Politics

(WASHINGTON) — With days until a partial government shutdown deadline, Speaker Mike Johnson said the newly negotiated bill text for the funding package will be out by Wednesday afternoon, triggering a timeline that means lawmakers would need to act fast to prevent a shutdown before a Friday deadline.

“We’ve been very consistent, very adamant that we had to get our government funded. We had to get the appropriations process done,” Johnson said Wednesday morning when asked at the GOP press conference about where things stand with supplemental funding, which includes aid for Ukraine and Israel.

Johnson said the Department of Homeland Security bill was “the most difficult to negotiate because the two parties have a wide chasm.” Funding for DHS was the final major sticking point in negotiations for the six spending bills that need to pass to avert a shutdown.

When the legislative text of bill comes out, lawmakers are up against the clock to prevent a shutdown. The House has a rule requiring 72 hours for members to review legislation before voting; the Senate also can take a few days to process House-passed bills. That means a vote may not happen until the end of the week or weekend — increasing the chances of shutdown — unless Johnson speeds up the process.

“I think the final product is something that we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions in, wins in, a move in the direction that we want — even with our tiny, historically small majority. There was some very tough negotiation, but that having come to an end now, the attention — as I’ve said all along — we’ll turn to the to the supplemental issues,” he said.

Johnson detailed some of those Republican wins during a closed-door meeting with the conference Wednesday morning, sources tell ABC News. Some of those wins in the package include border enforcement and defense spending — such as a 25% increase on border technology, a 6% cut to foreign aid and cuts to Defense Department climate programs.

Johnson declined to elaborate on a path forward for Ukraine funding in the House and dodged Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott’s question on a loan for Ukraine.

“I have not specifically talked about the mechanism of funding Ukraine. We’re talking about the whole supplemental in all these pieces, whether they would go individually or as a package, all those things are being debated and discussed internally. I think there is a big distinction in the minds of a lot of people between lethal aid for Ukraine and the humanitarian component,” Johnson said.

“Look, we understand the role that America plays in the world, we understand the importance of sending a strong signal to the world, that we stand by our allies, and we cannot allow terrorists and tyrants to march through the globe,” he said.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul told ABC News that he’s working on a supplemental bill with appropriators, saying that “it can’t vary too much from the Senate, but it’s going to have our stamp on it.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday vowed that the Senate will move quickly to prevent the looming shutdown.

“We don’t yet know precisely when the House will act, but as soon as they send us the funding package, I will put it on the Senate floor. And from there, as we all know, it will take cooperation to get on the bill and consent and every senator to keep this process moving quickly,” Schumer said on the floor. “Even with the partisanship, it’s going to be a tight squeeze to get this funding package passed before the weekend deadline.”

Schumer encouraged his colleagues “to be flexible, to be prepared to act quickly, and to prioritize working together in good faith so we can finish the appropriations process.”

“Today, appropriators continue working on the legislative text and despite the tight deadline, they continue to make very good progress,” Schumer said. “They’re very diligent. They worked through the night, and we salute them on both sides of the aisles.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address Republican senators via a video conference at their conference lunch Wednesday — a move that comes days after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for Israel to hold a new election seen as a way to replace Netanyahu.

Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso invited Netanyahu to address the conference, his spokesperson said.

Netanyahu was previously scheduled to speak virtually with Senate Republicans at their retreat last week, but he had a scheduling conflict. Members heard from Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog last week instead.

The meeting comes as in an election year as tensions on Capitol Hill and at the White House over Israel have mounted following what is seen as Schumer’s calls to replace the prime minister and President Joe Biden’s warnings against Israel launching an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

In a formal address on the Senate floor last week, Schumer delivered a scathing speech that was highly critical of Netanyahu, saying he is an “obstacle to peace” and that he has “lost his way” as Israel bombards Gaza amid a growing humanitarian crisis there.

“As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,” Schumer said.

Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have sharply rebuked Schumer’s remarks. McConnell said calls for the election of a new leader in Israel are “grotesque” and “unprecedented.”

Former President Donald Trump appeared to take aim at Democrats like Schumer when he said in a recent interview with his former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats — amid Israel’s war against Hamas and other tensions in the Middle East — “hate” their religion and Israel and that they “should be ashamed of themselves.”

“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” he said in the interview. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”

In a floor speech Tuesday, Schumer said Trump’s comments to Gorka were “reprehensible and dangerous.”

“The former president’s comments were utterly disgusting and a textbook example of the kind of antisemitism facing Jews, pushing the dangerous antisemitism trope of dual loyalty,” Schumer said. “To say you hate Israel or your religion because you have one political view over the other is sick, it’s hateful, it is unadulterated antisemitism and it serves to use Israel as a political wedge further damaging the bonds between US and Israel.”

Netanyahu’s comments to the Senate Republicans come after Biden and the prime minister have clashed over Israel’s expected military invasion in Rafah.

In the latest development in a standoff between Biden and Netanyahu that’s gone on for weeks — with the U.S. demanding a satisfactory “plan” from Israel — national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that Netanyahu, at Biden’s request, would be sending a delegation to Washington to try to work out what he called “an alternative approach.”

The GOP meeting with Netanyahu will occur behind closed doors, but Republican leadership will hold its weekly press conference immediately after.

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(WASHINGTON) — Amid a contentious election year debate over the future of U.S. auto manufacturing, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced new vehicle emissions standards that will pressure the industry to make more electric vehicles.

“With transportation as the largest source of U.S. climate emissions, these strongest-ever pollution standards for cars solidify America’s leadership in building a clean transportation future and creating good-paying American jobs, all while advancing President Biden’s historic climate agenda,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.

The standards impact newly manufactured cars and trucks from model years 2027 to 2032 and represent an average of allowed emissions across an auto manufacturer’s entire fleet of offered vehicles.

“Three years ago, I set an ambitious target: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emission,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“I brought together American automakers. I brought together American autoworkers. Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs,” he said. “And we’ll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead.”

Senior administration officials emphasized that manufacturers will have multiple pathways to compliance using a combination of battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, strong hybrids and improved internal combustion engines.

Officials explained that these new standards will reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 7.2 billion metric tons through 2055. That’s about four times the total emissions of the transportation sector as of 2021.

“This actually is a huge win for all Americans. The standards will help tackle one of the nation’s largest sources of climate pollution — our cars and our trucks,” Luke Tonachel, senior strategist for the transportation sector for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told ABC News. “There is a shift that the auto industry is undergoing towards cleaner vehicles, but these standards ensure that we get to the lower pollution levels that we absolutely need.”

The standards are also expected to have public health impacts, with officials saying they will prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths in 2055 and reduce health issues such as heart attack, aggravated asthma and decreased lung function.

Wednesday’s announcement is not the most ambitious version of these standards proposed by the EPA in April 2023, but allows for a slower ramp up to compliance for auto manufacturers.

Administration officials say they decided on a slower rollout of the standards to make them more durable and give the auto market more lead time to come into compliance.

In a press call on Tuesday, League of Conservation Voters vice president of federal policy Matthew Davis explained that the Biden administration is also mindful of releasing these standards during an election year and insulating them from possible rollbacks.

“We certainly have had conversations with the Biden administration and they are crystal clear about the importance of getting rules out to make sure that they withstand both legal challenges from the fossil fuel industry and any congressional attacks should Republicans take over the Senate and the White House,” Davis said.

The Trump administration previously rolled back Obama-era standards that were meant to affect vehicles manufactured through 2025.

The announcement of new standards also comes just days after former President Donald Trump criticized Biden’s handling of the transition to electric vehicles at a campaign event for Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno.

“We’re gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not gonna be able to sell those guys, if I get elected,” Trump said.

Despite the contentious rhetoric around EVs and car manufacturing in the U.S., environmental groups say it’s important to characterize the rules correctly, noting that they don’t call for a ban on traditional gas-powered cars.

“It’s important to underscore that EPA standards — they’re performance based. They don’t require manufacturers to sell any particular type of vehicle,” Peter Zalzal, associate vice president of clean air strategies for the Environmental Defense Fund, told ABC News. “You can see the standards being met by improvements in internal combustion engine vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electric vehicles, so it’s really about more choice.”

Davis echoed that sentiment, saying, “There are a variety of pathways to meet the standards, and any messaging indicating that this is a fossil fuel car ban is just misinformation from the fossil fuel industry and should be treated as such.”

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa and Soorin Kim contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees are holding an impeachment hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday amid growing scrutiny of Republicans’ ongoing probe of President Joe Biden and his family.

Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis, both former associates of Hunter Biden, are scheduled to testify. Bobulinski is in the hearing room. Galanis will participate via Zoom from the Alabama prison where he is serving a 14-year prison sentence for securities fraud.

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer had publicly invited the two men to appear alongside Hunter Biden and another witness in the probe, Devon Archer. Hunter Biden and Archer declined the invite.

Democrats have called as their witness Lev Parnas, a onetime Rudy Giuliani associate-turned critic of the impeachment allegations.

Comer gaveled the hearing into session moments ago.

“The Bidens sell Joe Biden,” Comer said in an opening statement. “That is their business.”

 

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(WASHINGTON) — In a decision late Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision that again blocks Texas from enforcing its strict immigration law, SB4.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court rejected a Biden administration request to intervene and keep Texas’s strict immigration enforcement law on hold while it is challenged in lower courts.

But in the late-night decision, the appeals court dissolved a pause on an order from a lower court that prevented the law from going into effect until litigation is concluded.

On Wednesday, the appeals court will hear arguments in the case to determine if the law should remain on hold until the court rules on SB4’s legality.

The SB4 law would authorize local and state law enforcement to arrest migrants they suspect crossed into the state illegally. It would also give judges the power to order migrants to be transported to a port of entry and returned to Mexico regardless of their country of origin.

The Biden administration has argued that immigration law is solely the responsibility of the federal government, and not local jurisdictions, as laid out in the Constitution.

“This Court has long recognized that the regulation of entry and removal of noncitizens is inseparably intertwined with the conduct of foreign relations and thus vested ‘solely in the Federal Government,'” the administration wrote in a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month.

Texas, meanwhile, has argued that it is within its rights to arrest migrants because SB 4 is applicable under the State War Clause of the Constitution, which allows states to act when it is “actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Businesman Bernie Moreno handily won Ohio’s GOP Senate primary, scoring a win for him and former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Moreno’s bid and campaigned with him in the race’s final stretch.

Trump and President Joe Biden, meanwhile, coasted in presidential primaries held in five states Tuesday, though lingering signs remained of some disgruntled voters in each party.

And several House matchups were cemented Tuesday after key primaries determined who the parties’ nominees will be.

Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s results:

Moreno runs away with Ohio GOP Senate nomination

Ohio’s GOP Senate primary was a nail-biter for much of the year, with the race’s final weeks devolving into an ugly barroom brawl.

Polls had shown a tight race throughout, with strategists predicting a narrow Moreno win, given his personal wealth and Trump endorsement, against state Sen. Matt Dolan, who dumped much of his own fortune into the race, outspending both Moreno and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who just couldn’t keep up financially.

In the end, though, Moreno outperformed even the rosiest of public polls and strategists’ predictions of roughly a five-point win.

With three-fourths of the estimated vote in, Moreno hovered around 50%, with Dolan trailing at about 33%. LaRose was stuck at just over 17%.

The win underscored the power of Trump’s endorsement, which was highlighted by a Saturday rally in Dayton, and the waning influence of the GOP’s more traditional flank.

Dolan said during the campaign he supported Trump’s policies but was more circumspect on the former president himself, declining to explicitly endorse his comeback White House bid. He also earned the endorsements of popular Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and former Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, two lawmakers more aligned with the GOP establishment.

Moreno’s campaign, aided by Trump’s endorsement, was able to combat an avalanche of spending from Dolan, including attacks that he was a “phony,” as well as an unflattering article about an online account for an adult website set up with an email address linked to Moreno’s business.

The article never explicitly linked Moreno himself to the account; Moreno denied the connection, and his lawyer provided a statement from a former intern who said it was a prank. 

Dolan conceded the impact of Trump’s support on the race Tuesday, dubbing his endorsement for Moreno “a key factor for Bernie winning.”

Operatives warned against reading the race too much as a proxy war — but only because there are so few other battlegrounds left, given Trump’s dominance.

“For it to be really part of a broader proxy world would require there to be a living, breathing, moderate George W. Bush, John McCain wing of the party that still existed. While Dolan embodies that and collects that sort of disparate piece of the electorate, I don’t think it suggests there’s a proxy war because there isn’t a broader national fight between those two camps going on,” said one strategist involved in the race. “That fight has been put to bed for a couple of cycles.”

Moreno will now face Sen. Sherrod Brown, D, a three-term senator with a pre-Trump era reputation as a populist and working-class advocate.

Democrats appeared to prefer a Brown run against Moreno, running ads hamming the businessman as conservative and pro-Trump — seemingly to boost his bona fides with the conservative and pro-Trump primary electorate.

Still, Brown will face stiff headwinds running in a state that has veered to the right in recent years and handed Trump roughly eight-point wins in 2016 and 2020.

Trump and Biden coast, with room for consolidation

Both Trump and Biden coasted in their respective parties’ primaries across Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio.

Trump won over three-quarters of the vote in each state, and Biden clinched at least 80% in all five, solidifying the next step on their marches to their party nominations.

Still, each candidate had room left to grow their support.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race earlier this month while some states held early voting, earned around 15% in the Republican primaries in many states.

In Ohio, Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., took 13% in the Democratic primary, and “none of the names shown” drew 10% of the vote in Kansas.

The vote shares for the others weren’t massive, but they did follow trends for each party.

Toward the end of her campaign and after she dropped out, Haley was able to garner as much as a quarter of the GOP primary vote, though exit polls have suggested many of those votes could have come from independent or even Democratic voters.

And in Michigan, over 100,000 voters backed “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary as a protest vote against Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.

House races set up across the country

While the Ohio Senate race and presidential primaries were in the spotlight, several House primaries helped solidify the electoral landscape in November in the battle for Congress.

In the special election in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District to complete the term of former GOP Rep. Bill Johnson, who retired to become a college president, state Sen. Michael Rulli defeated state Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus and Rick Tsai. Rulli and Stoltzfus ran as staunch conservatives, though Rulli received support from Defending Main Street, the super PAC arm of the more middle-ground Republican Main Street Partnership.

In Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, which is represented by Democrat Marcy Kaptur but also voted for Trump in 2020, state Rep. Derek Merrin won the GOP primary after receiving support from Republicans in Washington against former state Rep. Craig Riedel, who has been attacked over a resurfaced video of him criticizing Trump.

Illinois’ 7th Congressional District is set to send 82-year-old Rep. Danny Davis back to the House after he fended off Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin and activist Kina Collins in the Democratic primary there. Conyears-Ervin was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and Collins has several allies in the activist community, with the race largely revolving around Davis’ age and calls for a generational change in leadership.

In the state’s 12th Congressional District, Rep. Mike Bost held a single-digit lead over Darren Bailey, a former state lawmaker and failed 2022 gubernatorial nominee. Bailey ran on hard-line views on issues like abortion and had the endorsement of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R.-Fla. Bost boasts a conservative voting record and ran with Trump’s endorsement.

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(WASHINGTON) — The special primary election to succeed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unfolded on Tuesday in California’s 20th Congressional District.

ABC News projects that State Assemblyman Vince Fong will advance to the special general election in May.

The race will fill a critical vacancy for Republicans who are already dancing on the knife’s edge of a microscopic majority in the House.

The special election, open to all registered voters in the district, is set to determine who will finish the remainder of McCarthy’s term. He left Congress at the end of December.

Fong, endorsed by McCarthy and former President Donald Trump, and Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux had established themselves as the front-runner candidates in the special primary.

Nine candidates were on the ballot.

Back in Washington, a runoff could prove frustrating to congressional Republicans, who have recently faced a wave of high-profile retirements, including McCarthy and, more recently, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, who announced that he would leave the House at the end of the week.

Currently, Republicans can only afford to lose two members of their conference on any party-line vote on legislation.

As of Tuesday’s election, five House Republicans, including Buck, had resigned or been removed from office during this Congress.

Beyond McCarthy’s seat, two other Republican vacancies remain unfilled and one of those five overall seats, formerly held by expelled New York Rep. George Santos, is now held by Democrat Tom Suozzi, leaving Republicans with 219 seats to Democrats’ 213.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden made a campaign swing through battlegrounds Nevada and Arizona on Tuesday in which he touted his administration’s accomplishments and drew contrasts with what his campaign calls “Trump’s anti-Latino agenda.”

Before traveling to Arizona, Biden spoke with local leaders and volunteers in Reno, Nevada, at the Washoe County Democrats’ office where he highlighted job creation and health care.

“We’ve already created tens of thousands of good paying jobs,” Biden said. “Right here in this state as well, by the way, clean jobs, jobs, clean energy jobs. Trump lost millions of jobs, millions when he was president.”

Asked if Americans could expect to again see COVID-era child tax credits, Biden responded, “We’re gonna bring back the child tax credit to cut child poverty in half.”

The event was part of the Biden-Harris campaign’s “I’m on Board” month of action, designed to engage and mobilize voters and volunteers, in which the president, vice president, first lady, and second gentleman are expected to visit every battleground state.

In Las Vegas, Biden spoke about his administration’s efforts to tackle the issue of affordable housing, discussing a provision in his budget proposal that would help build and renovate more than two million homes to reduce costs.

“What my dad used to always say was, the way you build equity in your home was the way you build wealth. So that when you build enough equity in your home, then you have enough money to borrow to get something new and move, and so on,” he said. “And that’s how everybody makes it — everybody, middle-class makes it.”

“We know affordability for housing is a key challenge in Nevada, and it’s one in which the president’s agenda will really help address” a senior administration official said in a call with reporters on Monday.

Later, in Arizona, Biden was scheduled to stop at a Mexican restaurant in South Phoenix to launch a national organizing program called “Latinos con Biden-Harris,” in another effort to mobilize Latino voters ahead of the general election.

Throughout the week, Latinos Con Biden-Harris was holding organizing events, trainings and house parties in Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

“The Latino vote was critical to the President’s victory in 2020, and 2024 will be no different,” said campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, in a press release. “Latinos con Biden-Harris will be essential to activating and mobilizing Latinos across the country, and importantly, is another way we are making clear with action that we are investing aggressively into earning the Latino vote.”

The Biden-Harris campaign launched its “first Latino creative” as a part of a previously announced $30 million paid media buy for spring. The ad, titled “Only One Choice” or “Una Opción,” is a direct-to-camera video from Biden, which will run in English, Spanish, and Spanglish.

Biden spoke to Hispanic Radio stations Tuesday to outline his administration’s efforts to address the needs of Latino communities and slammed former President Donald Trump over his immigration policy, claiming Trump “despises” Latinos.

Trump claims he is gaining support among Latinos.

“He separated kids and parents at the border, and encaged children. Planning mass deportations of literally several million people who are here in the country. Several million people. And he wants to end birthright citizenship. I mean, this guy despises Latinos,” Biden told host Univision host Raúl Moinar.

Biden claimed in the interview with Nueva Network that he wants to allow immigrants to come into the country in an “orderly way” and Republicans are trying to “block” that.

“…We are a nation of immigrants. That’s who we are, from my Irish ancestors to your Hispanic ancestors,” Biden told Nueva Network’s Alex Lucas. “And so, what we might want to do is allow them to continue to come into the country in an orderly way … And what Republicans are trying to do is block all that.”

Biden called out Trump’s weekend comments stating some immigrants who come to the U.S. illegally are “not people” but “animals.”

“But here’s the thing I want to stop. Trump this Saturday, called migrants … he said they’re ‘not people’,” Biden said in an interview with Univision Radio. “He says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of this country,’ separated children from parents at the border, caged the kids, planned mass deportations systems, tens of thousands of people here and wants to end birthright citizenship. I mean, we have to stop this guy. We can’t let this happen. We are a nation of immigrants.”

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(WASHINGTON) — While voting in Florida on Tuesday, in the presidential primary, former President Donald Trump was joined in a rare appearance by wife Melania Trump as he slammed the jail sentence of Peter Navarro, a former adviser, said he “couldn’t care less” about his former Vice President Mike Pence, and reiterated why he thinks Jewish Americans shouldn’t vote for Democrats.

“I voted for Donald Trump,” he said as he walked away laughing after speaking with reporters outside of the polling location not far from his Mar-a-Lago home.

Earlier, as he entered the polling site, Trump was asked if the Supreme Court should’ve intervened and kept Navarro, who is serving four months, out of prison.

Navarro was convicted in September of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide testimony and documents to the House committee that first investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump on Tuesday called his jail sentence “a disgrace” and his unsuccessful legal battle “a shame.”

“Peter was treated very unfairly, a great patriot,” Trump said when asked if he’d pardon Navarro if he is elected again to the White House.

Trump denied any knowledge of whether his convicted former campaign manager Paul Manafort will be joining his 2024 bid, simply saying that he’s another person who was “treated badly.”

“I don’t know anything about it. … But we’ll see what happens with that,” Trump said.

Asked by ABC News what his reaction is to Pence refusing to endorse him, Trump said, “I couldn’t care less.”

“We need strong people in this country. We don’t need weak people,” he said.

Melania Trump, appearing alongside her husband, teased whether or not she will make campaign appearances with the former president.

“Stay tuned,” she said.

Donald Trump on Tuesday also railed against his New York civil fraud case when asked if he’d be able to pay an approximately $460 million bond as he pursues an appeal of the ruling against him.

“This was a rigged trial,” he claimed, which prosecutors have denied.

“We’ll see how the courts rule on it,” he said.

Trump also doubled down on his comments about why Jewish Americans shouldn’t support Democrats, including by attacking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whom he said had been a “disgrace on Israel.”

In a radio interview on Monday, echoing previous comments, Trump had said that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats — amid Israel’s war against Hamas and other tensions in the Middle East — “hate” their religion and Israel and that they “should be ashamed of themselves.”

“I think that the Democrats have been very, very opposed to Jewish people,” Trump argued on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden’s campaign has pushed back, saying in a statement, in part: “The only person who should be ashamed here is Donald Trump.”

And asked on Tuesday about a possible national 15-week abortion ban, Trump said: “We’ll be talking about that soon.”

Pressed again on the timeline, though, Trump dodged.

He also again made claims about immigrants who are in the country illegally and said he will deport them if he’s president while not explaining how he would conduct such “mass deportation.”

Separately, in a British TV interview also on Tuesday, Trump sounded off on multiple subjects including the controversy sparked when Kate Middleton apologized for sharing an edited photo of her with her kids.

“Everybody doctors,” Trump said on GB News, adding, “I don’t understand why there could be such a howl over that.”

He also said he’s a “big fan of the concept of the royal family,” repeatedly praising the late Queen Elizabeth.

Trump also praised King Charles, calling him a “wonderful guy” and saying they “got along” even though Charles “was a little bit more into environmental restriction than I am.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday filed a brief with the Supreme Court making his formal argument for why he should be granted absolute presidential immunity from criminal prosecution — asking the justices to dismiss a four-count federal indictment over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost.

The high court will hear oral arguments on the matter on April 25.

“The President cannot function, and the Presidency itself cannot retain its vital independence, if the President faces criminal prosecution for official acts once he leaves office,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in their opening brief to the high court in U.S. v. Trump.

“Denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents,” they argued. “The threat of future prosecution and imprisonment would become a political cudgel to influence the most sensitive and controversial Presidential decisions, taking away the strength, authority, and decisiveness of the Presidency.”

Similar to arguments made in lower courts, which were unsuccessful, Trump contended that presidential immunity flows from the Constitution’s Executive Vesting Clause and the separation of powers.

While a unanimous appeals court panel resoundingly rejected the claim, Trump again implored the justices to adopt the view that only a president convicted by the Senate following impeachment proceedings could be criminally prosecuted.

“The Constitution authorizes the criminal prosecution of a former President, but it builds in a formidable structural check against politically motivated prosecutions by requiring a majority of the House and a supermajority of the Senate to authorize such a dramatic action,” Trump’s team wrote. “The Founders thus carefully balanced the public interest in ensuring accountability for Presidential wrongdoing against the mortal danger to our system of government presented by political targeting of the Chief Executive.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case further delays Trump’s prosecution. Special counsel Jack Smith brought four charges against Trump over his alleged election subversion in 2020 and on Jan. 6, 2021. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing.

Smith’s team has been instructed to file their own brief on the matter by April 8.

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