(WASHINGTON) — Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Wednesday she will vote for former President Donald Trump in November — despite her disappointments with him.
During a question and answer session after delivering a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Haley was asked who she thinks would do a better job in the White House with national security issues: Joe Biden or Donald Trump,
The former United Nations ambassador said she prioritizes a president who will hold enemies to account, secure the border and support “capitalism and freedom” — and that while “Trump has not been perfect on these policies,” that “Biden has been a catastrophe.”
“So I will be voting for Trump,” Haley said.
Haley, who suspended her campaign in March, has yet to endorse Trump.
During a speech announcing her campaign suspension — the day after suffering considerable losses on Super Tuesday, the former South Carolina governor said Trump had to “earn the votes.”
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it, who did not support him,” she said in March. “And I hope he does that. At its best politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.”
Many of the Republicans who once challenged Trump for the nomination quickly fell into line behind him after exiting the race.
The decision not to endorse Trump has been one that has loomed large over her public persona, fueling speculation as to what the former South Carolina governor’s next steps may be.
The Biden campaign has tried to court Haley voters, some of whom have told ABC News they remain undecided.
Recent primaries have also shown Haley with a decent amount of support among Republican primary voters, with the former ambassador picking up much support in primaries in Maryland, Indiana, Wisconsin and other states.
According to ABC News’ current pledged delegate estimates, Haley has netted 94 delegates to the Republican National Convention.
(WASHINGTON) — The House of Representatives came to standstill on Wednesday as lawmakers quibbled about criticism of Donald Trump and his legal woes.
Legislative business was paused on the floor for an hour as Republicans demanded the words of Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, be taken down from the congressional record.
McGovern’s statements were focused on the four criminal cases against Trump. The former president denies any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all charges. Trump and his allies have cast the indictments as politically-motivated efforts to keep him off the 2024 campaign trail.
Republican Rep. Jerry Carl was presiding over debate and ultimately read a ruling that struck McGovern’s comments from the record. Carl called the remarks “offensive words” that “accused the presumed nominee of the office of the president in engaging in illegal activities.”
“Although remarks in debate may include criticism of such candidates’ official positions as a candidate, it is a breach of order to refer to the candidate in terms personally offensive, whether by actually accusing or by merely insulting,” he said as he made his ruling.
The move to strike McGovern’s words is not without precedent. In 2019, criticism from House Democrats suggesting Trump was a racist were stripped from the record. At the time, the House chair said the speech violated rules forbidding personal attacks on the floor against the president.
The following is the exchange involving McGovern that transpired on Wednesday.
Rep. McGovern: “Donald Trump might want to be a king. But he is not a king. He is not a presumptive king. He’s not even a president. He’s a presumptive nominee. And I know you’re trying to do your job and follow precedent but, frankly, at some point it’s time for this body to recognize that there is no precedent for this situation. We have a presumptive nominee for president facing 88 felony counts and we are being prevented from even acknowledging it. These are not alternative facts. There are real facts. A candidate for president of the United States is on trial for sending a hush money payment to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign, and then fraudulently disguising those payments in violation of the law. He is also charged with conspiring to overturn the election. He is also charged with stealing classified information. And a jury has already found him liable for rape in a civil court. And yet, in this Republican-controlled House, it’s okay to talk about the trial but you have to call it a sham.”
Republican Rep. Erin Houchin: “We take down his words.”
Rep. McGovern: “It’s okay to say the jury is rigged, but not that Trump should be held accountable.”
Rep. Houchin: “Mr. Speaker, I demand that his words be taken down.”
Rep. McGovern: “It’s okay to say the court is corrupt, but not Trump corrupting the rule of law.”
(WASHINGTON) — Facing backlash, former President Donald Trump has tried to walk back comments he made suggesting he’s open to restricting contraceptives.
During an interview with Pittsburgh TV station KDKA-TV, Trump was asked if he supports any restrictions on a person’s right to contraceptives.
“Well, we’re looking at that and we’re going to have a policy on that very shortly,” Trump responded with. “And I think it’s something you’ll find interesting and it’s another issue that’s very interesting.”
When asked to clarify if he was suggesting he was open to supporting some restrictions on contraceptives, “like the morning-after pill,” Trump dodged.
“Things really do have a lot to do with the states — and some states are going to have different policy than others.”
His comments come in an election year as abortion and contraception access remain key issues for many voters.
President Joe Biden’s campaign quickly seized on Trump’s comments, painting him as a president who would restrict birth control and emergency contraceptives.
“While Trump works overtime to roll back the clock and rip away women’s freedoms, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting nonstop to protect access to birth control and women’s right to make their own personal health care decisions,” said Biden’s campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika.
The former president quickly took to social media to clarify his position, claiming that he was not advocating for restrictions on contraceptives.
“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” he posted on his social media platform.
The Trump campaign further attempted to clarify, claiming the policy the former president was referring to during the interview was the abortion pill mifepristone.
However, Trump was not asked about the abortion medication. The local journalist asked if he supports any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception. The former president has repeatedly boasted about the three Supreme Court justices he appointed that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade; however, in recent weeks has attempted to quell discourse over the highly contentious issue by advocating for certain exceptions and for it to be dealt with at the state level.
Trump continues to face a myriad of questions regarding his abortion stance, often promising to release certain policy details pertaining to the issue.
In an interview with TIME released three weeks ago, Trump said he would have a statement out in two weeks explaining his position on mifepristone; however, when pressed on when the delayed announcement would be revealed, campaign sources told ABC News it would happen soon.
Trump is seemingly being intentionally vague when it comes to reproductive rights as he himself acknowledges the importance of not alienating voters with his position in order to win elections. However, his continued questioning on the topic showcases how the issue continues to remain one of the top issues heading into November’s election.
(NEW YORK) — The FBI has issued a rare statement after former President Donald Trump and several GOP lawmakers spread false claims suggesting President Joe Biden authorized his assassination during the search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022.
In a fundraising email responding to right-wing media reports that offered a distorted reading of a newly-unsealed court filing in Trump’s classified documents case, Trump falsely claimed Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out.”
In a separate post on his Truth Social platform Tuesday evening, Trump further said he was “shown Reports” that Biden’s DOJ “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE” in their search of the property for classified documents.
Behind Trump’s false claims is a major misrepresentation of an otherwise boilerplate policy memo that was included in newly-unsealed documents that accompanied a filing from Trump’s own lawyers in his classified documents case in Florida on Tuesday.
The memo was part of a ‘Law Enforcement Operations Order’ drawn up by agents preparing to carry out the search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022, after a magistrate judge agreed the government had shown probable cause that agents would find evidence of unlawfully retained national defense information and obstruction of justice on the premises.
In their search, agents ultimately recovered around 100 documents with classification markings — months after the government subpoenaed Trump for any remaining in his possession, and after the government says it gathered evidence Trump had misled his own lawyers to sign a false certification asserting all such documents had been returned.
“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force,” the FBI said in a statement Tuesday evening. “No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter.”
Multiple former FBI and DOJ officials also confirmed the standard nature of the inclusion of the deadly force policy.
“Anytime the fbi takes an adversarial action like executing a search warrant, there is a deadly force policy,” former DOJ official and ABC News contributor Sarah Isgur tweeted. “If there is danger to you or public and there’s no alternatives, you are authorized to use deadly force. This is standard policy.”
Trump and two co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges against them and denied wrongdoing.
For their part, Trump’s attorneys in their filing Tuesday made no such accusation that the inclusion of the policy showed Biden was preparing to assassinate Trump, and it’s not immediately clear whether they had shared the information – part of a vast trove of discovery in his case — with Trump prior to it being unsealed.
While Trump said he first learned of the filing after being “shown Reports” about it after court proceedings were finished in his New York state criminal hush money case, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene later posted on X she “made sure” Trump knew about the false claim the “Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate” him.
The operations order further shows how agents were well aware Trump would not be present at the property during the search, as it was carried out during Mar-a-Lago’s off-season when Trump normally resides at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey.
They did, however, include a contingency plan in the event Trump showed up at the property mid-search, at which time they said FBI personnel on site would be prepared “to engage with” him and his Secret Service security detail. The full context shows there’s no suggestion of the situation escalating into violence, and that it was more about assigning points of contact responsible for speaking with members of Trump’s detail.
The order also further bolsters testimony from the former director of the FBI’s Washington, D.C,. field office Steve D’Antuono, who previously testified to Congress he was “adamant” agents executing the warrant “didn’t do a show of force.”
“It wasn’t even a show of force, right, because we were all in agreement,” D’Antuono said in an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. “No raid jackets, no blazed FBI … We weren’t bringing any like FBI vehicles, everything that was reported about helicopters and a hundred people descending on, like, a Die Hard movie, was completely untrue, right. That is not how we played it.”
The operation order shows case agents on scene were instructed to dress ‘business casual’ with ‘unmarked polo or collared shirts’ and other law enforcement equipment concealed.
In a floor speech Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Trump for falsely accusing the Justice Department of authorizing the FBI to use “deadly (lethal) force” during its search at Mar-a-Lago.
Schumer said Trump’s words can incite violence and get people killed, and cause people to lose faith in democracy.
“What Donald Trump said, falsely suggesting his political opponents are out to kill him, is beyond the pale and is the stuff that leads to political violence,” Schumer said.
California State Assemblyman Vince Fong (Bakersfield) during a press conference about Chile’s continued status as a Visa Waiver Program Country in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, June 16, 2023. (Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — ABC News reports that Vince Fong is projected to win the special general election in California’s 20th House district for the rest of the unexpired term.
Fong will fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the former House speaker who was ousted from the position by a faction of his own party in Dec. 2023.
Once Fong is sworn into Congress, Republicans will bolster their razor-thin majority in the House. McCarthy and Donald Trump had endorsed Fong.
As of around 11:20 p.m. ET on Thursday, with 65% of the expected vote reporting, Fong was leading with 60% of the vote, followed by Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux with 40%.
Boudreaux and Fong will face each other again in November on the general election ballot for the full term.
Rudy Giuliani speaks to members of the media where Republican candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was scheduled to host a campaign event on Jan. 21, 2024 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Rudy Giuliani agreed to cease accusations of election fraud against Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million judgment after a judge found the former New York City mayor guilty of defaming the two women.
On Tuesday, Giuliani “agreed to never again accuse either [Ruby] Freeman or [Shaye] Moss of engaging in any wrongdoing in connection with the 2020 election,” according to attorneys for the two women.
“Today ends [Giuliani’s] efforts to profit off of lies about these two heroes of American democracy,” said Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for the two women.
Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, released a statement to ABC News on Tuesday night saying: “Based on advice from his lawyers, Mayor Rudy Giuliani agreed not to comment on the two specific individuals or their activities until the cases are resolved. He will continue to comment on everything else surrounding the 2020 election, particularly the latest developments in Fulton County.”
The jury awarded Freeman $16,171,000 and Moss $16,998,000. In addition, jurors awarded each of the women $20 million for emotional distress.
The jurors also awarded them a total of $75 million in punitive damages.
On the heels of that large judgment in December, Freeman and Moss again sued Giuliani seeking to “permanently bar” him from making additional defamatory comments about them. Giuliani has since suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks.
In the 134-page complaint filed in December, attorneys for the two women wrote that Giuliani “continues to spread the very same lies for which he has already been held liable,” citing comments Giuliani made outside of court to ABC News’ Terry Moran, in which he insisted that Freeman and Moss were “changing votes.”
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after the judgment and was fired from his radio show.
Earlier on Tuesday, Giuliani pleaded not guilty to election-related charges brought by the Arizona Attorney General.
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the International Criminal Court’s application for arrest warrants for Israeli officials and Hamas operatives, saying the court prosecutor’s actions make a “shameful equivalence” between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
“That decision … on so many levels is totally wrongheaded,” Blinken told lawmakers Tuesday during a budget hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He said ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s filing for warrants has challenged ongoing negotiations to free hostages taken by Hamas and cease an Israeli offensive in Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces currently threaten Rafah amid Israel’s ongoing military operation in the southern Gaza city.
The ICC on Monday announced it would seek to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Sinwar, another Israeli leader and two other Hamas leaders. Khan alleged they “bear criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza.
The United States and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute, which institutionalized the international court and empowers it to prosecute individuals for war crimes.
“I think that there’s still a possibility [of a deal],” Blinken said. “But It’s challenged by a number of events, and I have to say, yes indeed, the extremely wrongheaded decision by the ICC prosecutor yesterday, the shameful equivalence implied between Hamas and the leadership of Israel. I think that only complicates the prospects for getting such an agreement.”
America’s top diplomat said talks “have come very, very close on a number of occasions” and are not dead. “We remain at it,” he told senators Tuesday.
Blinken took questions from senators with a range of views, including Democrats who felt the Biden administration should more directly assess that Israel has committed war crimes, and some Republicans who say the administration is too accommodating to such perspectives. He hedged against ideas the U.S. is not sufficiently upholding its alliance with Israel and others that it’s failing to secure protection for civilians in Gaza.
When Blinken began his testimony, the hearing room erupted with commotion when protesters called Blinken a “war criminal” and visibly startled the secretary.
Later, Idaho Sen. James Risch, the top committee Republican, invited Blinken to work with senators on legislation that reports suggest could sanction the ICC.
“Let’s look at it. We want to work with you,” Blinken told Risch.
“As you say, the devil’s in the details, so let’s see what you got,” he added.
Blinken told lawmakers that peace in Gaza remains complicated by a key diplomatic impasse between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“The Saudis demand a cease-fire in Gaza and a pathway to a Palestinian state, and it may well be that Israel isn’t able, willing to proceed down this pathway,” Blinken said.
Blinken told a separate panel of senators Monday he made contact with the ICC to express his concerns about potential prosecution of Israeli officials.
Netanyahu on Tuesday called the court prosecutor’s plan to apply for arrest warrants “absurd” and said it was casting a “terrible stain” on the court. His country didn’t have a “deliberate starvation policy” and the charges detailed by the ICC prosecutor were “fallacious,” Netanyahu said Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”
“In fact, we have the opposite policy, to allow maximum humanitarian aid to get people out of harm’s way,” he said, “while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way at gunpoint.”
The White House said Tuesday it’s in talks with Congress on “next steps” following the ICC’s arrest warrant application, though it would not say if it supported imposing sanctions on the court.
When asked by reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One if President Joe Biden supported congressional Republicans preparing legislation to sanction the ICC, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed the warrant application but did not directly answer the question.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israel leaders is outrageous,” Jean-Pierre said. “We fundamentally reject it.”
“So, we’re having discussions, to your questions, with … the Hill on the next steps, so I’m not going to get ahead of those discussions,” Jean-Pierre added.
Biden on Monday called the court’s application “outrageous.”
“And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday that he’s moving ahead with an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress despite an International Criminal Court prosecutor saying he would apply for a warrant to arrest Netanyahu for war crimes.
Johnson said that an invitation hasn’t been sent out yet because he was awaiting word from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to join the invitation.
Schumer told reporters Tuesday he is open to the idea.
“I’m discussing that now with the speaker of the House, and as I’ve always said, our relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends any one prime minister or president,” Schumer said.
Johnson said that if Schumer did not agree to sign the letter, “We were going to proceed and invite Netanyahu just to the House.”
The speaker, who has been a staunch supporter of Netanyahu, first floated the idea of inviting the prime minister to Congress in March.
It was around this time that Schumer called for new elections in Israel calling Netanyahu an “obstacle to peace.”
“I will always respect his extraordinary bravery for Israel on the battlefield as a younger man. I believe in his heart his highest priority is the security of Israel,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on March 14. “However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”
Netanyahu last addressed Congress in March 2015.
Johnson’s plan comes on the heels of the ICC prosecutor’s announcement Monday that he planned to seek warrants against the prime minister, other Israeli leaders and Hamas leaders.
ICC prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan alleged the Israeli leaders bear “criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza through the starvation of civilians, willfully causing great suffering and other “inhumane acts.”
Netanyahu told ABC’s “Good Morning America” Tuesday that the ICC’s plan was “absurd” and a “hit job.”
President Joe Biden called the prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants for the Israeli leaders “outrageous.”
While many members of Congress also echoed this statement, some Democrats were wary of inviting Netanyahu to Washington.
Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin warned that if Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress, he’d help the ICC serve the warrant to Netanyahu in the House chamber.
“If Netanyahu comes to address Congress, I would be more than glad to show the ICC the way to the House floor to issue that warrant,” Pocan posted on X Monday. “Ditto for Hamas leader. Ceasefire. No offensive weapons. Food, water, & medicine must get through.”
The U.S. and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute, which institutionalized the international court and empowers it to prosecute individuals for war crimes. Unlike other countries that are signatories, the U.S. would not be obligated to arrest Netanyahu should he travel to Washington.
Johnson flatly dismissed Pocan’s warning shot as “patently absurd.”
In the meantime, the speaker is considering legislation to respond to the ICC’s plan with possible sanctions.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday criticized Donald Trump for the since-deleted video reposted to his social media site Truth Social referencing a “Unified Reich” if reelected, calling it “appalling,” but “unsurprising” coming from the former president.
“Just yesterday, the former president of the United States, who praises dictators, who said there were ‘very fine people on both sides’ in Charlottesville — let’s not forget — took to social media and highlighted language from Nazi Germany,” Harris said as she addressed a convention of service employees in Philadelphia.
“This kind of rhetoric is unsurprising coming from the former president and it is appalling and we got to tell him who we are,” the vice president said. “And once again, it shows our freedoms and our very democracy are at stake.”
The phrase “Unified Reich” appeared in a social media video, the Trump campaign said was reposted by a staffer, that announced the former president’s hypothetical victory in the 2024 election. Specifically, the words were part of a hypothetical news headline.
Under a big headline that said, “WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMERICA?” there was a smaller headline that appeared to read: “INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH.”
The video was online for more than 18 hours before it was deleted on Tuesday. The Trump campaign told ABC News in a statement that it was a random online video reposted by a staffer who did not see the word.
The Biden-Harris campaign denounced the post as part of a “pattern of his praise for dictators and echoing antisemitic tropes.”
Trump has denied ever reading “Mein Kampf” and his campaign previously said comparisons made by Trump’s critics to Hitler or Mussolini are “ridiculous.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters President Joe Biden was “clearly tracking this” and indicated he would address the issue later Tuesday while campaigning in Boston.
“What I want to say more broadly is it is abhorrent, sickening and disgraceful for anyone to promote content associated with Germany’s Nazi government under Adolf Hitler,” Jean-Pierre said.
Biden himself, while leaving a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in New Hampshire where is speaking on the PACT Act, which expands health care and benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, was asked by reporters for his reaction to the video but said, “it would take too long.”
Republican lawmakers dodge the issue
Senate Republicans on Tuesday largely avoided commenting on the video.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was one of few Senate Republicans who was outrightly critical of the post. He said he had not seen the video but had heard about it.
“If that’s the case, it is a very serious mistake to make. It does not send the right message about what the rest of us believe in terms of freedom and I would hope that it would have been either an oversight or it would be corrected,” Rounds told ABC News. “To use that term in this day and age is simply inappropriate and it’s got to be corrected.”
But most Republicans I spoke to today dodged commenting on it. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, deflected entirely when asked to react to the video.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, deflected entirely when asked to react to the video.
“I don’t know, see I don’t follow — in case you haven’t noticed, the world is falling apart. Have you all not noticed that?” Graham said before walking away from press cameras.
Others said they hadn’t seen it or weren’t aware of its contents.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told ABC News.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, an outspoken critic of Trump, said he hasn’t seen the video.
Democrats call it ‘petrifying’
Senate Democrats, however, were quick to admonish the video.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it’s “hard to believe” these things are accidental, as he referenced several other comments from Trump over the last several years that he said mirrored Nazism.
“Is this just an accident? Does he have some passion for that era? I can’t understand why it has nothing to do with America and its future,” Durbin told ABC News.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the comments “petrifying” and said blaming the post on a campaign staffer is not enough.
“Campaign staffers speak for the individual whose campaign it is and he has to completely denounce and disown it or he in fact is responsible for it. It is part and parcel of the Trump appeal to the White Supremacist antisemitism Islamophobia in this country that is rising now not just in speech but also in incidence of hate crime,” Blumenthal said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Judge Scott McAfee will face voters on Tuesday during the state’s primary election — both of whom have been key players in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Willis will face off against Atlanta attorney Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary; McAfee will go up against attorney Robert Patillo in a nonpartisan election.
If either Willis or McAfee loses their primary and is booted from the job, the election interference case could be further delayed. The case has already faced delays over efforts to remove Willis from the prosecution.
If Willis wins Tuesday, she’ll face Republican lawyer Courtney Kramer in the general election. Kramer previously worked in the Trump White House and on his campaign.
During an appearance on the “Rachel Maddow Show,” Willis said she plans to “win big” in her primary, framing her election around a rebuke against the threats she has faced since taking office.
“Having prosecutors that are free from interference and are allowed to just look at cases, look at the facts, and if people … broke the law to bring charges, has to go on for us to live in a free society,” said Willis.
Willis’ election comes as Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor in the Fulton County case, resigned after Judge McAfee ruled that either she or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the two. The Georgia Court of Appeals has since agreed to review the disqualification ruling, delaying the trial further.
McAfee, who is overseeing the racketeering case against Donald Trump and 14 others, is also on the ballot in a nonpartisan election.
McAfee’s election bid comes after he was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022. He’s now running for his first full term. He is up against Patillo.
McAfee’s campaign website bills him as someone who has “devoted his career to public service” as a prosecutor, and someone who “has pledged to be fully transparent with all public matters that come before him.”
Georgia’s election on Tuesday does not include a presidential primary — that happened in March, and President Joe Biden and Trump won their respective primaries in the state.
