(UNION CITY, N.J.) — Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., signaled Monday that he will remain in office despite pressure to resign after being indicted on corruption charges.
Menendez was defiant as he delivered his first public remarks since the Sept. 22 indictment. He spoke in Union Station, New Jersey, where he started his political career four decades ago. He didn’t take any questions from the press.
“Everything I’ve accomplished I’ve worked for despite the naysayers and everyone who has underestimated me,” he said. “I recognize this will be the biggest fight yet. But as I have stated throughout this whole process, I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator.”
Menendez and his wife, Nadine, are accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for wielding his power to enrich three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daides — and benefit the Egyptian government. Those bribes, according to prosecutors, included gold bars, a luxury convertible car, home mortgage payments and more.
Menendez has denied wrongdoing, stating Monday, “The allegations leveled against me are just that: allegations.”
“A cornerstone of the foundation of American democracy and our justice system is the principle that all people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. All people. I asked for nothing more and deserve nothing less,” the senator added.
Menendez also defended his longstanding record of defending human rights in Egypt in response to allegations in the indictment that he gave sensitive U.S. government information “that secretly aided the Government of Egypt ” and “improperly advised and pressured” a U.S. agricultural official to protect an exclusive contract for Hana to be the exclusive purveyor of halal meat to Egypt, according to the indictment.
He also seemed to address the shocking photos of piles of cash that were seen in the indictment. He explained it as an “old fashioned” safety mechanism following persecution of his family in Cuba.
“For 30 years I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” Menendez said. “These were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income I have lawfully derived over those 30 years. I look forward to addressing other issues at trial.”
Menendez has temporarily stepped down from his influential post as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced last week. Senate Democratic caucus rules state that any member who is charged with a felony must step aside from any leadership position.
But state leadership is calling for Menendez to leave Congress altogether.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and most of New Jersey’s Democratic House delegation have urged him to resign. Murphy called the allegations “deeply disturbing” and “so serious that they compromise the ability of Sen. Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, on Monday afternoon became the second Senate Democrat to call for Sen. Menendez to resign from the upper chamber. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said Saturday that he hopes Menendez “chooses an honorable exit and focuses on his trial.”
“Senator Menendez has broken the public trust and should resign from the U.S. Senate,” Brown wrote in a statement.
Brown, Ohio’s three-term senator, is set to face one of the Senate’s toughest reelection challenges in 2024.
Menendez, who has served in the Senate since 2006, is up for reelection next year. Menendez has not yet said whether he’ll seek another term in 2024. He ignored a shouted question from a reporter about whether he would at the conclusion of his remarks.
U.S. Rep. Andy Kim — a fellow New Jersey Democrat — announced over the weekend will now run for his seat.
“After calls to resign, Senator Menendez said ‘I am not going anywhere.’ As a result, I feel compelled to run against him,” Kim wrote in a social media post. “Not something I expected to do, but NJ deserves better. We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our integrity.”
Though Menendez did not specifically name any politician in his remarks, he seemed to take a shot at those using the indictment to launch political campaigns.
“Remember prosecutors are wrong sometimes. Sadly I know that,” Menendez said. “Instead of waiting for all the facts to be presented, others have rushed to take the opportunity for themselves or those around them.”
This is the second time Menendez has been charged with corruption. A 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial in 2018 after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts and a judge acquitted him on some charges.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contribute to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Much of the government is getting close to shutting down Oct. 1 as Congress struggles to pass a stopgap funding deal — and on Monday, with just five days to go, many federal workers and agencies were bracing for impact.
The House and Senate have until the end of the day on Saturday, Sept. 30 to pass a spending deal. Little progress was made over the weekend, and with Congress not returning until Tuesday evening after being off for the Yom Kippur holiday, there’s so little time left a shutdown is being seen as almost inevitable.
In anticipation of that, the Office of Management and Budget has advised federal agencies to review and update their shutdown plans. OMB will tell agencies to enact those shutdown plans, including notifying employees whether they have been furloughed or should continue to report to work on Oct. 1.
As many as 4 million workers could lose pay as a result of a shutdown — about half of whom are military troops and personnel. While essential workers will remain on the job without pay, others will be furloughed.
All government employees would get back pay once the shutdown ends; federal contractors who are impacted by the shutdown would not.
If a shutdown occurs, the first possible missed or incomplete paycheck would be on Oct. 13 for many workers.
Several agencies have already updated their plans for how to proceed if the government shuts down. If Congress does not avert a shutdown by Sept. 30, Americans will likely feel it — anywhere from travel, to drinking water to workplace inspections.
Travel
Air travelers could see “significant delays and longer wait times for travelers at airports across the country like there were during previous shutdowns,” the White House said.
The shortage of air traffic controllers could get worse under a shutdown, said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He said last week that a government shutdown would “stop us in our tracks” as the Federal Aviation Administration works to train new controllers.
During a shutdown, TSA will remain operable, with most of its workforce — nearly 56,000 employees — required to work without pay.
Certain passport offices — particularly those located inside federal buildings — could close during a government shutdown, potentially worsening a major backlog.
Also, it may not be the ideal time to visit a national park. Many of them face closures — that is, unless governors use state money to keep them open. Some national parks may remain open, but visitor facilities such as restrooms, visitor centers, information kiosks, and ranger talks will be closed, according to the National Park Service.
The travel sector could lose roughly $140 million each day in a shutdown, according to the U.S. Travel Industry Association.
Public health and safety
Safe drinking water could be at risk during a government shutdown because routine inspections will be halted, according to the White House. The Environmental Protection Agency would stop most inspections at hazardous waste sites as well as drinking water and chemical facilities. Also, the EPA would pause plans and permit reviews that ensure safe water and clean air standards are met.
The Food and Drug Administration “could be forced to delay food safety inspections for a wide variety of products all across the country,” the White House said.
Workplace inspections would face cutbacks because of limitations with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Department of Labor, according to the White House.
An upcoming shutdown could delay new clinical trials for cancer and other research, the White House added.
Services for women and children
Up to 10,000 children could lose access to Head Start, the federal program for preschool children from low-income families, in a shutdown.
Also, a $150 million contingency fund for a program that helps feed 7 million women, infants and children (WIC) would likely dry up within a few days. The program, which costs about $500 million per month, would then be left up to the states to keep it running.
Speaking at the White House press briefing Monday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack warned of the “real consequences to real people when there is a shutdown.”
“…The vast majority of WIC participants would see an immediate reduction and elimination of those benefits, which means the nutrition assistance provided would not be available,” Vilsack said.
What won’t be affected?
The vast majority of the government will actually carry on as usual during a government shutdown. That’s because only 27% of federal spending is considered “discretionary,” and requires annual approval from Congress. The other three-fourths of the government is considered “mandatory” and will continue as usual.
That includes Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security payments, which won’t be affected. Neither will the U.S. Postal Service, which uses its own revenue stream.
The military, law enforcement and other “excepted” workers would have to work in a government shutdown.
The president and members of Congress will work and get paid during a shutdown. However, lawmakers’ staffers will not get paid.
Approved funding as well as funds from court fees could keep the judiciary running — at least for a limited time.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly 7 million mothers and their children could lose the nutrition assistance they receive from the federal government if Congress fails to reach a deal this week to avert a government shutdown, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak told reporters during a White House press briefing on Monday afternoon that the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, commonly known as WIC, would stop immediately if the government shuts down.
“That program expires, if you will, or stops immediately when the shutdown occurs,” Vilsack said.
According to USDA, the WIC program provides healthcare services and nutrition to low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women and children under the age of 5, including foods that are rich in protein, calcium, iron, vitamins A and C, and important nutrients for infants and mothers like dairy products, whole wheat bread, rice, peanut butter and legumes. Its services also include access to nutrition education, breastfeeding education and support, as well as vouchers to purchase WIC-approved fresh fruits and vegetables.
Vilsack said that the USDA has a contingency fund set up that could potentially fund the WIC program for a day or two after a potential shutdown and said that some states might have access to remaining WIC funds and may be able to extend the program for about a week.
But the secretary warned that a shutdown would have “real consequences to real people in a real way,” and a potential shutdown would impact the program’s participants.
“The vast majority of WIC participants would see an immediate reduction and elimination of those benefits, which means the nutrition assistance that’s provided would not be available,” he said.
According to the USDA, the WIC program served about 6.3 million participants each month in 2022, including about 39% of all infants in the United States.
According to a February 2023 report released by The National WIC Association — a nonprofit that supports the WIC program, WIC has seen a 12% nationwide increase in child participation following expanded access to remote services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The White House called on Congress last month to consider a short-term measure that would give lawmakers more time to reach a deal and provide additional funds to programs that would be impacted by a potential shutdown — with a request for $1.4 billion for WIC to provide nutritional assistance to low-income families.
According to the USDA, the WIC program cost about $5.7 billion in the year 2022.
The National WIC Association backed the Biden Administration’s call for additional funds and said in a statement on Aug. 31 that participation in the program is “surging,” while food pieces remain high, so “it is essential that WIC receives enough funding to ensure that no one eligible for the program is turned away.”
Congress has not reached a deal yet to fund the government past Sept. 30 and unless lawmakers reach a deal this week, the federal government is set to shut down on Oct. 1.
The National WIC Association released a statement on Friday, calling for additional investment in the program.
“Without the urgent investment of additional funds, state WIC offices could soon be forced to consider waiting lists for prospective participants — a drastic step not seen in nearly 30 years,” Kate Franken, board chair of the National WIC Association, said in the statement. “We simply cannot cross that line. Congress must live up to its responsibility to all those who depend on the program, providing sufficient funding in a continuing resolution to ensure no one is turned away from WIC in the short term and full funding in a year-end spending package to support WIC’s critical mission moving forward.”
Unlike WIC, which is a discretionary grant program that is funded on an annual basis, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — formerly known as “food stamps” — which provides food assistance to low income families, is authorized as mandatory spending.
Vilsack said that the SNAP program, which serves about 40 million people facing food insecurity, would continue through at least through the month of October if the government shuts down.
“Now if the shutdown were to extend longer than that, there would be some serious consequences to SNAP,” Vilsack said.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — ideological rivals in two of the country’s biggest states — will debate each other on Fox News on Nov. 30 in Georgia, the network announced on Monday.
A news release from Fox News describes the 90-minute event as a “red vs. blue state debate,” which will be moderated by Sean Hannity.
The showdown further underscores the rising profiles of both men. DeSantis, who easily won reelection last year, is campaigning for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Newsom, a Democrat, likewise cruised to a second term last year and has swatted away chatter that he could be considering a White House bid of his own.
A debate between the governors has been in the works for roughly two months, according to both of their public comments over that time. Still, they have sometimes appeared at odds over the particulars.
Fox News’s announcement on Monday did not include specifics on the debate format or topics, and a network spokesperson said that “more details will be forthcoming closer to the date.”
“I’m looking forward to providing viewers with an informative debate about the everyday issues and governing philosophies that impact the lives of every American,” Hannity said in a statement.
DeSantis and Newsom previously agreed to debate each other earlier this summer.
Newsom suggested no audience, while DeSantis suggested having a live audience and tickets distributed evenly between the two sides.
Instead of opening remarks by each governor, DeSantis proposed providing a video lasting no longer than 120 seconds. Newsom’s team offered that each candidate would give opening remarks no longer than four minutes.
Both men have shown their eagerness to debate the other, with DeSantis telling a crowd on Sunday night in Coronado, California, that the governors were “still waiting on a date.”
Earlier this month, Newsom told NBC News that there was no update on the status of the debate: “Figuring out the time and date, and there was a venue issue. … I think we’re getting closer.”
Andrew Romeo, a DeSantis spokesperson, told ABC News in a statement after the announcement on Monday that comparing California and Florida “demonstrates that Ron DeSantis is right: decline is merely a choice. Ron DeSantis rejects that choice and, as president, will reverse America’s decline.”
Romeo went on to say that “we look forward to putting Ron DeSantis’ record of success up against” Newsom’s track record.
Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click said on Monday, in a statement, “We’ve agreed to the debate — provided there is no cheering section, no hype videos or any of the other crutches DeSantis requested. We want a real debate — not a circus.”
(NEW YORK) — Public concerns that the United States is doing too much to support Ukraine in its war with Russia have notched up in an ABC News/Washington Post poll, even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the United States in search of additional aid.
Forty-one percent now say the United States is doing too much to support Ukraine, up from 33% in February and 14% in April 2022. Half, 50%, think the United States is doing the right amount or too little, down from 60% seven months ago and 73% in the war’s early months.
These trends have occurred as President Joe Biden, who was visited by Zelenskyy at the White House last week, seeks congressional support for an additional $24 billion in aid to Ukraine. Congress has committed approximately $110 billion in Ukraine assistance to date.
While attitudes on aid to Ukraine are highly polarized politically, the latest shift crosses party lines. Views that the United States is doing too much are up eight percentage points among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents since February, to 22%, and by essentially the same margin, a slight 7 points, among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, to 58%.
See PDF for full reports, charts and tables.
This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that the shift this year, instead, is chiefly ideological: Criticism of the level of support is up by 13 points since February among conservatives, with no statistically significant change among moderates or liberals.
Going back to April 2022, saying the United States is doing too much for Ukraine is up by 43 points among conservatives and 25 points among moderates, vs. 8 points among liberals.
There are other divisions. Criticism of the level of aid is dramatically higher among people who rate the economy negatively or say they’ve gotten worse off financially under Biden’s presidency; both are disproportionately conservative and Republican groups. It’s also 12 points higher among men than women and 10 points higher among people who don’t have a four-year college degree vs. college graduates. This likewise reflects ideological differences between those groups.
Zelenskyy, on a U.S. visit to shore up support, spoke at the United Nations last Tuesday and Wednesday and met Thursday with Biden, Congress members and Pentagon officials.
Methodology
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Sept. 15-20, 2023, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,006 adults. Partisan divisions are 25-25-42 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, including the design effect. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden’s job approval rating is 19 points underwater, his ratings for handling the economy and immigration are at career lows. A record number of Americans say they’ve become worse off under his presidency, three-quarters say he’s too old for another term and Donald Trump is looking better in retrospect — all severe challenges for Biden in his reelection campaign ahead.
Forty-four percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they’ve gotten worse off financially under Biden’s presidency, the most for any president in ABC/Post polls since 1986. Just 37% approve of his job performance, while 56% disapprove. Still fewer approve of Biden’s performance on the economy, 30%.
On handling immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Biden’s rating is even lower, with 23% approval. In terms of intensity of sentiment, 20% strongly approve of his work overall, while 45% strongly disapprove. And the 74% who say he’s too old for a second term is up 6 percentage points since May. Views that Trump is too old also are up, but to 50% in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates.
Such is down-on-Biden sentiment that if a government shutdown occurs at month’s end, 40% say they’d chiefly blame him and the Democrats in Congress, versus 33% who’d pin it on the Republicans in Congress — even given the GOP infighting behind the budget impasse.
Trump, for his part, has improved in retrospect. When he reluctantly left office in January 2021, 38% approved of his work as president, essentially the same as Biden’s rating now. But currently, looking back, 48% say they approve of Trump’s performance when he was in office — matching his peak as president. Essentially as many — 49% — now disapprove, down from 60% when he left the White House.
Comparison with Biden may be a factor. Among the 56% of Americans who disapprove of Biden’s work in office, a wide 75% say that, looking back, they approve of Trump.
It’s also notable that Trump has an even split in his retrospective job approval rating even as most Americans continue to reject his assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Sixty percent of Americans instead say Biden legitimately won, and an additional 12% have no opinion; 29% think Biden did not win legitimately.
Election
These views play into early-stage election preferences. A remarkable 62% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the party should pick someone other than Biden as its nominee in 2024; just a third back Biden. Desire for a different candidate is at a numerical high, but also consistent with past results (56 to 58%) the past year.
Who, if not Biden, is an open question. In an open-ended question, 8% express a preference for Kamala Harris, 8% for Bernie Sanders and 7% for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with other mentions in the low single digits. Just “someone else” comes in at 20%.
Trump has far broader intraparty support; 54% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor him for the GOP nomination, again similar to previous results, and well ahead of his opposition. Ron DeSantis has 15% support, compared with 25% (using a slightly different question approach) in May. All others are in single digits.
Head-to-head in a hypothetical November 2024 matchup, Trump has 51% support while Biden has 42% — numerically up 3 points for Trump and down 2 points for Biden from an ABC/Post poll in February, shifts that are not statistically significant.
There’s even less change from the most recent ABC/Post poll in May, which had the race at 49-42% (again with a different, but comparable, question wording). Still, with Trump inching over 50% — and other polls showing a closer contest — a close look is warranted.
Factors
A variety of factors may be at play. Biden’s poor performance ratings, the extent of economic discontent, the immigration crisis and doubts about his age clearly are relevant. All have been the subject of extensive recent news coverage, focusing public discourse on negatives for the president. Trump, meanwhile, has used his criminal indictments to bolster his base through claims of political persecution and enjoys positive coverage of his GOP frontrunner status.
Question order can be a factor. As is customary for ABC/Post polls at this still-early stage of an election cycle, this survey asked first about Biden and Trump’s performance, economic sentiment and a handful of other issues (Ukraine aid, abortion and a government shutdown) before candidate preferences. That’s because these questions are more germane than candidate support in an election so far off. Since many results are negative toward Biden, it follows that he’s lagging in 2024 support. Nonetheless, those sentiments are real, have been consistently negative in recent surveys and clearly mark Biden’s challenges ahead.
Another possible factor is message-sending. A hypothetical vote-preference question 14 months before an election is predictive of nothing; it’s best seen as an opportunity for the public to express its like or dislike of the candidates. Biden is broadly unpopular and doubts about his suitability for a second term are extensive; wherever they end up in more than a year, a substantial number of Americans today are taking the opportunity to express their displeasure.
In one example of message-sending, among people who say Trump should be prohibited by the U.S. Constitution from serving again as president, 18% also support him over Biden for 2024. Such people seem to be expressing their antipathy toward Biden, not their support for Trump.
In terms of sampling, this survey was conducted using the ABC/Post poll’s longstanding methodology. Demographic results are typical. So are partisan preferences; 25% of respondents identify themselves as Democrats, 25% as Republicans and 42% as independents. Forty-one percent are Democrats or independents who lean toward the Democratic Party; 45% are Republicans or lean toward the GOP, consistent this year.
Additionally, survey respondents who say they voted in 2020 report having supported Biden over Trump by 50-46%, very close to the actual outcome, 51-47%.
Groups
Trump-Biden results are essentially identical among those who report being registered to vote, 52-42%. Some polling analysts focus on this group, even though there’s more than a year to register, an activity on which political campaigns expend great effort. We focus on the general population at this stage to give all adults a voice, regardless of their current registration status.
Even with the public’s general discontent with Biden, some group-level results are notable. Among them:
Biden has just 50% support from members of racial and ethnic minority groups (the same as in May), while Trump has inched up from 32 to 39 to 43% support in this group in this year’s ABC/Post polls. Among Hispanics, it’s a surprising 50-44%, Trump-Biden, albeit with a small sample.
Among 18- to 35-year-olds, Trump has a slight 53-38% advantage (marginally significant at this sample size). Still, that essentially matches what it was in May, and Trump also was numerically ahead in this group (albeit not significantly) by 50-43% in February.
Trump has gained 7 points from May among men, now a 61-34% result against Biden. That’s led by a 15-point gain for Trump among non-college-educated white men, a mainstay group for him, to 79% support.
Americans continue to oppose the U.S. Supreme Court ruling ending the constitutional right to an abortion, 64-30%. Biden is preferred to Trump by critics of that decision by 57-35%. Supporters of the ruling favor Trump by a much wider 81-16%.
Preferences have fluctuated among non-Hispanic white Catholics, often a contested group. They supported Trump over Biden by 63-33% in February; this shrank to a dead heat in May; and it’s back to 66-32% now.
Among people who reported having voted for Trump in 2020, 96% still support him now. Biden, though, retains fewer of his 2020 supporters, 88%. Of the rest, 7% support Trump now (up from 3% in February), with the rest undecided, supporting another candidate or not planning to participate.
Among people who say they did not vote in 2020, Trump has a 57-32% advantage currently. This was 52-31% in May.
Among the 62% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who oppose Biden for the nomination, 16% say they’d vote for Trump over Biden.
The relationship between candidate preference and economic sentiment is strong. Among the 44% of Americans who say they’ve gotten worse off financially under Biden’s presidency, Trump has an 84-12% advantage. Among those who are in the same shape financially — not worse, but also not better off — it flips to 66-25%, Biden-Trump, and is similar among the comparatively few who are better off.
The economy
Candidate-preference results also are differentiated by ratings of the national economy — which 74% overall rate negatively, with sharp partisan differences. The poll probed for details on that sentiment, finding two major irritants: food prices, rated negatively (as not so good or poor) by 91%; and gas and energy prices, rated negatively by 87%.
Not that other ratings are rosy: Seventy-five percent rate the incomes of average Americans negatively. It’s much lower for the unemployment rate, 57% — but still negative, given the dark public mood.
Methodology
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Sept. 15-20, 2023, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,006 adults. Partisan divisions are 25-25-42%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, including the design effect. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates of Rockville, Md. See details on the survey’s methodology here.
(PLAINS, Ga.) — Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, made a surprise appearance in their Georgia hometown on Saturday — having largely retreated from the spotlight amid health challenges.
The Carters appeared at the Plains Peanut Festival, marking the first time they were seen publicly since the announcement seven months ago that he would receive hospice care. The couple previously attended two events last year.
“Beautiful day for President & Mrs. Carter to enjoy a ride through the Plains Peanut Festival! And just a week before he turns 99. We’re betting peanut butter ice cream is on the menu for lunch! #JimmyCarter99,” the Carter Center wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. (Peanut butter is a favorite of Jimmy Carter’s.)
At 98, he is both the oldest living and longest-lived U.S. president. He will turn 99 on Oct. 1.
The former president’s office announced in February that he had decided to receive hospice care following a series of short hospital stays. He had suffered multiple falls in 2019 and survived cancer in 2015.
In May, the Carter Center said the former first lady had been diagnosed with dementia. The Carters are also the longest-married presidential couple in American history, having wed in 1946.
The Carter Center launched a tribute earlier this month for the former president’s upcoming birthday.
Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, recently said on “GMA3” that “we didn’t know, and we didn’t believe at the time, that we were going to get to this 99th birthday.”
“They are coming to the end, of course, at this time in their lives. But they are at peace, they are together, they’re at home, they’re in love. And you don’t get much more than that, and they don’t expect more,” he said.
“It’s a true blessing for all of us to have had this much time with him,” Jason Carter added.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, on Sunday accused House Republican renegades of “voting with Nancy Pelosi” as a handful of conservatives in the chamber continue to rebuff Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s approach to the government budget in his efforts to avoid a shutdown at month’s end.
“The holdouts keep saying to Kevin McCarthy, ‘Don’t bring bipartisan bills to the floor, we don’t want to use Democrat votes to try to avert a shutdown,’ but they’re using Democrat votes to try to cause a shutdown. And these individuals, these Republican holdouts, are voting with Nancy Pelosi against Republican bills that have been brought to the floor that will — could trigger a shutdown,” Turner told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, invoking the name of the speaker emerita who is a favorite target of the GOP.
“I think Kevin’s gonna continue to negotiate until the end, but Republicans need to vote for Republican bills and we can avert the shutdown,” Turner said.
A splinter group of GOP lawmakers in the House, including hard-liners like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, have repeatedly swatted down efforts by McCarthy to pass both a defense spending bill and a broader short-term funding bill for the entire government, insisting their demands for steeper cuts and other measures be met before they offer their support.
Congress has until Sept. 30 to pass spending legislation or the federal government will partially shut down, with potentially rippling consequences for millions of workers as well as recipients of assistance programs and more.
McCarthy has sought to negotiate with the opposition in his party but has made little headway so far — raising the prospect that he’ll have to make a deal with Democrats in order to get a bill out of the House.
However, should he do that, the hard-liners could in turn initiate a “motion to vacate,” or an effort to remove McCarthy from the speakership altogether, which would essentially halt any action in the House until a replacement is elected.
McCarthy has in recent days signaled his frustration with the group and even returned fire at them, saying on Saturday that he would keep aid for Ukraine in a bill to fund the Pentagon — directly at odds with the opposing demands.
Turner, a McCarthy ally, expressed confidence in the speaker but noted that the road ahead is rocky.
“It’s very difficult,” Turner told Raddatz. “I’ll bet on Kevin McCarthy any day, and we certainly have time yet go. But he’s in a very difficult position.”
Raddatz also asked Turner, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, about a recent surge in unauthorized migrant crossings at the southern border, with the Ohio Republican placing the blame on the Biden administration.
Turner lambasted President Joe Biden for “encouraging an open border policy,” though Raddatz followed up to note that top officials like Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have repeatedly sent the opposite message in public.
The administration also maintains that the root causes of migration from Central and South America are complex and shaped by economic and political instability.
The U.S. Border Patrol made 181,059 apprehensions along the southern border in August, up from 132,648 in July, according to the latest Customs and Border Protection data..
Across the southwest, migrants were arrested or detained more than 232,000 times — the most since last December.
Turner argued that the overall number of crossings is proof of policy failure. At the same time, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found that just 23% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“These numbers speak for themselves. They surely show that the administration’s policy is encouraging people to come across the border. We need to stop this,” Turner said.
Instead, he advocated for the completion of a border wall and passage of a Republican-backed bill in the House “which would put physical barriers on the border but also change our asylum rules and at the same time put more border agents” in place.
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Sunday defended President Joe Biden’s approach to the economy and the public’s problems amid a new ABC News/Washington Post poll that shows many Americans feel their financial situation has deteriorated at the same time that Biden ramps up his reelection bid.
“Well, look, we all know the economic pressure that Americans have felt,” Buttigieg said in an interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “When the president took office, the economy was flat on its back [during COVID-19]. But we’re also getting extraordinary results. More than 13 million jobs created — that’s more than any presidential term in American history.”
Still, in the new ABC News/Washington Post poll out Sunday, 44% of Americans say they feel worse off economically than when Biden first took office — the highest percentage for a president in ABC/Post polls since 1986.
While the ABC/Post survey should not be taken as predictive of the 2024 election — given how far away it is — the results show Biden is broadly unpopular and doubts about his suitability for a second term are extensive; wherever they end up in more than a year, a substantial number of Americans today are taking the opportunity to express their displeasure.
Buttigieg, on “This Week,” pointed to the trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure law signed in 2021 as one example of Biden’s “generational” success, though he admitted “it takes a while for people to feel the full benefits of those results, just like it’s going to take a while to build all of the infrastructure that we’re now underway on.”
“When you look at the economy, the most important thing in the president’s view is to support families and support workers, not just with the job creation that’s going on but lowering costs,” Buttigieg went on to say, highlighting the administration’s work to try and cap insulin prices for seniors.
He contrasted that with Republicans’ approach to argue that the public “agree[s] with us” versus the alternative of tax cuts and less government assistance which “is not what the American people want to see in response to these conditions.”
Raddatz pressed the secretary on the stark reality as seen in the latest polling, however: “You are seeing the disconnect. … The message is not getting through.”
“There’s a lot more work to do,” Buttigieg conceded. “The story of these investments, these efforts and these results isn’t going to tell itself. But that’s exactly the work that we’re doing and we’re an administration that isn’t all about the polls. We recognize that if we get the results, over time, people will come to appreciate that.”
Rising gas and food prices are particular problems being felt by Americans right now, according to the new ABC/Post survey, which appears to be souring them on Biden’s approach.
“It’s just not breaking through because they live their lives, they see it every day,” Raddatz said.
Buttigieg acknowledged costs at the pump are going up but said they remain below pandemic-era highs. “We are prioritizing making life easier and more affordable for Americans,” he said.
He differentiated that with Republicans, who are currently at an impasse in Congress over federal government spending.
“Even if you have agreement on an economic challenge, like prices at the grocery store, you have two different ways of dealing with it,” he said. “Our way of dealing with it is to invest in the supply side that, for example, improves the supply chains which in turn helps bring down those prices … and the other side is talking about a shutdown.”
Funding must be passed by Congress by Sept. 30. Otherwise, parts of the government will shutter, which would affect military personnel’s pay and clinical trials, among other things, such as the Department of Transportation’s air traffic controller training program.
“I can’t believe some of the very same congressional Republicans who get in line to try to beat us up anytime there’s a there’s a travel disruption, even a weather-related travel disruption, are gonna turn around and shut down air traffic control training,” Buttigieg said.
He also pushed back on another finding in the ABC/Post poll: that in the event of a shutdown, 40% of Americans say they’d chiefly blame Biden and Democrats in Congress, versus 33% who’d pin it on the Republicans in Congress.
Buttigieg maintained that the GOP minority holding up spending legislation is reversing course on an earlier agreement that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked out with Biden.
Some of those Republican hard-liners are pushing for deeper cuts and believe the government is too big, dismissing the previous deal with McCarthy and Biden as a failure.
Should there be a shutdown, “I think Americans are going to see very quickly how we got in that situation,” Buttigieg contended.
The transportation secretary was also asked about the escalating strike by the United Auto Workers union, which decided on Friday to target 38 additional General Motors and Chrysler-owner Stellantis locations as they push for a 46% pay raise over four years and a four-day work week, citing increased industry profits.
The manufacturers have offered less substantial double-digit raises and stuck to a 40-hour work week. Negotiations are ongoing.
“We stand with the UAW’s determination to make sure that auto workers benefit from the next chapter in the auto industry,” Buttigieg told Raddatz.
Though he’s tried to avoid the bargaining table, Biden said he plans to join UAW strikers on the picket line in Michigan on Tuesday to “stand in solidarity” with them. That would be a historic move by any president.
Raddatz asked Buttigieg if that was “good idea” or if it could push Biden too close to the situation.
“He is an unapologetically pro-union president,” Buttigieg said.
“There is a win/win future to be had,” he said. “And that’s what the president and the administration are urging the parties to reach.”
(NEW YORK) — A federal grand jury in New York has returned a sweeping indictment against United States Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, in connection with improper foreign relations and business dealings.
The investigation focused on a luxury car, gold bars and an apartment allegedly received by Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian. His wife was also indicted.
The indictment charges Menendez, 69, and his wife with having a corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daides.
The indictment accuses Menendez and his wife of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using the senator’s power and influence to seek to protect and enrich the businessman.
“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the indictment said.
This is the second time New Jersey’s senior senator has been charged with corruption. A 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial in 2018 after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts and a judge acquitted him on some charges.
The previous charges against Menendez centered on his relationship with Florida eye doctor Solomon Melgen, a close ally of the senator. Menendez allegedly accepted gifts from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his senate office to benefit the doctor’s financial and personal interests.
In June 2022, federal agents searched Menendez’s New Jersey home and found “fruits” of the pair’s “corrupt bribery agreement” with the three businessmen, according to the indictment. Investigators found over $480,000 in cash, some stuffed in envelopes and hidden in clothing, as well as $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box.
Also found in the home were over $100,000 worth of gold bars, “provided by either Hana or Daibes,” according to the indictment.
Menendez allegedly gave sensitive U.S. government information “that secretly aided the Government of Egypt” and “improperly advised and pressured” a U.S. agricultural official to protect an exclusive contract for Hana to be the exclusive purveyor of halal meat to Egypt, according to the indictment.
Menendez also tried to disrupt a criminal investigation into a second businessman in the trucking industry that had been undertaken by the New Jersey attorney general, the indictment said.
The senator is also accused of recommending someone to the president to be the U.S. attorney in New Jersey who he thought he could influence.
Menendez appears to be the first senator to ever be indicted on two unrelated criminal charges while in office, according to the Senate Historical Office.
All five individuals are due in Manhattan federal court on Sept. 27.
