Politics

(LOS ANGELES) — Some of the largest counties in the U.S. are joining forces to provide guaranteed income to residents in need.

County leaders from Los Angeles County, Chicago’s Cook County, Houston’s Harris County and more help make up Counties for Guaranteed Income, a coalition of local leaders hoping to collect research to try to expand no-strings-attached cash assistance programs nationwide.

Research suggests that guaranteed income can provide a path to financial stability and address poverty as well as racial, wealth or income inequalities.

“It’s not just the morally right thing to do. It’s actually pragmatic and economically a smart strategy as well,” Will Jawando, a Montgomery County, Maryland, councilmember at-large, told ABC News. “We saw with the child tax credit, we saw with the stimulus.”

“Those are forms of guaranteed income that were temporary. For the child tax credit, for example, lifted [nearly] half of kids out of poverty during that time,” Jawando said, citing Census Bureau numbers.

Coalition members recently met with leaders at the White House and Capitol Hill to make the case for guaranteed income efforts, including the child tax credit, according to Jawando.

However, guaranteed income is not supported by all. Some critics argue that these programs will stop people from working — though such claims have been challenged — or will be too expensive to maintain.

The board is following in the footsteps of Mayors for Guaranteed Income, a similar group made up of more than 100 mayors across the country. So far, their programs have impacted almost 6,000 people, offering monthly payments of up to $1,000 for as long as three years.

Most of the money spent in these programs was used on retail sales and services, followed by food and groceries. Transportation and housing expenses followed, respectively.

Participants have previously told ABC News that the programs have taken weight off their shoulders — helping them pay bills, afford care for their children and provide stability.

“Whether it’s buying a car to get to that next job that’s a little further away, investing in education, paying for childcare, which we know is very high — people are using it in different ways,” Jawando said. “But what it’s doing is it’s it’s allowing space in relieving pressure so that they can take care of themselves and their families and move up the economic ladder.”

Though the coalition of county leaders has just begun, county-based initiatives are well on their way.

Los Angeles County’s Breathe pilot program allots $1,000 payments to 1,000 randomly selected participants for three years.

“The insights we gain from our pilot will add to the repository of data that proves that people facing economic hardship know how to allocate money in a way that best provides for their families,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell in a statement on the CGI website.

Cook County’s Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot provides $500 monthly payments to 3,250 low-income households for 2 years. It started in December 2022.

“With this stable foundation, people can further support their families, pursue education and find new job,” said Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, in a statement on the CGI website. “With more stability, people invest in themselves and their families, take risks and even start businesses.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. intelligence agencies tracked the Chinese spy balloon from its launch in China and watched as it may have been inadvertently blown into U.S. airspace, a U.S. official has confirmed to ABC News.

The Washington Post was the first to report that the balloon may have been diverted from its original route and that the resulting incident and tensions with China might have been due, in part, to a mistake. It was said the balloon was on course to fly toward the U.S. territory of Guam when it took an unexpected turn north due to strong winds.

U.S. officials have said the intent of the balloon was for surveillance — not meteorological research as Beijing claimed. A State Department official said last week that the balloon had equipment “clearly for intelligence surveillance,” including antennas “likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.”

Over its weeklong journey over the U.S., the balloon first entered airspace over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 then traversed into Canada’s airspace before reentering U.S. airspace heading east. It was shot down in waters off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.

President Joe Biden said he ordered the balloon be shot down when he was informed of its presence over Montana, but that his military advisers said it was too dangerous to conduct over land.

The incident added tension to the fraught U.S.-China relationship, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelling a planned trip to Beijing. Blinken and other U.S. officials called the balloon a “clear violation” of international law.

China has now accused the U.S. of flying several balloons into its airspace since the spring of last year, which White House spokesperson John Kirby flatly denied during an appearance Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“We do not deploy surveillance balloons over China,” Kirby said, though he declined to answer a follow-up question on whether the U.S. spies on China.

The Pentagon said earlier this month the balloon didn’t pose a physical threat, and that once it was detected the U.S. took steps to protect against foreign intelligence collection.

Crews have been working since the Feb. 4 take down to collect debris. A significant portion of the balloon’s reconnaissance section was recovered on Monday, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News. One official said the payload is 30-feet long.

“Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure,” Northcom said in a statement.

All senators received a classified briefing on Tuesday about the spy balloon and three other unidentified objects shot down over the weekend over Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron. The intelligence community is considering as a “leading explanation” that those objects were for commercial or benign use, Kirby told reporters Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said senators will receive another briefing Wednesday “on the state of U.S. defense readiness with respect to China.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley officially launched her presidential bid Wednesday, jumping into a potentially bruising GOP primary challenge against former President Donald Trump.

Haley, who rolled out a video announcing her campaign Tuesday, spoke in Charleston Wednesday, casting herself as a new chapter in American politics in an apparent dig both at President Joe Biden and Trump.

“We’re ready, ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past, and we are more than ready for a new generation to lead us into the future,” she said. “I come here today with a vision of that future.”

Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under Trump, cast the stakes of the 2024 presidential race in near apocalyptic terms, warning that supposed weakness at home and abroad put the country at peril.

“The stakes are nothing less than our survival. And you and I and every American is being summoned to bold action. And so, I have an announcement to make,” she said.

“I stand before you as the daughter of immigrants, as the proud wife of a combat veteran and as the mom of two amazing children. I’ve served as governor of the great state of South Carolina and as America’s ambassador to the United Nations. And above all else, I’m a grateful American citizen who knows our best days are yet to come if we unite and fight to save our country. I have devoted my life to this fight, and I’m just getting started. For a strong America, for a proud America, I am running for president of the United States of America.”

She said it’s time to send a “tough-as-nails woman to the White House.”

“May the best woman win,” she said, to a cheering crowd.

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

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The head of the Federal Aviation Administration is facing lawmaker questions on Wednesday, just one day after the agency vowed to form a safety team to review its aviation system after a recent series of dangerous, close calls.

The Senate hearing was scheduled in the wake of the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) computer system failure on Jan. 11 — which led to the first nationwide ground stop since the Sept. 11 attacks.

But just as it was scheduled to begin, the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced Wednesday they’re investigating the fourth serious airline incident in recent months.

The latest close call involved a United Boeing 777 and a Cessna in Honolulu that came within 1,170 feet from each other when the 777 crossed the same runway where the Cessna was landing.

Acting Administrator Billy Nolen, ahead of his testimony on Wednesday, wrote in a memo that a new safety review team will look at the U.S. aerospace system’s structure, culture, systems, and integration of safety efforts.

“We are experiencing the safest period in aviation history, but we cannot take this for granted,” Nolen said in the memo. “Recent events remind us that we must not become complacent. Now is the time to stare into the data and ask hard questions.”

Inside the hearing room, Ranking Member Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the issues at the FAA are “emblematic of a culture afraid to innovate, stuck operating inefficiently — and illustrative of why President Biden needs to choose an administrator for the FAA with a proven ability to manage change within large organizations and with the requisite aviation and safety experience.”

The FAA continues to operate without a Senate-confirmed director. Biden nominated Phil Washington, the chief executive of Denver International Airport, last July, but he hasn’t received a confirmation vote.

“There must be accountability when an agency is not using taxpayer funds efficiently. And that of course step starts with an accountable leader,” Cruz continued. “Now in his third year as Secretary of Transportation Secretary Buttigieg has failed to deliver any meaningful reform at the FAA.”

Nolen, in his opening statement, said he agreed with Cruz that the FAA needs a Senate-confirmed leader to keep the U.S. competitive as that confirmation is stalled.

“Recent events remind us that we cannot become complacent and that we must continually invest in our aviation system,” Nolen said.

Directly addressing the NOTAM computer system failure last month, Nolen said the FAA has “found no evidence of a cyber attack or other malicious intent.”

“Contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization issues,” he explained.

“We all know that complacency has no place in their transportation, whether it’s on the flight deck in the control tower, the ramp or the dispatch center,” Nolen said. “We’re confident that we are taking the right steps here and we look forward to working with the committee and this Congress in developing a long-term FAA reauthorization bill that accelerates the next era of aviation — one that is safe, efficient, sustainable and open to all.”

The hearing comes after there have been at least two other near collisions at U.S. airports in the last month, in addition to a United Airlines plane briefly plummeting after leaving Maui in December.

At Kennedy International Airport on Jan. 13, a Delta Airlines plane almost collided with an American Airlines flight that appeared to be on the wrong runway, prompting the Delta pilot to slam the brakes.

And in Austin on Feb. 5, a FedEx cargo plane came within 100 feet of a Southwest passenger flight. Both incidents are being investigated by the FAA and NTSB.

“You’ve got to remember that 32,000 flights a day occur over the U.S. and almost nothing ever goes wrong. Air safety is built on our being intolerant of any mistake without understanding what we can do to make it not happen again,” said John Nance, a former commercial pilot and ABC News contributor.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Justice Department investigators probing former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office have asked a judge to overrule attorney-client privilege and compel one of Trump’s attorneys to appear before a grand jury, multiple sources have confirmed to ABC News.

The DOJ is making the request on the basis of the crime-fraud exception, sources said, which allows for attorney-client privilege to be suspended in cases where it is suspected that legal services were rendered in the commission of a crime.

The development was first reported by the New York Times.

As previously reported by ABC News, DOJ officials said in a filing last summer that lawyers for Trump certified in early June that a “diligent search” of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate turned up just 38 classified documents, all of which were safely secured in one storage room. Two months later, when FBI agents raided the premises, they found more than 100 additional classified documents — some of which were located outside of the storage unit, including in Trump’s office desk, the DOJ said.

Prosecutors are now seeking to compel one of the Trump attorneys who made that certification to investigators, Evan Corcoran, to answer the grand jury’s questions.

They are also seeking to have Corcoran answer questions about one of Trump’s current top aides, sources tell ABC News.

Neither Corcoran nor a representative for Trump immediately responded to a request for comment from ABC News.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The fifth anniversary of the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, which left 17 people dead, falls just hours after the shooting at Michigan State University which left at least three people dead and is the 67th mass shooting this year.

Florida lawmakers Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Rep. Maxwell Frost reflected on the anniversary during a “GMA3” appearance Tuesday and called on Congress to do more on gun control.

“We’re here obviously, commemorating the 17 lives that were lost at my high school, the five-year anniversary, and yet the eve of that we have another mass shooting. For all the parents and family members that have lost loved ones from these mass shootings, especially those in Parkland – it rips the scab off, and never, never never allows it to heal. Because it’s a reminder that this stuff is still happening every single solitary day in America,” Moskowitz said.

“Five years later, we feel like we’ve made some progress and then we were reminded that nothing has changed,” he added.

Moskowitz, who graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 1999 and had a young son at a nearby preschool near the massacre, recalled the horror of that day on the Florida House Floor days after the shooting.

“My four-year-old recently learned how to write his name. So we signed him up for a writing class. That writing class was going on in Parkland on the afternoon of February 14th, around the corner from Douglas, and that class was taught by Jen Guttenberg. You see, she lost her daughter, Jamie, while she was teaching my son how to write. She put my kid in the closet when her daughter died. I wanted to say thank you at the funeral. I didn’t know how to do that,” Moskowitz said as a then Florida State rep. in 2018.

As a Florida State representative, he championed the cause and now as the Vice chairman of the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force says it’s something he hopes Congress addresses.

“It’s an indictment on government officials that we have not been able to stop this. I remember one Parkland parent saying to me and saying to the president, actually after the shooting that 9/11 happened once and we fixed it. There should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it,” Moskowitz said.

President Joe Biden signed into law the gun safety package passed by Congress last June and while not as sweeping as he requested and did not include a ban on assault weapons, it was the first gun reform bill in decades.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act forces tougher checks on young buyers and encourages states to remove guns from people considered a threat.

But there is still more to be done according to freshman Congressman Maxwell Frost, who helped organize the first “March for our Lives” protest days after the Parkland shooting.

“It is a uniquely American problem, and it’s because of the inaction of our leaders… there’s a lot of work that needs to be done…there’s been 67 this year, more mass shootings than there are days in the year that we’ve seen happen. I want people to know this isn’t normal. It shouldn’t be normal. We deserve better than losing 100 of our lives, 100 of our people every day due to an issue that can be resolved that has a solution,” Frost said.

“Everybody who dies due to gun violence, it’s a policy failure. And we have to have the conversation and we have to continue to pass legislation to save lives,” he added.

Frost was sworn into Congress last month and is the youngest member to serve in Congress. He says his goal is to continue to get more people engaged in this issue and to “advocate for the world.”

“They created an energy, the March for Our Lives, a movement that bridged the gap between cool and consciousness and brought a whole generation of young people to the table to advocate for the world. They believe in ending gun violence and having a world where everybody has the resources that they deserve,” Frost said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Abortion rights were a key factor for some races in the 2022 midterm elections, according to exit polling. Multiple states had measures before voters about enshrining or barring the constitutional right to an abortion following the June 2022 Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade — the landmark case that had legalized the procedure across the nation.

But absent those ballot measures, political analysts like Sarah Isgur feel the issue of abortion may not have as much weight in the 2024 election cycle as it did in 2022.

“I think that’s the strategy moving forward for the pro-choice side … that the ballot measure can help with turnout at the very margin,” said Isgur, an ABC News contributor. “Without those ballot measures, if you’re just running on a platform that includes abortion as an issue, right now, it’s pretty far down most Americans’ list of why they’re picking the candidates they’re picking.”

At a Republican National Committee conference in January, members passed a resolution urging the party to “go on offense in the 2024 election cycle, and expose the Democrats’ extreme position of supporting abortion on-demand up until the moment of birth.”

Democrats cast their views on the matter another way — calling it a matter of personal autonomy over government regulation — and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, data indicates nearly all abortions in the U.S. occur at or before 13 weeks’ gestation.

Though the RNC resolution in January has no legal value, it represents where party leaders stands on abortion heading into the next presidential election cycle.

Now, Republican politicians are “doing the same thing they were doing pre the reversal of Roe,” Isgur said. “Trying to outmaneuver each other to be seen as the most pro-life person in a race or legislature.”

Their history on abortion could influence voters’ choices, too.

Here’s a look at what three leading GOP governors — who are all seen as potential 2024 candidates — are doing about the issue in their respective states.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Following the reversal of Roe, a law banning abortion after 15 weeks was reinstated in Florida. There are a few exceptions: if the life of the mother is at risk or if the fetus has a fatal anomaly, but there are no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has suggested he would support further tightening abortion restrictions in the state — at the same time that some other Republicans have criticized him for, in their words, “hiding behind a 15-week ban.”

When asked at a December news conference about signing a so-called “heartbeat bill” to increase restrictions up to when cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, DeSantis said, “I’m willing to sign great [pro]-life legislation. That’s what I’ve always said I would do.”

In August, DeSantis suspended a prominent prosecutor from Tampa after the attorney made a public statement that indicated he would not criminalize the procedure.

“I just think we’re better when everybody counts,” DeSantis said during a gubernatorial debate in October. “I understand not everyone’s going to be born in perfect circumstances, but I would like to see everybody have a shot.”

DeSantis is seen as a potential 2024 presidential contender but has played down such a possibility.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he said with a laugh when asked on Tuesday if he was set to announce a campaign.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem

As a state leader, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has been one of the biggest supporters for legislation to restrict abortions.

South Dakota had a so-called “trigger law” in place before Roe was overruled and, following the Supreme Court’s decision, the state implemented a strict ban on abortion, with exceptions to save the life of the mother.

“What the Supreme Court did was fix a wrong decision that was made many years ago and now give the power back to the states,” Noem told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz in a June 2022 “This Week” interview.

Noem continued in that interview, “I don’t believe that mothers in this situation should ever be prosecuted. Now doctors who knowingly violate the law, they should be prosecuted, definitely.”

In January, Noem and the state Attorney General Marty Jackley wrote a joint letter to South Dakota pharmacists, warning them of possible felony prosecution associated with abortion pills.

“Under South Dakota law, pharmacies, including chain drug stores, are prohibited from procuring and dispensing abortion-inducing drugs with the intent to induce an abortion, and are subject to felony prosecution under South Dakota law, despite the recent FDA ruling,” Noem and Jackley wrote.

A spokesperson for Noem in January criticized DeSantis for not being committed to the pro-life movement.

When asked about DeSantis and his abortion agenda, Noem in a January interview with CBS News said, “I would nudge every governor to do what they can to back up their pro-life record.”

Noem told CBS that she was in no hurry to decide on a 2024 run and was “not convinced that I need to run for president.”

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has been vocal in his support for more restrictive abortion laws in his state, said during his campaign in 2021 that “I’m pro-life. I believe in exceptions in the case of rape and in case of incest and in case of where the mother’s life is in jeopardy.”

In January, Democrats in the Virginia Senate voted down a 15-week ban on the procedure with exceptions for rape and incest, along with other abortion-restricting legislation passed by the state’s Republican-led House.

“There is a real sense of frustration on behalf of our Senate Democrats who refuse to listen to Virginians, and over 80% of Virginians have expressed the view that Republicans and Democrats should find consensus on this issue,” Youngkin said in a January interview with TV station WDVM.

“There’s still a path forward in the House. But I sure hope they start listening to the folks that elected them to come represent them,” Youngkin said.

As for 2024, he told NBC News last month that he was “overwhelmingly humbled” by the discussion but did not definitively rule out running — or not.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Democrats and Republicans joined together on Tuesday in a renewed push to pass federal legislation aimed at safeguarding young people using the internet, as a mother testified her son was driven to suicide by bullying on social media.

With rare bipartisan unity, lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee used a hearing to blame social media companies — “Big Tech” — for blocking attempts by Congress to regulate their platforms.

“I don’t know if any or all of you realize what you witnessed today. But this Judiciary Committee crosses the political spectrum, not just from Democrats to Republicans, but from real progressives to real conservatives. And what you heard was the unanimity of purpose,” the panel’s chair, Sen Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said at the end of the hearing — the first time the 118th Congress has addressed the topic following years of policy proposals hitting snags.

Durbin said committee members would consider the many bills aimed at tech regulation amid the privacy, sexual exploitation and mental health crises among young Americans.

The hearing, called by Durbin and the committee’s top Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, comes after President Joe Biden renewed calls for more restrictions on Big Tech in his State of the Union address.

“And it’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect on all of us,” Biden said last week.

While the committee heard testimony from child safety advocates and industry leaders, including the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the chief science officer of the American Psychological Association, it did not hear witnesses from tech companies.

One witness, Kristin Bride of Portland, Oregon, detailed how she became an activist after losing her teenage son, Carson, to suicide in 2020 after she said he was the target of floods of anonymous cyberbullying messages on Snapchat.

She described one summer night when her son was 16, when he excitedly shared with his family his day as a new pizza shop employee.

“The next morning, I woke to the complete shock and horror that Carson had hung himself in our garage while we slept,” Bride said, mentioning that investigations later found evidence of the cyberbullying on his cell phone.

Bride has made multiple trips to Washington to testify in hopes of moving the needle on tech regulation for children, specifically the Kids’ Online Safety Act, being pushed by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

The measure requires that social media platforms provide minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of algorithmic recommendations, gives parents controls to monitor harmful behaviors and places a responsibility on the platforms to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, such as promotion of self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, among other provisions.

On Tuesday, Bride was asked how she felt about repeatedly reliving her experience.

“It is so difficult to tell our stories of the very worst day of our lives over and over and over again and then not see change … we really are looking to call for action, and I am confident that you can all come together and do this for us and for America’s children.”

In addition to the 2023 Kids’ Online Safety Act, the dozens of proposals to restrict Big Tech in Congress include a measure from Graham and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts that would create a new consumer protection agency to regulate the tech industry and a proposal from committee member GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri to raise the social media age requirement to 16.

Durbin said during the hearing that he would be he is circulating a discussion draft of a bill he has long worked on to curb the spread of child sexual abuse material.

“There are more bills being introduced in this area than any subject matter that I know of. All of them are bipartisan,” said Blumenthal.

Bride, whose lawsuit against Snapchat over what her son’s death was dismissed, said social media companies have long been shielded by a no liability provision for third-party content in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

“It is almost as if these social media platforms are operating in the days of the Wild West,” Blackburn said Tuesday.

“It’s big tobacco’s … playbook all over again,” Blumenthal said.

Snap Inc. — the parent company of Snapchat — did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment for this story.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The 2024 presidential race is already shaping up, with former President Donald Trump seeking to return to the White House and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley looking , as she has said, to mark a new generation of leaders.

Here’s an updated list of who is running for president in 2024 and a brief look at the potential contenders who have not yet confirmed their plans — as well as where President Joe Biden stands.

Donald Trump, Republican

Trump, 76, formally launched his third bid for the White House on Nov. 15, following the 2022 midterms, which did not meet Republican expectations.

Trump announced his campaign from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. It didn’t come as a surprise, given that Trump had been hinting for months that he would make a run.

“America’s comeback starts right now,” he said, describing the U.S. as “in decline” and touting his administration as a “golden age.”

However, Trump’s third run for the White House comes as he faces multiple investigations — he denies wrongdoing — and has become increasingly estranged from some other leading figures in the GOP in the wake of Jan. 6, his 2020 election lies and other controversies and scandals.

While polling shows he remains popular with many voters in the party, many others say they want another nominee.

“America’s comeback starts right now,” he insisted in his announcement speech.

Steve Laffey, Republican

The former mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, Steve Laffey announced his candidacy for president on Feb. 2.

In a statement, he said he wanted to confront the country’s issues.

“Our country has done the equivalent of using Band-Aids in place of major surgery. Somehow, we have ‘gotten by,'” he said. “For the first time in a generation, we must directly confront our problems.”

Laffey is a long-shot for the Oval Office, given his relative lack of name recognition or statewide or federal experience.

He previously made a run for Senate in 2006 in Rhode Island, against Republican Lincoln Chafee, who was ultimately defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.

Nikki Haley, Republican

Haley, 51, announced her presidential bid in a video released on Feb. 14, a day ahead of a formal kickoff on Feb. 15 in Charleston.

Haley, who also served as a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Trump administration, is the first high-profile Republican to challenge Trump.

In her announcement video, Haley, the daughter of immigrants, highlighted her heritage as a South Asian woman and touted her hopeful view of what America can offer.

“My mom would always say, ‘Your job is not to focus on the differences but the similarities.’ My parents reminded me and my siblings every day how blessed we were to live in America,” Haley said.

She underscored her credentials as a former leader of the Palmetto State, stressing its resilience, but most of all she said there was major need for change in the GOP’s candidates.

“Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. … It’s time for a new generation of leadership,” she said.

Haley was elected as the first female governor of South Carolina in 2010, stepping down in 2017, during her second term, to serve as a Trump ambassador until 2018.

Where President Joe Biden stands on reelection bid

Biden, 80, has repeatedly said he intends to run for reelection in 2024 barring some major issue such as his health. However, the Democrat has not officially announced a decision.

“I’m just not ready to make it,” he told Noticias Telemundo in February.

Biden told ABC News’ David Muir in December 2021 that the possibility of a rematch with Trump wouldn’t dissuade him.

“Why would I not run against Donald Trump for the nominee? That’ll increase the prospect of running,” he said.

A look at potential presidential candidates

Observers say the list of other potential White House hopefuls includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has played down questions about his ambitions, as well as New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and others.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The man who allegedly assaulted Rep. Angie Craig last week has a lengthy criminal record, including 25 bench warrants since 2014 and was experiencing homelessness, according to court documents filed on Monday.

Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, was assaulted while in her Washington, D.C., apartment building last Thursday and said she was able to fend off her alleged attacker, 27-year-old Kendrid Hamlin, by pouring hot coffee on him.

The Justice Department is asking a D.C. judge to hold Hamlin, who was arrested the next day, without bail.

Court documents offer more detail about what occurred that morning.

Hamlin, allegedly defecated and slept in the apartment building’s vestibule and gained entry into the apartment building when someone let him in.

The documents said that Hamlin encountered Craig in the elevator.

“Before the doors closed, the defendant stuck his arm between the door, preventing the door from closing, and stepped inside the elevator with the Representative,” the court documents said.

“The defendant told the Representative that he needed to go to the bathroom, and that he was coming to her apartment. The Representative advised the defendant that he could not do so. In response, the defendant became agitated,” the documents said. “The defendant stood in front of the elevator door, blocking the Representative from exiting the elevator, and hit buttons on the keypad. When the Representative tried to move past the defendant, he punched her on the left side of her face, striking the chin/mouth area with his closed fist.”

Officers found Hamlin less than a mile away from the attack later that day — and when he was approached by police he bit and kicked officers, according to the documents.

The Justice Department said that Hamlin had a lengthy rap sheet and essentially did not voluntarily show up to court for matters from August to December 2022.

He had at least 25 bench warrants for alleged crimes committed inside the District and neighboring communities, the Justice Department said.

Hamlin had 12 prior convictions as well.

“His bench warrants for failing to appear cover every year from 2015 to the present,” DOJ said. “Notwithstanding the very serious nature of the charged assault and his actions during the arrest, the defendant’s criminal history shows he is a danger to the community,” the documents said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.