(NEW YORK) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attended a 9/11 commemoration ceremony at ground zero in New York City on Monday, appearing with more than a dozen people who lost family members on Sep. 11.
The group, many of whom are members of the grassroots organization 9/11 Justice, which represents other 9/11 families who accuse Saudi Arabia’s government of involvement in the attacks — which the kingdom denies — led DeSantis and his wife, Casey, to the ceremony, where the couple stood in the back of a crowd while speakers read the names of each victim.
The group then brought DeSantis to the reflecting pools and inside the museum.
The governor, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, spent roughly three hours at ground zero.
“He [was] really taking it all in. I mean, we walked him through the museum and I could tell he was affected by it. He was asking a lot of questions. He was just genuinely moved. His wife, Casey as well,” Dennis McGinley, a member of 9/11 Justice whose brother died on Sep. 11, told ABC News.
McGinley and many of the others who hosted DeSantis on Monday had already met them in May, when the couple invited the families to the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee over Memorial Day.
The families wanted to “return the favor,” Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, told ABC News.
“He had brought us to Florida and gave us over an hour of his time,” Eagleson said. “We wanted to bring him to a special spot for us.”
The families said they were glad DeSantis released a statement Monday afternoon calling for the declassification of the remaining secret documents related to the planning of the 9/11 attacks, “consistent with national security.”
“While over the last three years some progress has been made, a selection of documents and answers remain unclear,” DeSantis said.
“We as a nation still owe full transparency and accountability to these grieving families. Yet too many politicians have broken past promises to them, and that is wholly unacceptable,” he said.
The language was firmer than McGinley had previously heard from DeSantis.
DeSantis also took issue with a potential plea deal — recently rejected by the Biden administration — for five detainees accused of aiding the 9/11 attackers. He called for a “public trial” with “public answers and maximum lawful punishment.”
The same families who hosted DeSantis on Monday say they feel former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican primary race, spurned them several years ago when they say he promised to declassify 9/11-related documents only to do “a complete about-face,” according to Eagleson.
Trump administration officials reportedly argued in court filings in 2020 that the documents were state secrets.
Though an FBI report declassified by the Biden administration in 2021 tied the 9/11 hijackers to Saudi nationals, the kingdom’s leaders have maintained its government was not involved.
“Any allegation that Saudi Arabia is complicit in the September 11 attacks is categorically false,” the country’s U.S. embassy said in a statement in 2021.
Eagleson and McGinley have expressed frustration to ABC News over Trump’s hosting a Saudi-backed LIV Golf event at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club this year.
Trump previously praised the organization as good for the sport and the U.S. economy.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. “reached out immediately” to the Moroccan government in the wake of a devastating earthquake there and “made very clear to them that we are prepared to assist in any way that we can,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“We have the U.S. Agency for International Development, which takes the lead in our efforts, mobilizing and we’re waiting to hear from the Moroccan government how we can be of most assistance. But we’re tracking this very carefully and our hearts go out to the people of Morocco,” Blinken told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an interview that aired Sunday.
The death toll from the quake, which struck in the High Atlas Mountains on Friday night, has already surpassed 2,000, according to Moroccan officials. Scores more were injured in the worst seismic event in the North African country in decades.
The U.S. response was just one of the items on Blinken’s agenda over the weekend, which he spent alongside President Joe Biden in New Delhi for a Group of 20 summit — a gathering of the leaders governing the world’s top economies.
While the powers were ultimately able to sign off on a final statement that mentioned the invasion of Ukraine ahead of the summit’s close, the group reached a consensus only after wording denouncing Russia for waging the war was erased.
Karl pressed Blinken on why this year’s joint statement ultimately did not explicitly call out Russia’s aggression as the leaders’ declaration did following last year’s meeting in Bali, Indonesia, which noted that “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine.”
By contrast, the latest G20 declaration urges that “all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state.”
On “This Week,” Blinken defended the new language.
“The leaders here are all stood up very clearly — including in the statement — for Ukraine’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity,” he insisted. “I think the statement is a very strong one.”
The secretary also said “leader after leader” attending the summit underscored the negative global impact of Russia’s war, particularly its effect on food security given Ukraine’s key role in producing grain, for example.
“It was very clear in the room, going around the table, that countries are feeling the consequences and want the Russian aggression to stop,” he said.
The G20’s watered down language on Russia comes as the U.S. is considering further ramping up its extensive support for Ukraine by supplying long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, according to U.S. officials.
The missiles, which Ukraine has been requesting for months, would give the country the ability to strike deep into Russian territory. But throughout the conflict, Kyiv has assured Washington that it will not use donated lethal aid to attack Russia — only to defend or help reclaim its own territory.
Blinken did not confirm whether the administration would ultimately greenlight supplying ATACMS to Ukraine but said that officials were having an “ongoing conversation” with their Ukrainian counterparts “about what they need, when they need it.”
Blinken also said he would not comment on another matter in the war: When tech billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk declined to let Ukraine’s forces use his Starlink satellite internet service — which he has been providing to the country since the conflict began — in order to carry out a strike on Russia in the Black Sea.
Musk said last week that he saw the move as endorsing a potentially grave escalation in the fighting, while Ukrainian officials contend Russian ships have gone on to be able to strike out at their civilians.
“Who’s right here?” Karl asked Blinken.
“Here’s what I know: Starlink has been an essential tool, a vital link for Ukrainians to be able to communicate and, indeed, for the Ukrainian military to be able to defend or take back all of its territory. … I’m not going to get into specific episodes,” he said.
Blinken arrived at the G20 summit fresh off a trip to Ukraine, his fourth since the war began, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian Prime Minister Dens Shmyhal and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Karl asked whether Blinken, in his engagements, had raised Kyiv’s increasing incursions into Russian territory — strikes that the country’s officials frequently defend as warranted over outcry from Moscow but that Ukraine does not explicitly take credit for conducting.
Blinken did not answer the question directly but responded that Biden administration officials “haven’t encouraged and we haven’t enabled any use of weapons outside of Ukraine’s territory.”
Karl also asked the secretary whether he believes Zelenskyy could foresee brokering an end to the conflict at the negotiating table.
“I found both President Zelenskyy and every Ukrainian that I met — whether it was folks in the government, or whether it was many other Ukrainians that we had a chance to engage with over the course of two days — incredibly resilient, incredibly courageous, incredibly resolute.” Blinken said. “And ultimately, that’s really what’s at the heart of this, and the reason that I remain very confident in Ukraine’s ultimate success, which is that they’re fighting for their country, for their future, for their freedom.”
Blinken said that “where exactly this settles, where [territorial] lines are drawn, that is going to be up to Ukrainians” but that peace talks were out of reach at the moment because “it takes two to tango.”
“And thus far, we see no indication that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has any interest in meaningful diplomacy. If he does, I think the Ukrainians will be the first to engage and we’ll be right behind them,” Blinken said. “Everyone wants this war to end.”
(WASHINGTON) — Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons and New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu on Sunday weighed in on their respective parties’ 2024 prospects ahead of what appears to be an increasingly likely rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Coons told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that he believes Biden will overcome voter discontent, as seen most recently in a CNN survey last week, and be formidable in a general election despite Democrats’ concerns about him as their leader — while Sununu, a vocal Trump critic, expressed optimism that someone else will manage to clinch the GOP nomination despite an avalanche of polls so far showing Trump with significant leads nationally and in key early states.
“The great news is that President Biden has a very strong record to run on, that what we’ve gotten accomplished in Congress and what he’s done here at home and abroad on the world stage has made us stronger, has built a strong and recovering economy and has put us on a great path forward,” Coons said, noting that the election is still “14 months away …. It doesn’t actually matter what a head-to-head poll says.”
Just look back at this point in 2007 and 2011, he contended — when then-candidates Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney were surging.
Sununu, appearing on “This Week” after Coons, made his own case for why Trump is vulnerable while also saying conservative voters on the ground are motivated by issues like inflation and the southern border rather than Trump’s connection to Jan. 6 or his unprecedented criminal charges, which he denies.
“The fact that former President Trump is a former president, the leader of the party, and he doesn’t even really have 50% of the Republican base support tells you there’s a real problem there,” Sununu said. “The field is going to keep winnowing down, I think. As we’ve talked about a lot, if it gets to one-on-one Trump and another candidate, that other candidate is undoubtedly going to beat him by the time the [Republican] convention rolls around.”
Coons, a close Biden ally who holds his old seat in the Senate, swatted away the president’s poor polling numbers, which include broad swaths of Democrats worrying over the 80-year-old’s age and wanting someone else as the party’s 2024 nominee.
“What matters is, what’s your record?” Coons said, reiterating what the White House sees as Biden’s key achievements including historically low unemployment, increased investments in infrastructure and manufacturing and efforts to lower prescription drug costs.
Coons also dismissed worries that legal issues surrounding Hunter Biden, the president’s younger son, would impact his father’s administration and reelection effort.
Special counsel David Weiss said in a court filing last week that he plans to seek an indictment of Hunter Biden by the end of the month after Hunter Biden previously lied on a federal firearm form by indicating that he wasn’t using drugs while at the time being addicted to crack cocaine.
Hunter Biden wrote extensively in his 2021 memoir about his behavior while on drugs and his subsequent recovery.
“He was deep in addiction, Hunter Biden was, when he misrepresented that on a background check form. That’s been publicly known for a long time now,” Coons said. “Hunter Biden is not going to be on the election polls, he is not standing for election next November. Donald Trump likely is, and the four different legal matters where Donald Trump’s been charged … stand in stark contrast.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney said in a statement last week, in part, “We expect a fair resolution of the sprawling, 5-year investigation into Mr. Biden that was based on the evidence and the law, not outside political pressure.”
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in his four cases. He claims he is being targeted because of his politics, which prosecutors dispute.
On the other side of the aisle, Sununu said on “This Week” that — amid the news of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem formally backing Trump in the primary — he thinks other Republican governors are waiting to get off the sidelines to make endorsements in the race and suggested that Trump’s polling lead could narrow as the primaries draw nearer.
“You and I are in this mix almost every single day, but the average voter isn’t,” Sununu told Karl. “They’ll really start getting engaged in the October, November timeframe comes. And I think if you can get down to about six candidates by Iowa, three or four by New Hampshire, there’s no doubt you’ll have a one-on-one race going into Super Tuesday. And that’s where the former President Trump is really in trouble.”
Sununu said he thought former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur and commentator Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis performed well in the first primary debate. He added that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is “spending money” and “hitting the ground” and argued former New Jersey Gov. Chris Chirstie is gaining steam in New Hampshire.
When pressed as to whether he’d make an endorsement before New Hampshire’s critical primary, Sununu said that he would.
“I would say so, yeah,” he said, though he wouldn’t say who he’s considering despite admitting that “I’m not very good about being coy.”
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has temporarily banned the right to carry firearms in public in Albuquerque in response to recent gun violence.
Lujan Grisham issued on Friday a 30-day suspension of open and concealed carry laws in Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque, the state’s most populous city, is seated. There are exceptions for law enforcement officers and licensed security guards.
The move comes a day after she declared gun violence a public health emergency in the state.
“[The] time for standard measures has passed,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “And when New Mexicans are afraid to be in crowds, to take their kids to school, to leave a baseball game — when their very right to exist is threatened by the prospect of violence at every turn — something is very wrong.”
The Democratic governor cited the recent shooting deaths of three children in her decision to declare gun violence a public health emergency. Most recently, an 11-year-old boy was fatally shot outside a minor league baseball stadium in Albuquerque on Wednesday during a possible road rage incident, police said.
On July 28, a 13-year-old girl was fatally shot by a 14-year-old while at a friend’s house in the Village of Questa, state police said. On Aug. 14, a 5-year-old girl was fatally shot while sleeping at a residence in Albuquerque after someone fired into the trailer home, police said.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 19 in New Mexico, Lujan Grisham said.
The governor also noted two mass shootings that occurred in the state this year among the recent spate of gun violence.
Three people were killed and six others injured, including two police officers, after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire in Farmington over a nearly quarter-mile stretch of the neighborhood on May 15, police said.
Later that month, three people were killed and five injured after a biker gang shootout erupted in Red River over Memorial Day weekend, police said.
Today, I signed an executive order declaring gun violence a public health emergency. To my fellow citizens: get loud. Step up. Demand change: from your neighbors, from your friends, from your communities, from your elected leaders. Enough is enough. More coming from me tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/jOt4fv4YDC
The suspension of open and concealed carry laws pertains to cities or counties averaging 1,000 or more violent crimes per 100,000 residents per year since 2021 and more than 90 firearm-related emergency department visits per 100,000 residents from July 2022 to June 2023, according to the order. Bernalillo County and Albuquerque are the only two places in the state right now that meet those standards.
“Any person or entity who willfully violates this order may be subject to civil administrative penalties available at law,” the order states.
The governor anticipates legal challenges to the order.
“I can invoke additional powers,” Lujan Grisham said when signing the order on Friday. “No constitutional right, in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute.”
New Mexico Shooting Sports Association President Zachary Fort told ABC Albuquerque affiliate KOAT the organization is planning to challenge the order, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in a major Second Amendment case.
“What the governor tried to do flies directly in the face of the [New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen] decision by the Supreme Court, where they found that you have a constitutionally protected right to carry a firearm outside your own home,” Fort told the station. “The Supreme Court said that very clearly in their Bruen decision. So, it’s clearly contradictory to that.”
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s name is coming off a golf course in the Bronx that had been the subject of a legal battle with the City of New York following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Bally’s is buying Trump out of his lease, which allows him to operate Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, sources familiar with the deal told ABC News.
Terms of the deal were not immediately clear but the sources said it’s well into the millions.
“We are supportive of the transfer of the Ferry Point Golf Course to Bally’s, and we are confident they will deliver a high-quality golfing experience to New Yorkers,” the New York City Parks Department said in a statement.
The contract submission was given to the comptroller’s office from the Parks Department on Aug. 23. It was reviewed and registered in two weeks.
“I am delighted that Trump’s name will no longer deface city parkland,” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said.
A representative for the Trump Organization declined to comment. Bally’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bally’s is expected to continue to operate Ferry Point as a golf course, which is partially visible from the Whitestone Bridge, but rename it, the sources said.
Trump is nine years into a 20-year lease that the city, under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, tried to terminate after the riot at the US Capitol. A judge ultimately sided with the Trump Organization and reversed the city’s decision.
“It is almost certainly the case, as in most long-term relationships, contractual or otherwise, that the parties a decade ago, with a different — third consecutive term municipal administration — and underdeveloped parkland, did not foresee the breakdown in such relationship rendered adversarial, which is represented by the dispute herein,” the 2022 decision said.
The deal with Bally’s is similar to the one Trump reached with Hilton to buy him out of his lease with the federal government to operate the old Post Office in Washington, D.C. It has since been converted to a Waldorf-Astoria property.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump inflated his net worth by at least $3.6 billion, the New York attorney general’s office said in a new court filing Friday, a sum far larger than earlier estimates.
The filing is part of the state’s $250 million civil lawsuit against Trump, his eldest sons, his business and some of its top executives.
Trump and the others have denied wrongdoing but the attorney general’s office has previously said they inflated asset values by hundreds of millions of dollars each year by adding square footage that did not exist, flouting development restrictions or disregarding appraisals that came in lower than expected.
Accounting for those allegedly fraudulent valuations, the attorney general’s office estimated Trump overstated his net worth between 17% to 39% depending on the year.
The new, higher estimate also includes financial methods “market participants would consider when determining estimated current value,” the filing said.
“After factoring in these and other fundamental considerations that any informed buyer and seller in the marketplace would take into account, Mr. Trump’s net worth would be further substantially reduced by between $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion per year, which is still a conservative estimate,” the filing said.
The attorney general’s office included the new figure in its opposition to Trump’s request for summary judgment, telling the judge there is a “mountain of evidence” to establish at trial “defendants engaged in fraudulent business transactions with the capacity or tendency to deceive.”
A hearing on whether to grant either side’s motion for summary judgment is scheduled for Sept. 22. The trial is expected to begin Oct. 2.
Dawson Elementary School’s library is shown in Jackson, Mississippi. — ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Learning to read isn’t fair.
It comes naturally for some students. But for others it’s a frustrating, agonizing process that, if left unaddressed, can cause long-standing academic problems.
Ask D’Mekeus Cook Jr., a fourth grader from Louisiana, who was reading at a kindergarten level when he started second grade two years ago. Or Journey, another fourth grader from Ohio, who said when she comes across an unfamiliar word it makes her feel “sad.” They have both struggled to read — and they’re not alone.
A combination of under-funded schools, educator shortages, inadequate teacher preparation and months of lost learning due to pandemic school closures have caused a resurgence of concern about kids’ reading ability. But Department of Education data reviewed by ABC News show this reading problem has persisted in America for decades.
According to the Education Department’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “The Nation’s Report Card,” roughly one-third of American fourth graders read at or below what’s considered the basic level. This has been the case since 1992.
Scores slightly increase as students get older, but not by much. In eighth grade, about one-fourth of students do not read at what’s considered the basic achievement level. That percentage stays about the same for high schoolers.
To document America’s reading crisis, ABC News traveled to schools in several states, met families of kids struggling to grasp basic reading skills, and spoke with educators in a race against time to help their students read before they get too old.
“The older that a child gets, the harder it is to go back and put things in the toolbox,” Carla Pleasant, a 33-year teaching veteran in Ohio, told ABC News. “It can be done and it is being done, but it is a tough job.”
‘Reading is the basis of everything’
Pleasant, is a teacher in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, about 20 minutes from Cleveland. In the school district, ABC News met dozens of students who were in summer school, trying to develop the most basic reading skills — a task some described as particularly daunting.
“I get frustrated when I’m reading sometimes,” fourth grader Raven told ABC News. “I will get teared up because I think I can’t read, because it’s so hard.”
Over the summer, Raven’s class was working hard on intensive reading lessons using what’s called phonics.
The instruction essentially employs a more rigorous version of “sounding out a word” — vocalizing the sounds of letters and parts of words — a long-utilized method of teaching that, for one reason or another, fell out of vogue in some school districts across the country.
“It’s helping them crack the code,” said reading specialist Shantelle Barhorst, who was teaching the Ohio class. “We don’t want them guessing the word, we want to give them the tools necessary so that they can sound out that word.”
But Warrensville Heights didn’t always teach reading this way.
Roughly a decade ago, their solution to reach struggling readers included a teaching style called balanced literacy, still popular in many schools across the country. The method is designed to develop a love of reading and a comfort with books. It can also involve suggesting students guess certain words and even to look at pictures to decipher the words on the page, something instructors took to calling “picture power.”
Pleasant, who said “reading is the basis of everything,” disagreed with a push for balanced literacy, instead opting to teach phonics — out of sight from administrators.
“Keeping it secret from the bosses, but getting success in the classroom,” she told ABC News. “I knew it was working. I knew that memorizing things and just pushing things on kids was not going to teach them to love reading.”
A new administration eventually followed Pleasant’s phonics-focused lead and Warrensville Heights went from sliding reading scores and an impending state takeover of the district’s schools, to an A rating with the state of Ohio.
The ‘Reading Wars’
The campaign for reading-education reform hasn’t gone without pushback.
Critics say the “science of reading” is an educational fad and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the nation’s reading problems, which are compounded by under-funded schools, poverty and other social issues.
And proponents of balanced literacy say their approach does teach some phonics, arguing that students who are repeatedly drilled on decoding words are done a disservice because they won’t have a passion for books.
Dr. Kymyona Burk is Mississippi’s former literacy director and currently with the education non-profit founded by Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, ExcelinEd. She told ABC News “those are strategies that poor readers use,” citing specific balanced-literacy lessons that include guessing words and looking at pictures.
The back-and-forth has led to years of intense debate among educators, often referred to as “The Reading Wars.”
“Everybody thinks they are doing the right thing. Nobody thinks they are evil,” Dr. P. David Pearson, an education expert and professor at the Berkeley School of Education, told ABC News. “They all think they’re doing what’s best for kids. They just read the research differently.”
“They also have very different definitions of what it means to be a reader,” he added.
Pearson cautioned that, while NAEP scores give an accurate snapshot of the nation’s reading challenges, the years of students reading below basic levels shouldn’t be considered an indictment against balanced literacy or any other teaching style because of non-academic variables affecting students.
The Mississippi ‘Miracle’
The success in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, was modeled after a classroom marvel found in what education experts once considered the unlikeliest of places: Mississippi.
A decade ago, the state’s fourth grade students ranked last in reading — 50th out of 50 states. Today, Mississippi is 21st in the nation in literacy. In some education circles, that seemingly impossible turnaround earned the title “The Mississippi Miracle.”
Burk explained to ABC News in her first network television interview how she and her colleagues pulled off the Mississippi improvement by pushing for teaching methods, such as phonics, which she says were virtually missing in Mississippi schools.
Burk said Mississippi schools were just graduating kids who didn’t know how to read.
“It’s happened all across the country,” she said to ABC News’ Jay O’Brien.
Burk is pushing for other schools to follow Mississippi’s lead.
By the start of this school year, ExcelinEd found at least 30 states, including Washington, D.C., and New York City, the nation’s largest public school district, required phonics-based “science of reading” policies to address the sagging scores.
That includes Ohio, where Gov. Mike DeWine is backing a law requiring “science of reading” instruction and pushing schools to model themselves after Warrensville Heights.
‘Reading is the key to life’
The coronavirus pandemic and at-home instruction brought the reading dilemma to students’ front doors.
“There were some moments with parents who were sitting at dinner tables with their children and they were realizing for the first time that their child is struggling,” Burk told ABC News.
That’s when D’Mekeus and Kezne’ Cook discovered their son, D’Mekeus Jr., was behind.
“It’s almost as if we question ourselves, like, is our child the only one going through this?” his father said. “Reading gives you the opening door to everything we do in life. Reading is the key to life.”
Louisiana, where the Cooks live, is another state that recently overhauled its reading curriculum, trying to help hundreds of thousands of underperforming students by focusing on phonics and other “science of reading” education.
“We needed a reading revival in our state,” said Louisiana Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “I think the educational system lost its way at some point around this. Confusing tactics were employed to teach children how to read.”
As part of their reading initiative, Louisiana also created a program giving students a $1,000 voucher for private reading tutoring, which is what has helped D’Mekeus Jr. attend regular tutoring sessions at a Sylvan Learning Center near his home in Lafayette.
“[Students and parents] are so excited, and they cry in my office, because it’s life changing,” said Christy Sharon, who has owned the tutoring center for more than 25 years.
Louisiana’s program is still new and it remains to be seen if it will have the success of Warrensville Heights or the state of Mississippi. Dr. Brumley says early results have been promising, but the state has a long way to go.
Sharon told ABC News that schools across the country are facing a dilemma when it comes to helping kids master reading while they’re young. But there is still hope, she said.
“[If] we can get these children early, and we can teach them to read, they can do anything,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — A new poll out Thursday from CNN had nothing but bad news for President Joe Biden.
But that same poll had a pleasant surprise for — Nikki Haley.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen presidential centers got together to warn about the fragile state of American democracy heading into 2024.
Here’s what to know from the campaign trail on Thursday.
Poll highlights
Biden’s job approval rating among all voters stood at 39% with 58% stating they have an unfavorable impression of him, according to the CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
Despite Biden trying to improve his standing with Americans when it comes to the economy, the poll showed most voters — 58% — said Biden’s policies have made economic conditions in the U.S. worse.
Asked to name their biggest concern about a Biden candidacy in 2024, 49% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents directly mention his age. His mental acuity (7%) and health (7%) were also top concerns.
How Biden fared against the GOP field
Almost half of voters (46%) surveyed said that any Republican presidential nominee would be a better choice than Biden in 2024, the CNN poll found.
In hypothetical head-to-head races, the survey showed Biden in statistical ties with all of them — with one notable exception.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley beat Biden with 49% support to his 43%.
VP Harris bullish on 2024 reelection prospects
Vice President Kamala Harris, in a new interview with CBS News, struck a confident tone while talking about the prospects of the Biden-Harris ticket.
“We will win reelection,” Harris said. “There is too much at stake and the American people know it.”
Asked about whether she’s prepared to take over the job, she answered, “Yes, I am, if necessary, but Joe Biden is going to be fine.”
Presidential centers call for civility, upholding democracy
Thirteen presidential centers, from the Hoover Presidential Foundation to the Obama Foundation, issued a rare joint statement Thursday to present a unified front as the presidential election cycle heats up.
“We, the undersigned, represent a wide range of views across a breadth of issues,” the statement read. “We recognize that these views can exist peaceably side by side when rooted in the principles of democracy. Debate and disagreement are central features in a healthy democracy. Civility and respect in political discourse, whether in an election year or otherwise, are essential.”
The world is watching, they warned.
Tim Scott interview features a special guest
Sen. Tim Scott’s mother, Frances Scott, appeared with her son for an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner.
Scott often talks about how Frances, a single-mother who worked 16-hour shifts as a nurse’s aid, inspired him. He often brings her on the road with him when he campaigns in South Carolina.
In the segment, she discusses what Scott and his brother were like as a child, “They were good kids. I can say that now,” she jokingly told Faulkner.
On Scott’s journey to Congress, as a Black man from South Carolina, she said it was significant for her father to be able to witness it: “At one time that was impossible. And for him to witness that, to see it and be a part of it. It meant a lot.”
She said if her son becomes president, she wants him to focus on “people who don’t have.”
(NEW DELHI) — President Joe Biden is scheduled to depart for India and Vietnam Thursday on a trip that includes the Group of 20 summit and is designed to further cement the United States’ influence in Asia and counter China’s rise around the world.
The trip comes as Biden’s reelection campaign ramps up and seeks to portray him as a strong leader on the world stage — in contrast with his predecessor Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination for president. On Thursday, Biden’s campaign released an advertisement that highlighted his trip to visit to war-torn Ukraine earlier this year and his resolve to not “back down to a dictator,” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
His wife, first lady Jill Biden, tested positive for the coronavirus Monday, and the president continues to test negative. He last tested negative for COVID-19 Thursday afternoon, greenlighting his overseas trip, according to the White House.
Here are five things to watch as Biden jets off to New Delhi, India, and Hanoi, Vietnam:
1. Countering China — with cash
Biden will first land in New Delhi on Friday, ahead of weekend sessions with other leaders of the Group of 20 nations with the world’s largest economies.
A primary U.S. goal for the G20 summit is to achieve agreement in reforming the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, so that they are better able to make investments in low- and middle-income countries — as a way to counter China.
In recent years, many developing nations have borrowed heavily from Beijing for infrastructure and other projects, linked to China’s so-called “Belt and Road” initiative to build up ports, highways, and other major infrastructure.
But the White House had accused China of “coercive and unsustainable lending and infrastructure projects.”
Biden said he hopes to give developing nations another option to obtain funding for infrastructure and climate-change projects — weakening China’s influence and boosting the United States’.
2. Xi skips out
Chinese President Xi Jinping does not plan to attend the G20 summit, the first he’ll miss since taking power a decade ago. Premier Li Qiang will take his place.
Beijing hasn’t provided a reason for Xi’s absence, which could be due to his country’s testy relations with India, domestic politics or another unknown cause. His absence could give Biden a greater opening to push through the U.S. agenda.
Biden, though, told reporter he was “disappointed” Xi wasn’t coming, but had said previously he hoped to meet with the Chinese leader “this fall.” One possible venue is the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in San Francisco in November; both the U.S. and China are members.
3. Kim Jong Un heads to Russia?
In New Delhi, Biden will push for continued international backing for Ukraine as it wages its counteroffensive against Russia.
He’ll bring that message to India while grappling with increased reticence from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who are returning from a summer break. Biden has asked lawmakers for $24 billion in additional funding for Kyiv.
Meanwhile, while Russia is a member of the G20, its leader, President Putin, is also skipping the summit.
Instead, he may host North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, in Russia as soon as next week, according to a report from the New York Times.
The White House has warned that Moscow wants to buy arms from Pyongyang for its war in Ukraine, and says the U.S. believes Kim expects to meet with Putin in Russia.
4. Vietnam: From war to partnership
After spending time in New Delhi, Biden plans to head to Hanoi, where he and Vietnamese leaders are expected to announce a major upgrade to U.S. and Vietnamese relations.
The two nations — who were at war nearly half a century ago and who only established diplomatic relations in 1995 — are expected to boost their economic and technological ties.
The White House hasn’t shared many details of the expected agreements, but Biden’s top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters Tuesday that Vietnam would play a “leading role” in the United States’ “growing network of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific as we look to the future.”
“As we survey common challenges on everything from the South China Sea to critical and emerging technologies, the United States and Vietnam will chart out a vision for facing the 21st century together with an elevated and energized partnership,” Sullivan said.
Vietnam may elevate the United States to a status it has only given to four other nations, including China, its top trading partner and neighbor to the north, according to The Washington Post.
It would be a move taken at Beijing’s expense and a major accomplishment for the Biden administration as it seeks to bolster the American presence in the Indo-Pacific region to push back against an increasingly assertive China.
5. COVID questions
Since his wife tested positive for COVID-19 Monday, Biden has worn a face mask at times while repeatedly testing negative, according to the White House. He remains symptom-free, the White House added. He last tested negative on Thursday, according to the White House.
He and first lady Jill Biden last spent time together Monday, and the president plans to take precautions — including wearing a face mask when around others indoors — following that exposure, the White House said.
Lingering in the background, though, are questions about what happens if Biden tests positive at any point over the coming days, whether before he departs or while he’s abroad.
Would he participate in meetings virtually? Would the vice president or secretary of state represent the U.S. instead? The White House has refused to discuss contingencies.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. President Joe Biden has rejected proposed conditions for a plea deal for five Guantanamo Bay detainees accused of aiding in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.
The defendants had put forward a set of demands as a basis for plea negotiations, known as the “joint policy principles.” According to The New York Times, those demands include avoiding solitary confinement and receiving health treatment for injuries the detainees claim were a result of CIA interrogation methods.
Biden agreed with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s recommendation not to accept those demands.
“The 9/11 attacks were the single worst assault on the United States since Pearl Harbor,” the National Security Council spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Wednesday. “The President does not believe that accepting the joint policy principles as a basis for a pre-trial agreement would be appropriate in these circumstances. The Administration is committed to ensuring that the military commissions process is fair and delivers justice to the victims, survivors, families, and those accused of crimes.”
The five detainees, including the alleged mastermind behind the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, were transferred to the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006. Their case has been held up by legal proceedings for years, with no trial date set.
A lawyer who represents one of the detainees told ABC News on Wednesday that they cannot share the full list of joint policy principles rejected by the Biden administration, but said the list focused on improvements in long-term conditions of confinement to include a comprehensive torture rehabilitation program.
Ultimately, it will not be the president’s decision to determine if there is a pre-trial agreement or what an appropriate sentence would be. Rather, that falls to the Office of the Convening Authority for the Office of Military Commissions, a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense that handles cases in the military court of law.
ABC News has reached out to the Office of Military Commissions for comment.
The Office of the Chief Prosecutor for Military Commissions sent a letter, dated Aug. 1, to families who lost loved ones in the 2001 attacks, notifying them that a plea deal was being considered that could take the death penalty off the table.
When asked for comment about the plea deal, Office of Military Commissions spokesperson LCDR Adam Cole told ABC News last month: “We can confirm that the Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Prosecutor, specifically prosecutors assigned to prosecute those alleged to have been involved in the planning and execution of the 9/11 attacks, released a letter to 9/11 victims’ family members on Aug. 1. The letter described potential outcomes of what a potential plea agreement may mean, including the possibility of removing the death penalty. Negotiations for a fair and just conclusion to this case are ongoing and have not been concluded. The Office of the Chief Prosecutor uses these letters as well as in-person and virtual meetings to ensure that victims’ family members remain up to date—and can provide feedback. Office of the Chief Prosecutor remains committed to hearing and considering victim and family member input on any agreement prior to the conclusion of negotiations and continues to utilize a variety of methods and opportunities for victims and family members to offer their perspectives on the pending military commissions cases.”
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger jets flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, marking the start of a series of coordinated attacks that day against the United States by the Afghanistan-based terrorist group al-Qaida. Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day and thousands more were injured.
