(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack will hire former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., as an adviser to the panel, according to a source with direct knowledge of the forthcoming announcement.
The former congressman, who lost his primary last summer, has become one of the few voices inside the Republican Party criticizing the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories, including the idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, which led to the Capitol riot.
Riggleman, who also served as an Air Force intelligence officer, is expected to help the committee catalog and track the mistruths that circulated online and on social media before thousands of former President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered in Washington and descended on the Capitol hoping to overturn the election results.
A spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ABC News reported earlier this month that according to sources briefed on the discussions, Riggleman could join the committee staff in an advisory capacity.
The committee held its first hearing last week with several police officers who had faced off against pro-Trump rioters at the Capitol in January. With the House now on recess through August, the panel is focused on mapping out the contours of its investigation and building up its staff.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the panel would issue “quite a few” subpoenas and could potentially seek to question and obtain documents from former Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers who communicated with Trump before and on Jan. 6.
Asked if the committee would want to interview former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, following the release of handwritten notes from former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue that appear to show Trump trying to pressure the Department of Justice to declare there was significant fraud tainting the 2020 presidential election, Thompson said the committee hasn’t determined who it wants to hear from yet.
“The president wanted to mobilize the apparatus of the entire U.S. government to reinstall him as president, essentially,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another panel member, told reporters. “As one member, I am very interested in retracing the steps of what the president did to guarantee what he called his ‘continuation in power.'”
Riggleman would be the third Republican linked to the panel, along with Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who both called to impeach Trump and accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to join the investigation over GOP leaders’ efforts to boycott it after Pelosi refused to seat two leading conservative lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 election.
In recent days, other conservative lawmakers have sought to push Cheney and Kinzinger out of the House GOP Conference and strip them of other committee assignments over their work on the committee.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration has announced it is extending pandemic relief for student loan repayments, interest and collections through January 31, 2022, referring to it as the “final” extension.
The pause has been in effect since former President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act in March 2020 and was extended by both him and President Joe Biden. It was most recently set to expire on Sept. 30.
“As our nation’s economy continues to recover from a deep hole, this final extension will give students and borrowers the time they need to plan for restart and ensure a smooth pathway back to repayment,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “It is the Department’s priority to support students and borrowers during this transition and ensure they have the resources they need to access affordable, high quality higher education.”
The Department of Education says the extension will give borrowers time to plan to resume payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and default.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley applauded the move in a joint statement Friday afternoon.
“We’re pleased the Biden administration has heeded our call to extend the pause on federally-held student loan payments, providing an enormous relief to millions of borrowers facing a disastrous financial cliff,” they said. “The payment pause has saved the average borrower hundreds of dollars per month, allowing them to invest in their futures and support their families’ needs.”
Still, the group of lawmakers wants the president to go further and use executive action to cancel $50,000 of student debt.
“Student debt cancellation is one of the most significant actions that President Biden can take right now to build a more just economy and address racial inequity,” the statement said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, last month said the president does not have the power to cancel student debt and that only Congress has that authority.
“He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power,” she said at a press conference.
Borrowers will be notified about the new extension “in the coming days” and the Education Department is expected to provide information about how to plan for restarting payments.
(WASHINGTON) — A New Jersey man on Friday pleaded guilty to two federal counts of assaulting law enforcement and obstruction of an official proceeding during the January 6 Capitol assault.
Scott Fairlamb is the first accused rioter charged with assaulting law enforcement to plead guilty.
Prosecutors say he was seen in videos stalking a line of officers outside the Capitol before punching one in the head.
Obstruction of an official proceeding carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and the assaulting law enforcement court carries a maximum sentence of 8 years.
Prosecutors said they are seeking a sentence ranging from 41 to 51 months in prison and have said Fairlamb should pay $2,000 restitution.
Fairlamb will likely argue for less time behind bars.
Sentencing memos from both parties are due on September 20 and Fairlamb is scheduled to appear back in court on September 27.
“Are you an American? Act like one!” Fairlamb, a gym owner and former MMA fighter, is heard yelling in a body cam video, which was released to ABC and 13 other media outlets as part of the ongoing legal effort. “You guys have no idea what the f*** you’re doing.”
Prosecutors also flagged videos Fairlamb posted to his Facebook during the riot where they say he’s seen holding a collapsible baton and saying to the camera, “What do Patriots do? We f***in’ disarm them and then we storm the f***in’ Capitol!”
Fairlamb had previously hosted a pandemic protest at his Pompton Lakes gym in response to COVID restrictions and last summer posted a threatening message on Instagram targeting Representative Cori Bush.
While Fairlamb’s attorney has said the government is seeking a 51-month sentence for his client, it’s unclear what D.C. District Judge Royce Lamberth will decide is an appropriate punishment — though it could serve as a benchmark for the more than 150 rioters so far charged with attacking police.
Of the more than 30 rioters who have pleaded guilty so far in the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into the Capitol attack, only six have been sentenced and none of them to significant time in prison.
A Florida man, Paul Hodgkins, was recently sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge of obstructing a congressional proceeding, and two others who had already been in government custody pending trial were sentenced to time served.
There are more than 500 people charged by the Justice Department for their actions on January 6.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A former New York State employee has filed a criminal complaint against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, a spokeswoman told ABC News.
This is believed to be the first complaint filed against the embattled governor in wake of Tuesday’s Attorney General report which concluded he violated state and federal law in sexually harassing at least 11 women.
The woman who filed the complaint is a former assistant to the governor who is identified as “Executive Assistant #1” in Attorney General Letitia James’ report released Tuesday.
“Since approximately late 2019 the Governor engaged in a pattern of inappropriate conduct with Executive Assistant #1,” the report said.
The conduct included close and intimate hugs, kisses, touching and grabbing of her backside and suggestive remarks, according to the investigators. The report listed that Executive Assistant #1 had what appeared to be the most serious allegation against Cuomo, accusing him of reaching under her shirt and fondling her breast in the Executive Mansion in Albany in November 2020.
Cuomo has denied all allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.
Cuomo’s lawyer Rita Glavin said in a response to the report Tuesday that the governor “never groped Ms. X,” adding, “This claim is false, as the Governor has stated repeatedly and unequivocally.”
Earlier this week the lawyer of another accuser, Lindsey Boylan, said she intends to sue Cuomo for allegedly retaliating against her after she came forward.
“Our plan is to sue the governor and his and his co-conspirators,” Boylan’s attorney, Jill Basinger, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” citing the retaliatory actions outlined in the AG report.
The New York State Assembly’s impeachment investigation into Cuomo “is nearing completion,” officials said Thursday, and the Judiciary Committee will meet Monday morning to discuss the probe.
So far at least five district attorney offices — Manhattan, Albany, Westchester County, Nassau County and Oswego County — have launched investigations into Cuomo for alleged incidents outlined in the report that took place in their jurisdictions.
“The governor certainly seems to form a pattern of behavior that shows a sense, at a minimum, of an entitlement and a disregard of the well-being of others and the self-respect of many women,” Oswego District Attorney Gregory Oakes said to local ABC affiliate in Rochester WHAM.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly seven months to the day a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a bill awarding Congress’ highest honor — the Congressional Gold Medal — to law enforcement officers he said defended democracy on Jan. 6.
“We cannot allow history to be rewritten. We cannot allow the heroism of these officers to be forgotten. We have to understand what happened — the honest and unvarnished truth. We have to face it,” Biden said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden, speaking to lawmakers, law enforcement officers and their families.
Biden said the Jan. 6 assault presented a dark test of “whether our democracy could survive, whether it could overcome lies and overcome the fury of a few who were seeking to thwart the will of the many.”
“While the attack on our values and our votes shocked and saddened the nation, democracy did survive,” Biden said firmly. “Truth defeated lies. We did overcome. That’s because of the women and men of the U.S. Capitol Police, Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and other law enforcement officials we honor today.”
Police officers fielded greetings from some of the lawmakers they protected, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Rule Committee Chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and other senators who co-sponsored the bill, for the afternoon ceremony.
Also present was the mother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who lobbied Congress to pass legislation for a bipartisan select commission to investigate the attack, which Senate Republicans ultimately blocked. Biden offered his condolences to Sicknick’s family and families of other fallen officers in his remarks, including the children of fallen Capitol Police officer Billy Evans who was killed in a separate attack on the Capitol in April.
“I offer you, not only our condolences but recognize your courage. The courage of your children. And you have our most profound gratitude,” Biden said.
The bipartisan legislation authorizes the creation of four medals — one for the Capitol Police, one for the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, one for display by the Smithsonian to acknowledge other agencies that helped defend the building and a fourth at the Capitol.
Biden said the medals would serve as a reminder of the truth of the attack.
“My fellow Americans, we must all do our part to protect and to preserve our democracy. It requires people of goodwill and courage to stand up to the hate, the lies, the extremism that led to this vicious attack,” he said. “It requires all of us working together — Democrats Republicans, Independents, on behalf of the common good to restore decency, honor and respect for our system of government.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking ahead of Biden, recalled returning to the Senate chamber around 8 p.m. after the riot and witnessing American democracy persevere.
“We gathered in the Senate chamber, in the same chamber where the New Deal was struck and the Great Society was forged, in the same chamber where the Interstate Highway System was started and voting rights were won. And in that chamber, just before 1 a.m., as officers stood guard, the final vote was tallied,” she said.
“As those officers continued, even at that late hour, to secure our Capitol, they secured our democracy. So, let us never forget that. And let us always remember their courage,” she added.
The Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass the legislation without a recorded vote, a rarity in a polarized Washington. The House passed the bill back in June with 21 Republicans voting against it.
“I am still stunned by what happened in the House, where 21 members of the Republican caucus voted against this legislation,” Schumer said Tuesday. “The Senate is different.”
The event falls in the grim shadow of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department announcing this week that two officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot died by suicide in July.
It also comes as the House select committee investigates the Capitol attack, holding its first hearing in which lawmakers heard dramatic, emotional accounts from officers who defended the building. They all detailed fearing for their lives the day as the Capitol building devolved into “a medieval battle,” as one officer described it.
Some 140 police officers suffered injuries during the attack and 15 were hospitalized.
In the months since, law enforcement suicide experts say the families of those who responded to the incident say they’ve behaved differently. Karen Solomon, who runs Blue H.E.L.P, a nonprofit that works on reducing the stigma of mental health issues in law enforcement, told ABC News, “We are still ignoring the needs of some of the victims of this event — the police officers.”
Metropolitan Police Department officers Michael Fanone, also present on Thursday and seen sharing a hug with Pelosi, is among the voices who have flatly rejected any attempts to rewrite history and downplay the attack as something the country should move on from.
“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,” he said, slamming his fist on a congressional witness table last month. “I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist or that hell actually wasn’t that bad.”
(WASHINGTON) — In his first message to all staff on the issue, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday acknowledged there is “growing concern” about the “unexplained health incidents” that have affected dozens of U.S. personnel around the globe.
Blinken committed to meeting “soon” with staff and families affected by what’s commonly called “Havana syndrome,” after the first cluster of cases were reported in Cuba’s capital in late 2016.
Amid some complaints that the department has not been proactive enough in addressing their health challenges or other issues, the note, obtained first by ABC News, acknowledged some shortcomings in sharing information with the department’s 70,000 employees and supporting those who have been impacted.
“Those of you who’ve been directly affected are urgently seeking clarity. Employees going abroad are anxious about whether they or their families are at risk. That’s completely understandable, and I wish we had more answers for you,” wrote Blinken.
“We can and will do a better job keeping you informed of our efforts to get answers, support those affected, and protect our people,” he added.
President Joe Biden’s National Security Council is leading a government-wide investigation into what is causing the incidents and who may be behind them. But so far, U.S. officials have few answers, nearly five years after State Department, CIA, and other personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana reported strange experiences, like feelings of pressure or vibration and a screeching sound, and debilitating symptoms, including headaches, nausea, cognitive deficits, and trouble with seeing, hearing, or balancing.
Several officials have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, although it’s unclear how many – just one piece of data that diplomats are seeking from the department, along with the number and location of reported incidents, CNN reported this week.
Beyond Cuba, cases have been reported in several other countries, including China, Uzbekistan, Russia, Austria, and the United States, although the White House has said the “vast majority” have been reported overseas.
“The investigation into what’s causing these incidents and how we can protect our people is ongoing,” Blinken wrote in his message.
Last December, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report that concluded that “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases, especially in individuals with the distinct early symptoms.”
The CIA, State Department, and Pentagon all have their own internal task forces to address cases among their personnel and search for possible clues into the causes. The State Department’s is overseen by Pamela Spratlen, a two-time ambassador whom Blinken said reports directly to him, while the CIA assigned a veteran officer critical to the agency’s efforts to find Osama bin Laden to now head its cell.
In addition, the State Department started a pilot program in June to begin recording baseline medical information of personnel and their adult family members before they move to U.S. diplomatic posts overseas. One month earlier, Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Brian McKeon sent a cable to all staff urging them to report possible incidents or symptoms immediately – adding, “There is no stigma associated with reporting, and that every report will be taken seriously by our health and security professionals, and the leadership of the Department.”
McKeon and Spratlen have both met affected staffers and family members, but Blinken has not yet and, until Thursday, had not addressed the issue in a department-wide memo. His spokesperson Ned Price said last month that it was one of the first issues he requested a briefing on during the transition – adding, “These health incidents have been a priority for Secretary Blinken since his day one.”
CIA Director Bill Burns has met with affected personnel and made the issue a top priority, tripling the number of full-time medical personnel focused on it, he told NPR two weeks ago. While the symptoms are “real, and it’s serious,” he added, the agency still has no definitive answers on the cause.
An internal State Department report, declassified and released in February, found the agency’s initial response was severely botched, “characterized by a lack of senior leadership, ineffective communications, and systemic disorganization,” it said.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Thursday hit back at Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after he told President Joe Biden he will stand “in his way” while the country experiences an alarming surge of COVID-19 cases, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying the “facts” about hospitalizations in Florida speak for themselves.
At Thursday’s briefing with reporters, ABC News Correspondent Stephanie Ramos raised DeSantis’ latest fundraising push using the president’s comments from Tuesday urging DeSantis to help or “get out of the way,” and she asked whether Biden is considering reaching out to DeSantis.
“Well, first, from Day One, we’ve approached this not as a political issue but a public health issue,” Psaki began. “We remain in touch with officials in Florida, just like we’re in touch with officials from around the country about how we can provide assistance from the federal level to help address this public health crisis.”
Then, she turned up the heat.
“It is a fact — and data that you all are aware of — that 25% of hospitalizations in the country are in Florida. It is also a fact that the governor has taken steps that are counter to public health recommendations. So, we’re here to state the facts,” she said.
“Frankly our view is that this is too serious, deadly serious to be doing partisan name-calling,” she continued. “We’re focused on providing public health data information to the people of Florida to make sure they understand what steps they should be taking, even if those are not steps taken at the top of the leadership in that state.”
At least four school districts in Florida say they are pushing back against the governor’s mask ban.
In the last 24 hours, the country has seen 864,000 vaccinations in the last 24 hours, the highest daily number since July 3, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday.
Florida is among the seven states officials named that have some of the lowest vaccination rates and “account for about half of new cases and hospitalizations in the past week, despite making up less than a quarter of the U.S. population,” Zients said.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The first woman to publicly accuse New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment plans to sue him for allegedly retaliating against her after she came forward.
Lindsey Boylan, who formerly worked as an aide to the governor, spoke out in December in a series of tweets claiming Cuomo “sexually harassed me for years.”
“Our plan is to sue the governor and his and his coconspirators,” Boylan’s attorney, Jill Basinger, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” citing the retaliatory actions outlined in the New York attorney general’s scathing report published Tuesday.
The report substantiated sexual harassment claims of 11 women and found that he contributed to a hostile work environment. The report also found that Cuomo’s office retaliated against Boylan after she came forward.
Cuomo has denied the allegations raised by Boylan and all other accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct.
Basinger said the next step for her and Boylan is to file a lawsuit.
“There is no question that Lindsey was harassed, that she was subjected to a hostile work environment and that she was assaulted. But most problematically, she was retaliated against, not just by the governor, but by his inner circle, both inside the government and out,” Basinger said. “There was an entire conspiracy to diminish her and to hurt her credibility, and we find that to be the most offensive part of all this.”
When asked if she’s confident the suit will succeed, Basinger said she was.
“The attorney general and the investigators, after looking at all the facts, after doing an exhaustive examination, found with no ifs, ands or buts that Lindsey was 100% retaliated against,” Basinger said.
The report concluded that Cuomo allegedly violated federal and state law in retaliating against Boylan, and he and some senior staff in his office “actively engaged in an effort to discredit her.”
The report said that the executive chamber, along with a group of outside advisers, “engaged in a series of retaliatory actions” that included disseminating confidential and privileged files relating to complaints made against Boylan to the press, and drafting a proposed op-ed “that contained personal and professional attacks” on Boylan that was shared with current and former executive chamber employees. That draft was never published.
“The Governor and some of his senior staff questioned at the time (and continue to question) Ms. Boylan’s motivations, claiming that she made her allegations of sexual harassment for political reasons, i.e., to bolster her political campaign, or generally to be vindictive or retaliatory herself. But retaliation is unlawful regardless of whether the employer believes the complainant is acting with a good faith belief that she was harassed,” the report said.
Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, denied Boylan’s sexual harassment allegations in a response released after Tuesday’s report. The response did not touch on the Cuomo’s alleged retaliation efforts.
“I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” Cuomo said in a video statement following the report’s release Tuesday. “That’s not who I am.”
At the moment, the governor is facing investigations by multiple district attorney offices across New York that are looking into alleged incidents outlined in the report that possibly took place in those jurisdictions and could possibly lead to criminal charges. Experts have said the most serious accusations, if proven, could lead to misdemeanor charges.
At the same time, the New York State Assembly’s impeachment investigation into Cuomo is ongoing, and may ramp up soon.
The Assembly’s Judiciary Committee said Thursday the committee’s investigation “is nearing completion” and the Assembly “will soon consider potential articles of impeachment.” The Judiciary Committee requested the governor produce evidence or written submissions for consideration in the probe, due Aug. 13.
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet in Albany on Monday at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the impeachment probe.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said he regrets signing an April law banning mask mandates and is seeking to reverse it as coronavirus infections soar among unvaccinated youth, making him an outlier among some Republican governors who have doubled down on their anti-masking views.
Asked by ABC’s “Good Morning America” Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on Thursday what changed his thinking, Hutchinson said, “The delta variant hit us hard.”
Arkansas has seen a 517% increase in the number of virus cases among people under 18 between April and July, according to an Associated Press report.
The state, like other hotspots in the country, is experiencing a frightening surge in COVID-19 with 3,000 new cases on Wednesday and 1,232 currently hospitalized, as the delta variant spreads.
So far, 42% of the state’s eligible population ages 12 and up has received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to state data, and a majority of adults 18 and over are also unvaccinated.
“There’s been a lot of distrust and we hope to overcome that because medical sciences, vaccines work, I believe, and we need to get those out — because that’s the way out of this,” Hutchinson said.
But the Arkansas governor, who is term-limited, is an outlier among Republican governors across the country who are doubling down on their own legislation banning mask mandates as the public policy measure continues to feed debate over personal liberties.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a state which has become the epicenter of the virus, responded to President Joe Biden telling governors on Tuesday to help or “get out of the way” by making his defiance a rallying call — and a fundraising tool, sending out a letter with the subject line: “I’m Standing In Joe Biden’s Way.”
“I am standing in your way,” DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday, declaring that Florida will remain a “free state” where children won’t be asked to wear masks.
DeSantis’s position is shared by Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas, who he has said Texans should have the “right to choose,” as well as Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Doug Ducey of Arizona and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who have all ridiculed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest masking recommendation that everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a mask in public, indoor settings.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the frontrunner to replace Hutchinson in the 2022 Arkansas governor race, has made clear she opposes all mask and vaccine mandates no matter the circumstances.
“If I am elected governor here in Arkansas we will not have mask mandates, we will not have mandates on the vaccine, we will not shut down churches and schools and other large gatherings, because we believe in personal freedom and responsibility,” she told Fox News last month.
Hutchinson, instead, after telling the public at a press conference Tuesday he wishes the mask ban wouldn’t have become law, called for a special legislative session asking lawmakers to reverse it, only so that public schools can have the flexibility to require masks for students.
It’s still not clear the GOP-led legislature in Arkansas will go along with Hutchinson’s request.
As the legislature met Wednesday, the Little Rock School District Board of Education voted to file a lawsuit against the state because of the anti-mask law. That follows another lawsuit filed Monday by parents also seeking to strike the law down, citing health concerns for their children at school.
The bill which might stave off those lawsuits, HB1003, failed to advance in public health panel Wednesday after GOP lawmakers pushed back.
But while the legislature continues to meet Thursday to work out the details, at least 730 students and staff from the Marion School District in Arkansas were under quarantine — just two weeks after classes started.
Presented with that number on “Good Morning America” and asked if he’s confident that it’s safe for kids to go back to school, Hutchinson said there would be challenges but said the state’s focus should be on vaccines over masks to prevent outbreaks.
“Our emphasis should be on the vaccines and not get sidetracked, in a minuta debate on masks, even though that is important for the 12 and under, and the flexibility we’re talking about,” he said.
ABC News’ Marlene Lenthang contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As New York City turns to vaccine passports to help limit the spread of COVID-19, other cities have pushed back against similar measures, with leaders citing a wide range of concerns, from equity to security.
This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the nation’s largest city would soon require proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for indoor dining, indoor fitness facilities and indoor entertainment facilities.
“This is crucial because we know that this will encourage a lot more vaccination,” de Blasio said Tuesday at a press briefing announcing the policy. “The goal here is to convince everyone that this is the time. If we’re going to stop the delta variant, the time is now. And that means getting vaccinated right now.”
New York City is the first U.S. city to announce such a measure as the highly contagious delta variant is driving up cases nationwide.
When asked this week if Boston would do the same, acting Mayor Kim Janey said the city is focusing on vaccine access, while likening the idea of vaccine passports to slave papers and birtherism.
“There’s a long history in this country of people needing to show their papers,” the Democrat told ABC Boston affiliate WCVB Tuesday. “During slavery, post-slavery, as recent as you know, what immigrant population has to go through here. We heard Trump with the birth certificate nonsense. Here we want to make sure that we are not doing anything that would further create a barrier for residents of Boston or disproportionally impact BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] communities.”
Disparities in vaccination rates have raised concerns about vaccine passports disproportionately impacting communities of color. Vaccination rates among Black and Latino residents in Suffolk County — where Boston sits — lag behind those of white residents, state data shows.
Janey’s comments were met with some criticism, though, particularly from fellow mayoral candidates. Boston city councilor Andrea Campbell tweeted that “this kind of rhetoric is dangerous.”
“The acting mayor’s comments yesterday put people’s health at risk, plain and simple,” Campbell said during a press briefing Wednesday while outlining her platform policies, which include requiring proof of vaccination for crowded public indoor spaces, like restaurants and gyms. “Boston has an opportunity frankly to be an example to the rest of the country when it comes to getting residents vaccinated and preventing the spread of the delta variant.”
Following Janey’s comments, Michelle Wu, another Boston mayoral candidate, said she supports requiring proof of vaccination at restaurants, shops and other indoor venues. “Our leaders need to build trust in vaccines,” she said on Twitter Tuesday.
Janey further clarified her comments regarding vaccination “hurdles,” saying on Twitter Tuesday that “we must consider our shared history as we work to ensure an equitable public health and economic recovery.”
“While there are no current plans for business sector vaccination mandates, we are using data to inform targeted public health strategies,” she said. This includes working with the hospitality sector to build on-site vaccination clinics.
The debate comes as other leaders have continued to push back against vaccine passports and other mandates on the grounds of personal liberty.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — one of several state leaders who have moved to ban vaccine passports — spoke out against the measure during a press briefing Wednesday.
“I think the question is, is we can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state,” the Republican governor said. “I can tell ya — Florida, we’re a free state.”
Other GOP leaders have used more inflammatory rhetoric throughout the vaccination campaign by likening vaccination requirements to the Holocaust — drawing condemnation from Jewish organizations and fellow members of their party.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized for comments she made in June that compared being required to wear masks in the House to the Holocaust. Republican Washington state Rep. Jim Walsh also issued an apology last month after he donned a yellow Star of David to protest COVID-19 restrictions, saying it was “inappropriate and offensive.”
In the latest incident, John Bennett, the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, recently took to Facebook to equate vaccine passports to the yellow Star of David that Nazis forced Jewish people to wear.
“It’s not about the star, what it’s about is a totalitarian government pushing a communist agenda on top of us and forcing people against their own liberties to get this vaccine,” Bennett said in a video message Sunday following criticism to an earlier post on the Oklahoma Republican Party’s Facebook page, which included an image of the yellow Star of David with the word “Unvaccinated” on it.
Following Bennett’s initial post, local GOP leaders spoke out against the analogy, which the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City called “ill-informed and inappropriate.”
“It is sad and ironic that anyone would draw an analogy from the largest recorded genocide in the 20th century with public health attempts to save lives,” the organization said in a statement.
New York City’s vaccine mandate follows in the footsteps of the “health passes” in France and Italy.
“We do want to make as many of these settings as safe as possible,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said during a press briefing Tuesday. “And that means having them be for people who are only fully vaccinated. That is the thrust of the policy.”
Vaccine mandates are a smart policy for a dense urban place like New York City to help encourage vaccination, Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said.
“We have to start to think about new ways to get the population to recognize the value of these vaccines,” he said. “Creating some level of requirement is important. Of course that is going to be especially important in areas of high transmission, like health care organizations, or nursing homes … but also places where there’s potentially a high risk of transmission.”
“A city like New York, which experienced the worst of the pandemic … has a lot of concerns about a potential new surge,” he said.
Each city will have its own context and “nuance in applying public health measures,” Brownstein said, and there may not be a “one-size-fits-all approach” to increasing vaccination rates.
Following New York City’s announcement, Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said during a news briefing Tuesday that the city is “interested” in the idea but there aren’t current plans to implement a similar plan.
“We’ll be watching to see how this plays out, but we don’t have a current plan to do something like that at the city level,” she said, noting that New Yorkers seem to have “embraced this vaccine passport idea a little bit more than has been embraced here in the Midwest and across Illinois.”
