayoral race is down to three candidates after Mayor Eric Adams recently dropped out of the race.

After Adams announced he was dropping out of the mayor’s race, Cuomo gave him kudos and said his withdrawal indeed shakes up the race. He said that New Yorkers should be “afraid” of a win by Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“I believe Mayor Adams is 100% sincere. I applaud his selflessness. You know, we often wonder, is it about us, or is it about a greater calling? And I think what Mayor Adams said today speaks volumes,” Cuomo said. “He said, I’m going to put my personal ambition aside for the good of the city, because he’s afraid of the result if Mr. Mamdani would have [sic] win the election, and we should all be afraid of the result,” said Cuomo.

And Adams no longer campaigning makes a difference, Cuomo said: “It’s not just about the polling. You know, the mayor was – is the incumbent mayor, so he is a potent force in the campaign; if he is not actively campaigning, that changes the entire dynamic of the race.”

Even still, Cuomo is running an uphill campaign after Mamdani delivered an upset win during the June Democratic primary. The former governor has been trailing the Democratic nominee in most polls and Mamdani has racked up major endorsements, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Cuomo has faced scrutiny during his mayoral campaign following his exit from the governor’s office four years ago as he faced mounting sexual harassment allegations.

Cuomo made apologies back in 2021 when the allegations surfaced, but has since insisted he did nothing wrong, despite a state attorney general probe alleging he harassed 11 women.

Mamdani and other opponents have contended that Cuomo is still unfit to serve in office.

The former governor lost the Democratic primary after three rounds of ranked choice voting by nearly 130,000 votes. Cuomo pressed on and announced shortly after the defeat that he would continue to run as an independent candidate.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has declined to take up the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was contesting her prosecution and conviction on grounds that the government had violated a non-prosecution agreement made with Jeffrey Epstein before his death. 

The Supreme Court did not explain its decision. 

Maxwell’s attorney, David O. Markus said he was “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision.

“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” Markus said in a statement. “But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CHICAGO) — The Illinois National Guard has received an official notification from the Pentagon authorizing a mission in Chicago, according to an Illinois official.

The official confirmed the mission will involve 300 Guardsmen tasked with protecting federal property under Title 10 authorities.

The Guard has not received mobilization orders, which means it will take a number of days to process and muster soldiers — and train them for the mission, according to the official.

At the very earliest, Guardsmen would be deployed in Chicago at the end of this week, the official said.

“The Governor did not receive any calls from any federal officials. The Illinois National Guard communicated to the Department of War that the situation in Illinois does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the Governor opposes the deployment of the National Guard under any status,” a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.

The authorization comes amid escalating tensions in Chicago over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on Saturday shot and wounded a woman they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters that rammed their vehicles during an “ambush.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Border Patrol agents opened fire on the woman in self-defense, alleging she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and was driving one of three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed the CBP agents’ vehicles.

Describing the incident as “really strange,” Noem alleged that before the shooting, a caravan of 10 vehicles was following the CBP agents and officers through the streets of Chicago.

“They had followed them and gotten them cornered, pinned them down and then our agents, when getting out of their cars, they tried to run them over and had semiautomatic handguns on them to where our agents had to protect themselves and shots were fired and an individual ended up in the hospital that was attacking these officers,” Noem said in a statement on Sunday.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said talks remain stalled on the fifth day of the government shutdown, with Democrats seeking to undo Medicaid cuts and restore Obamacare subsidies and Republicans demanding a clean funding bill to fund the government into November.

“It’s really a moment of health care crisis,” Booker told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

Booker said he’s less concerned with which party is to blame for the shutdown and more focused on Americans’ health and personal finances that he said are at risk from the shutdown.

“I don’t care about the blame game. I care about Americans losing their health insurance, rates of death going up, hospitals being crushed, medical services ending in places in rural America. This is a tsunami of Donald Trump’s creation,” Booker said.

Here are more highlights from Booker’s interview:

On GOP criticism that Dems have supported past continuing resolutions
They’re [GOP] not negotiating. Remember, the speaker of the House has kept the House out for the last two weeks. They’re not sitting down. And when he asks, “What’s different?” What is different is we are, for the first time in America ever, we’re on a moment where because of Donald Trump’s attacks on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, on the verge of tens of millions of Americans losing their health care and most of Americans experiencing a significant rise in their health care costs.

On whether he has any criticism of Democratic leadership

Raddatz: Do you have any disappointment in your party leadership?

Booker: You’ve seen Chuck Schumer go to the podium, negotiate with us, almost begging the president to bring the parties together, like he said, Donald Trump literally has said, it’s the president’s responsibility to bring the parties together and negotiate a way through.

Raddatz: So you’re fine, you’re fine with your leadership, with everything the Democrats have been doing?

Booker: I am proud of those people who are standing up right now and saying, we’re not doing business as usual in Washington with this many millions of Americans are literally going to be hurt because when they’re sick, they won’t be able to afford to go to a doctor, when they go to the emergency room, the lines will be two times as long we are in a crisis. We are in a crisis. We need a president to stand up and bring us together to help to solve the problems of American people.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The government shutdown is in its third day on Friday with senators set to vote for the fourth time on bills to fund the government. But with negotiations appearing stalled, it’s looking like the shutdown could extend through the weekend.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune stood firm Friday on the Senate floor — just hours before the chamber is set to take yet another vote on Republican’s clean seven-week government funding bill — and signaled his party’s unwillingness to negotiate with Democrats over their demands in order to open the government back up.

“This shutdown needs to end sooner rather than later, and there’s only one way out of it. Democrats need to vote for the clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sitting right there,” Thune said. “All it takes is one roll call, vote, the government’s back open.”

In addition to the GOP-backed seven-week stopgap funding measure, the Senate will also vote on the Democrat’s funding bill that includes health care provisions.

Thune criticized the Democrats’ bill, suggesting that any health care negotiations could begin after they pass the continuing resolution. But with both Republican and Democratic leaders at a stalemate, it seems as if neither bill will pass.

Both bills have failed during the three previous votes since the government shut down on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m.

Thune said he does not expect to hold votes over the weekend and the next chance to try again would be Monday. This shutdown could go on at least six days if that ends up being the case.

Thune, meanwhile, is continuing his effort to recruit more Democrats to join the GOP-backed funding bill. And Democrats met Friday afternoon to discuss their next moves.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that Republicans are to blame for the shutdown.

“The Republicans can reopen the government and make peoples’ healthcare more affordable at the same time,” Schumer wrote in a post on X. “Republicans are choosing to let healthcare costs go up for Americans across this country.”

Asked Friday afternoon if President Donald Trump is talking with Democrats to work to get them onboard, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Senate Republicans are speaking to moderate Democrats and that those conversations have “become very serious.”

Thune put pressure on Democrats during a press conference Friday morning.

“We have an opportunity to pick up a House-passed bill that if it passes the Senate, will be sent to the White House, the president will sign it and the government will reopen. It’s that simple and that straightforward. And that’s what we’re talking about. All we need is a handful more Democrats,” Thune said.

The majority leader said he hoped that Democrats “have a chance to think about” their stance over the weekend.

“I don’t know how many times you give them a chance to vote no, and hopefully over the weekend, they’ll have a chance to think about it. Maybe some of these conversations start to result in something to where we can start moving some votes and actually get this thing passed,” Thune said Friday. “But there’s nothing to be gained at this point by negotiating something that there’s nothing to negotiate.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson also would not commit to negotiating with Democrats on their $400 billion demand to extend the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of the year.  

“Some of the issues that they’re bringing to the table and they’re demanding immediate easy answers for, are not easy answers and they take a long time to deliberate. That is the process. This is a deliberative body, and a very large one,” Johnson said. “We can’t snap our fingers, and he and I and two other leaders in a room go, ‘Oh, well, this is the resolution.’ That’s not how it works.”

As the Senate works to chart a path forward, President Donald Trump is once again teasing to looming federal firings, which the White House said are “very real” and could result in “thousands” of federal workers losing their jobs during the shutdown.

ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Friday defended President Donald Trump continuing use of social media to troll Democrats during the government shutdown, threatening targeted cuts and posting two deepfake videos featuring Project 2025’s co-author as the “Grim Reaper” and another mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

In one post late Thursday, the president posted an AI-generated video depicting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the “Grim Reaper” while the administration threatens mass layoffs of federal workers and cuts to what Trump calls “Democratic Agencies.”

Trump met earlier Thursday with Vought, who co-authored and heralded Project 2025 the conservative policy playbook that has advocated for firing federal workers and the elimination of federal agencies.

“Russ Vought is the Reaper. He wields the pen, the funds, and the brain. Here comes the Reaper,” a voice sings in the video as Vought is depicted walking through the Capitol dressed as the character depicting impending doom.

Hours after the post, Vought posted on X that he was going to withhold federal funding for transit infrastructure projects in Chicago, a Democratic run city that has been the source of complaints from Trump.

Vought earlier in the week withheld funding for transit infrastructure projects for New York and New Jersey, also Democratic-run states.

In another post, Trump highlighted another AI-generated video of himself trolling House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with a “TRUMP 2028” hat while they appeared to negotiate in the White House on Monday.

It was on Monday that Trump also posted an AI-generated video that depicted Jeffries with a fake mustache and wearing a sombrero in a Mexican stereotype.

Jeffries, who called Monday’s video “racist” and “bigoted,” was asked about the latest deep fake on Friday morning in an interview on MSNBC.

“It’s further confirmation that Republicans are the ones who were clearly determined to shut the government down because everything that President Trump has done subsequent to Monday has been unhinged and unserious. In fact, Donald Trump is in the presidential witness protection program,” the minority leader said.

“No one can find him when it comes to the government shutdown issue because he knows he’s responsible for having caused it. And the behavior, the erratic behavior that we’ve seen, is further confirmation of that unfortunate fact,” he added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed Jeffries’ comments during a briefing Friday, calling them “ridiculous fodder.”

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked, “The president has described this as an unprecedented opportunity to lay off additional workers. He’s posted a video likening it to the Grim Reaper. Which is it? Is this an opportunity to fire more workers or an ‘unfortunate consequence'” (as Leavitt has called it).

“He likes to have a little fun and both can be true at the same time,” Leavitt responded. “We don’t like laying people off. Nobody takes joy and if you think that, that’s very sad you view the White House and our staff as wanting to put people out of work. Nobody wants to do that but sometimes in government, you have to make the tough decisions.

Leavitt, however, dodged questions if the federal layoffs could happen after the shutdown ends.

Vice President JD Vance has defended Trump’s memes, contending on Wednesday that they were simply jokes to make fun of Democrats. He said he didn’t understand how Jeffries could consider the video Trump posted on Monday as racist.

Republicans on the Hill have argued that the federal workers are suffering the most during the government shutdown and have pushed Democrats to reopen the government to protect their jobs.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has echoed that message and claimed that Vought does not want to get anyone fired if he can avoid it.

However, he also defended the president’s memes when asked about them on Friday.

“Are they taking great pleasure or not? No. Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. Because that is what President Trump does and people are having fun with this. But at the end of the day, the decisions are tough,” Johnson said.

“The effects are really serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all of these different areas, but what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, was to point out the absurdity that is the Democrats position,” he said.

“And they are using the memes and the tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining, but the decisions are hard ones and they are not taking any pleasure in that,” Johnson added.

Legal experts argued the Constitution and federal law allow only Congress to declare cuts to federal agencies or remove them entirely.

The White House has not provided more details on the legality of Trump’s threats, nor has it responded to questions as to how firing people who are not getting paid would cut down on waste.

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.

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