Politics

(WASHINGTON) — After a week of fast-moving shakeups at the nation’s health agency, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight over his department, on Thursday for hours of questioning sure to center on his vaccine policy.

It comes a week after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) significantly narrowed access to the COVID-19 vaccine, a move that precipitated a public fallout and ousting of the newly installed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Susan Monarez. Four top CDC officials also resigned in protest.

The new FDA approval for COVID shots allows for people who are aged 65 and older to get the vaccine, or younger Americans who have an underlying condition that puts them at a higher risk of severe illness from the virus.

Public health officials and pharmacist groups have said the change will make it harder for young and healthy people to get the vaccine — should they still choose to — and raises questions about where they can get it or whether insurance will cover it.

Thursday is the first time Kennedy has faced questions from senators since May, when he testified before a Senate committee and a House committee, defending the massive cuts to the department’s workforce carried out in April.

Kennedy is expected to tout the overhauls at HHS so far, which he has said are aimed at eliminating bloated bureaucracy and conflicts of interest at public health agencies that get in the way of “gold-standard science.”

In a statement, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said Kennedy will use the hearing to “reaffirm his commitment to Make America Healthy Again: restoring gold-standard science at HHS, empowering patients with more transparency, choices and access to care, and reestablishing trust in public health.”

While Republicans like Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo will attempt to keep the focus on chronic disease and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, Democrats and even some Republicans are expected to push Kennedy for answers on the FDA’s latest change as well as an upcoming CDC meeting on vaccines, which could lead to more changes to the nation’s vaccine policy.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which discusses vaccine data and makes recommendations for which vaccines Americans should get and when, is going to weigh in on the FDA’s latest change, further informing insurance companies and pharmacies of how to carry out the policy.

But ACIP is also going to discuss a slate of different vaccines, including the COVID vaccine; hepatitis B vaccines; the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine; and the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine.

In June, Kennedy replaced all 17 sitting members of the committee with his own hand-selected members, including some who have expressed vaccine-skeptic views fervently sought to discredit the safety and efficacy of mRNA COVID vaccines.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, said he had spoken to other members of his caucus who agreed that they needed to investigate what potential changes Kennedy and the CDC committee were weighing to the childhood vaccine recommendations.

“The issue is about children’s health, and there are rumors, allegations, that children’s health, which is at issue here, might be endangered by some of the decisions that are purported to be made. I don’t know what’s true,” Cassidy said. “I know that we need to get there. And I’ve talked to members of my Republican Caucus, several of them. They’ve agreed with me that we need to get at it.”

Cassidy, who pushed Kennedy during his confirmation hearings to issue support for vaccines and publicly struggled over his vote for him, has tasked the committee he chairs, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), to do “oversight” of Monarez’ ousting, he wrote on X last week.

Cassidy maintained that he isn’t “presupposing someone is right or wrong.” “I just know we’ve got to figure it out,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy has also called for the CDC meeting to be postponed until “significant oversight has been conducted,” citing “serious allegations” about the “meeting agenda, membership and lack of scientific process.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is on the HELP committee with Cassidy, told reporters on Wednesday that she is “concerned” and “alarmed” by Monarez’s firing.

“I know that the president has the right to fire whomever he wishes when it comes to that kind of appointment, but I don’t see any justification for it,” Collins said.

Monarez, who was in the job for only a month, was pushed out after she declined to fire top officials and support Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes in a meeting with the secretary early last week, a source familiar with her conversations with the secretary told ABC News.

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” Monarez’s attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said in a statement late last week.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters President Donald Trump had fired Monarez because she “was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.”

“It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly reelected on November 5,” Leavitt said. “This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.”

Other CDC officials who followed Monarez out the door included:

• Deb Houry, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science
• Dr. Dan Jernigan, Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
• Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
• Dr. Jennifer Layden, Director for the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.

The officials cited the political climate and a refusal to accept science that didn’t align with Kennedy’s beliefs.

Daskalakis, in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week”, said he thought the changes Kennedy has so far made are “the tip of the iceberg.”

In addition to the recent FDA changes for the COVID vaccine, Kennedy has also canceled up to $500 million in research and development for mRNA vaccines and changed the COVID vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women.

“I mean, from my vantage point as a doctor who’s taken the Hippocratic oath, I only see harm coming. I may be wrong. But based on what I’m seeing, based on what I’ve heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they’re really moving in an ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination,” Daskalakis said.

Kennedy, when he testified in his confirmation hearings to be health secretary in January, denied that he was anti-vaccine and said he supports “the childhood schedule” for vaccinations.

“I am pro-vaccine. I am going to support the vaccine program. I want kids to be healthy, and I’m coming in here to get rid of the conflicts of interest within the agency, make sure that we have gold standard, evidence-based science,” Kennedy said.

When pressed by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Kennedy committed to supporting the measles and polio vaccines.

“Senator, I support the measles vaccine, I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines,” Kennedy said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Many parents, school districts and the federal government alike have embraced artificial intelligence this back-to-school season, but some experts warn artificial intelligence could widen the teacher shortage by eliminating jobs.

In a Pew Research Center study released last spring, 31% of AI experts, whose work or research focuses on the topic, said they expected artificial intelligence to lead to fewer jobs for teachers. Nearly a third of the experts surveyed predicted that AI will place teaching jobs “at risk” over the next 20 years, according to they Pew Research study.

The warning comes after the Learning Policy Institute — an organization that conducts independent research to improve education and policy practices — in July issued an overview of teacher shortages, which estimated that about one in eight teaching positions in 2025 are either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments.

Indiana’s 2024 Teacher of the Year Eric Jenkins suggested AI could end up replacing “some parts” of teaching, but as a tool — not a replacement.

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield emphasized that using AI to address the long-standing staffing shortage shouldn’t be considered.

“In no universe do I think that AI is going to replace a teacher,” Critchfield told ABC News.

“The teacher is the most important part and component of the classroom, but [AI] is a very useful tool in helping them provide the best educational environment that they can in the classroom,” she said.

The White House encourages K-12 students to use AI. While the Trump administration hasn’t directly addressed whether AI could replace teachers, the administration has launched its own action plan on the technology, which says “AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work — not replacing it.”

Last week, first lady Melania Trump launched an AI contest challenging students to develop projects that use AI to address community challenges. Education Secretary Linda McMahon endorsed the challenge.

“AI has the potential to revolutionize education, drive meaningful learning outcomes, and prepare students for tomorrow’s challenges,” McMahon wrote in a post on X.

Teachers say they offer what AI can’t: connection
Nearly three years after the launch of ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, most of the United States has developed guidance on AI use in schools.

Many districts tell ABC News that they are embracing the technology so long as it is used appropriately — by adhering to local education agency guidance — with academic integrity. Critchfield even downplayed concerns that AI use in schools encourages cheating.

“Teachers can tell if you were writing like a seventh grader on Wednesday and then, all of a sudden, your paper you turn in on a Friday sounds like your post-doctorate in philosophy,” she said. “They know how to tell those differences.”

But in the wake of the pandemic, Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd — an education policy center at Georgetown University, argued students need connection — to their peers, family and education tools such as AI chatbots — more than ever. Still, Toch rejected the full-time use of AI in place of humans.

“The loss of that connection during the pandemic, when kids were learning virtually, created widespread mental-health challenges,” Toch told ABC News. “The notion that, you know, a machine will be the only entity that interacts with kids is problematic in that regard.”

Education experts, such as Toch, contend K-12 education has “perpetual” teacher shortages with about a half-dozen areas in need, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and special education instructors. The shortages have plagued the workforce for many years now, educators have told ABC News, with many of them citing strict time demands, persistent behavioral issues and lack of administrative support, among other obstacles.

Toch and Jenkins told ABC News they both appreciate AI for the powerful tool it can be in assisting teachers. It helps teachers plan lessons, grade students’ essays and is used as a “time saver” that helps them do their jobs better, according to Toch.

Preparing educators to work with AI tools
Jenkins said AI is inevitable and that he believes teachers need to lean in and embrace its capabilities.

“I don’t think we can put our head in the sand about it,” Jenkins told ABC News. “I don’t think that it’s necessarily going to replace teachers because teachers can offer something that AI can’t, which is a connection, like authentic connection and community.”

Jenkins argued the chatbots lack the human element of what teachers do: making sure that students feel seen and heard. He said that is not going away.

With AI’s presence in education, Jenkins added, “it’s going to make those moments even more important.”

In Idaho, Critchfield said she has been excited about students and educators using the technology, but suggested the challenge ahead focuses on making AI be seen as a tool and not a negative. According to Critchfield, using AI wisely can aid in the shortage by increasing teacher retention and reducing educators’ workloads.

“How are we preparing and training our teachers to use [AI] so that we don’t add new problems as we’re trying to solve some other problems?” Critchfield said.

Ultimately, Critchfield said she doesn’t see AI as a boogeyman that is going to eliminate jobs, but she stressed that teachers who know AI could replace those who are less familiar with the technology.

After teachers in his district suggested banning ChatGPT just a few years ago, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington told ABC News that instead of removing AI, Philadelphia is now learning from it together. The school district is implementing AI 101 Training for its teachers, school leaders, and superintendent through a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Watlington said it’s about “getting people around the table, and we are learning together.”

“We’re not hiding from AI,” Watlington said. “We’re also thinking about its implications and we’re really paying attention to what the prospective unintended consequences could be as well.”

Watlington added: “I think that’s the responsible way to think about artificial intelligence.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — After a week of fast-moving shakeups at the nation’s health agency, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will come before the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight over his department, on Thursday for hours of questioning that is sure to center on his vaccine policy.

It comes a week after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) significantly narrowed access to the COVID-19 vaccine, a move that precipitated a public fallout and ousting of the newly installed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Susan Monarez. Four top CDC officials also resigned in protest.

The new FDA approval for COVID shots allows for people who are aged 65 and older to get the vaccine, or younger Americans who have an underlying condition that puts them at a higher risk of severe illness from the virus.

Public health officials and pharmacist groups have said the change will make it harder for young and healthy people to get the vaccine — should they still choose to — and raises questions about where they can get it or whether insurance will cover it.

Thursday will be the first time Kennedy has faced questions from senators since May, when he testified before a Senate committee and a House committee, defending the massive cuts to the department’s workforce carried out in April.

Kennedy is expected to tout the overhauls at HHS so far, which he has said are aimed at eliminating bloated bureaucracy and conflicts of interest at public health agencies that get in the way of “gold-standard science.”

In a statement, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said Kennedy will use the hearing to “reaffirm his commitment to Make America Healthy Again: restoring gold-standard science at HHS, empowering patients with more transparency, choices and access to care, and reestablishing trust in public health.”

While Republicans like Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo will attempt to keep the focus on chronic disease and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, Democrats and even some Republicans are expected to push Kennedy for answers on the FDA’s latest change as well as an upcoming CDC meeting on vaccines, which could lead to more changes to the nation’s vaccine policy.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which discusses vaccine data and makes recommendations for which vaccines Americans should get and when, is going to weigh in on the FDA’s latest change, further informing insurance companies and pharmacies of how to carry out the policy.

But ACIP is also going to discuss a slate of different vaccines, including the COVID vaccine; hepatitis B vaccines; the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine; and the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine.

In June, Kennedy replaced all 17 sitting members of the committee with his own hand-selected members, including some who have expressed vaccine-skeptic views fervently sought to discredit the safety and efficacy of mRNA COVID vaccines.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, said he had spoken to other members of his caucus who agreed that they needed to investigate what potential changes Kennedy and the CDC committee were weighing to the childhood vaccine recommendations.

“The issue is about children’s health, and there are rumors, allegations, that children’s health, which is at issue here, might be endangered by some of the decisions that are purported to be made. I don’t know what’s true,” Cassidy said. “I know that we need to get there. And I’ve talked to members of my Republican Caucus, several of them. They’ve agreed with me that we need to get at it.”

Cassidy, who pushed Kennedy during his confirmation hearings to issue support for vaccines and publicly struggled over his vote for him, has tasked the committee he chairs, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), to do “oversight” of Monarez’ ousting, he wrote on X last week.

Cassidy maintained that he isn’t “presupposing someone is right or wrong.” “I just know we’ve got to figure it out,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy has also called for the CDC meeting to be postponed until “significant oversight has been conducted,” citing “serious allegations” about the “meeting agenda, membership and lack of scientific process.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is on the HELP committee with Cassidy, told reporters on Wednesday that she is “concerned” and “alarmed” by Monarez’s firing.

“I know that the president has the right to fire whomever he wishes when it comes to that kind of appointment, but I don’t see any justification for it,” Collins said.

Monarez, who was in the job for only a month, was pushed out after she declined to fire top officials and support Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes in a meeting with the secretary early last week, a source familiar with her conversations with the secretary told ABC News.

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” Monarez’s attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said in a statement late last week.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters President Donald Trump had fired Monarez because she “was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.”

“It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly reelected on November 5,” Leavitt said. “This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.”

Other CDC officials who followed Monarez out the door included:

Deb Houry, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science
Dr. Dan Jernigan, Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
Dr. Jennifer Layden, Director for the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
The officials cited the political climate and a refusal to accept science that didn’t align with Kennedy’s beliefs.

Daskalakis, in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week”, said he thought the changes Kennedy has so far made are “the tip of the iceberg.”

In addition to the recent FDA changes for the COVID vaccine, Kennedy has also canceled up to $500 million in research and development for mRNA vaccines and changed the COVID vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women.

“I mean, from my vantage point as a doctor who’s taken the Hippocratic oath, I only see harm coming. I may be wrong. But based on what I’m seeing, based on what I’ve heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they’re really moving in an ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination,” Daskalakis said.

Kennedy, when he testified in his confirmation hearings to be health secretary in January, denied that he was anti-vaccine and said he supports “the childhood schedule” for vaccinations.

“I am pro-vaccine. I am going to support the vaccine program. I want kids to be healthy, and I’m coming in here to get rid of the conflicts of interest within the agency, make sure that we have gold standard, evidence-based science,” Kennedy said.

When pressed by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Kennedy committed to supporting the measles and polio vaccines.

“Senator, I support the measles vaccine, I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines,” Kennedy said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday cast the Jeffrey Epstein controversy as “irrelevant” amid an effort on Capitol Hill to force a vote to release all files related to the deceased sex offender.

“This is a Democrat hoax that never ends,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the push for more transparency in the Epstein matter.

“From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given,” the president said. “But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.”

The comments came as a group of survivors joined House members in a push to compel the Justice Department to release records so far withheld from Congress.

ABC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Jay O’Brien asked the victims for their reaction to Trump’s characterization that it is a “hoax.”

One survivor, Haley Robson, said it felt like “being gutted from the inside out.”

“Mr. President Donald J. Trump, I am a registered Republican — not that that matters because this is not political — however, I cordially invite you to meet me in the Capitol in person so you can understand this is not a hoax. We are real human beings. This is real trauma,” she responded.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna’s effort to force a vote on the files has led to a showdown with House Republican leadership and the White House.

Massie’s discharge petition had 206 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon. It needs 218 to compel a vote on the House floor.

So far, four Republicans have signed on to the Massie and Khanna discharge petition — a procedural tool to bypass GOP leadership and force a vote. Those signers include Massie, Reps. Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. If all 212 Democrats sign the petition, only two more Republicans are needed.

Speaker Mike Johnson urged Republicans to not support Massie’s discharge petition during a closed conference meeting Wednesday morning, according to multiple sources. Johnson instead argued the ongoing investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the better path forward.

The House on Wednesday adopted a resolution by a vote of 212-208-1 that instructs the Oversight Committee to continue its Epstein investigation that began weeks ago.

The measure was Johnson’s preferred vote on the Epstein controversy. Massie has called it a “placebo.”

Johnson said he spoke to Trump about the Epstein files on Tuesday night, and Trump instructed him to “get it out there” and “put it all out there.”

“This is going to be an ongoing effort. It will be bipartisan, which is great and the Oversight Committee’s effort, this is really important to point out, goes further than the discharge petition,” Johnson argued. “It requests more information than the discharge even encompasses. For example, the Epstein estate documents, which is a treasure trove of information not referenced in the discharge. And it has the force of law because we have subpoena authorities.”

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(WASHINGTON) — During an Oval Office event, President Donald Trump was asked about a video that began circulating online this past weekend of what appears to be a bag being thrown out of a second-story window at the White House.

Trump said on Tuesday that it was “probably AI-generated” and said that you can’t open the windows at the White House. It’s not clear when the alleged incident occurred.

A reporter asked if Trump was aware of the video, saying, “There is a video that is circulating online now of the White House where a window is open to the residence upstairs, and somebody is throwing a big bag out the window. Have you seen this?”

To which Trump suggested it was made with artificial intelligence and said, “You can’t open the windows. You know why? They’re all heavily armored and bulletproof.”

“I know every window up there,” Trump continued. “The last place I’d be doing it is that because there’s cameras all over the place, right? Including yours?” the president asked the reporter.

Earlier on Tuesday, however, a White House official implied in a statement to TIME magazine that the video was real and showed a contractor doing “regular maintenance.”

ABC News has reached out to the White House about the discrepancies between the two different answers.

ABC News has not independently verified the video’s authenticity. But one expert said it appeared unlikely the video is an AI fake. Hany Farid, chief science officer at GetReal Labs and an expert on synthetic media, told ABC News that he does not see any evidence that indicates the video is AI-generated.

“I’m not seeing any evidence that this video is AI-generated or manipulated,” Farid said. “We do not detect any digital watermarks that are sometimes inserted at the point of AI-generation. The shadows in the scene, including the shadow cast by the tossed bag, are all physically consistent. The motion of the waving flags has none of the tell-tale signs that you often see in AI-generated videos. The overall structure of the White House appears to be consistent, including the flying of the American and POW/MIA flag.”

Farid noted that AI-based video generation models today typically produce videos no more than eight to 10 seconds long, a limitation that can be circumvented by stitching two clips together by generating a new video based on the final frame of the last one.

“Having said that, the length of this video does add some evidence that it is unlikely to be AI-generated,” Farid said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — A group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors spoke out on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as part of a push to have all files related to the accused sex trafficker released.

“This is not a hoax. It’s not going to go away,” said Marina Lacerda, a central witness in Epstein’s 2019 indictment who spoke with ABC News.

Anouska De Georgiou, the first survivor of Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell to step to the podium, said the victims are coming together to have their voices be heard.

“The days of sweeping this under the rug are over. We the survivors say ‘no more,'” she said.

“I’m no longer weak, I am no longer powerless and I’m no longer alone. And with your vote, neither will the next generation,” she said. “President Trump, you have so much influence and power in this situation. Please use that influence and power to help us, because we need it now, and this country needs it now.”

Survivor after survivor implored lawmakers to back a bipartisan push from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to compel the Justice Department to publicly release the Epstein files.

At times growing emotional, some survivors also detailed the abuse they said they suffered at the hands of Epstein.

“I hope my colleagues are watching this press conference. I want them to think, what if this was your sister? What if this was your daughter?” Massie said.

“Today we stand with survivors, we stand against big money, we stand to protect America’s children. That is really what this is about,” Khanna said on Wednesday.

So far, four Republicans have signed on to the Massie and Khanna discharge petition — a procedural tool to bypass GOP leadership and force a vote. Those signers include Massie, Reps. Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.

If all 212 Democrats sign the petition, only two Republicans are needed to reach the 218 needed to compel a vote on the House floor.

Attorney Bradley Edwards, who has represented more than 200 of the Epstein survivors, said the push should “pass with flying colors.”

“While we have seen the documents, you haven’t and when you see the documents, you’re going to be appalled,” Edwards said.

House Republican leadership, however, is opposed to the Massie and Khanna effort — as is the White House.

Speaker Mike Johnson urged Republicans to not support Massie’s discharge petition during a closed conference meeting Wednesday morning, according to multiple sources.

“It does not adequately protect the innocent victims, and that is a critical component,” Johnson said on Tuesday of the discharge petition.

Johnson instead argued the ongoing investigation by the House Oversight Committee, which has subpoenaed records from the Justice Department and the Epstein estate, is the better path because committee investigators will pour over the files and redact any identifying or otherwise confidential information.

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday evening released tens of thousands of pages related to Epstein, much of which was already publicly known.

“To the American people — don’t let this fool you,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said after the release. “After careful review, Oversight Democrats have found that 97% of the documents received from the Department of Justice were already public. There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims.”

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy and child sex trafficking. He died in custody a month later, while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury on sex trafficking and other charges. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding and participating in Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls, which involved a scheme to recruit young women and girls for massages of Epstein that turned sexual.

Ahead of the news conference with lawmakers, several of the survivors and their families held a rally outside the Capitol.

“It’s the voices of survivors of these crimes that are important, so we are here together to stand united,” said survivor Liz Stein.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors are set to speak at the Capitol on Wednesday morning.

The 10:30 a.m. ET news conference comes as a bipartisan pair of lawmakers push to force a vote on the House floor on releasing the Epstein files.

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie defended the effort he and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna’s are making, emphasizing late Tuesday that all eyes will be on hearing the survivors of Epstein’s sexual abuse and alleged trafficking speak out.

“I think what’s going to change everything is tomorrow at 10:30, when we have the survivors testifying in public, some of whom have never spoken publicly, and they’ve already met with the Oversight Committee, and it was allegedly a very emotional meeting, and that’s all behind closed doors. But it’s going to be open to the public tomorrow,” he said Tuesday.

Massie accused the White House of not wanting to release the files.

“Look, if my legislation were redundant, why would the White House be trying to stop it? It’s not redundant. There are things that the White House doesn’t want out there that my legislation would cause to be released.”

Asked to respond to President Donald Trump calling the Epstein investigation “a hoax,” Massie said, “I hope he doesn’t say that after tomorrow when 10 of the survivors testify, that would be very disrespectful.”

So far, four Republicans have signed the discharge petition — a procedural tool to bypass GOP leadership and force a vote on a measure to compel the Justice Department to publicly release the Epstein files. Those signers include Massie, Reps. Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. If all 212 Democrats sign the petition, only two Republicans are needed to reach the 218 needed force a vote on the House floor.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, after an hourslong meeting with Epstein survivors on Tuesday, said Republicans were committed to transparency on Epstein, but reiterated his opposition to Massie and Khanna’s petition.

“It does not adequately protect the innocent victims, and that is a critical component,” Johnson said.

Massie also weighed in on the Epstein document release on Tuesday from the House Oversight Committee, which included tens of thousands of pages, saying he still plans to move forward with his discharge petition.

“I haven’t had time to look at all the documents that have been released by the Oversight Committee, but I think the scope of their investigation is such that the things they requested aren’t even going to include all the things that we need, and the few documents that we have been able to view are heavily redacted to the degree that they wouldn’t show us anything new,” he said.

Massie added, “Somebody needs to show us what’s new in those documents, to know whether it’s moot or not.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said the pages released by the panel on Tuesday were “already mostly public information.”

“To the American people — don’t let this fool you,” Garcia said. “After careful review, Oversight Democrats have found that 97% of the documents received from the Department of Justice were already public. There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims.”

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy and child sex trafficking. He died in custody a month later, while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump took to his social media platform as Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared together in Beijing for China’s largest-ever military parade on Wednesday.

Trump accused Xi of “conspiring against” the United States as they attended the parade, which marked the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

“May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump wrote on social media as the parade was underway.

Trump referenced America’s involvement in World War II in his post on, saying, “The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader.”

“Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory. I hope that they are rightfully Honored and Remembered for their Bravery and Sacrifice!” the president wrote.

In his remarks at the parade, held in front of the Tiananmen Gate, Xi hailed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army as a “heroic force” and spoke of nations and treating each other as equals.

“The Chinese nation is a great nation that does not fear violence, and that stands independent and strong,” Xi said. “In the past, when confronted with a life-or-death struggle between justice and evil, light and darkness, progress and reaction, the Chinese people stood united, rose up in resistance, and fought for the survival of the country, the rejuvenation of the nation and the cause of human justice.”

Yuri Ushakov, a top aide to Putin, dismissed Trump’s conspiracy allegations.

“I want to say that no one organized any conspiracies, no one was weaving anything, no conspiracies,” Ushakov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin, who is close to the Kremlin and has previously interviewed Putin. “Moreover, no one even had that in their minds, none of these three leaders had that,” Ushakov said.

“Everyone understands the role that the United States, the current administration of President Trump and President Trump personally play in the current international arrangements,” Ushakov said in a video posted by Zarubin to his Telegram channel.

Kim, Xi and Putin gathered for the military parade amid Ukrainian and Western concerns over the collaboration of the three nations in bolstering Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ongoing since February 2022.

Putin sent an invitation to meet with Kim on the sidelines of the military parade, according to Putin’s top foreign policy aide. The two leaders met after the event, according to a Kremlin readout published Wednesday.

Putin thanked Kim for sending North Korean troops to fight Ukraine’s incursion in Russia’s western Kursk region last year. “I would like to emphasize that your soldiers fought valiantly and heroically,” the president said, according to the Kremlin’s readout. “We will never forget the sacrifices made by your armed forces and the families of your military personnel.”

In response, Kim said, “As I said during our previous meeting, if there is anything we can do to help Russia, we will certainly do that, and we will regard this as our fraternal duty. We will do everything in our power to assist Russia.”

After the meeting, Putin and Kim hugged in front of reporters, with the Russian leader inviting Kim to visit Russia. “Come back again,” Putin said.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a Wednesday statement that Kim was “enveloped in an atmosphere of the warmest friendship and enthusiastic welcome” on his arrival in Beijing.

Ukrainian and Western governments have accused North Korea of supplying significant amounts of ammunition and troops to support Russia’s war, while Kyiv and its NATO backers have identified China as Moscow’s prime source of materiel and a vital economic lifeline.

ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Somayeh Malekian and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — More than a year after a Secret Service counter sniper team killed a would-be assassin targeting President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, a report from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General found the team faces “chronic understaffing.”

“The United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) Counter Sniper Team (CS) is staffed 73 percent below the level necessary to meet mission requirements,” the inspector general’s report says. “Failure to appropriately staff CS could limit the Secret Service’s ability to properly protect our Nation’s most senior leaders, risking injury or assassination, and subsequent national-level harm to the country’s sense of safety and security.”

The Secret Service does not have an effective process to hire counter snipers, the IG found; all the while, the demand for them increased 151% from 2020 to 2024.

It takes about three years from the time a uniformed Secret Service officer joins the agency to when they can join the counter sniper team, according to the IG.

Counter snipers who missed mandatory weapons training supported 47 of the 426 events (11%) attended by protectees in calendar year 2024, the inspector general found.

Those events included events attended by then-President Joe Biden, including the wake for Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in Dallas on Jan. 8, 2024, a campaign reception in New York on Feb. 7, 2024, and when he delivered remarks in Manchester, New Hampshire on March 11, 2024.

The United States Secret Service has 344 protectees and supported 5,141 protective visits (4,723 domestic, 337 foreign, and 81 U.S. territorial), and its budget is about $1.2 billion to support protectees, according to the IG.

While the number of total counter snipers was redacted, the IG found that during the 2024 campaign, the Secret Service would sometimes rely on other components’ counter snipers. For example, when the president is visiting a site, a Secret Service counter sniper team would automatically be assigned, but if it was for another protectee, the Secret Service might assign another component’s team or rely on state and local support because of the staffing issues, the IG found.

In an August 2024 letter, the acting deputy director of ICE asked for Homeland Security Investigations Special Response teams to be embedded with the counter sniper teams to better cover residences in Palm Beach, Florida, and Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

The Secret Service agreed with the inspector general’s assessment of the counter sniper team and are working on hiring more officers to become counter snipers.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday again took aim at Chicago as he suggested federal intervention is needed to combat crime.

Trump pointed to gun violence in the city over Labor Day weekend, as eight people were killed and more than 50 injured.

“Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC. Chicago will be safe again, and soon.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, is set to hold a news conference at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday afternoon to address residents amid reports of federal deployments to Chicago.

Pritzker and local Chicago officials have rejected Trump’s desire to send National Guard troops to the city. Pritzker, during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, said such a move would be “un-American.”

“National Guard troops, any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong, unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency. There is not,” Pritzker said. He said if troops are sent to the city, it would amount to an “invasion.”

On Monday, Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson led a chant of “no troops in Chicago” at a Labor Day march.

“No federal troops in the city of Chicago, no militarized force in the city of Chicago,” he said in fiery remarks. “We’re going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago. We’re going to protect the humanity of every single person in the city of Chicago.”

Violent crime in Chicago dropped significantly in the first half of the year, according to official data released by the city. Shootings were down 37% and homicides have dropped by 32% compared to the first half of 2024, while total violence crime dropped by over 22%, according to the crime statistics.

A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News last month that planning was underway at the Pentagon for the potential use of National Guard troops in Chicago — an area Trump has repeatedly singled out as he mulled sending the Guard to other major American cities following his federal takeover of Washington.

Trump then appeared to back off somewhat, saying he preferred cities ask for his administration’s assistance.

But over the weekend, referencing recent crime, Trump warned Pritzker to “straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”

Meanwhile, the administration is preparing for a surge in increased immigration enforcement operations in Chicago as soon as this week, sources told ABC News.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the intention was for more resources to be sent to Chicago but did not divulge details.

“I won’t disclose the details because they are law enforcement and investigative folks that are on the ground there, and I want to make sure we keep their security our number one priority,” Noem said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “But we will continue to go after the worst of the worst across the country, like President Trump has told us to do, focusing on those that are perpetuating murder and rape and trafficking of drugs and humans across our country, knowing that every single citizen deserves to be safe.”

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Michael Pappano and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

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