Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Later this month, President Donald Trump is hosting an annual meeting with governors at the White House, but he will not invite any Democrats, only Republicans, breaking a long-standing tradition.

The meeting, part of the National Governors Association winter gathering, will only include Republican governors, a spokesperson for the organization confirmed to ABC News.

“The bipartisan White House governors meeting is an important tradition, and we are disappointed in the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year. To disinvite individual governors to the White House sessions undermines an important opportunity for federal-state collaboration,” Brandon Tatum, acting Executive Director and CEO of the National Governors Association, said in a statement to ABC News.

Trump is still planning to hold a separate, bipartisan dinner for governors and their spouses at the White House as part of the NGA activities. But Trump did not give invites to two Democrats: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

It’s unclear why Trump did not invite Polis and Moore to the dinner. Moore also serves as the vice chair of the NGA.

“This is a disappointing decision for a traditionally bipartisan event between Governors and whomever occupies the White House,” Ally Sullivan, a spokesperson for Polis, said to ABC News in a statement. A source close to Polis said the governor was not given a reason for not being invited.

Over the past few months, Trump has put pressure on Polis to release Tina Peters from prison following her receiving a presidential pardon. Peters was convicted on state charges for a scheme to tamper with voting systems driven by false claims about the 2020 election. Trump’s pardon power does not extend to state crimes.

Moore was also not informed why he was not invited to the annual dinner and blasted Trump in a statement released on Sunday, appearing to suggest his race was a factor.

“My peers, both Democrats and Republicans, selected me to serve as the Vice Chair of the NGA, another reason why it’s hard not to see this decision as another example of blatant disrespect and a snub to the spirit of bipartisan federal-state partnership,” Moore said.

“As the nation’s only Black governor, I can’t ignore that being singled out for exclusion from this bipartisan tradition carries an added weight — whether that was the intent or not,” he continued.

ABC News has requested comment from the White House regarding Moore’s remarks.

Moore said to CNN on Sunday that he has received a commitment from the bipartisan National Governors Association that it will not recognize the dinner as an official NGA event.

In a statement to ABC News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the president’s decision to exclude Democratic governors from the annual NGA meeting at the White House, adding that Trump did invite them to the dinner.

“These are White House events and the President can invite whomever he wants. With that being said, the White House has been coordinating meetings with the President, cabinet secretaries, and Democrat governors for more than a week,” Leavitt said in her statement. “Democrats were invited to the dinner at the White House. This is a non-story.”

Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, in an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Monday, slammed Trump’s decision to only invite Republicans to the annual meeting with governors at the White House and exclude Moore and Polis from the bipartisan dinner. Beshear also said he would not be attending the bipartisan dinner.

“No, I ain’t going,” Beshear said. “Wes is a friend of mine. Even if he wasn’t a friend of mine, this would be wrong — and Jared as well — but the other thing that’s going on is they didn’t invite any Democratic governor to the business section.”

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Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, invoked the Fifth Amendment during the closed-door virtual deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, according to Chairman James Comer.

It was expected that Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison in Texas, would refuse to answer questions from lawmakers and committee staffers as part of the panel’s investigation into the late financier and his ties to some of the world’s most powerful figures in politics, business and entertainment. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died by suicide in 2019 while at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

Maxwell has a petition pending in federal court in New York which seeks to overturn her conviction or reduce her sentence.

Some committee lawmakers were expected to attend the closed deposition.

The deposition was more than six months in the making, and was first requested last July, when Comer formally issued a subpoena for a deposition with Maxwell to occur at Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on Aug. 11. 

Comer agreed to delay the deposition as Maxwell awaited a Supreme Court ruling on her appeal, which she ultimately lost. 

Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas, where Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed her over two days in July.

During that interview, Maxwell told Blanche that she never witnessed nor heard of any criminal or inappropriate activity by President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, nor any of the well-known men who associated with Epstein, according to the sources.

The closed deposition with Maxwell comes on the same day that members of Congress can go to the Department of Justice to view unredacted versions of the Epstein files that the department has withheld from public disclosure.

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(WASHINGTON) – -The two West Virginia National Guard members shot in November will receive the Purple Heart, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday while addressing troops at the base of the Washington Monument.

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries on Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe was shot in the head and remains in recovery, with skull reconstruction surgery scheduled for March.

“One lost, one recovering, both soon to be Purple Heart recipients,” Hegseth said, “because they were attacked by a radical.”

The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, was arraigned on nine charges Wednesday, including first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill and illegal possession of a firearm.

Prosecutors say they are seeking additional charges that would make Lakanwal eligible for the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty.

Purple Hearts are typically reserved for troops wounded or killed by clearly identified enemy combatants in war zones, with awards for attacks on American soil relatively rare.

The question of eligibility resurfaced after the 2015 shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on a Navy Reserve center and a nearby recruiting station. Four Marines and a sailor died, Abdulazeez was killed by law enforcement. 

For months, that attack sat in a bureaucratic gray zone for the Purple Heart. FBI Director James Comey eventually determined the shootings were motivated by foreign terrorist propaganda.

The determination cleared the way for then- Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to announce Purple Hearts would be awarded to the victims of the shooting. 

The Trump administration has labeled Lakanwal a terrorist, though it has not publicly produced evidence tying him to any designated terrorist organization.

Lakanwal was among thousands of Afghans evacuated to the United States after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, and his asylum application was approved in 2025 during the Trump administration.

In Afghanistan, Lakanwal was affiliated with a so-called Zero Unit that worked closely with the CIA and elite special operations units, ABC News reported in December.

Officials with direct knowledge of the matter said he was considered a trusted member of the unit, which carried out American counterterrorism missions.

Investigators also believe Lakanwal was under financial strain after his work permit expired and may have been experiencing a mental health crisis.

“This announcement brings long-overdue honor to their service, offers meaning and reassurance to their families, and stands as a solemn reminder that West Virginia will never forget those who sacrifice in defense of others,” West Virginia GOP Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who called for Purple Hearts to be awarded after the ambush, said in a statement to ABC News. 

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(VIRGINIA) — Virginia residents could soon vote on whether the legislature can redraw the state’s congressional map mid-decade, a key development in a larger push by both parties to redraw U.S. House seats in their favor ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday signed a bill that sets an April 21 statewide vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow legislators to redraw congressional districts in the middle of the decade. Congressional maps are usually only drawn after the release of data from the census.

Democrats have framed the potential redraw as a response to how Republicans have redrawn U.S. House seats in their favor through mid-decade redistricting already in Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri. Democrats have netted potential seats in California and Utah so far, but have fewer opportunities overall to redistrict.

Spanberger’s bill signing came the day after Democrats in Virginia’s state legislature unveiled the proposed congressional map that they hope to implement in time for the 2026 midterms, which could allow Democrats to potentially flip up to four GOP-held seats if implemented.

The map itself will not be voted on in the April referendum, but Democrats indicated they wanted to have a map proposal made public beforehand so that voters could know what may be passed into law if the referendum goes in their favor.

Democratic legislators will need to get through ongoing legal challenges as well, as a state court in Virginia ruled last month that the constitutional amendment is illegal because of the procedures the Democrats used to move the amendment through the legislature. The case is being taken up by the state’s Supreme Court. 

Republicans opposing the Democratic-led redistricting effort slammed the proposed map as a partisan gerrymander.

“Only those who crave complete political control and are willing to silence millions of Virginians will attempt to defend this abomination,” Jason Miyares, the former Republican Attorney General of Virginia who is a co-chair of the Virginians for Fair Maps group, wrote on X on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, in nearby Maryland, Democrats are split over whether the state should take part in the mid-decade redistricting scramble. 

Maryland’s House of Delegates recently passed a bill containing a new congressional map that could allow Democrats to flip the state’s lone GOP-held congressional district.

But that effort, championed by Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore, is held up in the state Senate, where Senate leader Bill Ferguson has said he remains opposed to mid-decade redistricting. Ferguson told reporters on Tuesday that it “is a path towards mutually assured destruction.”

ABC News’ Ford McCracken and Halle Troadec contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump shared on his social media platform late Thursday night a video that included a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted with the bodies of apes.

After backlash, the White House at about noon Friday said the post had been taken down from the president’s page.

The roughly minutelong video, shared by Trump at 11:44 p.m. ET on Thursday, largely focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election.

At the end of the video, the Obamas’ faces appear abruptly and without explanation for seconds with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing over it. The video then ends back on similar imagery of the conspiracy video footage.

The Obamas had no comment when ABC News reached out to their representatives for a response.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when first asked for comment early Friday, had said, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

Though later Friday afternoon, a White House official told ABC News that a “staffer erroneously made the post.”

The video reposted by Trump overnight included only imagery of the Obamas.

The meme video referenced by Leavitt was shared in October by the Hardin County Republican Party of Kentucky on Facebook, which led the chairman to issue an apology and deleted the post after swift backlash noting the long history of racist tropes depicting Black people as apes or monkeys — a tool of slave traders and segregationists to dehumanize them.

Trump’s overnight repost was condemned by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, some of whom had called for it to be taken down and for the president to apologize.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black leader of a party in Congress, wrote on X: “President Obama and Michelle Obama are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.”

“Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry,” Jeffries wrote.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and also the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, posted on X: “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker wrote in a post: “This is totally unacceptable. The president should take it down and apologize.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, wrote in a post: “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump shared on his social media platform overnight a video that includes a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted with the bodies of apes, sparking condemnation from some lawmakers and demands that the post be taken down.

Trump reposted the roughly minutelong video, which focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election, to his social media platform.

At the end of the video, the Obamas’ faces appear abruptly and without explanation for seconds with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing over it. The video then ends back on similar imagery of the conspiracy video footage. 

The Obamas had no comment when ABC News reached out to their representatives for a response.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked for comment, said, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

The video reposted by Trump overnight includes only imagery of the Obamas.

The meme video referenced by Leavitt was shared in October by the Hardin County Republican Party of Kentucky on Facebook, which led the chairman to issue an apology and deleted the post after swift backlash noting the long history of racist tropes depicting Black people as apes or monkeys — a tool of slave traders and segregationists to dehumanize them.

Trump’s overnight repost was condemned by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black leader of a party in Congress, wrote on X: “President Obama and Michelle Obama are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.”

“Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry,” Jeffries wrote.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and also the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, posted on X: “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, wrote in a post: “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man.” 

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled his TrumpRx website in an event at the White House, listing 40 drugs at lower cost than previous list prices to patients paying out of pocket and calling the launch part of the “most transformative health care initiatives.”

Trump made the announcement alongside Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and National Design Studio Director Joe Gebbia.

“Starting tonight, dozens of the most commonly used prescription drugs will be available at dramatic discounts for all consumers throughout a new website is called TrumpRx.gov,” Trump said at the White House event.

Some of the reduced cash prices were announced last year by the administration and some of the new prices had already gone into effect. 

The president touted the use of his Most Favored Nation (MFN) policies — making sure the U.S. isn’t paying more than other countries — for making the lower prices possible.

“For years, politicians from both parties have promised to bring down prescription drug prices and make health care more affordable, but they all failed,” Trump said.

According to the TrumpRx website, these drugs can be obtained at participating pharmacies using coupon card codes displayed on the website or directly through manufacturers’ websites.

The website also notes that “TrumpRx discounted pricing is only available for cash-paying patients,” in a FAQ section. The discounts are not available for patients trying to pay through insurance and do not go toward insurance deductibles.  

Only a few dozen drugs are offered on the website, though the website says that “many more drugs are coming soon,” in a FAQ section.

What some experts are saying

“It’s nice that they are aggregating coupons in one place,” Benjamin Jolley, PharmD, a senior fellow for health care at the American Economic Liberties Project told ABC News. “But it’s a convenience to check the website to see the coupons all in one place for the first time.

Dr. Christina Madison, the founder of The Public Health Pharmacist told ABC News: “There are a lot of patient assistance programs out there and this appears similar to programs like GoodRX but the difference here is that you would not have to go through the manufacturer’s website to get them.”

In a statement, Good RX tells ABC News they are a key integration partner for pharma companies that is offering discounted cash prices on TrumpRX, “The self-pay price is hosted on the GoodRx platform and GoodRx then integrates the price into TrumpRx.” 

GoodRX-provided codes can currently be used at over 70,000 retail an home delivery pharmacies.

How much will consumers save?

Trump said the discount offers “tremendous” savings.

But experts say the overall savings are not clear and may only benefit a certain group of people. 

“TrumpRx’s offerings are very limited, fewer than 50 drugs listed,” Rena Conti, an associate professor at the Boston University Questrom School of Business, told ABC News.

“This suggests it pays for consumers to check their insurance coverage and ask their regular doctor or pharmacist before they use this service,” Conti added. 

The website boasted savings on GLP-1s, showing that the Wegovy pill’s lowest TrumpRx price was $149 a month, slashed from what the website says is an original price of $1,349. And while the full cash price of Ozempic and Wegovy (FDA approved for weight loss) did start at over $1,000 a month, those prices have been slowly going down in price. It was reduced voluntarily first to $499 in March 2025 and then to $199 in November after negotiations with the federal government.

Some drugs remain very expensive, including Xeljaz, which is marked at a starting price of $1,518, despite a 50% savings. 

Fertility drugs

One of the big categories of drugs included in TrumpRx are fertility drugs. 

According to the website, Gonal-F is available for an 83% discount, down from $966 to just $168 for the pen. Another IVF drug, Cetrotide, is offered at a 93% discount. And Ovidrel is offered for a 67% discount.  

“One in three families is having trouble having a baby. We’re gonna have a lot of Trump babies with these costs, folks cannot afford these medications. It’s gonna change their lives,” Oz said during the White House event.

“The fertility drug discount is legitimately a big deal for people trying to get IVF,” Jolley said. “These medicines are quite expensive and this seems like a big discount. In general IVF is not covered by insurance and so people prior to this who needed certain drugs would be paying the full $1400 price.”

Jolley noted for example, that the price slash on certain fertility drugs could lower the cost of an IVF cycle by about 20% overall. 

Trump first revealed his administration’s goal of launching the website back in September when he announced that Pfizer had agreed to lower its prices for prescription drugs offered through Medicaid.  Pfizer so far is the largest participant in Trump RX with over 30 medications listed. 

Trump last month released his “Great Healthcare Plan,” in which he called on Congress to codify the “most favored nation” initiative.

The plan also proposed sending money directly to Americans to buy health insurance and included calls to increase price transparency and hold insurance companies accountable — though it largely lacked specifics.

Polls show most Americans are concerned about health care costs.

A survey last month from KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization, found two-thirds of U.S. adults worried about being able to afford health care for them and their family — outranking other expenses like gas and groceries. A majority of Americans, 56%, said they expect health care to become less affordable in the coming year.

The poll also found that two-thirds of Americans said Congress “did the wrong thing” by allowing enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire. Millions of Americans were expected to face increased premium costs as a result of the lapse.

ABC News’ Eric Strauss, Michelle Stoddart, Emily Chang and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The historic treaty binding the U.S. and Russia to limit their deployment of the world’s most dangerous nuclear weapons lapsed overnight with no clear indication from Washington or Moscow on whether new talks would take place.

President Donald Trump, who in September appeared to be warming to the idea of renewing the treaty, backtracked last month, saying he would be comfortable allowing it to expire and hoped any new agreement would involve other parties.

“You probably want to get a couple of other players involved, also,” Trump told the New York Times.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that any new arms control pact should include China, even though Beijing’s nuclear stockpile is dramatically smaller than that of the U.S. and Russia and any ceiling a deal might set would not be symmetrical to China’s arsenal.

“The president’s been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China, because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile,” Rubio said.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, confirmed the agreement was expiring Thursday.

“We view this negatively and regret this development,” he said, adding an offer from Putin to extend the deal went unanswered.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said his country would not take part in a trilateral arrangement.

“The nuclear forces of China and the U.S. are not on the same level at all, and it is neither fair nor reasonable to ask China to join the nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage,” he said.

Last remaining arms control agreement

The New START treaty, which was struck between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010 and went into effect the following year, was the last remaining arms control pact in force between the two nations, limiting the deployment of nuclear-capable weapons systems like intercontinental ballistic missiles and bombers — and placing a limit on the number of nuclear warheads which could be activated.

The U.S. and Russia have remained under the numeric limits of the treaty, whose “whole value” is “to have predictability between the United States and Russia,” said Rose Gottemoeller, a former State Department official who served as America’s chief negotiator on New START.

The U.S. has accused Russia of violating the treaty after Moscow suspended inspection and verification mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Washington never accused the Russians of failing to adhere to the limits.

“The fact of the legally binding treaty limits [itself] has placed the brakes on any Russian attempt to build up the deployed systems,” said Gottemoeller, adding the U.S. has intelligence capabilities to unilaterally understand whether Russia is breaking promises under the treaty.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the U.S. a one-year extension of New START, which Trump initially called a “good idea.”

But the U.S. never officially responded, according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide.

In a statement to ABC News, The White House said that “the President will decide the path forward on nuclear arms control, which he will clarify on his own timeline.”

Russia and China have demonstrated increasing nuclear capabilities in recent years, a NATO official told ABC News. For its part, Russia has adopted a “posture of strategic intimidation” in its nuclear rhetoric, the official added.

Putin has flexed Russia’s muscles on nuclear arms over the past year, touting emerging technologies like its Poseidon system, a nuclear-armed and nuclear-propelled torpedo that travels underwater. Tactical nuclear arms like the Poseidon system were not covered by New START’s provisions.

“Restraint and responsibility in the nuclear domain is crucial to global security,” the NATO official said.

A “handshake” agreement?

Putin’s offer in the fall amounted to what would be a “handshake between the two presidents to preserve the limits of the treaty” even after the treaty itself formally expired, said Gottemoeller, who was under secretary of state for arms control and international security when the deal was originally struck and later became NATO’s deputy secretary general.

While the administration has pointed to China as a reason to forgo New START in favor of a broader deal, Gottemoeller said a one-year stopgap deal would actually help the U.S. pursue its arms control agenda with Beijing.

A one-year extension “makes sense for one very important reason,” she said. “We need to keep the Russians under control over the coming year, while we try to plan and prepare for what we’re going to do to respond to the … Chinese nuclear buildup.”

Gottemoeller and Lynn Rusten, another former U.S. official who helped negotiate the New START treaty, told ABC News a trilateral deal with the Chinese would not make practical sense, since China’s 600 nuclear-capable weapons are dwarfed by Russian and American stockpiles that are each more than 4,000.

A Pentagon report in December assessed the Chinese stockpile could rise to more than 1,000 in 2030.

The State Department did not respond to an inquiry about diplomatic channels for new arms control agreements with either Beijing or Moscow.

The president, who said he had an “excellent” call Wednesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, did not say whether nuclear arms were mentioned.

Change won’t be immediate

The early days of a world without the last remaining treaty limiting the world’s largest nuclear powers will not be immediately changed, the former officials said.

“I don’t think we’re going to wake up tomorrow and be in a completely different world,” said Rusten, who led the U.S. government’s interagency process during talks over New START. “But I do think there’s going to be some mirror imaging. So if one country starts to build up its forces beyond New START limits, the other is almost sure to follow.”

The U.S. will have to “plan and prepare” for the reality after New START, given the Russians have more experience and defense capacity — including “hot warhead production lines” in support of its war in Ukraine, said Gottemoeller.

Rusten said the U.S.’s understanding of Russia’s arsenal will “atrophy,” a risk over the long run.

“Over time, we’re going to have a less and less precise picture of exactly how many Russian nuclear forces there are and where they are,” she said.

The U.S. and Russia — and the U.S. and the Soviet Union before that — cooperated on arms control for decades, managing to carve out the issue from other diplomatic issues which frayed the rivals.

In a statement marking the end of New START, the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation said decades of diplomacy between Washington and Moscow “helped reduce the global nuclear arsenal by more than 80% since the height of the Cold War.”

“Now,” the statement said, “both Russia and the United States have no legal obstacle to building their arsenals back up, and we could find ourselves reliving the Cold War.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday made it clear that even though she and former President Bill Clinton agreed to a closed-door deposition, they are continuing to push for a public hearing as part of the House Oversight Committee’s probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith. We told them what we know, under oath,” she wrote on X. “They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction.”

“So let’s stop the games. If you want this fight, [Rep. James Comer], let’s have it — in public. You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on. We will be there,” she posted.

Earlier this week, the Clintons agreed to sit for closed depositions on Epstein after the GOP-led House Oversight Committee threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with its subpoenas relating to Epstein.

Comer, the committee’s chairman, announced on Tuesday that Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify on Feb. 26. Bill Clinton will sit for deposition the following day, Feb. 27.

For months, the Clintons had insisted that the subpoenas were without legal merit. Comer had pushed back, saying the Clintons are not above the law and must comply with a subpoena.

A letter from the Clintons’ attorney Jon Skladany to Comer also said an open hearing “will best suit our concerns about fairness,” citing the requirement that the interviews be videotaped — but ultimately left the decision about whether to hold a hearing or a deposition up to Comer.

The subpoenas the committee sent to the Clintons were specifically for a closed-door deposition. That is what will occur, and Comer said a public hearing is welcome after that if the Clintons want to come in. 

“The deposition will be made public, it’s going to be audio, video and the transcripts will be released,” Comer said in an interview on Newsmax on Wednesday.

“Depositions are always the preferred means of getting information from a witness. If you look at history, congressional hearings, they may be entertaining, but they’re not very substantive … So, we’re going to do the depositions. That’s what the subpoena is for,” Comer said. “And after the depositions, if the Clintons want more, they’re more than welcome to come to the House Oversight Committee after they’re deposed. If they want to testify in a public hearing in front of the Oversight Committee, they are more than welcome to do that.”

Neither Bill Clinton nor Hillary Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing and both deny having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. No Epstein survivor or associate has ever made a public allegation of wrongdoing or inappropriate behavior by the former president or his wife in connection with his prior relationship with Epstein. 

President Donald Trump, in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, repeated that he thinks it’s a “shame” that the Clintons will sit for depositions.

“It bothers me that somebody is going after Bill Clinton. See, I like Bill Clinton. I still like Bill Clinton,” Trump said.

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(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — Are there too many Democrats running for governor in California?

Corrin Rankin, the chair of the California Republican Party, told ABC News on the sidelines of a Republican National Committee meeting last month, “I think the Democrats should have a few more candidates. I say, if you’re a Democrat, and you feel like running for governor? I say, jump in.”

Rankin’s taunt reflects very real anxiety among some Democrats in the state in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom.

California uses top-two primaries, in which all candidates regardless of party are on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.

It’s been expected that a Democrat and Republican will advance or, given California’s blue tilt, two Democrats. But a crowded Democratic field increases the chances that two Republicans and no Democrats make it past the June primary.

“The fact that it’s a possibility at all is enough to raise eyebrows and generate concern,” Steven Maviglio, a California-based Democratic operative, told ABC News.

RL Miller, who chairs the California Democratic Party’s Environmental Caucus, told ABC News that the scenario where no Democrats advance is a bit “more of an academic exercise,” but certainly something candidates are discussing in fundraising emails.

The Democratic field was effectively frozen for months until former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she would not run. Around a dozen Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, are vying for the nomination. 

For some candidates, it’s been tough to break through, but they say they want to stay in because they feel their experience means they’re best for the job.

Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles and former state representative, told ABC News on the sidelines of a recent candidate forum in the city he once led that he’s pointing to himself as “a proven problem-solver … people are looking for competence, common sense and of course-correction. They want the next governor to focus on the challenges we face.”

Asked more directly how he’s trying to stand out and if he thinks the Democratic field needs to consolidate more before the primary, Villaraigosa did not say anyone should drop out but pointed again to his record.

“I’m running on a vision for California that says we can restore the California Dream… [I’m] the only one in this in this race who’s been a chief executive of a large city,” he said.

Betty Yee, California’s former state controller, told ABC News on the sidelines of that forum in Los Angeles that she is pointing to her statewide job experience and financial acumen as a way she stands out from the pack.

“I think at the end of the day voters really do want somebody who can really just get on the job and begin to do the work,” Yee said.

She also added that Democratic candidates have not had a “long runway” to run, given the focus on the Proposition 50 congressional map election last November and the uncertainty over whether Harris would run for the governorship.

“So now, with all that behind us, we now have the focus on the race… what I did during that time was just to engage and just do as much direct voter engagement as I could,” Yee said.

Among the Republican candidates, front-runners Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are expressing confidence that either one of them will make it to one of the top two slots in the primary.

Hilton, a business owner and former Fox News host, told ABC News that’s because of what he said is backlash to high costs and other challenges in California, which has been dominated by Democrats in the state legislature and executive branch for years.

“There’s a majority, a clear majority, who think we need change, and that means a change from the Democrats,” he said.

Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, told ABC News that he feels there is a crowded Democratic field because Newsom has not cultivated an heir apparent.

“So the Democrat Party below him is just [in] complete disarray, which is why you see a dozen Democrats — prominent Democrats — jumping in this race, wanting to be the next heir apparent, and it has to benefit Republicans,” Bianco said.

But Hilton expressed some skepticism about the benefits for the GOP of the top-two primary.

“Now on the Democrat side, you’re right, there’s a lot of candidates, but I think we’ve all seen how things work in California,” Hilton said, speculating that unions and donors will at some point coalesce around one candidate.

But Maviglio, the Democratic strategist, cautioned that donors and labor unions are holding back because of the crowded field, and labor groups in particular have multiple allies in the ring.

“It’s splintered,” Maviglio said.

Some Democrats have pointed to the state party’s upcoming convention in late February as a moment of truth — since candidates may drop out afterwards if it becomes clear they don’t have support to gain enough internal votes for the party’s endorsement.

But no candidate is expected, at the moment, to clear the threshold for an endorsement.

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