Politics

(URBANDALE, Iowa) — Former President Donald Trump returned to Iowa on Thursday for a full day of campaign events, taking multiple jabs at 2024 primary rival Ron DeSantis and defending people imprisoned in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

In particular, Trump took issue with a comment the Florida governor has used on the campaign trail in recent days, when DeSantis has said he’s gunning for “eight years” in office in order to deliver on a myriad of conservative promises — an implicit contrast with Trump, who can only serve one more term.

“You don’t need eight years, you need six months,” Trump said Thursday morning during a breakfast with the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale.

“We can turn this thing around so quickly. If you need eight years — who the hell wants to wait eight years? You don’t need eight years,” he said to laughter and a few claps.

“He’ll stop saying that — watch,” Trump added during his speech. “Every time I hear, I wince because if it takes eight years to turn around, you don’t want him as president,” to which someone in the crowd yelled, “You’re hired!”

Trump made similar comments earlier Thursday morning as he entered the Machine Shed restaurant for the breakfast, saying, “We only need five months.”

As part of his “eight years” argument, DeSantis has pointed to things like the Supreme Court.

Speaking last month in Florida, he said that the next “two terms” could be especially relevant for whoever is in the White House, because the president may be able to further cement the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in light of some justices’ advancing ages.

“I think if you look over the next two presidential terms, there is a good chance that you could be called upon to seek replacements for Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito and the issue with that is, you can’t really do better than those two,” DeSantis said then, adding that there may also be a chance to “make improvements with those others, and if you were able to do that, you would have a 7-2 conservative majority on the Supreme Court that would last a quarter century.”

Such comments come as DeSantis has become sharply critical of Trump, a former ally. The governor officially entered the 2024 race last week and is traveling through three early nominating states, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, this week.

“[Trump] used to say how great Florida was. Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship. Are you kidding me?” DeSantis told reporters after a campaign kickoff outside Des Moines on Tuesday.

During his own campaign events Thursday, Trump sometimes answered questions from the crowd, including from one girl who said she just graduated from high school.

When a person at one event called for “justice for people that have been in prison since Jan. 6,” Trump repeated his rhetoric of defending the rioters and said the Capitol Police officer who fatally shot one of them, Ashli Babbitt, was a “rogue cop” and a “thug.”

Authorities have said the officer acted lawfully in shooting Babbitt and a federal investigation found that Babbitt and others were trying to break through barricaded entrances near the Speaker’s Lobby that leads to the Chamber of the U.S. House, from which members of Congress were being evacuated.

In Iowa, however, Trump tried to cast the events of Jan. 6 differently, saying those arrested around the riot were being treated worse than in past protests like those related to racial inequality demonstrations.

“You look at what they’ve done to the Jan. 6 people, they’ve destroyed them and destroyed their lives,” he insisted. “And a lot of them didn’t even go into the building. It was a disgrace what’s going on.”

The Department of Justice reports that more than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the government’s Jan. 6 investigation.

More than 300 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees that day, the DOJ has said, and more than 100 defendants have been accused of using deadly weapons.

Trump was impeached by the House and accused of inciting the events of Jan. 6, but he was acquitted by the Senate. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Elsewhere in Iowa on Thursday, Trump pointed to his experience in Washington as a reason he should earn Iowan votes — a stark pivot from what he’s used as a selling point in the past: his background as a political outsider.

“I’m very experienced now, you know, it’s not like I’m going in and saying, ‘Oh, this nice office, is this the Oval Office?'” he said, adding, “I think within six months you’re gonna see a major part of the comeback.”

Trump attended three total events ahead of a town hall on Thursday night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Chris Boccia, Hannah Demissie and Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — With just days until the deadline for the nation to default, the Senate now is racing against the clock to pass a bipartisan debt ceiling agreement and avoid what would be an economically catastrophic failure to pay the country’s bills.

Debate began Thursday morning as the chamber’s leaders urged swift passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, with critics voicing their concerns with the bill.

“Time is a luxury the Senate does not have if we want to prevent default,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in remarks from the floor. “June 5 is less than four days away. At this point, any needless delay or any last minute hold-ups would be an unnecessary and even dangerous risk.”

As the Senate deliberated into Thursday evening, Schumer was working with lawmakers who wanted to offer amendments to give assurances in exchange for limiting time for debate and votes.

Later Thursday, Schumer announced that voting would soon begin — with passage expected within hours, either before or around midnight, after 11 successive rounds of voting on 11 different amendments. None of those looked set to pass but allowed various senators to register their differences with the debt agreement.

“By passing this bill we will avoid default tonight,” Schumer said. “America can breathe a sigh of relief.”

Here’s how it happened.

No room for typical Senate delay

As the drama has played out, there has been almost no room for delay if the bill is to get to President Joe Biden’s desk by Monday, the day Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the U.S. could run out of money to be able to pay all its bills on time and in full.

In addition to the deadline, it has potentially helped that that’s also supposed to be the start of a three-day weekend for senators — and getting out of Washington is a time-honored motivator for faster action.

Leadership aides previously said a vote could happen as early as Thursday night but that required cooperation from the entire chamber.

Schumer: No changes, ‘plain and simple’

Initially threatening to hold up the process was a possible filibuster or time-consuming debate and votes on amendments being sought by various lawmakers, mainly Republicans, but some Democrats too.

“We’ll be here till Tuesday until I get commitments that we’re going to rectify some of these problems,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned at one point on Thursday.

He and other defense hawks spoke out on their frustration with the level of military spending in the bill, but any changes to the bill would force it to be sent back to the House for approval — which would only drive them closer to the default deadline.

“We are going to do everything we can to move the bill quickly,” Schumer told ABC News on Wednesday. “We cannot send anything back to the House. Plain and simple.”

“We must avoid default, we must,” he added then.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had a similar “time is of the essence” message for his own conference.

“I can tell you what I hope happens — is that those who have amendments, if given votes, will yield back time so that we can finish this Thursday or Friday and soothe the country and soothe the markets,” McConnell said Wednesday.

How Senate passage timeline got set before the weekend

Chamber leaders scrambled behind the scenes to secure an agreement to have lawmakers voting on amendments and final passage by Thursday night.

While it was possible that 10 to 12 amendments could be voted on, lawmakers and aides said, ultimately 11 amendments were set for votes.

On Wednesday, Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told ABC News that he thought it would be possible to get it all done by Friday.

Thune said that if Republicans got votes on roughly half a dozen amendments, even GOP opposition wouldn’t block swift passage of the deal.

Despite concerns from some senators on defense and other issues, there appears to have been general agreement on the bottom line: that if the bill changed by even a single letter, it would have to return to the House and at that point — both it and the country would face an uncertain fate.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge sentenced two Oath Keeper defendants Thursday for their roles in disrupting the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Edward Vallejo was sentenced to three years in prison while Roberto Minuta received a term of four years and six months. Both sentences were a significant departure from the 17 years the government requested for each defendant after the two were convicted earlier this year of sedition and conspiracy to derail Joe Biden’s election victory.

Prosecutors argued Minuta was a key leader of the “second wave” of Oath Keepers who stormed the Capitol. He was joined by Joshua James, who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy last year.

As part of his guilty plea, James admitted he and fellow members brought weapons, including a rifle, shotgun, semi-automatic handgun and ammunition to the greater Washington, D.C., area. James acknowledged he breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, intending to stop the electoral college certification, with Minuta by his side.

At his sentencing, Minuta flatly denied any knowledge of plans between Oath Keepers, including the stockpile some had amassed at a Virginia hotel.

“I did not know about any guns in Virginia whatsoever,” Minuta said.

Minuta continued to insist he went into the Capitol to help police officers in distress. He apologized to the judge for entering the building.

“I shouldn’t have and I’m sorry that I did,” he said. “I was presented with an opportunity to help police and I blew it.”

“I did not want to advance into the building, and I left James in there as soon as I could get out,” he added.

Judge Amit Mehta said he found no evidence that Minuta entered the building to help police.

“You and I will have to agree to disagree about that,” Mehta said.

Mehta also found no evidence that Minuta himself brought a weapon into the district or served as a critical leader of the group. However, Mehta did apply a terrorism enhancement to the sentence that was ultimately handed down.

Vallejo himself wasn’t accused of taking any violent actions on Jan. 6, but prosecutors argued his position as a leader of the “quick reaction force” was even more serious. Oath Keepers amassed a cache of weapons at a Virginia hotel where Vallejo awaited orders from those in Washington, D.C., prosecutors alleged.

Defense attorney Matthew Peed argued that Vallejo was influenced by Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and then-President Donald Trump to think what he was doing was patriotic. As an example of his respect for the democratic process, Peed said Vallejo had been a major supporter of former Rep. Ron Paul, even attending a national political convention on his behalf.

“He just thought that something different (on Jan. 6) was happening because the President had told him,” Peed said.

Vallejo was also sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison term, including time on home confinement.

“He has had an impeccable pre-trial record,” Mehta said, before allowing Vallejo to walk out of court and self-surrender.

Last week, Rhodes received the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant to date at 18 years, a decision that was also handed down by Mehta.

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(LAS VEGAS) — The Pentagon informed Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base that a previously approved drag show slated to take place on the base on the first day of Pride Month could not take place because it was not in line with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent comments, according to two defense officials.

The drag performance would have been held at the Officer’s Club at southern Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base on Thursday, June 1, and had been approved by base commanders, just as it had been over the previous two years.

Base legal officers and commanders had determined that the event was in line with DOD policy and no department funding would be used for the event, according to the official who spoke to ABC News.

The decision on hosting such shows is typically left in the hands of local commanders who follow guidance from military attorneys, but Nellis officials were told earlier his week by the Defense Department that Thursday’s event was not consistent with Austin’s recent comments to Congress and that it should be canceled or relocated off base, a defense official told ABC News.

“Consistent with Secretary Austin’s congressional testimony, the Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities,” said Ann Stefanek, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson. “Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location.”

Military services were informed this week of the clarified guidance that only applies to drag shows held on military bases, another defense official confirmed.

Other LGTBQ+ events scheduled to take place at military bases during Pride Month will not be impacted by the new directive.

“Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-Federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment,” Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said in a statement.

“As Secretary Austin has said, the DOD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities,” said Singh. “Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is inconsistent with regulations regarding the use of DoD resources.”

Singh explained this is not a change in department policy.

“The Secretary has said DoD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities, consistent with long-standing policy,” she said.

“We are proud to serve alongside any and every young American who takes the oath that puts their life on the line in defense of our country,” she added. “Service members and their families are often involved in a host of special interest activities related to their personal hobbies, beliefs, and backgrounds.”

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, blasted the reversal as “sid[ing] with the politics of fear and discrimination peddled by extreme members of Congress.”

“For decades, our community has fought for our right to exist without shame or exception, yet [Austin’s] decision to ban an event that has happened in prior years reinforces false tropes about LGBTQ+ culture. At a time when we are under attack, the Pentagon is ceding to extremist forces focused on taking away our rights — leaders responsible for national defense ought to do better. Our people deserve better, the United States military deserves better, and all Americans deserve better,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said.

In late March, both Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed reservations about DOD facilities hosting drag shows when questioned about the matter by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

“Drag shows are not something that the Department of Defense supports or funds,” Austin said in response to a question from Gaetz.

Milley said he was unaware of the congressman’s reference to drag shows taking place at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and Nellis and asked for more information “because I’d like to take a look at those myself actually — take a look and find out what actually is going on there.”

“I’d like to take a look at those because I don’t agree with those,” he said. “I think those things shouldn’t be happening.”

Gaetz applauded the cancelation of the planned Nellis drag show.

“HUGE VICTORY: The Department of Defense has CANCELED a scheduled “child-friendly” drag show after I demanded answers from @SecDef Austin and General Milley! Drag shows should not be taking place on military installations with taxpayer dollars PERIOD!” he tweeted Wednesday night.

Austin issued a statement Thursday celebrating the start of Pride Month and the contributions of LGBTQ+ service members.

“As Secretary of Defense, I remain dedicated to making sure that our LGBTQ+ personnel across the Joint Force can continue to serve the country that we all love with dignity and pride—this month and every other one. We thank you for your service—and we thank your spouses and your families, whose support makes your service possible,” said Austin.

ABC News’ Nate Luna contributed to this report.

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(SALEX, Iowa) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pitches himself as a “fighter” for conservative values. But as he continues his initial presidential campaign swing through three early nominating states, he’s working to highlight another side — as a dad and husband — as he adjusts to the intimate events often required to persuade primary voters.

At one Wednesday morning event in the western town of Salix, Iowa, DeSantis and his wife, Casey, engaged in a living room-style conversation, swapping anecdotes about their three young kids that sought to give voters a rare glimpse into the home life of Florida’s leader, who has generally avoided the mainstream press.

Seated in grey armchairs on a stage inside a vast welding warehouse, where a massive green John Deere served as a backdrop, the couple, each in jeans, told stories that elicited laughs from the audience of roughly 100.

The governor joked that when he and Casey, a former TV reporter, brought two of their children to Japan in April on a trade mission, “We never got on a schedule time wise, so they’d be up at 2 in the morning.”

“The one thing I learned is I learned when breakfast room service starts — because they needed food,” he said of his kids.

He then remembered a solo parenting outing, going to visit a new Tallahassee restaurant, and the curveball moment when his 3-year-old daughter needed to use the bathroom.

“So we’re literally just in a drive-thru just sitting there. And so she had to go, so I was like, OK I’ll take her inside, so we go in and we get in there, and she shakes her head and I’m like, ‘What?’ And she’s like, ‘Little potty, little potty.’ And I’m like, ‘They don’t have little potty in Slim Chickens!'” he said.

The chat, designed to emphasize its informality, followed a 30-minute, policy-dense stump speech from the governor bashing bureaucratic Washington and liberal institutions that mimicked his remarks the previous night, at his kickoff event at a large church near Des Moines.

But even in a setting meant to reveal a relatable side of the governor, DeSantis sometimes slipped back into speech mode, touching on his and Casey’s efforts to combat the spread of fentanyl and touting his decision to appoint conservative board members to a small Tampa-area college.

The battle over the New College of Florida, with an enrollment of less than 700, reached the pages of certain national news outlets, but it’s unclear how much Iowans were aware of the controversy, billed by DeSantis as another of his efforts to fight the “woke.”

“So we’ve got a small liberal arts college in Sarasota called New College. I don’t think anyone in this room probably heard of it,” said the governor, who admitted to having never known of the institution until being informed of its “ideology.”

Dave Christensen, a 58-year-old attendee and a Navy veteran, told ABC News before the event that he was drawn to DeSantis’ policy stances and was hoping “to see the man.”

“I want to see what’s he’s like, what his personality is like,” Christensen said. “I want to see him talking to me.”

As he left the venue, Christensen, who interacted briefly with DeSantis as the governor worked the crowd, seemed satisfied, though he acknowledged he was staying “open-minded” about who to support for the Republican nomination early next year.

“So far, he’s answered everything I was kind of after, today anyway. He answered my questions,” Christensen told ABC News.

The governor did not replicate the “fireside chat” with Casey at his other three events on Wednesday, opting to spend his time behind a lectern, ceding the stage to his wife for several minutes at each stop to share more about their life as parents.

A spokesperson for the campaign said the Salix event was not the first time the couple has held informal conversations on the trail about their home life, saying they did so before the governor announced his candidacy for president.

The spokesperson did not answer a question about whether the campaign plans to feature similar events in the future. DeSantis campaigning with Casey is not unusual: Candidates include their spouses on the trail in order to show a different side of themselves to the public.

Katie Dodge, 31, a resident of Omaha, Nebraska, who crossed state lines to see the governor speak in Council Bluffs, said she was “all in” on DeSantis, whom she called a “no-nonsense politician” who “just goes in and lets the work that he does show for where he stands and what he’s fighting for, and I think that he’s fighting for all Americans.”

Dodge’s mother, Mindy, also a DeSantis supporter, acknowledged there was space for the governor to appear more personable but insisted he offset that quality with his policies and work ethic.

“OK, does he maybe need some more charisma to connect with audiences? Yeah, probably. But you know what he does have? He’s a hard worker and he gets things done. And more than anything right now, that’s what we need,” she said.

Before DeSantis’ kickoff rally on Tuesday night in Clive, Alex Greadel, 45, said he had “seen [DeSantis speaking with voters] in some of the video interactions that I’ve seen online, but that doesn’t concern me at all.”

Still, the scrutiny continues: In New Hampshire on Thursday, DeSantis was making the round with attendees at one stop when a reporter with the Associated Press asked him why he didn’t take questions from voters.

Video shows DeSantis asking the reporter, “What are you talking about?”

“I’m out here [with] people,” he said. “Are you blind?”

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.

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(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — President Joe Biden took a fall on stage at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado on Thursday.

Biden, who delivered the commencement address and proceeded to shake hands with graduates, fell near the podium and was quickly assisted by those around him in returning to his feet.

Biden, 80, walked away unassisted once he was upright. He continued to stand and greet people for the remainder of the ceremony.

Biden appeared to trip on a black sandbag, according to pool reporters traveling with the president, and pointed back at it after he got up.

“He’s fine. There was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands,” Ben LaBolt, the White House communications director, tweeted as videos of the incident circulated online.

Biden didn’t take questions as he boarded Air Force One following the hourslong commencement.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said Biden is “totally fine” while she boarded Air Force One, according to the reporters traveling with Biden.

Biden’s age and fitness have been a factor in his reelection campaign. At 80, he is the oldest sitting president in history and would be 86 at the end of second term should he win again in 2024.

Asked about his age after he announced he was running again, Biden said it will be up to voters to judge “whether or not I have it or don’t have it.”

“I respect them taking a hard look at it — I’d take a hard look at it, as well. I took a hard look at it before I decided to run, and I feel good. I feel excited about the prospects,” he told ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce in April.

Former President Donald Trump, who would also be in his 80s if elected, responded to the fall while campaigning in Iowa.

“I hope he’s not hurt. The whole thing is crazy … even if you have to tip-toe down the ramp,” he said, poking fun at his own experience at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2020 when his cautious descent down a ramp opened him up to similar criticism about his age.

“At the Air Force Academy? That’s not inspiring,” Trump added.

When speaking to graduates, Biden celebrated their work so far as he laid out the challenges that lie ahead.

“We have the finest military in the history of the world,” he said. “And you’ve earned it. This day is the day to celebrate. And as your commander in chief, I’m honored to be here as you take on the duties of serving and defending our nation.”

“In the years to come, you’ll have even more asked of you,” he continued. “You’ll take on greater responsibilities, and you’ll be challenged even beyond everything you’ve yet experienced.”

ABC News’ Libby Cathey contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — With just days until a June 5 deadline, the Senate now is racing against time to pass the debt ceiling bill and avoid what would be an economically catastrophic default.

But while Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said work would begin immediately after House passage Wednesday night, it’s rare for anything to get resolved quickly in the United States Senate.

“We’re getting close to putting this threat of default behind us,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Wednesday. “But there’s still more work, perhaps the most important work, to do: passing it into law.”

No room for typical Senate delay

As the drama plays out, there is almost no room for delay if the bill is to get to President Joe Biden’s desk by Monday, the day Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the U.S. could run out of money to be able to pay all its bills on time and in full.

The current goal, aides on both sides of the aisle say, is to pass the measure by late Friday.

In addition to the deadline, it could help that that’s also supposed to be the start of a three-day weekend for senators — and getting out of Washington is a time-honored motivator for faster action.

Schumer: No changes, ‘plain and simple’

Threatening to hold up the process, though, is a possible filibuster or time-consuming debate and votes on amendments being sought by various lawmakers, mainly Republicans, but some Democrats, too.

Senators normally are accorded great deference and time to have their say, but when asked Wednesday how many amendment votes he’d allow, Schumer punted. He emphasized the bill can’t be changed or else it would need to go back to the House for review.

“We are going to do everything we can to move the bill quickly,” Schumer told ABC News. “We cannot send anything back to the House. Plain and simple.”

“We must avoid default, we must,” he added.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had a similar “time is of the essence” message for his own conference.

“I can tell you what I hope happens — is that those who have amendments, if given votes, will yield back time so that we can finish this Thursday or Friday and soothe the country and soothe the markets,” McConnell said Wednesday.

Senate GOP leaders see Friday night passage possible

Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D,. told ABC News Wednesday that if Republicans get votes on roughly half a dozen amendments, even GOP opposition won’t block swift passage of the deal.

When asked if that could be by Friday night, Thune agreed: “Yeah, I mean, I think it could happen fairly quickly if there’s agreement. But we’ll get a better sense of where our members are today.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tweeted Wednesday he will “insist on an amendment vote” on his alternative debt ceiling plan that would lift the limit by $500 billion while cutting spending across the board by 5%, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he would try to bring up an amendment to increase the level of defense spending in the bill.

The current Biden-McCarthy deal only allows a 1% increase in defense next fiscal year, which, accounting for inflation, would amount to a cut.

“I think that’s the worst part of the deal,” McConnell said Wednesday. “The defense buildup — which we began in December — peters out and then it’s only up slightly but more than domestic. So, I don’t think it’s as good as I would like, but if you look at the totality of the agreement, I think it should be supported and our defense needs will still be there.”

Despite those concerns, there appears to be general agreement on the bottom line: that if the bill is changed by even a single letter, it would have to return to the House and at that point — both it and the country would face an uncertain fate.

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(WASHINGTON) — Federal investigators have in their possession an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from July 2021, on which he acknowledges he held onto a sensitive military document after leaving office, sources confirm to ABC News.

The recording was made during a meeting at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, that Trump held with people who were helping former chief of staff Mark Meadows with his memoir, according to sources.

Trump indicated during the recording that he knew the document in question was secret, the sources said.

Meadows was not present for the meeting, the sources said, but other Trump aides, including Margot Martin, were there.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office, has questioned witnesses about the recording, sources familiar with the matter said.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment to ABC News.

A Trump spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News, “Leaks from radical partisans behind this political persecution are designed to inflame tensions and continue the media’s harassment of President Trump and his supporters. It’s just more proof that when it comes to President Trump, there are absolutely no depths to which they will not sink as they pursue their witch hunts.”

“The DOJ’s continued interference in the presidential election is shameful and this meritless investigation should cease wasting the American taxpayer’s money on Democrat political objectives,” the Trump spokesperson said.

News of the recording was first reported by CNN.

On the recording, which ABC News has not listened to nor obtained, Trump is heard attacking Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and referencing one document in particular that Trump claimed Milley had compiled, according to sources. Trump, who said on the recording that he still had the document in his possession, said the document was about attacking Iran, sources said.

The specific nature of the document described in the recording is not known.

The July 2021 conversation took place several months before representatives for Trump handed over to the National Archives 15 boxes of presidential records that included documents with classified markings, and more than a year before Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was searched by the FBI last August.

During the August search, investigators uncovered more than 100 classified documents after Trump’s team failed to comply with a June 2022 subpoena seeking all such records that remained in his possession.

It’s unclear whether the document allegedly referenced in the recording was among those documents initially handed over to the Archives or those seized by the FBI in the August 2022 search.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House on Wednesday night approved a bill to raise the nation’s debt ceiling while cutting some government spending over the next two years, in a major victory for both the White House and Republican leaders as the country tip-toes closer to a historic default on its bills.

The final vote was 314-117.

A majority of the GOP conference backed the legislation, with 149 votes, but it was 165 Democrats who helped ensure passage as 71 conservatives ultimately voted no, as did 46 Democrats. Four lawmakers, two Republicans and two Democrats, didn’t vote.

The proposal next heads to the Senate, where both Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have said they want to move quickly to approve it — even as soon as Thursday or Friday.

The deal, brokered between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, would raise the country’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit until January 2025 while setting a broad government budget over the next two years and making some policy changes, such as increasing work requirements on federal food assistance.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has estimated that the government will run out of cash to pay all of its bills by Monday — the so-called “X-date” for default.

But the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which passed the House on Wednesday includes a two-year government budget in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling through Jan. 1, 2025.

The bill would keep non-defense spending flat in fiscal 2024 and increase levels by 1% in fiscal 2025.

Speaking with reporters after the vote, McCarthy touted what he called Republicans’ work in getting the White House to compromise and he highlighted the cuts and savings he said his party had exacted in light of the currently divided federal government.

“I knew the debt ceiling was coming. I wanted to make history. I wanted to do something no other Congress has done, that we would literally turn the ship, that for the first time in quite some time we’d spend less than we spent the year before,” he said. “Tonight, we all make history.”

“Is it everything I wanted? No,” McCarthy said, later adding, “I think we did pretty dang good for the American public.”

In a statement of his own, Biden applauded the House for taking a “critical step forward” in passing the agreement and specifically thanked McCarthy “and his team for negotiating in good faith.”

“This budget agreement is a bipartisan compromise. Neither side got everything it wanted. That’s the responsibility of governing,” he said.

The president said that the deal protects key parts of his agenda, as well as government programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Despite Biden and McCarthy’s celebratory tones, their deal had drawn bipartisan criticism, too — a notable minority of the House.

Some Republicans said the speaker had not gone far enough in getting sweeping spending cuts, similar to a House bill that passed along party lines in April.

And Democrats said Biden had given in to what they likened to economic hostage-taking in agreeing to some spending cuts without holding to his demand that Republicans raise the debt ceiling without preconditions.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence will announce next week that he is running for president, giving a kickoff speech in Iowa and releasing a campaign video on June 7 ahead of a town hall with CNN later that day in Des Moines, a source familiar confirms to ABC News.

Pence will be running against his old boss, Donald Trump, in the Republican primary.

His expected announcement will come only weeks after a group of conservative allies launched a political group to support his potential candidacy.

The super PAC, Committed to America, hopes to both “reintroduce” Pence to voters — who, the group believes, don’t have a full sense of the former vice president — and to catch the attention of voters perhaps stuck on other candidates as the list of Republican hopefuls grows longer.

“People know Mike Pence, they just don’t know him well,” co-chair Scott Reed told a small group of reporters on Friday. “This campaign is going to reintroduce Mike Pence to the country as his own man, not as vice president, but as a true economic, social and national security conservative — a Reagan conservative.”

The pro-Pence group said it will make significant investments in Iowa, a state critical for Republicans as it holds the first nominating contest next year.

“We’re going to organize Iowa, all 99 counties, like we’re running him for county sheriff,” said Reed, who previously managed Sen. Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.

In March, during an exclusive interview with ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl, Pence said he was giving a run for the 2024 GOP nomination “serious consideration.”

At the time and in the ensuing months, Pence has held voter-facing events in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. He also published a memoir, “So Help Me God,” in November.

“We’re getting a lot of encouragement, not only here in Iowa, but all across the country,” Pence told Karl in March. “We’re giving prayerful consideration to what role we might play.”

A key ally for Trump while they were in office, Pence has since had a notable falling out with the former president over Trump’s push to overturn their election loss — climaxing in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters breached the complex and sent Pence and Congress into hiding.

“We all face the judgment of history, and I believe in the fullness of time that history will hold Donald Trump accountable for the events of Jan. 6, as it will other people that were involved,” Pence told Karl.

He added then: “I also think the American people will also have their say. I mean, the president is now a candidate for office again, he’s running for election, but as I go around the country, I’m convinced the American people have learned the lessons of that day.”

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