Politics

(EDISON, N.J.) — First lady Jill Biden hit the campaign trail Friday, hoping to help deliver victories for Democrats in two gubernatorial elections.

Biden stumped in New Jersey for Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday afternoon and is traveling to Virginia Friday evening to help elect Terry McAuliffe.

“I came here to ask the people of New Jersey to reelect Phil Murphy as your next governor. You know, he’s used this office to lead New Jersey through one of the darkest times in modern history,” Biden said in Edison, New Jersey, Friday afternoon. “Joe and I know Phil. We know that he’s going to fight for you and your family every single day.”

An incumbent Democratic governor hasn’t won reelection in New Jersey since the 1970s, but public polling indicates Murphy is better positioned heading into November than McAuliffe. Polls conducted in mid-September from Stockton University and Monmouth University showed Murphy with a nine-point and 13-point lead, respectively, over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman.

While Virginians rejected former President Donald Trump at the ballot box twice and Democrats made significant gains in the commonwealth, including securing a trifecta government when he was in office, McAuliffe only has a slim 2.5-point lead over GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average.

Despite the race tightening over the last few weeks, McAuliffe is confident Virginians will back his record and he’ll once again break the so-called “Virginia curse” of candidates losing Virginia’s off-year gubernatorial race if they have the same party affiliation as the current occupant of the White House.

“We’re gonna win this again and make history again with this,” McAuliffe told reporters Thursday. “I am the first candidate for office of either party in 80 years to win every single city and county (in the primary). … Why? I think a.) people were happy with my job as governor before and b.) because I have a real agenda.”

The first lady is not the only high-profile surrogate hitting the road for the two candidates — former President Barack Obama will also stump for both men next week.

Obama will hold back-to-back events in the states on Oct. 23, 10 days before Election Day and coinciding with the first day of in-person early voting in New Jersey’s history.

Georgia heavy-hitters Stacey Abrams and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who were both on the president’s shortlist for vice president, are also headed to Virginia on Sunday to campaign for McAuliffe.

After McAuliffe said during the last debate that he doesn’t “think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” the Youngkin campaign rallied around education as his closing message. Having the first lady, an educator who began her career in 1976, join McAuliffe on the trail could serve as an opportunity to speak to the issue and reassure parents who may be wary of his stance.

Biden, who currently works as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, has made education one of the top priorities in her role as first lady.

The first lady is not the first Biden to campaign for McAuliffe in the state — President Joe Biden also made a campaign stop on behalf of his longtime friend in July — though recent polling has shown Biden’s approval ratings in the state fall, leading McAuliffe to distance himself from the president.

“We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington, as you know. The president is unpopular today unfortunately here in Virginia, so we have got to plow through,” McAuliffe said during a virtual rally last week. He’s also said he’s frustrated that Congress still hasn’t passed the infrastructure package, saying the “inaction on Capitol Hill … is so damaging.”

Despite the comments, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that she expected the president would continue to advocate for McAuliffe’s candidacy.

“I think the president of course wants former Governor McAuliffe to be the future governor of Virginia. There is alignment on a lot of their agenda, whether it is the need to invest in rebuilding our roads, rails and bridges or making it easier for women to rejoin the workforce,” Psaki told reporters.

“We’re going to do everything we can to help former Governor McAuliffe and we believe in the agenda he’s representing,” she added

And McAuliffe has since made clear that Biden is still welcome in Virginia, telling reporters Tuesday, “He’ll be coming back. You bet he will.”

ABC News’ Meg Cunningham contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily block the most restrictive abortion law in the country, after a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Texas statute can remain in effect amid an ongoing legal challenge.

The law, known as SB8, bans physicians from providing abortions once they detect a so-called fetal heartbeat, which can be seen on an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

The law, which went into effect on Sept. 1 after the Supreme Court refused to block it, was briefly paused after a federal judge issued a temporary injunction last week barring its enforcement. Days later, the law was reinstated after a panel of judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary administrative stay.

In the latest ruling in the high-profile case, the court rejected the Justice Department’s request to again halt Texas’ ability to enforce the law. In a 2-1 order Thursday night, a panel of judges granted Texas’s request to continue to stay the preliminary injunction while it pursues its appeal.

The court’s order did not detail its reasoning behind the ruling, which was expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Next stop, #SCOTUS,” University of Texas constitutional law professor Steve Vladeck said in a post on Twitter following the ruling.

Indeed, on Friday, DOJ Spokesman Anthony Coley confirmed in a statement to ABC news that the department “intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8.”

Under the law, private citizens can sue a person they “reasonably believe” provided an illegal abortion or assisted someone in getting it in the state, and is crafted to prevent any state official, other than judges, from being responsible for enforcement.

In a 113-page ruling initially granting the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman was scathing in targeting the state in how he says it schemed to evade judicial review.

“A person’s right under the Constitution to choose to obtain an abortion prior to fetal viability is well established,” Pitman wrote. “Fully aware that depriving its citizens of this right by direct state action would be flagrantly unconstitutional, the State contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme to do just that.”

After the injunction was issued, some abortion providers in Texas briefly resumed providing abortions after cardiac activity was detected, only to have the ban back in effect within 48 hours.

Since the law went into effect, women have had to travel hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion out-of-state, inundating neighboring states’ abortion clinics. Abortion providers in Texas have that some clinics may have to close permanently because of the law.

ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.

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(ORANGE, Calif.) — Former President Bill Clinton was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday for an infection, according to a spokesperson, but is recovering and is expected to be released from the hospital soon.

“On Tuesday, President Clinton was admitted to UCI Medical Center to receive treatment for a non-COVID-related infection,” Angel Ureña, spokesperson for Clinton, said in a statement Thursday. “He is on the mend, in good spirits and is incredibly thankful to the doctors, nurses, and staff providing him with excellent care.”

Dr. Imran Ali, a physician fellow at Mt. Sinai Health, told ABC’s World News Now his sources said Clinton “was feeling rather fatigued at a private event in California, and he went to the hospital and they did a routine checkup in the emergency department and they identified an infection of his blood.”

That is usually done through a blood culture, he said, adding that Clinton “probably likely had a urinary tract infection that caused the infection to go to the blood, and it’s something that we call sepsis, is when an infection reaches the bloodstream.”

In some cases, Ali said sepsis can be serious, but in other cases it can be easily controlled with IV antibiotics. He said it can be more serious for older adults, especially people with a history of heart disease.

“And I’ve treated patients who have had heart disease and sepsis and we’re concerned about a decrease in blood pressure, and we also need to monitor the heart because the heart can be infected by the infection as well,” Ali said. “But since President Clinton is about to be transitioned to oral antibiotics, it is less likely that the infection has affected his heart, because in that case you would be on antibiotics for six weeks, through the IV line.”

Clinton has had a number of health issues over the past two decades, though most related to heart problems. He had a quadruple bypass surgery in September 2004 and two coronary stents placed in his heart in February 2010. He also underwent surgery for a collapsed lung in 2005.

Ali said the former president suffered a mild case of sepsis and didn’t have any issues with his blood pressure.

“He is in the ICU for further monitoring, like I said, if his blood pressure water drops, they can easily intervene,” he said. “From what I’m hearing my sources is that all he needed was some IV fluids to help with his blood pressure, but his blood pressure was not dangerously low to be of any serious concern.”

Ali said that since Clinton is supposed to transition to antibiotics, he will likely be discharged soon.

Clinton’s doctors at UCI Medical Center in Orange, California, further elaborated on the former president’s health in a statement.

“President Clinton was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center and diagnosed with an infection. He was admitted to the hospital for close monitoring and administered IV antibiotics and fluids,” Drs. Alpesh Amin and Lisa Bardack said in the statement. “He remains at the hospital for continuous monitoring. After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well.”

“The California-based medical team has been in constant communication with the President’s New York-based medical team, including his cardiologist,” the statement continued. “We hope to have him go home soon.”

Clinton, 75, served as president from January 1993 to January 2001.

He won the race for governor of Arkansas in 1978 at just 32 years old, though he lost in his bid for a second term. He then served again as governor from 1983 to 1992, when he rallied to earn the Democratic nomination for president. He faced off against incumbent George H.W. Bush, defeating him comfortably to become the first Democrat in office since Jimmy Carter.

He cruised to the White House again in 1996, defeating Bob Dole and third-party candidate Ross Perot.

Much of his second term, however, was dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The salacious details of the president’s affair with the intern led to his impeachment in December 1998, but he was acquitted in the Senate.

Before President Donald Trump was impeached twice, Clinton was the last president to be impeached and only other president outside of Andrew Jackson to earn the ignominious vote.

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(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden is hitting the campaign trail Friday, hoping to help deliver victories for Democrats in two gubernatorial elections.

Biden will travel to Virginia and New Jersey to campaign with former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Gov. Phil Murphy in their respective states.

An incumbent Democratic governor hasn’t won reelection in New Jersey since the 1970s, but public polling indicates Murphy is better positioned heading into November than McAuliffe. Polls conducted in mid-September from Stockton University and Monmouth University showed Murphy with a nine-point and 13-point lead, respectively, over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman.

While Virginians rejected former President Donald Trump at the ballot box twice and Democrats made significant gains in the commonwealth, including securing a trifecta government when he was in office, McAuliffe only has a slim 2.5-point lead over GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average.

Despite the race tightening over the last few weeks, McAuliffe is confident Virginians will back his record and he’ll once again break the so-called “Virginia curse” of candidates losing Virginia’s off-year gubernatorial race if they have the same party affiliation as the current occupant of the White House.

“We’re gonna win this again and make history again with this,” McAuliffe told reporters Thursday. “I am the first candidate for office of either party in 80 years to win every single city and county (in the primary). … Why? I think a.) people were happy with my job as governor before and b.) because I have a real agenda.”

The first lady is not the only high-profile surrogate hitting the road for the two candidates — former President Barack Obama will also stump for both men next week.

Obama will hold back-to-back events in the states on Oct. 23, 10 days before Election Day and coinciding with the first day of in-person early voting in New Jersey’s history.

Georgia heavy-hitters Stacey Abrams and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who were both on the president’s shortlist for vice president, are also headed to Virginia on Sunday to campaign for McAuliffe.

After McAuliffe said during the last debate that he doesn’t “think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” the Youngkin campaign rallied around education as his closing message. Having the first lady, an educator who began her career in 1976, join McAuliffe on the trail could serve as an opportunity to speak to the issue and reassure parents who may be wary of his stance.

Biden, who currently works as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, has made education one of the top priorities in her role as first lady.

The first lady is not the first Biden to campaign for McAuliffe in the state — President Joe Biden also made a campaign stop on behalf of his longtime friend in July — though recent polling has shown Biden’s approval ratings in the state fall, leading McAuliffe to distance himself from the president.

“We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington, as you know. The president is unpopular today unfortunately here in Virginia, so we have got to plow through,” McAuliffe said during a virtual rally last week. He’s also said he’s frustrated that Congress still hasn’t passed the infrastructure package, saying the “inaction on Capitol Hill … is so damaging.”

Despite the comments, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that she expected the president would continue to advocate for McAuliffe’s candidacy.

“I think the president of course wants former Governor McAuliffe to be the future governor of Virginia. There is alignment on a lot of their agenda, whether it is the need to invest in rebuilding our roads, rails and bridges or making it easier for women to rejoin the workforce,” Psaki told reporters.

“We’re going to do everything we can to help former Governor McAuliffe and we believe in the agenda he’s representing,” she added

And McAuliffe has since made clear that Biden is still welcome in Virginia, telling reporters Tuesday, “He’ll be coming back. You bet he will.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Hours after his Democratic opponent called on him to publicly condemn attendees of a GOP rally who pledged allegiance to an American flag said to have been flown at the Jan. 6 rally near the Capitol prior to the insurrection, Republican nominee for Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin issued a statement calling the act “weird and wrong.”

“While I had no role in last night’s event, I have heard about it from many people in the media today. It is weird and wrong to pledge allegiance to a flag connected to January 6,” Youngkin said. “As I have said many times before, the violence that occurred on January 6 was sickening and wrong.”

Thursday morning, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat in the race, held a press call where he urged Youngkin to disavow the pledge that kicked off an event in support of the statewide GOP ticket.

“They really brought a flag up there and they did pledge of allegiance to a flag that was used to bring down the democracy that that American flag symbolizes,” McAuliffe said. “I’m just asking Glenn Youngkin to issue a statement or go before the cameras today… and say, it was not appropriate to pledge allegiance to a flag… that tried to destroy the democracy.”

At the start of the Wednesday night rally, which was livestreamed on the right-wing platform Real America’s Voice, the emcee called up a woman with an American flag, which the emcee said “was carried at the peaceful rally with Donald J. Trump on Jan. 6.”

Five people died during or after the riot on Jan. 6. A comprehensive review of police officer bodycam footage found roughly 1,000 instances of assault against members of law enforcement who were trying to protect the building, according to legal filings by the Justice Department.

Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted at the Capitol, including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department. And nearly 650 people have been arrested and charged with federal crimes in connection to the events of Jan. 6, with more than 100 having already pleaded guilty.

Youngkin did not speak at or attend the Virginia rally on Wednesday, but former President Donald Trump called in to urge attendees to vote for the Republican nominee.

“I’ll tell you what, Glenn Youngkin is a great gentleman, truly successful. … I know Terry McAuliffe very well, and Terry was a lousy governor with raising taxes — that’s all they knew how to do,” Trump said in brief remarks. “You have a chance to get one of the most successful business people in the country … he’ll straighten out Virginia. He’ll lower taxes, do all of the things that we want a governor to do.”

Trump, who didn’t pick a favorite candidate during the primary campaign, endorsed Youngkin after he secured the Republican nomination in May. While he wasn’t on the ground for the event, this marked the first time he attended an event, albeit via phone, to support the GOP ticket in the state.

Another Republican vying for statewide office, Winsome Sears, the nominee for lieutenant governor, was scheduled to speak at the rally, according to the event advisory, but she ultimately did not. ABC News has reached out to her campaign and to the John Fredericks Media Network, which held the rally, to ask about the cancellation but has not heard back.

Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser to Trump who was subpoenaed to appear for a deposition with the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack Thursday, also spoke at the end of the rally. Bannon has rebuffed the House select committee’s subpoena, and the committee’s chairman and vice chairwoman said last week they will “swiftly consider” holding Bannon in contempt of Congress.

Virginia voters rejected Trump twice, and by nearly double the margin in 2020 as in 2016. McAuliffe has tied Youngkin to Trump, branding him a “Trump wannabe” and frequently highlighting Youngkin’s plans and statements about “election integrity.”

But with less than three weeks until the Nov. 2 election, the race is neck and neck. McAuliffe only leads Youngkin by 2.5 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average.

The fallout over the last general election, which Trump continues to falsely claim was stolen from him, has been a cloud over Youngkin’s campaign as he attempts to fend off McAuliffe’s attacks without alienating ardent Trump voters, many of whom wrongly believe President Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election.

But both candidates went on the record during the first debate pledging to “absolutely” accept the results of the election if they lose, even narrowly.

In-person early voting has been underway since mid-September and ends Oct. 30. About 345,000 ballots have been cast so far, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

ABC News’ Alex Mallin and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, has called on Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin to publicly condemn attendees of a GOP rally who pledged allegiance to an American flag said to have been flown at the Jan. 6 rally near the Capitol prior to the insurrection.

“They really brought a flag up there and they did pledge of allegiance to a flag that was used to bring down the democracy that that American flag symbolizes,” McAuliffe told reporters Thursday morning. “I’m just asking Glenn Youngkin to issue a statement or go before the cameras today… and say, it was not appropriate to pledge allegiance to a flag… that tried to destroy the democracy.”

The Youngkin campaign has not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment about the “Take Back Virginia Rally” to support the statewide GOP ticket and hasn’t said whether he condemns anything said or done at the event held in Glen Allen, Virginia, Wednesday evening.

At the start of the event, which was livestreamed on the right-wing platform Real America’s Voice, the emcee called up a woman with an American flag, which the emcee said “was carried at the peaceful rally with Donald J. Trump on Jan. 6.”

Five people died during or after the riot on Jan. 6. A comprehensive review of police officer bodycam footage found roughly 1,000 instances of assault against members of law enforcement who were trying to protect the building, according to legal filings by the Justice Department.

Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted at the Capitol, including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department. And nearly 650 people have been arrested and charged with federal crimes in connection to the events of Jan. 6, with more than 100 having already pleaded guilty.

Youngkin did not speak at or attend the Virginia rally on Wednesday, but former President Donald Trump called in to urge attendees to vote for the Republican nominee.

“I’ll tell you what, Glenn Youngkin is a great gentleman, truly successful. … I know Terry McAuliffe very well, and Terry was a lousy governor with raising taxes — that’s all they knew how to do,” Trump said in brief remarks. “You have a chance to get one of the most successful business people in the country … he’ll straighten out Virginia. He’ll lower taxes, do all of the things that we want a governor to do.”

Trump, who didn’t pick a favorite candidate during the primary campaign, endorsed Youngkin after he secured the Republican nomination in May. While he wasn’t on the ground for the event, this marked the first time he attended an event, albeit via phone, to support the GOP ticket in the state.

Another Republican vying for statewide office, Winsome Sears, the nominee for lieutenant governor, was scheduled to speak at the rally, according to the event advisory, but she ultimately did not. ABC News has reached out to her campaign and to the John Fredericks Media Network, which held the rally, to ask about the cancellation but has not heard back.

Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser to Trump who was subpoenaed to appear for a deposition with the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack Thursday, also spoke at the end of the rally. Bannon has rebuffed the House select committee’s subpoena, and the committee’s chairman and vice chairwoman said last week they will “swiftly consider” holding Bannon in contempt of Congress.

Virginia voters rejected Trump twice, and by nearly double the margin in 2020 as in 2016. McAuliffe has tied Youngkin to Trump, branding him a “Trump wannabe” and frequently highlighting Youngkin’s plans and statements about “election integrity.”

But with less than three weeks until the Nov. 2 election, the race is neck and neck. McAuliffe only leads Youngkin by 2.5 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average.

The fallout over the last general election, which Trump continues to falsely claim was stolen from him, has been a cloud over Youngkin’s campaign as he attempts to fend off McAuliffe’s attacks without alienating ardent Trump voters, many of whom wrongly believe President Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election.

But both candidates went on the record during the first debate pledging to “absolutely” accept the results of the election if they lose, even narrowly.

In-person early voting has been underway since mid-September and ends Oct. 30. About 345,000 ballots have been cast so far, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

ABC News’ Alex Mallin and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The battle over White House records of former President Donald Trump’s activities related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack intensified Wednesday as President Joe Biden formally rejected Trump’s claims that the documents should be shielded from release to the House select committee investigating the insurrection.

In a letter to the National Archives, the White House counsel’s office said President Biden is “instructing” the agency to comply with the House select committee’s request for the records.

“President [Biden] maintains his conclusion that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States,” the letter states, after Trump last week made a broad effort to keep confidants from cooperating with the probe.

“President Biden does not uphold the former President’s assertion of privilege,” said Wednesday’s letter, which also told the agency that “in light of the urgency of the Select Committee’s need for the information, the President further instructs you to provide those pages 30 days after your notification to the former President, absent any intervening court order.”

Trump issued a statement late last week saying the requests “are not based in law or reality — it’s just a game to these politicians. They don’t care about our Country or the American people.” Trump went on to say the Democrats are “drunk on power.”

Wednesday’s move comes as the committee ramps up its efforts to move ahead with its investigation. Former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen testified before the committee Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.

On Tuesday, the committee issued a subpoena to former Associate Attorney General Jeffrey Clark. A lawyer for Clark declined to comment when reached by ABC News.

The House select committee has subpoenaed multiple former White House officials and aides to Trump and his campaign, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The committee has said Meadows has been cooperating with the committee, though the extent of his participation in the investigation is unclear.

However, former Trump White House senior advisor and one-time campaign CEO Steve Bannon is standing firm in rebuffing the committee. In a second letter to the committee, obtained by ABC News, Bannon’s lawyer says they have been directed by Trump’s counsel not to respond, citing the former president’s invocation of executive privilege.

“Until such a time as you reach an agreement with President Trump or receive a court ruling as to the extent, scope and application of the executive privilege … Mr. Bannon will not be producing documents or testifying,” Bannon’s counsel, Robert Costello wrote in a letter to committee chairman Bennie Thompson.

Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney said last week they would “swiftly consider” holding Bannon, and potentially others, in contempt of Congress for ignoring committee subpoenas.

Sources confirmed to ABC News that Trump’s lawyer sent a letter to several of those subpoenaed informing them that the former president wants the subpoenas ignored and that he plans to claim executive privilege. In the letter, Trump suggested he would be willing to take the matter to court to block their cooperation.

White House counsel Dana Remus said in an earlier letter to the National Archives that the White House “has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States,” but that they would “respond accordingly” if Trump asserts executive privilege over only a subset of the documents.

The committee has issued at least 18 subpoenas, with most going to Trump associates and individuals linked to the rallies in Washington on the day of the Capitol riot.

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(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, one of four Latino cabinet members in President Joe Biden’s administration, said on Tuesday he wanted to end raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at workplaces.

“The deployment of mass worksite operations, sometimes resulting in the simultaneous arrest of hundreds of workers, was not focused on the most pernicious aspect of our country’s unauthorized employment challenge: exploitative employers,” Mayorkas wrote in a memo obtained by ABC News. “These highly visible operations misallocated enforcement resources while chilling, and even serving as a tool of retaliation for, worker cooperation in workplace standards investigations.”

Such a change from what was seen under the previous administration is something that policy experts, including Sylvia Puente, president and CEO of Latino Policy Forum, have said may result from Biden having surrounded himself with a more representative cabinet.

Mayorkas has been joined by Secretary Xavier Becerra of Health and Human Services, Secretary Miguel Cardona of the Department of Education and Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman of the Small Business Administration.

“It was about time — the increase in representation that looks like us in the White House, and cabinet levels in Congress, really allows us not to be invisible,” Puente told ABC News. “It really allows us to take our place in our American society.”

Becerra, who made history as the first Latino to lead HHS, discussed with ABC News the importance of representation for all Americans.

“There’s a pride that comes in understanding what you bring to the table, of what your parents taught you and what your forefathers and foremothers did for this country,” Becerra said. “I’m very proud that I bring that to my country. And that’s the heritage that has made the fabric of our country so strong.”

Becerra is the first person in his family to get a four-year college degree, after his parents emigrated from Mexico at a young age. Ultimately, he added, his opportunities have allowed him to help provide opportunities for others.

“It’s about helping people like my dad, who didn’t get past sixth grade, who worked with his hands all his life as a construction worker, a farm worker, so that he could actually have a better [life], at least for his kids,” Becerra said.

“Given that we have this historic number of cabinet officials who are Latino,” Puente said, “it really feels like the administration is living up its profit promise to have equity, to have diversity and to have inclusion.”

Puente said she hopes to see it continue, and not “just in Hispanic Heritage Month,” which spans Sept. 14 to Oct. 15. It’s important for Latinx and Hispanic individuals “to be a part of this ongoing dialogue.”

Barack Obama had a total of six Latino cabinet members.

Educational disparity

Cardona said during a GMA3 interview on Sept. 15 that he hopes to improve access to higher education.

“We want access to higher education for Latino students at the same rate as other students — we want to make sure completion happens,” Cardona said.

While Latinos account for 18.7% of the U.S. population, according to Census data, only 16.4% complete a four-year degree.

“We also want to make sure at the pre-K level that Latino students have access to early childhood education that serves as a foundation,” Cardona added.

The dropout rate among Latino students, according to a 2019 fact sheet from the National Center for Education Statistics, is about 7.7%, which has declined in recent years but still trails Black (5.6%), white (4.1%) and Asian (1.8%) students.

In August, more than 200,000 migrants were encountered crossing the southern border, according to DHS data.

“People really want to come to the U.S. because they feel they can’t make a living in their homeland, or they can’t stay safe in their homeland, or they’re afraid of being murdered in their home,” Puente told ABC News.

After reports of U.S. border patrol agents acting aggressively towards Haitian migrants fleeing their country amid multiple crises, DHS launched an investigation and alerted the department’s Office of Inspector General. Biden condemned the agents’ actions by saying those who confronted the Haitian migrants aggressively “will pay.”

Puente is among those hoping Biden’s words can lead to larger reforms.

“We certainly expect immigration reform,” she added. “We expect the president and vice president to not only continue to elevate the issue, but to really work with Congress. There are so many pieces of immigration that need to be unpacked.”

Late last month, Mayorkas announced the formation of the Law Enforcement Coordination Council, an effort to “institutionalize best practices in law enforcement.”

Mayorkas intends to chair the LECC, the first department-wide body to serve as a governing organization for agencies including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We are bringing a greater, in my opinion, a greater degree of organization, cohesion to [law enforcement policies],” Mayorkas told ABC News at the time.

Biden has said on multiple occasions he will be a leader for all Americans, and organizations and his cabinet members have said they’ll do what they can to help him keep that promise.

“As secretary, I’m going to make sure that when the president says ‘everyone,’ it includes everyone,” Becerra told ABC News. “We’re not going to leave anyone out. I don’t care what corner of the country you’re from, if you exist in the shadows, we’re going to service you. We believe in the people who lift up this country.”

ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, even as the agency has suspended all federal executions and President Biden has vowed to eliminate capital punishment.

A federal appeals court last year upheld Tsarnaev’s conviction for the 2013 attack that killed three and injured more than 200, but it tossed out the jury-recommended execution on the grounds that procedural errors during the sentencing phase compromised his right to a fair and impartial hearing.

The Biden administration calls the case “one of the most important terrorism prosecutions in our nation’s history” and plans to argue before the justices that any discrepancies during the process would not have led the jury to select a different sentence and that an execution must go forward.

“It’s one thing to say that you’re opposed to capital punishment, it’s another for the United States Attorney’s Office to tell the good people in Boston that you’re no longer going to see the death penalty against the Boston Marathon bomber. And, so they didn’t,” said Jeffrey Wall, the former Trump administration acting solicitor general who first led the appeal to reinstate Tsarnaev’s sentence, on why the new administration is continuing to seek death.

The White House would not directly answer when asked by ABC News whether President Joe Biden supports his Justice Department’s case and a federal execution of Tsarnaev.

A Biden administration official pointed to a June statement by White House press secretary Jen Psaki that noted Biden’s “deep concerns” about capital punishment and belief that “the Department should return to its prior practice, and not carry out executions.”

Attorneys for Tsarnaev said their client deserves a new sentencing hearing after an appeals court concluded that the trial judge improperly denied admission of key mitigating evidence and inadequately screened prospective jurors for bias.

The defense said the alleged involvement of Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan, in a 2011 triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts, is critical evidence to suggest he — not Dzhokhar — was the mastermind of the marathon attack and had previously exerted influence over younger accomplices.

“In 2011, on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Tamerlan robbed and murdered a close friend and two others as an act of jihad,” Tsarnaev’s attorneys write in their brief to the high court. “For Dzhokhar — a teenager well-liked by teachers and peers, with no history of violence — the bombings were the culmination of Tamerlan’s months-long effort to draw him into extremist violence.”

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died shortly after the attack when he was run over by his brother as the two fled from police following a gunfight.

“If you accept the Eighth Amendment principle that somebody pretty much has a right to bring in almost anything that’s mitigating … if you don’t allow the defendant to bring in this evidence, you’ve basically deprived him of the only defense against the death penalty he was offering,” said Irving Gornstein, director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. “I think that will give [the justices] some pause. Now, enough pause? Probably not. But some pause.”

The defense also said the trial judge failed to expose evidence of bias among potential jurors by not asking specifics about pretrial media exposure, including what they had read, heard or seen about Tsarnaev or the Boston Marathon bombing.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argues that neither error — even if undisputed — would have swayed a jury against death.

“The record definitively demonstrates that respondent was eager to commit his crimes, was untroubled at having ended two lives and devastated many others, and remained proud of his actions even after he had run Tamerlan over and was hiding out alone,” the government writes in its brief. “The jury that watched a video of respondent place and detonate a shrapnel bomb just behind a group of children would not have changed its sentencing recommendation based on Tamerlan’s supposed involvement in unrelated crimes two years earlier.”

The administration’s pursuit of death for Tsarnaev contrasts with President Biden’s 2020 campaign promise that he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.”

No legislation has been put forward, but in July, Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a temporary halt to further executions of federal inmates, noting a number of defendants who were later exonerated as well as statistics showing possible discriminatory impact on minorities.

The Supreme Court could reinstate Tsarnaev’s death sentence, or it could hand Tsarnaev a chance at a new sentencing hearing, clarifying rules for jury selection and mitigating evidence in death-penalty cases.

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(WASHINGTON) — Voting rights activists from Mi Familia Vota said after years of being ignored, they are seeing significant investments from politicians trying to reach out to the Latino community. As the largest non-white ethnic group in the United States continues to grow, Latinos have become a focal point for Republicans and Democrats alike.

But Héctor Sánchez Barba, the executive director and CEO of the Latino-focused civic engagement organization Mi Familia Vota, said that Latino voters must be prepared to identify which efforts are performative and what political promises will be kept.

“Nobody has a free ride with the Latino vote,” Sánchez Barba told ABC News. “The important part is this is not a transactional element, just for the Latino vote. It [must be] a serious holistic engagement on Latino priorities.”

The percentage of Latinos who were eligible to vote and did so rose to a historic high of 53.7% in 2020, increasing from 47.3% in 2016, according to CUNY’s Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies.

This research also shows that the number of Latino votes in the 2020 election also increased by 29.8%: from the 12.7 million votes cast in 2016 to approximately 16.5 million in 2020.

Now, the fight for their votes is on ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

President Joe Biden won the majority of Latino voters across the country, but former President Donald Trump scored more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016.

Latino turnout in Texas rose from 1,938,000 in 2016 to 2,972,000 in 2020, the CUNY research shows. That’s a 31.1% increase.

Republicans are now targeting Democratic Latino strongholds throughout the state — like the Rio Grande Valley — which seemingly faltered in 2020. Biden won in most counties, but by less than Hillary Clinton had won them in 2016. Zapata, Starr and Val Verde counties, which previously voted for Democrats, flipped to Trump in 2020.

Democratic representatives from across the state — Colin Allred, Vicente Gonzalez, Filemon Vela, Henry Cuellar, and Lizzie Fletcher — are being threatened by GOP challengers, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

McAllen, a Latino-majority border city in the valley, voted for its first GOP mayor in 24 years.

And in order to flip more seats and hold onto newly acquired seats, Republicans are creating Hispanic community centers across the country. The next one is slated to open in San Antonio, GOP Communications Director Danielle Alvarez told ABC News.

“We just opened in Doral, which is in South Florida,” said Alvarez. “[We were] talking about having “pastelitos” and “cafecito” and having photos of the South Florida community up, and instead of campaign pull-out tables, doing domino tables. Just making it personal.”

They’ve said they have also implemented this strategy with other ethnic groups, like Asian Pacific Americans and Black voters.

She added, “It provides us the ability to not just share our message and our agenda, but for them to have a conversation back and share their values and what they’re hoping to accomplish.”

From there, the RNC can train them to do the on-the-ground organizing for the Republican efforts.

“Most people kind of hear Democrats’ wishful thinking that Texas is going to be purple,” Alvarez said. “We would make the argument that Texas is red and it’s become even more red, since the previous election.”

Alvarez said that the RNC has a strong data operation that can analyze voters and what is important to them. The party’s 2012’s “Growth And Opportunity Report” continues to be an important source of information for the GOP strategy, Alvarez said. The report highlighted the party’s need to campaign among Latino, Black, Asian, and LGBTQ Americans and “demonstrate we care about them, too,” the report states.

Republicans said they hope to combine what they’ve learned to ensure that the new Hispanic-targeted centers hit home with voters.

“We’re lucky that we don’t often have to paint people with broad brushes — we can get down to what moves in individual voter,” said Alvarez.

Overall, Latinos voted less for Democrats in 2020 than they did in 2016, but the demographic still chose Biden over Trump with 58% of the vote.

Despite this, the Democratic National Committee is attempting to quell any Republican progress, reaching back into its playbook that has long won them the “Latino vote.”

Democrats’ I Will Vote initiative has invested $25,000,000 in voter education, voter protection and targeted voter registration and aims to make voting more accessible. With this, they hope to drive new voters — hopefully Democrats — to the polls.

“You’ll see Democrats going out into communities across the country and specifically showing how these bills are going to be impacting their lives: creating jobs, lowering costs for families and cutting taxes for them as well,” said Lucas Acosta, the senior spokesperson and coalitions director at Democratic National Committee.

In 2020, Latinos overall were concerned with their safety, their health amid COVID-19, and the economy, according to Pew Research.

Eight in 10 registered Latino voters rated the economy as their biggest priority at the time — as the pandemic surged on and the unemployment reached a peak of 14.8% in April 2020, the Congressional Research Service reports. It was the highest rate observed since data collection began in 1948.

Latinos comprise 18.7% of the U.S. population, but represent 28.1% of the population in poverty, according to the U.S. Census.

Acosta said Democrats will focus their door-to-door, on-the-ground community-based outreach on Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which promised to “deliver immediate relief for hard-hit Latino families and small businesses, build a bridge towards economic recovery, and reduce poverty in Latino communities by almost 40 percent,” the plan’s fact sheet read.

“Our responsibility is to make sure that voters know who was in the room fighting for that,” Acosta said.

For Latino-targeted voting groups like Mi Familia Vota, they said the focus remains on protecting voters by campaigning against misinformation targeting this sought-after demographic and legislative efforts that make it harder for Latinos to vote.

Republicans across the country have enacted a wave of new voting laws. In September, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a sweeping voting bill into law that restricts counties’ ability to expand options for voting and makes the election process harder for Texans. The law would limit how and when voters can cast ballots by banning overnight early voting hours as well as drive-thru voting.

Voting groups also said ads targeting the Latino community spread false claims about politicians and their platforms. Specifically, they say these misinformation campaigns instilled fear and betrayed the trust of voters. A recent Nielson report showed that Latino consumers are more likely to receive and share fake news on social media when compared to the rest of the population.

“Those policies that they’re promoting are gonna make it way harder for us to go to the polls and have the basic right to vote,” Sánchez Barba said. “And this is not something new. This is something historical, so we’re keeping the Republicans accountable at a very high level.”

Sánchez Barba also called out anti-immigrant language from the right. He said the party has a lot of work to repair a reputation of hate against people of color and Latino folks.

“A lot of these politicians and these parties only show up very last minute when they need the Latino vote,” Sánchez Barba said. “The Latino community doesn’t forget.”

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