Politics

(WASHINGTON) — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t preparing to challenge incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, her Democratic colleague, during next year’s election cycle, a spokesperson said.

“She is not planning to run for Senate in 2024. She is not planning to primary Gillibrand,” Lauren Hitt told Politico in an article published on Sunday. Hitt declined to comment to ABC News beyond that statement.

The news removes a potential complication in New York’s 2024 Senate race. No serious contender has come forward against Gillibrand, who first joined the Senate in 2009 and who launched her reelection bid in January amid chatter about a possible primary challenger from her left.

Whomever wins the Democratic primary next year will be the heavy favorite in the general election, given New York’s bright blue hue.

“I think my ability to deliver for our state has never been greater,” Gillibrand told The New York Times in January.

A reliably Democratic vote, Gillibrand built a national profile by focusing on issues like paid leave and curbing firearms trafficking and sexual assault in the military. But she has also sometimes been viewed suspiciously by progressives given her ties to Wall Street and her past representing the more conservative upstate New York.

She is also just a couple of years removed from a failed presidential run, which never gained traction and ended before any of the 2020 primaries took place.

While Ocasio-Cortez’s decision does not definitively close the door on a run next year, it further decreases the chance of a high-profile and prolonged primary battle.

“Senator Gillibrand is excited to run on her strong record of delivering for New York families and is confident she’ll be re-elected,” said spokesman Evan Lukaske. “From making gun trafficking a federal crime to securing health benefits for 9/11 survivors to bringing home hundreds of millions of dollars for projects that will boost the economy, Senator Gillibrand has consistently gotten real results.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been seen as a rising star in her state and beyond since she was first elected to the House in 2018 after a primary win against Rep. Joe Crowley, who was then the chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

Last month, she suggested she was keeping her options open.

“There’s a world where I’m here for a long time in this seat, in this position. There’s a world where I’m not an elected official anymore,” she told Politico. “There’s a world where … I may be in higher office.”

At the same time, Ocasio-Cortez has become a major target of conservatives who deride her progressive politics and use her as a boogeyman in message campaigns.

The potential avoidance of a Senate primary in 2024 would be a reprieve for Democrats after they were stunned in the 2022 midterms, when Republicans flipped four House districts and helped secure Speaker Kevin McCarthy his GOP majority.

“Democrats in New York are laser — and I mean laser — focused on winning back those four House seats,” Jon Reinish, a New York Democratic strategist and former Gillibrand aide, told ABC News earlier this year.

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(HELENA, Mont.) — Montana state legislator Zooey Zephyr is suing the state, House Speaker Matt Regier and Sergeant at Arms for the Montana House of Representatives Bradley Murfitt after being censured by House Republicans.

“The recent actions violate my 1st amendment rights, as well as the rights of my 11,000 constituents to representation,” Zephyr said in a tweet Monday. “Montana’s State House is the people’s House, not Speaker Regier’s, and I’m determined to defend the right of the people to have their voices heard.”

Zephyr’s calls to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth on bill SB99 prompted days of being ignored by Republican leaders on the House floor in April.

Some legislators, including Regier, argued she had broken House rules of decorum when she said legislators would have “blood on your hands” if they passed the transgender youth care ban.

Demonstrators in support of Zephyr interrupted House business several days later to protest her being silenced. Zephyr showed her support by holding up her mic and failing to leave the House floor.

House Republicans voted to censure her in response, getting just over the two-thirds needed to bar her from participating in the legislature from the House floor.

Zephyr has since participated from the public seating in the state Capitol building.

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(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — As countries wind down mass evacuations of their nationals from war-torn Sudan and the White House warns time is running out, the United States has undertaken its first effort to move hundreds of Americans citizens out of Khartoum, the capital.

A government-organized convoy carrying U.S citizens, locally employed staff and nationals from allied and partner countries arrived at Port Sudan on Saturday, according to the State Department, which said Sunday that a second convoy had also arrived.

“We continue to assist U.S. citizens and others who are eligible with onward travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where additional U.S. personnel are positioned to assist with consular and emergency services,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Sunday.

Almost 1,000 U.S. citizens have left Sudan since fighting broke out between Gens. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, Miller said Sunday.

“Fewer than 5,000 US citizens who have sought guidance from the government,” he said.

The State Department has stressed its commitment to American nationals amid the still-developing violence. According to Miller, the routes for exit have included partner-country flights and convoys as well as U.S.-organized travel and seats on departing ships.

“The U.S. government has taken extensive efforts to contact U.S. citizens in Sudan and enable the departure of those who wished to leave. We messaged every U.S. citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” the department said in a statement Saturday. “We encourage U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan but chose not to participate in this convoy to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website.”

The evacuations have been enabled by “intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners,” according to the State Department, which reiterated its warning to Americans not to travel to Sudan.

Later Saturday, the Pentagon confirmed it received a request for assistance, though it did not say whether it came from Sudan.

The Pentagon has provided intelligence and surveillance assets, including drones, a department spokesperson said.

“The Secretary of Defense approved a request for assistance from the Department of State to support the safe departure of U.S. citizens and their immediate family members via overland. The Department of Defense deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support air and land evacuation routes, which Americans are using, and we are moving naval assets within the region to provide any necessary support along the coast. Our focus has been and remains to help as many U.S. citizens depart as safely as possible,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a statement.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised that Americans in Sudan who wished to leave should “take advantage of the options that are available to them in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

Although countries like Saudi Arabia and Spain started evacuating their citizens and other foreign nationals from Sudan in the early days of the week and the U.S. airlifted diplomats from Khartoum over the weekend, the administration maintained that carrying out a large-scale operation to rescue some of the thousands of American citizens residing in Sudan was not feasible.

The U.K., Germany and France have all also evacuated thousands.

But not all operations have gone smoothly. On Friday, Turkey reported that one of its aircraft had come under fire as it landed in Khartoum — underscoring the threat that ongoing fighting poses to air rescues.

Before news of the U.S.-led convoys broke, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, defended the administration’s posture and said it had played a hand in the mass evacuations orchestrated by other countries.

“Our allies and partners that are conducting operations that are able to also take American citizens out–we of course, are incredibly thankful and gracious for their ability to do so. But this is a collective and collaborative effort,” he said. “We are offering logistical support for some of these operations to be conducted. Whether they be overland, whether they be through the air.”

Patel also said that “only a fraction” of the thousands of U.S. citizens in Sudan had actively sought assistance to leave the country.

Other officials familiar with the situation have said it’s unclear how much demand there is from American nationals for an exit route, emphasizing that individual’s desire to leave can change on a day-by-day basis.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the State Department was working to establish “a sustained process” through which Americans could depart Sudan.

“We believe that the best way to have an enduring capability to help people leave Sudan–if that’s what they so choose–is overland. And we’re working to establish a process that would enable people to move overland to a place where they can more easily exit the country,” Blinken said.

At least two American citizens were among the 500-plus killed in in the sectarian violence that first erupted two weeks ago, which has injured thousands more.

Although the U.S. had assisted in brokering a number of cease-fires in Sudan, their implementation has been uneven. While both sides agreed to another 72-hour truce on Friday, there’s little hope it will hold.

“It’s obvious to everybody that the ceasefires are not perfectly working,” a U.S. official said. “But we are hearing from multiple contacts on the ground, as well as our international partners, that the series of efforts to push forward ceasefires are creating meaningful periods of reduction of violence and that these periods are allowing people to move out of Khartoum.”

But as more foreign nationals leave, there’s looming concern in Sudan that the battle for control over the country will catapult to new intensity.

“There’s going to be fewer eyes on what’s happening,” said Jon Temin, vice president for policy and programs at the Truman Center for National Policy.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was held Saturday night in Washington and, as is customary, featured a mix of celebrities, media personalities and remarks from a featured performer and the president.

While the night included laughs, there were also noted moments of reflection. Outside, climate protesters gathered.

Here are highlights from the event.

Biden’s remarks: Praising journalism, joking about cable hosts

Opening his address, President Joe Biden initially struck a serious tone as he addressed U.S. citizens who are being held abroad, naming Evan Gershkovich, Austin Tice, Paul Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner, the latter of whom was released last year.

“We’re working every day to secure his release, looking at opportunities and tools to bring him home,” Biden said about Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia on espionage charges he denies. “We keep the faith.”

“Tonight our message is this: Journalism is not a crime,” Biden said. “Evan and Austin should be released immediately, along with every other American held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.”

Biden praised the power of journalism itself. “You make it possible for ordinary citizens to question authority. And, yes, even to laugh at authority without fear or intimidation,” he said.

The president, who launched his 2024 campaign last week, joked about his age, which some claim makes him unfit for a second term. At 80, he is the oldest president in U.S. history.

“Call me old? I call it being seasoned. They say I’m ancient, I say I’m wise,” Biden said to laughter from the audience. “They say ‘over the hill.’ Don Lemon would say that’s a man in his prime,” he continued, referencing a headline-making gaffe by the former CNN anchor about presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

Lemon wasn’t the only cable news personality to get a mention.

“Truth is, we really have a right to be proud of vaccinating the nation, transforming the economy, around historic legislative victories and midterm results. But the job isn’t finished — I mean, it is for Tucker Carlson,” Biden said of the now-departed Fox News host.

As he finished his speech, Biden donned a pair of dark aviator sunglasses and quipped about his “Dark Brandon” persona, which is a popular internet meme.

Roy Wood’s routine roasts Biden, Thomas

Comedian Roy Wood Jr. elicited many laughs from the audience during his stint as the featured performer — a tradition that was paused under President Donald Trump and before COVID-19, after comedian Michelle Wolf’s jokes about Trump aides stirred controversy.

During his routine on Saturday, Wood took jabs at Biden and the recently settled Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.

“We should be inspired by the events in France. They rioted when the retirement age went up two years to 64,” Wood said. “Meanwhile in America, we have an 80-year-old man begging us for four more years of work.”

Joking about trying to avoid a Dominion suit himself, Wood praised the company.

“Let me just say right now, my favorite voting machine is Dominion voting machines,” he said. “When I go to the polls, I make sure it is a Dominion machine that I use.”

“If your election needs the truth, put Dominion in your booth,” he continued.

More pointedly, Wood also addressed a recent ethics scandal involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas privately receiving years of gifts from friend Harlan Crow, a GOP donor.

“This man bought a Supreme Court justice. Do you understand how rich you have to be to buy a Supreme — a Black one on top of that?” Wood joked. “There’s only two in stock, and Harlan Crow owns half the inventory.”

The night’s biggest guests

Dinner attendees mixed some of the biggest names in Washington and beyond.

Griner attended with her wife, Cherelle; and the family of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was also reportedly at the dinner.

Other guests included Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan, model Winnie Harlow, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Anthony Fauci.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and actress Julia Fox were also pictured together.

Climate demonstrators outside

The lavish event at the Washington Hilton drew demonstrators, too.

Climate Defiance organizers told ABC News before the dinner that they planned to try and blockade the area near the hotel in an effort to hold Biden accountable for what they say was his 2020 campaign promise to end fossil fuel extraction on public lands.

“We disrupted the rich + powerful b/c Joe Biden’s approval of deadly new oil + gas projects is killing the planet,’ the group wrote on Twitter. “We will continue to disrupt until we #EndFossilFuels.”

The youth-led group of activists protested in Washington for most of the week leading up to Saturday’s event.

ABC News’ Noah Minnie and Beatrice Pearson contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons on Sunday pushed back on concerns that President Joe Biden’s age and the lack of enthusiasm he inspires in voters make him unfit for reelection — predicting instead that Biden would win in a 2024 rematch with the “the alternative”: Donald Trump.

“Two years later, President Biden is stronger,” Coons, a national co-chair of Biden’s campaign, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “He has an incredible record to run on. And the former president is weaker. He’s been indicted. He spent years just re-litigating 2020.”

In the interview, Coons defended the Biden White House, and the performance of Vice President Kamala Harris, while criticizing Republicans, including the GOP’s latest strategy on raising the debt ceiling to avoid default.

Biden launched his 2024 bid with a video announcement on Tuesday that contrasted his work with what he called “MAGA Republicans.”

“I’ll remind you, our president often says, ‘Don’t compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative,'” Coons said on Sunday. “When folks get polled on a head-to-head if Donald Trump should be the Republican nominee again, he wins, and he wins decisively.”

But Raddatz pointed to polling that also shows a majority of Democrats don’t want Biden to be their nominee in the next election. Coons contended that a different set of numbers matter more: the millions of jobs — 850,000 of which are in manufacturing — created during the Biden administration.

“I look forward to talking about the numbers based on what we’ve gotten done with President Biden in the White House, on infrastructure, manufacturing, prescription drugs,” Coons said. “It’s a great record to run on.”

Still, Raddatz noted that many voters raise concerns about Biden’s age. At 80, he is the oldest president in U.S. history. (Trump is 76.)

Coons cited to two of Biden’s recent high-profile appearances: His annual State of the Union speech in February and his remarks at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

“He had great delivery. You saw the State of the Union address — nearly an hour and a half, he was faster on his feet than most members of Congress. I think Joe Biden is agile, is capable,” Coons said. “His record of leadership both at home and abroad makes him imminently qualified. And we should be focusing some on the wisdom and experience he brings to the job.”

Raddatz followed up that “some of those people have watched him and still have doubts, so what would you say to them about those stumbles?”

“I’d say, ‘Compare him to the alternative,'” Coons responded. “Recognize the value of experience and seasoning, recognize that his values align better with where we want America to go.”

As Biden’s 2024 campaign ramps up in the coming months, Coons said the president is eager to be on the trail, in contrast to the last cycle during the onset of COVID-19, when Republicans like Trump accused Biden of avoiding the public.

“Joe Biden loves campaigning. He loves going to a coffee shop, a union hall, a fire station,” Coons said.

GOP presidential candidates have continued to stress Biden’s age and what they say is his lack of stamina.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s team said last week that a vote for Biden would in effect be a vote for Kamala Harris because she suggested Biden wouldn’t live through a second term.

On Harris’ role going forward, Coons defended her work as vice president and said she is a capable leader in her own right.

“The vice president, like many vice presidents, has struggled to get positive press coverage and to get the credit she deserves for the hard work that she’s been doing,” Coons told Raddatz, adding, “The vice president’s ready to run and ready to be president, should that ever happen. I know our president has great confidence in her and so do I.”

Separately, Coons criticized a bill passed by House Republicans last week to address the nation’s debt ceiling, which must be raised to avoid a historic default. Coons labeled the GOP strategy as a form of “hostage negotiations.”

Conservatives argue Democrats must compromise on spending and policy changes to avoid a default. Biden has insisted the limit be raised without conditions, but he would also look at brokering a deal on the budget.

“The Republicans are demanding hostage negotiations where they will crash the full faith and credit of the United States,” Coons said. “That would raise the rates that your viewers are paying on credit cards or student loans or mortgages. It would throw our country into recession and hurt us globally.”

When Raddatz pressed the senator on the issue, Coons indicated Democrats are interested in negotiations on spending separate from the debt limit.

“What’s the mix of revenue increases and spending cuts that makes sense going forward?” he said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise on Sunday urged President Joe Biden to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarthy amid the threat of political brinkmanship over raising the nation’s debt ceiling to avoid an unprecedented default.

“We just passed a bill through the House. And we’ve been very vocal. It’s been over two months since President Biden has sat down with Speaker McCarthy to have negotiations. President Biden is clearly trying to run out the clock and create a debt crisis. That’s irresponsible,” Scalise told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

“The White House needs to ultimately get into this negotiation. The president’s been in hiding for two months, Martha. That’s not acceptable to Americans,” Scalise said.

While much of his appearance focused on the national debt, Scalise also briefly touched on the 2024 GOP primary. He said the party must pick “a strong leader who’s going to focus on getting our country back on track.” But he didn’t yet back any candidate, including former President Donald Trump.

Scalise instead talked at length about how he wants debt talks to unfold. The national government hit its debt limit early this year and has been employing “extraordinary measures” to continue paying its bills since then.

As Scalise noted, House Republicans last week narrowly passed legislation to increase the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion while reducing federal government spending and reversing some key Biden-backed policies.

The GOP bill is dead on arrival in the Democratic Senate, with the president repeatedly insisting the debt ceiling be raised without any spending or policy compromises included in the legislation — as has happened multiple times in the past — while the budget is addressed in separate talks.

Scalise maintained on Sunday that the issues were connected: “As we’re addressing the debt limit, we also have to address the problem that got us here.”

“If the president is going to sit this one out, we’re not, we’re gonna lead,” he said. “We passed a bill to address the problem. It’s time now for the president to get in this game, get off the sidelines and let’s start negotiating and figuring this out. Not in June when we get to the midnight hour, but today.”

Scalise’s comments mark the latest salvo in Republicans’ pressure campaign on Biden to compromise with the House’s GOP majority over the debt ceiling.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said her department will exhaust its “extraordinary measures” sometime after June, though a specific date for a default — the so-called “X-date” — remains unclear.

While they disagree on how to solve the problem, lawmakers from both parties agree that the U.S. defaulting on its debt is not an acceptable outcome.

“We can’t default Martha. You know what the consequences would be for your viewers in our country if we were to default, and that’s what this is really about. The Republicans are demanding hostage negotiations,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told Raddatz in a separate appearance on “This Week.”

Pressed by Raddatz, Coons said, “I’d be happy to negotiate. What’s the mix of revenue increases and spending cuts that makes sense going forward?”

Scalise and other Republicans say that the ball is now in Democrats’ court to put forward a plan after passing their own legislation.

“For all that we hear from our Senate friends, Martha, they’ve yet to pass anything,” Scalise said. “If they’ve got a better idea, I want to see that bill.”

He insisted the Republican legislation included “basic, commonsense” provisions such as work requirements for some recipients of federal aid as well as efforts to reduce “red tape, so we can promote American energy production.”

He pushed back on criticism from Coons and some veterans’ advocates that the GOP bill could harm veterans because it would reduce government spending. A letter last week, signed by two dozen groups, underlined that concern.

“Show me in the bill where it says any of those things. It doesn’t,” Scalise told Raddatz, adding, “The president doesn’t want to talk about what’s in the bill because, ultimately, we do things like reclaim unspent COVID money.”

Raddatz also asked Scalise about his relationship with McCarthy, who has privately described Scalise as ineffective, according to The New York Times.

“We have a very strong open relationship. We don’t always agree on everything, but we have a very candid relationship,” Scalise said. “I know palace intrigue sells papers.”

When asked about the 2024 GOP presidential primary, Scalise praised Trump’s record on the economy and foreign policy — but said he was not yet ready to announce his support for any particular hopeful.

“You’re gonna know what my announcement’s going to be in time. I’ve been focusing on our House agenda, and we’ve been moving a really strong agenda for the American people,” he said. “That’s what families want.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(DENVER) — Governors in two states passed major gun control legislation this week and a third is poised to do the same soon.

On Friday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the legislative package that included a longer waiting period for firearm sales, and an increase in the minimum age to purchase a gun.

Colorado’s move came three days after Washington state became the 10th state in the nation to ban assault rifles and handguns after Gov. Jay Inslee signed a gun reform package.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told reporters this week that he will sign a gun control package that includes prohibitions for civilian gun owners to bring their guns to schools and other sensitive locations.

While gun control advocates have praised the states for their moves, contending it will curb gun violence, some gun rights groups are already threatening court action against the Democratic leaders.

Washington

On Tuesday, Washington state banned the purchase of new assault weapons for residents as part of a three-bill gun control-related package.

The ban covers 61 automatic rifles and pistols, including the AR-15.

“Inaction against gun violence is unacceptable,” Inslee told reporters after signing the legislative package Tuesday.

Residents who already own the prohibited weapons are allowed to retain the weapons, according to the law.

Another law in the package mandated training for gun purchasers that included instructions on “proper storage, handling, use and transportation practice.”

The third bill “clarifies legal liabilities for gun dealers and manufacturers for knowingly creating, maintaining or contributing to a public nuisance by designing, selling or marketing,” to children or people who are prohibited from buying firearms.

Although the White House praised Inslee and the Democratic-led legislature for banning the weapons, gun rights groups criticized the legislation contending it was infringing on second amendment rights.

The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Washington challenging the ban.

“Instead of arresting, prosecuting and punishing criminals, Gov. Inslee is focusing on restricting the rights of law-abiding Americans who use these rifles for a variety of lawful purposes,” Aoibheann Cline, Washington state director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement.

Colorado

Polis signed four gun control bills Friday that were passed by the Colorado legislature during this session.

“Coloradans deserve to be safe in our communities, in our schools, and our grocery stores, nightclubs. Everywhere in between, Coloradans shouldn’t have to fear the threat of robbery or gun violence,” the governor said at a news conference before signing the package.

The most major of the bills raised the age for legally purchasing firearms from 18 to 21. There are exceptions for law enforcement, military members and those with valid hunting licenses, according to the law’s language.

Another law now requires a three-day minimum waiting period for purchasing a firearm to allow for background checks.

A third bill strengthened the state’s red flag laws and allows teachers, medical care providers and mental health providers to petition the court to confiscate someone’s weapons if they pose a danger to themselves or others.

The fourth bill rolled back legal protections for gun manufacturers and made them more liable for civil suits related to gun violence.

Republican state leaders pushed back against the bills with filibusters, contending that they were too restrictive, but the Democratic-led house and state pushed them forward.

Minutes after those four bills were signed into law, the nonprofit gun rights advocacy group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners said they were going to challenge the bills related to the legal age.

“This is simply bigoted politicians doing what bigoted politicians do: discriminating against an age,” Taylor Rhodes, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, told the Associated Press.

Maryland

The Maryland state legislature passed several bills that were created following last year’s Supreme Court ruling over state concealed carry prohibitions.

The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen ruling ended a Maryland requirement for people to demonstrate a particular need to get a license to carry a concealed gun in public.

One of the bills, SB1 passed by the legislature removes the “good and substantial reason” from the law, which Democratic lawmakers said would make the prohibition of concealed carry legal under the new Supreme Court decision.

The bill would prohibit a person from wearing, carrying, or transporting a handgun in an “area for children or vulnerable individuals,” such as schools, or in a “special purpose area,” such as a restaurant or other place that serves alcohol.

It also prohibits a civilian from bringing a firearm onto someone’s property without the permission of the property’s owner.

“We’re going through and checking on the constitutionality now, but, yes, I plan on signing them soon,” Gov. Moore told reporters Thursday.

Gun rights groups questioned the constitutionality of the bill and have threatened legal action.

Mark Pennak, president of Maryland Shall Issue, told the Associated Press his group plans on suing if the bill is signed.

“The court could not have been clearer, and what they have respectively done with the enactment of SB1 is truncate that right far beyond what the Supreme Court had permitted in Bruen,” he told the AP.

The Maryland legislature also passed a bill that raised the minimum age for purchasing a firearm from 18 to 21.

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(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — As countries wind down mass evacuations of their nationals from war-torn Sudan and the White House warns time is running out, the United States is undertaking its first effort to move hundreds of private Americans citizens out of Khartoum.

A U.S. government-organized convoy carrying U.S citizens, locally employed staff and nationals from allied and partner countries arrived at Port Sudan on Saturday, according to the State Department.

“The U.S. government has taken extensive efforts to contact U.S. citizens in Sudan and enable the departure of those who wished to leave. We messaged every U.S. citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” the State Department’s statement said. “We encourage U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan but chose not to participate in this convoy to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website.”

The evacuation was enabled by “intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners,” according to the State Department, which reiterated its warning to Americans not to travel to Sudan.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised that Americans in Sudan who wished to leave should “take advantage of the options that are available to them in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

Although countries like Saudi Arabia and Spain started evacuating their citizens and other foreign nationals from Sudan in the early days of the week and the U.S. airlifted diplomats from Khartoum over the weekend, the administration maintained that carrying out a largescale operation to rescue some of the thousands of American citizens residing in Sudan was not feasible.

The United Kingdom, Germany, and France have all also evacuated thousands.

But not all operations have gone smoothly. On Friday, Turkey reported that one of its aircraft had come under fire as it landed in Khartoum—underscoring the threat ongoing fighting poses to air rescues.

Before news of the U.S.-led convoy broke, State Department Principal Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel defend the administration’s posture, and said it had played a hand in the mass evacuations orchestrated by other countries.

“Our allies and partners that are conducting operations that are able to also take American citizens out–we of course, are incredibly thankful and gracious for their ability to do so. But this is a collective and collaborative effort,” he said. “We are offering logistical support for some of these operations to be conducted. Whether they be overland, whether they be through the air.”

Patel also said that the State Department was in contact with fewer that 5,000 U.S. citizens about the crisis in Sudan, and that “only a fraction” of that number had actively sought assistance to depart the country.

Other officials familiar with the situation have said it’s unclear how much demand there is from American nationals for an exit route, emphasizing that individual’s desire to leave can change on a day-by-day basis.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the State Department was working to establish “a sustained process” through which Americans could depart Sudan.

“We believe that the best way to have an enduring capability to help people leave Sudan–if that’s what they so choose–is overland. And we’re working to establish a process that would enable people to move overland to a place where they can more easily exit the country,” Blinken said.

At least two American citizens are among the over 500 killed in in the violence that erupted two weeks ago, which has injured thousands more.

Although the U.S. had assisted in brokering a number of ceasefires in Sudan, their implementation has been uneven. Although both sides agreed to another 72-hour truce on Friday, there’s little hope it will hold.

“It’s obvious to everybody that the ceasefires are not perfectly working,” a U.S. official said. “But we are hearing from multiple contacts on the ground, as well as our international partners, that the series of efforts to push forward ceasefires are creating meaningful periods of reduction of violence and that these periods are allowing people to move out of Khartoum.”

But as more foreign nationals leave, there’s looming concern in Sudan that the battle for control over the country will catapult to new intensity.

“There’s going to be fewer eyes on what’s happening,” said Jon Temin, Vice President for Policy and Programs at the Truman Center for National Policy.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The super PAC supporting Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ expected 2024 presidential run is set to with a new TV ad targeting Trump voters — pitching the governor as a “winner” in four early voting states.

The seven-figure ad buy from the Never Back Down PAC, slated to start airing on Monday, will target local broadcasts in four states that kick off the Republican primary: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, according to the PAC.

The minute-long ad titled, “Winner,” shared first with ABC News, aims to showcase the governor’s winning record. The ad subtly depicts DeSantis as the successor to Trump, showing front-page headlines of the governor’s victories in 2018 and 2022 hanging in succession on a wall next to a headline of Trump’s 2016 win.

The ad also highlights DeSantis’ overwhelming win in 2022 by featuring the New York Post headline that declared him “DeFuture.”

In the ad’s closing moments, a man is shown putting a “DeSantis for President” bumper sticker over a faded “Trump 2016” one.

“We insist on the restoration of time-tested constitutional principles. So that government of by and for the people shall not perish from this earth. We the people are not destined for failure,” DeSantis says in the ad, which also features familiar attacks on the “woke mob,” declaring that “Florida is where woke goes to die.”

The new buy comes amid an ad blitz by Never Back Down. Starting with its first full national TV buy earlier this month titled “Anthem,” the PAC has been spending millions on an ad blitz aimed at first introducing the governor nationally and now pivoting to show Republican voters who previously supported Trump that they can now support DeSantis.

ABC News previously reported that Never Back Down raised over $30 million since March.

DeSantis has not yet formally announced a 2024 presidential campaign, but sources tell ABC News the Florida governor has plans in the works to launch an exploratory committee as early as mid-May.

DeSantis’ official announcement would come soon after, with the governor currently eyeing mid-June, the sources said.

“Governor Ron DeSantis is proven winner; he has never lost an election or a fight and if Republicans want to win the White House in 2024, Governor DeSantis is the best chance to do that. The future is now, and his name is Governor Ron DeSantis,” Never Back Down Communications Director Erin Perrine told ABC News.

The governor has long been seen as former President Donald Trump’s main rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

ABC News previously reported that DeSantis has privately indicated to allies that he intends to launch a run for the White House.

The governor has suggested that any political decision would have to wait until after his state’s Legislature has adjourned this year, which will be in early May.

“This is going to be the most productive legislative session we have had across the board, and I think people are going to be really excited,” DeSantis said on “Fox & Friends” in February, during which he also touted his new book and accompanying tour. “As we get beyond that, then we can decide from there,” he said then.

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(WASHINGTON) — A firm contracted by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in November 2020 to investigate claims of voter fraud has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating those claims, the founder of the firm told ABC News.

Ken Block, the founder of Simpatico Software Systems, said he was subpoenaed to turn over documents related to his work with the Trump campaign.

The firm was the second one hired by the campaign that found no widespread evidence of voter fraud.

The subpoena came from special counsel Jack Smith. Smith is investigating not only the potential crimes resulting from the Jan 6. insurrection at the Capitol, but also claims by the Trump campaign that there was voter fraud after the election.

Block was paid more than $700,000 for the work, according to federal financial filings.

“There were just crazy claims of fraud coming in from the most unlikely places, and some from very likely places that I was asked to evaluate carefully and was able to document and prove that every one of them was false,” Block said, noting he completed his work in early December.

Block wouldn’t go into specifics about the grand jury process or what else the special counsel is looking into.

“There was no fraud. And you know, and I’m respecting and protecting the grand jury process because I believe that’s the right thing to do,” he said.

He said he didn’t interact with anyone other than a campaign lawyer who passed his findings up the chain in the campaign.

The subpoena was first reported by the Washington Post.

A spokesperson for Trump blasted the special counsel in a statement Friday.

“This is nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump concocted to try and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House. Just like all the other fake hoaxes thrown at President Trump, this corrupt effort will also fail,” a Trump spokesperson said. “The weaponized Department of Injustice has shown no regard for common decency and key rules that govern the legal system.”

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