(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has lost his latest bid to have the election interference case against him in Georgia removed to federal court.
When a federal judge denied his effort last year, Meadows appealed to a three-judge panel for the U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, which in December affirmed that “the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties,” so the matter should remain with the state of Georgia. Meadows then requested that the entire 11th Circuit hold a “rehearing” to consider his appeal.
The 11th Circuit denied that request Wednesday, saying in a very short order: “The Petition for Rehearing En Banc is DENIED, no judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc.”
Meadows was seeking to remove the case based on a law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.
Meadows, along with Trump and 17 others, pleaded not guilty in August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
The former White House chief of staff is accused in the indictment of participating in eight “overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy,” while his attorney has said that “nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal.”
The potential advantages of a removal to federal court, attorneys and law professors have said, would be the possibility of a more sympathetic jury pool and the potential delays such a move could cause.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will undergo his yearly physical Wednesday morning at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in what could be the final health update before the November election.
Biden, 81, last received his physical on Feb. 16, 2023. Results have been released on the same day of his exam in the past two years through a letter from Biden’s physician.
As he just departed the White House, coffee cup in hand, he told reporters, “I’m going to Walter Reed to get my physical.”
In 2023, Dr. Kevin O’Connor described Biden as a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old man” who was “fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” He did note that the president’s gait had stiffened compared to the previous year, saying it was likely the cause of “wear and tear” on the spine, but did not result in “root nerve compression significant enough to warrant any specific treatment.”
The president also had a small skin lesion removed from his chest and a biopsy confirmed it was basal cell carcinoma and “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed.” Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer and roughly 3 to 5 million cases are diagnosed each year in the United States, according to JAMA Dermatology.
First lady Jill Biden also had two similar cancerous lesions removed in January 2023 from her face and chest.
Polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans are concerned Biden is too old to serve a second term and believe that he has declined cognitively and physically.
A Quinnipiac University poll published on Feb. 21 showed that 67% of voters think Biden is “too old to effectively serve another 4-year term as president while 62% said Biden did not have the “physical fitness to serve a second presidential term” and 62% said he does not have the “mental fitness to serve a second presidential term.”
An overwhelming majority of Americans surveyed in an ABC News/Ipsos poll published Feb. 11 think Biden is too old to serve another term.
According to the poll, conducted using Ipsos’ Knowledge Panel, 86% of Americans think Biden, 81, is too old to serve another term as president. That figure includes 59% of Americans who think both he and former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, are too old and 27% who think only Biden is too old.
There were no details about any kind of cognitive exam conducted by Dr. O’Connor last year or the kind of “mental competency tests” that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has called for.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has dismissed the idea of Biden taking a cognitive test during his physical, saying Dr. O’Connor does not believe it’s “warranted because of just who [Biden] is as president of the United States and everything that he has to deal with.”
“The president proves every day how he operates, how he thinks,” she said earlier this month. “That is how Dr. O’Connor sees it.”
(WASHINGTON) — Congress is scrambling to lock in a plan to keep several key government agencies funded before a Friday deadline — or risk a partial government shutdown that, among having other impacts, could eventually affect food assistance for millions.
Funding for the agencies — about 20% of the government — would run out on Friday night, and one week later on March 8, funding for the other 80% of government agencies also would expire if Congress fails to act.
Here’s what to know about what would happen if a partial shutdown takes effect at the end of the day March 1.
Which agencies would be affected in the shutdown?
If Congress can’t strike a deal, funding for the departments of Agriculture; Energy, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs, including military construction, would expire Friday night.
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security payments wouldn’t be affected in a shutdown. Neither would the U.S. Postal Service, which uses its own revenue stream.
What happens to workers during a shutdown?
A shutdown means workers at those agencies who aren’t deemed essential would have to stop working and would be furloughed. Employees in essential roles would be required to keep working without pay.
Many government employees would be told to report to work without pay, including service members, air traffic controllers and inspectors for railroads and airports.
More than 100,000 workers are expected to be furloughed on the spot without a solution from Congress by Friday night.
What about food assistance programs?
Two major food assistance programs under the Department of Agriculture could be affected by a long-term shutdown.
The Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children — known as WIC — helps feed nearly 7 million at-risk, low-income women, infants and toddlers and is funded through March under the current continuing resolution. Funding won’t dry up right away, but an enrollment surge of about 400,000 last year could mean wait lists increase if funding stays flat.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — also known as SNAP — had an average monthly participation of approximately 42 million individuals in 2023. The USDA acted to ensure that SNAP participants will get their March assistance.
Veterans’ benefits will still be available
Government agencies have contingency plans in place should a shutdown occur — some involve furloughs or reduction of services.
With Veterans Affairs, about 17,800 employees would be furloughed and about 441,000 would be retained and paid thanks to advanced appropriations.
Veterans’ medical care would still be available in the event of a shutdown. Other benefits would continue to be processed and delivered, including compensation, pension, education and housing benefits.
In a news conferences Monday, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said there would be “no impact on veteran health care” if a shutdown were to happen.
“However, we would not be able to conduct most outreach to veterans. Our public-facing regional offices would be closed and many regular operations like career counseling, transition assistance, and cemetery ground maintenance would not be available,” McDonough said.
How would transportation be affected?
Key transportation operations would continue in a shutdown, but some services and employees would be affected.
Roughly 16,600 of the more than 45,000 Federal Aviation Administration employees are expected to be furloughed in a shutdown, agency officials said. Another 400 Federal Railroad Administration employees are expected to be furloughed.
TSA officers would continue to work without pay. However, with potentially fewer on duty, the White House has warned of possible longer wait times for travelers, as was the case in previous shutdowns.
Services such as facility security inspections under the FAA and research and development under the railroad administration would halt.
Rental assistance not immediately at risk
Rental assistance programs — which serve 4.5 million households — would not be immediately affected by a shutdown since they are funded through April, said HUD deputy press secretary Zachary Nosanchuk.
A shutdown would “greatly delay” the distribution of HUD grants to communities across the country, “possibly causing problems for counties, cities, and towns,” Nosanchuk said. New grant funds would not be available in a shutdown, he added.
Haven’t we been here before?
We sure have. This is the fourth time since October that Congress has stared down a government-funding deadline. Congress has already passed legislation to buy itself more time to negotiate long-term funding bills on three separate occasions since then.
But each passing deadline ups the stakes. Ukraine aid, border security provisions, and Kevin McCarthy’s speakership have all been casualties of previous government funding standoffs.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday assembled voting rights leaders to reiterate the White House’s support for the issue as she has taken a public role in advocating for several Democratic priorities — on ballot access as well as abortion rights.
For the second time, Harris convened organizers described as being on the front lines of protecting voting rights and registering communities to vote, the White House said in a statement to ABC News.
The vice president and the approximately few dozen leaders met in a closed-door roundtable discussion in the Indian Treaty Room.
“We have seen those who would loudly attempt to interfere in the lawful votes of the American people and attempt to question the integrity of a fair and free election system,” Harris said before the roundtable. “We have seen a rise in threats against poll workers. In fact, I met some recently in Georgia who had harrowing experiences in terms of how they were threatened, their well-being as well as their livelihood.”
Underscoring her point, elsewhere on Tuesday, an Indiana man pleaded guilty to charges that he threatened to kill a Michigan election worker who had made public statements defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, the Justice Department said.
In her White House meeting, Harris laid out a four-point plan that the administration will initiate to try to bolster voters’ rights.
The plan includes emailing instructions on how to register to vote to everyone enrolled in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; allowing students to get paid through federal work study for helping people to register to vote and working as nonpartisan poll workers; implementing initiatives to protect election workers; and announcing three national “days of action” to promote voting.
The three days will be Juneteenth, June 19, the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6 and National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 17, according to Harris.
The vice president also said she will be in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday in remembrance of “Bloody Sunday,” when white law enforcement officers attacked Black voting rights marchers on March 7, 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement.
“Many of us will be in Selma on Sunday to commemorate Bloody Sunday to remember the great John Lewis and Amelia Boynton and so many others — to issue a call, yet again, for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Harris said.
President Joe Biden has for years pushed for lawmakers to implement major election and voting overhauls that supporters say would expand ballot access.
Opponents, including many Republicans, argue such legislation would let the federal government intrude on state authority.
While Biden and Harris, now in the early stages of their reelection campaign, have reiterated their support for voting rights, they have also faced some criticism in their party for not taking more aggressive steps.
At the same time, the Voting Rights Act has come under new legal scrutiny.
A federal appellate panel ruled in November that a key provision of the landmark law does not allow people outside the federal government to sue over alleged electoral discrimination based on race.
For decades, individual voters and civil rights groups have brought successful challenges under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, including last term at the Supreme Court, in a case about whether Alabama’s congressional map was drawn to dilute the voting power of Black people. The justices sided with the plaintiffs.
Multiple civil rights organizations, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed an appeal of the ruling in December. It will likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court this year.
The court’s conservative-leaning majority has already sharply curtailed the act in a series of recent decisions to bring its enforcement in line with their interpretation of the law.
ABC News’ Devin Dwyer, Alexander Mallin, Isabella Murray and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats on Wednesday aim to force Republicans to take a public stand in the controversy over in vitro fertilization by requiring them to either support or oppose legislation led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth — a measure that would establish a statutory right to access assistive reproductive technologies, including IVF, in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling.
At a news conference Tuesday, Duckworth, who is sponsoring the legislation to create a federal law ensuring access, shared her personal experiences with IVF, which she said she used to conceive her two children.
“It’s a little personal to me when a majority male court suggests that people like me who are not able to have kids without the help of modern medicine should be in jail cells and not taking care of their babies in nurseries,” the Illinois Democrat said. “I know I’m not alone when I struggle to understand how politicians who support this kind of policy can possibly call themselves pro-life.”
Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that “unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.” The unprecedented decision from the court could impact the future of IVF treatments in the state — and several IVF providers have paused parts of their care to patients for fear of legal risks.
Duckworth’s plan would require unanimous consent in order for it to pass — even one objection from a Republican would tank it.
But Democrats were out in force Tuesday announcing that they’d push forward with trying to pass the legislation in hopes of putting Republicans on the record.
“I’m headed to the Senate floor to call on my colleagues to pass via unanimous consent my access to family building act, which would ensure that every American’s right to become a parent via treatments like IVF is fully protected regardless of what state they live in,” Duckworth said.
It’s not yet clear whether Republicans will try to block the bill from advancing. Several Republicans signaled an openness to Duckworth’s legislation, but some doubted the need for federal action.
“There’s no effort in Florida or any state in the country to ban fertility treatment,” Sen. Marco Rubio said.
But the Florida Republican indicated legislation could be a relief for medical practitioners exposed to liability.
“I think it’d be worthwhile for every state to provide clear, legal legislative guidance on how clinics can handle unused embryos, particularly when parents have not given clear direction,” Rubio said.
Sen. Roger Marshall, an OBGYN who practiced medicine for more than 25 years before he was elected to the Senate, called on colleagues to “have a lot of compassion and care. this is a very complicated topic, a very personal topic. I encourage people discuss the issue with their own pastor, their own priests, their own rabbi.”
“The Republican Party is the pro family party. So there’s nothing more pro family then then welcoming new babies into the into the world. I think the Dobbs decision clearly puts this issue back at the state level. And we’d encourage the state legislature of Alabama to right this wrong and look forward to more IVF babies,” the Kansas Republican said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham bluntly said an embryo doesn’t constitute life.
“I think one thing I’ve learned is that nobody’s ever been born in a freezer, that I know of. So you’re not going to be born in a freezer. A fertilized egg has to be planted into a biological woman — then you can have a baby,” Graham said.
The South Carolina Republican said IVF “actually [provides] people with children who have a hard time otherwise.”
“We’re talking about the law here. At the end of the day, a embryo in a freezer is not going to develop into a human being. So we need to have a balanced approach to make sure that the the treatments go forward,” Graham said.
Duckworth said that if Republicans who, in recent days have been out in force asserting their support of IVF, are being true to their word, they should support her effort Wednesday.
“I expect them to if they live up to the words that they are saying to not block it, but we’ll see tomorrow when rubber hits the road whether they actually show up and show support for IVF or whether they actively block American families’ ability to start families through IVF,” Duckworth said Tuesday.
Duckworth appeared on “This Week” Sunday where she told co-anchor Martha Raddatz that “it’s been crickets” from Republicans since the Alabama ruling threatened IVF access in the state.
“Not a single Republican has reached out to me on the bill. I’ve introduced a bill, multiple times, now multiple Congresses — but frankly, let’s see if they vote for it when we when we bring it to the floor,” Duckworth told Raddatz.
Duckworth’s bill also establishes the right to use or dispose of “reproductive genetic material” and allows the Justice Department to pursue civil action against states who block this right.
Duckworth has been trying to advance a similar version of this bill for years, but it has previously faced challenges from Republicans.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden handily won the Michigan primary Tuesday night, but still faced protest votes over his handling of the war in Gaza.
Critics of the president have protested the Israel-Hamas war across the state, which is home to a large Arab American population. However, it remains unclear if the “uncommitted” ballot option Tuesday, which organizers urged Democratic voters to choose to send a message to Washington, will garner enough votes to earn any delegates at the party’s national convention this summer.
On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump again romped, easily beating former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Haley, though, showed once again that an unignorable minority of Republicans aren’t thrilled about the prospects of a third consecutive Trump nomination.
Here are three takeaways from the results Tuesday night in Michigan.
Biden handily wins, fending off a worst-case scenario…
Biden was expected to win Michigan’s primary, but the growing effort to get progressives to vote for the “uncommitted” option on the ballot sparked speculation over what his margin would be.
With About 49% of the estimated vote tallied at publication time, the president had nearly 81% of the vote, with uncommitted stuck at just over 13%, a substantial enough margin to easily avoid a worst-case scenario for Biden’s campaign.
Sensing the threat posed by progressive critics, Biden and his allies looked to finish strong in the home stretch of campaigning.
A friendly pro-Israel group had rolled out advertisements urging Democrats to vote for the president rather than for uncommitted, and Biden himself said in an interview that aired Monday night that a ceasefire in Gaza could be days away. And while the president and vice president themselves didn’t campaign extensively in the state, Gretchen Whitmer, the popular Democratic governor, and her political action committee held several events backing the president just this month.
In a statement following primary projections, Biden touted his win and pushed for Democrats to unite behind him and Vice President Kamala Harris in November, casting the stakes of the election as too high for division.
“I want to thank every Michigander who made their voice heard today. Exercising the right to vote and participating in our democracy is what makes America great,” he said. “For all of this progress, there is so much left to do. Donald Trump is threatening to drag us even further into the past as he pursues revenge and retribution.”
“You’ve heard me say many times it’s never a good bet to bet against the United States of America. It’s never a good bet to bet against Michiganders, either. This fight for our freedoms, for working families, and for Democracy is going to take all of us coming together. I know that we will.”
…but critics win enough votes to make their voices heard
While Biden did win by a yawning margin, supporters of “uncommitted” were able to win tens of thousands of voters to their cause.
The critics appear to have an uphill battle to hit the 15% threshold needed to net any delegates at the party convention this summer, but with about a third of the vote tallied, over 43,000 people had voted “uncommitted,” a not insignificant figure.
“Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations. Tens of thousands of Michigan Democrats, many of whom … voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his re-election due to the war in Gaza,” Listen To Michigan, a top group pushing the uncommitted effort, wrote on X.
“President Biden, listen to Michigan. Count us out, Joe,” the group posted.
It’s not yet clear how many votes were cast for uncommitted, but for context, Biden won the state by about 154,000 votes in 2020.
In apparent recognition of the electoral threat, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison over the weekend said that Biden needed to hear out his detractors.
“At the DNC, we don’t handle policy. But we have to deal with the political implications of policy as they move forward. And the one thing we see, particularly with the situation in Israel and Gaza, the president understands that this is personal for so many folks. And when you’re dealing with personal, you’re dealing with a lot of emotions that come along with it. And the first thing is sitting down and listening to people and hearing where they are,” Harrison said on MSNBC.
Trump romps, but Haley takes a slice of the pie
As in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, Trump won Michigan without breaking a sweat.
With just over half of the votes counted, the former president had a 68-27% lead over Haley, the last remaining serious primary rival left in the race.
“I just want to thank everybody, you’ve been incredible. And I’m so proud of the results because they’re far greater than anticipated. So, thank you all very much, and I’ll be seeing you over the next period of nine months and long beyond that,” he told state Republicans after his win.
Still, Haley was able to capture over a quarter of the vote, underscoring again that a vocal minority would rather not have Trump as their nominee and, she claimed, their president.
“Joe Biden is losing about 20 percent of the Democratic vote today, and many say it’s a sign of his weakness in November. Donald Trump is losing about 35 percent of the vote. That’s a flashing warning sign for Trump in November,” Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement. “Let this serve as another warning sign that what has happened in Michigan will continue to play out across the country. So long as Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, Republicans will keep losing to the socialist left.”
Haley’s loss is likely to pour fuel on the pressure campaign for her to drop out, but the South Carolina Republican has remained adamant that she will stay in the race at least until Super Tuesday next week.
Haley said in a pretaped interview that aired Tuesday on CNN that she was “absolutely” staying in the race through March 5.
“Let people vote. Now, in the next week, we’re going to watch 20 states and territories vote. Let’s let that happen,” Haley said.
(NEW YORK) — A sewing machine manufacturer in Ohio froze employee wages, a New York City-based wheelchair producer forced layoffs at a U.S. supplier and a drone seller in Florida struggled to offer pay increases and hire workers.
The companies were among hundreds who filed comments with the federal government over the negative consequences of tariffs put in place under then-President Donald Trump. Many of the businesses bemoaned sudden employment-related difficulties, government filings show.
Drone Nerds, the Florida-based firm, criticized the tariffs in a filing as “a dead-weight loss for the economy.”
The challenges reflect findings in a series of studies that show the tariffs undertaken by Trump resulted in at best a neutral effect on U.S. employment and at worst a loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, all the while raising prices for consumers.
On the campaign trail, Trump has vowed to escalate the trade war initiated during his first term. Such policies would spur employment in some industries acutely threatened by foreign goods but the overall result would be further job losses due to a rise in costs for companies across the economy, experts told ABC News.
“Some jobs would be created,” Raymond Robertson, a professor of economics and government at Texas A&M University, told ABC News. “But it’s going to come with higher prices and the market will adjust with lower demand for workers.”
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump campaign rebuked criticism of the tariffs, pointing to strong economic performance under Trump.
“It’s no surprise that organizations funded by foreign outsourcers, globalist corporations, and Chinese business interests don’t like President Trump’s historic tariffs — but the American people don’t need made-up ‘models’ to know how much better our economy was under President Trump,” Karoline Leavitt, the campaign’s national press secretary, told ABC News.
“By cutting regulations and taxes and using the leverage of the United States to negotiate better trade deals around the world, President Trump built the strongest economy in American history,” Leavitt added.
During his tenure, Trump placed tariffs on aluminum and steel from a host of countries, including Mexico, Canada and the European Union.
Meanwhile, he taxed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods from China, raising import costs for everything from shoes to BMX bikes to computer chips.
Trump’s tariffs decreased U.S. employment by 166,000 jobs, according to a study from the nonprofit Tax Foundation, which cited an increase in import costs for U.S. employers. A separate study from the U.S.-China Business Council estimated up to nearly 250,000 lost jobs as a result of the tariffs.
The manufacturing sector drew special attention from Trump, who touted the potential for rejuvenating U.S. production.
However, in 2019, the Federal Reserve Board found that the tariffs had led to a 1.4% decline in manufacturing employment, which amounts to roughly 175,000 missing jobs that would’ve otherwise been created in the absence of the policy, Katheryn Russ, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, told ABC News.
The primary reason for the job losses, experts said, owes to the increased costs for materials imported by U.S. firms, which in many cases raised prices to make up for the shortfall and in turn lost out on business. Retaliatory tariffs, which raised the prices paid for U.S. exports, also negatively impacted jobs, the experts added.
“What we know is that the tariffs increased costs for manufacturers,” Russ said. “So overall they are associated with a decline in employment among manufacturers who used the goods targeted by tariffs.”
Neel’s Saddlery and Harness, a small seller of industrial sewing machines based in Lima, Ohio, suffered an immediate 20% drop in sales in 2018, after Trump placed tariffs on China-made sewing machines.
“Our prices had to go up and customers expressed dissatisfaction,” Ryan Neel, the owner of the company, told ABC News. “It was very stressful.”
In response to mounting losses, the company froze wages and ultimately laid off two of its six employees, Neel said. “I didn’t tell them it was because of the tariffs,” Neel added. “I said it was because we were losing business. But I think they could put two and two together.”
To be sure, the tariffs have protected some industries vulnerable to cheap foreign goods, likely bolstering employment in those areas. A trade group representing steel pipe manufacturers and another advocating for wood flooring producers, for instance, defended the tariffs in comments to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
In the absence of the tariffs, “large quantities of unfairly priced Chinese imports of steel pipe would be likely to result in U.S facility closures and the loss of thousands of U.S. manufacturing and related jobs,” the American Line Pipe Producers Association Trade Committee said.
President Joe Biden, for his part, has kept many of the tariffs in place.
Trump has recently vowed to expand the trade war if he takes office next year, promising to impose tariffs on most imported goods. Speaking with Fox Business in August, Trump said the tax on imported items could ultimately stand at 10%.
Earlier this month, when asked by Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo whether he would consider implementing a 60% tariff on Chinese goods, Trump said: “No, I would say maybe it’s going to be more than that.”
Higher tariffs would protect some industries but the ultimate effect would be a deepening of the job losses caused by the initial round of measures, experts said.
“If we impose 60% tariffs, that will have significant adverse effects on U.S. supply chains, employment and prices,” said Robertson, of Texas A&M.
Neel said his firm would likely go out of business under such tariffs.
“The immediate drop in sales would be tremendous and jobs would be eliminated,” Neel said.
(GRAND RAPIDS, MI.) — On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden is touting a post-COVID-19 economy that has roared back to life and continued to shatter expectations in recent months.
Worries of a recession are fading, unemployment remains very low and average wages are on the rise again after years of being overtaken by high inflation, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But in the grocery aisles in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Teresa Johnson, a single mother, struggles to make ends meet for her and her 11-year-old daughter despite the cooling prices.
She told ABC News that she is still recovering from the financial hardships of the pandemic and has yet to see the benefits of the recent economic upturn.
“I’m living paycheck to paycheck because it’s so hard really to save,” Johnson said in an interview with ABC News Contributing Political Correspondent Rachael Bade.
“I won’t be able to retire, especially with a child that I have here at home. I don’t see it coming. I’m going to have to work until about 70 or 72,” Johnson said.
As voters look ahead to the 2024 presidential election, Johnson is among the 74% of Americans who said the economy was very important to them, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll from November.
A January ABC/Ipsos survey also found that Americans were broadly unhappy about the state of the economy, including the high prices and the high interest rates intended to fight inflation — and they mostly disapproved of Biden’s handling of the issue, despite his messaging and factors like high employment.
People like Johnson, in the key battleground of Michigan, offer a personal glimpse into those views, which could influence the next election.
A registered Democrat, Johnson told ABC News that while she voted for Biden in 2020, she is looking at other presidential candidates this year. “Right now, I’m kind of disappointed,” she said.
“As far as the economy, I’m upset as a working adult, mother and grandmother,” she said. “I don’t feel that there’s been enough changes as of now.”
Though Johnson described herself as “on the other side,” she said she likes former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a long shot challenger to Trump in the Republican primary.
For years, Johnson has been on a fixed disability income — but due to rising costs seen since inflation jumped in 2021 and 2022, the 66-year-old former state employee has had to take a part-time job in a school cafeteria.
The climb in food and gas prices pushed her already-tight budget to the brink and the financial pinch has meant making some tough choices: prioritizing food sales over food quality and choosing cheaper cuts of meat for dinner.
“I love Honeycrisp, but $8 to $9 for a bag of apples? That’s not good. That is really high. I can’t afford that,” Johnson told Bade, adding that it’s been a couple of months since she’s been able to have a large Sunday family dinner.
“It’s not feasible anymore because of the price of food,” Johnson said.
While inflation has fallen dramatically from its high in 2022, it remains nearly a percentage point above the Fed Reserve’s target of 2%.
Consumer prices rose by 3.1% in January compared to a year ago, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is less than the 3.4% year-over-year figure in December and well below the 9.1% annual spike seen in mid-2022.
By comparison, labor data shows that average hourly earnings grew by 4.5% from January 2023 to January 2024.
The Biden campaign and its surrogates have aggressively tried to move public opinion on the economy, touring key battleground states to advertise his record, including spending to boost domestic manufacturing and infrastructure as well as the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, $740 billion legislation that invests in clean energy and aims to lower health costs and provide tax credit incentives.
“Thanks to the American people, America now has the strongest growth, the lowest inflation rate of any major economy in the world,” Biden said at an event in January.
“Things are finally beginning to sink in,” he said then. “We passed a lot of really good legislation. We knew it was going to take time for it to begin to take hold, but it’s taken hold now in turning the economy around.”
Despite continued economic growth, the president’s politically branded “Bidenomics” pitch has largely fallen flat on the campaign trail, according to the polls.
Rising prices, even if they are rising more slowly than in 2021 and 2022, still seem to weigh on the minds of voters. (Officials like Fed Chair Jerome Powell have said that to truly decrease prices would mean having a broad recession — which creates other problems.)
A late-January NBC News poll showed that just 33% of registered voters said Biden would do a better job than rival Donald Trump handling the economy, while 55% of respondents said Trump would be better than Biden.
Small business owner Arick Davis, owner of the Last Mile Cafe in Grand Rapids, said he’s still reeling from the impact of inflation.
With many of his customers pinching pennies and shopping less, the financial toll has affected his bottom line, he said. He’s had to dip into his savings to keep his business afloat.
“There’s definitely been a lot of sacrifices in this period to turn this into the place that we want it to be,” Davis told ABC News.
Like Johnson, he said that he isn’t experiencing the lower rates of inflation that are making headlines.
“If inflation is going down, that’s great, but I have not seen any of my bills get cheaper. It does not feel like it’s gotten better. It does not feel like access to capital has improved,” he said, adding that he wants to see more solutions for helping small businesses and reducing overall spending.
Davis voted for Biden in 2020 and said he plans to do so again in the 2024 election. And while he cannot see himself voting for Trump, he wishes there were other viable candidates to choose from.
“I do not think Joe Biden should be the nominee for the Democrats,” Davis said. “There was a time where [Biden] presented himself as the best candidate, but I think that there are a plethora of people out there who probably would do a better job at the job.”
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden, while campaigning in New York Monday, stopped by 30 Rockefeller to appear on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”
The president’s sit down with the comic late Monday included questions about his age and his 2024 agenda versus that of former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for the nomination.
“Some documents recently leaked, some classified documents — and this isn’t a gotcha show but I do want to ask about it — that says you are currently 81 years old,” Meyers began.
“Who the hell told you that?” Biden joked. “That’s classified.”
Meyers then turned to a more serious note, highlighting the fact that polls show voters are concerned about Biden’s age as he runs for a second term and asking how Biden plans to address that on the campaign trail.
“No. 1, you got to take a look at the other guy, he’s about as old as I am,” Biden said, swiping at Trump, who is 77.
“No. 2, it’s about how old your ideas are,” Biden continued. “Look, I mean, this is a guy who wants to take us back. He wants to take us back on Roe v. Wade. He wants to take us back on a whole range of issues that for 50, 60 years they’ve been solid American positions.”
“I think it’s about the future,” Biden said. “And everything, every single thing we’ve done, and I think we’ve got some good things done … they told us we couldn’t get them done, because things were so divided.”
The interview comes as Biden (who has largely eschewed traditional press conferences or press interviews) seeks to tamp down voter worries and Republican criticisms about his age and stamina by ramping up his appearances. The choice of venue was also curated for an important demographic: younger voters.
In another moment of levity, Biden joked about conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift scheming with Democrats when it comes to everything from the Super Bowl to the 2024 election.
“Where are you getting this information?” Biden quipped when Meyers broached the subject. “It’s classified.”
Meyers also questioned Biden on Republicans holding up aid to Ukraine, Trump’s “dictator” remarks and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Biden, facing criticism by some Arab and Muslim communities in Michigan and elsewhere for his position on the Israel-Hamas war, said he believed there is a path forward — albeit a “difficult” one — on a cease-fire and hostage release.
“Ramadan is coming up and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” he said.
Earlier in the day, at an ice cream shop with Meyers, Biden said his hope is that there will be a cease-fire reached by next Monday — comments that a senior Israeli source told ABC News caught Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by surprise.
On his late-night appearance, Biden said without Israel, no Jewish person would be safe — but also warned of diminished support for the country if it continues its current tactics in Gaza.
“Israel has had the overwhelming support of the vast majority of nations. If it keeps this up without this incredibly conservative government they have … they’re going to lose support from around the world,” he said. “And that is not in Israel’s interest.”
ABC News’ Lauren Minore contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will host top congressional leaders at the White House Tuesday as he and fellow Democrats remain at odds with House Republicans over aid to Ukraine and government funding with a partial shutdown deadline just days away.
The “Big 4” leaders sitting down with the president are House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
The last time the group met was in mid-January to discuss how to break a stalemate over border policy and foreign aid.
Since then, Speaker Johnson, who rejected both a bipartisan border deal and stand-alone foreign aid bill out of the Senate, has been requesting a one-on-one session with President Biden but has so far been denied. The White House had criticized Johnson for his shifting views on how to move forward with the issues. Biden last week signaled he’d be willing to meet with Johnson if he had “anything to say.”
During Tuesday’s meeting with all four congressional leaders, Biden will try to “push forward” his supplemental funding request to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
“What the president wants to see is we want to make sure that the national security interests of the American people get put first, right?” Jean-Pierre said when asked what Biden would consider a successful meeting. “That it is not used as a political football, right? We want to make sure that gets done.”
She continued, “And we also want to see that the government does not get shut down. It is a basic priority or duty of Congress to keep the government open.”
Jean-Pierre also contended Biden, in past meetings, “moved the ball” on issues like the debt ceiling and border legislation.
“We have seen some movement,” she said. “We have seen the president’s leadership on this.”
The two-year mark of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine passed this weekend. Since Republicans took control of the House, no new aid has been approved by Congress to help Ukraine stave off Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Johnson dismissed the stand-alone foreign aid bill for not including border changes, and it was not brought to the House floor before lawmakers left earlier this month for a two-week recess. On the issue of Ukraine aid itself, Johnson previously said he wants answers from the administration on what exactly the endgame is for Ukraine and how the U.S. funds would be used to reach that goal.
Biden, in remarks last Friday, urged House Republicans to take up the Senate-passed foreign aid bill that would provide $60 billion to Ukraine as well as funding for Israel and Taiwan. Not supporting Ukraine, Biden warned, “will never be forgotten in history.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in an interview on ABC’s This Week, put the onus on Johnson, saying “one person can bend the course of history” if he allows a vote on Ukraine aid. Sullivan said the administration believed it would ultimately receive bipartisan support.
“Right now, it comes down to his willingness to actually step up to the plate and discharge his responsibility at this critical moment,” Sullivan said. “And history is watching.”
Meanwhile, if lawmakers can’t reach a spending agreement by Friday night, a partial shutdown will ensue affecting several agencies. If by March 8 there is still no legislation passed, a total government shutdown will occur.
Schumer, in a letter to colleagues ahead of lawmakers’ return to Washington on Monday, pinned blame on a possible shutdown and lack of foreign aid on the “extreme wing” of the Republican party.
“The fact is when Democrats and Republicans embrace compromise and cooperation, the Congress can invest in the American people, avoid an extreme Republican government shutdown, and fulfill our shared responsibility to protect our national security both at home and abroad,” Schumer wrote.
Johnson also issued a statement swiping at Schumer, accusing Democrats of playing “petty politics.” Republicans, he said, would be focused on reining in spending.
“At a time of divided government, Senate Democrats are attempting at this late stage to spend on priorities that are farther left than what their chamber agreed upon,” the speaker wrote on X.
