Politics

(WASHINGTON) — While the nation’s latest mass shooting at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee, seems sadly all too familiar — so, too, are the now routine responses from congressional lawmakers of both parties.

Despite shock over more schoolchildren being gunned down by a mass shooter, politicians in Washington quickly returned to arguments that have become standards in a deadlocked debate.

Even President Joe Biden seemed resigned, telling reporters Tuesday he “can’t do anything except plead with the Congress to act reasonably.”

“Don’t tell me we can’t do more together,” Biden added later, sounding more hopeful at an event in North Carolina. “I again call on Congress to pass the assault weapons ban, pass it. That should not be a partisan issue. It’s a commonsense issue. We have to act now.”

He added, “People say, ‘Why do I keep saying this if it not happening?’ Because I want you to know who isn’t doing it — who isn’t helping — to put pressure on them,” referring to the GOP.

Democrats like Biden once again called on what they refer to as “reasonable Republicans” to join them in passing more gun safety measures while Republicans once again slammed Democrats for trying to exploit the tragedy for political purposes.

Republicans, avoiding or dismissing questions about new restrictions on assault weapons, instead advocated for ramping up school security. More and more they cite “mental health” as the real problem and called for prayer, not gun bans.

“The first thing in any kind of tragedy is I pray. I pray for the victims. I pray for the families. I get really angry when people try to politicize it for their own personal agenda, especially when we don’t even know the facts,” House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise said Tuesday.

“Let’s work to see if there’s something that we can do to help secure schools,” he continued. “It just seems like on the other side, all they want to do is take guns away from law-abiding citizens before they even know the facts.”

“We’ve talked about the need to improve mental health in this country, and that’s been a driver of a lot of these shootings as well,” Scalise added, hitting many GOP talking points.

Senate GOP leaders were asked Tuesday afternoon if Republicans “risk looking out of step” when a majority of the country supports reforming federal law around guns.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota echoed Scalise, deeming any discussion of new gun safety legislation “premature.”

“Our thoughts are with the families, the victims with the community. We are grateful for the quick rapid response of law enforcement, and I think with respect to any discussion of legislation, it’s premature. There’s an ongoing investigation. And I think we need to let the facts come out,” he said.

When a reporter followed up by citing the number of mass shootings already this year, Thune deflected.

“When we get the facts in from this current investigation, we’ll have a better assessment of that — but I think right now, it’s just premature to talk about it. And I think there are a lot of grieving, hurting families in Nashville,” he said.

Democrats, at the same time, attacked Republicans, claiming they place more importance on keeping widespread access to assault weapons than on protecting kids at school.

“It’s an outrage that we can’t find a handful of Republicans willing to put people over extremism on the far right,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., following Scalise’s press conference. “The fact that the talking points Republicans use today are exactly the same that they used in December of 2012. It’s alarming. It’s disappointing. It’s just sad. And that’s just who the Republican Party is today,” he added.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were no known new bipartisan discussions on gun safety in Washington — and there’s little appetite for such a move as Republicans hold a majority in the House. In the Senate, Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to join them in order to pass meaningful reform.

The last major action from Congress on gun reform was last June, just over a month after the deadly Uvalde School shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. While it was nowhere near what Democrats or Biden had hoped for — with provisions like universal background checks left out — the legislation’s passage broke a decades-long stalemate in Congress.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a key negotiator in last year’s bipartisan effort, told CNN on Monday that, in his view, any new congressional action is not in the picture.

“I would say we have gone about as far as we can go — unless somebody identifies some area we didn’t address, but the president just keeps coming back to the same old tired talking points,” Cornyn said. “So he’s not offering any new solutions or ideas. If he does, I think we should consider them, but so far, I haven’t heard anything.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the response “devastating.”

“What do you say to those parents? What do you say to those families? You can’t say to them there’s nothing else that can be done. That’s not what their job is as legislators,” she said on ABC’s “GMA3.”

So why does Congress seem so unable to agree when Americans are demanding something be done?

Adzi Vokhiwa, federal affairs director at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, blamed the power of the gun lobby — including major campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association — for keeping lawmakers from considering more gun safety measures popular with Americans, such as universal background checks.

“Unfortunately, we do seem to see Republicans kind of parroting the talking points of the gun lobby. ‘Guns are not to blame. People are to blame,’ but the evidence shows us that our country’s gun violence epidemic is so unique because we have so few restrictions on access to guns,” Vokhiwa told ABC News. “They’re common sense, but a lot of Republicans just continue to be beholden to the gun lobby, which doesn’t want to enact any sort of law that would impact their profit margin.”

Vokhiwa said because assault weapons have a particularly devastating effect in a mass shooting scenario, “that’s why so many people in the gun safety movement really coalesce around that — why the president coalesces around that — and there’s certainly more work to do in terms of getting support in Congress.”

But, she said, “There are other policy proposals that would be just as, if not more impactful, than an assault weapons ban that do have broad support — like background checks, like extreme risk laws, like safe storage. So, even if we’re not at the point where we can pass an assault weapons ban, there are a lot of other things that we could do that would save lives from gun violence.”

An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in September 2019 found 89% of Americans support universal background checks and 86% support red flag laws. The poll found broad bipartisan support, as well; mandatory background checks and red flag laws won support from at least eight in 10 Republicans and conservatives, and as many or more of all others.

Another ABC News/Washington Post poll released in February found the public more divided over assault weapons with 47% supporting such a ban and 51% opposing it — reflecting a nine-point drop in support since 2019.

“Thoughts and prayers are far from our only option when it comes to addressing our gun violence crisis,” Vokhiwa added. “And I think the American people will hold Republicans accountable if they continue to refuse to act and if they value the gun lobby’s profit margin over the lives of American children in schools.”

Ultimately, she said, “As long as we have this divided Congress, it’ll be really hard to get something passed.”

One indication of how far apart lawmakers are is a bill introduced last month by Republican Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama to make the AR-15 assault-style weapon the “National Gun of America.”

Fellow House Republicans Rep. Lauren Boebert and George Santos were seen wearing AR-15 lapel pins.
 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Tuesday that military readiness could be impaired by the growing list of senior military nominations being blocked by Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville over his opposition to a Pentagon abortion policy.

“Not approving the recommendation for promotions actually creates a ripple effect with the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be,” Austin said responding to a question from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., during a hearing on the Pentagon’s defense budget.

Tuberville has been blocking military nominations since last month, over a Pentagon policy that covers the travel costs of service members seeking abortions in states outside of where they are stationed if their base is located in a state that bans the procedure.

Austin spoke directly to Tuberville at the hearing over the military’s need to promote officials during “one of the most complex times” seen in recent years.

“I really implore you to reconsider and allow our nominations to move forward. It will make a significant difference for our force,” Austin said.

After the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., lambasted Tuberville for blocking the Pentagon promotions.

“GOP Senator Tuberville is inflicting unnecessary damage to our military by blocking the promotion of 160 officers,” Schumer said in a tweet.

“For what? So he can push the MAGA hard line on blocking women’s choice? Women in the military are more than capable of making their own healthcare decisions,” Schumer said.

“We’re in a situation now where we are beginning to see critical positions that are in jeopardy of not being filled,” Reed added.

“If this continues, we will have within a few months, no leadership in significant [parts of the military]. In fact, almost the entire Department of Defense will have acting people, will have temporary people, and we need leadership right now,” he said.

Tuberville remained steadfast in opposition, arguing the policy was implemented without input from Congress.

“Y’all got the American taxpayer on the hook to pay for travel and time off for selective abortions. And you did not make this with anybody in this room. Or Congress taking a vote. In fact, this contradicts what Congress has actually voted for,” he said.

“I’m not going to let our military be politicized. I want our military to be the strongest and the deadliest it has ever been. But I also want the administration to follow the law. As long as I have a voice in this body, Congress will write the laws. Not the secretary of defense, not the Joint Chiefs,” he said.

Austin said his decision was based on “strong legal ground,” although he agreed to cooperate with Congress.

“Almost one in five of our troops are women. And they don’t get a chance to choose where their station, so almost 80,000 of our women are stationed in places that where they don’t have access to non-covered reproductive health care,” Austin said.

“And I heard from our troops, I heard from our senior leaders, I heard from our chiefs, and also our secretaries and this policy is based on strong legal grounds. And it is not a law. It is a policy. And so, you know, we obviously don’t pass laws in the Department of Defense,” Austin said. “But again, I assure you that we have great respect for this body, Congress, and we will do everything within our power to make sure that we continue to work with Congress.”

Tuberville’s hold on nominations may also have an impact on the process to pick a successor to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark A. Milley whose tenure ends Sept. 30.

No name has been put forward yet for Milley’s replacement but it’s strongly believed that the two leading contenders are Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown and Gen. David Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CAPE COAST, Ghana) — Vice President Kamala Harris started her Tuesday in Ghana looking toward what the future could hold for Africa — but on Tuesday afternoon, she looked back at the dark history of slavery on the continent, visibly moved by what she had just seen at Cape Coast Castle, where Africans were held captive before being sent to the Americas and Caribbean.

“Being here was — was immensely powerful and moving,” Harris said after touring the grounds, her voice breaking with emotion. “When we think about human beings retrieved by the hundreds of thousands, in this very place that we now stand. The crimes that happened here. The blood that was shed here.”

Harris had a speech prepared for the tour, placed on a stand before she walked out, but afterward an official in the vice president’s office said the remarks she actually gave were mostly off the cuff.

“There are dungeons here where human beings were kept. Men, women and children. They were kidnapped from their homes. They were transported hundreds of miles from their homes, not really sure where they were headed. And they came to this place of horror,” Harris said. “Some to die, many to starve and be tortured, women to be raped — before they were then forcibly taken on a journey thousands of miles from their home to be sold by so-called merchants and taken to the Americas, to the Caribbean to be an enslaved people.”

During her tour, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff entered the dungeons, first where the men were kept, and then looked out to the ocean where the ships would leave. Harris stood there for a moment, hands on her hips, at one point wiping her face.

As they walked down toward the dungeon for women and the “Door of No Return,” where slaves were forced onto ships, Harris was seen again overcome with emotion, wiping her face.

She emerged from the female dungeon with flowers, placing them in an adjacent room where others had also left them on the floor against a wall.

“We don’t know the numbers who died on their way to this place, the numbers who were killed during that passage on the Atlantic [Ocean],” she said after the tour.

But, she said, “The horror of what happened here must always be remembered. It cannot be denied. It must be taught. History must be learned. And we must then be guided by what we know also to be the history of those who survived in the Americas, in the Caribbean — those who proudly declare themselves to be the diaspora.”

The docent who accompanied the vice president at Cape Coast Castle said to reporters that she told Harris how the captives in the dungeons would look up, through the holes of the walls and ceilings around them to the sky beyond and pray for redemption.

The docent also talked of how some of the slaves would sing — and said that she sang for Harris, too, a song about the “problems of life” and wishing for death, “because that means freedom.”

In her speech at Cape Coast Castle, Harris said that “all these stories must be told. All these stories must be told in a way that we take from this place. The pain we all feel. The anguish that reeks from this place.”

“The descendants of the people who walked through that door were strong people, proud people, people of deep faith. People who loved their families, their traditions, their culture, and carried that innate being with them,” Harris said. Despite the horrors they endured, their descendants “went on to fight for civil rights, fight for justice, in the United States of America and around the world,” she said. “And all of us, regardless of your background, have benefited from their struggle and their fight.”

Harris, the first Black U.S. vice president, is on a weeklong trip to Africa, her first while in office. She arrived in Ghana on Sunday and will also travel to Tanzania and Zambia.

She said in a brief speech after arriving in Ghana that she wants to promote “increasing investments,” the “economic empowerment” of women, girls and young businesspeople, “digital inclusion” and food security in light of mounting challenges from climate change.

Earlier Tuesday, she spoke before thousands of young Ghanaians in front of the Black Star Monument, a major landmark in the heart of the capital city of Accra. There, she focused on the importance of women and girls being able to “fully participate in economic, political and social life” and praised “African ingenuity and creativity.”

“What happens on this continent impacts the entire world,” she told the assembled activists, entrepreneurs and students. “Seeing all of you here today makes me so optimistic and excited about this future.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BALTIMORE) — A Maryland appeals court on Tuesday reinstated Adnan Syed’s murder conviction after finding that a lower court violated the victim’s family the right to attend a hearing on vacating the conviction.

Syed, the subject of the “Serial” podcast, had his conviction tossed out by a circuit court and the Baltimore County state attorney’s office dropped charges before he was set free last fall.

Syed, who is now 41, had been serving a life sentence for the past 23 years — more than half his life — since his arrest in 1999.

He was just 17 when he was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and imprisonment of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 2000.

He has maintained his innocence and denied any involvement in Lee’s death.

An appellate court panel voted 2-1 to reinstate the conviction, according to a court filing.

“We vacate the circuit court’s order vacating Mr. Syed’s convictions, which results in the reinstatement of the original convictions and sentence,” the court filing said. “We remand for a new, legally compliant, and transparent hearing on the motion to vacate, where Mr. Lee is given notice of the hearing that is sufficient to allow him to attend in person, evidence supporting the motion to vacate is presented, and the court states its reasons in support of its decision.”

Judge Michelle Phinn ordered Syed’s release in October 2022, asking for his shackles to be removed after listening to the state and the defense make arguments.

She said that “in the interests of fairness and justice,” Syed should be released on his own recognizance after finding that prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that could have helped his trial in 2000 and after new evidence was discovered that could have affected the outcome of his case.

The appellate court said “the circuit court violated Mr. Lee’s right to notice of, and his right to attend, the hearing on the State’s motion to vacate.”

A spokesperson for the state attorney said in a statement the office is “conducting a review of the decision.” The office did not answer whether Syed has to return to prison.

“We must allow the appeals process to play itself out, Mr. Syed and his legal team may file for an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court, and we must respect their rights to do so until those rights are either heard or that request is denied; we are in a holding pattern. Any further comment would be premature at this time,” said spokesman James E. Bentley II.

A lawyer for Syed did not return an ABC News request for comment.

ABC News’ Quinn Owen contributed to this report.

1291s22 by ABC News Politics

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The top federal judge for the D.C. district court has issued a swift rejection of former President Donald Trump’s assertion of executive privilege to prevent former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before a grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

At the same time, the judge issued a ruling that narrowly upheld parts of a separate legal challenge brought by Pence’s attorneys, who have argued 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.

According to sources, D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg ordered that Pence should have to provide answers to special counsel Jack Smith on any questions that implicate any illegal acts on Trump’s part.

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.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment to ABC News. Spokespeople for Pence and Trump did not immediately respond.

Boasberg’s rulings came just four days after his and Pence’s lawyers appeared at the district court to argue their challenge to the subpoena from the special counsel.

It was not immediately clear whether Trump or Pence’s legal teams are planning to appeal the rulings.

Pence has previously vowed to fight the subpoena to the Supreme Court if necessary, most recently telling ABC’s Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, “We’re going to respect the decisions of the court, and that may take us to the highest court in the land.”

The February subpoena to Pence demanded he provide documents and testimony related to the failed attempt by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election and followed months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team.

Boasberg’s orders followed upon another recent ruling by his predecessor in the role as D.C.’s chief judge, Judge Beryl Howell, who similarly rejected Trump’s claims of executive privilege over the testimony of multiple other top aides, including his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

In a letter reviewed by ABC News, White House special counsel Richard Sauber informed Jack Smith that President Joe Biden would not be asserting executive privilege over Pence’s testimony.

“These events — which reflected the most serious attack on the operations of the Federal Government since the Civil War — threatened not only the safety of Congress and others present at the Capitol, but also the principles of democracy enshrined in our history and our Constitution,” Sauber wrote to Smith in February, after Smith had reached out the White House to determine whether the president planned to assert privilege over Pence’s grand jury appearance.

“In light of these unique circumstances, President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the public interest with respect to the efforts to thwart the orderly transition of power under our Constitution.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The House Foreign Affairs Committee has served Secretary of State Antony Blinken with a subpoena for a classified document from diplomats in Kabul warning the Afghan government was at risk of collapse as the last American troops prepared to exit.

It marks a significant escalation in the GOP probe of how the Biden administration handled the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal.

The Republican chairman of the committee, Rep. Mike McCaul, said in a statement Monday night that the panel “made multiple good faith attempts to find common ground” with Blinken to allow lawmakers to see what’s called a “dissent cable” sent to State Department leadership in July 2021 as well as Blinken’s reply, calling the communication “a critical piece of information.”

“Unfortunately, Secretary Blinken has refused to provide the dissent cable and his response to the cable, forcing me to issue my first subpoena as chairman of the committee,” McCaul continued, adding that the panel expects the State Department will “follow the law and comply with this subpoena in good faith.”

But State Department officials have indicated that the agency is unlikely to hand over the documents without mounting a challenge.

“The department followed up with the committee to reiterate its willingness to provide a briefing about the concerns raised and the challenges identified by Embassy Kabul, including in the dissent channel. The Committee chose instead to issue a subpoena,” State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said in statement.

“The department remains committed to providing the committee the information it needs to conduct its oversight function, and has already provided thousands of pages of documents responsive to the committee’s request,” Patel said.

Blinken argued against supplying lawmakers with the requested documents during a hearing before the committee last week, claiming that turning them over may have a chilling effect on State Department employees who are free to use the private channel within the department to express misgivings or concerns.

“The tradition of having a dissent channel goes back decades,” the secretary testified. “It’s a unique way for anyone is the department to speak truth to power as they see it without fear or favor. And they do it by the regulations we established for these cables in a privileged and confidential way.”

But Republicans and even some Democrats say that there is value in examining the documents, which provide a first-hand account of conditions on the ground in Afghanistan during the days and weeks leading up the final, chaotic phase of the U.S. withdrawal as a Taliban offensive swept across the country and threatened the capital.

A source previously told ABC News that the cable, co-signed by nearly two dozen U.S. Embassy staffers on July 13, 2021, called on the Biden administration to begin airlifting Afghan allies out of the country immediately and urged Washington to use stronger language to condemn the Taliban’s atrocities.

The source said Blinken promptly read the cable and responded to it. The Biden administration also announced an operation to relocate Afghans who worked with U.S. and NATO forces the day after the initial memo was sent.

However, evacuations did not begin until late July, meaning only a small share of the tens of thousands of Afghans eligible for special immigration visas could be taken out before Kabul was retaken by the Taliban, prompting bipartisan criticism of the Biden administration.

In the hectic final days of the U.S. occupation, the terrorist group ISIS-K also carried out a suicide bombing near the crowded entrance to the Hamid Karzai Intenational Airport in Kabul, killing 13 American servicemembers and scores of Afghans.

“The American people deserve answers as to how this tragedy unfolded,” McCaul said in his statement announcing the subpoena.

ABC’s Cindy Smith and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — A staffer for Sen. Rand Paul was stabbed and seriously injured in Washington, D.C., on Saturday and a suspect has since been arrested, according to police and Paul’s office.

“This past weekend a member of my staff was brutally attacked in broad daylight in Washington, D.C.,” Paul, R-Ky,. said in a statement to ABC News on Monday. “I ask you to join [wife] Kelley and me in praying for a speedy and complete recovery, and thanking the first responders, hospital staff, and police for their diligent actions.”

Paul’s office has not publicly identified the staffer.

According to a police report obtained by ABC News, officers first responded Saturday around 5:15 p.m. to a call about a stabbing on the 1300 block of H Street Northeast in the district.

The victim was treated on the scene for “stab wounds” and was seen by a witness “bleeding from the head,” the report states.

According to one of two witnesses cited in the report, the suspect had “popped out of the corner” and stabbed the Paul staffer multiple times as he and the witness were walking. The victim “was able to grab [the suspect’s] arms” and the witness with him tackled the suspect, “leading to a struggle between the parties,” the report states. Then, the victim and the witness ran as the suspect fled.

The first witness shouted to another about what was happening and that person called the authorities while they aided the victim, according to the report.

On Monday, D.C. police said that 42-year-old Glynn Neal, a D.C. resident, was arrested later on Saturday and had been charged with assault with intent to kill, wielding a knife, in connection with the attack. Court filings state that he has told officers he heard a voice was going to get him before the attack occurred.

Paul’s staffer was hospitalized “for treatment of life-threatening injuries,” police said, but further information about his condition was not available.

“We are relieved to hear the suspect has been arrested. At this time we would ask for privacy so everyone can focus on healing and recovery,” Paul said in his statement.

Neal appeared in court on Monday and remains held without bond.

A public defender representing him did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ACCRA, Ghana) — During her first full day in Accra, Ghana on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris met with the nation’s president, raising human rights issues and growing competition from China in the region during their bilateral meeting.

Currently being discussed in Ghana’s parliament is the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Value” — a bill that would imprison those that identify as LGBTQ and criminalizes advocacy for LGBTQ rights.

Harris said on Monday that she discussed human rights with Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo but did not specifically comment on the anti-LGBTQ bill before parliament.

During a joint news conference, Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s commitment to calling out any foreign government that advanced anti-gay legislation or violates human rights.

While Harris did not directly address the bill, she said “I feel very strongly about the importance of supporting the freedom and supporting the fighting for equality among all people, and that all people be treated equally. I will also say that this is an issue that we consider, and I consider to be a human rights issue, and that will not change.”

President Nana Akufo-Addo repeatedly refused to say what he would do if the bill passed — saying he would wait to see what his parliament does.

In addition to Ghana, Harris will visit Tanzania and Zambia this week — two countries that have anti-LGBTQ laws.

Harris, whose trip is seen as a U.S. effort to counter growing Chinese influence on the continent, also announced the U.S. will provide $100 million to support stabilization in the region.

Additionally, Harris was asked what guarantee she could make to Ghanaians that the U.S. is more committed to their future with China, and what it says about U.S.-Ghana relations.

“The president and I had a conversation on this very topic,” Harris said. “But the conversation was not about China as much as it is about the enduring and important direct relationship that the United States has with Ghana and with African nations.”

President Akufo-Addo brushed off the attention given to China’s presence in Africa.

“It may be an obsession in America. But there is no such obsession here,” Akufo-Addo said.

Akufo-Addo called out former President Donald Trump for never visiting the continent and said that he hopes President Joe Biden would make it.

The $100 million to support stabilization will go to Ghana, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Togo.

On the economy, Harris said “I recognize the challenges that Ghana is facing, especially in the wake of a global pandemic and the disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

“We must work together as an international community to ease the debt burden that is facing far too many countries,” Harris said.

Later on Monday, Harris visited Vibrate Space, a community recording studio, with actors Idris Elba and Sheryl Lee Ralph.

“Your reputation collectively, all of the artists, everything that you have done, is an international reputation,” Harris told a group of Ghanaian artists, including Baaba J and Ansah Live.

Elba said he said he thinks this trip is going to be “significant” to Black Americans in the United States.

“When we think about Africa and we think about African Americans, and we think about Ghana, Ghana has been for the last four or five years a sort of a meeting point for African Americans and the Diaspora to come around Christmas time, the holiday time, and reconnect with whatever roots they think they have in Africa,” Elba said.

He was optimistic that the vice president was also here to bridge gaps between Ghana and investments in the country — calling it an “active step in the right direction.”

Harris travels to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Wednesday afternoon, and then departs Tanzania for Lusaka, the Zambian capital, on Friday. She is scheduled to meet with the presidents of both countries.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Sen. Tammy Duckworth are reflecting on their past military service in Iraq on the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion there.

Both lawmakers recently sat down with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz for a segment that aired Sunday, looking back at the fighting and what they’ve learned.

Crenshaw, who lost an eye serving in Afghanistan but had previously deployed to Iraq, and Duckworth, a former helicopter pilot who lost both of her legs when her aircraft was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, said they have no regrets over their service.

Though Duckworth, D-Ill., disagreed with the reasoning behind the invasion, she told Raddatz: “I was proud to go because it was my job as a soldier to obey all lawful orders. And this was a lawful order.”

“My sacrifice is for the Constitution of the United States, and that is always worth it,” Duckworth added.

Crenshaw, R-Texas, echoed those sentiments, saying the invasion of Iraq was “complicated” but that his service was “a time in my life that I don’t regret for a second, even with the missing eye.”

“I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for us. … I chose to do what I did,” he said.

In her interview with Raddatz, Duckworth recalled the emotional toll of being injured as a pilot, when she initially thought she had crashed her helicopter and caused harm to her crew until her family told her otherwise. “I’ve been fine ever since,” she said.

Crenshaw said that while the debate over invading Iraq — a protracted occupation that began on March 20, 2003, in part as a hunt for “weapons of mass destruction” that were never found — may never be reconciled, he thought American forces withdrew too soon, possibly creating a vacuum for the Islamic State to fill.

“All of these bad guys we were tracking, they’re always in Syria, always on the eastern side of Syria, right on the border. That was their safe haven. And it’s the equivalent of Pakistan for the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said.

“Pretty obvious that it’s American presence that was keeping them there.”

Both Duckworth and Crenshaw said their experience taught them that more planning could help prevent yearslong interventions — or having to deploy the military in the first place.

“We better know what the parameters of the fight are going to be and what the end goal of the fight will be, so that we’re not stuck there for decades with no off ramp,” Duckworth said.

“War sucks, which is why you to try to prevent it,” Crenshaw said. “You don’t prevent it by waiting until the last minute to act.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — For Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, fatherhood and politics are not mutually exclusive.

Since Buttigieg and his husband Chasten adopted newborn twins in 2021, the Democrat and his family have been repeatedly criticized and mocked by Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence. Most recently, Pence made what the White House described as a “homophobic joke” about Buttigieg taking parental leave.

“When Pete’s two children were born, he took two months’ maternity leave whereupon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways,” Pence reportedly said at the annual Gridiron Dinner for journalists and politicians in Washington, D.C., on March 11. “Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression.”

Pence, who is considering a 2024 presidential run, has since refused to apologize and even doubled down on his controversial remarks.

“The Gridiron Dinner is a roast,” he told reporters at a GOP dinner in New Hampshire on March 17. “I had a lot of jokes directed to me, and I directed a lot of jokes to Republicans and Democrats. The only thing I can figure is Pete Buttigieg not only can’t do his job, but he can’t take a joke.”

In an interview airing Monday on ABC News’ “Life Out Loud with LZ Granderson” podcast, Buttigieg said such “attacks” would bother him more if he wasn’t “being daily reminded of what was so important.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it is galling for people, especially people who go on television talking about family values. And then when your actual family is struggling, they use it as a way to attack you or as a political football,” the secretary said. “Don’t get me wrong, that definitely gets to you at some level. But at another level, you realize that that’s just politics.”

The Buttigiegs’ twin children, Penelope Rose and Joseph August “Gus,” became sick with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as premature infants. Both babies had to be hospitalized and put on oxygen. They have since fully recovered and are now healthy 19-month-olds.

“When you’re face-to-face with a life-or-death struggle involving a child and that comes out OK, it becomes less important to you that the political game comes out OK,” Buttigieg said. “Because if you got to choose between one of those things working out, it’s an easy choice. The things you want and need most to work out is the wellbeing of your family and it allows you to remember that so much of the rest is noise. It doesn’t make it OK and there are different ways in the political and the policy space that so many families are under attack right now and yet, when you can put it in that kind of perspective, at least in our journey in our path, it was one of the many ways that having kids gives you a healthy reality check on what matters most in life.”

The secretary said comments like those made by Pence, who was previously governor of Indiana while Buttigieg was mayor of South Bend, “are a play for attention” and that focusing on his family is “the best answer.”

“Don’t get me wrong, we’ll stick up for our family,” he added. “Chasten has stuck up for our family in amazing ways, but the last thing you want to do is reward that kind of thing with your attention.”

“I think the best answer to a lot of these attacks and a lot of this meanness that’s out there, the best answer is to be a thriving family or to do everything you can to be a thriving family,” he continued. “The best answer to people out there who don’t even think we count as a real family is the love and the beauty of our family itself. It’s not a zinger. It’s not a tweet. It’s something that those critics will maybe never see for themselves and wouldn’t know how to respect if they did, which is the unconditional and enormous love that binds us together in this new family — that gives a different kind of meaning to my life.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.