Politics

(WASHINGTON) — The Equal Rights Amendment was first drafted and introduced in Congress in 1923 — and now, a century later, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to at last enshrine its guarantees of gender equality in the Constitution.

“I’m dismayed that in 2023, we still have to fight to be seen as full citizens given the contributions of women as defenders of our democracy and all the contributions that we make to civic life, to culture, to our economy,” Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who is leading the effort in the House to ratify the ERA, told ABC News in a segment on “This Week” on Sunday.

Congress passed the ERA in 1972 with support from members of both parties, following efforts by leading female legislators like then-New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress.

The amendment states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

But after passing the House and Senate, the proposed amendment fell short of the three-fourths majority of states — 38 — needed to ratify it before a seven-year deadline set by Congress. Although lawmakers voted to extend the ratification deadline by an additional three years, no new states signed on amid a campaign by conservative activists led by Phyllis Schlafly to stop the amendment.

Schlafly and others argued at the time that rather than extend legal protections for women, the ERA would force them to be treated like men in other ways — such as pushing them into the military draft. Some also said the amendment would expand abortion access, upend child support requirements or encroach on the sex-separation of bathrooms.

“The majority of women simply don’t want it,” Schlafly argued in 1976.

Complicating matters further, five states later voted to rescind their earlier support for the amendment, though such a move has disputed legal value.

The ERA has seen revived public interest in recent years, following the #MeToo movement, women’s marches and the record number of women running and winning seats in Congress.

Nevada voted to ratify the amendment in 2017, Illinois did so in 2018 and it reached the 38-state threshold needed when Virginia voted to do the same in 2020.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the congressional deadline on the ERA was legally binding, so the later three ratifications were not valid. Illinois and Nevada sued to demand publication of the measure as the 28th Amendment but failed to show why the deadline that Congress set shouldn’t be enforceable.

Lawmakers and advocates backing the ERA now argue that Congress has the power to lift the deadline because they had the power to impose it in the first place. Pressley told ABC News that it was the “only thing standing in our way.”

“What I think it does is put the ball back in Congress’ court, and that’s where we’ve been playing for quite some time,” said Zakiya Thomas, president and CEO of the ERA Coalition.

Some activists renewed their push to codify the ERA in light of the Supreme Court’s decision last year overruling Roe v. Wade’s national guarantee to abortion access.

“Especially now, it’s important to reintroduce this … in the midst of draconian, very dangerous and targeted attacks against women and the LGBTQ community,” Pressley said. “And really, it’s always time to uplift and to center the humanity and dignity of all people and we need that to be enshrined in the Constitution. I want to vote on this now.”

Last week, the Senate held its first hearing on the ERA in 40 years.

“Here we are, a century after its first introduction, 2023,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “It’s time to get the job done. In fact, it’s long overdue.”

The amendment could have real world implications. Jadonna Sanders is a sergeant paramedic with the Washington, D.C., fire department. She has filed a federal lawsuit against the district’s Fire and EMS department alleging gender discrimination and demanding equal pay.

“This is the same story everywhere you go, especially with women who are in a profession such as firefighting, police, you know, where men dominate,” Sanders said.

Officials have pushed back on her claims.

“The department has a long history and a recent history of … hiring women, promoting women,” the department’s chief, John Donnelly, said last year. “Those things seem foreign to me, but we’ll look into them.”

The compensation gap between men and women is just one of several areas that advocates say the ERA would shore up. In 2022, women earned 82 cents on average for every dollar earned by men — a disparity almost unchanged over two decades.

But the battle in Congress is still breaking down along usual party lines.

“The people who are pushing politically to pass this are hanging their head on if it became law, every pro-life measure in this country would fall,” the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican member, Lindsey Graham, said during last week’s hearing. Others in the GOP say there is no legislative authority to “revive” the amendment.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is one of few Republicans on board with the ERA, hoping this latest push builds momentum.

“What has happened in the states should not die here in the Senate,” Murkowski said in recent remarks, noting that “we still have a long ways to go when it comes to achieving equality for women.”

In the House, where the Republican majority has declined to take up the bill, Pressley hopes to keep the fight alive.

“It’s long past time,” she told ABC News.

“Equality for all people? Certainly there should be nothing partisan about that.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday had sharp words for the chorus of Republican-led critics to his response to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February.

In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg offered his most vociferous defense to date, seeking to rebut claims that the Biden administration doesn’t care about the blue-collar town by casting his detractors as the ones truly out of touch.

“It’s really rich to see some of these folks — the former president [Donald Trump], these Fox hosts — who are literally lifelong card-carrying members of the East Coast elite, whose top economic policy priority has always been tax cuts for the wealthy, and who wouldn’t know their way around a T.J. Maxx if their life depended on it, to be presenting themselves as if they genuinely care about the forgotten middle of the country,” Buttigieg said.

The transportation chief, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who also ran for president in 2020, took specific aim at Trump, who visited East Palestine last month.

While in East Palestine, Trump praised local responders and said, “What this community needs now are not excuses … but answers and results.”

Trump also said his trip pressured Buttigieg to subsequently make his own appearance.

“That’s bull—-,” Buttigieg told CNN. “We were already going to go.”

He said it was “somewhat maddening” that Trump would visit East Palestine after easing environmental and rail regulations during his time in the White House “and then show up giving out bottled water and campaign swag.”

Buttigieg has been the target of a fusillade of conservative attacks since last month’s train derailment and concerns over the spread of the noxious chemicals that were on board.

He conceded to CNN that he should have gone to the site of the crash sooner, saying, “Sometimes people need policy work, and sometimes people need performative work. And to get to this level, you’ve got to be ready to serve up both.”

Transportation secretaries do not typically visit train derailments, as some Biden administration supporters have noted. But being there in person was valuable, Buttigieg said: “I think it was important to hear and see how the community was responding, what they were worried about it just a different way that you can sense on paper.”

But Republicans have kept up their scrutiny, which follows past criticism of how the secretary handled issues like Southwest’s holiday season flight meltdowns.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and others have said Buttigieg should resign. Some have personally targeted the first openly gay Cabinet member to be confirmed by the Senate, with attacks on his sexuality.

Donald Trump Jr. insisted that Buttigieg was only tapped for his job because he was “that gay guy,” while Fox News host Tucker Carlson has referred to him as “flamboyantly incompetent” to the point of “evil.”

Buttigieg’s Democratic defenders say those attacks are off base and that while Buttigieg could have made the trip earlier, Republicans are overestimating his ability to ameliorate the issue while using his past presidential bid as low hanging fruit for attacks.

“Maybe they think that because he ran for president, he’s an easy target to hit,” outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told CNN. “People always say, ‘What’s Secretary Buttigieg going to do next? What’s Buttigieg going to do next?’ We’ve talked. What he’s going to do next is be secretary of transportation.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SELMA, Ala.) — President Joe Biden traveled to Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

There, Biden spoke at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — where in 1965 hundreds of civil rights marchers were attacked by police. The violence, which sparked national outrage, marked a turning point in the movement and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

“They forced the country to confront the hard truth and to act to keep the promise of America alive,” the president said in his remarks at the bridge. He also stressed that he believed voting, a “fundamental right,” remains under assault decades later — from conservative Supreme Court justices and from state lawmakers and from election deniers.

Biden touted some steps he and others had taken, such as enacting the post-Jan. 6 Electoral Count Reform Act. But “we must remain vigilant,” he said, repeating his plea for Congress to pass new voting legislation named for the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who was beaten and suffered a skull fracture during “Bloody Sunday.”

And while the president said there was a list of other accomplishments he was proud of, including various investments in the Black community, “We know there’s work to do,” he said, briefly touching on destructive tornado weather that had blown through Selma.

His message, on the anniversary of the march, was “extremism will not prevail …. Silence, as the saying goes, silence is complicity. And I promise you, my administration will not remain silent. I promise you.”

After speaking, the president marched across the bridge with civil rights advocates — the first time he did so since entering the White House.

Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday, as she previewed the trip, that he would “talk about the importance of commemorating ‘Bloody Sunday’ so that history cannot be erased. He will highlight how the continued fight for voting rights is integral to delivering economic justice and civil rights for Black Americans.”

Biden has repeatedly spoken on voting rights, highlighting the issue in a sermon honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in January and in his most recent State of the Union, despite legislation faltering during his first two years in the Oval Office.

Democrats attempted last year to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act with a bill named after Lewis but failed to gain enough support to break the Senate filibuster. Now, with a Republican-led House, any effort to push legislation through will face an even greater challenge.

“In America, we must protect the right to vote, not suppress that fundamental right. We honor the results of our elections, not subvert the will of the people. We must uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy,” Biden said during his State of the Union last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Selma last year for the 57th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” She said then the marchers beaten by state troopers were fighting for “the most fundamental right of American citizenship: the right to vote.”

“Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time. We again, however, find ourselves caught in between injustice and justice, between disappointment and determination, still in a fight to form a more perfect union,” Harris said. “And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.”

Biden in 2020, while he was on the campaign trail, received a warm reception as he addressed the congregation gathered at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma to observe “Bloody Sunday.”

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said she invited Biden to attend the “Bloody Sunday” anniversary during his State of the Union.

“I look forward to welcoming the President to my hometown as we reflect on the sacrifices of the Foot Soldiers in the name of equality and justice for all,” Sewell said in a statement.

ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump makes his case as a Republican presidential candidate at CPAC.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Sunday that he will not seek the Republican presidential nomination for 2024.

Hogan made clear that he’s not running so he can focus on defeating former President Donald Trump — and admitted that entering the primary field could split voters enough to help Trump win the nomination with a plurality, as he did in 2016.

“To once again be a successful governing party, we must move on from Donald Trump. There are several competent Republican leaders who have the potential to step up and lead. But the stakes are too high for me to risk being part of another multicar pileup that could potentially help Mr. Trump recapture the nomination,” Hogan said in a statement.

A popular Republican governor in a blue state who was term-limited out of office this year, Hogan had said he was considering a campaign to try to blunt Trump’s comeback bid for the White House. (Trump has said Hogan is a “RINO,” or Republican in name only.)

Hogan spent eight years governing Maryland, maintaining broad popularity with a balance between traditional conservatism in some instances but moderation on social policies. He also faced an overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature that served as a check, overriding vetoes on legislation regarding issues like abortion access and paid family leave.

During the Trump administration, Hogan became a vocal critic of the then-president and last year endorsed a slew of candidates in midterm races who were running counter to the “America First” populism that has swept the GOP.

In his statement on Sunday, Hogan called for a return to what he called more conventional conservative values while still appealing to the blue-collar voters Trump brought into the Republican fold, including knocking the former president on his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“An encouraging trend for Republican politics lies in the fact that the excesses of progressive elites have created the opportunity to attract more working-class voters from all different backgrounds. But many in the Republican Party falsely believe that the best way to reach these voters is through more angry, performative politics and bigger government,” Hogan said.

“I still believe in a Republican Party that stands for fiscal responsibility and getting the government off our backs and out of our pockets. I still believe in a Republican Party that celebrates entrepreneurship and economic opportunity for every American,” he said. “And I still believe in a Republican Party that upholds and honors perhaps our most sacred tradition: the peaceful transfer of power.”

Still, Hogan was defiant in an interview with CBS News on “Face the Nation,” insisting that he could have stood toe-to-toe in a primary with Trump, who rose to the 2016 nomination in part by denigrating his opponents with personal attacks.

“It would be a tough race. And he’s very tough. But, you know, I beat life-threatening cancer. So having Trump call me names on Twitter didn’t really scare me off,” Hogan said.

The current 2024 primary field remains small, with just Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as the only two major entrants.

However, several other Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem are thought to be mulling their own campaigns.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown on Sunday touted the need for new bipartisan rail safety legislation weeks after the toxic train derailment in East Palestine sparked an uproar over existing regulations and precautions for rail companies.

“It shouldn’t take a rail disaster to get us working together like that. And that’s what we’re going to be doing,” Brown told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

The Democratic lawmaker said he believed his proposal, backed by him and Ohio’s Republican senator, J.D. Vance, among others, could pass their chamber even if its prospects in the House were less clear. President Joe Biden endorsed the legislation Thursday and encouraged Congress to act quickly on it.

The fallout from the train derailment has become a political debate, with Republicans like former President Donald Trump accusing the Biden administration of ignoring East Palestine while the White House has pushed back.

“They want this fixed. They don’t care about partisan politics there,” Brown said on “This Week,” referencing the residents of East Palestine. “They care that this corporation continues to weaken safety rules and continues to be immensely profitable while undermining public health, public safety for their workers and for the communities that they that they drive through.”

Last month’s derailment, which saw noxious chemicals spilling into the waterways and soil in East Palestine, a small Ohio village near the Pennsylvania border, led to bipartisan calls in Congress for a legislative solution.

Norfolk Southern, which operated the train, said Wednesday that the company is “committed” to working on ways to prevent another incident like what took place in East Palestine. But on Saturday, another Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio, this time in Springfield. The company said that unlike in East Palestine, this train was not carrying hazardous materials.

Brown told Stephanopoulos that while other officials he has spoken to were “pretty satisfied with Norfolk Southern’s response” to the latest derailment, he wants to know more, like if there any “contaminants” leftover in that train’s cars that could impact the surrounding area.

“The railroad’s got a lot of questions they’ve got to answer and they really haven’t done it very well yet,” Brown said.

Norfolk Southern’s CEO, Alan Shaw, will appear Thursday before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee. On “This Week,” Brown blamed the self-interest of the company’s executives for recent incidents.

“Ohio’s now had four derailments. As of yesterday, four derailments in the last five months. East Palestine was the most serious, but we still have questions … about these other derailments too,” Brown said.

He and Vance teamed up with four other senators of both parties to introduce the Railway Safety Act of 2023, which seeks to address the causes and fallout of the crash.

Among other things, their bill would mandate that rail companies inform emergency response commissions what hazardous materials are traveling through their states and when; require crews to consist of at least two people at a time when many companies are moving toward single-person crews; and increase fines and inspections.

“The fines for safety have averaged about $10,000 over the last few years to Norfolk Southern, on CSX, in the other big railroads. That’s just pennies on the dollar, a cost of doing business, and it’s no incentive to make it safer,” Brown said.

The legislation would also institute new national requirements for monitoring wheel bearings, including to automatically detect any issues. An overheated wheel bearing, to which the crew was alerted too late, contributed to the crash in East Palestine, federal authorities have said.

However, Brown acknowledged uncertainty about whether his bill could pass the Republican-controlled House after some conservatives in the chamber cast the legislation as overly restrictive.

“I think our chances in the Senate are good. I make no predictions in the House,” Brown said, pointing to the influence of lobbyists.

“I am very concerned about the power of the railroads to beat back safety regulations. But you’d think a disaster that happened in East Palestine would have gotten their attention,” he said.

Stephanopoulos separately pressed the senator on whether he is concerned about running for reelection in a red state next year, likely on the same ballot as President Joe Biden, who would face stiff headwinds winning the erstwhile swing state.

“I don’t think a lot about that,” Brown insisted, referencing his extensive travel across Ohio.

Throughout the interview, Brown sounded off the same populist notes that are likely to underscore his next campaign in a state dominated by the kinds of blue-collar voters who defected from Democrats to back former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

“People are still concerned, based on my last few trips there [to East Palestine]. This company has done huge stock buybacks and they were trying to do an even bigger one this year; they’ve laid off a third of their workforce,” Brown said of Norfolk Southern. “Their greed and incompetence always take precedent over their workers and safety.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan on Sunday shared his concerns about recent headline-making safety issues for America’s rail and aviation systems, which he said underscored the need for congressional oversight.

“We need to be proactive, not reactive, with regard to these kinds of public safety transportation issues,” Sullivan told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

In particular, Sullivan singled out the importance of legislative proposals and hearings by lawmakers as well as companies maintaining updated infrastructure.

The Republican lawmaker sits on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which is set to hear testimony on Thursday from the CEO of Norfolk Southern, the company whose train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, last month, spilling toxic chemicals.

“What do you want to hear from him [CEO Alan Shaw]?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Well, I want to hear some of the issues that Sen. [Sherrod] Brown raised, and in particular some of the issues that related to the laying off of workers,” Sullivan said. “It’s not just going to be him. It’s going to be government officials as well on what is happening.”

Echoing Brown’s separate appearance on “This Week” on Sunday, Sullivan said, “There’s a number of train derailments that happened across the country … And we need to get to the bottom of why these are happening.”

Brown, a Democrat, and Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance recently proposed a bill intended increase rail safety in the wake of the East Palestine derailment. (Norfolk Southern has said it wants to work to ensure there aren’t future incidents like that one.)

“I’m actually glad that Sen. Brown and Sen. Vance have put forward some good bipartisan legislation,” Sullivan told Stephanopoulos when asked whether he supports their bill. “I agree with Sen. Brown: It shouldn’t take a disaster to have good oversight legislation to make sure that we have a safe rail system. But really importantly [what] I’ve focused on, George, is a safe aviation system.”

Sullivan pointed to “several near misses” recently at various airports and “huge warning signs” about underlying problems.

Stephanopoulos asked if the lack of a permanent Federal Aviation Administration chief was “hampering” the safety efforts.

“I think it absolutely it is,” Sullivan said.

President Joe Biden recently nominated Phil Washington to head the FAA, but Sullivan expressed concern over Washington’s background: “He’s somebody who served in the Army, honorably, but doesn’t have a lot of experience with regard to aviation safety. So we’ll see what happens.”

“We need to be on this in terms of safety, now,” Sullivan said. “Americans take for granted that their aviation safety, flying in America, is the safest place to do it in the world.”

Sullivan said he had come away from the aviation hearings so far focused on needed infrastructure upgrades.

“One of the big things is they need [to be] much more aggressive focus on updating their technology and infrastructure. That’s come out in the hearings. And I think that’s something that we need to make sure — again, proactively,” he said.

Stephanopoulos turned the conversation to the ongoing war in Ukraine, asking for a response to Biden’s hesitation to send F-16 fighter jets, with administration officials stressing logistical hurdles like training.

“They need these weapon systems now,” Sullivan said of the Ukrainians. “And this has been a pattern — an unfortunate pattern by this administration — delaying critical weapons systems until we [in Congress] pressure them. They finally get them there, but it oftentimes takes way too late.”

Sullivan said this previously played out with munitions like the Patriot missile system and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS.

“They’ve sent them only after being pressured by Congress. It took Patriots nine months,” he said.

Stephanopoulos also pressed Sullivan about who he will support in the next presidential race. The senator played down the “hypothetical” possibility that former President Donald Trump could be under indictment while running in 2024.

“So, you’ll support Donald Trump if he’s the nominee, even if he’s indicted?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“That’s a huge hypothetical right now on the indictment issue,” Sullivan responded. “We’ll see if that plays out. But right now my plan is to support whoever becomes the nominee.”

When asked about the indictment himself, Trump said Saturday that he would “absolutely” remain in the race for the White House. He has denied wrongdoing in the various investigations he faces.

On “This Week,” Sullivan noted that there are other qualified candidates running or likely to run for the nomination.

“I think having a good, competitive primary with a new generation of Republicans, by the way, is healthy for our party,” he said. “It’s healthy for the country, and I plan on supporting the nominee who wins the Republican nomination.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will travel to Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

There, Biden will speak at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — where in 1965 hundreds of civil rights marchers were attacked by police. The violence, which sparked national outrage, marked a turning point in the movement and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

“In his remarks, President Biden will talk about the importance of commemorating Bloody Sunday so that history cannot be erased,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday as she previewed the trip. “He will highlight how the continued fight for voting rights is integral to delivering economic justice and civil rights for Black Americans.”

Biden has continued to speak on voting rights, highlighting the issue in a sermon honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in January and in his State of the Union, despite legislation faltering during his first two years in the Oval Office.

Democrats attempted last year to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act with a bill named after the late Congressman John Lewis, who was beaten and suffered a skull fracture during Bloody Sunday, but failed to gain enough support to break the Senate filibuster. Now, with a Republican-led House, any effort to push legislation through will face an even greater challenge.

“In America, we must protect the right to vote, not suppress that fundamental right. We honor the results of our elections, not subvert the will of the people. We must uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy,” Biden said during his State of the Union last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Selma last year for the 57th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Harris said the marchers beaten by state troopers were fighting for “the most fundamental right of American citizenship: The right to vote.”

“Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time. We again, however, find ourselves caught in between injustice and justice, between disappointment and determination, still in a fight to form a more perfect union,” Harris said. “And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.”

Biden in 2020, while he was on the campaign trail, received a warm reception as he addressed the congregation gathered at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma to observe Bloody Sunday.

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said she invited Biden to attend the Bloody Sunday anniversary during his State of the Union.

“I look forward to welcoming the President to my hometown as we reflect on the sacrifices of the Foot Soldiers in the name of equality and justice for all,” Sewell said in a statement.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Self-help author and Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson told ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that she doesn’t see her long-shot bid for the White House as a challenge to President Joe Biden — but as “challenging a system.”

During an exclusive, wide-ranging interview for ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Williamson discussed why she’s seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2024, despite an unsuccessful bid for the White House in 2020 and an unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2014.

“I want to be president because this country needs to make an economic U-turn,” Williamson told Karl, describing herself as an “FDR Democrat” and describing a future in which voters “have to rise up.”

Among the priorities she named were free health care, free college and free child care as well as “fundamental economic reform.”

“The system that effectuates and perpetuates that kind of income and opportunity inequality is not changing itself. … It’s not going to change if we continue to elect the same-old, same-old,” she said.

Williamson officially announced her presidential campaign Saturday afternoon, at Washington’s Union Station. She’s currently the only Democratic challenge to President Biden, should he run for reelection as expected.

A bestselling writer and popular speaker, Williamson built a national profile in part through her appearances on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk show. She has stirred controversy for some of her past comments about depression and criticizing vaccine mandates while supporting vaccinations themselves.

“I think it was the Associated Press [that] said you are the longest of long shots. … Why do you think you can do this?” Karl asked.

“I would bet that the Associated Press also said that Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in [in 2016],” Williamson said.

“I don’t know if they would’ve used that language, actually,” Karl pushed back.

“Maybe not. … So the system that is now saying that I’m unserious, I’m not credible, or I’m a long shot is the very system that protects and maintains this idea that only those whose careers have been entrenched within the system that drove us into a ditch should possibly be considered qualified to lead us out of that ditch,” Williamson said.

“My qualification is not that I know how to perpetuate that system. My qualification is that I know how to disrupt it. And that is what we need,” she said.

Williamson suggested that as president, she would seek to “cancel all college loan debt,” before criticizing Biden for not doing more without Congress — such as criminally declassifying marijuana.

Karl followed up, pointing to the checks on a president’s power, such as judicial review and the legislature, which Williamson brushed aside.

“There are many things that the president can do without working through Congress,” she said, adding, “He also could demand that there be an audit of every single cent that is being spent by the Pentagon. [He] could also cancel all of the contracts with union-busting companies.”

On foreign policy, Williamson said she agreed with the White House’s current approach in Ukraine while repeating her past criticisms of U.S. military operations abroad, such as the wars in Iraq and Vietnam.

Regarding China, Williamson seemed to draw a line at vowing a military response if Beijing were to attack the self-governing island of Taiwan but said China could not be a “bully.”

“We must make a stand for such things as human rights. At this point, we must be committed that this not spill over into a military confrontation,” she said.

Though Biden has not yet jumped into the race, most major Democrats expect him to make an announcement in the coming months and he has repeatedly said he intends to run again.

“But there’s too many other things we have to finish in the near term before I start a campaign,” he told ABC News anchor David Muir last month.

At 80 years old, Biden is the oldest serving president in U.S. history and questions about his age have swirled as other candidates have launched bids for 2024. When asked if the president’s age is an issue, Williamson told Karl “I’m not going there. I don’t think ageism has any place in our thinking.”

She would not directly answer if she would support Biden, should he win the party’s nomination. (In the 2020 primary, she backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders after withdrawing.)

“Will you endorse him [Biden] if he wins the nomination?” Karl asked.

“I will certainly endorse the candidate who I feel can beat the Republicans, absolutely,” Williamson said.

“But if he’s the Democratic nominee, will you endorse him?” Karl pressed.

“I will do whatever I feel I can do as an American to make sure that the neo-fascist threat that is represented by some aspects of the Republican Party does not win in 2024,” Williamson said.

And though she called Biden “a nice man” with a “good heart,” she also would not rule out running as a third-party candidate in the general election if she loses the primary.

“I’m not saying that I would run as a third-party candidate,” she initially said, but when asked if she definitely wouldn’t, she only replied that she would do what she can “to make sure that the overriding issue is addressed.”

Asked later if she thought former President Donald Trump could defeat Biden in the general election, she said, “I would do everything I could to make sure that didn’t happen.”

Last month, the Democratic National Committee voted to change the 2024 primary calendar, removing New Hampshire from its slot as the first primary and moving South Carolina forward, with supporters of the change saying it allowed more diverse voters early influence.

Williamson has said that she’ll participate in the New Hampshire primary, despite it likely falling out of compliance. She also plans to make several stops in the state from March 8-13.

“The DNC should not be rigging this system,” Williamson said.

“So that’s what’s going on, is they’re rigging the system for Biden?” Karl asked.

“They even admit that. They know that the president did not do well in New Hampshire,” Williamson said. “They know that New Hampshirites are very open to independent and more progressive voices. And they know that he did very well in South Carolina. They’re not even– you know this, I know this, they know this. And they’re not even pretending otherwise.”

The party’s national committee will not hold debates with challengers to the president, but Williamson thinks they should.

“Do you expect that Biden will debate you?” Karl asked.

“He certainly should debate me,” Williamson said. “It’s called democracy. And I’m running as well.”

Williamson qualified for two Democratic debates in the last presidential cycle, where she made a splash for her closing argument, addressing then-President Trump directly and saying, “I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field. And, sir, love will win.”

Karl asked Williamson about media coverage of her in 2020, noting she was previously labeled as “anti-science, anti-vax [and] a crystal lady” and asking how Democrats should view her candidacy this time around.

“Well, I am a Democrat,” she said. “I’m old enough to remember a time when the Democratic Party more than not, did make an unequivocal stance. … [T]he Democratic Party needs to be a conduit for the healing of this country,” she continued. “But first, the Democratic Party needs to look in the mirror and heal itself.”

You can read the full transcript of the interview here.

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(MINNEAPOLIS) — Thousands of formerly incarcerated people in Minnesota woke up Saturday morning with a right they lacked the day prior.

On Friday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed House File 28, which restores the right to vote to convicted felons who complete their term of incarceration. According to the governor’s office, 55,000 individuals who previously were deprived of voting rights now can register to vote, the most significant expansion of that right in Minnesota in a half-century.

“Minnesotans who have completed time for their offenses and are living, working, and raising families in their communities deserve the right to vote,” Walz said.

The new law followed the unsuccessful legal challenge to state law, Schroeder v. Minnesota Secretary of State. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled last month that the state constitution does not guarantee convicted felons the right to vote. House File 28 passed the Democratic-held Minnesota Senate and House following the court’s decision.

Under the new law, Department of Corrections or judiciary system officials will provide newly released persons a written notice and an application to vote.

“People who are prohibited from voting, they have to pay their taxes, they have to obey all the laws, they have to do everything, but they don’t have any choice in who represents them,” said Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison. “Now they do.”

The passage of the Minnesota law follows a nationwide shift in voting policy to enfranchise those convicted of felonies. According to the nonprofit The Sentencing Project, roughly 4.6 million Americans are disenfranchised due to a prior felony conviction, a 24% decrease since 2016 due to the passage of several state policy changes, as well as a declining prison population through the pandemic.

Despite the change in Minnesota, 11 states still deprive convicted felons of their voting rights indefinitely for some crimes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, two states, Virginia and Kentucky, permanently deprive anyone convicted of a felony of the right to vote.

Over a million people convicted of felonies are still banned from voting in Florida, making the state the nation’s leader in felon disenfranchisement, according to The Sentencing Project, despite a 2018 ballot referendum when 65 percent of voters decided to restore voting rights in the state. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law months later requiring felons to pay outstanding legal financial obligations before being eligible to vote.

A total of 25 states ensure that felons have the right to vote, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is seeking to block an infamous recording from being introduced as evidence in a defamation trial scheduled for next month.

E. Jean Carroll, the former Elle columnist who sued Trump for defamation after he denied raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, wants to include as evidence the 2005 video of Trump bragging to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about groping women.

“I don’t even wait,” Trump is heard saying on the tape, which came to light during the 2016 presidential race. “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything, grab them by the p—-, you can do anything.”

Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said in a filing with the court late Thursday that the Access Hollywood tape shares no unique characteristics to the Carroll case.

“The conduct described on the Tape, which Defendant denies ever actually occurred, were made ten years after the purported incident took place and does not reflect the type of unique and distinctive conduct that can be ‘ear-mark[ed] … as the handiwork’ of Defendant to isolate him as the only person that could have possibly committed these acts,” Habba wrote.

“Plaintiff, in continuing her unabashed demand to admit the Tape, has made it clear that she wishes to convert this trial into a referendum on Plaintiff’s character and distract the jury from determining the merits of the controlling issues of this case,” wrote Habba.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, has argued that the recording is evidence of a pattern of Trump’s behavior.

“On the tape, Trump described the precise conduct that he engaged in here with respect to Carroll,” Kaplan alleged in a filing last month. “He didn’t wait before he kissed Carroll. He didn’t wait before he grabbed her vagina. And he acted throughout the encounter as if he was entitled to do whatever he pleased with Carroll.”

The trial is scheduled to start April 25, although a pending decision in a Washington, D.C., court could halt the case if it’s determined that Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he denied Carroll’s rape claim.

Last November, Carroll filed a separate lawsuit against Trump alleging defamation and battery under a New York law that allows alleged adult sex assault victims to bring claims otherwise barred by the passage of time.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing both cases, has said he is still deciding whether the trials will be combined.

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