(WASHINGTON) — Washington was still buzzing Thursday about how, during Wednesday’s White House State Dinner featuring performances by a trio Broadway stars, the guest of honor — South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol — instead stole the show with his rendition of Don McClean’s “American Pie.”
After Yoon revealed that the American karaoke bar classic was his favorite song in school, President Joe Biden coaxed him into delivering a performance.
“Well, we want to hear you sing it,” Biden said to Yoon, who obliged.
Despite speaking through an interpreter during the entire day of public events, Yoon had no trouble with the English lyrics as he burst into song, belting out several lines from the iconic tune then receiving boisterous cheers and a standing ovation from guests including Angelina Jolie.
Unexpected moment at the state dinner when the president of South Korea sings “American Pie.” pic.twitter.com/Dus6BiBU9E
“The next state dinner we’re going to have,” Biden, who energetically pumped his fists during the performance, said, putting his arm around Yoon, “you’re looking at the entertainment.”
Biden added, “I had no damn idea you could sing.” But he, evidently, did have an idea — at least of Yoon’s love for the song.
Following the performance, he told Yoon: “I understand that you like the guitar as well,” then gifted him an autographed acoustic guitar from Don McLean himself.
The entertainment portion of the event also showcased performances by singers Lea Salonga, Norm Lewis, and Jessica Voski performed a medley of five classic Broadway hits — “This Is The Moment,” “Happy Days Are Here Again,” “On My Own,” “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” and “Somewhere.”
The dinner followed Biden and Yoon’s bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, during which the pair discussed working together to deter North Korea’s nuclear threats, promote peace in the Taiwan straits, stand with Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion and more.
Yoon’s state visit this week also marks the 70th anniversary of the U.S. and South Korea’s alliance, forged in the aftermath of the Korean War.
The light-hearted moment and other festivities at the State Dinner took place against the backdrop of diplomatic and economic tensions between the countries.
A recent leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents seemingly showed Washington was spying on South Korea’s leadership. Yoon downplayed the spying suggestion during Wednesday’s press conference, stating the two nations are in communication and are “sharing necessary information” as the U.S. investigation into documents’ disclosure plays out.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will address a joint meeting of Congress Thursday as he continues a weeklong state visit to Washington.
Yoon’s trip comes as the U.S. and South Korea mark the 70th anniversary of their alliance, forged in the aftermath of the Korean War, as they now face North Korean aggression and Chinese expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
“This is really a very impressive moment for the relationship,” said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The U.S. and South Korea have evolved to be working on so many different issue areas, and the scope of the relationship has broadened out beyond the peninsula to become more regional and global.”
Yoon, a conservative elected in 2022, has repeatedly emphasized global freedom since taking office. Snyder said that theme could emerge again in his address to U.S. lawmakers.
President Joe Biden and Yoon held a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, during which they discussed working together to deter North Korea’s nuclear threats, promote peace in the Taiwan straits, stand with Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion and more.
Appearing side-by-side after at a joint press conference, both leaders hailed the importance and strength of the alliance.
“Our relationship has been a great success story,” Biden said. “An alliance formed in war, and it’s flourished in peace. Seemingly every day we’ve launched new areas of cooperation, all areas that matter most to our future.”
But the trip isn’t without diplomatic and economic tension.
A recent leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents seemingly showed Washington was spying on South Korea’s leadership. Yoon played down the spying suggestion during Wednesday’s press conference, stating the two nations are in communication and are “sharing necessary information” as the U.S. investigation into documents’ disclosure plays out.
Some South Korean officials have expressed concern about two major pieces of American legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act — stating provisions of the laws discriminate against Korean businesses.
Biden, pressed on whether the Chips Act was damaging the key ally, defended the law as a “win-win.”
“Two significant South Korean companies decided they were going to invest billions of dollars in chip manufacturing in the United States,” he said. “It wasn’t designed to hurt China, it was designed to, so we didn’t have to worry about whether or not we had access to semiconductors.”
Yoon said the U.S. and South Korea have agreed to coordinate so that the laws “can further strengthen supply chain cooperations between the two countries in advanced technology.”
Meanwhile, Yoon has faced pressure from the U.S. and NATO to provide artillery to Ukraine as it faces depleted stocks. The leaked U.S. documents included descriptions of South Korea’s National Security Council’s internal discussions about the U.S. request to provide artillery ammunition to Ukraine.
South Korea’s longstanding policy has been not to provide lethal weapons to countries at war.
Yoon said Wednesday that the U.S. and South Korea “agreed to continue our cooperation and efforts, alongside the international community, to support Ukraine” but made no mention of artillery.
A hot-mic moment last year also caught Yoon insulting U.S. members of Congress as “idiots” if they didn’t approve funding to the Global Fund, an organization dedicated to fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
(WASHINGTON) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to take a major step closer to announcing that he’s running for president in 2024, with plans in the works to launch an exploratory committee as early as mid-May, sources familiar tell ABC News.
DeSantis’ official announcement would come soon after, with the governor currently eyeing mid-June, the sources said. The news was first reported by NBC News.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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,” he 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.
While Florida currently has a “resign-to-run” law that would require DeSantis to step down if he launched a White House bid, a state senator this week introduced an amendment to exempt “persons seeking the office of President or Vice President of the United States.”
DeSantis, both popular and controversial, easily won reelection in November and has since sought to share Florida’s “blueprint” for success with other parts of the country.
At the same time, he has focused on culture war issues — such as restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender — while fighting what he calls excessive “wokeness” in America, driven by liberals.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals panel on Wednesday rejected an effort from former President Donald Trump to prevent former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before the special counsel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The order from a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the details of which remain under seal — would clear the way for Pence to testify before special counsel Jack Smith should Trump’s legal team not seek any further appeal before the full Circuit or the Supreme Court.
Trump previously sought to assert executive privilege in an attempt to block Pence’s testimony, but late last month the chief judge for the D.C. district court, James Boasberg, rejected his team’s arguments and ordered Pence to testify and provide records to Smith.
Boasberg, however, did narrowly uphold parts of a separate legal challenge brought by Pence himself, who argued he should be shielded from having to testify on certain aspects related to his role as president of the Senate overseeing the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence was subpoenaed by the special counsel in February, following months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team.
Pence said this month that he would not seek further appeal, though said he was unsure whether Trump’s team would continue their own fight to prevent his testimony and bring their executive privilege claims before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In previous instances where Trump’s team has sought intervention from the D.C. Circuit, judges there acted swiftly to order legal briefs from his team and the special counsel before rejecting his legal challenges.
A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment to ABC News.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — House Republicans on Wednesday passed a bill to increase the nation’s debt ceiling while cutting federal government spending — and while the legislation has no prospect of becoming law, GOP leaders hope it will help force negotiations with Democrats.
The proposal, known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed 217-215, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.
If enacted, the bill would increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, reduce funding for federal agencies to 2022 fiscal year levels, limit growth in government spending to 1% per year and block various measures backed by the White House, such as federal student debt cancellation and new funding for the IRS.
“We cannot sit back and ignore the problem like the president has. I know he does it with the border, and I know he is now doing it with the fiscal policy of America,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday before the vote.
“We want to sit down and work together, and that is exactly what this bill does,” he said, noting that “we are sitting at $31 trillion of debt.”
The proposed debt limit increase would last through March 2024 — a shorter extension than preferred by President Joe Biden — in exchange for spending cuts and policy changes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill has no chance in his chamber and the president has vowed to veto it. Democrats have repeatedly insisted the debt ceiling should be raised separate from any compromise on government spending and policy.
“Congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without — without — conditions and it’s just that simple,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in January. She recently labeled the House bill a “ransom note.”
In remarks at a news conference on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the House GOP bill couldn’t clear the Senate but said that McCarthy and Biden must come to some compromise. “We must never default, and the agreement needs to be reached between the speaker and the president,” he said.
Citing past debt ceiling negotiations that involved Biden during the Obama administration, McConnell said Biden “knows that sometimes in divided government, you don’t get things exactly the way you want them.”
On Wednesday afternoon, before the House voted, Biden was asked a shouted question about negotiating on the debt ceiling as he left a press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is visiting Washington.
“They haven’t figured out the debt limit yet,” Biden said, somewhat sarcastically.
When a reporter asked if he would meet with McCarthy, the president said yes — but made it clear, once again, that he views increasing the debt ceiling as “not negotiable.”
“I’m happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” he said.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
(HELENA, Mont.) — The Montana House voted on Wednesday to censure the state’s first openly transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr, who called for her colleagues to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth.
The House voted 68-32 to censure Zephyr, who is barred from participating from the House floor.
On April 20, Zephyr told conservative lawmakers they would have “blood on their hands” during debate on SB99, which would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The bill passed and is now on the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has signaled his support for the legislation.
On Wednesday, in a hearing before the vote about disciplinary actions Zephyr could face, she defended her words.
“I rose up in defense of my community that day, speaking to harms that these bills bring that I have firsthand experience knowing about. I have had friends who have taken their lives because of these bills. I have fielded calls from families in Montana, including one family whose trans teenager attempted to take her life while watching a hearing on one of the anti trans bills,” she said on the House floor.
Zephyr said, “When the speaker asks me to apologize … on behalf of decorum, what he’s really asking me to do is be silent when my community is facing bills that get us killed.”
The “Youth Health Protection Act” would restrict the use of hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgeries on people under age 18 for the purposes of gender transitioning.
Gender-affirming care has been found to be associated with improved mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, according to research in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Pediatrics.
Gender dysphoria, the stress one may feel when they do not desire the gender identity typically associated with their assigned sex at birth, can lead to negative mental health outcomes for transgender people, according to studies.
“If you are denying gender-affirming care and forcing a trans child to go through puberty, that is tantamount to torture, and this body should be ashamed,” said Zephyr in the April 18 debate.
She continued, “If you vote yes on this bill, I hope the next time you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”
Zephyr told ABC News that she believes she is being silenced by “those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
“When I stood up to speak on Senate Bill 99, I chose my words with precision, and I spoke with clarity because I see the real harm that these bills bring. I won’t be apologizing for my remarks,” she said on ABC News’ Start Here podcast.
Zephyr told ABC News that she has been stonewalled from debate or comment on the Montana House floor for over a week by Republican leaders, who say her comments broke the rules of “decorum.”
“All representatives are free to participate in House debate while following the House rules; the choice to not follow House rules is one that Representative Zephyr has made,” said House Speaker Matt Regier in a statement to reporters. “The only person silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr.”
The Montana Freedom Caucus, which includes several of Zephyr’s colleagues, misgendered Zephyr by using he/him pronouns and argued the legislation “protects minor children from forced life-altering and unnecessary surgical procedures.” Physicians from across the country have previously told ABC News that some types of gender-affirming care are reversible or partially reversible and are only pursued after thorough discussions and evaluations with medical professionals.
On Monday, protesters took to the statehouse chanting, “let her speak!” as a debate about a separate bill that would allow students to misgender or deadname transgender people without disciplinary action went on. Several protesters were arrested. Deadnaming refers to the use of a transgender person’s name from before they transitioned, such as their birth name.
Other legislators say Zephyr encouraged their disruptions.
“When the speaker disallowed me to speak, what he was doing is taking away the voices of the 11,000 Montanans who represent who elected me to speak on their behalf,” Zephyr said Wednesday in defense of protestors.
Late Tuesday, legislators were told they would be voting Wednesday on whether Zephyr “violated the rules, collective rights, safety, dignity, integrity or decorum of the House of Representatives” and if her actions warrant discipline.
The House “may expel or punish a member for good cause shown with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members,” according to the Montana Constitution.
Her censure is reminiscent of the Republican-controlled Tennessee state House of Representatives expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers in what marked the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
On April 6, state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson were expelled for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by protesting gun control on the House floor.
The protest was in response to the mass school shooting in Nashville that left three children and three adults dead.
Pearson was reinstated by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and Jones was reinstated by the Nashville Metro Council.
Rep. Gloria Johnson evaded expulsion for her participation in the protest by one vote.
“We’re also in a moment right now with those in power in the Republican Party don’t want to be held accountable,” Zephyr told ABC News. “So whether it is my transness here in Montana rising up in defense of my community, other cisgender women rising up in defense of the trans community in Nebraska or people in Tennessee, representatives in Tennessee rising up about gun violence. It’s really about the marginalized being silenced by those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
States across the country are considering bans on transgender health care for minors that are similar to Montana’s SB99.
At least 12 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah — have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood.
(HELENA, Mont.) — Montana’s first openly transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr faces expulsion or censure after calling for her colleagues to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth.
Zephyr told conservative lawmakers they would have “blood on their hands” during debate on SB99, which would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The bill passed and is now on the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has signaled his support for the legislation.
The “Youth Health Protection Act” would restrict the use of hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgeries on people under age 18 for the purposes of gender transitioning.
Gender-affirming care has been found to be associated with improved mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, according to research in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Pediatrics.
Gender dysphoria, the stress one may feel when they do not desire the gender identity typically associated with their assigned sex at birth, can lead to negative mental health outcomes for transgender people, according to studies.
“If you are denying gender-affirming care and forcing a trans child to go through puberty, that is tantamount to torture, and this body should be ashamed,” said Zephyr in the April 18 debate.
She continued, “If you vote yes on this bill, I hope the next time you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”
Zephyr told ABC News that she believes she is being silenced by “those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
“When I stood up to speak on Senate Bill 99, I chose my words with precision, and I spoke with clarity because I see the real harm that these bills bring. I won’t be apologizing for my remarks,” she said on ABC News’ Start Here podcast.
Zephyr told ABC News that she has been stonewalled from debate or comment on the Montana House floor for over a week by Republican leaders, who say her comments broke the rules of “decorum.”
“All representatives are free to participate in House debate while following the House rules; the choice to not follow House rules is one that Representative Zephyr has made,” said House Speaker Matt Regier in a statement to reporters. “The only person silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr.”
The Montana Freedom Caucus, which includes several of Zephyr’s colleagues, misgendered Zephyr by using he/him pronouns and argued the legislation “protects minor children from forced life-altering and unnecessary surgical procedures.” Physicians from across the country have previously told ABC News that some types of gender-affirming care are reversible or partially reversible and are only pursued after thorough discussions and evaluations with medical professionals.
On Monday, protesters took to the statehouse chanting, “let her speak!” as debate about a separate bill that would allow students to misgender or deadname transgender people without disciplinary action. Several protesters were arrested. Deadnaming refers to the use of a transgender person’s name from before they transitioned, such as their birth name.
Late Tuesday, legislators were told they would be voting Wednesday on whether Zephyr “violated the rules, collective rights, safety, dignity, integrity or decorum of the House of Representatives” and if her actions warrant discipline.
“I’ve also been told I’ll get a chance to speak,” Zephyr said in a Tweet. “I will do as I have always done — rise on behalf of my constituents, in defense of my community, & for democracy itself.”
The House “may expel or punish a member for good cause shown with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members,” according to the Montana Constitution.
Her potential expulsion is reminiscent of the Republican-controlled Tennessee state House of Representatives expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers in what marked the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
On April 6, state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson were expelled for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by protesting gun control on the House floor.
The protest was in response to the mass school shooting in Nashville that left three children and three adults dead.
Pearson was reinstated by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and Jones was reinstated by the Nashville Metro Council.
Rep. Gloria Johnson evaded expulsion for her participation in the protest by one vote.
“We’re also in a moment right now with those in power in the Republican Party don’t want to be held accountable,” Zephyr told ABC News. “So whether it is my transness here in Montana rising up in defense of my community, other cisgender women rising up in defense of the trans community in Nebraska or people in Tennessee, representatives in Tennessee rising up about gun violence. It’s really about the marginalized being silenced by those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
States across the country are considering bans on transgender health care for minors that are similar to Montana’s SB99.
At least 12 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah — have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he respects Americans taking a “hard look” at whether his age is a factor and to decide if he’s fit to serve as he seeks a second term.
Biden, 80, made his 2024 bid official Tuesday when he released his first campaign video. Biden addressed his reelection run for the first time since the announcement during a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce pressed Biden on questions about his age and a recent poll showing 70% of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t believe he should run for a second term.
She noted Biden has often responded “watch me” when the question comes up.
“What do you say to those Americans who are watching and aren’t convinced? You’ve said you can beat Trump again. Do you think you’re the only one?” Bruce asked.
Biden replied he may not be the only one who could defeat the former president, but that he knows Trump “well” and he knows “the danger he presents to our democracy.”
Biden also pushed back on polling data showing his approval rating to be in the mid-40s, arguing other presidents seeking reelection have faced similar positions. He also argued the numbers are higher when people are asked about the job he’s done as commander in chief.
“Things are moving and the reason I’m running again is a job to finish,” he said, referencing his campaign slogan.
On his age, Biden joked that he “can’t even say the number” but respected that it may be an issue for voters.
“They’re going to see a race and they’re going to judge whether or not I have it or don’t have it,” he said. “I respect them taking a hard look at it, I’d take a hard look at it as well.”
He continued, “I took a hard look at it before I decided to run, and I feel good. I feel excited about the prospects, and I think we’re on the verge of really turning the corner in a way we haven’t in a long time.”
Asked if he’d be running for reelection if Trump hadn’t jumped into the race, Biden said he would.
“I still think I would be running if he wasn’t,” Biden told Bruce.
Trump mounted his campaign in November, and is the current front-runner for the Republican nomination. The former president, responding to Biden’s announcement, said it was almost “inconceivable” Biden would seek another term and said “there has never been a greater contrast between two successive administrations.”
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans began voting Wednesday on legislation that would raise the nation’s debt limit while cutting federal government spending — an effort intended to force Democrats into negotiations even as the bill has scant chance of becoming law.
“This week we will pass a bill on this floor that will lift the debt ceiling — something the Senate has not done, something the president has not negotiated — and send it over to the Senate, because we think this is a responsibility,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy said during a gaggle with reporters outside his office on Tuesday.
The legislation, known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, would increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, reduce funding for federal agencies to 2022 fiscal year levels, limit growth in government spending to 1% per year and block various measures backed by the White House, such as federal student debt cancellation and new funding for the IRS.
The proposed debt limit increase would last through March 2024 — a shorter extension than preferred by President Joe Biden — in exchange for spending cuts and policy changes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that even if the GOP bill passes the House, it has no chance in his chamber and the president has vowed to veto it.
But GOP leaders hope the proposal will frame talks with Democrats, who argue the debt ceiling should be raised separate from any compromise on government spending and policy.
Because the U.S. does not take in enough revenue to pay for its bills, it periodically borrows money, increasing its debt — which is capped by Congress unless lawmakers raise the limit. The U.S. hit that debt ceiling in January and the Treasury Department has been employing “extraordinary measures” since then to keep the government funded, but those will run out as early as June.
In a statement this week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre labeled the GOP House bill a “ransom note” and said its spending cuts would be painful, if enacted. “Americans won’t forget House Republicans’ celebration of slashing fundamental programs that our families, seniors, and veterans count on every day,” she said.
McCarthy put it another way and described the proposal as enforcing fiscal discipline on a bloated government. “We cannot sit back and ignore the problem like the president has. I know he does it with the border, and I know he is now doing it with the fiscal policy of America,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
He stressed that the bill was a starting point “to get us to the negotiating table.”
“We want to sit down and work together, and that is exactly what this bill does,” he said.
“It is not the final provisions, and there’s a number of [Republican] members that will vote for it going forward who say there are some concerns they have … but they want to make sure a negotiation comes forward because we are sitting at $31 trillion of debt,” McCarthy said.
On Wednesday, hours before the voting process began on the bill, he told ABC News that it was not merely for messaging, dismissing such a question with laughter.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer spoke bluntly at a Republican news conference Wednesday, pushing back on Democratic calls for a debt limit hike without strings attached. Democrats warn that anything else risks an unprecedented debt default that would ripple through the global economy, which is anchored by the U.S.
“Don’t be fooled. There is no such thing as a ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase,” Emmer said. “That’s about as dirty as it gets — handing Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden a blank check.”
The House voted on the rule for the debt limit bill on Wednesday afternoon — with Republicans approving it, 219-210. The final vote could then happen as early as later Wednesday, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said at the earlier news conference.
Successfully passing the bill will be a major test of McCarthy’s leadership of the slim Republican majority. Democrats remain unified in opposing the GOP debt ceiling plan, which means McCarthy can lose no more than four votes from his party.
Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee has already said he’ll vote no, giving GOP leadership little wiggle room as they go to the floor. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina had initially opposed the bill but said Wednesday she would vote yes, after discussing it with McCarthy.
The speaker insisted as recently as Tuesday night that he wouldn’t budge on revising the bill any further. “No, we’re going to pass the bill on the floor, do you guys not listen to my answers — my god!” he exclaimed to reporters then.
However, he ultimately brokered several 11th hour deals with members of his conference in order to get the bill to a vote. Those compromises included restoring ethanol tax credits, which had been a sticking point for multiple Midwestern lawmakers who represent agricultural districts.
The changes also added more stringent work requirements for those who use the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
After a closed-door conference meeting of his party on Wednesday, McCarthy was asked if he has 218 votes needed for the legislation to pass.
“I don’t want to take all your anticipation away,” he said, but later described himself as “very” confident.
Before the last-minute revisions, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill would reduce budget the federal government deficit by $4.8 trillion over the next 10 years, with a decrease of about $700 million in mandatory spending, a $400 million increase in revenue and $500 million drop in interest on public debt.
Biden has said he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk, and the White House has come out strongly against it.
“Speaker McCarthy has cut a deal with the most extreme MAGA elements of his party,” the White House communications director, Ben LaBolt, said in a statement Wednesday.
“House Republicans are selling out hard-working Americans in order to defend their top priority: restoring the Trump tax cuts,” LaBolt argued.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(BENTONVILLE, Ark.) — Former Arkansas GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson, on Wednesday formally announced he’s running for the White House — going back to his hometown of Bentonville to kick off his campaign.
“I have been a consistent conservative through my time as leader of the party — in the United States Congress and as governor. And now, I bring that same vigor to another fight and that battle is for the future of our country and the soul of our party,” he told supporters. “Today, I am announcing that I am a candidate for president of the United States.”
“In this campaign for president, I stand alone in terms of my experience, my record, and leadership,” he said, echoing remarks from earlier this month when he first revealed he was running on ABC’s “This Week.”
The day before Wednesday’s event, Hutchinson, who says the Republican Party should not be looking in the rearview mirror, took a a look back himself as he prepared for the formal announcement.
“It’s really exciting to have it in Bentonville,” Hutchinson said in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday. “First of all, it reflects me.”
It was 37 years ago, outside the same county courthouse where Hutchinson had tried his earliest cases as an attorney, that he announced his first campaign for statewide office. It’s where, in the 1970s, he put in the town’s first FM radio station, and where the now 72-year-old raised his four children.
To mark the campaign kickoff, Hutchinson was planning to sprinkle bits of his heritage in the program.
A marching band from Springdale High School, Hutchinson’s alma mater, was to supply music, while cheerleaders from Gravette, a small town where he went to grade school, were going to provide extra pep. His wife of 50 years, Susan, was going to introduce him.
“It reflects the rural roots that are a part of me,” Hutchinson said. “The other part of the story, about Bentonville, is that it tells the story of America, from entrepreneurs that didn’t rely upon the government.”
Naming Sam Walton, Don Tyson and J.B. Hunt, Hutchinson recalled an era that was “just simply America, and now you see the growth, but you still have the same small-town values that made it special.”
Don’t expect to hear ‘Trump’
While Hutchinson has cast himself as a Republican foil to former President Donald Trump, even calling for Trump to drop out of the race following his indictment, ABC News was told not to expect to hear the name “Trump” in his speech.
A source familiar said to expect, instead, a focus on looking forward — as opposed to leaders on both sides looking in the rearview mirror.
“It was a very backward look that Joe Biden gave in his announcement,” Hutchinson said Tuesday, reacting to President Joe Biden’s video announcing his reelection campaign. “It was more about the past and 2020, and I was disappointed there wasn’t more of a forward-looking.”
“We don’t need a replay of 2020. We don’t need a Biden-Trump contest again. It didn’t look pretty in 2020. It will look even worse in 2024. We’ve seen that movie. We don’t need to see it again,” he added. “That’s why President Biden is really focusing on Trump because he would love to have a replay of that.”
For Hutchinson, looking ahead includes a trip to Washington this weekend for the White House Correspondents Dinner before returning to Iowa for several small-scale campaign events.
The race for enthusiasm
Hutchinson made his 2024 bid official earlier this month in an exclusive sit-down interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl — but Wednesday marks his formal launch with supporters in his home state.
The term-limited governor was succeeded after eight years by former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Hutchinson’s campaign pointed out that all three of his Republican predecessors had Democrats succeed them in office, until him.
That executive experience bookended decades of public service including three consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in the George W. Bush administration as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration and later as the nation’s first Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Border Protection.
But his career in public service began in Bentonville, as a city attorney, before President Ronald Reagan appointed him as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas in 1982. He was the youngest U.S. attorney in the nation at the time and notably, prosecuted a white supremacist militia group, the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord.
In his interview with Karl, Hutchinson acknowledged it would take “a lot of hard work and good messaging” to raise his national profile and break through a crowded field.
He’s currently polling in the single digits, well behind some of his other official competitors in the race — Trump, former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — and some thought to be running like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But Hutchinson isn’t fazed by what may be a brutal primary season. He feels called to serve.
“I think the Republican base will see that our best chance of moving forward with conservative principles is through new ideas and new leadership,” he said. “That’s what’s beautiful about our democracy is that you can go retail politics, you can do policy, and that’s what wins votes.”
