Politics

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The Republican-controlled Tennessee state House of Representatives convened on Thursday to vote on ousting three Democratic lawmakers, which, if successful, would mark the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.

The legislative session was underway as of Thursday afternoon but the expulsion vote hadn’t yet started.

Protesters gathered both inside — in the gallery, where they were told to remain silent — and in large groups outside, in apparent support of the three Democratic lawmakers.

Reps. Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson and Justin J. Pearson are the three facing expulsion resolutions for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by participating in a gun control protest at the state Capitol last week. The demonstration came in the wake of the deadly Covenant School shooting in Nashville on March 27, where a former student fatally shot three children and three adults, police have said.

When protesters crowded the state House and gallery hallways last week, calling for stricter gun laws, only one Democratic lawmaker was granted permission to address them.

Others, particularly young progressives like freshman Reps. Pearson and Jones, also wanted to speak but were prohibited by Republican leadership.

So, during a recess, the duo, along with Johnson, used the well of the House chambers to demand action. With their mics shut off, they brought a megaphone, leading chants.

Days later, Tennessee’s Republican Reps. Bud Hulsey, Gino Bulso and Andrew Farmer sponsored the expulsion resolutions Monday. They argued the Democratic lawmakers “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions.”

Hulsey, Bulso and Farmer did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Republican state lawmakers including Speaker Cameron Sexton have accused the trio of attempting to incite an insurrection, even likening their actions to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to ABC affiliate WKRN.

Since the Civil War, the Tennessee state House has voted only twice to expel a member.

As of Thursday, the trio of Democrats said they have already lost ID access to the state Capitol and been stripped of any committee assignments.

But Pearson and Johnson told ABC News, no matter the results of the expulsion vote, they will remain undeterred in fighting for their constituents.

“If we are expelled on Thursday, you can expect the protest to continue the resistance to build, and the advocacy for our communities and for the people that we care about,” said Pearson.

“This is not going to stop me in the least,” Johnson added.

ABC News’ Sarah Beth Guevara contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon and State Department are set to share with Congress their after-action reports on the 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the White House will soon announce, according to a U.S. official.

The reports will be provided to lawmakers via a secure portal so members can access them electronically.

The White House will also publicly release a 10-page unclassified summary on the withdrawal, which has long drawn sharp criticism from Republicans.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump has received dozens of threats in recent days, police sources told ABC News.

Trump himself had lashed out at New York Judge Juan Merchan, calling him “Trump hating.” Merchan previously oversaw the tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization that ended in a conviction.

Most of the threats against Merchan are in the form of harassing calls and emailed death threats, the sources said.

“Over the past weeks we have continued to evaluate and assess security concerns and potential threats and have maintained an increased security presence in and around courthouses and throughout the judiciary and will adjust protocols as necessary,” a spokesman for the Office of Court Administration told ABC News.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(RALEIGH, N.C.) — North Carolina state Rep.Tricia Cotham announced Wednesday she is switching parties, giving Republicans the supermajority needed to override vetoes from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

The freshman state representative, who said she was “welcomed with open arms by my [new Republican] colleagues,” attributed the switch to Democrats’ restrictions on the votes she cast.

“It became very clear to me early on in January that you better vote in line with everything Governor Cooper tells you to do,” Cotham said. “From signing on to bills, to he wanted to pick your seat on the House floor, to your committee requests … I will not be controlled by anyone.”

Former Democratic consultant and current Duke University Prof. Pope “Mac” McCorkle says Cotham’s switch is poised to give Republicans the power they need to implement many aspects of their agenda.

“Her becoming a Republican means by literally a party-line vote, all the commissions can be changed, all of that,” McCorkle said. “So that’s where I think it’s real power.”

One of the largest issues impacting North Carolina state politics this year is state legislature redistricting — a process that started more than 18 months ago. Republicans are expected to present a new legislature map in the coming months.

McCorkle says Cotham’s flip will not impact the redistricting debates because the maps only need the approval of the legislature.

“The governor does not a have a veto, so [Republicans] will already be able to pass the maps they want,” McCorkle said.

Cotham’s unexpected move comes during a time of political tension in the hotly contested swing state, where both chambers of the General Assembly are Republican-controlled even as a Democrat holds the governorship.

“Things are so tight, even when the Republicans have a super majority they’re afraid of losing it,” McCorkle said. He went on later to say “Everything is just frought with this incredible tension. But this just goes beyond the pale that a liberal legislator has flipped.”

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton called on Cotham to resign, according to ABC’s Raleigh affiliate.

Her seat in the 112th district covers the eastern Charlotte suburbs, an area that voted heavily for President Joe Biden in 2020.

Cotham has a liberal record on some major issues, including abortion rights and state assistance programs. But one issue where she may stray from her former Democratic colleagues is school choice. Recent social media posts show her support for parents opting to use vouchers and send their children to schools outside their public school district — a stance normally held by Republicans.

North Carolina House members serve two-year terms, meaning Cotham’s district will have its next election in November of 2024. There is no process for recalling lawmakers under North Carolina state law.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s indictment in New York is historic: never before has a former president been indicted for an alleged crime.

The closest would have been former President Richard Nixon, who was on the cusp of being indicted by a federal grand jury on four criminal counts for his role in the 1970s Watergate scandal. His resignation and pardon by President Gerald Ford spared both Nixon and the nation from enduring a potential criminal federal presidential trial.

Now Trump’s indictment by a grand jury in Manhattan on 34 felonies pertaining to an alleged scheme to catch and kill disparaging stories ahead of the 2016 election has opened up many questions including the role and scope of Secret Service protection, including whether it would extend to him if he were convicted and incarcerated.

Trump has entered a not guilty plea and he and his legal team have vehemently denied the allegations.

Protection of the president by the Secret Service began in 1901 after three presidents — Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley — were assassinated. Former presidents began receiving protection around 1958 under the Former Presidents Act, which mandated lifetime protection of former presidents of the United States who have not been removed from office solely pursuant to Article II of the Constitution.

At the time there were two living former presidents: Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman. But it was President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former World War II general who led the Allies effort to beat the Axis powers, who was the first to receive this benefit.

The basis of Secret Service protection is “threat-based” and most current and former presidents receive thousands of threats while in and outside of office.

Under 18 USC 3056, the United States Secret Service is mandated by federal law to provide protection for the sitting president and their family, the vice president and their family, as well as a list of others including former president’s and first ladies and their children under 16 “for their lifetimes, except that protection of a spouse shall terminate in the event of remarriage.”

Although the law is clear, some have conflated the Secret Service protective mission with some type of an allegiance to an individual. Others have misinterpreted that steps the Secret Service may take to implement their protective methodology as making requests on behalf of a protected person. Neither is the Secret Service’s role and the law and mission are clear — to provide protection as a singular focus.

Congress, however, has changed the law regarding protection over the years and specifically for former presidents. In 1994, a legal change limited post-presidential protection to 10 years for presidents inaugurated after Jan. 1, 1997, which was signed into law by then President Bill Clinton. This meant that any president after Clinton would only receive protection for 10 years.

On Jan. 10, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012 which reinstated lifetime Secret Service protection for former President George W. Bush, who had a myriad of terrorist threats aimed at him post 9/11. Obama, who had ordered the mission against Osama Bin Laden, had also received threats. They and all subsequent presidents would get lifetime protection.

By law, only the sitting president, vice president, president-elect and vice president-elect cannot decline protection. Everyone else on the list, including former presidents are able to decline protection, if they choose to do so. Nothing in the statue, as written, forces someone who receives Secret Service protection to lose that protection under any circumstance other than death or, in the case of a former first lady, remarriage.

As such, the question about how protection would work if a former President were to go to jail has a clear answer.

Simply, the law mandates it and the Secret Service would have to provide protection, even in jail, as only the protectee may end it.

Congress could change the law but, historically, the only ex-president with Secret Service protection to ever end it was former President Nixon, who left the White House in 1974 and ended his protection in 1985.

Donald J. Mihalek is an ABC News contributor, retired senior Secret Service agent and regional field training instructor who served during two presidential transitions. He was also a police officer and served in the U.S. Coast Guard.

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(MADISON, Wis) — Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court race culminated Tuesday in a victory for the liberal candidate and a fiery, bitter concession speech by the conservative contender that underscored the acrimony by the end of their contest — the most expensive such election in history.

Dan Kelly, a former justice on the high court who was running for a return, lambasted Justice-elect Janet Protasiewicz for discussing her personal views on policies and issues expected to come before the state Supreme Court, including her support for abortion rights and criticism of Republican-drawn legislative maps.

“This didn’t turn out the way that we were looking for, and I think there are a couple of reasons for it and I think we need to address them head on. And it brings me no joy to say this. I wish that in a circumstance like this I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent. But I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede,” Kelly said Tuesday night.

“This was the most deeply deceitful, dishonorable despicable campaign I have ever seen run for the courts,” he said. “It was truly beneath contempt. Now I say this not because we did not prevail — I do not say this because of the rancid slanders that were launched against me, although that was bad enough. But that is not my concern. My concern is the damage done to the institution of the courts.”

The rhetoric reflected the repercussions of the race, with Protasiewicz’s win flipping the court from a 4-3 conservative majority to one that liberals will control by a 4-3 margin until at least 2025. It’s the first time liberal-aligned judges will be in the majority in 15 years.

Among the issues the court is anticipated to take up are an 1849 law that bans nearly all abortions and challenge to the legislative maps, which Republicans drew after 2010 and which are widely seen as gerrymandered despite Wisconsin’s status as a swing state.

Republicans had knocked Protasiewicz throughout the campaign for discussing her beliefs on issues she could soon decide on, though it appears the attacks were insufficient to prevent Kelly’s 11-point loss, which is almost identical to his margin of defeat when he lost his seat on the court in 2020.

Kelly had stayed away from commenting as directly on those issues, but he won endorsements from anti-abortion groups and previously worked for the state GOP in private practice.

Protasiewicz’s campaign, meanwhile, said it was important to communicate with voters what her views are and rejected the premise that such comments forecasted how she would rule form the bench.

“She’s been very clear that these are her personal values: She believes in democracy, she believes in access to health care. But that’s not saying how she’s going to vote on these if they’re before the court. We have no idea of knowing who will bring those challenges to the court, what will be made,” campaign spokesperson Sam Roecker told ABC News on Monday.

“She has made no promises to rule one way or the other on any case before the court. But I think part of this as she’s here on the campaign trail is that voters expect to know some of the values of who they’re voting for,” Roecker said then. “This is a big election. There’s a lot at stake.”

Still, Kelly pulled no punches, casting his defeat in nearly apocalyptic terms for his state’s future.

“I respect the decision that the people of Wisconsin have made. But I think this does not end well. Now as I look forward, I hope, I hope it does end well. This has been a beautiful, beautiful life here in Wisconsin with all of you,” he said Tuesday. “And I wish, Wisconsin, the best of luck because I think it’s going to need it.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence will not appeal a district court ruling and will comply with the grand jury subpoena requesting documents and testimony related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his spokesperson said.

“Vice President Pence will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” his spokesperson, Devin O’Malley, said in a statement.

The top federal judge for the D.C. district court last week rejected former President Donald Trump’s assertion of executive privilege to prevent Pence from testifying before the grand jury, sources told ABC News.

Pence was subpoenaed in February by special counsel Jack Smith to provide documents and testimony related to Smith’s election interference probe, following months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team, sources said.

In addition to claims of executive privilege, Pence’s attorneys had argued that Pence should be exempt from providing records or answering certain questions that align with his duties as president of the Senate overseeing the formal certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pence’s team had argued that such communications could run afoul of the Speech and Debate Clause that shields officials in Congress from legal proceedings specifically related to their work.

D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg narrowly upheld parts of that legal challenge, ruling last week that Pence should have to provide answers to the special counsel on any questions that implicate any illegal acts on Trump’s part, according to sources.

Speaking last month with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl for “This Week,” Pence said, “We’re going to respect the decisions of the court, and that may take us all the way to the highest court in the land.”

Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor and former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, was tapped in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel to oversee the DOJ’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and Trump’s handling of classified materials after leaving office.

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(CHICAGO) — Before his victory speech Tuesday, Chicago’s mayor-elect Brandon Johnson was introduced at the podium by the president of his greatest benefactor: The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). The alliance, which puts the city’s most powerful labor union in tight alignment with the new administration, is a significant departure for Chicago where both sides have traditionally sparred in public and behind closed doors.

“Make no mistake, Chicago is a union town,” Johnson, 47, said after listing the numerous labor organizations that supported his campaign.

A union Johnson did not mention was the Fraternal Order of Police, the powerful organization that backed former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, who Johnson claimed a slim victory over, 51% to 49%, late Tuesday.

Chicago mayoral race: Brandon Johnson wins runoff, Paul Vallas concedes
Crime and education emerged as the two primary issues of the six-week campaign with both candidates introducing starkly opposite agendas for both.

Johnson, who taught in the classroom for four years and later served as a Cook County commissioner, worked as a paid organizer for the CTU over the last two administrations. The CTU also raised more than $2 million for Johnson by appropriating a portion of monthly membership dues to a PAC supporting his campaign. Last week a group of Chicago schoolteachers filed an unfair labor practices charge with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board alleging those actions are illegal.

Johnson’s ties with the CTU were seen as vulnerabilities by those who worried he will be too beholden to the powerful union, which represents more than 25,000 members. The CTU’s current five-year contract expires in 2024 and bargaining is expected to start this summer. Other issues at play are continued declines in enrollment and a transition to an elected school board in 2027, which decentralizes power over the school system away from the mayor’s office, where it has remained for the last three administrations.

Although he was little-known as a Cook County commissioner, Johnson first gained notoriety in 2020 when he became active in the police reform movement following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer that spring. Johnson later tried walking back his call to defund the police and pledged he would increase the number of detectives by 200 and not reduce the current number of officers on the approximately 12,000-member force. However, he also said he would not fill the department’s widening gap of beat cops and he would redirect funds to wraparound services like social workers and youth programs.

Chicago logged nearly 700 homicides in 2022, which is lower than those in 2021 — the worst year for shooting deaths since the 1990s — and robberies are up nearly 20%. Like elsewhere in big cities since the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago crime in the form of carjackings, looting, and muggings became more visible, spreading from concentrated parts of the city to everywhere else, including sleepier neighborhoods that, until recently, were immune from violence.

When Johnson takes office on May 15, he faces having to deal with significant financial challenges. The city’s deficit is nearly $600 million due to mounting pension obligations and drops in tourism, public transit ridership, and retail occupancy.

Johnson campaigned on promising to raise $800 million by imposing a slate of new taxes on airlines, real estate transactions, financial transactions, hotels, and a “head tax” on large companies, which will charge them $4 a month per employee. He also proposed a $40 million “city surcharge” to suburbanites for commuting to the city for work via Metra. According to his website, his plan will make “the suburbs, airlines and ultra-rich pay their fair share.”

On Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Elections said that about 35% of Chicago’s registered voters participated in the election.

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(LANSING, Mich.) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill Wednesday repealing the state’s nearly century-old abortion ban.

Last month, the state’s House and Senate passed HB 4006, a single-sentence bill, which revokes the 1931 law that criminalized abortion.

Specifically, the bill repealed Section 750.14, which makes it a felony — punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 — to administer drugs that induce a miscarriage unless the mother’s life is in danger.

It also repealed Section 750.15, which makes it a misdemeanor to advertise, publish or sell “any pills, powder, drugs or combination of drugs” that can cause an abortion.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, questions remained about whether or not the 1931 law would be put back in place.

“Obstetricians, including myself, we were very concerned because we understand that there are a lot of appropriate medical indications for providing medical and surgical abortion for women across the state of Michigan,” Dr. Omari Young, an obstetrician-gynecologist and abortion provider in Michigan, told ABC News. “So, we were not only concerned for the autonomy of women, but also the quality and safety of care because we know that not having access to safe and legal abortion can lead to significant poor health outcomes for women across the state of Michigan.”

Young was part of a team of doctors that advocated for the repeal of the bill and for reproductive access to be protected in the state.

A Michigan state judge ruled in September that the ban is unconstitutional, barring any state prosecutors from enforcing it.

Two months later, in the November mid-term elections, Michiganders voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that would add protections for reproductive rights.

The amendment defines reproductive freedom as “the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management and infertility care.”

Young and several other physicians involved in repealing Michigan’s abortion ban were on hand to watch Whitmer sign the bill.

“It’s a surreal moment but, ultimately, it’s like icing on the cake for all the hard work that Gov. Whitmer, all the policymakers, the advocates, the grassroot workers, and most importantly, the women and patients in the state of Michigan, all that hard work is culminating into this great event, we formally signed a bill to repeal the 1931 ban,” Young said.

Whitmer has openly expressed her support for abortion access in and out of Michigan and signed an executive order in July refusing to extradite women who come to Michigan from other states seeking abortion and refusing to extradite providers for offering the procedure.

“In November, Michiganders sent a clear message: we deserve to make our own decisions about own bodies,” Whitmer said in a statement provided to ABC News. “Today, we are coming together to repeal our extreme 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing nurses and doctors for doing their jobs.”

The statement continued, “Standing up for people’s fundamental freedoms is the right thing to do and it’s also just good economics. By getting this done, we will help attract talent and business investment too.”

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(CHICAGO) — Brandon Johnson, a former public school teacher, will become Chicago’s next mayor.

Vallas conceded to Johnson on Tuesday even though the Chicago Board of Elections reported that mail-in votes for the runoff election will not be counted for days.

“To the Chicagoans who did not vote for me, here’s what I want you to know: That I care about you, I value you, and I want to hear from you. I want to work with you, and I’ll be the mayor for you, too,” Johnson said. “Tonight is a gateway to a new future for this city.”

Vallas, 69, was the majority front-runner in the February election where he and Johnson, 46, led a crowded pack of candidates, all of whom failed to receive more than 50% of the vote. In that election, incumbent Lori Lightfoot became the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to fail to secure a second term.

“The only pathway forward in our city is together,” Vallas said during his concession speech late Tuesday. “The solutions we adopt and implement must work for all Chicagoans … It’s time for all Chicagoans to put aside their differences and to work together to support the daunting work ahead for Chicago’s next mayor.”

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, only 33% of those registered to vote in Chicago cast their ballots for Tuesday’s election.

In the six-week run-up to Tuesday, Vallas and Johnson sparred in numerous televised debates about issues like crime and education. However, underscoring the conversations was the obvious contrast between the progressive left of the Democratic Party, represented by Johnson, and the moderate wing of the party, represented by Vallas.

“You have Vallas being called a Republican and Johnson being called a Socialist. Those issues are designed, of course, to get a more reptilian brain response from voters, but they don’t tell us exactly where both campaigns are on the major issues rather than a broad brush,” said Arthur Lurigio, a criminologist at Loyola University Chicago. “Being extreme is in their interest.”

Johnson capitalized on comments Vallas made years ago about critical race theory and he has blasted both endorsements and campaign donations Vallas received from prominent Republicans like Darren Bailey, the Illinois senator who lost the state’s recent gubernatorial election, and a PAC founded by Betsy DeVos, the former education secretary under former President Donald Trump.

The insinuation that Vallas is a closet Republican — a smear in this reliably blue city — has appeared on yard signs, stickers and in a television ad that claims Vallas is “endorsed by the Chicago Republican Party.”

Last weekend, Republican Party Chairman Steve Boulton released a statement denouncing Johnson and said his “campaign is lying yet again” about the endorsement. “The ad is false, and under federal law, the broadcasters are under an obligation to pull the ads,” he said.

Vallas, who earned the endorsement of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, had blasted Johnson for comments he made years ago about defunding the police. Both men said they want to hire more detectives, although Vallas said he wants to fill more than 1,700 vacancies in the department, while Johnson said he wants resources directed to schools and mental health services. Vallas also said Johnson’s plan to raise $800 million in additional taxes would cripple the city’s economy.

Vallas earned the backing of prominent leaders within the state Democratic Party, including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. Johnson, a former school teacher whose campaign was funded by the Chicago Teachers Union, was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

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