Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday afternoon will sign legislation protecting same-sex and interracial marriage.

Biden is hosting a celebration starting at 3:30 p.m. ET on the White House South Lawn with lawmakers and Cabinet members as the Respect for Marriage Act becomes law.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that Biden “will be joined by a bipartisan group of lawmakers as well as advocates and plaintiffs in marriage equality cases across the country.”

“There will be musical guests and performances,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that the president “will also note that there is much more work to be done” and he will repeat his call to pass federal legislation known as the Equality Act to expand civil rights protections for LGBTQ people.

The historic marriage bill passed with bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress after months of negotiation, particularly over provisions related to religion.

The House voted last week 258-169 to send the bill to Biden’s desk after the Senate passed it 61-36. A minority of Republicans joined Democrats in both votes.

Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay senator, helped guide the legislation through Congress. Baldwin has said the bill “will protect the hard-fought progress we’ve made on marriage equality.”

It became a priority for Democrats after the Supreme Court’s June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which five conservative justices ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade and the national guarantee to abortion access.

Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion, said he believed the court should reconsider other precedents based on similar legal doctrine, including 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges — which found that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license same-sex marriages.

The Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t include Obergefell’s national requirement but will mandate that individual states recognize same-sex and interracial marriages that were lawfully performed in another state.

Some Republicans who voted for it in Congress noted additional language around protecting religious groups who still object to same-sex marriage.

Critics like Utah Sen. Mike Lee said it didn’t go far enough, however.

Biden celebrated the Respect for Marriage Act’s passage last week, saying then that it will “give peace of mind to millions of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples who are now guaranteed the rights and protections to which they and their children are entitled.”

“After the uncertainty caused by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Congress has restored a measure of security to millions of marriages and families,” he said in a statement. “They have also provided hope and dignity to millions of young people across this country who can grow up knowing that their government will recognize and respect the families they build.”

Biden has long been outspoken on the issue. In 2012, he famously preempted then-President Barack Obama in publicly supporting same-sex marriage.

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Biden said during an interview at the time on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“Who do you love? Who do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love?” Biden said then. “And that’s what people are finding out, what all marriages at their root are about.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was emotional as the bill was passed in the House on Thursday. Pelosi, stepping down from her leadership role in the new Congress, said she was happy that this bill was one of the last she was signing as the top House Democrat.

“At last, we have history in the making,” she said at the bill enrollment ceremony last week. “But not only are we on the right side of history, we’re on the right side of the future, expanding freedom in America.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden sorted gifts at a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots event in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday to celebrate the charity program’s 75th anniversary.

“For 75 years, you brought joy and laughter and smiles to families all across this country. Last year alone you collected 22 million toys for more than 8 million children, giving Santa a run for his money,” President Biden said. “But unlike Santa, you’re not wearing big red suits. You don’t travel the world in just one night. Instead, you wear a dress, blues and army greens and, as Marines soldiers, sailors, you stand watch around the world every single night.”

The Bidens joined spouses of senior Department of Defense and local military children at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in the Toys for Tots hallmark of sorting unwrapped, donated gifts by age for distribution to families in need.

Monday’s event was part of the first lady’s Joining Forces initiative to help military families.

In brief remarks in the bustling hall, the president praised service members for their role as the “spine of our nation,” as well as their family members back home, who also serve the country by supporting their loved ones, he said, which can be especially difficult during the holidays.

Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 after he served overseas with the National Guard, and the president said on Monday that understands this time of year can be “extra tough” for families like those present.

“When our son Beau was deployed in Iraq for a year, it was hard to look at that empty seat at the dinner table every night, particularly in the holidays. And for our granddaughters and grandson, they were the same age as many of you here today, it was even harder not to have their dad around Christmas morning,” he said.

“I want to tell you what I told them: You have to keep brave — you have to be brave — even when your mommies and daddies are far away, they are so proud of you,” he added. “And I’m so proud of you, as your president.”

The first lady participated in the annual drive at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall last year as well. She also gave brief remarks on Monday but apologized for having laryngitis and invited a boy, Adam, on stage to help her read a passage from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

At one point, the longtime teacher engaged the children with a guessing game, asking them how many Christmas trees they thought were in the White House.

“You’re all pretty close, because we have 77 trees in the White House,” she said.

“If there’s one group of kids who understand that the holidays are about more than what’s under the tree, it’s you — all of you — our military children,” the first lady said. “And you understand that gifts that mean the most can’t be the ones held in our hands.”

Since 1947, the Toys for Tots program has seen Marines and volunteers distribute more than 627 million toys to over 281 million children, according to the charity.

Local Toys for Tots campaigns are conducted annually from October through December in over 800 communities across the county.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday left the door open to one day becoming an independent, three days after Arizona colleague Kyrsten Sinema announced that she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent herself.

While speaking with reporters on Monday afternoon, Manchin, D-W.Va., maintained that he is already “the most independent person” in the Senate and confirmed that he has considered alterations to his party affiliation before.

He didn’t foreclose ever leaving the Democrats but said he has no plans for such a move.

“I don’t know how you get more independent than I am,” he said. “I look at all of these things, I’ve always looked at all of these things. But I have no intention of doing anything right now. Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future is going to bring.”

Manchin maintained that Americans are “very upset” and “don’t like the bickering” that goes on in politics, echoing longstanding criticisms.

“I’m not a Washington Democrat, I don’t know what to tell you,” Manchin said. “But I have a lot of friends who aren’t Washington Republicans and if a Washington independent is, as I said, more comfortable, you know we’ll see what happens there, we’ll have to look. People were registering more for independents than any party affiliation. They are sick and tired of it.”

In the current 50-50 Senate, Manchin and Sinema, who were seen as two of the most centrist members of the Democratic caucus, had particular influence on which legislation and nominees could advance.

Manchin said Sinema did not give him a heads up before making her announcement on Friday but that he “respects her decision” and thinks she “gave pretty good reasons of why.”

“You have to respect every senator up here has to make their own decisions and I trust them all and I respect the decisions they make,” Manchin said, “and it doesn’t change how I’m going to work with them. It doesn’t change anything.”

Manchin and Sinema will both be up for reelection in 2024. He said Monday that he hadn’t yet made a decision about whether he intends to run.

Sinema’s party switch has been criticized by some, like Vermont’s independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, as a possible political move meant to secure better odds for herself given her falling out with the Democratic base over her positions on issues like the minimum wage and tax increases.

But Manchin said he’s not concerned with the politics of it.

“I’ve always said this, and I would tell all the wonderful people listening to you all: Look at the content, look at what the person is, what they bring to it, are they representing you?” he said. “Just because they have a D or an I or an R, does that change who they are and how they represent you?”

When it comes to his own potential reelection bid, Manchin dismissed the role that his affiliation might have.

“Everybody runs against me,” he joked.

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(NEW YORK) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said at a Republican event in New York over the weekend that if she had organized the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “we would have won” and “it would’ve been armed,” according to video from her appearance that was posted on social media.

Greene, R-Ga., made the comments at the New York Young Republican Club in New York City on Saturday night.

Video shows her making jokes on stage at the event, to laughter from the assembled guests.

Before scoffing at the idea that she played a role in the Jan. 6 attack, she made a crack about how unfamiliar she had been with the layout of the Capitol complex: “I couldn’t even find a bathroom.”

“Then Jan. 6 happens and next thing you know, I organized the whole thing along with Steve Bannon here,” Greene said with apparent sarcasm, to laughter from attendees. “And I will tell you something: If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won.”

As cheers and clapping broke out in the audience, Greene added: “Not to mention, it would’ve been armed” — drawing a seemingly surprised reaction from the room.

A spokesperson for Greene did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on her remarks.

The attack on Jan. 6 was armed, with many rioters bringing weapons — including hammers, batons and bear and wasp spray — as they sought to overrun the Capitol to interrupt the certification of then-President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.

Officers at the insurrection later described the violence as “carnage” and “chaos,” and more than 100 police were injured.

U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell testified at a House Jan. 6 hearing last summer about being attacked during the riot.

“I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m going to die, trampled defending this entrance,'” he said.

Ahead of the attack, members of the Oath Keepers militia had also gathered weapons at a hotel in Virginia, according to the Justice Department, and the founder of the group was recently found guilty of seditious conspiracy for plotting to stop the electoral certification.

Greene’s comments about Jan. 6 come as her influence is set to rise in the upcoming Republican-led House — with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who hopes to be speaker, promising her a spot back on committees.

Greene has made it known that she would like to play a large role on the House Oversight Committee.

She was stripped last year of her assignments by Democrats and some Republicans because of her history of incendiary, violent and conspiratorial comments.

She said then that she was regretful over some of what she had said and believed.

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, the official who brought Brittney Griner back to the U.S., told ABC News’ Good Morning America on Monday that he spoke to Paul Whelan just hours after landing in Texas with Griner.

“I landed at 4:30 in the morning, and at 9:30, Paul called from the penal colony in Russia. I explained to him, I said, ‘Paul, it was one or nothing, we were not going to be able to get you out. We’re going to keep working on it, but I understand you’re a little frustrated with that,” Carstens told GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts.

“The president’s focused. The secretary’s focused. We’re meeting today, Monday morning, to go through the next steps of the strategy, but Paul, we haven’t forgotten you, we’re coming to get you,” Carstens added.

Whelan, a former Marine, has spent four years in detention since he was seized in 2018 by Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges but the U.S. and his family say that they were fabricated in order to take him as a political bargaining chip.

Carstens said the work to bring Whelan home hasn’t stopped and “was ongoing while we were on the plane coming home with Brittney.”

Griner, a WNBA star who had pleaded guilty to drug charges after carrying a vape with hashish oil into Russia — which she maintained was an inadvertent mistake — was released last Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington. In return for Griner’s freedom from a penal colony, the U.S. released Viktor Bout, a notorious former arms dealer serving a 25-year sentence in Illinois following a conspiracy conviction — prompting criticism from some.

Carstens, who was appointed to his position by former President Donald Trump in 2020, countered on Monday to say U.S. national security experts did an assessment and determined that Bout being released was no longer a threat to U.S. security. He called decisions in a case like this “tough,” but said “it’s our moral obligation to get an American.”

“I kind of flip it around, to me what’s unacceptable is not Viktor bout. What’s unacceptable is an American wrongfully detained and held in a foreign jail cell. We have a moral obligation. Having a blue passport means something,” he said. “While it’s tough to make some of the decisions that we’ve made, we start from the premise and from the belief that it’s our moral obligation to get an American.”

Carstens also offered more details about the flight home with a talkative Griner following her release from a Russian penal colony last week. When he tried to show her to her seat on the plane, “she was having none of it,” he said.

“She said, ‘Look, I’ve been listening to Russian for ten months. I want to speak English, I want to chat with people,'” Carstens said. “And then as I tried to point her to her seat, she just walked past me and went right to the crew and started introducing herself to the crew members. And also, I watched her and she connected with everyone, looked in their eyes, shook hands, got to know their names, and only when that was all done she went back.”

“I was really impressed at how she values the other people, to include the people that were trying to bring her home,” he added.

Carstens said Griner spent about 12 hours of the 18-hour flight talking with others on the plane and slept for the other six.

“We talked about a lot of things, anything from her time held in the Russian penal colony, going through the trial process, obviously her love for Cherelle, her teammates, everything that she missed, the things that she misses about the United States and America,” he said. “But I think I left with the impression that this is an intelligent, impressive woman who’s very self-aware, very kind, very humble, and above all, authentic, and you get B.G. when you’re talking to B.G.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Brittney Griner is doing well while recovering in Texas after being freed from Russian detention and returning to the U.S. last week, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sunday.

“She’s [in] San Antonio at the Brooke Army Medical Center getting appropriate mental health care as well as physical health care, just to make sure that she’s ready for her reintegration back into American society,” Kirby told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

“They’ll work that out with the doctors and the family as to how much longer she’ll need to be there. But our initial reports are she’s in very good spirits and in good health,” Kirby said.

Griner, a WNBA star who had pleaded guilty to drug charges after carrying a vape with hashish oil into Russia — which she maintained was an inadvertent mistake — was released as part of a prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington.

In return for Griner’s freedom from a penal colony, the U.S. released Viktor Bout, a notorious former arms dealer serving a 25-year sentence in Illinois following a conspiracy conviction.

The U.S. was unable to secure the release of former Marine Paul Whelan as part of the deal, too. Whelan has been in Russian captivity for nearly four years on espionage charges that the White House says are false; ABC News reported in July that a “substantial proposal” was originally put forward was to exchange both Americans for Bout.

“This business of getting wrongfully detained Americans home, there’s nothing easy about it. … And there are tough decisions that go into it,” Kirby said on “This Week.”

Bout, also known as the “Merchant of Death,” was set to leave prison in 2029. He was initially captured in a sting operation in Thailand in 2008. At the time he was seen as the world’s largest weapons smuggler, supplying arms to former President Charles Taylor of Liberia, to rebels in Sierra Leone and brokering or selling weapons that fueled conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, Congo, Rwanda and Sudan.

He was extradited to the U.S. on narco-terrorism charges and in 2011 was convicted of conspiring to kill Americans, to supply anti-aircraft missiles and of aiding a terrorist organization.

Critics of Bout’s swap said the U.S. gave up too much to get Griner back, rather than additional American detainees. Critics also said the deal will encourage future hostage-taking by other countries to win concessions from the U.S.

When pressed by Raddatz about this on “This Week,” Kirby said the Biden administration was committed to assisting wrongfully detained Americans and that they did not make the decision to release Bout lightly.

“Nobody’s doing backflips over there about the fact that Mr. Bout is a free man six years earlier than he would have been. But we’re going to protect our national security. And if Mr. Bout decides to go back to his previous line of work, then we’re going to do what we need to do to hold him accountable,” Kirby said.

Like others in the administration, he insisted that it was impossible to reach a deal that would have included Whelan’s release.

“They were treating Paul very separately, very distinctly because of these sham espionage charges they levied against him,” Kirby said. “And then it kind of come together last week in the end game with just a Bout-for-Griner deal.”

It was also last week when “it really occurred to us that there was just no chance” of freeing Whelan as well as Griner, Kirby said.

“I understand the criticism,” he said of the deal’s detractors. “They weren’t in the room. They weren’t on the phone. They weren’t watching the incredible effort and determination … to try to get both Paul and Brittney out together. In a negotiation, you do what you can, you do as much as you can. You push and you push and you push, and we did. And this deal we got last week, that was the deal that was possible.”

Nonetheless, he said, “We are still negotiating for Paul Whelan’s release.” While Kirby declined to speak more specifically in public, he said, “We have a better sense of the context here, where the Russia’s expectations are, and we’re just going to keep working on it.”

Kirby acknowledged “the argument about encouraging hostage taking, we understand that argument.” But he said the administration had taken steps both to inform Americans who are considering traveling to unsafe countries and, with sanctions and visa restrictions, to deter foreign governments who may use those Americans as political prisoners.

Kirby also briefly addressed the status of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, now in its 10th month. Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently shifted to attacking civilian infrastructure, which Kirby said shows Putin “is trying to bring the Ukrainian people to their knees as winter approaches.”

Responding to reporting that Ukrainian drones had struck airfields in Russia, Kirby said: “We are certainly not encouraging or enabling Ukrainian operations inside Russia. We are trying to make sure that they can defend their territory.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Sunday celebrated the release of Brittney Griner from Russia but said he was worried about the future “ramifications” from prisoner swaps like the one that earned Griner’s freedom.

“We can be glad she’s home, and we are, but also recognize that we are changing our no-negotiation policy and that could have real ramifications in the future,” Kinzinger, R-Ill., told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

In exchange for Griner’s release — after she pleaded guilty to drug charges for, she said, inadvertently bringing a vape cartridge with hashish oil into Russia — the U.S. freed notorious former arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was convicted of conspiring to kill Americans, to supply anti-aircraft missiles and of aiding a terrorist organization.

Kinzinger, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is among those criticizing that deal, in part because it did not include Marine veteran Paul Whelan, who has been in custody in Russia for some four years on espionage charges the White House says are false.

After news that the WNBA star was returning to the U.S., Kinzinger tweeted a letter Whelan wrote to him in 2019 and directed a message to President Joe Biden: “There is no place for weakness when it comes to lives of innocent Americans.”

Raddatz noted that the Biden administration has defended the swap by saying that it came down to either no Americans or only Griner coming home — that Russia would not agree to free Whelan. Raddatz asked Kinzinger whether the government should have kept pushing for Whelan, too, or left Griner behind.

“This isn’t one or the other,” Kinzinger said, adding, “We love that Brittney’s home.”

But he cited both Whelan’s case and that of Marc Fogel, a teacher sentenced to 14 years in a Russian penal colony on marijuana charges. “The question is, where is he in these negotiations as well?” Kinzinger said.

“It is a tough decision you have to make,” he acknowledged, but he said that the Biden administration had been overly accommodating in its approach.

“If you make it clear that you’re willing to take a deal no matter what, you’re going to get a bad deal,” he said.

“I do worry about the implications that could have for future hostage taking if any country decides that we have somebody in our procession that they want back, they could just, obviously, arrest anybody and think that we would negotiate them away,” he said.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in his own appearance on “This Week” on Sunday that the administration acknowledges arguments similar to Kinzinger’s but that President Biden has put “accountability measures” in place to make the act of hostage-taking more difficult.

Kinzinger, though, said Griner’s case could embolden bad actors.

“We have to recognize wide-eyed that right now, as Americans, we have made it clear that we are willing to do anything to bring a single American home. And there are people that are watching that,” he said.

Importance of possible Jan. 6 criminal referrals

Kinzinger was also asked on “This Week” about the House Jan. 6 committee, on which he is a member, which is finishing its report and weighing possible criminal referrals after some 18 months of investigation.

Kinzinger said he didn’t want to get ahead of the panel’s decision but that any referrals related to the Capitol attack would be a way to highlight where federal law enforcement should direct their parallel investigation.

“The criminal referrals themselves aren’t necessarily something that is going to wake [the Department of Justice] up to something they didn’t know before,” he said. “But I do think it will be an important symbolic thing that the committee can do — or even more than symbolic, just very clear that Congress thinks a crime has been committed here and the DOJ should investigate it.”

The question of what referrals to potentially make to the Department of Justice has long hovered over the committee’s work. Its report is set to be released on Dec. 21.

“This is all about telling the American people about what happened and leaving with them the opportunity to say, ‘Democracies can have bad days, but how we come back from those bad days is how we’ll be defined,'” Kinzinger said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Friday urged older Americans to get their bivalent COVID-19 shots now in order to be protected in time for the holiday season.

“These moments seem even more precious now knowing what it’s like to lose them to a deadly disease that kept us apart,” first lady Jill Biden said at a town hall alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and White House COVID Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha.

“Which is why the most important thing you can do to prepare for your holidays. is to get your updated COVID vaccine,” Biden continued. “And if you get it now, you’ll be protected in time for winter holiday gatherings.”

Biden then handed the reins to Fauci, Jha and AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins to field questions on when and why to get the bivalent booster shots.

Fauci, who is leaving his post as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of the year, said the new booster shot that became available in September is the best way for people to protect themselves from the evolving virus.

“Don’t wait,” Fauci, 81, said. “If you wait, you put yourself at risk.”

Jha and Fauci advised AARP members that it is safe to get COVID and flu shots simultaneously, as the nation also contends with high levels of the flu and RSV.

The administration’s vaccine push comes as older Americans make up a higher share of COVID deaths. In mid-November, Americans aged 65 and older made up 92% of all deaths from the virus — the highest share since the pandemic began in 2020.

Despite the administration’s efforts to spread the word on vaccines, just under 13% of people over the age of 5 have gotten a bivalent booster, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Roughly one-third of Americans ages 65 and older, who are among those most at risk for serious illness from COVID, have received a bivalent booster, according to CDC data.

The new booster, which became available in September for those ages 12 and older, and in October for those between the ages of 5 and 11, protects against the original virus strain and Omicron subvariants BA. 4 and BA.5. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized bivalent boosters for children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years old.

Dr. Jha said Friday that getting a bivalent booster is the “most important thing you can do to make sure immunity is up to date and that you can fight the virus that’s out there.” He said he expects that getting an annual COVID shot will become a normal routine.

“The good news is this virus does not have the same impact on our lives that it did two years ago, or even what it did last year,” Jha said. “And that’s because of us because we have updated vaccines, we have treatments.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Democrats had barely a few days to enjoy their 51-seat majority in the Senate until Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Friday morning she was leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent.

The big question now: What does it mean for Democrats?

The bottom line: Sinema’s shift will not change the balance of power in the Senate.

But it will give Democrats less breathing room than they were hoping for.

Here’s why:

Sinema wants to keep committee assignments

Sinema has already been a key holdout on parts of the president’s domestic agenda — a thorn in the side of progressives.

She told CNN’s Jake Tapper when announcing her move that she will not caucus with Republicans but declined to explicitly say that she will caucus with Democrats, casting the question aside as “a DC thing.”

“I’m not really spending much time worrying about what the mechanics look like for Washington, D.C.,” she said.

The Senate’s two other independents — Vermont’s Bernie Sanders and Maine’s Angus King — caucus with Democrats, giving the party more leverage. Sinema is not promising to do the same, but Democrats rarely see her in caucus meetings as it stands now.

The good news for Democrats is that Sinema does intend to keep her committee assignments, securing the party a one-seat advantage on every panel. As opposed to having tied member representation on Senate committees, the extra seat means it will be easier to confirm judicial and executive nominees.

Sinema maintained throughout her media rollout Friday that she plans to keep her committees and voting record, insisting that “nothing will change about my values or my behavior.”

Democrats also still have Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote in their back pocket. While Sinema has made clear she doesn’t intend to vote differently than she currently does — and right now, her voting record is in favor of Biden’s agenda 93% of the time — if she does cast a vote with Republicans that leads to an even vote split on the floor. Harris would still hold the gavel to break that tie.

Schumer responds

She informed Senate Majority Chuck Schumer of her decision on Thursday night, sources told ABC News.

The timing of Sinema’s announcement is notable given that she waited until after Tuesday’s Georgia runoff election to announce her move, putting a damper on Democrats’ victory lap.

Schumer had just ticked through the advantages of having a 51-seat majority, flashing a big 5-1 with his fingers and thanking Harris for her work on the Hill, promising she would now have more time for other vice presidential priorities.

A few hours after her political bombshell, he responded in Twitter, “She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed. Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective Senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate.”

Politics in Arizona

Looking to 2024, when her Senate seat is up for grabs, Sinema faces what promises to be a tough race in Arizona during what’s shaping up to be a potentially punishing year for Democrats. Other moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana also face reelection in 2024.

Now that Sinema is an independent, she could face a Democratic challenger in the general election if she decides to run, but she would avoid a primary race.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, first elected to represent Arizona in Congress in 2014, had been appearing to gear up for one with Sinema. Earlier this week when Biden visited the Grand Canyon state, one he avoided ahead of the midterm elections, Sinema was notably not with him. Sen. Mark Kelly, fresh off his reelection which he won, in part, by breaking from Biden, did join the president, along with Gallego, considered a rising star in the Arizona Democratic Party.

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(WASHINGTON) — Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Friday made a bombshell announcement that she is leaving the Democratic Party and will be registering as a political independent.

Democrats had held a 51-49 majority in the Senate following Raphael Warnock’s victory over Herschel Walker in Georgia earlier this week. However, Sinema’s move, while a blow to the Democrats, will be unlikely to change the power balance in the next Congress beginning in January as the Democrats’ Senate majority already includes two independents: Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine.

“Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years. Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line,” Sinema wrote in an op-ed for the Arizona Republic on Friday morning. “In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought. Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.”

ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott reports she was told Sinema informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Thursday night. Schumer had defended her as recently as Wednesday.

“Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are great members of our caucus. They are very valuable. They don’t always agree with us on certain issues but they are tremendous contributors to our caucus, and we will continue to work with them,” Schumer said.

She is up for reelection in Arizona in 2024.

In addition to her op-ed, Sinema released a statement Friday morning.

“When I ran for the U.S. Senate, I pledged to be independent and work with anyone to achieve lasting results. Over the past four years, I’ve worked proudly with other Senators in both parties and forged consensus on successful laws rebuilding our country’s critical infrastructure, protecting our economic competitiveness, addressing historic drought to help secure our water future, expanding veterans’ benefits, boosting innovation and small businesses, protecting marriage access for LGBTQ Americans, strengthening mental health care, and making our communities safer, more vibrant places in which to live and raise families,” she said.

“In a natural extension of my service since I was first elected to Congress, I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington and formally registering as an Arizona Independent,” she said.

After celebrating Democrats’ 51-seat Senate majority earlier this week, the White House said Friday it expects for her to remain a “key partner” on President Joe Biden’s priorities.

“Senator Sinema has been a key partner on some of the historic legislation President Biden has championed over the last 20 months, from the American Rescue Plan to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, from the Inflation Reduction Act to the CHIPS and Science Act, from the PACT Act to the Gun Safety Act to the Respect for Marriage Act, and more,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “We understand that her decision to register as an independent in Arizona does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate, and we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her.”

Sinema’s media rollout included an interview with CNN in which she said she intends to remain in her committee positions. “So when I come to work each day, it’ll be the same, I’m going to still come to work and hopefully serve on the same committees I’ve been serving on and continue to work well with my colleagues of both political parties. And I’m not really spending much time worrying about what the mechanics look like for Washington, D.C.,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

In a highly produced video released Friday morning, an opening slide introduces Sinema as an “Independent Voice for Arizona.”

“We make decisions about what’s best for ourselves and our families and communities. And so we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about is this a Republican idea or is this a Democratic idea. Is this liberal or is this conservative? That’s not how Arizonan’s think. What we think about is what’s right for my family, what’s right for my community, what’s right for my future,” Sinema says in the video.

The video shows Sinema talking directly to the camera in a purple dress, spliced with clips of the Arizona landscape and footage of her town halls.

“Registering as an independent and showing up to work as an independent is a reflection of who I have always been and who Arizona is,” Sinema says in the clip.

“I’m going to be the same person I’ve always been. That’s who I am. I am going to show up to work I’m going to do my best for Arizona I’m going to continue to deliver results for everyday people. Nothing is going to change for me and I don’t think anything is going to change for Arizona,” she said.

ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.

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